From The Star – Brunei drops Limbang Claim

March 19, 2009

Dateline 2009-03-17 (story link here):

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: Brunei has officially dropped its long-standing claim over Sarawak’s Limbang district after the two countries resolved various land and maritime territory disputes.

“Brunei has decided to drop the Limbang issue and as a result, Limbang is part of Malaysian territory,” Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced to Malaysian media.

And why this decision is of interest to me:

The other disputes include over where the maritime boundary between the two countries in the South China Sea should run, the rights to exploit potentially rich oil deposits in the disputed maritime territory, the right of movement by Malaysian vessels over Brunei waters and the demarcation of the common boundary of the two countries.

Expect Miri to become busier.

You can subscribe to an online version of the paper at the Bluehyppo site, follow links to e-browse.

2 Comments | business opportunity, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Visiting Miri

March 18, 2009

I was in Miri yesterday on a marketing trip. Second time I’ve been there, and first time I’ve gone round in daylight. Seems like a nice town, which fits its title as ‘the resort city of Miri.’

Maybe next time I down there, I’ll bring along my scuba gear as well, combining business with pleasure. BTW, anyone know of any reliable dive shops?

If you look at the sunset picture, the dot you see on the horizon is a platform, a central processing platform (CPP) by the looks of it. I believe it belongs to the Baram collection.

  • Tourist: wow, an oil rig!
  • Engineer: wow, a jackup rig!
  • Business Development Manager: wow, who can I see and sell something to?

Mea culpa.

7 Comments | diving, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Shout Out – ExEPMI get together, 24th April.

March 17, 2009

I’m promoting the above event, which is being spearheaded by Dato’ Sri Syafiq, from Jurunature Sdn Bhd. The current plan for the event is:

  • Date: April 24, 2009
  • Venue : Bukit Jalil Golf and Country Club
  • Golf: 2.30 pm for GOLF
  • Dinner and Get Together: 7.30 for dinner and Get Together with non-golfers

What he requires is a response for:

  • Participation in golf to enable coordination of the number of flights and golf course booking
  • Participation in the dinner at 7.30 pm

So, those of us who have proudly participated in the above organisation, and proceed to spread its gospel to the rest of the Malaysian (and further) oil & gas industry, please respond by sending a comment to this article with your correct email address, and I’ll forward the details to Dato’.

Here’s hoping for your contribution in making this the beginning of renewing contacts, start of a community and the first of a series of events.

Leave a Comment » | business opportunity, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

From The Star – Oil & Gas Sector’s Performance

March 15, 2009

Date line 2009-03-07 (story link here):

By TEE LIN SAY

THE economy is going through one of its bleakest times, with oil prices at basement levels of US$40 to US$45.

Not surprisingly, Malaysian oil and gas service support companies aren’t spared and this has been reflected in their fourth quarter results.

On a combined basis, it would appear that oil and gas (O&G) companies underperformed, with combined net earnings declining by some 182% on a quarterly basis.

Nonetheless, a huge chunk of this disappointment was due to poor performances by Ramunia Holdings Bhd, Shell Refining (Federation of Malaya) Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd and Petra Perdana Bhd. In the case of Shell, it suffered a single quarterly loss of RM523.11mil due to margin pressures.

Ramunia continued with its loss making streak by reporting a net loss of RM71.3mil for the fourth quarter ended Oct 31, 2008. For the full year, Ramunia made a net loss of RM279.8mil.

Generally, the bulk of companies which underperformed, attributed their losses to provisions, cost overruns, inventory loss and lower product demand. It wasn’t a sea of disenchantment. There were the outperformers too.

You can subscribe to an online version of the paper at the Bluehyppo site, follow links to e-browse.

2 Comments | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Wata

IEM Shout Out – Talk on ‘Malaysia Oil & Gas Deepwater Development – The Experience Thus Far’

March 14, 2009

This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will be having a talk on the 19th March as titled above. It’ll be at 5:30 pm (makan-makan at 5:00) at the IEM , Bangunan Ingenieur, PJ.

My friend, Ahmad Sedek will be giving the presentation. The synopsis is:

It is anticipated that there will be less commercially viable oil & gas fields in the Malaysian shallow water. As such, there is an equal push towards developing fields in the deep (200-1000m water depth) and ultra-deep (more than 1000m water depth) water. In line with this shift, PETRONAS has set the tone by stating its ambition to make Malaysia as the regional deepwater hub and, along with its Production Sharing Contractors, has set the ball rolling by the successful oil production from Kikeh Deepwater Development. The presentation intends to share presentor’s general experience in the deepwater projects, which covers background, introduction to technologies, challenges/opportunities, and Kikeh development examples.

Come all, and get your 2 CPD hours.

Leave a Comment » | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Can PETRONAS stem the O&G Brain Drain?

March 10, 2009

Here’s a thought for you. Some O&G production companies don’t like their former staff coming back and interfacing with their current workforces for a number of reasons:

  • morale: staffer is doing the same (or less!) work for more pay.
  • dilemma: would a recently departed staff member be as loyal to the project, she’s already shown a tendency to grab opportunities regardless of timing.

And I guess it would be logical that the longer the time between departure and returning to the ex-employer fold, the less the pain of reconciliation.

In addition, there have been discussions in the past about production companies (aka PSCs) pinching staff from each other.

Now, PETRONAS / PCSB has tentacles into all PSCs in Malaysia. If there is such a policy, doesn’t that mean that any staff who leave PNAS are discriminated against when applying for work with a production company? Sure, they could apply to work with the service providers, but I would think that really isn’t where their strengths lie.

So, what do you do? Some staffers join a ‘stop gap’ company to reset their CVs as it were before working for (notice I didn’t say applying to) a PSC.

Another option is to get out of Malaysia altogether. If you agree to the above logic, or a variant of, you would stop wondering why PNAS staff go overseas once they decide to leave the ship. There’s a push and pull factor involved here.

5 Comments | engineering, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Taken from AOG – PETRONAS and EOR

March 6, 2009

Taking the article from the Asian Oil & Gas magazine,

Malaysia has set itself an ambitious target to add an additional 520 million barrels of oil to its reserve by 2010 by applying EOR technologies to its offshore oilfields.

According to Dr. Nasir Hj. Darman of …

Hopefully, the spill off will allow us small specialist engineering companies to soldier through these trying times. Even though most of the work is downhole, the PSCs must need to design additional topsides facilities (im thinking water injection here) to pursue their EOR of choice.

Asian Oil & Gas March/April 2009 edition

Asian Oil & Gas March/April 2009 edition

2 Comments | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

New Crude Grades – Kikeh and Labuan

March 5, 2009

Welcome t0 the new crude grades. They join Tapis as a made in Malaysia product.

Argus Launches Malaysian Crude Assessments

LONDON, March 2 /PRNewswire/ — Argus has launched daily price assessments for Malaysian crude grades Kikeh and Labuan.

Kikeh is a light sweet crude with 36.74 degrees API gravity and 0.06pc sulphur content, which loads at the Kikeh marine terminal. US integrated oil company Murphy has an 80pc working interest in the field and takes about 70pc of output under the production-sharing contract as the operator, with the remaining share held by Malaysian state-owned oil firm Petronas. Production of the grade has climbed from around 40,000 b/d at start-up in August 2007 to around 120,000 b/d in early 2009.

Argus is also adding an assessment for Labuan, a light sweet Malaysian crude with 29.92 degrees API gravity and 0.028pc sulphur content, which loads at the Labuan crude oil terminal. Petronas has an 80pc interest, with Shell holding the remainder. Production of Labuan is around 75,000 b/d.

Both grades will be assessed at a differential to Tapis APPI on a fob Malaysia basis for 600,000 bl cargoes loading 15-45 days ahead.

1 Comment | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

From The Star – RON97 petrol to cost more in July

February 21, 2009

Date line 2009-02-20:

PETRONAS - ROn 92

PETRONAS - ROn 92

PUTRAJAYA: The price of RON97 petrol will be increased, when the Government introduces RON95 to replace RON92 in July, said Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad.

He said this was to encourage consumers to use RON95, which was cheaper compared to RON97.

“The Government intends to subsidise more on RON95, when it is introduced in July to make it the same price as RON92,” he told a press conference here on Friday.

He said the price of both RON95 and RON97 petrol would be announced in July.

 Don’t know about you, but I would have kept RON95 at the current price, and got RON97 users to pay a premium. If most cars can use RON95, then from the user’s end nothing has been changed, but the government can reduce its fuel subsidies.

From the crude oil price perspective, this will cause … no change at all.

Leave a Comment » | Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Wata

Oil & Gas Hub in … Pekan?

February 18, 2009

I was watching TV3 news today (2009-02-16), and there was mention of a new oil & gas hub in Pekan, Pahang. Here’s a link to the New Straits Times. It is called the Tanjong Agas Oil & Gas and Maritime Industrial Park. Investment to create the site was valued at RM2b, with a total investment of RM12b (not sure about this number).

I got confused because Tanjong Agas is also a well known place in Muar, Johor.

Second, Pekan is not what you call the center of the O&G universe. It’s closer to the southern Malaysian oil fields, and can potentially service the Indonesian offshore assets as well.

I wonder if politics had a lot of say in developing a state relatively friendly to the current administration.

If you can point me to who can give me jobs there, thank you.

12 Comments | business opportunity, Malaysia, oil and gas | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Wata

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »