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India's PFC inks pact with Exim Bank
Published: May 16, 2008 at 12:31 PM
NEW DELHI, May 16 (UPI) -- India's Power Finance Corp. has signed an agreement with U.S. Exim Bank to receive an $800 million loan. -
India Oil to shelve refinery proposal
Published: May 16, 2008 at 12:09 PM
NEW DELHI, May 16 (UPI) -- State-run Indian Oil Corp. is contemplating shelving its 15 million-ton greenfield refinery in southern Tamil Nadu state. -
India won't cut duty on oil imports
Published: May 15, 2008 at 9:40 PM
NEW DELHI, May 15 (UPI) -- Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said there will be no reduction in the duty charged on imported oil, despite soaring energy prices.
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Fall River fights five-year battle against LNG facility
Published: May 16, 2008 at 10:18 AM
By JOHN C.K. DALY
UPI International Correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- A five-year struggle continues between Fall River, Mass., residents and Weaver's Cove Energy LLC over a proposed LNG facility. While the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project, the Coast Guard opposes it as an unacceptable safety risk. -
UPI Energy Watch
Published: May 15, 2008 at 12:19 PM
OPEC cuts estimate of growth in world oil demand for 2008; The United Arab Emirates' crude oil output increased last month; Philippine government may cut taxes on oil and gas -
Nigerian militants attack oil vessel
Published: May 15, 2008 at 11:10 AM
By CARMEN GENTILE
UPI Energy Correspondent
Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama have called for a resolution to the conflict between rebels intent on crippling Nigeria's petroleum industry and government officials. -
Mongolia, coal and inflation
Published: May 14, 2008 at 7:56 PM
By JOHN C.K. DALY
UPI International Correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) -- Rising fuel and food costs are hitting Mongolia hard, with foreign investors exploiting the situation to pressure the country to open up its economy. Given the country's political isolation, sandwiched between China and Russia, its two major trading partners, Ulaanbaatar is being held over the proverbial barrel in negotiations with its giant neighbors, leaving its population of 2.9 million nervously awaiting further aftershocks from rising inflation. -
Congress blocks administration from stockpiling oil
Published: May 14, 2008 at 7:28 PM
By ROSALIE WESTENSKOW
UPI Correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) -- Faced with growing pressure to decrease gas prices, U.S. senators voted to stop stockpiling oil in the national reserve yesterday, but they rejected a plan to increase domestic production. -
UPI Energy Watch
Published: May 14, 2008 at 3:47 PM
IEA: Developing nations cause high oil prices; New oil, gas fields will add to Indonesia supply; Australia says oil, gas tax breaks to go
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Iraq looking at virtual oil project help
Published: Nov. 29, 2007 at 5:40 PM
LONDON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- The head of Iraq's oil projects is looking to sidestep the security situation with virtual contracts.
"These companies all just think about getting a foot in Iraq," said Falah al-Khawaja, director general of the Iraq State Company for Oil Projects. "I can give them an electronic foot."
Iraq has the third-largest reserves in the world but is struggling to rehabilitate, maintain and boost production. The sector needs billions of investment dollars, and the government is looking outside the country for assistance.
On the sidelines of The CWC Group's Sustainable Economic Development & Oil conference in London, Khawaja said he is about to implement "a new way to do construction with performance guarantees, by personnel not belonging to the contractors, using electronic ways."
SCOP, an arm of the Oil Ministry, is tasked with projects to fix or enhance the oil and gas sector.
But he has had trouble signing engineering, procurement and construction contracts. While much, if not all, of the engineering and equipment aspects can be done outside of Iraq, putting the projects in motion requires people to be active on the ground in the country, which is a hard sell in today's Iraq.
Plus, Khawaja said, he was worried contractors who did sign would either balk on the construction and blame it on security, or send workers from other countries. He said he could temporarily guarantee security for one or two of the contractors, but not a whole team executing a project.
"Then I said 'this is a waste of time,'" Khawaja said. So less than a year ago "I changed the philosophy of the project."
He'll rely on work outside Iraq, as well as e-mails, phone calls and video conferencing on the engineering side, and shoulder much of the construction effort himself.
"But you cannot construct a plant in Hilla or Amara or Basra without being there," he said.
So he is footing the bill to send Iraqis to the contractor to be trained, paying their wages back in Iraq to be surrogate employees of the contractor, for a project he will oversee.
"The company doesn't pay anything. I pay everything," he said. "So I take the construction part out of the contract."
The contractor must still guarantee the equipment it supplies, and the two sides split the costs for work online.
He said he's roughly six months from beginning his first virtual construction project, on a pumping station. He wouldn't divulge details as to where the project is or with what company.
--
Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor
--
(e-mail: blando@upi.com)
"These companies all just think about getting a foot in Iraq," said Falah al-Khawaja, director general of the Iraq State Company for Oil Projects. "I can give them an electronic foot."
Iraq has the third-largest reserves in the world but is struggling to rehabilitate, maintain and boost production. The sector needs billions of investment dollars, and the government is looking outside the country for assistance.
On the sidelines of The CWC Group's Sustainable Economic Development & Oil conference in London, Khawaja said he is about to implement "a new way to do construction with performance guarantees, by personnel not belonging to the contractors, using electronic ways."
SCOP, an arm of the Oil Ministry, is tasked with projects to fix or enhance the oil and gas sector.
But he has had trouble signing engineering, procurement and construction contracts. While much, if not all, of the engineering and equipment aspects can be done outside of Iraq, putting the projects in motion requires people to be active on the ground in the country, which is a hard sell in today's Iraq.
Plus, Khawaja said, he was worried contractors who did sign would either balk on the construction and blame it on security, or send workers from other countries. He said he could temporarily guarantee security for one or two of the contractors, but not a whole team executing a project.
"Then I said 'this is a waste of time,'" Khawaja said. So less than a year ago "I changed the philosophy of the project."
He'll rely on work outside Iraq, as well as e-mails, phone calls and video conferencing on the engineering side, and shoulder much of the construction effort himself.
"But you cannot construct a plant in Hilla or Amara or Basra without being there," he said.
So he is footing the bill to send Iraqis to the contractor to be trained, paying their wages back in Iraq to be surrogate employees of the contractor, for a project he will oversee.
"The company doesn't pay anything. I pay everything," he said. "So I take the construction part out of the contract."
The contractor must still guarantee the equipment it supplies, and the two sides split the costs for work online.
He said he's roughly six months from beginning his first virtual construction project, on a pumping station. He wouldn't divulge details as to where the project is or with what company.
--
Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor
--
(e-mail: blando@upi.com)
© 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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