Processing 2000 P

11/13/2000 -- Electric Power news briefs, November 13, 2000
UtiliCorp Communications�El Paso Europe� Southern Energy Inc� European generation needed�
11/13/2000 -- BP starts work on PTA plant in China's Guandong province
BP broke ground Monday on at purified terephthalic acid plant in China's Guandong province. The 240,000 tonnes/year plant is scheduled for completion in late 2002. Construction of the 350,000 tonne/year PTA facility is set for completion in December 2002.
11/13/2000 -- Sunoco to acquire Aristech
Sunoco will acquire Aristech Chemical Corp. from Mitsubishi for $695 million, including $115 million for working capital, Sunoco said Friday. Contingency payments up to a net present value of $167 million may also be made if realized margins for polypropylene and phenol exceed certain agreed upon thresholds.
11/10/2000 -- Emirates to increase bunkering business
The Emirates National Oil Co. plans to become a major player in the regional bunkering business in 12-18 months' time, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' news agency, OPECNA, reported yesterday. ENOC Chief Hussain Sultan said the company plans to invest $10.3 million to build three pipelines connecting its existing Emirates Petroleum Products Co. terminal, the Vopak ENOC Fujairah facility, and the Fujairah refinery to a jetty. Work will be completed by January 2001.
11/09/2000 -- Australian court clears lawsuit against Esso
A $1 billion (Aus.) class action suit brought by Australian businesses and households over a gas supply interruption lasting about 2 weeks in 1998�stemming from a fatal 1998 gas explosion at Esso Australia Ltd.'s Longford gas processing plant�will go ahead, since the Australian federal court has rejected Esso�s claim that the suit was 'unreal and unarguable.'
11/09/2000 -- Higher prices a boon for upstream, a bust for downstream
Higher commodity prices, more production, and increased drilling activity improved third-quarter profits for many upstream companies. But increased costs for oil and gas reduced margins for some downstream operations, analysts said.
11/09/2000 -- CNOOC issues fertilizer plant engineering tenders
China National Offshore Oil Corp. on Nov. 6 issued tenders to four foreign engineering companies for construction of a major fertilizer plant in southern China. The four companies are Krupp Uhde, a subsidiary of Germany's ThyssenKrupp Engineering, Japan's Toyo Engineering Group, Italy's Snamprogetti SPA, and Kellogg Brown & Root, a unit of Halliburton Co. of the US.
11/09/2000 -- Marun awards polyethylene plant contract to Krupp
Marun Petrochemical Co., a subsidiary of Iran's National Petrochemical Co., has awarded a contract to Krupp Uhde, a subsidiary of Germany's ThyssenKrupp Engineering, to build a 200 million deutschemark, 300,000 tonnes/year polyethylene plant that Krupp says will be the largest of its kind in the world.
11/08/2000 -- TotalFinaElf service station sell off gets green light
The European Commission (EC) has finally approved the latest list submitted by TotalFinaElf SA of buyers for those service stations in France it had to divest on anti-competition grounds following its merger with Elf Aquitaine SA. The original list, submitted in September, had been rejected by the EC on the grounds it did not allow for sufficient competition on the country's highway network.
11/07/2000 -- Canadian sulfur regulations to cost refiners millions
Shell Canada Ltd., Calgary, says it will cost up to $200 million (Can.) for it to meet federal regulations on the reduction of sulfur content in gasoline. The federal government approved regulations in 1999 requiring sulfur content be cut to 150 ppm from 350 ppm between mid-2002 and 2004 and lowered to 30 ppm by Jan. 1, 2005.
11/07/2000 -- Major products line planned for western China
The Chinese government has approved the construction of a major oil products pipeline in western China. PetroChina Co. Ltd. plans to begin construction before the end of this year on the 1,207-km line between Lanzhou in the northwest and Chongqing in the southwest. Work will take about 18 months.
11/06/2000 -- NERC: 'Reactive power' needed to maintain reliability
With use rising, the US electricity transmission and distribution system is susceptible to potential voltage collapse or instability without additional investment in reactive power, the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) says in an updated reliability assessment of the nation's bulk electric systems. Reactive 'support is one area that distribution companies cannot ignore, if reliability is to be maintained on the bulk transmission system,' NERC says in its report.
11/06/2000 -- Midcontinent propane shortages loom, consultant says
A Houston consultant says low US propane stocks in secondary and tertiary storage have set the stage for spot shortages in the Midcontinent region during periods of extreme cold this winter. He said US secondary and tertiary stocks are down 30 million bbl from the historic average, with a disproportionate share of that in the Midcontinent.
11/06/2000 -- China considers reorganizing State Power Corp.
China is about to embark on a major reform of the electric power industry aiming to break the state monopoly and encourage competition among producers and distributors. The reforms call for dissolving the State Power Corp. and reorganizing it into three sections: a department of electricity under the State Economic and Trade Commission, which will serve as the government regulatory body; an association for the power sector; and a state grid company.
11/03/2000 -- Unocal begins production from marginal Indonesian field
Unocal Corp. has begun producing 4,700 b/d of crude oil from Mahoni field off Indonesia's Borneo Island. Production started from a single well in Balikpapan Bay, off East Kalimantan. Unocal plans to bring another three wells in the field on stream by the end of this year.
11/03/2000 -- Electric Power news briefs, November 3
Detroit Edison Co. ... Empire Energy Corp. ... Commonwealth Energy Corp. ... Evergreen Resources Inc. ... Cherryland Electric Cooperative ... Great Lakes Energy Cooperative ... HomeWorks Tri-County Electric Cooperative ... Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op ... AES Corp. ... Gener SA ... TransAlta Corp. ... Dominion Energy ... Cleveland Thermal Energy Corp. ... Cleveland District Cooling Corp. ... Madison Gas and Electric Co. ... NiSource Inc.
11/03/2000 -- US greenhouse gas emissions rise in 1999
US total greenhouse gas emissions rose 0.8% in 1999 to 1,833 million tonnes of carbon equivalent (MMTCe), according to government estimates, compared to 1998 levels. Analysts at the US Energy Information Administration said the increase was slightly lower than the 1.1% average annual increase that characterized total US greenhouse gas emissions during the 1990s but significantly higher than the 0.1% growth between 1997-1998.
11/03/2000 -- Lukoil acquires Getty in first deal of its kind for a Russian firm
Lukoil, Russia's largest oil company, is acquiring Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc., one of the largest independent US marketers of gasoline and petroleum products, in a $71 million cash deal. The transaction marks the first acquisition of a publicly-held US company by a Russian corporation and the first step in Lukoil's proposed expansion into the US market, officials said.
11/03/2000 -- $225 million olefins complex planned at Port Arthur
A joint venture plans to build a $225-million, world-scale, integrated C4 olefins complex at Port Arthur, Tex. Two of the companies in the venture also plan to build a $25 million olefins conversion unit nearby. Construction of both plants is due to begin in the second quarter and be completed in the first half of 2003.
11/03/2000 -- The army and oil
It should be no surprise that Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chavez, a former army paratrooper, has turned to the army to help him manage state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

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