Mergers & Acquisition: $11 Billion Deal between Schlumberger and Smith International

As expected by analysts what would be a continual strong year for mergers and acquisition activities in 2010 is beginning to unveil when a $11 Billion deal between Texas-based oilfield tech services giant Schlumberger Ltd and Smith International Inc.

The merged between the two companies is aimed for access of technical leap to develop unconventional gas plays focusing on shale gas is going to be produced. In financial terms, the merging will gives technical advantage in drilling and bring down the cost per horizontal well.

Oil Companies Venturing to Solar, Led by Chevron

With the expected upcoming government policy changes to force oil companies to curb greenhouse gas emissions, big oil companies are looking at emerging renewable technologies. Chevron’s latest one-megawatt concentrating solar photovoltaic project in New Mexico, is a testimony of the situation.

Chevron will be utilizing technology from Concentrix Solar, whose CPV solar system will be used in the facility at Chevron Mining’s molybdenum mine in Questa, New Mexico expected to begin construction in spring 2010

Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) for 2010 Outlook - Oil & Gas

It is a sign of recovery for the oil and gas outlook where merger’s & acquisition (M&A) value in Upstream oil and gas industry is estimated at $46 billion for the year of 2010. In 2009, this value was catapulted to $153 billion.

In 2009, most of the buyers for the M&A came from National Oil Companies representing 50% of all deals greater than $1 billion in 2009 and similar trend is forecasted for 2010. International oil companies like ExxonMobil however, took the unconventional route with assets acquisition of $41 billion purchase of U.S. independent XTO Energy. China lead the M&A game in 2009 with similar prospect expected for 2010.

It is expected for 2010 that M&A activities will revolve around risk management for current portfolio balancing; venturing into new projects with shared risks and for better management of current resources.

New Technologies Create Oil Industry Boom in North Dakota

Recent technology advancement in drilling techniques has enable bigger oil wells to be developed with faster drilling and lower costs. Such things have turned North Dakota massive oil reserve to be economically able to be tapped.

The two miles underground Bakken Shale deposit has been known and tapped on occasion for decades. This year however is entirely new since technological improvements made it extremely economically and quickly becoming United State's fastest-growing oil-producing areas.

In 2009 alone the oil production has jumped to 80 million barrels, a figure that will be fast growing in 2010 especially since the Bakken Shale could contain up to 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

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.

Burma Military Jinta Privatising Oil and Gas

Burma’s military government, widely known as Junta is planning to privatize Burma's 50 million oil reserve industry.

This following rumours that a meeting between petrol and diesel business and the government was held in Naypyitaw.

The Junta government had earlier reduced its subsidy for petrol in the country.

Sibur Holdings to Build Worldscale Polypropylene Plant

Russian's petrochemical group of companies, Sibur Holding is planning for a worldscale polypropylene plant which will also become the biggest polypropylene complex in Russia.

The plant will utilize German's technology company, Linde for building the PP plant. The polypropylene plant will have a nameplate capacity of 500,000 tpa capacity.

The PP chemical plant will be located in Tobolsk in the Tyumen region, Russia.