Taqa-Northrock in $2bn pact
ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) announced the purchase of a Canadian oil and gas exploration firm, Northrock Resources Limited, for $2 billion.

Taqa said the deal would provide it with an additional 142 million barrels of proven oil and gas reserves as well as the opportunity to expand.
Qapco in China
DOHA: Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco), a unit of Industries Qatar, said it had opened its fourth office in China.
Qapco opened its new office in the southern city of Guangzhou, adding to premises in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, it said in a statement.
J Ray in Saudi contract
HOUSTON: McDermott International said it received a four-year project management contract from Saudi Aramco.
The contract calls for McDermott subsidiary J Ray McDermott to engineer, procure, construct, install, hook up and commission the Manifa Field Facilities project in the Arabian Gulf.
$10m Oman venture
SEOUL: Korea Gas and the Omani government will form a joint venture company with an initial combined investment of $10 million for co-operation in the liquefied natural gas business, state-run Kogas said.
Under the 50:50 joint venture, Kogas will import LNG from Oman and the Omani government will build and operate LNG storage tanks in unnamed third countries with Kogas, said a Kogas official.
Petronet LNG offer
KOLKATA: The Indian government has offered Qatar's Ras Laffen Liquified Natural Gas or Ras Gas, a stake of up to 12.5 per cent in Petronet LNG, the Economic Times reported, citing Petronet managing director Prosad Dasgupta.
Scomi wins  $49m deals
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian energy services firm Scomi Group Bhd has won about 167 million ringgit ($49.32 million) worth of contracts in Europe so far this year, the company said.
Ranhill hopeful
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian energy services firm Ranhill Bhd is aiming to conclude a deal “soon” to lay oil pipeline across the northern part of peninsular Malaysia, the company said.
“Ranhill Berhad has been working together with Trans-Peninsula Petroleum Sdn Bhd on the development of the pipeline project across northern Peninsula Malaysia over the past few months.
Gas tie-up pledge
BEIJING: China's largest refiner Sinopec Group and the country's top offshore producer CNOOC have signed a framework deal to co-operate on natural gas projects including supply and pipeline construction, a report said.
The two sides also agreed to expand natural gas reserves, the report said.
Prices to stay
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government has no intention of increasing fuel prices despite a jump in global oil prices, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was quoted by state news agency Bernama as saying.
“No review at the moment. We want to maintain the price because we had a big increase (last year),' Najib said, when asked whether the government was considering raising fuel prices following rising global oil prices.
Sufficient supplies
SINGAPORE: South Korea's biggest refiner SK Corp has bought less spot naphtha for June because of sufficient supplies from its own refinery, industry sources said.
The company purchased 35,000-40,000 tonnes of naphtha for next month, down from 100,000 tonnes it had bought for May.
Margins hit
KUALA LUMPUR: High crude oil prices have  squeezed refining margins at the Malaysian unit of ExxonMobil, driving refinery throughput to its lowest level in years, said Liam Mallon, chairman of Malaysian-listed unit Esso Malaysia.
Motiva plant move awaited
NEW YORK: Shell Oil said it will decide this year on whether to go ahead with a massive expansion of its joint-venture oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas.
The project would make the Motiva refinery, co-owned by Shell and Saudi Aramco, the biggest in the US at 600,000 barrels per day of crude distillation capacity.
“Subject to commercial conditions for an investment decision, Motiva expects to begin construction in 2007 with the expansion to come on line in 2010,” Shell said in a statement.
Neste plant trial
HELSINKI: Finnish refiner Neste Oil said it will carry out a trial in the Stockholm area of its NExBTL biodiesel.
Neste said it work with the Swedish Post, Posten Logistik AB, shipper Waxholmsbolaget Angfartygs AB, Volvo Penta and Scania in the test.
The trial will study how tailpipe emissions change with different levels of NExBTL blended into conventional fuel, Neste said in a statement.
Rompetrol denial
SOFIA: Romania’s second-largest oil company, Rompetrol Group NV, denied that it was in talks to sell a stake in one of its refineries to Azeri state oil firm Socar.
Rompetrol chief executive Dinu Patriciu said the company was looking for a capital injection of 25 per cent for the group as a whole, whose Rompetrol Rafinare refining arm has shares traded on the Bucharest bourse.
Reliance exports  
NEW DELHI: India’s Reliance Industries will export more than 75 per cent of its refinery output in the financial year ending March 2008, a company official said.
“We are an export oriented unit and we will export 75 per cent of our output... It will be more than this,” P M S Prasad, CEO and president of the company’s oil and gas business, said.
Valero slashes rates  
NEW YORK: Valero Energy reduced rates in a gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracker at its Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery, according to a filing with state environmental regulators.
The reduction in rates in the cat cracker was due to planned maintenance on associated soot blowers.
Canada drilling work to plunge
CALGARY, Alberta: Oil and natural gas drilling in Canada will plunge by more than a fourth in 2007 to the lowest level in five years as petroleum companies cut back on gas exploration, an industry association said.
The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors said that it expects 16,339 wells to be completed this year, down from 22,298 in 2006. It’s the weakest performance for the Canadian drilling industry since 2002, when 14,459 wells were finished.
New discovery
KARACHI: Pakistan's Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd (OGDCL) announced a new discovery, bringing the total number of discoveries to five in the past two months.
OGDCL’s five discoveries will push the firm's daily oil and gas output up by 1,746 barrels per day and 44.12 million metric cubic feet respectively.
Analysts said these discoveries will marginally increase the earnings per shares of OGDCL, the country's largest listed firm, and the stock has attracted fresh buying.
Burren hopeful
LONDON: British-based oil explorer Burren Energy said it had had an encouraging start to 2007.
“Production for the first four months of 2007, excluding the purchase from ENI, has averaged 35,500 barrels per day on a working interest basis with a net average realised price of $56.74.
Shell interest
LIMA: Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell is among 37 companies to have expressed an interest in bidding for oil exploration concessions in Peru, the government said.
Shell sent a letter of interest to the Peruvian government, said Daniel Saba, head of state agency Perupetro, adding however: “We don't know if they will finally take part yet”.
Saba declined to name the other 36 but said they were all large or medium-sized companies.
New ONGC move
NEW DELHI: Indian state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp is looking to buy the 51 per cent stake held by Caspian Energy Group in an onshore producing oilfield in Azerbaijan, a senior ONGC official said.
Eight firms vie for Jizan deal
RIYADH: The Saudi oil ministry has shortlisted eight local firms to build and operate an oil refinery in Jizan in partnership with international companies that will be invited to make bids.
The eight companies were named in as: Nama Chemicals, Al Arabiya for Water and Energy Development, Advanced Petrochemicals and Refineries, National Industrialisation, Obeikan Investments, Arabian Peninsula for Industrialisation and Petroleum Services, Taqaat, Abdel-Kader Al Bakry and Sons Industrialisation.
Sohar supplies
SINGAPORE: Oman Refinery Company (ORC) aims to restart the 116,000 barrel per day (bpd) Sohar refinery in June after it shut the plant recently because of a technical problem, an industry source said.
The company is seeking 70,000 cubic metres (about 440,000 barrels) of 95-octane gasoline for June delivery via a spot tender after buying 100,000 cubic metres for May delivery, and it may buy more gasoline for June because of the refinery outage, the source said.
The Sohar refinery started full production in March, six months later than planned after the plant suffered start-up snags, but had run partially from last September.
Morocco venture
MOHAMMEDIA: Morocco may host a $3 billion to $4 billion plant to refine and export crude oil, developed by companies from the UAE, the head of Moroccan refining firm Samir said.
“There is talk ... about some Emirati companies studying the option of having an export refinery at (Moroccan Atlantic port) Jorf Lasfar,” Samir General Manager Jamal Ba-Amer said.
Oman Oil pact
HONG KONG: Piped gas operator China Gas Holdings has signed an agreement with shareholder Oman Oil  to invest an initial $40 million on a joint venture. 

Quick takes
NTPC deal to buy Nigeria LNG
BOMBAY: Indian state-run power firm NTPC has signed a memorandum of understanding with Nigeria to buy up to 3 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year on a long-term basis, the utility said.
NTPC, which signed the preliminary agreement, has also agreed to build either on its own or through a joint venture two power projects in Nigeria after the LNG deal is sealed, director R K Jain said.
The projects are a 500 megawatts coal-fired plant and a 700 megawatts gas-fired unit, the company said in a statement. NTPC may also consider bidding for a gas block in Nigeria, it said.
Hydrogen fuel cell station
LOS ANGELES: Southern California Edison and a technology arm of Chevron opened a hydrogen fuel cell demonstration station at So Cal Ed's headquarters in suburban Los Angeles.
The five-year project is co-funded by the US Energy Department and will be an “electrolyzer” hydrogen fuel cell station in Rosemead, California, So Cal Ed said.
So Cal Ed is a subsidiary of Edison International based in Rosemead.
This is one of five Chevron partnership hydrogen stations to be commissioned in California, Florida and Michigan.
“At each Chevron Hydrogen station, we're using a different technology. This will help us understand which technologies work best and what factors need to be in place to make hydrogen a viable transportation fuel,” said Rick Zalesky, Chevron vice president of hydrogen and biofuels.
Bosphorus Gas in Russian pact  
MOSCOW: Russian gas monopoly Gazprom has signed a contract to supply Turkey’s Bosphorus Gas with 750 million cubic metres of gas a year until 2021.
Gazprom said the contract was signed after Bosphorus won a tender to take over part of the Russian gas supplies to Turkey under the liberalisation of Turkey’s gas market.
E ON Ruhrgas capacity move
ESSEN, Germany: Germany’s leading gas importer, E ON Ruhrgas continues to lessen its dependence on pipeline gas, booking more capacity in a British liquefied natural gas terminal, it said.

ENVIRONMENTAL EYE
GE chief sees ‘green’ unit growing faster
LOS ANGELES: General Electric chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Immelt said his “green” ecomagination unit is on track to “blow away” its 2010 sales target of $20 billion as demand for environmental products and services surges.
After two years in operation, ecomagination has a backlog of orders worth $50 billion for products like wind turbines, aircraft engines and energy conservation technology. Last year, it had sales of $12 billion.
 At an event to celebrate ecomagination's second anniversary, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked Immelt to confirm the unit’s target of $20 billion in sales in 2010.
“We’ll blow it away,” he told the governor.
Immelt later said: “I don't have any doubts. It’s just got that sort of momentum.”
Schwarzenegger, who has championed California's law to fight global warming, said he holds up GE as an example that companies should follow to profit from the demand for clean technology.
Immelt, who has worked 25 years at GE, has long argued that “green is green” – meaning that GE is in the environmental business because it can make serious money.
But he said demand for green products and services exceeded expectations as awareness about global warming and energy conservation snowballed.
“Green is now becoming pervasive. It is becoming universal,” Immelt said at the event at his group’s Universal Studios.
“Work on energy efficiency, working on emissions reductions, conservation, clean water is simply good business. In our case, it has always been about growing the company.”
Immelt unveiled 11 new products, services and technologies for ecomagination, many of them in conjunction with other big corporations and some with maverick start-ups.
One was a carbon emissions offset partnership with energy company AES to produce offsets for 10 million metric tons of greenhouse gases a year by 2010.
“GE will be marketing to airlines, to rental car companies, and people have the option to offset,” AES CEO Paul Hanrahan said.