The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates that the South China Sea holds about 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil in proved and probable reserves…
Up to now foreign ownership has been capped at 49%, but foreigners will in principle be able to acquire a majority stake in public companies in sectors not considered critical to national security…
This is the first time ever that a Chinese leader has joined the Vladivostok discussions. China is progressively interconnecting with the Russian Far East…
Moscow is manoeuvring itself to take advantage of the rapprochement on the Korean peninsula by reviving a decades-old energy megaproject that would connect Russian gas…
“U.S. crude is becoming more and more popular,” said the world’s biggest refiner Sinopec. There are three reasons for Asian oil buyers’ interest in U.S. crude: first, it fits the configuration of Asian refineries, which like to process high quality so-called light sweet crude that yields more petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel. Second, it’s cheap, with WTI trading at times at a steep discount to other oil benchmarks. Third, the cargoes are bought on a spot basis, giving refiners flexibility to complement their more traditional Middle Eastern supplies that are sourced via long-term contracts.
China’s largest crude oil refiner Sinopec aims to ship more cargoes from Brazil, the United States and Canada to help ensure stable crude supplies. Asia, which will account for a third of the world’s refining capacity by 2020 will have to look beyond the traditional markets Middle East and Africa for crude supplies. China will soon import its first Southern Green Canyon and Thunderhorse crude from the United States, and Brazil overtook Venezuela as the top South American crude supplier to China in the first two months of this year.
Saudi King Salman’s lavish tour of Asia had a mission – to cement the kingdom’s place as leading oil supplier to the world’s biggest consumer region. The string of deals inked on his three-week tour to Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and China – the big prize – also point to a fresh strategy: growth in the downstream. Chief executive officer of Aramco, Amin Nasser, said on this: “The growth in that sector is very important, and anything integrated between refining, petrochemical, with marketing and distribution, is of interest to us.”
Saudi Arabia has cut the pricing for some of its April oil sales to Asia, showing that it is trying to lure buyers toward its lighter and less sulfurous crude varieties. “This came as a complete surprise to the market,” said Tushar Tarun Bansal, director at Ivy Global Energy in Singapore. “This is a signal from the Saudis that they are serious about market share and pricing crude competitively, and would even be open to changing the methodology if the need arises.” This is the producer’s latest effort to defend sales in Asia.
China National Petroleum Corp. bought a stake in Abu Dhabi’s largest oil concession as the Middle Eastern emirate with 6% of global crude reserves looks increasingly to Asia, its biggest market, for investment to raise output capacity. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. awarded CNPC an 8% stake in the onshore venture. “If you’re Abu Dhabi and looking for demand growth, China is the future and its demand is going to continue to grow”… “For the big buyers in Asia, the logical source of that future supply is the Gulf,” said Amereller Legal Consultants.
One feature of crude oil and products pricing is the tug-of-war between long-term structural drivers and short-term factors, a scenario being played out in Asian fuel markets. Profit margins for both gasoline and diesel traded in Singapore have staged strong rallies in the past three months. The main factor behind this has been a tightening of the market, with seasonal maintenance at refineries across the region. This short-term factor has influenced pricing, and it appears to be outweighing the longer-term structural driver of steadily rising Chinese fuel exports.
One of the structural flaws driving China’s instability is the existance of a investment situation where profits of state-owned enterprises, known as SOEs, are largely privatised to SOE personnel and losses of SOEs are socialised on to the state budget. This is the cause of the large amount of excess capacity in China’s heavy industries today, and also of the serious non-performing loan problem in state-owned banks. The growing presence of “zombie” firms coincides with the downward trend in the growth of productivity. The social pain resulting from necessary economic adjustments will have to be addressed.
OEF REVIEW:The International Energy Agency (IEA) considers that South East Asia is moving to the center of the global energy area and is a key pillar for Asia’s growth. This report covers the prospects for energy demand and fossil-fuel supply, as well as priorities for policy makers. There is a special chapter concentrating on Malaysia
In the first half of 2015 Saudi Arabia exported more than half its crude exports to Asia. The Kingdom increased production and kept its export levels high enabling it to maintain its market share in the countries in question. However, long-term trends in Saudi Arabia’s domestic energy sector and competition from other oil exporting nations may result in a decline in the Kingdom’s global crude oil market share.
Algeria Algeria’s hydrocarbons basins hold two significant shale gas and shale oil formations: the Silurian Tannezuft Shale and the Devonian Frasnian Shale. The Energy Information Administration, Advanced Resources International, Inc (EIA-ARI) report World Shale Gas and Shale Oil Resource Assessment, June 2013, which analyses the Ghadames (Berkine) and Illizi Basins in eastern Algeria, the Timimoun,…
