World gas producers on 23 December approved a charter for the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), which will be headquartered in Doha, Qatar, Russian media reported.

Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said at a closing news conference that the ministers of gas producing countries have agreed on the charter that makes GECF, previously an informal group, a more formal organization.

The charter approves the establishment of an executive office and a Doha-based secretariat, with a secretary general to be elected during the next forum, it was reported. Gas producers, the main goal of new group is to monitor the gas market and conduct joint research, have agreed to exchange information concerning investment programmes, and cooperate in the fields such as marketing, technology and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

They did not rule out possible coordination on price, however, and discussed the pricing mechanism of the gas market at the meeting as well.

Alexander Medvedev, deputy chairman of Gazprom, which supplies 25 percent of the European Union’s gas, promised that GECF won’t become a monopolistic cartel.

The GECF includes Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela plus Equatorial Guinea, which was granted full membership at the current forum. Kazakhstan and Norway were granted observer status. Shmatko said GECF is open to all countries, but full membership is only granted by the approval of at least three quarters of all members.Russia, Iran and Qatar are believed to account for nearly one third of world’s natural gas exports.

India’s Reliance Petroleum has started processing crude oil at its new refinery in western India, creating the world’s biggest refining complex.

The company opened its 580,000 barrels per day refinery in Jamnagar in the western state of Gujarat on 26 December Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) said in a statement.

Combined with an adjacent 660,000 barrels per day refinery, the new unit will the Jamnagar complex the world’s largest, with a capacity of 1.24 million barrels a day. “We will leverage our competitive advantages of scale, complexity and capability to process a wide range of crude oils and flexibility to produce high quality transportation fuels,” company chairman Makesh Ambani said.

Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and its partners, Daewoo International Corporation and Korea Gas Corporation of the Republic of Korea, ONGC Videsh Ltd and GAIL (India) Ltd of India and Korea Gas Corporation of India, the sellers, signed a Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement, Shwe Project, Myanmar, with the purchaser, China National United Oil Corporation at Yangon on 24 December.

The agreement was signed to export natural gas to China from Shwe natural gas at Blocks A1 and A3 at Rakhine coastal region through pipelines.

In a separate development, China and Myanmar are in discussions to unload crude oil tankers from the Middle East bound for China at either southern or western Myanmar and transfer by overland pipelines to southern China. This would save both time and cost vis-à-vis shipping through the Straits of Melaka.

Singapore Petroleum Company Limited (“SPC” or “the Company”) today announced that the Company has through its wholly-owned subsidiary, SPC E&P Upstream Pte Ltd (“SPC E&P Upstream”), entered into a Petroleum Production Sharing Contract (“PSC”) with Badan Pelaksana Kegiatan Usaha Hulu Minyak Dan Gas Bumi (“BPMIGAS”), an Indonesian state-owned legal entity, to explore the Mahakam Hilir Block (“Block”), subject to final government approvals.

SPC will be the Operator of the Block and is committed to conduct seismic survey and exploration drilling under the PSC. The Block, covering approximately 344.14 square kilometres, is located onshore Kutai Basin in the East Kalimantan Province, which is situated approximately one kilometre south of Samarinda town. The Kutai Basin is one of the largest and most important oil and gas producing basins in Indonesia.

Commenting on the announcement, SPC Chief Executive Officer, Mr Koh Ban Heng said, “Our investment is in line with SPC’s plan to grow its exploration and production business, and participate in the entire oil and gas value chain. We are pleased to expand our E&P presence in Indonesia with the operatorship of SPC’s first onshore block. “This integration of SPC’s businesses will diversify SPC’s earnings in the long-term and in many ways, validates our E&P growth.”

Stolt-Nielsen plans to build a 325,000 cubic meters chemical storage terminal on 15 hectares of vacant land on Jurong Island, Singapore. The terminal, Stolthaven Singapore, will be potentially the last chemical tankfarm to be built on Jurong Island given the limited land available on the island. The company intends to build a fully integrated chemical storage terminal with 3 jetties, a drive through tank container cleaning facility, waste water treatment plant, dangerous goods storage site and gas storage facilities. The project will be carried out over 2 phases with expected completion of Phase 1 in 2010.

Stolthaven Singapore will act as a regional hub to improve the efficiency of parcel tankers at the point of transfer of cargo from shore to land and ship to ship. Stolt-Nielsen already has a significant presence in the Asia Pacific region with commercial and ship management offices, tank container depots, bulk-liquid storage terminals and deep sea/ regional shipping networks.

This latest terminal project in Singapore is part of Stolthaven's strategy to develop terminals in emerging markets to facilitate the growth of sea borne chemical transport in the Asia Pacific region. In addition to Stolthaven Singapore, Stolt-Nielsen owns interests in terminals located in Ulsan, Korea (526,000 cubic meters) and Westport, Malaysia (107,800 cubic meters). The company also owns interest in 2 new terminal projects under construction in China, with Stolthaven Lingang (Tianjin; Phase 1: 220,000 cubic metres) commencing operations in late 2008 and Stolthaven Ningbo (Daxie Island; Phase 1: 200,000 cubic meters) expected to be operational in 2009