Sasol - Petronas Joint Feasibility Study on Uzbekistan GTL

Sasol is in the stage of doing feasibility study with Petronas for a Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) proposition in Uzbekistan. The two giants, Sasol which is the biggest producer of motor fuels from coal and Petronas, one of the seven sisters will be doing the study overseen by a joint-venture company.

The GTL plant which will be using Sasol's technology is rumoured to produce 1.3 million tonnes of fuel components including diesel, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gass similar to Sasol's GTL plant in Qatar.

Petronas Entering Cameroon

Malaysian national oil company, Petroliam Nasional (Petronas) and Noble Energy have been granted a production sharing contract offshore Douala in Cameroon. Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), the national petroleum company of Cameroon has confirmed that the deal was to develop the Gulk of Guinea with exploration rights worth US$119 millions.

The deal is seen as an extension to Noble-Petronas current involvement in Cameroon's YoYo gas project.

The exploration right is reported to contain oil reserves of between 40 million and 70 million bbl with SNH holding 25% interest in production right. Both Petronas and Noble Energy are given a 25-year exploitation license renewable for ten additional years.

BP CNPC & Exxon Petronas Bidding for Rumaila Field

Oil giants U.K BP PLC with its pair China National Petroleum Corp. and U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp. and Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas are bidding for joint offers to develop Iraq's Rumaila oil field.

Despite Iraq's long black history with the western world, the country is holding Iraq's first bidding round in 30 years for Rumaila future development oil field. Rumania's current output capacity is 1 million barrels a day, in which the Iraqi government persuing to increase by up to 1.75 million barrels a day by getting foreign participation into the country.

Malaysia Regulates New Petrol Quality RON95

Malaysia has requested its National Oil Company, Petronas to supply the country with new petrol quality of RON95 instead of the current available petrol quality RON92 and RON97. The country's administration move will eliminate RON92 to better position with global petrol quality.

The move has been getting different response from the Malaysian people. The move will help Malaysia as a whole to save subsidy by supplying a lower quality petrol RON95 at a price expected to be as close to the current RON97. However, the government will also increase the price of RON97 which expected by analysts to be the country's premium petrol. Whilst many of today's car are designed to run by RON95; some of outdated models are incompatible.

The move is also likely to incur significant cost for PETRONAS under its marketing arm, PETRONAS Dagangan Bhd as RON95 petrol is formulated with a detergent to prevent the build-up of deposits that degrade the engine's performance. The company has said that the change involves the whole supply chain from refineries to delivery of the fuel to the consumers which comes September 9 is likely to be followed by other oil companies like Shell, BHP, Caltex and Exxon Mobil in the country as set by the Malaysian government.

China Postponing Stockpiling Oil & Energy

China has announced that it is suspending the energy and oil stockpiling program due to unavailability of new storage facilities. China has been aggressively looking at its energy security for growth and stability protection especially after the global oil price hike in 2008.

China's oil stockpiling program's first phase is looking at 100 million barrels equivalent to China's 30 days of oil import for emergency usage.

Beijing administration is interested to have oil reserve in case of a crisis scenario, in particular to situations in Middlea East & Africa where most of world oil production is located now. China's plan has been regarded by analysist as getting the help from heaven as the global financial and economic crisis has put a pressure on and subsequently much lower global oil prices enabling the cash-rich Chinese to pursue the mega-plans of oil reserve.

The last phase of the strategic plan will enable China to have 100 days of total oil import enabling independance on China's soil without any foreign interference on energy usage which is the same as U.S Strategic Petroleum Reserve.