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Oil & Gas
News
M
ay
/J
une
2007
The law also grants regional oil companies or governments the
power to sign contracts with foreign companies for exploration
and development of fields, opening the door for investment
by overseas companies in a country whose oil reserves rank
among the world’s largest. Iraqi officials say dozens of major
foreign companies, including some based in Russia, the US,
and China, have expressed strong interest in developing fields.
The national oil law would allow regions to enter into production-
sharing agreements with foreign companies.
■
To help secure its fuel supplies China plans to begin filling the
tanks at its third strategic oil reserve, in Shandong Province in
the east, by mid-year. As reported by the central media agency
Xinhua
, Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) is completing
the Huangdao base in Shandong, where capacity is expected
to reach 19 million barrels. China in 2004 began building four
oil reserves, two of them now operational in Zhejiang Province.
The others are in Liaoning Province, in the northeast (not yet
completed) and Shandong. Some US$775 million has been
invested to secure oil reserves of 10 million tons at the four
sites.
China imported 138.8 million tons of crude oil in 2006, up 16.9
per cent from 2005. Imports that year accounted for 47 per cent
of the country’s consumption. Industry observers have warned
that, within a year or two, China will likely need to import more
than 50 per cent of its petroleum needs.
■
Japan and India, the world’s fourth- and fifth-biggest energy
users, reportedly plan talks that may lead to joint investment
in oil and gas projects. The two countries face increasing
competition from China to secure future global oil supplies.
India imports about 75 per cent of its oil needs, while Japan
depends on imports for almost all its oil requirements. According
to
Bloomberg News
(March 8), the Japanese government wants
companies such as Inpex Holdings Inc, the nation’s biggest oil
explorer, to help boost production from Japan’s overseas assets
from 15 per cent to 40 per cent of imports by 2030, as per
national energy policy. Inpex needs to find new projects after
last year giving up a controlling stake in the Azadegan oil field in
Iran, that country’s largest discovery in 30 years.
■
After two rough decades for the refining industry, the market for
refineries strengthened as margins improved. But now some
major oil companies, including BP and Chevron, are shedding
refineries, an indication that they think the palmy two-year
interlude is coming to an end. Royal Dutch Shell, which had
already announced it would sell its three French refineries and
another one in the Dominican Republic, has decided to sell its
Los Angeles refinery and related assets to Tesoro Corp (San
Antonio, Texas) for $1.63 billion plus the value of oil inventory.
Tesoro, a Fortune 500 company, is an independent refiner and
marketer of petroleum products, operating six refineries in the
West of the US with a combined rated crude oil capacity of
nearly 560,000 barrels per day.
■
India Times
(March 9) reported that Reliance Industries Ltd, the
oil and petrochemicals giant, has combined its overseas oil and
gas projects into a separate wholly-owned company based in
Dubai and is considering a tie-in with ONGC Videsh Ltd, also