Kuwait and China cooperation

    • Kuwait and China cooperation

      The below news is from Arab Taime from page : <link removed>

      GUANGZHOU, China, May 1, (KUNA): Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah left the Southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Friday to return home after concluding his two-nation Asian tour that also took him to Japan. Seeing Sheikh Ahmad off at the airport were Kuwaiti Consul General in Guangzhou Nameer Al-Quraini and representatives from Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI).
      In Beijing, Sheikh Ahmad held a series of talks with Chinese officials, including Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zhang Ping and heads of state-run oil companies, in which they pledged further cooperation in the energy sector and an ongoing Sino-Kuwaiti refinery and petrochemical project in Guangdong Province.

      The delegation accompanying the Kuwaiti minister to the meetings included KPC Managing Director for International Marketing Abdullatif Al-Houti, KPI President Hussain Esmaiel, KPC General Counsel Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah, Deputy Managing Director Suhail Al-Mutairi, KPI Business Development Director Meshari Al-Mahmoud and China Representative Office Manager Mohamed AL-Qallaf. Kuwaiti Ambassador to China Faisal Rashed Al-Ghais also attended the talks.
      While in this coastal city, the Kuwaiti minister met Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang, top leader of the province with a population of over 100 million, and Guangzhou Mayor Zhang Guangning. The mayor also took the Kuwaiti minister on a boat trip to see the recent developments and improvements of the Guangzhou city, from all aspects, in its preparation to host the Asian Games in 2010.

      Refinery
      The joint oil refinery and petrochemical complex in the provincial capital was expected to shore up Guangdong’s rapidly growing economy, which expanded 10.1 percent in 2008. The 300,000-bpd refinery and petrochemical complex were originally planned to be built in Nansha area in Guangzhou suburb. However, the Chinese authorities are considering relocating the plant amid growing concern over the environment impact on the densely populated area. The refinery will be adopting state-of-the-art environmental technologies that will meet one of the world’s highest Health, Safety Environment Standards, the minister told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
      KPI, which oversees KPC’s international downstream marketing operations, has been in talks with China’s biggest oil refiner Sinopec Corp. for the refinery since the two countries signed MoU in 2005 on the joint project. Estimated at $9 billion, the project would be the largest Sino-foreign joint venture in China if it goes onstream in 2013.
      On the first leg of his tour to the world’s second- and third-largest energy consuming nations, Sheikh Ahmad attended the Third Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable Meeting in Tokyo on April 26. At the conference, the minister explained Kuwait’s oil investment and expansion strategy aimed at reaching its production target at 4 million bpd by 2020.
      In his remarks to KUNA, the minister affirmed that the OPEC’s fourth-largest producer is positive about its 5-year strategic plan for new investment in the oil sector, despite the country would face a budget deficit of KWD 4.8 billion (USD 16.5 billion) in the current fiscal year through March 2010. However, Sheikh Ahmad didn’t rule out the possibility of a change in the future.

      Upstream
      Separately, KPC told KUNA that it intends to spend about KWD 24 billion ($80 billion) on expanding its hydrocarbon production and refining capacity as well as market operations. The Middle Eastern oil producer said the planned upstream projects are expected to focus on boosting domestic production, while about half of its total downstream investment budget will be allocated for refining and petrochemical projects overseas.
      As for the stalled $14 billion project to build a giant refinery in al-Zour on the Kuwaiti-Saudi border, the oil minister said, “There is no substantial progress on the venture,” without elaborating. Kuwait’s fourth refinery was expected to go operational in May 2012 at an initial refining capacity of 615,000 bpd. But in March, letters of intent awarded to its contractors were cancelled in line with the Cabinet decision.
      In a related development of the Kuwait-Japanese oil refining project in Vietnam, Sheikh Ahmad revealed that Kuwait eyes entry to Vietnam’s fuel distribution market with its three partners for the planned 200,000-bpd refinery, given that most of its output will be consumed in the energy-hungry country. The new downstream business might be launched even before completion of construction of the USD 6 billion refinery in 2013, he added.
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    • India may purchase Russian oil fields and companies: Deora

      This is interesting too :

      New Delhi: Indian state-owned energy giant, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, is considering purchase of Russian oil fields and companies, according to minister for petroleum and natural gas, Murli Deora.

      According to Indian oil industry sources, the ONGC could buy either existing oil companies or new oil fields in Russia and new prospects could be in the Tomsk Region as well as in Russia's north.

      In September, Deora visited Tomsk, where he held talks with governor Viktor Kress on participation of Indian oil companies in upcoming oil and gas projects in Russia.

      "The governor invited us to take part in the development of new [oil] fields, and we will consider his offer," he said.


      ONGC is the owner, via subsidiary ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), of British oil company Imperial Energy, which holds production licenses for fields in west Siberia's Tomsk Region.
      The Tomsk Region is rich in natural resources, particularly oil, natural gas, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, peat, and underground waters. Oil extraction and lumbering are the major business of the region's joint ventures.
      Deora also said that India was interested in taking part in the Sakhalin-3 project, an oil and gas project in the Pacific. The ONGC is a 20 per cent stakeholder in Sakhalin-I.
      India has invested $2.77 billion in Sakhalin-I, which is its single largest investment abroad. The project produces 23,000 barrels of oil and 58 million cubic feet of gas a day. The total recoverable reserves from the Sakhalin-1 field alone are estimated at 2.3 billion barrels of oil (307 million tonnes) and 17.1 trillion cubic feet of gas (485 billion cubic metres). At full capacity, India will get about 2.5 million tonnes of oil every year from the project.
      Deora also let it be known that India would discuss energy cooperation at a meeting of the heads of major Russian and Indian enterprises, scheduled to take place ahead of a Russia-India summit in December.
      India is the third-largest consumer of oil in Asia.
      This is an extract from <link removed>
    • Kuwait's crude oil exports to China plunged 49.2 percent in October

      Kuwait's crude oil exports to China plunged 49.2 percent in October from a year earlier to 311,000 tons, equivalent to around 73,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the third consecutive month of fall, latest official data by the Chinese government shows. Kuwait provided 1.6 percent of China's total crude oil imports, compared with 2.7 percent in September, according to the General Administration of Customs.

      Kuwait's exports in the first 10 months of 2009 totaled 5.95 million tons (144,000 bpd). China's overall imports of crude oil in October rose 19.7 percent year-on-year to 19.34 million tons (4.58 million bpd). China is the world's second-largest oil consumer after the US.

      Angola came back as China's top supplier with its shipments increasing 53.0 percent from a year earlier to 3.83 million tons (905,000 bpd), followed by Saudi Arabia with 3.82 million tons (903,000 bpd), up down 1.1 percent. Iran became third, with imports from the country shrinking 6.4 percent to 1.65 million tons (389,000 bpd).

      The planned 300,000 bpd refinery in the southwestern Guangdong Province, which is jointly owned by Kuwait and China, will be put into commercial operations as early as 2013. The project is expected to serve as a driving force for Kuwait towards achieving its China-bound crude oil export target of 500,000 bpd by 2015, state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has said.

      This is an extract from menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093285067
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