With the race to export potentially vast volumes of oil and natural gas from the Caspian Sea nations in full swing, is the time ripe for new investors to look towards opportunities in this region? It may well be. - These Turkmen offshore platforms were built by former Soviets. Photo by the author
Uncertainty surrounding the legal regime that will eventually govern hydrocarbon development and exports from the Caspian Sea is one of several risk factors that investors have had to consider in doing business in the region.
Leadership in Turkmenistan, one of the Caspian Sea countries, has yet to recognize the importance of the Trans-Caspian Pipeline (TCP) in creating opportunities for a linked Turkey and Turkmenistan.
In developing the Zuata area of Eastern Venezuela's Orinoco heavy-oil belt, Sincor has improved its overall operational efficiency through a multidiscipline integration at the planning stage coupled with real-time monitoring, from multiple locations, of well construction.
Simulation of Chevron Canada Resources Ltd.'s Kaybob South No. 3 gas plant's sulfur-recovery unit (SRU) has been successful in steady state using the HYSYS process simulator and a very close match obtained with the SULSIM steady-state simulation of the plant.
In late March, Formosa Plastics Corp. USA started commercial production of one of two trains in its grassroots polypropylene unit in Point Comfort, Tex.
Installation of what the contractor claims to be the largest and heaviest reeled pipe was completed in recent weeks for the Blake field, located in 95-m water about 9 km north of the Ross field in the Moray Firth.
Work progresses on the looping of the Trans Austria gas pipeline that moves Russian natural gas from the Slovakia-Austria border to Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia as well as into and across Austria.
Redesigned, improved SSW-04 and SSW-03 soft starters for motors promise to provide a complete and cost effective solution to reduce mechanical stress and limit inrush current and voltage drops.
The report of the National Energy Policy Development Group, headed by US Vice-Pres. Dick Cheney and entitled, "Reliable, Affordable, and Environmentally Sound Energy for America's Future," features the following key recommendations for action.
In a major move to reopen its upstream sector to foreign investors, Saudi Arabia has named eight international oil and gas companies to participate in three natural gas exploration and development projects with an initial total cost estimated at $25 billion.
With the sinking of the Erika tanker off France in 1999 still casting a long shadow over the maritime sector, the decision by the International Maritime Organization in London last month to rubber-stamp a new global timetable to phase out all single-hull tankers within 15 years from September 2002 had few detractors.
