Japanese oil companies, engineering contractors, and petrochemical producers have scheduled a program of overseas developments.
Oil wholesaler Cosmo Oil Co. won a concession to develop an unnamed oil field off Abu Dhabi, Tokyo newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. This is billed as the first major concession granted to a foreign concern in a Persian Gulf state since the oil crisis of 1973.
The field is expected to produce 20,000 30,000 b/d, but development depends on relaxation of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries production quotas. Total production from the United Arab Emirates is limited to 2.16 million b/d by OPEC.
In other activity, engineering contractor Chiyoda Corp. and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization have completed a feasibility study for a $10 billion Middle East to Far East gas pipeline project.
Chiyoda is said to be planning to build by 2010 the 7,000 km gas link from the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea via the Persian Gulf to Japan. Chiyoda reportedly has approached Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. to join the project. The plan envisages a pipeline supplying gas to Japan and other Asian countries and to Europe.
In addition, Mitsui Petrochemical Industries Ltd. and Toray Industries Inc. agreed to set up a joint venture to build a polyethylene terephthalate resin plant in Indonesia. A 30,000 metric ton/year plant is to be built in a Jakarta suburb, with first production expected in January 1996.
Toray is also said to be planning to build a $480 million polyester fiber plant at Nantong in China's Jiangsu province. Construction will begin this year and is expected to take 5 years.
Mitsui also was reported to be setting up a joint venture with Thailand's Unique Gas & Chemicals Co. to import liquefied petroleum gas and ammonia into Viet Nam from Indonesia.
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