Did China Just Sound The Death Knell For Venezuela’s Oil Industry?

July 1, 2021

There’s a Malaysian twist here, just hold your horses.

Dateline 2021-05-21, Oilprice:

China has announced that it will impose taxes on heavy sour crude, a move that could hit Venezuela hard as it continues to struggle with U.S. sanctions and a dilapidated oil industry. Media reports suggest as many as 400,000 bpd of Venezuelan oil could be orphaned as new Chinese tax laws make it impossible for the country to export its crude to Asia. New regulations expected to come into place on June 12 would make the profit margins on Venezuelan oil too low to warrant its current export route.

Venezuela has not been exporting oil directly to China since 2019, largely due to the U.S. sanctions that continue to restrict the country’s oil exportation. However, China has been importing Venezuelan oil via Malaysian refineries, where it is mixed with fuel oil or bitumen before continuing on to China. China’s new rules could add around $30 per barrel to this “diluted bitumen”, making it economically inviable. Light cycle oil (LCO) and mixed aromatics will also be taxed under the new scheme.

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Will the new EV policy score an own goal again?

June 30, 2021

Dateline 2021-05-24, FMT:

Fortunately, the new national automotive policy is still in the draft stage. But after losing the pace of investment for the past 20 years, it looks like there will be more of the same as government custodians appointed to grow the automotive industry try desperately to fix the problem but will fail because they don’t recognise the issue.

First, the central issue about investment flight to Thailand and more recently to Indonesia is that the Europeans and Japanese automotive investors have a choice.

And they don’t particularly fancy having to share their plans, strategies and intellectual properties with a civil service officer in order to apply for customised incentives as proposed in the draft of the new automotive policy.

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Amid rising ESG pressure, Malaysia prepares oil and gas firms for green economy (subscription required)

June 29, 2021

Dateline The Business Times, 2021-05-21:

AS a major energy exporter, Malaysia is taking steps to help oil and gas companies transition to a low-carbon economy at a time when investors and consumers increasingly demand cleaner energy and climate action.

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PTTEP Makes Another Gas Discovery Offshore Malaysia

June 28, 2021

Dateline 2021-005-17, Offshore Engineer:

Thai oil company PTTEP has made another gas discovery offshore Malaysia, this time at the exploration well, Kulintang-1, its first drilled in the Block SK438, located around 230 kilometers off the coast of Miri, Sarawak.

The company has been on a discovery spree in Malaysia as it recently announced discoveries at Sirung-1 well, in Block SK405B, Dokong-1 wildcat well in Block SK417, and at the Lang Lebah-2 well, in Block SK410B.

As for the latest discovery, Phongsthorn Thavisin, PTTEP Chief Executive Officer, said that PTTEP had started drilling at the Kulintang-1 wildcat well in Block SK438 in March 2021. The well was drilled to a total depth of 2,238 meters in April 2021.

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PTTEP revs up Malaysia exploration

June 25, 2021

Dateline 2021-005-18, Upstream Online:

Thailand’s national upstream PTTEP as early as next week is set to spud the Mak Yong wildcat offshore Sarawak, part of its 2021 exploration and appraisal drilling campaign in Malaysia that has already come up trumps on several wells.

The Mak Yong-1 exploration well on shallow-water Block SK 438 will be drilled by the Borr Gunnlod, one of two jack-up rigs it has on charter from Norway’s Borr Drilling.

PTTEP last month completed the tight Kulintang-1 probe on the same block before moving Borr Gunnlod to the Pemanis field, part of the operator’s blocks SK 309 and SK 311 phased gas fields development.

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Reviving the O&G services and equipment sector

June 24, 2021

Dateline 2021-05-12, The Star:

The oil and gas (O&G) industry is yet to fully recover from the great oil bust of 2014 when the Covid-19 pandemic started in late 2019.

The oil and gas, services and equipment (OGSE) sector has not been spared from the pressure of a low oil price environment that has persisted since 2014.

Apart from the pandemic, value creation was further depressed with the emergence of two other major events last year namely the Opec+ disagreement on supply cuts and the storage shocks amid an oversupply in the oil market.

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She used to swing sledgehammers in an oil & gas job, now she makes delicate choc bombs

June 23, 2021

Dateline 2021-05-XX, Vulcan Post:

“Sad is an understatement,” described Sofia who was laid off from her job at an international oil and gas company last year. Worldwide lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19 had caused a downturn in demands for oil, which led to Sofia’s fate as a former Field Engineer. 

“I was committed to my work and spent longer days working (even on weekends) rather than spending time at home. For someone who was career oriented, it was not easy to face the reality of being unemployed,” she added. 

In the back of her mind though, the 27-year-old always knew that fieldwork wasn’t for her. Despite working a STEM graduate’s dream job, the sun’s scorching heat and the laborious tasks of handling 60-inch sledgehammers became too much for her.

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Work to begin on well after deal

June 22, 2021

Dateline 2021-05-10, Arab Times:

The CEO of the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah told MEED Magazine that the company is negotiating with the Malaysian government on the financial terms related to a major gas discovery off the coast of Malaysia, reports Al-Anba daily. In February, KUFPEC announced its largest ever discovery of hydrocarbons by drilling a well about 90 kilometers off the Malaysian coast. In an interview with MEED Magazine, Sheikh Nawaf explained that the work on the initial engineering designs for the development of the well will begin once the financial terms are agreed upon.

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How going digital has made PETRONAS employees safer and more productive

June 21, 2021

Dateline 2021-05-XX, Singapore Business:

Ensuring a safe working environment tops the agenda of responsible companies around the world as they pursue their business KPIs. Using innovative solutions, they strive for zero accidents, lowest occupational health hazards and less downtime to have secure and satisfied employees.

For the last two years, PETRONAS Digital Sdn. Bhd. (PDSB) has embarked on a web-based initiative to foster safer workplaces across the 50 countries where it works — to date, identifying 400,000 unsafe acts or conditions that might lead to serious injuries or incidents and 22,000 potential fatigue-related incidents. The initiative had earned them a trophy at the recently concluded Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards (MTEA), under the Analytics – Oil & Gas category.

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Petronas confirms Labuan staff received Covid-19 vaccines as ‘industrial frontliners’

June 18, 2021

Can I be an ‘industrial backroom proirity liner’?

Dateline 2021-05-09, Malay Mail:

State-owned oil and gas giant Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has confirmed that some of its staff members have received Covid-19 vaccines under phase one of the National Immunisation Programme (NIP).

In a statement, Petronas said these staff members were considered “industrial frontliners” from Labuan who needed to be vaccinated as there was a cluster in Labuan.

“Petronas confirms that a number of its personnel in Labuan have been vaccinated as part of Health Ministry’s prescribed measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 transmission on the island.

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