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Energy Watch : 10 May 2007
Posted on : 2007-05-09 | Author : Energy Analysis Editor
News Category : Energy


By ANDREA R. MIHAILESCU GE unit acquires oil, gas reservesGE Energy Financial Services said Tuesday it partnered with two energy development companies to pay $154 million to acquire oil and gas reserves in Oklahoma and Texas.Under the first investment, the GE unit and Bays Exploration Inc. bought oil and gas reserves in western Oklahoma for $79 million. But since the area has significant development opportunities, GE also said it will invest up to $60 million to develop the reserves.In a second transaction, GE Energy Financial Services and Southern Bay Energy, a subsidiary of GeoResources Inc., paid $75 million to acquire oil and gas properties in east Texas. The two sides plan to invest an additional $27 million to develop the properties.Petrom to buy Shell Gas Romania and Trans Gas ServicesPetrom, Romania's largest oil company, said it has acquired a majority stake in two of Shell's local businesses, Shell Gas Romania SA and Trans Gas Services SRL.Under the agreement, Petrom will acquire 55.3 percent of Shell Gas Romania and 60 percent of Trans Gas Services SRL following the decision of Shell to exit the LPG business in Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.Indian firms to renew Assam pipeline dealIndian state-owned Oil Natural Gas Corp. and Oil India Ltd. said they have agreed to renew a memorandum of understanding for transportation of ONGC's Assam crude oil through pipelines owned and operated by OIL to the installations of public-sector refiners.Under the agreement, ONGC will send crude oil from its installations at Lakwa, Galeki, Rudrasagar and Borholla in the northeastern Indian state for a period of five years, between April 2007 and March 2012.The earlier agreement was valid for five years, and it ended in March. It also had been entered into as a consequence of the deregulation of the administered-price mechanism regime in the first quarter of 2002.ONGC and OIL produce nearly 5 million tons of oil annually, which is transported through the trunk pipeline to four refineries belonging to Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd., located at Digboi, Numaligarh, Guwahati and Bongaigaon.Closing oil prices, May 9, 3 p.m. LondonBrent crude oil: $66.03West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $62.41(e-mail: [email protected])

Essar to spend $100M in Khambalia refinery
Posted on : 2007-05-09 | Author : Energy News Editor
News Category : Energy


NEW DELHI, May 9 (UPI) India's private major Essar Oil says it will invest $100 million on expanding and upgrading its crude refinery at Khambalia, Gujarat state.

The company said it will raise the money through external commercial borrowing; ICICI bank has been appointed facilitator, The Business Standard newspaper reported Wednesday.

"Essar Oil and ICICI bank are talking on a proposal for raising $100 million through ECB. The amount would be used for capacity expansion and technology upgradation at our Khambalia refinery," an Essar company spokesman said. He refused to share details of the plan, however.

The money will be used to expand the refinery's capacity from 10.5 million metric tons per annum to 16 MMTPA by 2009, the spokesman said.

The refinery processes 150,000 barrels a day of crude. The $2.26 billion refinery has an output capacity of 5.5 MMTPA of high-speed diesel and 2.2 MMTPA of gasoline. The spokesman said that after the expansion, the refinery will produce large volumes of other fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas, jet fuel, kerosene, fuel oil and bitumen.

Essar said its refinery has been designed to handle a crude of mix Arabian light and heavy in a 70:30 ratio.