Indonesia to ink refinery deal with Iran
Indonesia's state-controlled Pertamina plans to sign a $2 billion agreement with Iran's National Iranian Oil Co. to construct a new 200,000 barrel per day refinery in Banten, according to a report in the Jakarta Post.
If the project goes ahead, the new plant will be the third-largest refinery in Indonesia after the 348,000 bpd Cilacap plant in central Java and the 240,920 bpd facility in Balikpapan, Kalimantan, according to the Oil and Gas Journal Worldwide Refining Survey, December 2007.
Pertamina and NIOC have been discussing the joint refinery project for some time, but there have been delays in negotiations owing to disagreement on the plant's crude supply.
Iran had originally committed to supplying up to 300,000 bpd of crude, but later revised this and said it would supply only 150,000 bpd, which cast doubts over the project's economic viability.
Gazprom to expand its Iranian portfolio
Officials from Gazprom and the Iranian government agreed to strengthen cooperation.
Gazprom Chairman Alexei Miller and Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari agreed to develop two or three blocks of the South Pars gas field.
The two sides are looking to set up a joint energy company, alongside a third partner country, though no details of which country may participate were revealed.
Miller and Nozari also discussed Gazprom Neft's participation in oil projects in Iran. Talks are expected to be finalized within the next two months.
Gazprom is already involved in the development of phases two and three of the South Pars development with a 30 percent interest; France's Total with 40 percent; and Malaysia's Petronas with 30 percent.
The partners will invest more than $2 billion in the project and expect to achieve a production plateau of 56 million cubic meters per day of gas. Over the near term, Iranian total gas production is expected to rise from 105 billion cubic meters in 2006 to 195 bcm by 2012.
Chevron to move on Angola LNG project
Following years of discussions, Chevron has taken the final investment decision on the Angola liquefied natural gas project.
The plant will be supplied with gas from associated gas fields, which will help reduce gas flaring, according to the project consortium.
Gas will be sourced from offshore Blocks 14, 15, 17 and 18. At present, the Angolan gas industry is in its infancy.
Production and consumption in 2006 are believed to have been only 2 billion cubic meters, and the forecast is for an increase to 14 bcm of annual production by 2012, which, with domestic demand running at only 7 bcm, provides 7 bcm of gas export potential.
The facility will be located close to Soyo on the Angolan coast, north of the country's capital Luanda.
The plant will have one LNG train with a capacity of 5.2 million tons per annum and will also produce propane, butane and condensate.
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