Keputusan permohonan beku TOL Lynas 8 Nov ini

Mahkamah Tinggi Kuantan menetapkan 8 November ini untuk keputusan permohonan pembekuan Lesen Operasi Sementara (TOL) kilang nadir bumi, Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) di Gebeng, dekat sini.

Hakim Datuk Mariana Yahya memutuskan demikian atas alasan untuk meneliti secara terperinci tiga permohonan berkenaan TOL tersebut.

Permohonan tersebut membabitkan LAMP dan Lembaga Perlesenan Tenaga Atom (AELB) serta Kementerian Sains, Teknologi dan Inovasi (MOSTI) sebagai defendan dan penduduk Kuantan sebagai plaintif.

"Setelah mendengar hujah daripada ketiga-tiga pihak, saya menetapkan 8 November ini sebagai tarikh keputusan plaintif," katanya di Kuantan hari ini.

Penduduk Kuantan, yang diwakili Datuk Bastian Pius Vendargon, memohon supaya mahkamah membekukan TOL bagi menghentikan operasi LAMP. 

Sementara itu, pihak LAMP, yang diwakili oleh Tan Sri Cecil Abraham, memohon perubahan afidavit untuk menjadi defendan ketiga.

AELB dan MOSTI yang diwakili oleh Peguam Persekutuan Kanan, Datin Azizah Nawawi memohon supaya TOL tidak dibekukan dengan alasan penduduk Kuantan bakal dikenakan tindakan saman oleh LAMP.

Dalam pada itu, kira-kira 100 penyokong penduduk Kuantan berkumpul di perkarangan Kompleks Mahkamah Kuantan seawal pukul 7.30 pagi sambil memegang sepanduk masing-masing bagi menunggu keputusan permohonan berkenaan.

-Bernama

China's Oil Reserves Estimated At Over 88 Billion Tonnes

China estimates its oil reserves reached more than 88 billion tonnes after some 12 billion tonnes of crude oil has been discovered since 2008, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources.

The latest statistic showed the country's oil reserves, including about 23 billion tonnes of mineable reserves, have increased 15 per cent since 2003, China Daily reported.

China's oil discoveries have been increasing steadily in recent years as it has been ploughing its investment in oil and gas exploration, which rose from 19 billion yuan (US$3 billion) in 2002 to 67 billion yuan in 2011.

The new oil discoveries were mainly in six basins, including the offshore Bohai Bay, the Ordos Basin in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Sichuan, and the Beibu Gulf region, it said.

China alone accounted for 71 per cent of energy consumption growth last year, according to the BP Statistics Review of World Energy 2012.

Meanwhile, its natural gas reserves has increased 49 per cent to 52 trillion cubic metres compared with 2003, including 32 trillion cubic metres of mineable resources.

-- BERNAMA

Today's jobs update[10-Oct-12]

Group: Opportunities @ Oilfield-Workforce
Subject: Announcement from Opportunities @ Oilfield-Workforce

HOT JOBS: 
We are currently seeking INDONESIAN & MALAYSIAN personnel for the following positions for our Fabrication Yard/Offshore project for our MNC Client. Related experience required and preferred. 

- Site QA/QC Managers
- Site QC Welding Inspectors
- Site QC Coating Inspectors
- Site Planners/Planning Engineers
- Site HSE Advisors
- Site Administrators/Document Controllers
- Site Material Controllers

Interested applicants, please email your updated CV/resume in WORD Format to recruitment03@oilfield-workforce.com or call +65 90711116/+65 63910924 for inquiries and look for Francis Angeles, Recruitment Consultant

Only candidates with related experience will only be considered. 

Pirates attack German-owned ship off Togo: IMB

Pirates released a German-owned tanker off Togo on Friday, a day after capturing it, the International Maritime Bureau said as it warned of a rising number of attacks in the Gulf of Guinea.

Twelve pirates armed with guns boarded the Liberian-flagged tanker Thursday off Togo's capital of Lome on Africa's west coast, said Noel Choong, head of the IMB's piracy reporting centre.

Keeping the crew under gun threat, they transferred the tanker's gas oil to their bunker barge and ransacked the ship. They later locked the crew in the master's cabin and stole their personal belongings before abandoning the ship.

There were no casualties among the 14 crew members, but a few of them had "light injuries", Choong said.

The number of attacks in the Gulf off Guinea now stands at 43 attacks this year and have been on the rise recently, Choong said.

Those include several hijackings, kidnappings and killings. Pirates usually target fuel cargo, loading it onto other ships to sell on the lucrative black market.

The Malaysia-based centre has repeatedly warned ships plying the area to be vigilant and called on authorities to step up patrols, last year saying the region was emerging as a new piracy "hot spot".

Piracy has long been a problem off Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer and most populous nation, but it has now spread to neighbouring nations.

Majority of Malaysians unhappy in workplace

More than three quarters of Malaysians are unhappy with their current jobs, a survey from Southeast Asia's largest online employment company show.

JobStreet.com, which also has the largest online database of fresh graduate resumes in Malaysia, said that its survey showed that the majority of Malaysians are a unhappy lot at work, due to the scope of the work.

According to the survey titled 'Employee Job Satisfaction in Malaysia', some 78 per cent of the respondents, were unhappy at the workplace.

Suprisingly, the survey showed only 17 per cent of the 1,145 respondents survey had indicated a low salary as their source of unhapiness.

Although, salary was not the major factor in influencing happiness at work, only a mere 11 per cent of the respondents felt they earned a good income.

The 22 per cent of the respondents who are happy at work, said that there were three core factors which helped influence their happiness.

The survey also showed, 50 per cent of them claimed to enjoy their working experience and working challenges, 21 per cent were happy with bosses who appreciated and valued their output, while 19 per cent did so because of the friendship with colleagues.

Overall, the employees agreed that the ultimate change to determine their well-being at work, would need to include opportunities for career development and also work-life balance in the company.

If these needs are not met, the majority (62 per cent) said they would find another job to restore the happiness at work.

A total of 1,145 employees participated in the survey conducted by JobStreet.com last month.

20 Per Cent Of Petronas Staff Are Sabah, Sarawak Bumiputera

About 20 per cent of the 25,463 employees of Petronas Nasional Berhad (Petronas) currently are Sabah and Sarawak bumiputera, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said efforts were always made by the government to create more opportunities for the Sabah and Sarawak bumiputera, especially the young people, to get better jobs, including important posts in Petronas.

"It is the government's intention to appoint as many as possible the Sabah and Sarawak bumiputera, regardless their religion, to hold important posts not just at Petronas, but also other government agencies.

"It is because of that, opportunities for employment, training in technical field are provided for them," he said in response to a supplementary question by Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing (BN-Bintulu) on the chances of the Sabah and Sarawak people to hold important posts in Petronas.

Nor Mohamed, who is Tasek Gelugor Member of Parliament, said the training programmes included 'Peneraju Skil-Jurukimpal' carried out under Yayasan Peneraju, where participants could obtain international certification and job in oil and gas welding with income of almost RM9,000 a month.

The government, he said, had also discussed with Petronas to ensure a large portion of the contract, involving high-technology, to be given to the Sabah and Sarawak bumiputera.

-- BERNAMA

Gadang's Unit Wins Petronas Contract

Gadang Holdings Bhd's whollyowned subsidiary, Gadang Engineering (M) Sdn Bhd, has won a Petronas contract to undertake phase 1 site preparation work for the proposed Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) Project package 1 in Pengerang.

The contract, expected to be completed by Dec 31 next year, would contribute positively to group earnings for the financial years ending May 31, 2013 and 2014, it said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia today.

-- BERNAMA

Court keeps Lynas operating licence on hold

The Kuantan High Court kept on hold the licence granted to Lynas Corp Ltd’s controversial rare earth plant by delaying until October 10 a decision on whether it will consider judicial reviews to permanently block production.
The Australian company said that the High Court’s decision leaves the temporary operating licence suspended until October 10, extending a one-week halt that expired today.

The rare earth plant — the biggest outside China — has been ready to fire up since early May, but the company has been embroiled in environmental and safety disputes with local residents since construction began two years ago.

The plant is considered important to breaking China’s grip on the processing of rare earths, which are used in products ranging from smartphones to hybrid cars.

Activists linked to the environmental group Save Malaysia Stop Lynas, who had asked for the postponement, want the court to suspend the temporary licence until two judicial review cases challenging the government’s decision allowing the plant to operate are heard.

“We’re staying optimistic,” Tan Bun Teet, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters after the court decision.

“The court has set an early hearing for October 10 and it looks like they want to resolve it quickly,” he added.

The group’s previous attempts to stop the plant had failed.

Lynas received a temporary operating licence for the long-delayed US$800 million (RM2.5 billion) rare earth plant early in September, enabling it to start production as early as October.

Protests over possible radioactive residue have drawn thousands of people and the project has become a hot topic ahead of an election that must be held by early next year. — Reuters

5 dead in fire at Indonesia oil pipeline, output unaffected

Five people died when a crude oil pipeline caught fire as it was being looted in Indonesia's Sumatra island early on Wednesday but production was not affected, state energy company Pertamina EP said.

Eighteen people suffered burn injuries in the fire, which was brought under control by midday. Pertamina said it was investigating the incident and that PVC pipe, which is evidence of theft, was found at the scene.

"Our Tempino-Plaju pipeline caught fire at 1006 .... It did not catch fire because the pipe exploded but our pipe was being tapped illegally. Oil was being stolen by the community. Someone was smoking there and it caught fire," Pertamina EP public relations manager Agus Amperianto.

Losses from looting have increased since mid-2012 and amounted to 29,000 barrels in September alone, Pertamina said, adding that nearly 250,000 barrels have been stolen since May.

Petronas in talks with Singapore's Keppel on Pengerang power plant

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) and Singapore's Keppel Corp are in negotiations to build a planned power plant in Pengerang, Johor, sources close to Petronas told, confirming an earlier report by Singapore's Straits Times.

The power plant both parties will build is aimed at supplying electricity to industries at Petronas' planned RM60bil refinery and petrochemical integrated development (RAPID) petrochemical complex in Pengerang, as well as into the Singapore power grid.

“Petronas' talks with Keppel follows from their acquisition of a 30% stake in Singapore power company GMR Energy, to ultimately participate in the dynamic power supply system in Singapore, aside from powering' up RAPID,” said one source.

Last September, Petronas purchased a 30% stake in GMR Energy Singapore Pte Ltd, which is developing an 800MW combined-cycle gas-turbine power plant on Jurong island, Singapore.

The Singapore Straits Times report stated that Keppel might get a 30% stake in the 1,200MW plant that would be part of Petronas's RAPID project in Pengerang. Petronas has yet to respond to queries from StarBiz on this deal.

If and when the Petronas-Keppel joint venture goes through, it would mark the first time a Malaysian-based power plant supplies power into Singapore as well as the first time for a Singapore entity to invest in the Malaysian power sector.

A power sector professional told StarBiz that it only made sense for Petronas to seek to sell power to Singapore from its planned power plant in Pengerang.

“It doesn't make sense to just produce enough power for industrial demands in Pengerang. It is also better to build a larger plant than a smaller one, to achieve economy of scale' benefits and to ensure there's a sufficient buffer.

“It then also makes sense for the balance electricity to be sold into the Singapore grid, which has a very dynamic price discovery system,” the expert said.

Although more known for its shipbuilding prowess, the choice of Keppel as a partner for Petronas is not surprising.

A unit of Keppel Corp, Keppel Energy has a track record in developing, owning and operating power plants in Brazil, China, the Philippines and Nicaragua.

In Singapore, Keppel Energy operates a 500MW gas-fired combined-cycle power plant on Jurong Island that commenced operations in 2007. In 2010, work began to expand the Jurong plant's capacity to 800MW.

Since 2000, Keppel Energy has had a licence to participate in the Singapore electricity market.

Keppel Energy has also had a past relationship with Petronas, having a long-term natural gas supply deal with the latter since 2004.

Petronas is in the power sector in Malaysia via investments in the Kimanis power plant and the proposed Lahad Datu power plant in Sabah.

The Kimanis plant is jointly developed by Petronas Gas Bhd in partnership with Yayasan Sabah through NRG Consortium (Sabah) Sdn Bhd.

Meanwhile, the Lahad Datu plant is being built by a Tenaga Nasional Bhd-led consortium together with Petronas and a Sabah state entity. - The Star