Australian upstream company Woodside Petroleum Ltd has reported that the Neptune-3 well in the Gulf of Mexico has encountered a 450 feet gross hydrocarbon column with approximately 130 feet of net oil pay in the target sequence. An additional 20 feet of net oil pay was also encountered in another reservoir. Woodside owns a 20%...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Nippon Oil Corp will begin production in China of lubricant oils used in electric home appliances next spring in cooperation with China National Petroleum Corp, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun daily reported. Producing lubricant oils locally costs about 10 pct less than procuring them from Japan. The oils will be marketed to Chinese...

Despite claims of a deregulated market from April 1, India’s oil companies still need the government’s approval to raise domestic oil prices. The oil companies’ proposal for a “small” increase in gasoline and diesel prices to reduce losses as the products are being sold at below cost has been denied by the government. A similar...

PARIS (AFX) – The International Energy Agency said it expects global demand for oil to increase by 1.4% or 1.1 million barrels per day in 2003 from the year earlier as a result of a gradual recovery in the economy. In its monthly report, the agency said, however, that it is cutting its forecast for...

DOHA, Qatar (AFX) – Qatar Petroleum has signed an agreement with Japan’s Mitsui and Co Ltd to sell it its share of methanol production from its unit Qatar Fuel Additives Co, reported official news agency QNA. Energy Minister Abdallah Ben Hamad al-Attiya signed the agreement with Hiroshi Nagata, president of Mitsui Chemical, QNA said. Under...

China’s CNOOC Limited announced yesterday that it has made an oil discovery in the KE 40 well in Madura Block in Indonesia. KE 40 was discovered by Wildcat KE 40-1. The well in the Kujung III Formation flowed 2,400 barrels of oil and 1.7 million cubic feet of gas per day on a one-inch choke....

Australia’s Clough Engineering has been awarded the US$54 million second phase of the greenfields Sawan onshore gas project in Pakistan by the Austrian oil and gas group OMV. Engineering, design and procurement for Phase 1 is currently being undertaken by Clough in its Perth office, with construction of the access road, airstrip, bulk earthworks, water...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Energy Secretary Vincent Perez said a government team will be initiating a “cordial” dialogue with independent power producers (IPPs) regarding financial provisions in their contracts found to be unfavourable to the government. A committee headed by Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho had conducted an initial review of some 35 contracts amid allegations...

PowerGas Ltd, Singapore’s sole gas transporter and gas system operator, has started the construction of a natural gas receiving station on Jurong Island’s Sakra sector. The project marks a new milestone in the development of a natural gas network in Singapore. PowerGas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Power Ltd, owns and manages the gas transportation...

HANOI (AFX-ASIA) – Vietnam has signed an agreement to buy electricity from its communist neighbour Laos in a bid to meet shortfalls in national power production, the state-run Vietnam Economic Times newspaper reported. Vietnam will import around 1,000 megawatts of electricity each year between 2006 and 2010 and up to 2,000 megawatts in the period...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Energy Secretary Vincent Perez said the government will penalize Caltex Philippines Inc and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp for the continued delay in their IPOs. “They will pay a fine,” he told reporters, but did not elaborate. He added the two oil firms should hold their IPOs within the year. “I feel that...

Thousands more cars in the United Kingdom, including many taxi fleets, may soon be running on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), as a result of a government initiative to provide financial backing for the conversion of engines to use the cheaper, cleaner fuel, and a freeze on LPG duty until the end of 2004. According to...

US crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.4 million barrels per day during the week ending July 12, down from the highest average so far this year set in the previous week, said the US Department of Energy. Over the previous four weeks, crude oil inputs averaged 15.5 million barrels per day, or 70,000 barrels per...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Shandong International Power Development Co Ltd said its unit Tengzhou Xinyuan Power Co has appointed Shangdong Electric Power No.3 Construction Engineering Co to provide services for the construction of two 135 MW heat and electricity cogenerating units in Tengzhou, Shandong Province for 195 million yuan. (US$1=8.28 yuan). Shandong Electric No.3 is...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – PT Apexindo Pratama Duta has attracted strong interest from foreign strategic investors, which may see parent company PT Medco Energi Internasional sell down its majority stake to make way for an overseas listing of the drilling unit, according to reports. Apexindo finance director Agus Lomboan said a Middle East investor is expected...

Dolphin Energy Limited (DEL) has appointed Halliburton Brown & Root Limited, a unit of the Halliburton Group of the US, as the project management consultant (PMC) for the Al Ain-Fujairah gas pipeline in the UAE. DEL has also shortlisted two companies for the project’s engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) work. The companies Ð a partnership...

By Rachel Arputharajoo HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – A balanced judgement of the prospects for the PetroChina Co Ltd West-East gas pipeline project is inhibited by a number of variables surrounding the deal, most notably on funding and long-term gas supply, analysts said. There are also wider concerns as to the future of the energy market...

The Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd (Japex) a contract to explore for oil and gas in the offshore Visayan Basin. The contract was recently signed by Energy Secretary Vincent S. Pérez, Jr. and Japex President Yuji Tanahashi in Japan. The contract known as the GSEC 102 is the...

US GE Power Systems has received a 38 million Euros (US$39 million) order to supply three gas turbine-generators for a combined-cycle plant that will provide 175 megawatts of power for a world-scale, integrated petrochemical site being developed in Nanjing in China’s Jiangsu province. Korea’s Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd is building the power plant, which will...

The Asian Development Bank said it has approved the use of surplus loan funds amounting to Rs. 230 million (US$2.4 million) to provide electricity to households in the Jaffna peninsula. The funds, from the existing Second Power System Expansion project, will rehabilitate low voltage transmission and distribution systems and will complement the recently-awarded private sector...

The Iranian government said the country has hydrocarbon reserves of 270 billion barrels of oil equivalent. According to local media reports, the government has estimated natural gas reserves at 26.6 trillion cubic meters, equivalent to 17% of the world’s proven gas reserves and 47.7% in the Middle East. Domestic gas consumption has risen by 15.5%...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – BP Indonesia president Bill Schrader said he is confident the company will secure sales agreements to commercialise the Tangguh gas field in West Papua, with or without the 3.3 million tonnes per year China contract that is currently up for grabs. “Between the traditional and new markets, we’re confident we’ll get Tangguh...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Wah Sang Gas Holdings Ltd chairman & CEO Charlie Shum said the company expects to continue to deliver strong earnings growth over the coming 5-10 years on the back of the huge potential of China’s gas industry. “In the coming 5-10 years, we are confident of seeing continuous strong growth,” Mr...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – BP Indonesia said it will abandon plans to invest US$400 million developing the Terang Sirasun gas field off East Java if the government does not agree to extend its production sharing contract (PSC) by 20 years. The original PSC with state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina expires in November 2010. “We are...

The Shaw Group Inc. said it has signed a contract to form a 50/50 joint venture with Yangzi Petrochemical Corporation (YPC), a subsidiary of Sinopec Corporation, to establish a new pipe fabrication facility in Nanjing city. Construction is expected to be complete and the facility operational by the end of 2002. Located some 300 km...