Formosa to restart crude distillation units in Mailiao

(Plastemart) -- Formosa Petrochemical Corp. plans to restart the No 2 180,000 bpd crude distillation units at its Mailiao refinery. It's No. 3 CDU is scheduled to resume operations on Sept. 3.
Formosa plans to bring all of its CDUs online within about two weeks and then process around 400,000 bpd, or 74.07% of its full capacity. The government wants some parts of the refinery to remain shut for safety reasons.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP have announced the completion of BP's acquisition of a 30% stake in 21 oil and gas production sharing contracts (PSCs) that Reliance operates in India, including the producing KG D6 block. This significant step will commence the planned alliance which will operate across the gas value chain in India, from exploration and production to distribution and marketing. The completion of the deal delivers one of the largest ever foreign direct investments into India. The two companies will also form a 50:50 joint venture for the sourcing and marketing of gas in India which will also accelerate the creation of infrastructure for receiving, transporting and marketing natural gas.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- BP's ambition to become a major player in the Russian arctic has been thwarted after ExxonMobil announced it had sealed an agreement with Rosneft for the exploration of giant offshore deepwater fields.

The Exxon-Rosneft deal, valued at USD 3.2 billion, will see the US supermajor assist Rosneft with the exploration of offshore fields in Russia's Kara and Black Seas in return for options for the Russian firm to acquire interests in oil projects in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.

The three Arctic blocks up for exploration contain reserves of 36 billion barrels, according to the Financial Times. While BP offered a 5% stake in their company as a whole instead of options on defined production blocks, the Exxon deal bears a strong resemblance to that initially agreed with the British supermajor, down to the foundation of an Arctic research centre staffed by both companies.

MRC

(Arabian oil and gas) -- Russian international oil company Lukoil has posted USD 6.7 billion in net income for the first half of 2011, an increase of 69.1% over the same period in 2010. Bumper profit resulted from consistently high oil prices over the first six months of the year, which more than compensated for the firm's 4.4% reduction in overall production to 2.1million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the same period and higher production costs per barrel.

EBITDA in the first half of 2011 was USD 10,688 million, up is 43.8% year-on-year, with sales revenues of USD 64,538 million.

In the first half of 2011, lifting costs per boe of production were $4.72, which is 17.4% higher year-on-year. The growth was mainly due to the real ruble appreciation, which was 15.0% in the first half of 2011.

MRC

(Arabian oil and gas) -- Anti-Gaddafi forces have not yet cracked the Libyan dictator's stronghold of Sirte, the Colonel remains at large apparently within the country, and oil infrastructure remains ablaze, but the Libyan NTC hopes to restart oil production "within days", according to Ali Tarhouni, the NTC's oil minister.

"In the next few days we expect a lot of oil wells will be rehabilitated," Tarhouni told Reuters. Tarhouni has not specified which wells will come back on line so soon or whether they will be used to meet domestic demand or be used for cash-raising exports.

International Oil Companies have made it clear that they aim to return to Libya under their pre-war contracts as soon as possible, with Italian firm Eni stating that the recently-repaired major Greenstream gas export pipeline to Italy will be running again by mid-October, and Spanish firm Repsol saying production at their fields could restart within weeks.

However, concerns remain over security, after several oil fields have been found to have been planted with land mines by retreating Gaddafi forces.

MRC