Iran to Inaugurate 29 gas fields and 16 oil fields by 2016
Qana
Iranian National Oil Company is expected to inaugurate 29 gas field and 16 oil fields by the end of its fifth plan. The fields are expected to be inaugurated by 2016, five gas fields will be inaugurated by 2011. The cost of development of these five gas fields is approximately US$1.66bn with a total production capacity of 41million cubic meter.
Production for Aban oil field is expected to start in March 20th, with three other fields will follow it two years later. The total production from these fields will be around 56,000 barrel per day with total investments of $340m.
The fields are located in the central zone, and $6,13bn is to be spent developing them. The total production from the gas fields is expected to reach 1145 million cubic meter of natural and 226 thousand barrels of crude oil.
Qatar studies opportunities in China
Al Sharq
Qatar Energy Minister Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiya has said that his country is studying opportunities in the Chinese market before deciding the quantities of gas to be exported to China.
Al Attiyah explained that his country will discuss the quantities and the prices, as it is the largest producer and exporter of LNG in the world accordingly. It also studies the price movements. Al Attiyah revealed that his country owns the biggest LNG tankers in the world, a vital aspect in this domain.
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Kuwait to re-launch the fourth refinery project
Al- Watan
Kuwait is expected to re-issue tenders of the fourth refinery once the supreme petroleum counsel is formed, according to an official source from Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC).
The source reported that the first step will be submitting a bid to choose a consultancy company to evaluate the project. The source said that the whole project will be under supervision of the central watchdog committee.
The process will take one to two years to launch the bids, receive the offers and doing the necessary studies, as it will be considered as a totally new project with no relation to the old project, which was cancelled.
The project will be executed under a lump sum turkey (LST) basis and not on cost plus basis, the source adds.
Kuwait KPC sets propane and butane in September
Kuna
The September price for propane will be set at USD 565 per metric ton, while butane will be selling at USD 595 per metric ton, said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Wednesday.
In a press release announcing the new prices for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in September, KPC noted that the price of propane for this month was at USD 75 more than its August price, which was USD 490 per metric ton.
As for butane, it said it was to be sold at USD 75 more than last month’s price of USD 520 per metric ton. The price of LPG fluctuates as do the prices of oil, affected by technical, geopolitical and climatic factors.
Propane and butane are used for several purposes, chiefly cooking, heating, and petrochemical production.
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Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan lowest in 13 months
Kuna
Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan plunged 40.9% in July from a year earlier to 5.08 million barrels, or 164,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the first decline in two months.
This was the lowest volume since June 2008, when it stood at 4.83 million barrels (161,000 bpd). The figure was slightly higher than China’s July imports from Kuwait, which recorded 144,000 bpd, leaving Japan the top buyer of Kuwaiti crude.
Kuwait supplied 4.6% of the nation’s crude oil in July, compared with 6.4% in the same month of last year and 9.5% in June, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency, a unit of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said in a preliminary report.
Japan’s overall imports of crude oil in the reporting month fell 18.1% year-on-year to 109.47 million barrels (3.53 million bpd) for the 10 consecutive month of decline. Shipments from the Middle East went down 19.4% to 97.16 million barrels and accounted for 88.8% of the total, down 1.5 percentage points from a year before for the first decline in nine months.
Saudi Arabia remained Japan’s biggest oil supplier, with imports from the kingdom edging up 1.8% from a year earlier to 34.85 million barrels, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 22.89 million barrels, down 33.0%. Qatar ranked third, with shipments shrinking 18.6 % to 14.27 million barrels. Iran became fourth with 13.71 million barrels, down 13.4%.
Resource-poor Japan is the world’s third-largest oil consumer after the US and China, and it relies on crude oil imports for about 50% of its energy needs.
The nation purchases oil through long-term contracts and direct-dealing transactions between its distributors and oil-producing nations. Shipments of direct-deal, prices of which are based on the average spot price of Dubai crude, the benchmark for Asia, account for about 80% of Japan’s crude imports.
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SASREF refinery to be operational by October
Al Riyadh
Saudi Aramco Shell refinery (SASREF ) in Jeddah is expected to start up in October, the refinery will produce 100,000 barrels per day of low sulfur diesel.
Even with the credit crunch, and with the tough economy situation, the project owners received an auto finance of the project.
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