A Barrel Full

I don’t look at petrochemicals very much, but this week’s combination was too interesting to miss.
Shell has completed its largest petrochemicals project.
Shell today announced the successful completion of the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex (SEPC) project in Singapore. SEPC is Shell’s largest petrochemicals investment to date and the second world-scale petrochemicals project the company has completed […]

In the last few days there have been a number of significant news items concerning refinery projects in India. First up is HPCL
State-controlled Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) announced the halt of its plans to build a 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) project in the southern city of Visakhapatnam due to a lack of investment. […]

It seems the only news worth talking about these days is gaseous, and top of the heap is always the unconventional gas. So news of a couple of potentially important deals in coal seam gas is about par for the course.
First we have Shell’s interest in the Australian company Arrow.
Shell Energy Holdings Australia Ltd. (Shell), […]

Woodside, the Australian company, is now on the look out for a new partner for an LNG project.
A deal worth up to $45 billion between Woodside Petroleum and a Chinese company is in doubt after terms were not be settled by a deadline.
Perth-based Woodside says the agreement penned in 2007 with China’s largest oil and […]

It is unusual to have such big news releases at this time of year, but this one is undoubtedly a big one.
Firms from China, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have won $9.7 billion worth of contracts to develop Turkmenistan’s largest natural gas deposit, government sources in the Central Asian state said on Tuesday.
The […]

Exxon have announced another major LNG Deal.  
Esso Highlands Limited, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) and operator of the PNG LNG Project, today announced that the Project participants have finalized a Sale and Purchase Agreement with Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. for the long-term sale and purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) totaling approximately 1.5 million […]

Japanese Refiner Cosmo Oil, is the latest company to consider mothballing a refinery.
The Tokyo-based company may close the plant within three to five years, Chairman Keiichiro Okabe said in an interview yesterday, without saying which refinery is being considered..
Like compatriots Nippon Oil, they are victims of the over capacity in Japan.
Japan’s surplus capacity has grown […]

One of the biggest question marks over capacity increases in global refining is what will happen to Iran’s various projects. They have 7 projects in all and desperately need more refined products. What they don’t have is money, which is why this news could be very important.
China’s Sinopec  has signed a tentative deal to provide […]

It was a simple tale of unwanted assets, and a willing buyer. Yet the Shell-Essar deal has turned into something more.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc is in talks to acquire a 10 percent stake in India’s Essar Oil Ltd. Shell will buy the stake, valued at about $364 million, as part payment for selling three of […]

It is a major step forward for foriegn involvlement in China’s refining sector.
ExxonMobil and its partners, Sinopec, Fujian Province and Saudi Aramco, today celebrated the full operation of China’s first integrated refining and petrochemical facility with foreign participation.  
The project was a major expansion and upgrade of an existing facility.
More than $4.5 billion was invested […]