Iraqi oil quest success for DNO
OSLO: Norwegian oil producer DNO said its second test well at the Tawke 1 field in northern Iraq showed a maximum flow rate of about 5,000 barrels of oil per day, equal to the first test well.
Posco-KNOC joint bid
SEOUL: South Korea's Posco and Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) plan to join forces in Bangladesh to explore for natural gas, Seoul's energy ministry said. The companies are planning to set up an office with Petrobangla early next year, said an official.
Price benchmark
SHANGHAI: China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) said it had wrapped up a deal with Malaysia's Petronas that could set a pricing benchmark for natural gas in Asia, the Financial Times reported.
Hydro inks Iran deal
STOCKHOLM: Norwegian oil company Norsk Hydro said it had signed an exploration and development agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company. The agreement covers the Khorramabad block in Lurestan province in southwestern Iran. The company said that the block, which is 7,424 sq km in area, is located at a height of 1,200 metres roughly 500 km from Theran.
CNOOC raps protectionism
HAMBURG, Germany: CNOOC, China's top offshore oil and gas firm, will concentrate on growing from within as rising global protectionism hampers acquisitions, chairman Fu Chengyu said.
'I think it will be difficult for all companies around the world to make acquisitions,' Fu said on the sidelines of a China congress in Hamburg.
He said governments such as the United States and some European Union nations were increasingly trying to hinder foreign takeovers and that the trend was spreading.
PGN exploring
JAKARTA: Indonesian gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara Tbk (PGN) plans to explore for coalbed methane (CMB) in South Sumatra to secure future gas sources, a company official said.
CBM is natural gas trapped in seams of coal and may require large quantities of high-salinity water to be pumped out.
Studies show Indonesia has CBM resources of about 450 trillion cubic feet, mostly located in South Sumatra.
Exports slashed
BEIJING: China slashed its gasoline exports in half during the first eight months of 2006 as refiners adhered to government requests to supply the domestic market and not chase higher margins from overseas sales.
Between January and August, gasoline exports totaled 2.29 million metric tonnes, or 79,632 barrels a day, representing a drop of 51.5 per cent on the 164,479 bpd that China shipped overseas during the corresponding period a year earlier, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed.
Refinery revamp
JAKARTA: Pertamina plans to shut a 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Balikpapan refinery for about 30 days next February or March for maintenance, an official said.
'We will see the development of domestic oil products supply early next year, but according to the plan we will shut in February or March,' Pertamina processing director Suroso Atmomartoyo said.
Chevron appeals to consumers
VIENNA: Some of the biggest Western oil companies are urging consumers to use less energy to bring down prices and slow rising global demand.
Chevron, the second largest US oil company, ran a two-page advertisement in Britain's Financial Times encouraging consumers to use less fuel.
France's Total has advised the French government and the European Union to cool oil demand to avoid a supply crunch as supply peaks and starts to decline.
Italy in petrol talks
ROME: Italy could cap the tax on petrol in the 2007 budget to help keep the pump price stable, Raffaele Bonanni, head of the Cisl union, said.
Bonanni said Industry Minister Pierluigi Bersani had discussed the move in a meeting with union and business leaders.
'We asked the government about capping the tax on petrol and Bersani told us that maybe it could be put in the budget,' Bonanni said.
Turnaround set
NEW YORK: Conoco-Phillips will shut its 194,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Ponca City, Oklahoma, in the middle of October for four to five weeks for a turnaround, traders said.
The refinery, which can produce 105,000 bpd of gasoline and 74,000 barrels per day of distillates, ships its products by truck, rail and pipeline throughout the mid-continent region, according to the ConocoPhillips Web site.
Cyprus supply
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil's state oil company Petrobras has sealed a deal to supply thermoelectric plants in Cyprus with 550,000 tonnes of low-sulfur fuel oil for a year and is hoping to sell more in the Mediterranean.
Petrobras supplies director Paulo Roberto Costa said Petrobras had an edge due to low sulfur content of Brazil-made fuel oil as many European countries made that a prerequisite for all supplies.
'The advantage is that it is all made from our own heavy oil, which is already low on sulfur. We are seeking to sell more of it in the Mediterranean region, in Europe and in Asia,' Costa said, adding that Petrobras was also negotiating with some companies in China.
Attacks on Iraq facilities down
NEW YORK: Attacks on Iraq's oil industry and other critical public facilities have decreased but are still crimping the country's revenues and power generation, US Ambassador John Bolton said.
The number of attacks on such facilities fell to an average of two per week in the latest quarter, compared to five weekly during the previous three months, Bolton told the UN Security Council in a status report on Iraq.
$97m KOC contract
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait's National Petroleum Services Co (NAPESCO) said it has inked a five-year oil services deal worth KD28 million ($97 million) with the state upstream firm Kuwait Oil Company (KOC).
Under deal, Napesco will design wells, provide deep exploration and nitrogen pumping services and supply KOC with equipment, Napesco said in a statement.
Qatar exports boost
DOHA: Qatar has agreed to increase liquefied gas exports to India to 7.5m tonnes from five million tonnes per year, said a report.
Qatari and Indian energy officials discussed energy issues on the sidelines of an Opec forum in Vienna.
Trade show success
DUBAI: The 13th edition of the Oil and Gas Show (OGS) drew to a successful close at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre.
“The show has crossed all expectations in terms of participation, technology showcased, partnerships signed and business conducted,” Anselm Godinho, managing director, IC&E, organisers of the event.
Quick takes
French energy unions protest
PARIS: Top energy unions said they planned a one-day strike at the beginning of October over the privatisation of Gaz de France and its planned merger with Suez, but they did not give a specific date for the action.
The unions said they would meet again to decide how they will further their action.
'Strengthened by the public opposition on September 12...the CGT, FO CFE-CGC and CFTC have decided on the principle of a national day of action, at the beginning of October, that aims to gather workers and members of the public opposed to the (GDF) privatisation,' the unions said in a joint statement.
Opec shipments to West sink
LONDON: Opec oil exports will fall 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) through September on a drop in shipments to western refiners, an oil shipping analyst said.
Roy Mason of oil consultancy Oil Movements estimated Opec seaborne exports falling to 25.05 million bpd in the four weeks to Sept. 30, down from 25.25 million bpd to September. 2.
'It's happened because there has been a very sharp drop in westbound shipments from the Gulf at the end of September,' Mason said.
Nigeria losing 872,000 barrels
VIENNA: Nigeria is losing about 872,000 barrels per day in oil production due to unrest and most of the shortfall is expected to last about six months, the country's oil minister said.
Production currently stands at 2.3 to 2.33 million barrels per day, Edmund Daukoru said on the sidelines of an Opec conference in Vienna.
Caspian Sea work to start
SANGACHAL, Azerbaijan: A consortium of Western companies is set to start production at a massive Caspian Sea gas field at the end of the month that will provide Europe with an extra source of the fuel, energy giant BP said.
'Production will start at the end of the month and will grow in the course of the year,' BP Azerbaijan's president David Woodward said at the oil-rich nation's main oil and gas terminal Sangachal.
The Caspian's Shah Deniz field, whose major shareholders are British BP, Statoil and the Azerbaijani company Socar, will feed a new pipeline that leads to Turkey, where it will link up with European networks.
ENVIRONMENTAL EYE
World has 10-year window to act on climate
SACRAMENTO, California: A leading US climate researcher said on Wednesday the world has a 10-year window of opportunity to take decisive action on global warming and avert a weather catastrophe.
Nasa scientist James Hansen, widely considered the doyen of American climate researchers, said governments must adopt an alternative scenario to keep carbon dioxide emission growth in check and limit the increase in global temperatures to 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
"I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change ... no longer than a decade, at the most," Hansen said at the Climate Change Research Conference in California's state capital.
If the world continues with a "business as usual" scenario, Hansen said temperatures will rise by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 7.2 degrees F) and "we will be producing a different planet".
On that warmer planet, ice sheets would melt quickly, causing a rise in sea levels that would put most of Manhattan under water. The world would see more prolonged droughts and heat waves, powerful hurricanes in new areas and the likely extinction of 50 per cent of species.
Hansen, who heads Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has made waves before by saying that President George W Bush's administration tried to silence him and heavily edited his and other scientists' findings on a warmer world.
He reiterated that the US "has passed up the opportunity" to influence the world on global warming.
The US is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide. But Bush pulled the country out of the 160-nation Kyoto Protocol in 2001, arguing that the treaty's mandatory curbs on emissions would harm the economy.
Hansen praised California for taking the "courageous" step of passing legislation on global warming last month that will make it the first US state to place caps on greenhouse gas emissions.
He said the alternative scenario he advocates involves promoting energy efficiency.
