Petronas, Saudi Aramco alliance commences start-up of refinery in Johor

Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical (PRefChem), a strategic alliance between Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) and Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco), has commenced the start-up of its refinery in Pengerang, Johor through the firing up of the complex's crude distillation unit. With this, the group expects the refinery to be ready for commercial operations by the fourth quarter of 2019. 

In a statement yesterday, PRefChem said the refinery, with a capacity of 300,000 barrels of crude per day, will produce refined petroleum products including gasoline and diesel upon its completion — meeting Euro 5 fuel specifications. 

The refinery will also provide feedstock for the integrated petrochemicals complex, with a capacity to produce 3.3 million tonnes per year. 

"Today, the refinery has achieved mechanical completion and is now in full commission, marking the beginning of start-ups in subsequent facilities within this integrated development," said PRefChem chief executive officer Dr Colin Wong Hee Huing.

Petronas's Unity fields in South Sudan starts pumping more crude oil

South Sudan started pumping on Monday an additional 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from its Unity oilfields, its oil minister said.

Oil minister Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth told Reuters on Sunday the country had begun to repair wells damaged in the civil war and that wells reopening on Monday would add 12,000 bpd to output, rising to 70,000 bpd by the end of 2019.

Prior to the increase, production was at 160,000 bpd.

"Today, officially, Unity Oil production is opened," Gatkuoth said during a ceremony at the field, hailing cooperation with neighbouring Sudan which he said was "unbreakable" and would lead to the opening of new blocks.

South Sudan's oil infrastructure was badly damaged in its civil war, which broke out in 2013, two years after it had become independent from Sudan.

Production plunged to less than half of pre-war levels, but wells are being repaired with the help of the Sudanese, said Gatkuoth. Malaysia's Petronas, India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC Videsh) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) all have stakes in South Sudanese fields.

"We promise that this is going to be on stream and we can expect the production to increase," Sudan's oil minister, Azhari Abdel Qader, said.

Cargoes have been booked until the end of March, Gatkuoth said, but now there would be additional oil for sale. South Sudan's Dar blend is currently being sold for $61 per barrel.

Sudan receives between about $9-11 per barrel of oil that landlocked South Sudan pumps through its pipeline to the port, the minister said.

Petronas perlu mendapatkan lesen, permit dan pajakan cari gali minyak dari Sarawak

KUCHING: Syarikat petroleum negara, Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) perlu mendapatkan lesen, permit, pajakan atau kebenaran sepertimana syarikat cari gali minyak lain di negeri ini bermula Julai ini.

Menteri Muda Undang-undang, Hubungan Pusat-Negeri dan Pemantauan Projek Sarawak, Sharifah Hasidah Sayed Aman Ghazali berkata, peruntukan tersebut termaktub dalam Ordinan Perlombongan Minyak Sarawak 1954 dan Petronas tidak terkecuali.

"Malah Ketua Menteri, Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg menyatakan perkara ini dengan jelas sewaktu pelancaran Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros) serta beberapa majlis tertutup lain.

"Justeru tidak timbul soal 'pertindihan kuasa perundangan' di antara ordinan negeri dan akta persekutuan berkait isu pemilikan sumber asli minyak dan gas di Sarawak," katanya ketika dihubungi sarawakvoice.com hari ini .

Menurutnya, tafsiran sesetengah pihak bahawa Ordinan Pelombongan Minyak 1958 mengatasi Akta Pembangunan Petroleum 1974 sebenarnya 'tidak lagi timbul'.

"Segala-galanya telah jelas, dan seperti kata Ketua Menteri, pengembalian hak ini sudah dipersetujui oleh Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak secara terbuka.

Katanya, lesen, permit, pajakan dan kebenaran yang dikehendaki oleh Ordinan Perlombongan Minyak 1958 atau Ordinan Pengedaran Gas 2016 adalah berkaitan kawalan peraturan dalam soal carian, edaran dan sebagainya minyak dan gas di Sarawak.

"Justeru ia membawa maksud kita telah 'memiliknegerikan' kembali hak kita yang selama ini terselindung.

Hasidah berkata, Sarawak akan meneruskan usaha rundingan 'Penurunan Kuasa' dengan Kerajaan Pusat memandangkan masih banyak isu yang belum diselesaikan.

"Tidak semua perkara dapat kita capai sekali gus dalam masa yang sesingkat ini.

"Tetapi kita berada pada landasan yang betul dan rundingan akan berlaku secara berperingkat.

"Yang penting kita mahu kejayaan yang besar dan mendatangkan impak," katanya lagi. –Sarawakvoice

At least 73 people killed, dozens injured in Mexico gasoline pipeline explosion

At least 73 people were killed in central Mexico after a ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded Friday evening, the governor of the State of Hidalgo, Omar Fayad, said Saturday in a news conference in Mexico City.

At least 74 people were injured, with seven of those under the age of 18 and one was 12 years old, Fayad said. He said some of the minors will be transferred to Shriners Hospital for Children in Galveston, Texas.

He noted a large number of people were around the pipeline, some of whom were wearing clothes made with synthetic fibers that could "generate electric reactions."

He said no arrests have been made and that witnesses will be interviewed Sunday.

The fire resulting from the pipeline explosion has been extinguished, Mexican Secretary of Public Security Alfonso Durazo said on Twitter, and rescue teams have begun to recover bodies.

Residents in the immediate vicinity of the pipeline, which runs from the cities of Tuxpan to Tula, have been evacuated, State oil company Pemex said.

Pemex said an investigation into the cause of the blast was underway. The company initially had said the explosion was caused by illegal taps in the pipeline. The governor of the State of Hidalgo, Omar Fayad, called on the community not to steal gasoline.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who visited Tlahuelilpan and met with officials at a command center, said pipelines will be monitored to avoid fuel theft.

Bintulu Port cancels Muhibbah's contract

Muhibbah Engineering (M) Bhd said it has lost the contract to build a supply base whaft at the Bintulu Port in Sarawak.

"The company wishes to announce that Muhibbah Viccana JV has on Jan 17 received a notice from Bintulu Port Authority to terminate the contract," it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia on Thursday.

Muhibbah, which owns a 51% stake in the joint venture company, won the RM584.84mil contract on April 28, 2017. The project was supposed to be completed by the end of this year.

The company said it is in negotiation and discussion with Bintulu Port Authority over the notice of termination. It expects "a fair compensation" with respect to the termination of the contract.

Barakah unit secures five-year service contract from Petrofac

Barakah Offshore Petroleum Bhd's unit has won a five-year contract to service Petrofac (Malaysia-PM304) Ltd's oil and gas fields offshore peninsular Malaysia.

In an exchange filing today, the group said the contract, awarded to its wholly-owned subsidiary PBJV Group Sdn Bhd for the years 2018 to 2023, includes Pan Malaysian maintenance, construction and modification works for structures and facilities for the client's oil and gas fields.

The contract's total value is not fixed and will depend on the actual scope based on work orders to be issued by the client from time to time throughout the contract duration, which is effective for five years from July 17, 2018.

Barakah expects the contract to contribute positively to its earnings and net assets during the period.

Yesterday, the debt-laden company announced it was still negotiating an amicable debt settlement proposal with its lenders and creditors.

That statement came after Kuala Lumpur High Court's order to restraint any proceedings and actions by the lenders against Barakah and PBJV expired on Monday. 

The restraining order was obtained on Oct 12 last year.

Shares in the Main Market-listed group slid half a sen lower to close at 5.5 sen today, giving the oil and gas service provider a market capitalisation of RM45.97 million.

Sarawak trains villagers near gas-pipe route for emergencies

MIRI: The villagers living along the Sarawak-Sabah interstate gas-pipe route in Lawas district of northern Sarawak are being trained to deal with any possible fire-explosion incidents.

Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department and Petronas are initiating an action-plan for the villagers whose settlements are located along the huge pipeline.

The Fire and Rescue Department, in its latest updates, said it had deployed personnel to meet the villagers.

"Together with Petronas, we have drawn up an action plan on safety aspects for villagers living along the gas pipe route.

On Jan 10 last year, there was an eruption along the section of the giant pipeline near the Long Luping settlement, located adjacent of the Sarawak-Sabah border.

That was the second time in four years that the pipeline had erupted.

Petronas carried out a thorough check of the pipes after the incident.

Apart from Long Luping, there are populated settlements of Long Semadoh and Long Sukang, and then the Lawas hinterland where the pipes connect to the Baram side and towards Miri and Bintulu.

The pipeline is to channel gas from Kimanis in interior Sabah to Bintulu port in northern Sarawak for processing and export.

The pipeline was a RM4bil project by Petronas that started about 10 years ago.

The entire length of the pipeline, snaking through the rural frontiers, is 600km.

TheStar

Pipe layer abandoned after collision with tanker off Singapore

Chemical tanker ANTEA, which left Singapore early in the morning Jan 13, en route to Ambon Indonesia, collided with pipe layer STAR CENTURION in vicinity 01 24N 104 35E, some 10 nm north of Berakit, Bintan island, eastern Singapore Strait waters, reportedly at night Jan 13.

22 personnel on board of pipe layer abandoned the on a lifeboat and were rescied, no injures reported.

Abandoned STAR CENTURION remained submerged, understood still afloat, near collision site. No information yet on tanker's damages, and tanker's position as of morning Jan 14.

Update: Pipe layer portside hull was preached with following massive water ingress, the ship is half-submerged but still afloat.

Update: Pipe layer reportedly sank after capsizing, but some information hints at STA CENTURION being still afloat, though nearly fully submerged. ANTEA suffered damaged bow and forecastle. Obviously, tanker struck pipe laying ship portside.

IMRRA, FleetMon's official Vessel Risk Rating Partner, risk assessed this tanker as having a 'amber' risk rating, with a specific risk rating of 37% (22-JAN-18), compared to the fleet average 35%.

Petronas-Saudi RAPID refinery begins trials on crude oil unit: sources

Malaysian state oil company Petronas started trial runs at the crude distillation unit (CDU) for a joint-venture refinery with Saudi Aramco in Malaysia, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

The move marks a major milestone for the $2.7 billion project known as RAPID - or Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development - located in Pengerang in Johor, at the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia. The test runs put the project on track for commercial operation in 2019.

The company also received its second cargo of 2 million barrels of Saudi crude last week, according to the sources and data on Refinitiv Eikon.

Petronas could not be immediately reached for comment.

RAPID consists of a 300,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery and secondary refining units that will allow the companies to produce refined oil products that meet Euro 5 fuel specifications. The refinery is linked to a petrochemical complex with a capacity of 7.7 million tonnes a year.

The first crude oil cargo for RAPID was offloaded at Pengerang in September.

The refinery is one of four new complexes in Asia that represent a combined processing capacity of nearly 1.3 million bpd scheduled to start up from late 2018 to 2019.

Another of the four complexes, a 400,000-bpd refinery, owned by Hengli Petrochemical in Dalian in northeast China, started trial runs in December.

These plants will increase Asia's crude demand while adding to fuel output in the region.

Pertamina tanker slams into side of pipelay vessel anchored off Bintan

Hong Kong flagged 2002-built product tanker Antea has t-boned 2012-built pipelay vessel Star Centurion east of the Singapore Strait entrance around 10NM north of Bintan Island yesterday morning.

The pipelay vessel had a hole punctured in its side from the accident, causing it to severely list.

Worth a little under $100m, the Star Centurion has been anchored in the position of the accident since January 7 according to Marinetraffic AIS data. The outer port limits of Singapore are a popular destinations for ships to anchor in order to save on port dues.

Formerly named Lewek Centurion, Star Centurion was previously owned by Singapore's Ezra Holdings although Splash understands DBS Bank repossessed the vessel some time back and it is being managed for the bank by Vallianz Offshore Marine.

The tanker, owned by Indonesia's Pertamina and managed by Bernhard Schulte Ship management according to Equasis, was leaving Singapore headed for Ambon, Indonesia when the accident occurred.

Bernhard Schulte Ship management said in a statement sent to Splash it has launched a full emergency response in the wake of the accident. The crew of both vessels have been accounted for and there are no injuries to any seafarers. No pollution has been reported, the ship manager said.

Source : Pertamina tanker slams into side of pipelay vessel anchored off Bintan -

Pertamina tanker slams into side of pipelay vessel anchored off Bintan - Hong Kong flagged 2002-built product tanker has t-boned 2012-built pipelay vessel Star Centurion east of the Sin...