SE Asia poised to be central energy market, region’s O&G to step up

SINGAPORE (9 Jun 2011) – Expounding on revised expansion plans of Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), Datuk Shamsul Azhar Abbas, chief executive officer of Petronas, said that, “Capex quantum will be intensified to outpace rising costs, upgrade asset integrity, enhance yield of existing/legacy assets, drive growth and venture into more challenging and green field plays such as enhanced oil recovery, deep-water and unconventional (hydrocarbons)”.

Chief amongst Petronas’ ambitious plans is the Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development Project (Rapid) which involves a RM60 billion construction of an integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex in Southern Johor. The project is slated to augment the country’s technological know-how and draw more FDIs. There is much cause for cheer with these detailed designs and proposals. It is also important for these plans to be brought to fruition and implemented so that they do not go awry like other multi-billion ringgit projects such as the Yan-Bachok oil pipeline, storage and tankage project(s). While signed deals denote progressive development and expansion, actual implementation can make or break the country’s aspirations of becoming a strategic petroleum industry hub.

Despite teething problems at execution, Malaysia appears to be more poised as compared to its neighbours in leveraging on the region’s seemingly insatiable demand for energy primarily fuelled by sky-rocketing consumption from Chinese and Indian cities. The country’s robust O&G sector accounts for up to a fifth of its gross domestic product. As a matter of fact, Malaysia’s O&G exports grew at an annual average of 13.5 per cent over the last ten years and amounted to RM101.2 billion last year, up 24 per cent from 2009.

By streamlining regulations, Indonesia too can attain Malaysia’s accelerated growth and boost its GDP. A local industry insider commented that, “the oil industry is being bombarded with so many different regulations. The cabotage law remains confusing, the forestry law is overlapping with the mining law and the last revision on cost recovery brought about tax problems”.

As in Malaysia’s case, Philippines could intensify exploration activities and increase the number of discoveries made for its O&G industry to make positive economic impact. On the other hand, the growth of Thailand’s O&G sector at this point is mostly dependent on improved relations with Cambodia. As for Vietnam, what is required are increased O&G investments and better international benchmarking.

Furthermore, it is also essential for the abovementioned countries to optimise recovery of depleting resources in the mid to long-term for energy efficiency and prolonging of reserves for future generations.

Where ‘easy oil’ has become a thing of the past, countries need to ask:

• Do we have energy security for economic growth and stability?
• How can we reduce our import dependency?
• Are we investing in technology and optimising recovery to prolong lifespan of reserves?
• Is our energy production/consumption sustainable?

Production Optimisation Week Asia Welcomes Dr. Ing. Evita Legowo, Director-General, Oil & Gas, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Indonesia and Mr. Aftab Ahmad Khan, Executive Director, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, India

With the recent affirmation of the Indonesian government on its aim to increase oil production to one (1) million bpd over the coming years by offering new exploration rights and encouraging enhanced production from existing wells with its fresh incentives to oil and gas investors and ONGC Rajahmundry Asset’s over-achievement of its onshore oil & gas production targets year after year since 2006, we would like to welcome Dr. Ing. Evita Legowo and Mr Aftab Khan to Production Optimisation Week Asia!

Dr. Ing. Evita Legowo leads Indonesia’s oil and gas industry to new heights with favourable tax treatment and improved production splits, as the country considers offering more incentives to foreign investors to encourage oil and gas projects.

As Executive Director – Asset Manager, Rajahmundry Asset of ONGC, Mr. Khan is responsible for steering the most valuable region of ONGC where onshore activities are spread over three districts in the State of Andhra Pradesh viz., East Godavari, West Godavari and Krishna. Also looks after the drilling operations of ONGC in offshore in the East Coast.

The Center for Energy Sustainability and Economics is convening Production Optimisation Week Asia (POWA) 2011 from 25th to 29th July 2011 in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to help oil and gas companies such as state-owned oil companies from as far as the Africa, South America and the Middle East to generate alignment to boost recovery and revenue and come together for informed and integrated approaches to a diverse variety of conditions. The meeting will involve senior company executives as well as functional heads in charge of reservoir engineering, production engineering, drilling and completions engineering, particularly those involved with each company’s mature, marginal, deepwater and other technically and commercially challenging fields.

POWA 2011 is specifically designed based on the feedback of experts and specialists from major oil and gas operators concerning their current challenges and needs associated with maximising production and with world-leading optimisation strategies and solutions. Ergo, we ascertained that POWA 2011, with its well-rounded and solution-focused structure, will successfully respond to the need for ground breaking solutions and technology as well as policy and strategy and cost-efficient advanced techniques to maximise and optimise production, increase recovery and improve HSE.

Thus, for the very first time – combining the reservoir, production and completions engineering, POWA 2011 will provide you a real comprehensive, multidisciplinary platform highlighting the breadth and depth of information you need to provide the best solutions and services to your clients in oil and gas industry as they share their current challenges and needs. The event website can be accessed on http://www.arcmediaglobal.com/powa

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If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with the speakers at POWA 2011,
please call Eunice Wee at (+65) 6844 2080 or email Eunice at powa@arcmediaglobal.com

The Center for Energy Sustainability and Economics (Center for Energy) is an industry research centre (IRC) that works to bring top executives together in communities of learning and practice to act as a catalyst for generating high-value energy business insight and channel top expertise to where the world needs it most. Meetings by the Center for Energy are managed by Arc Media Global, the world’s first B2B/G2B integrated marketing specialist headquartered in Singapore.

Robinson Road P.O. Box 176, Singapore 900326

Contact: Eunice Wee
Arc Media Global
(+65) 6844 2080
powa@arcmediaglobal.com
www.arcmediaglobal.com/powa

This release was published on openPR.