oil stockpile despite growing public complaints that its retail stations are frequently out of supplies. Ironically, the number of complaints has risen since oil prices began their sharp descent from July when crude reached a record of more than $147 a barrel in early July. CPC, the island’s main oil company, has been reluctant to...
CLIMATE CHANGE: DNV on developing a unified approach to qualifying CO2 storage sites
(EnergyAsia, December 30, Tuesday) — This article, written by DNV is a Norway-based global provider of risk management services to enhance business performance, has been edited for publication. Norway’s DNV said it is now developing a standard methodology for characterising, selecting and qualifying proper sites for geological storage of carbon dioxide – both offshore and (more…)
AZERBAIJAN: Agreement with Turkmenistan, Turkey to develop Nabucco pipeline
up to the proposed Nabucco line to deliver oil and gas from the Caspian region, thereby reducing Europe’s dependence on Russia. The project has the support of the European Union and the US which are increasingly worried by Russia’s stranglehold on energy supplies to its neighbours and the West. Turkmenistan is an important piece in...
CONFERENCE: Oxford Princeton’s ‘Energy Risk Management’ course held in UK from January 28 to 29
Admin@EnergyAsia.com. (EnergyAsia, December 30, Tuesday) — Oxford Princeton’s ‘Energy Risk Management’ will be held in London, UK from January 28 to 29, and in Singapore from May 20 to 21. The course will provide delegates with a forum on how to maximise hedging efficiencies and limit price risk exposure. Delegates will learn to build (more…)
CHINA: Xinjiang crude oil terminal could be designated a strategic base
Uygur could be turned into a national strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) base, said analysts. Built, owned and operated by CNPC subsidiary Xinjiang Oilfield Corp, the terminal in Shanshan county in eastern Xinjiang will have the country’s largest storage capacity of eight million cubic metres when it is fully built up over a 32-hectare site...
MARKETS: Russia leads 16 natural gas producing countries to form cartel
Moscow to form the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. The new cartel will include the world’s leading five natural gas producers, Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela and Algeria, which control two thirds of the world’s reserves and 42% of total production. Russia, Iran and Venezuela are firmly in the anti-West camp. “Gas OPEC” will be headquartered...
MARKETS: Consultant predicts world LNG production to increase by 30% in 2009
prices will fall as world production will rise by 30% by end-2009. The Houston-based firm, which tracks and analyses LNG markets, said 2.8 trillion cubic feet of new LNG production capacity will come onstream in the first half of 2009, if all projects remain on schedule. “While 2009 will start slow, we expect a 30%...
CHINA: Stockbuilding picks up speed with low oil prices
the recent sharp decline in crude oil prices on international markets. Oil prices are hovering around $37 a barrel, down from their peak of more than $147 in July. Traders said that China has already pumped some 7.3 million barrels of Saudi crude into the Huangdao base, near Qingdao city on its east coast. ...
SOUTH KOREA: SK Energy to boost energy investments in Peru
presence in Peru’s energy industry. The South American country already accounts for more than 60% of SK’s total crude oil reserves of 510 million barrels. Underlining Peru’s growing importance to the Korean firm, group chairman Chey Tae-won has made several visits to Lima to meet with senior officials including Peruvian President Alan Garcia to discuss...
SINGAPORE: Foster Wheeler helped build Lucite’s methyl methacrylate plant
started production ahead of schedule, said engineering giant Foster Wheeler Ltd which helped design and build the plant. Foster Wheeler said the work was undertaken by the UK and Singapore subsidiaries of its Global Engineering and Construction Group. The new 120,000-tonne-per-year plant, which is already running at capacity, will supply customers in Asia where demand...
JAPAN: Nippon Oil-Nippon Mining merger to yield 60-billion-yen savings
Oil Corp, and rival Nippon Mining Holdings will yield as much as 60-billion-yen in cost savings by 2013. (US$1=90 yen). The companies said they will trim a massive combined 400,000 b/d in surplus refining capacity or a fifth of their combined capacity by April 2012. That would equal to around eight percent of Japan’s total...
SINGAPORE: Keppel Verolme terminates the MPU Heavy Lifter project
Singapore’s Keppel Offshore and Marine Limited, said it has decided to terminate the MPU heavy lifter project and start the scrapping process of the concrete hull. The company said it chose this course after evaluating all possible options on the cancelled 140-million euro order. (US$1=0.71 euro). MPU Offshore Lift ASA had ordered the construction of...
SINGAPORE: IBC’s ‘Bulk Materials Handling Asia’ to be held at M Hotel from February 16 to 19
(EnergyAsia, December 29, Monday) — The ‘Bulk Materials Handling Asia’ (BMH 2009) conference will be held at the M Hotel in Singapore from February 16 to 19. BMH Asia 2009 is the first event in the region that caters to the mining, cement, agriculture, fertiliser, chemical, ports, bulk logistics, coal fired power plant companies as (more…)
ASIA: “Brown cloud” threatens climatic changes, impact on health and agriculture, says UNEP report
in ranges like the Himalayas are melting faster and weather systems becoming more extreme, in part, due to the combined effects of man-made ‘Atmospheric Brown Clouds’ (ABCs) and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, said the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). In a report, the agency said these are among the conclusions of scientists studying a more...
CHINA: PetroChina’s Xinjiang tanks ready to store Kazakh crude oil
crude oil from Kazakhstan at its newly built storage terminal in northwestern Xinjiang province. The company said it has invested 856-million yuan to complete the first phase of the Shanshan storage terminal located 300 km east of Xinjiang’s capital of Urumqi. (US$1=6.85 yuan). The terminal’s first phase has the capacity to store up to one...
CHINA: Sinopec preparing to start up Ningbo terminal, planning new storage projects
oil storage terminal in Ningbo port in Zhenhai district in the northern coastal province of Zhejiang. The company has just completed the construction of the terminal’s two tank farms that will store up to 3.8 million cubic metres of crude oil. The smaller farm comprises 12 tanks of 100,000 cubic metres each, while the larger...
INDIA: Reliance Petroleum starts up 580,000 b/d export refinery at Jamnagar
company, has brought on stream a 580,000 b/d export-oriented oil refinery at Jamnagar city in Gujarat state. Originally due to start up in June, the $6 billion plant was completed within 36 months, and will reach operating capacity by the first quarter of next year. Using the best technology, the refinery, which is 5% owned...
INDONESIA: Pertamina to invest $200 million on two fuel storage terminals
fuels for another year, Indonesia’s state oil and gas company Pertamina said it plans to invest at least US$200 million in 2009 to expand and upgrade two storage terminals in East Java and Sulawesi. The investment is needed to strengthen its distribution network in the face of growing competition after Pertamina beat out 27 other...
SOUTH KOREA: KNOC claims world’s largest oil storage terminal
is the world’s largest oil storage terminal in Yeosu city port in South Jeolla province. The bunker terminal stores up to 50 million barrels of fuel, enough to cover 23 days of South Korea’s domestic oil need. As the nation’s ninth oil bunker terminal, it has expanded South Korea’s total storage volume to 140 million...
CHINA: PetroChina looking to build oil storage terminal in Lanzhou city
two-million-cubic metre crude oil storage terminal in the northwestern Chinese city of Lanzhou. (US$1=6.85 yuan). The terminal will comprise 20 tanks, each with the capacity to store 100,000 cubic metres of crude oil. The company will use the terminal to store crude oil produced by PetroChina in Xinjiang and imported from neighbouring Kazakhstan....
MARKETS: Companies building up oil stockpile in tankers
(EnergyAsia, December 26, Friday) — Weak oil prices and a rising supply glut has given companies and governments an opportunity to build up oil stockpile around the world. With oil trading at around US$35 a barrel, the lowest in more than four years, companies have chartered tankers to stock up more than 50 million barrels...
MALAYSIA: Terengganu state government to set up sovereign investment fund
(EnergyAsia, December 26, Friday) — Malaysia’s federal government has agreed to let oil-rich Terengganu state establish its own sovereign wealth fund to manage its investments. The Terengganu Investment Authority (ITA) will be launched with an initial investment fund of RM10 billion backed by the state’s oil royalties. (US$1 = RM3.47). While details have yet to...
KAZAKHSTAN: Agreement with Azerbaijan to ship oil through BTC pipeline
(EnergyAsia, December 26, Friday) — Kazakhstan has agreed to ship oil across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan from where it will be transported via the 1,770-kilometer Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan for export to western Europe. Kazakh shipment volumes are expected to reach 1.2 million b/d after 2013. The move...
JAPAN: Nippon Oil eyes Iraq refinery project
(EnergyAsia, December 26, Friday) — Japan‘s Nippon Oil Exploration said it is interested to join in investing in an oil refinery project in Iraq worth between US$5 and US$10 billion. The company, a subsidiary of Nippon Oil, has begun discussions with the Iraqi government which is planning to build at least four refineries with a...
KAZAKHSTAN: BTC pipeline exporting crude oil from Kazakh Tengiz field
(EnergyAsia, December 26, Friday) — The Baku-Tbiilsi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline has begun delivering crude oil from the Chevron-operated Tengiz field in western Kazakhstan. The giant field is located in the low-lying wetlands along the northeast shores of the Caspian Sea. Tankers are delivering the oil from Aktau port, Kazakhstan’s main sea gate in the Caspian...