Category:

South Korea’s October product exports rise 16% to 21-month high

Seoul (Platts)–27Nov2014/438 am EST/938 GMT South Korea’s exports of refined oil products rose 16% year on year by volume in October, the biggest increase in 21 months. However, many of the sales were done on a spot basis, at lower prices than in previous months, as the country’s refiners drew down their inventories and as lower margins and refinery runs in China saw the country import more products from South Korea, industry sources said Thursday, November 26. The 16% rise — the biggest since January 2013’s 18.7% year-on-year increase — saw South Korea’s product exports reach 41.34 million barrels in October, or an average 1.33 million b/d, up from 35.64 million barrels a year earlier, according to data released earlier this week by state owned Korea National Oil Corp. The October total was also up 7.7% from 38.38 million barrels in September, and marked the fourth consecutive month of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Continental brings South Korea to Oklahoma shale

Continental Resources brings South Korean partner into emerging Oklahoma shale basin. UPI/Gary C. Caskey U.S. shale player Continental Resources said Monday it has signed a deal with a South Korean company to develop its gas assets in Oklahoma. Continental, which has headquarters in Oklahoma City, announced it sold 49.9 percent of its stake in the Northwest Cana Woodford shale basin to South Korean conglomerate SK Group for roughly $360 million. "We are excited to establish this joint venture with such an established and highly regarded major international energy company," Harold Hamm, Continental’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. Continental has a stake in 37 producing wells in the Cana Woodford shale. The company said it plans to start drilling into the Oklahoma shale basin next month, with four rigs deployed through its partnership with SK Group by the end of the year. Oil services company Baker […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Conoco Uses Exemption to Export Crude to South Korea

ConocoPhillips (COP) is shipping a cargo of Alaska North Slope crude to Asia, making rare use of a Bill Clinton-era exemption to U.S. oil export restrictions. Conoco, Alaska’s largest oil producer, will deliver the cargo to Asia in the fourth quarter, Houston-based company spokesman Daren Beaudo said by e-mail. The shipment was first reported by Louisville, Kentucky-based Genscape Inc., an energy intelligence firm. The Polar Discovery, a 140,000-deadweight ton oil tanker, left the oil port of Valdez in Alaska on Sept. 26 after filling with cargo, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The ship reported today that its destination is Yeosu, South Korea. It’s scheduled to arrive Oct. 10. “ConocoPhillips has the capability to export a limited amount of its Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude oil production to non-U.S. customers as allowed by law,” Beaudo said. “This will enable the state of Alaska and ConocoPhillips to potentially […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

LG Chem to Supply Batteries For Audi Plug-In Hybrids

An Audi A3 e-tron hybrid vehicle at the New York auto show in April. Bloomberg News SEOUL—South Korean battery maker LG Chem Ltd. has reached a deal to supply hundreds of millions of dollars of batteries for plug-in hybrid vehicles to Audi AG , a unit of German auto maker Volkswagen AG . LG Chem, the world’s largest battery maker by sales, didn’t disclose details of the deal, but said it would help Volkswagen bolster sluggish global sales of plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles. "The batteries will be used in Audi’s next-generation plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Given that Audi shares many auto platforms with parent Volkswagen, we expect more such deals from the German auto group," LG said in a statement Wednesday. LG Chem didn’t disclose the exact value of the deal, saying only that it is worth hundreds of billions of won. It also declined to reveal when […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Arctic Ice Melt Seen Freeing Way for South Korean Oil Hub

Melting Arctic ice is widening a path for ships to deliver European oil to Asia, stoking South Korea’s ambition to become a regional storage and trading hub. The country, whose proximity to China, Russia and Japan makes it an ideal conduit for oil arriving via the Arctic, plans to add tanks for storing almost 60 million barrels of crude and refined products by 2020, about the same as Singapore’s current capacity. The nation also seeks to leverage its energy infrastructure, which includes five refineries, to become Northeast Asia’s oil hub, said Kim Jun Dong , the deputy minister of energy and resources policy. Global temperatures are rising, breaking up polar ice and opening the Northern Sea Route to tanker traffic for a longer period each year than from July to October. It’s forecast to be ice-free for six months by 2020, boosting South Korea’s appeal as the destination for […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Canada-South Korea trade deal would remove duties for Canadian oil, LNG exports

A proposed free trade agreement between Canada and South Korea would remove the current 3% to 8% tariff that Canadian oil and gas producers have to pay for exports into that Asian nation, a Canadian government spokeswoman said Monday. Claude Rochon, a spokeswoman with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, said crude oil and LNG exports — with current duties of 3% — would become "duty-free immediately" upon implementation of the FTA. A duty of up to 8% imposed by the South Korean government on imports of Canadian refined products would be removed in stages, she said, noting 96% would be "free" right away with the FTA coming into effect and the remaining 4% over the next five years. Canada is not known to export large volumes of crude oil to South Korea, but Rochon said the deal would significantly improve market access for the Canadian oil and gas […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

South Korean Kogas’ LNG imports inch up on year to 12.61 mil mt LNG in Q1

South Korea’s state-owned Korea Gas Corp imported 12.61 million mt of LNG in the first quarter, up 0.5% from 12.55 million mt a year earlier, the company said in a statement Wednesday. All of the volumes were imported under long-term contracts. Kogas has term contracts for 10.02 million-11.02 million mt/year from Qatar, 4 million mt/year from Malaysia, 4 million mt/year from Oman, 3 million mt/year from Indonesia, 1.5 million mt/year from Russia’s Sakhalin, 1.3 million mt/year from Egypt, 0.7 million mt/year from Brunei and 0.5 million mt/year from Australia, according to the company. The company plans to import an additional 7.1 million mt/year from Australia from 2015 and another 2 million mt/year from 2018, as well as 3.5 million mt/year from the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana from 2017. Kogas’ domestic natural gas sales totaled 11.57 million mt in Q1, down 5.5% from 12.24 million mt in the same […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

South Korean Kogas' LNG imports inch up on year to 12.61 mil mt LNG in Q1

South Korea’s state-owned Korea Gas Corp imported 12.61 million mt of LNG in the first quarter, up 0.5% from 12.55 million mt a year earlier, the company said in a statement Wednesday. All of the volumes were imported under long-term contracts. Kogas has term contracts for 10.02 million-11.02 million mt/year from Qatar, 4 million mt/year from Malaysia, 4 million mt/year from Oman, 3 million mt/year from Indonesia, 1.5 million mt/year from Russia’s Sakhalin, 1.3 million mt/year from Egypt, 0.7 million mt/year from Brunei and 0.5 million mt/year from Australia, according to the company. The company plans to import an additional 7.1 million mt/year from Australia from 2015 and another 2 million mt/year from 2018, as well as 3.5 million mt/year from the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana from 2017. Kogas’ domestic natural gas sales totaled 11.57 million mt in Q1, down 5.5% from 12.24 million mt in the same […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

South Korea Must Limit U.S. Shale-Gas Imports to 20% of Total, Kogas Says

South Korea must limit the share of U.S. shale gas to one-fifth of its total gas imports to avoid excessive dependence on a single supply source, a senior executive at state-run Korea Gas Corp. said Monday. "In my personal opinion, around 20% of shale gas [liquefied natural gas] is desirable. Too much exposure to shale gas LNG is not too desirable," said Kwon Young-Sik, chief operating officer at Kogas’s resources division. Asian importers of LNG such as South Korea are mulling a number of new supply sources as gas producers in Australia, the U.S., Canada, Russia and East Africa race to get new projects running. South Korea, the world’s second-largest importer of natural gas, imported around 37 million tons of LNG in 2012, according to the International Gas Union. It is positioned to be the first Asian importer of U.S. natural gas, as it has contracted […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

South Korea’s Jan crude imports from Iran plunge 66% on year to 64,419 b/d

South Korea’s imports of Iranian crude oil in January plunged 66.1% to 1.997 million barrels, or 64,419 b/d, compared with 5.896 million barrels a year earlier, data released Monday by state-run Korea National Oil Corp. showed. The January volume also fell 50.5% from 4.036 million barrels of Iranian crude imported in December, the data showed. For all of 2013, South Korea imported 48.21 million barrels of Iranian crude, down 14.1% from 2012. The US in November extended a six-month waiver from Iran sanctions to nine countries including South Korea, as the countries were deemed to have made significant reductions in the purchases in the previous six months. The waiver extension came after the US and five other global powers agreed in Geneva in November to a six-month pause in efforts to further reduce Iran’s crude sales in return for concessions on Iran’s nuclear program. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple