$1bn oil sands investment bid
CALGARY, Alberta: India has jumped into the intense competition for Canadian oil sands assets with plans to invest $1 billion over the next 12 months, a top Indian energy official said.

India is not worried its plans will put it head-to-head with China in bidding for Canadian oil sands assets, said M S Srinivasan, secretary of India’s Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.

Premier Oil finds gas
LONDON: UK’s Premier Oil has discovered gas in the Macan Tutul-1 exploration well in the Natuna Sea Block A licence in Indonesia, the company said. The well is located approximately 12 km southeast of the Premier operated Anoa field.
“In line with our pre-drill targets, the gas is in the Upper and Middle Arang sandstones. Casing is being set before drilling ahead to deeper reservoir objectives,” Premier said.

Offshore projects set
BEIJING: The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) said its net production volume in 2006 will reach around 170 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE).
Ten projects offshore China are expected to start operation in 2006. The company also plans to invest $2.59 billion in business and resource development throughout 2006, up 30 per cent year on year.

Revamp planned 
TOKYO: Showa Shell Sekiyu, Japan’s sixth-largest refiner and an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell, plans to shut three crude distillation units  (CDUs) at its group refineries for maintenance in 2006.
Showa Shell plans 30-day shutdowns at the No 2 CDU at its Yokkaichi plant from early October and the No 3 unit from mid-April.

$242m order for Samsung Heavy 
SEOUL:  South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries said it had won a 234.8 billion won ($242.3 million) order to build an offshore platform in Europe for Cabinda Gulf Oil Company.
Samsung said it would build the platform by March 2008.

Tokyo Gas venture
TOKYO:  Nippon Oil and Tokyo Gas said they would jointly invest 3.75 billion yen ($31.87 million) to build a gas-fired thermal power plant.
The two companies said the plant in Kawasaki, eastern Japan, will have two electricity generators with a combined capacity of 847,000 kilowatts.
Construction will start in February and the first unit will start generating electricity in April 2008. Nippon Oil will take 51 per cent of the investment and Tokyo Gas the rest, the companies said in a joint statement.

Price concerns
TOKYO: Japan’s top financial diplomat said oil prices did not yet pose a major threat to the global economy, although they were close to levels requiring caution and would be a main topic at the upcoming G8 meeting in Moscow.
 “It is nearing levels requiring attention,” Hiroshi Watanabe, vice finance minister for international affairs, said. “But it is not a situation for major concern.”

Hardman success
SYDNEY: Australia's Hardman Resources said production at its Chinguetti oil field, due to start in the second half of February, will reach peak rates in April.
Hardman is involved in a number of projects in Mauritania in west Africa, including the $705 million Chinguetti oil field which will be its first producing asset and is forecast to pump 75,000 barrels of oil per day. The project is operated by Woodside Petroleum with a 47 per cent share.

Sales on the rise
SINGAPORE: China will remain a net exporter of naphtha in February as top refiner Sinopec skips imports and export-refinery WEPEC keeps selling abroad, due to ample domestic supply, company traders said.

Valero cuts refinery runs
NEW YORK: Valero Energy cut runs at Texas refineries running sweet crude oil because of poor refinery margins, US Gulf Coast traders said.
Traders said the refineries affected were Valero's 135,000 barrel per day refinery in Houston, its 96,000 bpd refinery in Three Rivers, and its 340,000 bpd refinery in Corpus Christi.
'Corpus runs both heavy/sour and sweet. They are cutting back on the sweet crude distillate unit,' said one US Gulf Coast trader.

Propane rate up
SEOUL: Saudi Aramco has set its February contract price for propane at a record high of $622 tonne, up $47 from January, term lifters said.
The company raised its February price for butane by $42 to a record high of $627 a tonne, they said.
For January, Aramco raised its propane price by $51 from December to $575, the previous record high.

Aromatics blow
BANGKOK: Aromatics (Thailand), Asia's top maker of aromatic petrochemicals, reported a worse-than-expected 49 per cent drop in annual net profit as high crude prices ate into its margins.
Aromatics, 46 per cent owned by top Thai energy firm PTT, reported 2005 net profit of 5.2 billion baht ($133.5 million), or 5.43 baht per share, below the 5.7 billion baht average net profit forecast by 13 analysts.
It made a net profit of 10.34 billion baht in 2004.

Cracker down
AMSTERDAM:  Oil major Shell is still working to restart a 50,000-barrels-per-day gasoline-making catalytic cracker at its massive Pernis refinery in Rotterdam that has been down for the past few weeks, a spokesman said.
Operations at the 412,000-bpd refinery, Europe’s biggest, had to be scaled back after a failure of steam supply, accompanied by a fire, on January 15.

Product exports hit
BANGKOK:  Thai oil product exports, excluding bitumen and liquefied petroleum gas, fell by 15.7 per cent in December 2005 from a year earlier to 97,693 barrels per day (bpd), a calculation based on Energy Ministry data showed.

India seeks Oman gas
MUSCAT: India is seeking to revive an old gas purchase deal with Oman to feed an Indian power plant, India's minister of chemicals, fertilisers and steel said in Oman.
Ram Vilas Paswan said the gas is for the Dabhol plant in the eastern state of Maharashtra, which is expected to restart operation in May.
“It is easy for India to import natural gas from Oman due to its proximity with Mumbai,” said the minister.

Marketing gains
MUSCAT: Oman Oil Marketing (OOMC) said its net profit soared by 39 per cent to RO3.2 million ($8.31 million) due to cost cutting and more streamlined operations.
The company’s board proposed a final dividend of 45 per cent or RO0.45 per share.
“Our financial performance has improved on the back of growth in sales, better operational efficiency, reduction in cost and a favourable macro-economic environment,” OOMC said in a release.

DNO in Iraq quest
OSLO: Norwegian energy company DNO said it had resumed drilling at its exploration well in the Kurdish sector of northern Iraq after a technical delay.
DNO is the first western oil company to explore Iraq for oil since the 2003 invasion ousted Saddam Hussein from power.
Its share price almost doubled in December on news it had struck oil but earlier this month contradictory comments from the government in Baghdad threw the legitimacy of contracts signed with the Kurds into doubt.

$57m Sahara gains
RIYADH: Saudi Sahara Petrochemicals, set up 18 months ago, has posted a net profit of SR214.8 million ($57.3 million) for the fourth quarter of 2005.
A statement gave no comparative figure but said the firm had realised a total net profit of SR316.73 million since its inception on June 30, 2004.

Quick takes

Dana on track to boost output
LONDON: British oil explorer Dana Petroleum Plc said it was on track to double output from a 2005 average 19,650 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by the end of 2007.
It said average production in 2005 was slightly ahead of its expectations and it was looking to increase this to an average of between 25,000 and 30,000 boepd this year.
In a separate statement, Dana said it had also received government approval to develop the Goosander oil field in Block 21/12 of the UK Central North Sea.
Dana was one of a number of companies that discovered the field in 1998, which at the time had a test flow rate of 8,200 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
 It said drilling was expected to start before the end of June this year, with first oil anticipated by end-September at a peak annual average production rate of around 9,500 bpd.

Production peak rate in April
SYDNEY: Australia’s Hardman Resources Ltd said that production at its Chinguetti oilfield, due to start in the second half of February, will reach peak rates in April.
Hardman is involved in a number of projects in Mauritania in west Africa, including the $705 million Chinguetti oil field which will be its first producing asset and is forecast to pump 75,000 barrels of oil per day.
The project is operated by Woodside Petroleum Ltd with a 47 per cent share, while Hardman holds 19 per cent. The other partners are the Mauritanian government, BG Group, Premier Oil Plc.

Global standards urged
DAVOS, Switzerland: The world needs to develop global standards on reserves reporting system, the International Energy Agency's chief economist said.
Speaking at a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, said: 'At the IEA we... think there is a need for universally accepted definition of reserves reporting system. The SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) system is out of date. But there are many countries that are not in the SEC.”
The panel was discussing a 25 per cent cut by Spanish oil major Repsol YPF in its proven oil and gas reserves.

ENVIRONMENTAL EYE

Russian pipeline puts Lake Baikal at risk
MOSCOW: A proposed Russian oil pipeline could cause permanent damage to the unique wildlife of Lake Baikal and must be stopped, scientists who conducted the state’s assessment of the plan said.
The pipeline, due to run from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific coast, would hook round the northern end of Baikal – the world’s deepest lake and home to hundreds of endemic species including a rare fresh water seal.
State monopoly Transneft says it will take all possible precautions to make the pipeline safe, but the scientists said nothing could protect it from the frequent earthquakes that afflict the zone and make the lake wider every year.
 “No one can guarantee that there won’t be an earthquake ... and that cannot but pollute Baikal,” said Gennady Chegasov, who led a group of scientists that investigated the project for Russia’s environmental watchdog.
 “No engineer can guarantee there won’t be ruptures.”
Baikal, called the “Jewel of Siberia”, is sacred to Russian environmentalists since protests over a proposed factory on its shores sparked the birth of the country’s green movement in Soviet times.
Chegasov said his appraisal of the pipeline had yet to be approved by managers of the Rostekhnadzor environmental watchdog. If they back his assessment, Transneft will have to seek a new route for the $11.5 billion line.
 He feared vested interests might cause his report to be quashed, considering how much money was at stake, and had decided to take the unprecedented step of going public with the report before its approval.
Officials frequently accuse activists who oppose big state projects of trying to sabotage Russian interests, and in July President Vladimir Putin himself said green groups trying to stop the pipeline were in the pay of foreign competitors.
Chegasov said he could rebut such allegations in court.
He said even the money earned from new markets could not justify the risk of polluting Baikal.