$1.7bn pipeline bids to open
JAKARTA: The Indonesian government said it would open bids for a tender to construct and operate a 1,219-km natural gas pipeline that will run from East Kalimantan to Central Java.
The pipeline is estimated to cost around $1.7 billion. Companies that are interested to participate in the tender must register with the downstream oil and gas regulating body, BPH Migas, from January 16-27, said officials.
Adnoc on course
DUBAI: Abu Dhabi will supply full crude term volumes for February to at least four Asian refiners after cutting 10 per cent off Murban term supplies for January, term lifters in Japan and South Korea said.
At least one refiner will receive 500,000 barrels of additional crude, but extra volumes for February will be limited, with several refiners saying they did not request additional volumes.
Yemen supply deal
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian shipping company MISC has won two 20-year deals to transport liquefied natural gas for Yemen LNG, the company said in a statement.
In 2009, MISC will deploy two 157,000-cubic-metre carriers, currently under construction in Japan, to ship LNG from Balhaf, Yemen to Sabine Pass, Louisiana in the US, and Altamira, Mexico.
Tankers for NSCSA
RIYADH: South Korea's Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Company is building four chemical tankers for Saudi Arabia's National Shipping Company (NSCSA), the Saudi firm said.
NSCSA said in a statement it would take delivery of the four tankers in 2007 and 2008. NSCSA received a SR436 million loan ($116 million) to partially finance the Hyundai deal, it said.
New permits for Petronas
JAKARTA: Malaysia’s Petronas will spend around IDR4.30 trillion ($436 million) to set up 557 gas stations in Indonesia by 2011, an Indonesian government official said.
“The permits have been granted, and now it’s looking for locations,” said Ery Soedarmo, the processing and commercial director at the Mines and Energy Ministry.
Petronas will open this month its first Indonesian gas station, currently being constructed in Cibubur, southeast of Jakarta, Soedarmo added.
Sinopec move
SINGAPORE: China’s No 1 refiner, Sinopec, is raising January gasoline exports by just over 50 per cent versus December volumes amid swelling domestic stocks, a Chinese trader said.
The refiner is forecast to ship overseas nearly 200,000 tonnes of the motor fuel, versus December's estimate of 130,000 tonnes, a trader familiar with the firm's export plans said.
Idemitsu on target
SEOUL: Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan said it would refine 2.97 million kilolitres (about 603,000 barrels per day) of crude oil in January.
The planned January crude run is up from December’s estimated 2.89 million kl (about 586,000 bpd), which was revised from an initial 2.97 million kl.
Titan buys plant
KUALA LUMPUR: Titan Chemicals, Malaysia's largest petrochemical company, is buying a regional petrochemical plant that will boost its polyolefin production by about 50 per cent, a source close to the firm said.
Titan will pay about $23 million in cash for a 100 percent-stake in the plant, the source said, declining to identify the plant.
PTT gas drive
BANGKOK: PTT, Thailand's top oil and gas firm, said it would invest 239 billion baht ($5.8 billion) over the next five years, mostly in its high-margin natural gas business.
The company said it would also seek 50 billion baht in new funds from loans or bond issues to finance its investment plan.
PetroChina to resume sales
SINGAPORE: China's second-largest refiner PetroChina will resume gasoline exports in January after a four-month halt as it moves to draw down high domestic stocks, company traders said.
“We are resuming some exports,” said a PetroChina trader, adding that it would export about 90,000 tonnes.
Volumes to grow
TOKYO: Japan Energy, the oil refining unit of Nippon Mining Holdings, said it would raise its crude refining volume for the January-March period by two per cent from the same period a year earlier.
Japan Energy will process 7.52 million kilolitres of crude oil for the first quarter of 2006, a company spokesman said.
Ceypetco buys
SINGAPORE: Sri Lanka's Ceylon Petroleum Corp (Ceypetco) has bought 30,000-35,000 tonnes of high sulphur fuel oil for mid-January delivery from Bakri Trading via a regular tender, industry sources said.
The 180-centistoke (cst) cargo, for January 16-17 delivery into Colombo port, was done at a premium of $6.40 a tonne to Singapore spot quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.
Jet fuel price up
DHAKA: State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) said it had increased the price of jet fuel for airlines by 7.14 per cent to 60 cents per litre due to the rising cost of fuel imports.
It was the fourth time BPC has raised its jet fuel (jet A-1) price in eight months, following the last increase to 56 cents in August.
Gasoline boost
BEIJING: China's Urumqi Petrochemical Company has put a new gasoline unit into operation which will allow it to produce high-octane gasoline more easily, parent company China National Petro-leum Corp (CNPC) said.
It started up the 70 million yuan ($8.67 million) hydrocarbon reformer last week after 7 months of construction, the company said.
Double capacity bid
BOMBAY: Indian Oil Corp said it had commissioned a new hydro treatment plant at its Panipat refinery, part of a plan to double the refinery’s capacity to 12-million mt/year.
Petrovietnam in new project
HANOI: Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has allowed state oil monopoly Petrovietnam to invest in an oil exploration project in offshore Indonesia, media reported.
The Hanoi Moi Tin Chieu newspaper quoted a prime ministerial document approving Petrovietnam’s request to explore oil at Indonesia’s Randug-unting block in East Java.
Denmark estimates
COPENHAGEN: Denmark has lowered its forecast for oil production from its North Sea fields in 2005 by 0.5 per cent to 379,000 barrels per day (bpd) from a previous forecast in May, the Danish Energy Authority said.
In 2006, the annual oil production is seen falling to 347,000 bpd, slightly above the authority's May forecast of 341,000 bpd.
Contracts approved
BOGOTA: Colombia's National Hydrocarbon Agency has approved three new exploration and production contracts.
A agency statement said the Colombian company Hupecol will explore in the 27,000-hectare Leona block in the east of the country, with an initial planned investment of $529,000.
Harken is to explore in the Caracoli block in northeastern Colombia at a cost of $1.7-million. Colombian Empesa will explore for oil in the 44,000-hectare La Pola block in the north of the country.
Cossack well repairs
SINGAPORE: Full production of Australia's Cossack crude is expected to resume soon following delayed repairs to an oil well, a spokesperson from Woodside’s North West Shelf joint venture said.
The floating Cossack Pioneer facility was expected to start producing at its full rate of 110,000 barrel per day in December, after production problems have cut output since June.
Nigeria outage
LAGOS: A cut in output of crude oil from Royal Dutch Shell operations in southern Nigeria caused by a pipeline attack is now just 15,000 barrels per day (bpd), a spokesman for the company said.
The outage had previously amounted to 180,000 bpd after unknown gunmen attacked two pipelines on December 20.
Rasgas-GE $400m deal
DOHA: Qatar’s Rasgas Company has signed a $400 million long-term maintenance deal for gas turbines with General Electric (GE).
GE will provide servicing for 22 turbines at the Rasgas facility in Ras Laffan over 24 years, officials said.
Rasgas currently produces 16 million metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year.
Contract for Burgan
KUWAIT CITY: Newly-listed Burgan Well Drilling, Trading and Maintenance Company said it had won a KD44.6 million ($152.7 million) contract from Kuwait Oil Company (KOC).
The firm, which provides exploration services to oil and gas companies, did not provide details of the contract in its statement.
Occidental moves
CAIRO: Occidental Petroleum is seeking bids for a $2 billion project to boost output from the Mukhaizna oil field in Oman where it has replaced Royal Dutch Shell as the main foreign operator, according to published reports.
International oil and gas engineering companies will be invited to bid by March 26 for a contract to increase oil production to 150,000 barrels a day from about 10,000 barrels at the field, said the reports.
13:33 23Dec2005 Syria rasies Jan light crude price to dtd -$1.30
Sytrol raises price
LONDON: Syrian state oil marketer Sytrol has raised the January official selling price for its light crude to dated BFO minus $1.30 fob Banias, traders said.
The price is up 50 cents from the December OSP of dated minus $1.80.
Sytrol also raised its heavy Soedie crude price for January, to dated minus $14.25, up from dated minus $15.25 the previous month.
Bapco seals deal
SEOUL: Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) has sealed a deal with at least one term lifter for its B-210 naphtha supplies for 2006 at a premium of $18 a tonne, a term lifter said.
Sources at other term lifters of Bahrain naphtha were not immediately available for comment.
Bapco offered 850,000-900,000 tonnes of naphtha supplies for 2006, unchanged from the supply volume for this year.
Quick takes
Repsol bids for Shell unit
MADRID: Spanish-Argentine oil and energy company Repsol has made a bid for Royal Dutch Shell's liquefied petroleum-gas unit, the company said.
A company spokesman said Repsol made an offer but wouldn't comment on the terms of the offer.
Repsol has long expressed its interest in Shell's LPG unit.
Total SA of France and utilities UGI of the US, Ultrapar Participacoes of Brazil and Dutch SHV Holdings NV have expressed interest in the past for Shell's unit. The unit has been reportedly valued between $2.4 billion and $3.2 billion.
Gazprom tankers set for US
MOSCOW: Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom said it plans to send eight tankers of liquid natural gas to the US in 2006, Interfax news agency reported.
The head of the gas giant's export arm, Alexander Medvedev, said the tankers would dock at terminals on the US East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.
Gazprom has already sent two tankers of LNG to the US Medvedev didn’t say which companies Gazprom plans as its partner for the deliveries.
Gazprom has previously swapped pipeline gas for LNG with Gaz de France, and earlier this week said it had held talks with the French company on LNG and other issues.
Gazprom eventually plans to supply US gas markets from its mammoth Shtokman offshore gas field in the Barents Sea, and is seeking partners to develop the field.
N Hydro drops oilfield plan
OSLO: Norwegian energy and metals group Norsk Hydro has dropped a plan to develop the Telemark deep water oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico because of high costs of extracting marginal reserves, the company said.
“After a new full review of the Telemark project we have decided not to go further with the plan we had,' a spokeswoman said.
She said that factors including high costs of drilling in waters about 1,311 metres deep, a lack of drilling rigs and marginal oil reserves had led to the decision.
Hydro acquired the operatorship of the field, previously known as Champlain, in January 2005. It has a 70 per cent stake.
ENVIRONMENTAL EYE
Shell says technology key to fight pollution
DUBAI: Environmental impact of the oil and gas industry can be significantly reduced through the use of technology and information gathering, says international oil company Shell.
Shell’s sponsorship of the Second Kuwait International Petroleum Conference & Exhibition (KIPCE) 2005 marks the most recent activity in the company’s commitment to sharing its knowledge and technology on reducing the environmental impact of oil and gas operations on a regional and global level.
The conference, entitled ‘Meeting Future Demand through Wise Decisions’, saw two international Shell experts share the latest developments in sustainable water management, a key area in reducing the oil industry’s environmental impact.
“Excess water is the largest by-product in oil and gas production and the main criterion for abandoning oil and gas wells,” said Dr Zara Khatib, Manager for Technology Deployment in Shell International Exploration and Production (E&P).
“This presents an environmental challenge on two levels since produced water is at once a potential pollutant as well as a wasted resource,” she added.
“Research into and the application of water technologies associated with oil and gas exploration is leading to important developments in increasing the amount of water available for the region while reducing the environmental impact of exploration,” she said.
Mohammed Al Habsi, Surveillance Reservoir Engineer in the Oman/Shell joint venture Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) said: “Following 35 years of oil production, our current research is resulting in a greater understanding and application of research tools in water flood behaviour that will ultimately lead to more sustainable water management.”
The Oman/Shell joint venture, focusing on water flood behaviour in different reservoir layers of one of Oman’s largest and oldest oil fields, has produced the country’s largest data acquisition programme to-date.