Chemoil enters Fujairah market
SINGAPORE: Singapore-listed marine fuels supplier Chemoil Energy has entered the Fujairah bunkers market, following a joint-venture agreement with Gulf Petrol Supplies, the firm said in a statement.

Chemoil will hold a 40-percent stake in the joint-venture company, which has a paid-up capital of $13.7 million and will involve the development and operation of an oil storage terminal in the UAE port.

Tehran ups storage 
LONDON: Iran is storing at least 14 million barrels of crude on supertankers in the Gulf, a tanker industry source said, in a strong sign Tehran was complying with an Opec pledge to cut supply.
The source said Iran had stored up to 20 million barrels of crude on ten Very Large Crude Carriers in the Gulf, but had since released three of the ships back on to the market.

Frustrating results
LONDON: London-listed Texan oil firm Gulfsands Petroleum said results from its Tigris-1 well in Syria had to date been inconclusive, and that it may have to deepen it later in 2007.
“It is frustrating not to have a definitive result from the well at this point,” chief executive John Dorrier said in a statement.

Bunker sales down
SINGAPORE: Marine fuel sales in Singapore fell by 15 per cent on-month to 2.256 million tonnes for January, official government data showed.
January bunker sales in the world’s largest bunkering port were lower than the average in 2006, the data showed.

$403m Samsung contract
SEOUL: South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries said it had won a 378.9 billion won ($403.4 million) order to build an oil and gas production facility for a European company.

Japan firms for Pemex projects
TOKYO: A Japanese state-backed bank said it has agreed with Mexico’s state-run oil monopoly Pemex to boost business ties between both countries.
Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Pemex to encourage more Japanese companies to join oil and gas projects run by Pemex.

Pertamina sells
SINGAPORE: Indonesia’s Pertamina has sold a late-February loading cargo of decant oil, normally used as fuel oil blendstock, at slightly higher premiums, industry sources said.
The 200,000-barrel parcel, for Feb 23-25 loading from the state refiner’s Balongan terminal, was sold to Singapore blender Kuo Oil at a premium of around $30 a tonne to Singapore spot quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, up from a $28-premium previously.

Demand falls
JAKARTA: Gasoline demand in Jakarta has fallen by about 40 per cent in early February as heavy flooding stymies transporation around the Indonesian capital, Indonesian state oil company Pertamina’s top official said.
Pertamina has been supplying around 6,000 kilolitres a day of gasoline (38,000 barrels per day) since February  2, down from 10,000 kilolitre before that, Pertamina’s president director, Ari Soemarno, said.

Imports steady
JAKARTA: Indonesia will import 10 million barrels of oil products in March, steady to February levels, an official of state oil firm Pertamina said.
“We will have steady imports in March because there is no extraordinary situation,” said deputy director of marketing  Hanung Budya.

Ethylene output up
TOKYO: Japanese ethylene production rose 1.6 per cent in January from the same month last year, government data showed.
Ethylene output totalled 697,700 tonnes last month, compared with 686,700 tonnes last January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement.

Diesel tax hike bid opposed
BRUSSELS: Plans by the European Commission to raise the minimum duty on diesel from 2012 to stamp out “tank tourism” and cut pollution have been delayed due to internal opposition.
EU Tax Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs was due to propose the measure to member states on Thursday to end distortions in the bloc’s internal market, where the minimum duty on commercial diesel varies widely.

Price dispute
SINGAPORE:  Royal Dutch Shell has made an offer for physical fuel oil in the Platts pricing window for the first time after a three-month absence, following a dispute with the dominant price assessor, traders said.
The offer was for 20,000 tonnes of 380-centistoke (cst) fuel oil at a premium of $13.00 a tonne to Platts quotes.
The oil major had not appeared in the half-hour Platts pricing since a dispute with the price assessor in early November.

Blast hits cracker
SINGAPORE: An explosion hit the hydrocracking unit of Guangzhou Petrochemical's 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) Guangdong province, China, refinery, trading sources said.
It was not clear whether other units in the refinery were affected, trading sources said, adding that no casualties had been reported.
The hydrocracker, which produces middle distillate fuels including gas oil and jet, has a capacity of 3,000 barrels per day. The refinery is located in the southern Guangdong province.

Software hope
AMSTERDAM: Modern cars can reduce fuel consumption by more than 2.5 per cent just by adding a piece of software to the engine computer, a Dutch scientist found in a university research project together with Ford.
University of Eindhoven scientist John Kessels said he had managed to reach optimal engine performance more often by adding a piece of software to a car’s computer.
Kessels’s software dynamically switches the dynamo, which charges the car battery, on and off.

Valero on target
NEW YORK: Valero Energy said  it does not expect to delay the restart of a fluid catalytic cracker and crude distillation unit at its Texas City, Texas refinery.

Sonatrach eyes windfall tax
LONDON: Some companies working in Algeria are set to receive less than their normal oil allocation in March as it holds back barrels as payment of a new windfall tax, industry sources said.
Algeria announced last year it would impose a windfall tax on foreign oil companies expected to earn $1 billion in 2007 and that it was effective from August 1, 2006.
Earlier this month the head of Anadarko's Algerian unit said Sonatrach would start collecting the tax in March by retaining oil to which Anadarko was normally entitled.

Cairn India success
LONDON: British oil explorer Cairn Energy said Cairn India had won an interest in two new offshore exploration blocks in India.
Cairn Energy India has been awarded a 10 per cent interest in the 9,400 square km Palar Basin block, with Cairn India getting a 25 per cent interest, Cairn Energy said.
Cairn India also won a 40 per cent interest in the 12,300 sq km Kerala Konkan Basin block.

Alberta growth
CALGARY:  Canadian oil production will grow 9 per cent this year, the country's national energy regulator said, due to growing output from the Alberta oil sands and offshore oil projects.
In its 2007 production estimate, the National Energy Board said Canadian oil output should climb to about 2.89 million barrels a day, 9.1 per cent more than the 2.61 million barrel a day average in 2006.

Petrobras buys
RIO DE JANEIRO:  Brazil's state run oil company Petrobras acquired a 40 per cent stake in the exploration of the Rufisque Profond block off the coast of Senegal, strengthening its presence in Africa.
Petrobras said in a statement it bought the stake from Italy's Edison Spa, Italy's second biggest utility. Edison owns 95 per cent of a block covering 7,294 sq km in depths of up to 3,000 metres.

Pioneer reserves
LONDON: Pioneer Natural Resources said it ended 2006 with proven oil and gas reserves of 905 million barrels oil equivalent, and would grow production by more than 10 per cent in 2007.

$300m benzene plant opens
DOHA: A $300m benzene plant in Qatar's Mesaieed Industrial City has been opened. The plant is an 80:20 joint venture of Qatar Petroleum and United Development Com-pany.
It will produce 100,000 metric tonnes of linear alkyl benzene a year, a detergent intermediate used for the manufacture of household detergents.

Marsh to host forum
DUBAI: Marsh, the world’s leading risk and insurance services firm, will host the first global risk advisory conference of the world’s national oil companies (NOCs) in Dubai.
The Marsh National Oil Company Confer-ence will be held from February 26 to 28.
Marsh chairman and CEO Brian Storms will discuss emerging risk topics in the oil and gas industry to open the conference.

$600m Sime order
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian oil and gas services firm Sime Engineering Services, said its 70 per cent-owned subsidiary has won a $600 million job from Maersk Oil Qatar.
The job is to build and install two platforms and three bridges at the Al Shaheen Block 5 Development, in offshore Qatar, Sime said in a statement.

Shell discovery
DUBAI: Royal Dutch Shell made four oil and gas finds in the Badr El Din (BED) concession in Egypt’s Western Desert over the past year, it said.
The discoveries were made together with Bapetco, Shell’s joint venture with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, it said in a statement.

$300m Daelim pact
SEOUL: Daelim Industrial Corp confirmed it had signed a deal worth about $300 million to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage tanks in Iran.
Under the deal, Daelim will build three LNG tanks with capacity of 140,000 tonnes and two LPG tanks with 30,000 tonnes capacity.

Quick takes
MOL laments negative results
BUDAPEST: Hungarian oil and gas firm MOL said all aspects of its business that could turn negative in the fourth-quarter did so, bringing down its fourth-quarter results.
“Everything that could turn negative, did turn negative ... and made an ugly stain on an otherwise strong year,” chief executive Gyorgy Mosonyi said. MOL reported fourth-quarter earning well below consensus.
Obasanjo pushes for gas bills
ABUJA: Nigeria risks losing $4 billion to $5 billion in tax related to natural gas projects over the next five years unless two bills reforming the fiscal regime for the industry are passed quickly, President Olusegun Obasanjo said.
Hewrote to the Senate to urge legislators to pass the two bills rapidly, before final investment decisions are made on two huge liquefied natural gas projects, Brass and Olokola.
Lotos expects weaker profits
WARSAW: Lotos, Poland’s second largest oil firm, expects first-quarter earnings this year to be weak, but its full-year results will not be worse than in 2006, chief executive Pawel Olechnowicz said.
“2007 should not be worse than the last year. It will be different because competition is rising,” Olechnowicz said.
“Margins are lower than expected (in the first quarter),” he added. “I do not think it will be better than the remaining quarters of the year.”
New LNG terminal near Boston
HOUSTON: The US Maritime Administration has approved plans for a second offshore LNG import terminal in Massachusetts Bay near Boston, the agency announced.
Excelerate Energy received a MARAD “record of decision” approving plans for a liquefied natural gas terminal called Northeast Gateway 21 km  southeast of Gloucester, Massachusetts, in Massachusetts Bay.
British Gas to slash prices
LONDON: British utility Centrica said its British Gas unit would cut its standard residential tariffs for gas by 17 per cent and for electricity by 11 per cent from March 12.
“We are taking the lead in passing on the benefits of falling wholesale gas prices,” British Gas’s managing director designate Phil Bentley said.

ENVIRONMENTAL EYE
Total denies responsibility for disaster
PARIS:  Total denied it was responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters in French history, the sinking of the oil tanker Erika in 1999 and the pollution caused when its cargo of oil washed ashore.
Total’s lawyer testified on the opening day of a trial in which 15 organisations and individuals are charged with responsibility for the spill that poured 20,000 tonnes of oil into the sea, polluted 400 km of coastline and caused damage valued at up to 1 billion euros ($1.30 billion).
Lawyer Daniel Soulez-Lariviere told the court that Total, as the ship’s charterer, was not responsible for its safety. The documents it received when chartering the 25-year-old vessel indicated it was fully seaworthy, he said.
“A state of law means not changing the rules under the influence of the emotions of the day,” he added.
The Erika, a rusting, Maltese-registered tanker, broke in two and sank in heavy seas in the Bay of Biscay some 70 km off the French coast on December 12, 1999.
Its 26 crew were winched to safety by helicopter and its fuel cargo started to sweep ashore almost two weeks later, killing between 60,000 and 300,000 birds — the largest number of sea birds ever known to have been killed by an oil spill.
The case has assumed political overtones amid the increased focus on environmental issues.
Lawyers, witnesses and plaintiffs were besieged by reporters and television cameramen as they entered the courtroom.
Both the rightist government and Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, in her role as head of the Poitou-Charentes coastal region in western France, are among 74 plaintiffs including local councils and environmental groups.
“We are at an absolute turning point today,” said Francois Patsouris, vice-president of Poitou-Charentes regional council. The Erika case has revealed an opaque world of labyrinthine ship ownership and chartering arrangements that plaintiffs in the case say hindered effective safety regulation.