"Lel Bruce Peto" recommended 2000 oil chronology reading..

"Lel Bruce Peto" recommended 2000 oil chronology reading..


 Oil & Gas Chronology :  Year 2000, partial.

April 2000



April 5 The government of Iran announces that it has seized a tanker which 
was smuggling Iraqi oil through Iranian territorial waters. A spokesman 
for the United States Department of State welcomes the action. 

April 6 PetroChina, a holding company which serves as a stock market 
listing entity for the China National Petroleum Corporation, launches an 
initial public offering (IPO) on the New York and Hong Kong stock 
exchanges. The IPO is valued at nearly $3 billion, scaled back drastically 
in size due to a lack of investor interest. 

April 7 Tosco Corporation agrees to purchase the Wood River Refinery, 
located in Illinois from Equilon Enterprises, a joint venture between 
Texaco and Shell, for $420 million. Equilon officials say the sale is part 
of a shift to concentrate on the West Coast petroleum products market.

April 12 Several Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of major United States 
oil companies meet with senior Saudi Arabian officials to discuss possible 
investments in natural gas and petrochemical projects. The firms 
represented at the meetings include Chevron, Conoco, ExxonMobil, Marathon 
Oil, Phillips Petroleum, and Texaco. The Saudi government announces, in 
conjunction with the meetings, a package of legal changes that will make 
Saudi Arabia more open to foreign investors. Complete foreign ownership 
will be allowed for some types of projects, and the maximum corporate tax 
rate for foreign enterprises will be reduced to 15 percent. 

April 14 BP Amoco receives approval from the Federal Trade Commission 
(FTC) for its $28 billion takeover of Atlantic Richfield Corporation 
(ARCO). As part of the approval, ARCO has agreed to sell its crude oil 
production operations in Alaska to Phillips Petroleum in a deal valued at 
$6.5 billion. 

April 18 The China National Petroleum Corporation announces an agreement 
with Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to begin purchases of Orimulsion, a 
power-plant fuel made from bitumen from Venezuela's Orinoco region. 

April 18 Amerada Hess Corporation announces an agreement with the Algerian 
state-owned oil company Sonatrach to develop three oil fields in central 
Algeria. The $555 million project will develop the El Gassi, El Agreb, and 
Zotti fields. 

April 19 The United States Commerce Department reports a record $29.2 
billion trade deficit for February 2000. This is due largely to the sharp 
increase in prices for crude oil imports, which added $1.3 billion to the 
monthly trade deficit. 

April 24 The American Petroleum Institute (API) files a federal lawsuit 
seeking to overturn the Interior Department's new rules for royalty 
valuation of natural gas produced from federal government lands. The 
Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), which represents 
independent oil and gas companies, also has filed a similar lawsuit.

April 25 Royal Dutch Shell agrees to pay a $2 million fine for 
transporting smuggled Iraqi oil aboard a Russian tanker. The tanker, 
Akademik Pustovoit, was detained by United States naval vessels enforcing 
United Nations sanctions against Iraq on April 5. Defense Department 
spokesman Kenneth Bacon states that Shell appeared to have acquired the 
Iraqi oil unwittingly, and would therefore be allowed to keep the cargo. 
The fine will go into a United Nations fund for the enforcement of 
sanctions. 

April 28 Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey sign a final governmental 
agreement in Washington on the planned Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, which would 
transport oil from the Caspian Sea region to Western markets through the 
Turkish port of Ceyhan. The agreement covers the issues of transit fees, 
security, and governmental liability involved in the project. 

April 29 Iraq's oil ministry states that it expects to export more than 
$8.5 billion of oil in the current six-month phase of the United 
Nations "oil-for-food" program. 

April 30 Total Fina Elf announces that it intends to invest $8 billion in 
Saudi Arabia's natural gas sector. The announcement comes following a 
meeting between Total Chairman Thierry Desmarest and Saudi Arabia's Oil 
and Gas Policy Committee, which includes Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal 
and Petroleum Minister Ali Naimi. The Saudi government has been seeking 
foreign investment in natural gas and petrochemical projects. 

April 30 The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signs a 25-year agreement 
with a consortium of multinational firms for a set of studies dealing with 
its natural gas sector. The topics will include estimating reserves and 
assessment of Iran's prospects for both increased domestic use and export 
of natural gas. Firms involved in the agreement include BP Amoco, Royal 
Dutch Shell, British Gas, and Gaz de France, among others.

Received on Sunday, 23 February 2003 13:07:11 UTC