Opec export earnings revised
WASHINGTON: The prospect for higher crude oil prices later in the year will boost Opec’s oil export revenues above $400 billion for 2009, the US government’s top energy forecasting agency said.

The US Energy Information Administration revised up its estimate for Opec’s oil export earnings for this year to $402 billion, about $15 billion more than the agency forecast last month.
‘Low crude prices unjustified’
HOUSTON: Low oil prices are as unjustified and unsustainable as record-high prices were last summer, and the extreme volatility in the market may curb global investment in new projects to meet future demand, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said. The comments from the kingdom’s top oil official come as producer group Opec enacts record crude oil output cuts to counter sliding global energy demand in the midst of a severe economic slowdown. “Now that market sentiment has flipped, I expect continued volatility with exaggerated price weakness,” Ali Al-Naimi said in in a keynote address to the CeraWeek conference.
Rasgas train 6 due in March
DUBAI: Qatar’s RasGas expects its train 6 liquefied natural gas production facility to come online in late March or early April and train 7 to come online in October, a company executive said. Each train will produce around 7.8 million tonnes of LNG a year, the executive told a gas conference.  RasGas said last year that train 6 of RasGas III would come online in the first quarter and train 7 by the end of 2009. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of LNG and sits on the world’s third-largest gas reserves. RasGas is 70 per cent owned by Qatar Petroleum and 30 per cent by US oil and gas major ExxonMobil. 
Qatargas plant back to work
DUBAI: A plant that produces more than a quarter of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity has returned to full production after a breakdown, a spokesman for gas firm Qatargas said.
A new production facility due to start loading its first cargo of LNG soon was “moving forward”, he said, declining to give more details on when full production would start. “It’s all back to normal,” he said. “It’s returned to full capacity.” A machinery breakdown at the Qatargas I plant halted production for 10 days from January 8. The company declared force majeure on shipments, releasing it from its contractual obligations to customers.
Cosmo Oil may restart units
TOKYO: Japanese refiner Cosmo Oil Co may be allowed to restart secondary units at its Yokkaichi refinery, an official with the local fire department said.
The 13,500 barrels per day (bpd) No 3 catalytic reformer at the western Japan-based refinery has been shut after a fire on January 29 and subsequent suspension orders from the fire department and the local government. The 30,000 bpd No 4 kerosene and gas oil hydro desulphurisation unit has also been shut.
The fire department and the local government plan to conduct checks at the facility, and the suspension orders could be lifted, the fire official said. The fire resulted from human error, the official added.
LG starts output in Indonesia
SEOUL: South Korean trading house LG International Corp said its coal mine in Indonesia has started annual production of 1.5 million tonnes of coal.
The trading house, which sells most of its coal to local utilities under Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco), and small amounts abroad to Japan and Southeast Asia, has stakes in three coal mines in Russia, Australia and Indonesia, it said in a statement.
The total production capacity at the mines is 1 million tonnes.
South Korea, which is the world’s second-largest coal importer, imports 65 million tonnes of heating coal for power generation through term deals and spot purchases.
LG owns a 40 per cent stake in the Indonesian coal mine, and the rest 60 per cent is owned by Indonesia’s Megaprima Persada.
CPC restarts naphtha cracker
SINGAPORE: Taiwan’s CPC Corp will restart operations at its 380,000 tonnes per year (tpy) No 4 naphtha cracker, after a delay of nearly three months following a routine maintenance, a trader said. 
“But output will be capped at around 80 per cent as there are still some uncertainties in the market where petrochemical demand is concerned,” he added. 
The cracker was shut around October 10 for a 45-day maintenance, but weak margins prompted the company to keep the unit idle. However, the market has since improved because of renewed demand from China, Asia’s largest petrochemical importer.
KNOC buys half of Petro-Tech
SEOUL: South Korea, the world’s No 5 crude oil importer, said its state oil company had acquired half of Petro-Tech, a privately held oil firm with offshore assets in Peru.
State-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) has secured a 50 per cent stake in the firm that is estimated to be worth between $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion, according to market sources. Seoul’s energy ministry did not disclose the price of the deal. Last year, China’s top two oil firms, CNPC and Sinopec Group, were reported to have teamed up to submit a joint bid for Petro-Tech, while Royal Dutch Shell was also reported to be interested in the purchase.
Korean gas oil bound for Europe
SINGAPORE: Around 270,000 tonnes of South Korean gas oil are bound for Europe for lifting this month, traders said.
The slew of latest bookings showed the loadings to take place from February 10 to February 15. With these fixtures, the total Europe-bound diesel flows from Asia have hit 425,000 tonnes so far for February, surpassing the 215,000 tonnes exported in January.
“Demand has been good in Europe because it has been cold,” said a Western trader. “But the sheer volumes of arbitrage supplies arriving from Asia is keeping the (European) market a bit depressed.”
Macquarie to buy natgas unit
SYDNEY/LOS ANGELES: Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, backed by a healthy balance sheet, has agreed to buy one of the largest natural gas trading operations in north America from Constellation Energy.
The announcement came as the market awaits Macquarie’s operational update to investors. Constellation said it expected to close the deal in the second quarter, but neither company offered any details. 
“They (Macquarie) are obviously feeling comfortable enough, looking at their current results, that they are prepared to start doing deals of this nature,” said Angus Gluskie, managing director and portfolio manager at White Funds Management.
Pertamina reissues tender
SINGAPORE: Indonesia’s Pertamina has reissued a tender to buy at least 600,000 barrels of gasoline for February delivery, but it has also bought the same amount for the month via private negotiations, traders said. The requirements are part of the minimum 4.7 million barrels of the autofuel which the state oil firm is seeking for February.
“They have bought around 600,000 barrels of 92-octane plus 88-octane previously for February delivery through private negotiations,” one trader said.  For the reissued tender, which will close on February 11, the state-own firm is seeking the parcels to be delivered into Tanjung Uban and Cilacap. The initial tender was cancelled mid this week.
It is also seeking at least 4.7 million barrels for March, above its usual 4.0 million barrels monthly average, after buying more than 5.5 million barrels for January due to the delayed restart of its 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) Balongan refinery till early January.
Brazil ethanol exports falling
DUBAI: Brazilian ethanol exports are expected to fall in 2009 from 5.1 billion litres in 2008, Geraldine Kutas, international adviser to Brazil’s Cane Industry Association (UNICA), said.
“We don’t expect to export as much as we (Brazil) exported in 2008, mainly because of low oil prices,” she said in a question-and-answer session at the Kingsman Dubai sugar conference. She gave no figures.
Boardwalk Q4 profit falls
New York: Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, which operates natural gas pipelines and storage facilities, posted a lower quarterly profit as increased transportation costs and higher depreciation and property taxes offset a rise in gas transportation revenue.
However, the earnings per share came a cent above analysts’ average estimate. Boardwalk, whose majority owner is Loews Corp - the conglomerate controlled by the billionaire Tisch family - reported a net income of $67.6 million, or 40 cents per common unit, compared with $72.1 million, or 54 cents a common share, in the same quarter last year. 
Chevron plans flaring at LA
HOUSTON: Chevron Corp warned of planned flaring at its 260,000 barrel per day (bpd) Los Angeles-area refinery in El Segundo, California, according to a notice filed with local air pollution regulators.
The filing did not say which units might be involved in the flaring, but the refinery has been doing a multi-week overhaul on the 72,500 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit. The FCC work began on January 5.
Exxon to restart LA refinery
HOUSTON: Exxon Mobil Corp said it’s 149,500 barrel per day (bpd) Los Angeles-area refinery in Torrance, California, was making preparations to restart an unidentified unit that was shut during a six-week overhaul.
The Torrance refinery’s 100,200 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit, a hydrotreater, an alkylation unit and a sulfur recovery unit have been shut for planned work since December 30.
Fire downs Greenhunter plant
NEW YORK: A 105-million-gallon per year biodiesel plant in Houston, Texas owned by Greenhunter Biofuels was downed by a fire caused by a mechanical failure over the weekend, the company said. The fire at the plant, which Greenhunter says is the largest US biodiesel facility, caused less than $50,000 in damage, Greenhunter said. It  should be up and running in three days, according to the company’s initial estimates.
Fluor starts gas output
NEW YORK: Engineering and construction group Fluor Corp said it and partner McDermott International Inc have started gas production at an offshore platform built for BG Group’s Trinidad and Tobago unit. The Poinsettia project, off the northwest shore of Trinidad in water 530 feet (160 meters) deep, was the largest ever offshore platform built in Trinidad and Tobago, which is a major producer of natural gas.
Marathon to shut Robinson
NEW YORK:Marathon plans to shut a crude distillation unit at its 204,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Robinson, Illinois for 30 days work beginning in mid-March, trade sources said.
Marathon has been actively buying oil products, including gasoline and diesel, in the Midwest, traders said.
“I heard Marathon was in the market late Friday buying,” said one Midwestern trader, who attributed the buying to covering in anticipation of March planned work.
Pure Energy to think BG’s bid
PERTH: Australian coal seam gas explorer Pure Energy Ltd was reviewing a A$796 million ($538 million) takeover bid from British energy firm BG Group Plc, it said, advising shareholders to take no action on the offer at present.
BG, the UK’s third-largest oil and natural gas producer, earlier announced an all-cash bid of A$6.40 a share for Pure, trumping a bid made by Arrow Energy.
Sakhalin to export LNG
MOSCOW: Sakhalin Energy will produce 6 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas this year, or around two thirds of its designed capacity, with the first cargo to sail at the end of March, Russia’s energy ministry said. The ministry also said the company, which is controlled by Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom, will increase oil output to 5 million tonnes this year from around the 2 million it was producing in previous years. 
Total Q4 seen hit
PARIS: French oil major Total is set to publish a decline in fourth-quarter earnings that nearly match an 18 per cent year-on-year drop in average crude prices, a Reuters poll of 11 analysts showed.
France’s biggest company by market capitalisation earned an adjusted, or underlying, quarterly net profit – stripping out one-off items and changes in the value of inventory – of 2.622 billion euros ($3.40 billion), according to the forecast average of the 11 analysts.
Iraq raises prices
BAGHDAD: Iraq has raised the official selling prices of its crude for March 2009, an Iraqi oil official said, with heavier crude from Kirkuk for US buyers selling at a premium to WTI for the first time. The March price for Basra Light for Asian buyers was set at a discount of $0.85 to the average of Oman/Dubai quotes, up from a discount of $2.15 in February, said Falah Alamri, head of the State Oil Marketing Company (SOMO).
New oil minister
KUWAIT: Opec member Kuwait has appointed former health minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah as the new oil minister of the Gulf Arab state, a government source and Al-Rai TV said.
Sheikh Ahmad, a member of the ruling family, will be Kuwait’s first permanent oil minister since Mohammad al-Olaim who resigned in November along with the rest of the government. Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Salem Al-Sabah had been acting oil minister since a new cabinet was unveiled last month.
KPC to cut naphtha
DUBAI: Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) will cut contract naphtha export volumes for the year by over 25 per cent versus 2008 as its domestic petrochemical sector consumes more, industry sources said. The state-run firm, the second-largest naphtha supplier to Asia, is expected to offer around 5 million tonnes of naphtha for term deals during the period of 2009-2010, traders said.
 “They will reduce their exports because of stronger domestic requirements from their petrochemicals plant,” a trader said. Kuwait which typically exports about 7 million tonnes of naphtha via its term tenders, is expected to re-direct up to 2 million tonnes of naphtha to an aromatics plant which is expected to come online in June, traders said.
Qatar sets 2012 target
DUBAI: Qatari oil minister Abdullah Al-Attiyah said Qatar would reach its target LNG capacity of 77 million tonnes per year by 2012, a newspaper reported. Attiyah said Qatar’s gas production currently stood at 31 million tonnes a year and would increase by 46 million tonnes over the course of the next three years, Al-Watan reported. The oil minister had recently said the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter would ramp up production by 2010, while officials at state gas companies had said Qatar would not reach the 77-million tonne target until 2012.
Kuwait, Iraq deal
KUWAIT: Kuwait and Iraq have reached a preliminary agreement over oilfields in a border area at the heart of Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of the small Gulf Arab state, an Iraqi official said in remarks published.The agreement sets out the technical and legal mechanism to invest in oilfields shared by the two countries, Iraq’s foreign ministry undersecretary Mohammed Haj Humud, told Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida.
Oil price too low: UAE
LONDON: Crude oil prices at current levels around $40 a barrel are too low to attract enough investment in new supplies, the oil minister for the UAE said. Oil minister Mohammed Al-Hamli, speaking at a conference in London, also said he saw no sign yet of an upturn in the world economy. “The crude oil price is around half the level required to attract adequate investment in the industry,” he said.