US sanctions will be necessary to stop construction of the proposed Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, speakers indicated at a Mar. 12 Jamestown Foundation (JF) event. “The project is divisive and essentially anti-European. US involvement will be crucial in strengthening European opposition to it,” said Piotr Wilczek, Poland’s ambassador to the US. Source: […]
Hungary’s MOL lets contract for Duna refinery
Hungary’s MOL Group has let a contract to Frames Group BV, Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, to provide desalting equipment for subsidiary MOL PLC’s 166,500-b/d Duna refinery in Szazhalombatta, near Budapest. Source: News
MARKET WATCH: Crude oil benchmarks close mixed
Light, sweet crude oil for April settled at $58.61/bbl on Mar. 14, marking the highest level so far this year, while Brent crude oil declined slightly in London to settle at $67.23/bbl, marking its second-highest level of the year. The US crude contract for April marked the front month’s highest closing level since Nov. 12, […]
Chevron Australia lets contract for Jansz-Io compression project
Chevron Australia has let a master contract to Aker Solutions for a subsea compression system for the company’s Jansz-Io field offshore Western Australia. The first stage of the contract is the front-end engineering and design of a subsea compression station that will boost gas recovery at the field, which is part of the overall Gorgon […]
Venture Global to expand LNG business to 60 million tpy
Venture Global LNG Inc., Arlington, Va., will expand the scope of its LNG development business to 60 million tonnes/year based on customer demand, expanding its 2016 process equipment supply agreement with Baker Hughes. Source: News
PetroChina commissions unit at Jilin refinery
PetroChina Co.—the publicly listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.—has started up an alkylation unit at its 200,800-b/d refinery in Jilin City, Jilin Province, China. The 9,000-b/d unit reached commercial startup and production just 17 months following initial design, McDermott International Inc. (formerly CB&I) said. Source: News
Chinese firm lets contract for propylene plant
Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Co., a subsidiary of ShengHong Petrochemical Group Co., has let a contract to Honeywell UOP to provide process technology for a project to increase propylene production at its existing operations in Lianyungang City in China’s province of Jiangsu. Source: News
Argentina planning gas pipelines, seeking upstream investors
Argentina plans to build natural gas pipelines and hopes to attract more oil and gas investment for the Vaca Muerta shale play in the Neuquen basin, according to Argentina Energy Minister Gustavo Lopetegui. Analysts estimate Vaca Muerta needs investments of $5-10 billion/year to boost production compared with current investments of about $4.3 billion/year. Source: […]
MARKET WATCH: NYMEX crude oil price reaches 4-month high
Light, sweet crude oil prices settled above $58/bbl on Mar. 13 after the US Energy Information Administration reported crude oil supplies fell by 3.9 million bbl to 449.1 million bbl for the week ended Mar. 8. The drop was unexpected. Analysts surveyed by the Wall Street Journal in advance of the EIA weekly inventory report […]
Qatar Petroleum due interest off Morocco
Qatar Petroleum has agreed to acquire a 30% participating interest from Eni in the Tarfaya Shallow Exploration Permit along Morocco’s Atlantic coast. Source: News