Looking East: Petro dollars shower on Southeast Asia
Talking last week about the prospects of energy investment from the Gulf in Southeast Asia, it seems that especially the petroleum industry is taking this option seriously. From Riyadh over Abu Dhabi to Doha, every major oil player seemingly wants to get involved in a region with high hydrocarbon demand and relatively low labour costs.
By Arno Maierbrugger
Companies such as Saudi Aramco, Qatar Petroleum, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and others are looking into the opportunity to tap the oil and gas exploration potential of the region. For example, Qatar Petroleum has already taken a stake in a $4 billion Vietnamese petrochemical complex in 2012, contributing 25 per cent of the total cost to the tune of $1 billion.
Kuwait Petroleum has just sorted out the red tape for its participation in an engineering, procurement and construction project for a $9 billion refinery project in Hanoi involving Kuwait, Vietnam and Japan. Kuwait is to supply all the feedstock for the facility, which includes petrochemical units, energy facilities, a pipeline and storage systems, along with information management systems.
Saudi Aramco has just announced plans to set up an $8 billion joint venture with Pertamina, Indonesia’s state oil and gas company, in East Java that will process 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil with the majority of it being supplied by Saudi Aramco.
After monitoring developments in Southeast Asia, Abu Dhabi’s Borouge is opening plastics sales offices throughout the region, anticipating overall growth for the Asian plastics market at 5 to 6 per cent annually.
This adds to last week’s announcement of the Qatar Investment Authority to pump $5 billion into oil and petrochemical projects in Malaysia to help the country compete with neighbouring Singapore to become the region’s top petrochemical hub.
Meanwhile, Mubadala Petroleum of Abu Dhabi has started to develop oil fields in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia. The firm’s Southeast Asia business continues to grow with higher than expected oil production in Thailand from the Jasmine Field and the finalisation of development plans for the Thai Manora Field which should begin production by 2014.
To assist with the necessary infrastructure, Dubai’s Drydocks World has just agreed to build a $2.5 billion maritime complex to develop a maritime cluster on Batam Island in Indonesia, just across Singapore, that would serve, among others, the petrochemicals industry.
The new focus of Gulf oil investors follows a time when everybody was looking at China. Since this country has lost some of its attraction due to a slowing economy, Southeast Asia has developed as the new hub for the petrochemical business in the region, with a potential that might even be bigger than China’s.
This comment is part of Inside Investor’s weekly column series in Qatar’s leading newspaper Gulf Times and is published every Sunday.
Talking last week about the prospects of energy investment from the Gulf in Southeast Asia, it seems that especially the petroleum industry is taking this option seriously. From Riyadh over Abu Dhabi to Doha, every major oil player seemingly wants to get involved in a region with high hydrocarbon demand and relatively low labour costs. By Arno Maierbrugger Companies such as Saudi Aramco, Qatar Petroleum, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and others are looking into the opportunity to tap the oil and gas exploration potential of the region. For example, Qatar Petroleum has already taken a stake in a $4...
Talking last week about the prospects of energy investment from the Gulf in Southeast Asia, it seems that especially the petroleum industry is taking this option seriously. From Riyadh over Abu Dhabi to Doha, every major oil player seemingly wants to get involved in a region with high hydrocarbon demand and relatively low labour costs.
By Arno Maierbrugger
Companies such as Saudi Aramco, Qatar Petroleum, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and others are looking into the opportunity to tap the oil and gas exploration potential of the region. For example, Qatar Petroleum has already taken a stake in a $4 billion Vietnamese petrochemical complex in 2012, contributing 25 per cent of the total cost to the tune of $1 billion.
Kuwait Petroleum has just sorted out the red tape for its participation in an engineering, procurement and construction project for a $9 billion refinery project in Hanoi involving Kuwait, Vietnam and Japan. Kuwait is to supply all the feedstock for the facility, which includes petrochemical units, energy facilities, a pipeline and storage systems, along with information management systems.
Saudi Aramco has just announced plans to set up an $8 billion joint venture with Pertamina, Indonesia’s state oil and gas company, in East Java that will process 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil with the majority of it being supplied by Saudi Aramco.
After monitoring developments in Southeast Asia, Abu Dhabi’s Borouge is opening plastics sales offices throughout the region, anticipating overall growth for the Asian plastics market at 5 to 6 per cent annually.
This adds to last week’s announcement of the Qatar Investment Authority to pump $5 billion into oil and petrochemical projects in Malaysia to help the country compete with neighbouring Singapore to become the region’s top petrochemical hub.
Meanwhile, Mubadala Petroleum of Abu Dhabi has started to develop oil fields in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia. The firm’s Southeast Asia business continues to grow with higher than expected oil production in Thailand from the Jasmine Field and the finalisation of development plans for the Thai Manora Field which should begin production by 2014.
To assist with the necessary infrastructure, Dubai’s Drydocks World has just agreed to build a $2.5 billion maritime complex to develop a maritime cluster on Batam Island in Indonesia, just across Singapore, that would serve, among others, the petrochemicals industry.
The new focus of Gulf oil investors follows a time when everybody was looking at China. Since this country has lost some of its attraction due to a slowing economy, Southeast Asia has developed as the new hub for the petrochemical business in the region, with a potential that might even be bigger than China’s.
This comment is part of Inside Investor’s weekly column series in Qatar’s leading newspaper Gulf Times and is published every Sunday.
