Petrofac workers

A major Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) contract has been awarded to Petrofac. Petrofac have their main corporate office in London but have offices around the world, they provide integrated facilities services to the oil, gas and energy production and processing industries.

The PETRONAS RAPID project will be the largest liquid-based green-field downstream undertaking in Malaysia. Ultimately expected to produce 300,000 barrels per stream day, the refinery will supply naphtha and liquid petroleum gas to RAPID petrochemical complex. From there a number of refined petroleum products, including diesel and gasoline meeting Euro 4 and Euro 5 fuel specifications will be produced.

RAPID is part of the bigger PETRONAS Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) development expected to come on-stream early 2019 comprising of RAPID and associated facilities:

The Pengerang Co-generation Plant (PCP)
Re-gasification Terminal 2 (RGT2)
Air Separation Unit (ASU)
Raw Water Supply Project (PAMER)
Crude and Product Tanks (SPV2)
Central and shared Utilities and Facilities (UF).

Managing Director of Petrofac’s Onshore Engineering & Construction business, Mr Subramanian Sarma, was happy to talk about this award saying, “This award represents another significant step in building our capability in the Asia-Pacific region. Malaysia is a core country for us, PETRONAS a key customer and we have a substantial physical presence in the country to support our ongoing projects and future aspirations.”.

Tangguh project

1st November 2012. BPMIGAS and British Petoleum have announced that Indonesia’s regulatory body for oil and gas upstream activities have approved the further development of Tangguh LNG project. This BP operated project is in The Papua Barat province of east Indonesia.

The schedule for the project is a 4th investment expansion is expected in 2014 with commissioning expected late 2018. Total investment for this section of the project is estimated to be $12 billion (£7.5 billion)

The plan for the third tranch of development of the Tangguh project was submitted In September of 2012 by BP on behalf of the project partners and jointly announced today by Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the UK prime minister, David Cameron.

With the price of oil increasing over the past year alternative oil producers are generating more profit on higher sales.

For example, First Resources, a major palm oil producer with plantations in Indonesia have posted a net profit of SGD97 million during its fourth quarter 2012, up 10.4% from the same quarter in 2010. In the filing with the Singapore Exchange First Resources reported that for the year ending December 2011, profits were up 44.7% to SGD369 million on sales of SGD621, also up 49.9% on 2010.

The long-term fundamentals of the palm oil industry remain favourable. In view of growing
demand from emerging markets and seasonal slowdown in palm oil production in 1H2012,
the Group expects palm oil prices to be well-supported in the near term despite continued
market volatility.

PETRONAS today awarded two deepwater exploration blocks offshore Sabah under separate Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) to partnerships between JX Nippon, INPEX Corporation and PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd.

The PSC for Deepwater Block R was awarded to the partnership of JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (Deepwater Sabah) Ltd (operator; 37.5%), INPEX Offshore South West Sabah Ltd (37.5%) and PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd (25%).

For Deepwater Block S, the PSC was awarded to INPEX Offshore North West Sabah Ltd (operator; 75%) and PETRONAS Carigali (25%).

The Deepwater Blocks R and S measure 672km2 and 574km2 respectively and are located in water depths ranging from 100 to 1,600 metres. These exploration blocks are near key discoveries such as the Kikeh, Kebabangan, and Gumusut-Kakap fields, to name a few.

The partners for the Deepwater Block R are committed to drill three wildcat wells and acquire 700km2 of new 3D seismic data, while for the Deepwater Block S the PSC partners will drill two wildcat wells and acquire 600km2 of new 3D seismic data. The minimum financial commitment for Deepwater Blocks R and S are US$123 million and US$72 million respectively.

The PSCs were signed today at the PETRONAS Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. PETRONAS was represented by its Vice President (Petroleum Management), Encik Ramlan Abdul Malek; JX Nippon by its President & CEO Mr. Makoto Koseki; and INPEX by its Director Mr. Seiji Yui. PETRONAS Vice President and CEO of PETRONAS Exploration Encik Effendy Cheng Abdullah represented PETRONAS Carigali.

Oil prices are now at a 9 month high. Optimism that the Greek debt crisis can be resolved, and tensions from Iran over the amount of crude it will make available are believed to be behind this latest price increase.

European oil companies are reported to have reduced their oil imports from Iran by 300,000 barrels per day, increasing interest in alternative oil producers and types.

Brent North Sea crude due for April 2012 delivery hit US$120 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude for March 2012 delivery hit US$119 per barrel.

Here at OSV we only see the price of oil going up, partly due to the increasing production costs. We will continue to support our customers by developing innovative products with a high ROI.

Ezra Group, which provides engineering services to the offshore oil industry, said that has been awarded two new projects.

The first is a new charter by a major oil company (un-named) for a vessel to be deployed in the Asia Pacific region in the second quarter of 2012.

The other contract involves mooring line installation of the West coast of Africa.

The total value of the projects is approximately $US120 million

There have been some concerning rumblings emanating from Iran over a threatened oil embargo if their nuclear policy is hindered. In the unlikely event that Iran hit the world with an oil embargo, other oil producers will increase their production to steady the world markets.

Sembcorp has signed an agreement to carry out a feasibility study into the construction of a 1,200 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Vietnam.