• Home
  • Author: Chemist

Author: Chemist

Kuwait Oil and Gas Market Update Oct 2013

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: October 15, 2013

Oil and Gas Market Update for covering entire month of September 2013

  • Siemens wins substation contract at Kuwait refineries ‐ Substations will supply high‐voltage power to contractors on Clean Fuels Project.
  • Kuwait, S. Korea discuss oil refinery, future projects.
  • Kuwait discussing procurement for Al‐Khiran utilities project.
  • Kuwait Energy makes 21st discovery in Egypt ‐ Kuwait Energy has announced an oil discovery at its El Salmiya‐2 well, located in its Abu Sennan concession in the Western Desert, Egypt. This is the sixth exploration success in the Abu Sennan concession and the twenty first discovery in Egypt for Kuwait Energy since 2008. The El Salmiya‐2 well encountered oil in Kharita Formation and initial tests showed a production flow rate of 3,530 barrels of oil per day (bopd).
  • Kuwait crude exports to China doubles ‐ Shipments reaches 1.09m tonnes, government data show.

Saudi Arabian Oil & Gas Market Update Oct 2013

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: October 15, 2013

Oil and Gas Market Update for covering entire month of September 2013

  • Sabic and Mitsubishi issue tender for $500m petrochemicals plants ‐ Two plants will be built at
    Jubail in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
  • Saudi Aramco awards Foster Wheeler Fadhili gas plant design ‐ US engineering consultancy to
    carry out front end engineering for plant in Eastern Province.
  • Saudi Railway Company invites companies to prequalify for new projects ‐ Contracts cover civil,
    track, signalling and telecoms works.
  • Farabi expected to make decision on Jizan plant in March 2014 ‐ New petrochemicals plant at
    Jizan could have a value as high as almost $1bn.
  • Jubail‐Dammam railway contract awarded ‐ Jubail‐Dammam railway contract value is $220m.
  • Riyadh plans petrochemicals revolution ‐ Massive refining and chemicals integration plan will
  • help cushion the kingdom against future oil shocks.

• ‘Saudi Arabian Oil Co. may offer the first cargoes of gasoline and diesel next month from a new
joint‐venture refinery, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

• The state‐owned company known as Saudi Aramco may ship light products from the facility at
the Persian Gulf port of Jubail, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is not
public. The venture with France’s Total SA (FP), called Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical
Co. or Satorp, already plans to offer one or two cargoes of straight‐run fuel oil this month.

• Saudi Aramco Products Trading Co., an Aramco unit, will sell the fuel oil, according to the
people. The shipments will each comprise 80,000 metric tons and the first of them could be available
through direct negotiation, rather than by tender, late in September, one of them said. Satorp may offer
two more fuel oil cargoes next month before a coker unit starts.

• A spokeswoman for Total in Paris didn’t have an immediate comment when contacted by e‐mail
today. Nobody answered calls to Satorp’s media office in Khobar today and yesterday and a Saudi
Aramco spokesman in Dhahran referred inquiries to Satorp.

• Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest crude exporter. Satorp, 62.5 percent owned by Aramco and
the remainder by Total, is processing the Arab Light blend at a 120,000 barrel‐a‐day unit, the second
person said. Another crude unit of the same size will start next month, according to the person. A coking
facility, which will turn fuel oil into diesel and gasoline, is to start in November and will enable the
refinery to process heavier oil grades, the person said.

• Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, members of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries, are boosting their domestic refining capacity to produce more fuels such as
gasoline and diesel for local use. Refined products typically also fetch higher prices than crude in
international markets.

UAE Oil & Gas Market Update Oct 2013

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: October 15, 2013

Oil and Gas Market Update for covering entire month of September 2013

  • Dubai to build new crude refinery – Dubai signs up with China Sonangol Group to build local refinery.
  • Alstom wins Shuqaiq turbine deal ‐ Turbine equipment will be supplied to South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy
    Industries.
  • Habtoor‐Drake tie‐up wins $109m contract for Dubai project ‐ Habtoor‐Drake tie‐up to perform
    mechanical, electrical, and plumbing for Al‐Habtoor City project.
  • UAE gives $100m for Morocco renewable energy projects ‐ Country has alternative energy
    target of 42 per cent by 2020.
  • Dubai plans refinery with Angolan‐Chinese partners ‐ Memorandum of Understanding signed
    with Hong Kong joint venture of Sonangol.
  • Dubai prepares to tender World Trade Centre re‐development ‐ Project stalled in late 2008.
  • Abu Dhabi set to award major hospital construction contracts ‐ Abu Dhabi set to award major
    hospital construction contracts.
  • Hakkasan to open luxury hotel on Palm Jumeirah ‐ The Palm Jumeirah venture will be
    Hakkasan’s first hotel project.
  • Arabtec and Samsung form joint venture company ‐ Arabtec and Samsung Engineering
    announced plans to form new company in April.
  • Megaprojects struggle to take shape in Ras al‐Khaimah ‐ Real Madrid football‐themed tourism
    scheme latest to face obstacles in the emirate.
  • Depa wins $156m contract in Abu Dhabi ‐ Dubai interior firm to perform fit‐out works for
    government project.
  • Abu Dhabi to invest $54m to expand paper mill ‐ New machinery from Metso to boost capacity
    to 90,000 tonnes a year.
  • Platts Survey announces OPEC pumps 30.28 million barrels of crude oil per day in August.
  • Contractors submit bids for Al‐Ain grand mosque ‐ At least six groups competing for Al‐Ain grand
    mosque construction contract.
  • Emirates Aluminium phase two smelter starts production ‐ Abu Dhabi producer eyes possible
    phase three smelter expansion and downstream production units.
  • Brasil Foods to build $145m processing complex in Abu Dhabi ‐ South American group to process
    meat and bread‐based products at Kizad free zone.
  • Enec receives first shipment of nuclear‐grade steel from Emirates Steel ‐ More than $1bn
    awarded to over 200 local companies on development of Abu Dhabi nuclear plant.
  • Abu Dhabi resurrects Ruwais aromatics complex with key award ‐ US engineering group CH2M
    Hill award engineering and design on Chemaweyaat’s Tacaamol project.
  • Abu Dhabi diversification leaps forward with key chemicals and metal awards ‐ Aromatics
    chemicals complex and alumina refinery signal progress for Abu Dhabi’s industrial megaprojects.
  • Abu Dhabi awards feasibility study contracts on alumina refinery ‐ Bechtel, Petrofac, Hatch,
    Outotec and Rio Tinto Alcan pick up work on proposed minerals plant.
  • Farabi Petrochemicals decides product mix for Jizan plant ‐ Proposed new facility will produce
    similar chemicals to sister plant at Jubail.
  • Middle East Base Oil prices reflect marginal changes.
  • Shale gas, oil reshape world energy landscape ‐ Thanks to the sudden abundance of cheap
    natural gas, American electricity suppliers are shunning domestic coal.
  • Gulf Keystone to ramp up Kurdish oil output.
  • Saudi crude output, exports rise ‐ Exports in the world’s largest exporter of crude rose 2.1 per
    cent during July.

Marine crude oil transport – global voyage losses

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: October 14, 2013

The Energy Institute (EI) HMC4A Marine Oil Transportation Database Committee has been collecting and
analysing worldwide oil shipping data for over 20 years and meets twice a year. The 2012 autumn
meeting was held in Houston in Committee members submit their voyage measurement data annually.
They receive a global analysis and confidential individual company reports.
The following member companies submitted data for 2012 – BP Oil International, CEPSA, Chevron,
Chinese Petroleum Corporation, ConocoPhillips, Eni, ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum, Petrobras,
Petrogal (GALP Energia), Phillips 66, PMI Pemex, Repsol, Saras, Shell, Statoil and Total. The main findings
from the global analysis are presented below.

Database development
The total number of voyages reported for 2012 increased slightly to just over 9,600. However, the
number of voyages reported with both bill of lading (BOL) and outturn data fell, with a number of
members undergoing systems changes.
The reported BOL volume totalled 5.52bn barrels, a fall of around 4% compared with 2011. The volume
of crude with complete data fell to 3.9bn barrels, as shown in Figure 1. The BP Statistical Review of
World Energy gives global crude seaborne trade for 2012 as 14.1bn barrels, up about 1.3% compared
with 2011. The database therefore includes almost 40% of the global volume at BOL and contains
complete load and discharge data for just under 30% of global volume.
Global losses
Losses have been falling consistently since 2001 and fell to a record low net standard volume (NSV) loss
of –0.161% in 2010 (by convention losses are given as negative). However, the 2011 figures show an
increased loss of –0.172% and this figure was repeated in 2012. It must be noted that losses include
apparent as well as physical losses. Apparent losses result from the combination of fixed and random
errors in the measurement systems used at load and discharge.
The mean NSV loss from the database from 1993 to 2012 is plotted in Figure 1. Global loss showed no
major change between 1995 and 2000. A significant increase in mean NSV loss to –0.21% occurred
between 2000 and 2001, but this has been more than reversed over recent years with the increase
noted in 2011 being the first significant increase since 2000/2001.
Gross or total calculated volume (TCV) loss fell between 1990 and 1994 but rose again to around –0.15%
in 2000, staying fairly constant up to 2007, while water losses continued to fall. Changes in TCV loss have
driven NSV losses since 2006 and it was a rise from –0.134% in 2010 to –0.149% in 2011 which led to the
increased NSV loss in 2011, repeated in 2012. Water loss fell slightly between 2010 and 2011 to partly
compensate.
TCV loss comprises any real losses due to evaporation plus any apparent losses due to systematic
measurement differences. Water loss represents any additional water reported at discharge compared
with that reported at load; ie an accounting loss in terms of oil quantity but not a real loss of either oil or
water.

New figures undermine OFT findings Sept 2013

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: October 14, 2013

New data from the UK government confirms that supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and
Morrisons) now have a much higher share of the UK market for retail transport fuels than previously
admitted. The latest combined total for petrol and diesel sees an increase to 46.5% in 2012. This
compares with the official total of just 39% for 2011 quoted in a recent Deloitte study on the sector and
also 39% for 2012 stated in the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report into UK fuel prices (see Petroleum
Review’s Retail Marketing Supplement in April).

The statistical data on retail fuel volumes since 2008 has recently been revised on the
Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) website, after gross reporting errors were uncovered
by officials, reports the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA). 5,000 forecourts have closed since 2000,
another 175 closed last year and the independent retailers are continuing to get massacred by the
aggressive discounting and below cost sales tactics by supermarkets. There was considerable
complacency evident in the Deloitte and OFT reports which assumed that supermarket’s volumes were
levelling off and so the market was steady. However, we warned government that the 2012 Christie
study* indicated that supermarkets are trying to open up to 50 new forecourts for each of the next four
years.’

The data revision indicates that the average supermarket forecourt sells 12mn l/y and
independents 2mn l/y. Thus, every newtoindustry opening by a supermarket could suck up the entire
fuel volume of six independent retailers in the local area and jeopardise the business of at least 10
existing forecourts every year if such expansion proceeded, notes the PRA. ‘This will be bad for
competition, bad for consumer choice, bad for jobs at local family firms and bad for rural communities.’

This rejigging of key market information underpins our members’ real concern that the UK’s
energy resilience for retail fuels is at stake. If this situation is allowed to continue, there will be an
inevitable acceleration in the number of site closures to more than 300 per year. Thus there will be a
severe worsening of supply resilience from fewer sites with low stockholdings.

Oil and Gas News Africa September 2013

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: September 4, 2013

• Fugro has been awarded a large three-year survey contract for work in Angola. The contract comes from Total E&P Angola and is to support the French E&P firm’s development programs offshore Angola.
• Caracal Energy Inc has been officially listed as a Supporting Company of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) with immediate effect.
• OCI Construction Group was awarded a contract by Technip for work in Algeria. The contract is for Greenfield and brownfield work on Algeria’s Algiers refinery in Sidi Arcine.
• Egypt saw a successful Jurassic gas/condensate test in the Western Desert on TransGlobe Energy and Vegas Oil & Gas’ East Ghazalat Block. The North Dabaa 1X well was drilled to a total depth of 14,740 ft and cased as a Cretaceous oil and Jurassic gas condensate discovery. Based on open hole well logs and samples, the well encountered approximately 8 ft of net oil pay in the Abu Roash formation and 23 ft of net gas/condensate pay in the Khatatba formation.
• CNPC buys into Eni gas stake offshore Mozambique. Eni has sold a considerable stake of an exploration block off the coast of Mozambique to China’s CNPC.
• Cairn partially sells Senegal blocks to ConocoPhillips – Scottish upstream oil and gas company Cairn has decided to partially sell its share in three contiguous blocks located offshore Senegal, West Africa to ConocoPhillips.

Oil and Gas News Australia September 2013

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: September 4, 2013

• OMV has launched a new global job initiative that would see the Austrian oil and gas firm hire some 1,600 additional technical staff in the next three years with an emphasis on university graduates and experienced specialists.
• BEACH Energy says it will boost spending and production this year after achieving a better-than-expected full year profit and lifting dividends.
• JAPAN has ratcheted up its attack on high Australian LNG prices — hailing US shale gas exports as a game changer that could slash prices by up to 30 per cent — and is inviting industry players to Tokyo next month as it looks to break the traditional LNG pricing model and encourage new supply.

Oil and Gas News World-wide September 2013

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: September 4, 2013

• Harouge Oil Operations tenders pump station study – New pumping control and data systems planned for Libya Amal field.
• Russia the world?s biggest energy exporter, will probably boost duties on most oil shipments abroad by 5.5 percent on Sept. 1st.
• IBIA Annual Convention, Date: 5-7 Nov 2013, Location: Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Organiser: International Bunker Association (IBIA)
Details: The IBIA Annual Convention is an opportunity for members of the International Bunker Industry Association to meet and make their views heard.
Key topics to be discussed at this year’s event are:
• Market drivers, including ‘Cleaning up the air in Hong Kong’
• Short Delivery?
• Buying & Selling: Asian bunker growth & the global impact.
• Educating for growth.
• Oil Terminal – International Congress on Transportation, Storage and Trans shipment,
Date: 21-22 Nov 2013, Location: , St Petersburg, Russia, Organiser: Vostock Capital
Details: This annual congress covers new development and expansion projects at Russian terminals, pipeline and rail routes, as well as providing a broad overview of European best practice in the development of oil hubs (Hamburg, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Rotterdam), and in designing new export routes and attracting investments in port capacity improvement. The congress will also aim to help find solutions to the logistical issues of crude oil, liquefied gas and oil products storage and transshipment. The event also includes an exhibition of ports / terminals, technologies and equipment – the tank farms and terminals A special focus is placed on the commercial and technological issues of tank farm and terminal operation. Topics covered includes investments in oil terminals, designing and financing the construction of tank farms, terminals and loading / offloading racks, appraisal of a project’s prospects, as well as the latest technology and know-how of safe transportation and terminals operation.
• Fuel Oil Shipments to Asia Rise to 2.3 Million Tons in September more fuel oil cargoes were scheduled last week to arrive in Asia in September from western countries, shipping data shows. At least 12 tankers, including very six large crude carriers, or VLCCs, are booked to arrive in the region from the U.S., Europe and the Caribbean, according to data from shipbrokers including Poten & Partners Inc., Clarkson Plc (CKN) and ICAP Shipping International Ltd. and information from traders. The ships are set to carry 2.3 million metric tons of fuel oil, compared with 360,000 tons booked as of the previous week. Some fixtures are provisional and may be changed or cancelled. August arrivals rose to 4.2 million tons from 3.9 million tons, the data show. Fuel oil’s East-West spread, or the premium of Asian cargoes to European prices, was $21.27 a ton on Aug. 2, up from $7.03 a ton a week earlier, according to Bloomberg data. It has averaged $28.11 this year. The following is a summary of tankers reported as contracted to carry fuel oil to Asia. Volumes are in thousands of tons. Arrival times are calculated based on information on the e-ships.net website and assume a total of four days for loading and discharging at ports. A VLCC can carry about 270,000 tons of oil.

• World demand for lubricants is forecast to increase 2.4 percent per year to 43.6 million metric tons in 2017.
• Longreach Oil & Gas has signed a contract with Italian company Saipem SpA to provide a drilling rig for two wells on its Sidi Moktar Exploration Licence Area onshore Morocco.
• Clariant Presents the EcoTain® Life Cycle for Safer, Long Lasting Lubricants.
• Global transformer oil market revenue is estimated to reach $2.46 billion by 2017.
• BPCL in talks with Manali Petro for its petchem plans.

• Genel Energy is expecting to significantly step up its oil production in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and estimates that full year production to be between 45,000 to 55,000 bpd. Genel said in its half year results that revenue jumped to US$160.6 million in the first six months of 2013 from $123.1 million a year earlier.