ExxonMobil Enters Oil Recovery Enhancement Project with Petronas Malaysia

ExxonMobil has reportedly entering a joint venture project with Petronas Malaysia for a recovery of an oil field, Tapis expected to begin in 2013.

The project which is estimated at $1 billion is considered by many timely in concordance with Petronas's recent announcement of re-shifting its focus backs towards domestic exploration and production and away from its wide-reaching international portfolio. It will look at reviving the 1980s Tapis which is regarded as one of the best API grades in the world and was used extensively in the Asia-Pacific benchmark.

Malaysia’s Proton Lubricant Business Reaching 2 Million Litres Mark

Malaysia's PETRONAS and Proton Holdings Bhd, the national car company are in collaborations to grow its lubricant business.

It is expected that the collaboration will amount up to two million litres in the next two to three years.

The two companies under the agreement gives Petronas the exclusive rights as Proton partner for all its domestic and global original equipment manufacturered (OEM) lubricants and functional fluids. Petronas in turn will support Proton to produce lubricants that cater specifically to its specific requirements.

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 Whilst many of today's car are designed to run by RON95; some of outdated models are incompatible.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.

Malaysian Having Closer Tie with Iran on Oil Exploration

Malaysian under one of the country's state Chief Minister of Kedah had a discussion with Iran for investment in oil exploration and exploitation in Iran. Iran Ambassador to Malaysia Mehdi Khandaqabadi assuring Iran's great potentials through economic and cultural cooperation with Iran and Malaysia would transpire into benefits for both countries.

Also on discussion was to declare the two islands of Malaysian Langkawi and Iranian Kish as sister cities, promoting better ties and perhaps investment opportunities through government support.

Petronas to Produce 5 Billion cm of Gas in Turkmenistan

The Turkmenistan government had announced that Malaysian state oil firm Petronas could produce up to 5 billion cubic metres of gas annually in the Turkmen portion of the Caspian Sea with opportunity to double up the capacity in the near future.

Petronas had invested about $2 billion in the Caspian shelf project since 1996 and is likely to be the sourced for the planned Nabucco project. The Nabucco project will be responsible to ship gas volumes of Central Asian gas to Europe.

Caltex to Expand Distributorship through Chevron

Chevron Corp under its Malaysian wing, Chevron Malaysia Ltd is planning to expand the petrol distributorship in the Malaysia through its Caltex brand. The expansion of Chevron's local network of Caltex service stations and the availability of its highly quality Techron products will include a target of 30 additional stations next year.

Chevron currently operates and manages some 420 service stations in the Peninsular of Malaysia which at this time offering dedicated service stations, asphalt and lubricants.

Malaysian Researchers Looking at New Biofuel Technology

Malaysia University of Science and Technology (MUST) is developing new ways of using oil palm-related products to produce renewable fuels, in what is seen as a response to European Union concerns in food and environment-related carbon balance. 

The MUST university is collaborating with a German research organization, Fraunhofer to work on directly processing oil palm biomass into biodiesel, instead of bidiesel being produced from crude palm oil. However, the MUST-Fraunhofer research is focusing on making the fuel from non-CPO biomass. This is to alleviate the mass requirement for oil palm plantations where only 10% of the biomass comprises CPO (Crude Palm Oil) and the rest includes fibers, empty fruit bunches, shells, fronds and tree trunks. 

Much of the reasearch will be to turn non-CPO biomass into gas and liquefied gas for usage as gasoline and biodiesel which will see bigger commerical gassification plant in Malaysia from palm oil. MUST is in the hope that the technology to be developed for commercial use in 2-3 years.

Malaysian Biodiesel Sold Out

Mission New-Energy, an Australian firm  which has a stake of 100 kmta of biodiesel plant at Malaysian port of Kuantan told the press that all of the potential production is already sold out in 2009. Mission is now on its way for a second palnt which will be able to produce an extra of 250 kmta of biodiesel.

The second plant project has been delayed in construction for many months due to technology switching. Despite the global economic turmoil, Mission Energy has able to sell all of 2009 contractual production to a major global oil and biofuels player for a cost-plus-margin basis protecting it from the volatility in commodities markets.

The recent huge price drop in biodiesel last year had pushed many biodiesel producers to the brink of collapse.

Despite Economic Turmoil, Shell is Expanding in Asia

Recently Shell Malaysia has announced that it will be expanding its retail business to include additional 40 petrol pump stations in the year of 2009 despite the recent global turmoil. Some anylysts are confident that this is showing the good fundamentals for Malaysian economy. 

Asia has been hit by the economic slowdown with major share market in the region has been nosediving. However, most are confident that the turmoil are largely affecting the western economy and countries with good fundamentals will see a shake to its economy but nothing major that will cut demand growth significantly.

World's Biggest Carrier Dropped $882 Million Deal

The world's largest ship company and carrier of liquified natural gas, MISC Bhd has reportedly dropped a $882 million dollar acquisition deal for oil service firm Ramunia Holdings Bhd due to due diligence incompleteness. MISC is a unit of state oil company Petronas.

Malaysia to Build Petrochemical Plants in Sabah

Malaysia is expected to build a petrochemical plant in Sabah, despite global economic downturn after heavy pressure from the local political scene. The Malaysian government has instructed the complex after Petronas, its national oil company to construct the RM3billion gas pipeline from Sabah to Sarawak.

Early indication is expecting a full-fledged petrochemical industry setup.

Malaysian Offshore in Drastic Development

After the announcement of new offshore oil and gas development by PETRONAS Carigali, the exploration and production arm of Malaysian group Petronas, the offshore development in Malaysia has seen a new height.

The programme is worth MR2.8bn ($773m) of contracts to local suppliers for several drilling and production platforms for development of fields off the northern coast of Borneo and east of Peninsula Malaysia increasing production levels and deliver more supplies to a liquefied natural gas plant early next decade. The expected construction will be at least three years and involve the transportation of several jackets and topside modules from yards to field locations. It will involve a host of offshore vessels as the platforms are deployed and pipelines installed.

Petronas is developing fields offshore Sarawak, Sabah and off the state of Terengganu with new platforms and pipelines which when completed twill boost Malaysia's gas production by 950m cu ft per day. The multi-billion contract will see major development and increase in human capital and infrastructure in the local area.

Malaysia to Raise Biodiesel Export

One of the largest biodiesel producer from palm oil, Malaysia has raised its 2008 biodiesel export forecast to 200,000 tonnes a twofold increment from its previous year.

High spread between the selling price of palm methyl ester and the feedstock crude palm oil (CPO) is seen as the main reason behind the huge jump. Malaysia currently has 1.6 million tonnes capability to produce CPO per year mainly for production of methyl ester. Malaysian's biodiesel export mostly goes to the European countries.

Aker in Agreement with Shell for Supply Arrangement

Sarawak Shell Berhad (SSB) has awarded five year supply arrangement with Aker Solutions for subsea production systems equipment and services. The agreement covers five-year supply including design, manufacturing, testing, installation, commissioning, technical support and maintenance of wellheads, subsea trees, subsea control systems, flow bases and tie-in equipment. This is the first such agreement between Aker and Shell in Malaysia.

PETRONAS EBITDA Increased 24%

PETRONAS, a Malaysian state-owned oil and gas major has posted a 24% year-on-year rise in its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) coming from sustained growth in demand for oil on the back of strong global economic expansion particularly in China and India. Revenue was up 21.2% to M$223.1 with PETRONAS profit after tax rose 31%. However, PETRONAS suffers drop in revenue for its petrochemical business segment nearly 7% due to decrease in production volumes from 9.8m tonnes to 9.3m tonnes.

DOW Chemicals Growing Business in Asia

Dow Chemicals is reportedly making major investments will be made by Dow Chemicals' performance fluids business in the Asia Pacific region. New R&D chemical plants are planned for China and India in late 2008 targeting research for increasing output of new water-soluble fluids' at its Optimal JV with PETRONAS.

Malaysia to Use Nuclear Energy

Malaysia is prepared to use nuclear energy if oil price continues to soar to substitute oil as a long-term alternative to produce electricity. The government official told the press that Malaysia would first look for other alternative sources of power such as solar, hydro, mini-hydro, biomass and renewable energy source from garbage.

It was proposed that turning to nuclear energy in the future may be the answer as it is cheap and safe. However, the infrastructure to generate electricity for the future will take around 15 years.

Malaysian Terengganu Oil Wells to be Reopen by ExxonMobil

Exxon Mobil will reopen abandoned oil wells in Terengganu waters to take advantage of the escalating crude oil price in the world market for investment value of US$2.3 billion under production sharing contract with Petronas renewal.

Reopen of the old oil wells will explore deeper in search for oil at a much higher investment cost which only become feasible at current oil price.

Malaysia New Oil Field to Increase Production

Malaysia's newly found oil field, Kikeh field will increase production output to 120,000 b/d by end of 2008 as compared to only 60000 barrel per day in 2007.

Malaysia's Kikeh field is operated by US' Murphy Oil, will be more than happy to pump out oil especially since oil price now fetching USD140. Kikeh's oil is light sweet grade, with an API of 34.91 and sulfur content of 0.105%, is of very good quality and traded mostly in the Asian market.

The stake is Malaysia Kikeh is held by operator Murphy Oil with 80% interest in Kikeh while Petronas Carigali holds the remaining 20%.

Malaysian' Petronas Maintains Gas Price

Petronas chairman Tan Sri Hassan Marican, has given affirmation that the nation's natural gas price sold as NGV or compressed natural gas in the country will remain the same for the motorists. This come soon after public rage of Malaysian Government that increased the price of oil by reducing subsidy given to the nation.

Petronas is also caught saying that there will be additional 200 stations by 2010. Currently, for every litre sold at 68 sen, the national oil company forks out RM2. Petronas told the press that the biggest challenge is due to high electricity bill for the petrol stations and transport of compressed natural gas outside pipeline area.