Petroleum Intelligence Weekly articles from January 2008

Petroleum Intelligence Weekly archives from January 2008

Iraq tries to convince IOCs that less is more.
January 14, 2008... Four international oil companies (IOC) are gearing up for another round of negotiations with Iraqi oil ministry officials later this month, following initial meetings late last year on technical support contracts for producing fields. The...

LNG terminals playing to empty houses.
January 14, 2008... Building a venue doesn't guarantee that the target audience, or in this case product, is going to show up. Believing that a lack of venue was going to be the greater challenge in the early years of the decade, a handful of LNG receiving...

Rising oil prices bypass demand, spur alternatives.
January 14, 2008... The psychological effect of $100 oil should not be underestimated, but many consumers seem either rich enough to ignore the impact or simply do not feel the pain because, as is the case in China and many Opec nations, they are shielded from...

Africa tests mettle of independents.
January 14, 2008... Africa has an unfailing ability to make or break independent oil companies, and 2007 was no exception. While those firms with oil production prospered from high prices, others seized the chance to sell assets at the top of the market. Some...

Chevron leads the pack in output growth.
January 14, 2008... The performances of Big Oil's upstream businesses look set to vary widely this year. For Chevron, the short-term outlook is rosy, for Exxon Mobil, BP and Total it's healthy, if not spectacular, while for Royal Dutch Shell it remains a case of...

NOC demand brings boom to drilling sector.
January 14, 2008... With most drilling rigs around the world at near 100% utilization, the business is at its strongest point in over a decade. Rig rates for newer units have more than doubled in the last two years, with further price rises expected, fueled by a...

Shell rings the changes with IT job cuts.
January 14, 2008... The embarrassing leak of an internal memo detailing Royal Dutch Shell's plans to outsource close to 3,000 jobs--pretty much its entire IT department--made the headlines over the holiday period. The plan, originally flagged back in 2005, is part...

Formula prices.(GENERAL)(Brief article)
January 14, 2008... FORMULA PRICES--Following market trends, Saudi Arabia again drastically tightened its formula price discounts for February crude going to the US. State-owned Saudi Aramco tightened its formula price terms for Asian term customers and presented...

Industry restructuring.(GENERAL)
January 14, 2008... INDUSTRY RESTRUCTURING--The US' largest refiner, Valero Energy, is considering selling its 180,000 b/d Memphis, Tennessee, and 80,000 b/d Krotz Springs, Louisiana, facilities. The company sold its Lima, Ohio, refinery in May last year to...

Pipelines.(GENERAL)
January 14, 2008... PIPELINES--Russia's Gazprom said last week that it has been delivering an extra 8 MMcm/d of gas to Turkey through the Blue Stream pipeline and an extra 1.5 MMcm/d to Greece since last month amid a shortage arising from a halt to Iran-Turkey gas...

Angola.(COUNTRIES)
January 14, 2008... ANGOLA--The country's oil production capacity has risen to more than 2 million b/d with the start-up of Exxon Mobil's 200,000 b/d Kizomba C development on deepwater Block 15. The project pushes capacity in the new Opec member, which produced...

Bangladesh.(COUNTRIES)
January 14, 2008... BANGLADESH--Cairn Energy's Midas touch with the drill bit has deserted it, at least temporarily, with the UK independent's offshore Magnama-1 exploration well on Block 16 set to be plugged and abandoned after coming up dry. It was hoped the Bay...

China.(COUNTRIES)(Brief article)
January 14, 2008... CHINA--The government will hold domestic oil product prices unchanged for the short term as part of its efforts to curb inflation, Premier Wen Jiabao has said. The country's inflation rate hit a record level of nearly 7% in November, spurred by...

Indonesia.(COUNTRIES)
January 14, 2008... INDONESIA--Tax breaks on imports of drilling equipment are being introduced this month as part of a raft of incentives designed to boost oil exploration and production, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has announced. The move follows...

Iran.(COUNTRIES)
January 14, 2008... IRAN--Italy's Edison has signed a contract with National Iranian Oil Co. to explore the gas- and condensate-prone offshore Dayyer Block, the latest in a series of upstream deals struck by Tehran in the wake of a US intelligence report in...

Iraq.(COUNTRIES)
January 14, 2008... IRAQ--Russian oil producer Lukoil's hopes of regaining the West Qurna project appear to be looking up, with Iraqi diplomatic sources saying the company's significant investments in the field and comprehensive knowledge of the acreage give it a...

Russia.(COUNTRIES)
January 14, 2008... RUSSIA--Exxon Mobil is considering sending gas from its Sakhalin-1 development on Russia's Pacific coast to the liquefaction facilities of the Gazpromled Sakhalin-2 project, provided the state gas giant is willing to swap LNG volumes to supply...

UAE.(COUNTRIES)
January 14, 2008... UAE--Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. is leaning toward awarding its Shah sour gas development deal to a new player, ConocoPhillips, which does not belong to the club of the emirate's existing oil concession holders, according to industry and Abu...

United Kingdom.(COUNTRIES)(Brief article)
January 14, 2008... UNITED KINGDOM--Asia's price-pull on spot cargoes led to a 59% fall in UK LNG imports last year to 1.46 Bcm, according to PIW sister publication World Gas Intelligence. Algeria accounted for 44% of imports, followed by Trinidad with 27%, Qatar...

Venezuela.(COUNTRIES)(Brief article)
January 14, 2008... VENEZUELA--President Hugo Chavez has retained Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez in his post in a major government reshuffle, but has also announced that he will slow down the radical socialist reforms he has been promoting since he came to power...

Yemen.(COUNTRIES)
January 14, 2008... YEMEN--The country's first-ever offshore licensing round has attracted some of the industry's biggest players, with Exxon Mobil and Total among the 25 companies prequalified from the 30 firms that had expressed an interest by the Oil and...

TransCanada gets Alaska gas line nod.
January 14, 2008... Alaska's selection of TransCanada as the sole applicant it will consider to build a huge 4.5 Bcf/d gas pipeline to the energy-hungry continental US could be just the tonic needed to get the pipeline project moving in time to have gas flowing by...

Washington.(Jumping In)
January 14, 2008... WASHINGTON--Crude markets have been tested over the past week to see which direction they wanted to go in the face of a number of conflicting signals. Geopolitical developments, including renewed violence in Nigeria and US-Iranian tensions,...

US energy bill will hurt refiners, Fitch warns.
January 14, 2008... Refiners could be the biggest losers under the new US energy bill adopted by Congress last month, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings, which suggested that tough new fuel efficiency standards and the mandate for increased use of...

PIW market indicators.(Statistical table)
January 14, 2008... Piw Market Indicators Spot Crude 1 Week Ago 2 Weeks Ago 4 Weeks Ago Opec Basket $92.08 $92.62 $87.45 UK Brent (Dtd.) 95.78 96.42 91.02 UK B-wave[dagger] ...