hopes to derive a third of its total production from deepwater fields by 2011. With the start-up of new fields, research house Aseambanker predicts that Malaysia’s crude oil production could reach 800,000 b/d by then, up from around 661,000 b/d now. Key deepwater areas include Kota Kinabalu and Gumusut off the coast of East Malaysia...

mortgage crisis is beginning to hit world aviation markets, said Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Jet fuel prices hit a record level of more than US$100 a barrel FOB Singapore last week. He issued the warning while on a visit to Kuala Lumpur. The industry only recently started to report...

be worth more than the record $90 per barrel price achieved on the US futures market last Friday. Cited rising inflation and the weakening dollar, Qatar’s Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah said crude oil should be priced above US$100 a barrel. “If we take into account inflation from 1972 to the present day, the real and fair...

decline this year to 619 billion riyal, down almost 85 billion riyal from last year. (US$1=Saudi Riyal 3.73). In a report, the bank said the net value of foreign assets managed by Saudi Arabia’s central bank would reach 1,008 billion riyal this year. Foreign direct investment could exceed 22 billion riyal this year, according to...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Monday) — Qatar’s Venessia Petroleum said it’s interested to invest in oil facilities and hotels in the African states of Malawi and Zimbabwe. The company is owned and controlled by the royal family Chairman Abdul Aziz Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al Thani said Venessia wants to build an oil storage facility and...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Monday) — Chinese, British and Swedish firms are interested to develop biofuels projects in Indonesia, said local officials. Foreign investors have signed deals for 60 projects including Chinese oil majors CNOOC and Sinopec, and Malaysia’s Genting. Earlier this year, the Indonesian government signed a preliminary deal with Sweden’s Bioenergy to cultivate jatropha...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Monday) — Singapore Petroleum Company Limited (SPC) said it has raised its shareholding in Australian upstream company Cue Energy Resources Limited to approximately 9.50%.  SPC notified the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in an announcement according to the requirements of the Australian Corporations Act 2001. From August 20 to October 12, SPC said...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Monday) — Steel giant Mittal, France’s Total and India’s HPCL, Oil India Limited and GAIL have agreed to undertake two feasibility studies for the construction of a $6-billion integrated oil-petrochemical complex. The partners signed a memorandum of understanding last week for the project to be built at the city port of Visakhapatnam...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Monday) — Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s privately held integrated oil giant, said its first half net profit to September 2007 surged 31% to Rs 74.67 billion while revenue was up 9% to Rs646.92 billion compared with the same period last year. (US$1=Rs40).Its refining operations achieved gross refining margin of US$13.6 barrel...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Monday) — While all attention was focused on US crude futures breaking the US$90-a-barrel barrier last Friday, another important benchmark fell in Singapore. Jet fuel price loaded from Singapore crossed US$100 a barrel for the first time. Air travel and freights will rise accordingly in the coming months. Gasoil looks set to...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Monday) — The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has issued a statement blaming “market speculators” as world oil prices surged to new highs last week. US crude oil futures hit a record US$90.07 a barrel on Friday The cartel’s Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri, said it does not favour oil prices...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Monday) — PetroChina is planning to invest RMB6.5 billion to build a commercial crude oil reserve facility in Xingjiang province. (US$1=RMB7.50). The facility would store up to eight million tonnes of crude China has launched an aggressive campaign to build up its strategic oil reserves in anticipation of supply disruptions. To date,...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Monday) — Newly-established Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd (JAC) said it will start building a US$2 billion petrochemical plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island next year. When completed in 2011, the complex will produce around 1.5 million tonnes of aromatics, comprising 800,000 tonnes of paraxylene, 200,000 tonnes of orthoxylene, 450,000 tonnes of benzene,...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Monday) — Singapore-listed Ezra Holdings Limited, a leading integrated offshore support and marine services provider in Southeast Asia’s offshore oil and gas industry, said its net profit surged 68% to a record S$104 million for the financial year ending August 31 2007. (US$1=S$1.46) The company has proposed paying shareholders a final dividend...

(EnergyAsia, October 19, Friday) — The Wind and Hydro Summit 2007, to be held in Manila, the Philippines from December 3 to 5, will examine prospects for wind and hydro energy projects in Asia. ((adsense)) Experts will discuss and evaluate the prospects of Asia for renewable energy project financing, government regulations and opportunities for investors...

The pipe will be coated at Bredero Shaw’s coating facilities in the Far East and in Orkanger, Norway, with work beginning in 2008 and continuing through the end of 2009. The coating scope covers 180 km of 36-inch pipeline connecting the Pluto field in the Carnarvon Basin off the coast of Western Australia to Woodside’s...

The new 300,000 tons per year unit has boosted the plant’s polypropylene capacity to 554,000 tons per year. A major expansion of the naphtha cracker has also been recently completed with the revamp of associated downstream units. Completed within budget and schedule and with an excellent safety record, the expansion works have boosted the ethylene...

The two partners, David Traylor and Peter Navratil, will join the existing oil and gas team currently serving the growing professional service demands of oil sector clients in the region and especially of the national oil companies (NOCS). Deloitte Middle East has for many years provided a wide range of services to both the NOCs...

The production facility was officially opened last week by New Zealand’s Associate Energy Minister, Harry Duynhoven, who called it a springboard for the company’s growth. The NZ$30 million facility is unique in New Zealand. It has been purpose-built to facilitate the extraction, production and transportation of Cheal oil, which is waxy and similar to that...

The facility will be used mostly to prepay the existing debts at the kingdom’s two refiners, the Sohar Refinery Company (SRC) and ORC, ahead of their merger as Oman Refineries and Petrochemicals Company (ORPC). The first repayment will be made next March. ORPC, 75% owned by the Ministry of Finance and 25% by Oman Oil...

The auction was organised by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp (PSALM), the state agency overseeing the privatisation of power assets in the country. The sale still has to be approved by the PSALM’s board. The Calaca power plant is fired by pulverised coal and has two generating units of 300MW each. The...

By increasing the efficiency of the dewatering step, zeolite membranes have the potential to significantly reduce the energy costs of production of biofuels such as bioethanol. Fong Chun Hoe, Hyflux’s senior vice president and chief technology officer, Martin Atkins, BP China’s programme manager, and Zhang Tao, DICP’s director, signed the agreement in Singapore at a...

Temasek said Tuas Power, with a total licensed generation capacity of 2,670 MW, will be the first to be sold. Temasek expects to complete the transaction by the end of the first quarter of 2008. Tuas Power’s assets include 1,200 MW of oil-fired steam turbine plants and 1,470 MW of gas-fired combined cycle plants. It...

(EnergyAsia, October 19, Friday) — World economic growth is expected to slow next year, with recent turbulence in financial markets triggered by the fallout from the US subprime mortgage market clouding prospects, the IMF said in the October 2007 World Economic Outlook (WEO). It predicted that world growth would slow from 5.2% in 2007 to...

Madam Wu Yi, Vice Premier of the State Council, presided over the ceremony in the presence of Madam Ma Xiuhong, vice minister of commerce. More than 200 people attended the event including government officials from Fujian province and the city of Xiamen as well as senior executives from the Xiamen Port Group and from A.P....