Jimmy Carter announces opposition to Keystone

Former President Jimmy Carter has announced his opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, calling it a “linchpin for tar sands expansion and the increased pollution that will follow.”

Carter joined nine other Nobel laureates -- including anti-apartheid activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu -- in signing a letter urging President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to reject the $5.4 bn link between Canadian heavy crude and U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

“Not only is Carter a former president, but he is a former president whose visionary energy policies have proved prescient in recent years,” Anthony Swift, an international attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.

The Nobel laureates’ open letter was published today in Politico, a Washington-based publication, as a final decision on the project that’s been under review for five years may be near. Eight federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, have until May 1 to submit comments to the U.S. State Department, which is reviewing the project because it would cross the U.S. border.

There’s no timeline for a final decision, which Obama, also Nobel Peace Prize winner, has said he will make after the State Department completes its review.

The NRDC, the Sierra Club, the Nobel Women’s Initiative and Environmental Defence, a Canadian environmental group, sponsored the ad with the letter. Critics say the pipeline will worsen climate change by promoting development of Alberta’s oil sands, which release more carbon dioxide than other forms of crude oil. Supporters say the oil will find it’s way to market even without the pipeline, which will provide construction jobs.

Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, director of the NRDC’s international program, said the letter reflects the “ethical and moral” nature of the Keystone XL debate.

As the administration weighs the project, the factions fighting over it have sought to marshal current and former politicians, foreign dignitaries, scientists and celebrities to their cause.

Larry Noble, a counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based group that monitors campaign finance and other political issues, said gaining support from well-known people can help generate public concern.

It’s particularly important for Keystone opponents to do so because they can’t match the spending the oil and gas industry can make in support of the project, he said.

“If you don’t do it and it’s a close vote, then you’re concerned you didn’t pull out all the stops,” Noble said in a phone interview. “Those names will get someone to read something they might not have otherwise read.”

Supporters play the game too. The American Petroleum Institute has said in advertisements that former presidents George W. Bush, a Republican, and Bill Clinton, a Democrat, support the piepline.

R.C. Hammond, a spokesman for the Consumer Energy Alliance, an industry group whose members include Exxon Mobil Corp., said said in an email that investors Warren Buffett and T. Boone Pickens also favor Keystone, as does action star Chuck Norris.

Critics can point to actors Robert Redford, Daryl Hannah, and Jared Leto as allies. Last week NRDC released a list of 100 scientists and engineers urging Obama to reject the project.

Swift, of the NRDC, said Carter carries special weight because of his advocacy for energy innovation during his 1977-80 presidency, which included putting solar panels on the White House roof.

The State Department is reviewing whether Keystone is in the national interest, weighing factors including its environmental, economic and diplomatic impacts.

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By Tolfem Investments Limited, online.

Total launches Kaombo ultra-deep project offshore Angola

Total and its JV partners have made the final investment decision to develop the ultra-deep offshore Kaombo project in Angola. With a production capacity of 230,000 bpd, Kaombo will develop estimated reserves of 650 MMbbl. Following an intensive optimization exercise, the project’s capital expenditure to reach full capacity was reduced by $4 bn to $16 bn, with an expected start-up in 2017.

“With the launch of Kaombo, the upcoming start-up of CLOV and three exploration wells planned in the Kwanza basin this year, Angola remains a priority country for Total,” outlined Yves-Louis Darricarrere, President Total Upstream. “While continuing our commitment to develop the Angolan oil industry, Total has significantly optimized the project’s design and contracting strategy in recent months. Kaombo illustrates both the Group’s capital discipline and objective to reduce capex.”

Located approximately 260 km offshore Luanda in water depths ranging from 1,400 to 1,900 m, the Kaombo project will develop six of the 12 discoveries already made on Block 32. The six fields (Gengibre, Gindungo, Caril, Canela, Mostarda and Louro) cover an area of 800 sq km in the central and southeast part of the block.

The Kaombo development scheme includes 59 subsea wells connected through around 300 km of subsea lines to two FPSOs, each with a production capacity of 115,000 bpd. The two FPSOs will be based on conversions of very large crude carriers (VLCCs) into production units. Associated gas will be exported to the onshore Angola LNG plant.

The Kaombo development includes a substantial level of local content. Over 14 mn man-hours of fabrication and construction works will be performed locally in Angolan yards which will be used for equipment fabrication and assembly.

Total is the operator of Block 32, with a 30% stake, alongside Sonangol P&P (30%), Sonangol Sinopec International (20%), Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) (15%) and Galp Energia (5%).

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By Tolfem Investments Limited, online.

Oil India said to study purchase of Shell's Nigerian oil blocks

Oil India Ltd. is studying an acquisition of Nigerian oil and gas assets owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, according to people familiar with the matter.

Oil India is weighing a bid for stakes Shell holds in some onshore blocks, valued at as much as $2 billion, the people said. It will partner with India’s Sandesara Group on the potential purchase, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the deliberations are private.

The explorer joins Dangote Group, controlled by Africa’s richest man, and Seplat Petroleum Development Co. in seeking to acquire Nigerian assets being sold by Western rivals. Shell and Chevron Corp. are divesting fields in the country amid persistent violence and crude theft in the oil-rich Niger River delta.

India’s government-run oil companies are building on their record $5.5 billion of acquisitions last year to secure supplies for Asia’s second-biggest energy consumer. Oil India, which had 124.9 billion rupees of cash at the end of September, has purchased stakes in gas fields in Mozambique and shale assets in the U.S. over the past two years.

Oil India Chairman S.K. Srivastava and finance director Rupshikha Saikia Borah didn’t answer two calls each to their mobile phones seeking comment. Sandesara Group Chairman Nitin Sandesara didn’t immediately respond to an email and phone call to his office.

Sterling Energy & Exploration Production Ltd., a unit of Sandesara Group, has more than 250 MMbbl of certified oil reserves and 1 Tcf of natural gas reserves in the Niger Delta, according to its website. Nigeria pumped about 2.1 MMbpd last month, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Shell said in October divestments in India have been deferred to 2014. The Anglo-Dutch company’s earnings in the country were curbed by almost $1 billion last year because of oil theft and a LNG export blockade by the government, CFO Simon Henry said March 13.

Earlier this year, Oil & Natural Gas Corp. and Oil India paid $2.5 billion for a 10% stake in a Mozambique natural gas field. Securing fuel supplies is crucial for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as India relies on imports to meet about three-quarters of its oil requirements.

Seplat Petroleum, based in Lagos, and its partners are bidding for two Nigerian oil and gas permits Shell is selling, Chairman A.B.C. Orjiako said March 11. Dangote Group is in talks to purchase onshore oil blocks in the country as international companies sell assets, Group Executive Director said in January.

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By Tolfem Investments Limited, online.