The world's oil producing powerhouse Saudi Arabia may be the next Arab Gulf state after the United Arab Emirates to build nuclear power plants in an effort to save more of its valuable crude for export and domestic demand, according to officials.
"We want to see 20% to 25% of our energy coming from nuclear power in 15 years," Bakr Khoshaim, a power consultant and member of the Shura Council, Saudi's consultative body, told Zawya Dow Jones.
Saudi may need nuclear power as its rapidly growing population consumes more of its oil in the domestic market for transport and to fuel its existing power plants.
"There are efforts coming out in terms of coordination and feasibility. We wish this would be expedited," said Khoshaim.
Demand for electricity from the nation's population of 28 million is already straining its power grid and devouring more of the precious fuel used to fire generators.
In 2007, Saudi Arabia consumed approximately 2.3 million barrels of oil a day, up 50% since the start of the decade, according to the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration.
If the country sticks to its growth projections it will need an additional 5 million barrels a day in less than 20 years, which will wipe out half of the kingdom's export revenue, according to Ahmad Al-Sa'adi, vice president in charge of pipelines, distribution and terminals at Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant.
To make up for the lost revenue, Aramco will have to produce an additional 3 million barrels a day, above its current daily capacity of 12.5 million barrels, a difficult task that will require an investment of $700 billion, Al-Sa'adi said
Monday in a presentation at a power and water industry conference in the Jeddah, the port city on the Red Sea.
The other option is to improve the efficiency of its transportation network and power grid, or to look at better ways of transforming heavy oils into gas, which produces cleaner electricity at higher yields. But this technology is
currently too expensive and will require a dramatic shift in the way electricity is generated in Saudi, Al Sa'adi said.
The kingdom's appetite for electricity is growing at a relentless pace. Power generation capacity has increased 52% to 39,242 megawatts in 2008 compared with
the turn of the century, but consumption is expected to rise to around 70,000 megawatts in 2020, according to the Saudi Electricity Co. Over the next 10 years the company plans on investing $80 billion to add 20,000 megawatts to the grid,
its chief executive said in July.
SAVE ENERGY
With electric power using around 75% of Saudi Arabia's domestic oil, the need for another source of energy has become acute. And as the kingdom rolls out a $400 billion spending plan over the next five years to build the infrastructure needed to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons, it will need all the money it can get from oil exports.
"We need to save our energy for other uses," said Koshaim from the Shura council.
Of course the prospect of Saudi Arabia developing atomic power plants may raise nuclear proliferation concerns in the region. But the feeling in the kingdom is that the peaceful application of the technology will not meet much resistance, especially after the U.A.E. has pushed on with its program with Washington's support.
"Every country has the right as long as they are NPT [Non Proliferation Treaty] signatories," said Khaled Aleissa, the director of Saudi's Atomic Energy Research Institute.
As one the country's top advisers on this issue, Aleissa said discussions are being held at senior levels of the government but a decision hasn't been made whether to start a local program, or perhaps partner with neighboring countries
and use the newly established regional power grid.
But the message from Aramco has the countries power and water industries -- the largest domestic consumers of oil -- worried about the future and searching for alternative energy sources, including nuclear.
"Saudi Arabia will need aid in another 50 years if we continue on this path," said Adil Bushnak, chairman of the Jeddah-based Bushnak Group which operates in the water industry. "We don't want to be another African country looking for
aid."
Source: Dow Jones
Changes made to the oil pipeline project include the project promoter, the name of the project and the original route, sources say
Several changes have been made to an ambitious US$7 billion (RM24.6 billion) oil pipeline project planned across the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia, including to the project promoter itself.
The new project promoter now has a foreign partner and the two parties are expected to sign an agreement within this week, sources told Business Times without providing details.
It was learnt that apart from the promoter, the name of the project itself has been changed.
"Except for one, the other shareholders in the new promoter are not from the original developer of the project," the source said. No reasons were provided for the changes.
The source added that the original pipeline route has also been changed. Originally planned to be laid between Yan in Kedah and Bachok in Kelantan, the pipeline will most likely be between Yan and Tumpat, Kelantan.
When the pipeline project was first launched in May 2007, the then project promoter, Trans-Peninsula Petroleum Sdn Bhd (TPP) entered into a deal with Indonesia's PT Tripatra to develop the project. TPP also signed an agreement with Ranhill Bhd, with the latter to construct the pipeline.
Since its launch, the project has not been received with much enthusiasm and there were doubts if it will ever take off because of its high cost and the weak economic environment.
Until today, no physical development has taken place at any of the project sites.
Last month, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak said that the federal government is reviewing the crude oil pipeline project crossing the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia
Based on the original plan, the trans-peninsula pipeline will traverse Perak, Kedah and Kelantan.
On both ends of Yan in Kedah and Bachok in Kelantan, there will be offshore mooring facilities to accommodate deep-draught tankers.
Along the pipeline in Jeli, Kelantan, there will be a major storage which will hold 90 per cent of the entire system capacity.
It will be built in two phases over seven years and will also boast of a refinery in Yan to take delivery of crude oil from tankers bound for East Asia.
Besides the trans-peninsula pipeline, other petroleum project proposals include the one by SKS Development for a pipeline linking Kota Perdana in Bukit Kayu Hitam, Kedah to Songkhla in eastern Thailand. Chinese investors are also said to be interested in developing a multi-product pipeline connecting Yan and Songkhla.
Other hydrocarbon projects in the pipeline to be developed in Kedah include the US$10 billion (RM35.2 billion) refinery in Sungai Limau, Yan, by Merapoh Resources Corp Sdn Bhd and multi-billion dollar tank farms project in Gurun to be jointly developed by Pristine Oil (M) Sdn Bhd and UK-based Lenstar Investments Ltd. Both these projects have thus far secured funding.
SKS Development, a company associated with businessman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, is also said planning to build a refinery in Kedah with the cooperation of its Iranian partner.
The Battery 500 Project recently held its kickoff meeting at IBM's Almaden Laboratory in San Jose, Calif., where leading scientists, engineers and other experts brainstormed about how to perfect the power source for all-electric automobiles.
As a part of IBM's 2-year-old Big Green Innovations program, the Battery 500 Project aims to boost the range of rechargeable batteries for all-electric cars from less than 100 miles today to as far as 500 miles. The consortium's efforts are being led by the Almaden Lab in collaboration with several U.S. universities and the Department of Energy's national labs.
"Batteries technology has improved, but is still far inferior to gasoline in terms of how much energy they hold," said Spike Narayan, a key IBM researcher. "The energy density—which is the amount of energy a lithium-ion battery stores per unit weight—is really not enough to produce a family-sized sedan with a 300- to 500-mile range."
The remedy, according to IBM, is to harness its nanoscale semiconductor manufacturing techniques to boost the capacity of batteries by increasing their storage density by 10 times over the lithium-ion batteries used today. The Battery 500 Project aims to achieve that goal with a lithium-air battery technology, whose feasibility was demonstrated earlier this year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Lithium-air batteries are unique in that instead of being a sealed system, they couple to atmospheric oxygen—essentially harnessing the oxygen in the air as the cathode of the battery. Since oxygen enters the battery on-demand, it offers an essentially unlimited amount of reactant, metered only by the surface area of its electrodes. IBM believes its nanoscale semiconductor fabrication techniques can increase the surface area of the lithium-air battery's electrodes by at least 100 times, enabling them to meet the goals of the project.
The Battery Project initiative grew from an internal "grand challenge" contest run late last year by IBM's Almaden Lab. The contest's winning entry was the lithium-air battery, the design for which the consortium will attempt to perfect by pooling the resources of about 40 engineers and scientists working on The Battery 500 Project. (Listen to a podcast about the project.)
IBM also plans to harness its supercomputers to create a simulation so accurate that it will be able to optimize the battery's design parameters, as well as experiment with different catalysts materials, without having to build expensive prototypes. IBM estimates that it will take two years to determine if the goals of The Battery 500 Project can be met with lithium-air battery technology.
Successful completion of testing of world’s most powerful gas turbine
0 comments Posted by Blind Surfer at 7:23 AMSiemens increases rated output from 340 MW to over 375 MW.
Siemens Energy has successfully completed trial operation of the the world’s most powerful gas turbine, the SGT5-8000H, in the Irsching 4 power plant right on schedule.
After 1500 operating hours, 1200 at full load, and evaluation of the measured data the machine’s original rated output of 340 megawatts (MW) was raised to 375 MW in simple cycle duty. In combined cycle operation output will increase by 40 MW to more than als 570 MW.
These 40 MW are sufficient to supply a further 220,000 people with electricity. Expansion of the plant to a combined cycle station has in the meantime commenced. In 2011, E.ON will take over the world’s most environmentally friendly fossil-fueled power plant.
The test results fully meet the high expectations of the Siemens engineers. “With its energy efficiency and high performance level the new gas turbine is a prime example of climate protection,” said Michael Suess, CEO of the Fossil Power Generation Division of Siemens Energy. “Compared to the first advanced combined cycle plants the new gas turbine reduces annual CO2-emissions by approximately 45,000 metric tons,” added Suess. That is equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions from approximately 25,000 mid-range cars clocking up 20,000 km a year.
“In Irsching, Block 4, we were able to experience the performance of the world’s most efficient gas turbine for ourselves,” said Bernhard Fischer, Member of the Managing Board of E.ON Energie AG and E.ON’s CTO. “Expansion is currently under way to a combined cycle power plant. With its commissioning in the year 2011, it will similarly set new standards when it comes to efficiency and output,” added Fischer.
High efficient gas turbines are part of the Siemens environmental portfolio with which the company earned revenues of nearly EUR19 billion in fiscal 2008, That is, equivalent to about a quarter of Siemens’ total revenue and makes Siemens the world’s leading provider of eco-friendly technology.
The Siemens Energy Sector is the world’s leading supplier of a complete spectrum of products, services and solutions for the generation, transmission and distribution of power and for the extraction, conversion and transport of oil and gas. In fiscal 2008 (ended September 30), the Energy Sector had revenues of approximately EUR22.6 billion and received new orders totaling approximately EUR33.4 billion and posted a profit of EUR1.4 billion. On September 30, 2008, the Energy Sector had a work force of approximately 83,500.
Source: Siemens Energy
Further information: www.siemens.com/energy
Chevron is well positioned to deal with difficult market conditions given its strong balance sheet, numerous new growth projects coming onstream and a disciplined approach to cost management, executives said at the corporation’s annual meeting with financial analysts in New York in March. ‘We are continuing to execute our key strategies,’ Dave O’Reilly, chairman and CEO, told the meeting. ‘We’re moving legacy projects to development, we’re moving resources to reserves, and we’re continuing to deliver our industry-leading exploration program.’
George Kirkland, executive vice president, upstream and gas, added: ‘Over the next two years, we expect new project startups and continued ramp-ups to contribute production of 650,000 barrels per day. In addition, the depth of our portfolio provides us with the flexibility to optimize project timing to take advantage of lower expected capital costs.’
Outlining future growth, Kirkland focused on Chevron’s LNG portfolio, particularly Gorgon and Wheatstone in Australia, as well as the crude oil opportunities in the Lower Tertiary trend in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico. ‘We’ve made substantial progress on both Gorgon and Wheatstone in the past 12 months. We expect Gorgon to be sanctioned during the second half of 2009, and Wheatstone is advancing toward front-end engineering and design later this year,’ he said.
Referring to the company’s high-profile Jack and St Malo discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico, Kirkland said FEED work has begun for a production facility that will have a capacity of between 120,000-150,000boe/d. The facility will co-develop the Jack field and the nearby St Malo, which are estimated to have combined recoverable resources in excess of 500 million barrels.
OE-April 2009
The economic slowdown ‘creates opportunities for Shell to reduce supply chain costs, as spare capacity in the services industry comes into play’, declared CEO Jeroen van der Veer when he presented the Royal Dutch Shell 2009 strategy update in The Hague last month. ‘We don’t have a crystal ball on oil prices, so we are planning on the basis that the downturn could last more than a year.’ Shell launched very few new projects in 2007/08, to avoid the peak in the cost cycle. This pause, combined with Shell’s global scale, gives new opportunities to reduce supply chain costs ahead of launching new projects, he said.
Van der Veer added that Shell is continuing with plans to build new upstream and downstream capacity, while managing the near-term challenges of the global economic slowdown. The company will invest some $31-$32 billion in 2009. Major upstream investments currently under way include: developing oil and gas fields with more than 1 million boe/d of capacity, which will generate 2-3% annual production growth early in the next decade, to 2012 and 6.5 million tonnes per year of new LNG capacity, an increase of 40% over 2008 levels. Pre-FID options upstream could add more than 1 million boe/d of additional capacity, from a resources base that can support growth to at least 2020.
OE - April 2009
Shell Oil’s record-setting Perdido project in a remote part of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico’s Alaminos Canyon passed another key milestone mid-March when Heerema’s Thialf crane barge installed the spar platform’s 9500-ton topsides in around 8000ft of water. Hookup and commissioning is now under way (see ‘Deepwater Roundup’ feature, and installation report).
Russ Ford, Shell’s technology vice president for the Americas, said: ‘Perdido is a technological tour de force that is opening up a new frontier for global oil & gas production. Once the global economy recovers, the energy challenge will return with a vengeance, and new sources of energy will be required. Producing oil safely and responsibly this far out and this deep should allay concerns about industry access to the 85% of the US Outer Continental Shelf that remains undeveloped.’
April 2009 OE
Brazilian state operator Petrobras stopped the extended well test at its pre-salt Tupi field after detecting what it believed to be a manufacturing issue with bolts used in the subsea tree at Tupi Sul. Although subsea inspection carried out in the area detected neither leaks nor damage to the equipment, Petrobras elected to shut down the well while a replacement wet tree assembly was installed.
Petrobras said the issue was unrelated to aspects concerning field production or technology and that it would not affect the development of the Santos Basin’s pre-salt cluster.
Tupi Sul, in 2140m of water, had been producing about 14,000b/d as part of a 15-month extended well test for the field when the consortium of operator Petrobras and partners BG and Galp Energia brought the field onstream at the beginning of May. In late June, the FPSO Cidade de São Vicente serving Tupi Sul offloaded its first cargo, transferring 315,000 barrels to the Nordic Spirit.
The well test is intended to gather technical data to help in the appraisal and development of the other discoveries in the Santos Basin, like Iara, Iracema, Júpiter, Bem-te-Vi and Caramba. According to Petrobras, the results so far have been in line with expectations. Estimates are that Tupi contains 5-8 billion boe of recoverables. OE
Issue: August 2009
The ‘green shoots’ of economic recovery could be nipped in the bud if oil prices, driven by rising demand and insufficient investment, approach last year’s highs, according to a new report from Douglas- Westwood.
In Oil: what price can America afford?, author Steven Kopits, who heads Douglas- Westwood’s New York City office, notes that ‘oil played a central role’ in each of the six recessions the US has endured over the past four decades, including those that followed the Arab oil embargo of 1973 and the 1979 Iranian revolution. Historically, the US economy grew well when oil consumption expenditures remained at 2% of GDP or less, Kopits noted, and suffered a recession whenever expenditures exceeded 4% of GDP. Price volatility also appears to play a role: ‘Whenever oil prices have increased by more than 50% year-on-year,’ he said, recessions have followed close behind – including the tech bust of 2001, which is rarely linked to the price of oil.
Those statistics could help lawmakers predict the likely outcomes of different energy policy strategies as Washington weighs the environmental and economic effects of measures aimed at reducing CO2 emissions, the report continued.
As the world digs out of the current recession, concerns are also emerging that renewed demand could mean renewed volatility. Saudi oil minister al-Naimi has warned that underinvestment in oil capacity could produce price spikes of $150/bbl or more. And the investment bank Macquarie recently predicted that spare oil capacity could evaporate by 2013, causing a repeat of the oil price rally of 2Q 2008. If the historic model holds up, that could bode ill for the US: ‘Should oil return’ to $150/bbl, said Kopits, ‘the statistics are not ambiguous. Expect a recession, and a severe one at that.’ OE
Issue: August 2009
BP made a giant oil discovery, at its Tiber Prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The well, located in Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 250 miles south east of Houston, was drilled to a total depth of approximately 35,055 feet, making it one of the deepest wells ever drilled by the oil and gas industry. The well found oil in multiple Lower Tertiary reservoirs. Tiber is operated by BP, with a 62% working interest with co-owners Petrobras.
It estimates that the new pool beneath the ocean's surface could contain more than 3 billion barrels.
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