SAUDI ARABIA: ‘Day of Rage’ demonstration planned for March 11

(EnergyAsia, February 28 2011, Monday) — As anger against governments continues to sweep across the Middle East and North Africa, Saudi Arabia, the holder of the world’s main spare oil capacity, is being targeted for a ‘Day of Rage’ popular uprising on March 11. Fuelled by decades of poverty, joblessness and anger against corruption, youth...

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SAUDI ARABIA: Middle East unrest to rekindle US ties

(EnergyAsia, February 28 2011, Monday) — As unrest sweeps across the Middle East and North Africa, Saudi Arabia may be forced to revitalise waning ties with its long-time protector, the US. Since the September 11 2001 terror attacks on the US, relations between the two countries have cooled on growing bilateral disagreements over political and...

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SAUDI ARABIA: Production above nine million b/d, unverified sources tell media

(EnergyAsia, February 28 2011, Monday) — World oil prices have retreated from their 30-month highs of last Thursday after anonymous sources told Reuters and Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia had sharply raised production to counter the loss of Libyan supplies. While this claim could not be immediately and independently verified, traders nevertheless sold off Brent crude...

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MARKETS: IEA expects world oil demand to exceed 90 million b/d in 4Q

(EnergyAsia, February 28 2011, Monday) — World oil demand will exceed 90 million b/d for the first time later this year, said the International Energy Agency (IEA), further reducing global spare capacity which stood at less than five million b/d before the start of the current Middle East crisis. For 2011, the Paris-based agency expects...

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MARKETS: Worst oil crisis looms from civil war in Libya, regime changes in Middle East

(EnergyAsia, February 28 2011, Monday) — The world could face its worst ever oil crisis if the current political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa disrupts a significant part of its combined 32 million b/d production, which forms more than 35% of world supply. Japanese research house Nomura was first off the mark...

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MARKETS: Platts says OPEC January output reached 29.57 million b/d, highest in over two years

(EnergyAsia, February 28 2011, Monday) — The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) produced an average of 29.57 million b/d in January, its highest level in more than two years, according to a Platts survey of OPEC and industry officials and analysts. The report attributed the 300,000 b/d increase over December’s output to a...

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CHINA: Deepening economic ties with Ecuador, Argentina and Colombia

(EnergyAsia, February 25 2011, Friday) — China has deepened its energy and economic ties with three Latin American countries in recent weeks. Fresh from imposing a US$8 billion fine on US major Chevron Corp, Ecuador said it has received US$1 billion from PetroChina as an advanced payment for two years of crude oil exports starting...

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SINGAPORE: Stepan Co to produce oilfield surfactants from former biodiesel plant

(EnergyAsia, February 25 2011, Friday) — US-based Stepan Co is converting Peter Cremer’s failed biodiesel plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island to produce surfactants for use in oilfields around the world. Stepan acquired the 100,000-tonne-per-year (t/y) methyl ester plant last year, and is doubling the capacity as part of its conversion work to be completed by...

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SINGAPORE: Dyna-Mac aims to raise S$152.6 million in share offering

(EnergyAsia, February 25 2011, Friday) — Singapore-based Dyna-Mac Holdings Ltd said it is offering 436 million shares to the public at S$0.35 each in conjunction with its listing on Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd’s (SGX-ST) mainboard. (US$1=S$1.27). The engineering, procurement and construction services group said the initial public offering (IPO) comprises 186 million new shares...

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MARKETS: Brent near US$120 as WTI prices finally breaks US$100 per barrel

(EnergyAsia, February 25 2011, Friday) — For the first time since October 2008, US WTI crude has risen above US$100 a barrel as it finally joined other international benchmarks in reflecting the global panic over the spreading Jasmine Revolution in the Middle East. On Wednesday, WTI futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange surged past...

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SINGAPORE: Rotary Engineering posts record S$63.7 m net profit, record revenue of S$704.2 m for 2010

(EnergyAsia, February 25 2011, Friday) — Singapore’s Rotary Engineering achieved two record performances last year: net profit of S$63.7 million and revenue of S$704.2 million. (US$1=S$1.27). Its net profit rose 18% over the previous year while revenues were up 28% from S$551.9 million. The Singapore Exchange-listed provider of engineering, maintenance (EPCM) services to the oil, gas and...

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SINGAPORE: Jason Marine to promote Norway’s Baze information products and services for marine sector

(EnergyAsia, February 25 2011, Friday) — Singapore’s Jason Marine Group Ltd said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Jason Venture Pte Ltd, and Norway’s Baze Technology SA have established a joint venture, Baze Marine & Offshore Pte Ltd, to distribute information products and an advanced multi-platform system covering voice, video and data for use on ships and other (more…)

RUSSIA: ESPO crude advances as an oil and gas price reference for Asia, says Platts

(EnergyAsia, February 24 2011, Thursday) — Russia’s Eastern Siberian Pacific Ocean (ESPO) crude oil, which first started serving Asian markets in December 2009, pushed further onto the global oil stage in early 2011 with the start of regular exports to China, according to a Platts report. A total of 1.318 million metric tons (mt) of...

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PHILIPPINES: Oil storage capacity expansion for Bataan and Mindanao

(EnergyAsia, February 24 2011, Thursday) — Investors will expand oil storage capacity on Luzon Island and Mindanao in the Philippines. Independent traders Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc said it will invest a total of 240-million peso to build 20 new retail stations in Metro Manila as well as expand and modernise its oil terminal in Bataan...

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JAPAN: Saudi Aramco leases additional capacity to store crude oil on Okinawa

(EnergyAsia, February 24 2011, Thursday) — Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, said it has agreed to lease tanks from Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) to store 3.8 million barrels of crude on Okinawa Island in southern Japan. The world’s largest crude exporter said it will deliver the first...

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INDIA: Essar agrees to pay US$1.3 billion for Shell refinery and marketing assets

(EnergyAsia, February 24 2011, Thursday) — India’s Essar Energy has offered to buy Royal Dutch Shell’s 272,000-b/d Stanlow refinery in and local marketing businesses in the UK for a total of US$1.3 billion, said the European major. As part of their exclusivity arrangement, the companies have also agreed to pay break fees should either fail...

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INDIA: BP announce US$7.2 billion investment in partnership with Reliance

(EnergyAsia, February 24 2010, Thursday) — BP and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) have announced a historic partnership in which the UK major will pay US$7.2 billion for a 30% stake in 23 oil and gas production sharing contracts operated by the Indian company in India. The partners will also form an equal joint venture to...

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SINGAPORE: Contractor, workers fined for deadly ExxonMobil refinery fire

(EnergyAsia, February 24 2011, Thursday) — A Singapore district court has imposed fines on Mun Siong Engineering and two of its workers for their roles in a fire which killed three workers and injured another in ExxonMobil’s oil refinery on Jurong Island. Mun Siong, which provided services for mechanical work at the refinery, was fined...

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SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi has capacity meet global demand – ex-Aramco executive

(EnergyAsia, February 23 2011, Wednesday) — Backing away from what he had allegedly told a US diplomat in 2007, former Saudi Aramco executive Sadad al-Husseini has assured that Saudi Arabia has sufficient oil reserves to meet future global demand. In a number of cables filed from 2007 to 2009 obtained by Wikileaks, US officials quoted...

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SAUDI ARABIA: Ex-Aramco official expressed doubts over crude oil capacity

(EnergyAsia, February 23 2011, Wednesday) — The US has privately expressed concern that Saudi Arabia may not have as much oil in the ground as it claims, according to confidential cables released by Wikileaks. Citing a meeting with a senior Saudi oil official in November 2007, a US diplomat said the giant Middle East oil...

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SINGAPORE: ExxonMobil delays start-up of petrochemical complex

(EnergyAsia, February 23 2011, Wednesday) — ExxonMobil could delay the start-up of its massive second petrochemical complex on Jurong Island by more than nine months till early next year. The US$6 billion complex, said to be Singapore’s largest single manufacturing investment, was originally scheduled to begin operations in early 2011. Construction started in November 2007,...

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SINGAPORE: State firm JTC to build floating oil storage terminal

(EnergyAsia, February 23 2011, Wednesday) — As a solution to overcome its land scarcity, Singapore will begin building what would be its first floating oil storage terminal on Sebarok Island later this year. State industrial landlord JTC Corp will likely call for the construction tender in the second quarter as it aims to complete the...

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THAILAND: PTT to expand use of tankers to store crude oil

(EnergyAsia, February 23 2011, Wednesday) — Thai state-owned PTT Plc expects to increase its floating oil storage capacity to around five million barrels once it completes talks to lease another Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) from Hong Kong-based Titan Petrochemicals. PTT plans to sublease half the supertanker to Geneva-based Socar Trading, which is looking to...

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SINGAPORE: Vopak nominates ex-Shell executive Simon Lam for supervisory board seat

(EnergyAsia, February 23 2011, Wednesday) — Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Royal Vopak NV said it has nominated former Shell executive Simon Lam Chun Kai to its supervisory board from April 27 2011. Following the decision to increase its board membership from five to six, Vopak said Mr Lam’s nomination will be on the agenda of the general (more…)

UPSTREAM: ODS-Petrodata forecasts oversupply of installation vessels between 2012 and 2015

(EnergyAsia, February 22 2011, Tuesday) — US upstream consultant ODS-Petrodata has just released its ‘International Offshore Wind Vessels Market Report’, forecasting that there will be an oversupply of installation vessels in the “near future.” Covering the growth of the global offshore wind vessel market, the report said 23 new and specialised installation vessels are due...

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