New base energy news issue 834 dated 20 april 2016

Copyright © 2015 NewBase www.hawkenergy.net Edited by Khaled Al Awadi – Energy Consultant All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, redistributed,
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NewBase 20 April 2016 - Issue No. 834 Edited & Produced by: Khaled Al Awadi
NewBase For discussion or further details on the news below you may contact us on +971504822502, Dubai, UAE
UAE: Concrete dome completed at Barakah2 nuclear plant
The National
A concrete dome for one of the Barakah nuclear plant containment buildings is complete. The
milestone for the Western Region plant, announced on Tuesday, was described by officials as a
major achievement in the development of the UAE’s nuclear energy programme.
The dome – 51.4 metres in diameter, 24 metres in height and weighing about 9,000 tonnes – was
described as the final structural component of the containment building, which measures more
than 70 metres in height.
The structure houses the nuclear reactor and is a critical part of the nuclear plant’s defence
barrier. With thick concrete walls and heavy reinforcing steel the building ranks among the
strongest structures in the world, officials said . It is designed to contain radiation.
The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation worked with the Korea Electric Power Corporation and
other partners throughout the construction process. “With the completion of the dome for unit 2,
we are proud to have maintained our track record of safety and efficiency," said Mohamed Al
Hammadi, Enec’s chief executive.

“The construction not only involves highly technical infrastructure but thousands of people working
under the highest standards of safety, security and quality." The next phase will include a three-
month structural integrity test.
Work at Barakah is progressing steadily, with construction of the plant’s four units 62 per cent
complete. Installation of the reactor coolant system’s piping was completed in February.
Pending regulatory approval, the four units are scheduled to be delivered by 2020 and will feed
nuclear energy into the UAE power grid, providing about 25 per cent of the UAE’s electricity needs
while saving up to 12 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, officials said.
4 nuclear power reactors, with a capacity of 1,400 megawatts each.
Additional reactors are planned, including some of the world's most
advanced, to give a four-fold increase in nuclear capacity to at least
58GW by 2020, then possibly 200GW by 2030, and 400GW by 2050,
according to the World Nuclear Association.

Qatargas completes work on region’s 1st MBR wastewater treatment plant
Gulf Times + NewBase
Qatargas has recently completed work on a wastewater treatment plant at one of its liquefied
natural gas plants in Ras Laffan using Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR) technology.
The facility, set up at the Qatargas 1 (QG 1) plant with a capacity to treat nearly 1,300 cubic
metres of wastewater per day, is a first for the LNG industry in the region. The project was
designed in response to an internally identified gap in the QG1 process wastewater treatment
facility in order to treat waste water and get irrigation grade water that could be reused in line with
the State of Qatar’s Ministry of Municipality And Environment (MoME) regulations.
The design, procurement and construction works of the project were led by a multi-disciplinary
team at Qatargas including members of the Environmental Affairs, Engineering and Ventures
Departments that was set up in 2008.
On the significant achievement, Qatargas Chief Operating Officer (Engineering & Ventures)
Sheikh Khalid bin Abdulla al-Thani said, “This is a very important accomplishment for Qatargas as
we have set a precedent in the LNG industry in the region to reuse wastewater at the Qatargas 1
plant.
“This project is a clear manifestation of our commitment to environmental conservation and is part
of the huge investments we have made in the recent past to minimise our environmental footprint,
in line with the values spelled out in the Qatargas Direction Statement. I congratulate all those
who worked on the planning, design and construction phases of this project and those who
contributed to its successful operation.”
An innovative solution has been introduced to set up this facility using a ‘membrane bio-reactor’,
which uses a combination of bacterial bio-reactor to consume and breakdown the pollutants. The
downstream of this bio-reactor’s man-made membranes are used to screen out larger particles,
bacterial-biomass and other compounds.
The pilot MBR Plant was first tested for six months in 2008, following which Qatargas 1 embarked
on the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) and the Execution Phase Contracts (EPC) and the
start-up between 2011 and 2015 for installation of a full scale MBR at QG1. The MBR now operates
at the expected design efficiencies obtaining removal rates of more than 95% for key parameters including
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and nitrogen compounds. These results have allowed the treated water
to be significantly better than other conventional technologies and an indication of the project’s success.
Qatargas said it is keen to introduce “similar innovative solutions” for wastewater treatment at its facilities in
future.

Kuwait: End of strike oil, gas workers end 3-day strike -union
Reuters + NewsAgencies
Kuwaiti oil and gas workers have ended a three-day strike that had temporarily cut the OPEC
member's crude production by nearly half, the trade union said in a statement posted on its Twitter
account.
"In honor of his highness the Emir ... we have decided the following. First, the cancellation of the
general strike and the attendance of all oil sector workers at their places of work beginning at
seven in the morning on Wednesday 20 April 2016," the Oil & Petrochemicals Industries Workers
Confederation wrote.
The union further pledged "to make every effort to immediately return production to its previous
level."
News of the strike's end came just hours after Kuwait's oil minister had ruled out negotiations with
the employees until they stopped their action, while one of the union leaders said the thousands of
workers would hold out until planned public sector pay cuts were canceled.
U.S. oil prices fell slightly after the news. Oil markets had rallied this week as the strike forced
Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) to cut output to as little as 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd), down from
a normal level of about 3 million bpd. By Tuesday output had recovered to around 1.5 million bpd.
Workers fear reduced salaries, benefits and staff layoffs will be part of a planned government
overhaul of the payroll system in the public sector. In an interview with Kuwaiti TV channel al-Rai,
Kuwait's acting oil minister, Anas al-Saleh, said production would continue and that no talks would
proceed during a strike.
"We cannot sit down at the negotiating table with the unions during a strike. We will achieve the
impossible to continue to operate the oil sector despite the strike," Saleh said. Unions had not said
how long the walkout would last. Non-Kuwaiti oil workers are not on strike.
Back Online
Kuwait’s crude output climbed to 1.5 million barrels a day Tuesday as the state oil company
brought more production back online after halting some operations at the start of the strike.
Production in northern Kuwait returned to normal and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. restarted units in
the country’s southeast, helping boost overall output, the oil industry’s spokesman, Sheikh Talal
Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, said in a post on Instagram earlier. Output was 1.1 million barrels a day on
Sunday, when the 13,000-member union started the stoppage.
Before the walkout, Kuwait was pumping 2.81 million barrels a day last month, making it the
fourth-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The initial decline of
1.7 million barrels a day from March levels surpassed the surplus in global supply.
State refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Co. slowed operations at its three oil-processing plants to
about 520,000 barrels of oil a day, less than 60 percent of capacity for a third day, spokesman
Khaled Al-Asousi said in a text message on Tuesday. Natural gas production rose to 700 million
standard cubic feet a day from 620 million Sunday, he said.

Indonesia: Ramba Energy provides update on drilling at the West
Jambi Block Kusuma-1 well…. Source: Ramba Energy
Ramba Energy has announced that the Company has successfully drilled the Kusuma-
1 exploration well in the West Jambi Block, located in Jambi Province, Indonesia.
Five tests were performed. Two tests resulted in flaring, and swabbing resulted in freshwater.
One test was determined as not conclusive, swabbing resulted in the recovery of approximately
2.5 barrels of drilling fluid. The remaining two tests resulted in no flaring and no recovery.
After consultation with Pertamina EP, it was concluded that the Kusuma-1 well shall be
categorized as a suspended gas well, pending further studies. A full study is expected to be
carried out in the future.
The Company will begin preparations to drill the Kusuma-2 exploration well. The Kusuma-2
exploration well is located approx. 7km from the Kusuma-1 well. Ramba – through its subsidiary,
Ramba Energy West Jambi – holds a 100 percent working interest in the West Jambi Block.
The West Jambi KSO is located in the northern part of the hydrocarbon-rich South Sumatra basin,
tectonically known as the back-arc basin. The asset is split into two areas; West Jambi I and West
Jambi II. The block sits in a proven region for oil and gas exploration with transportation
infrastructure nearby, such as the Trans Sumatra Pipeline, which directly intersects the asset.
In June 2011, Ramba Energy executed a KSO agreement with Pertamina, giving the company the
rights to explore and exploit the asset for 20 years.

Algerian crude Once a mainstay, returns to U.S. East Coast
REUTERS - JARRETT RENSHAW
Phillips 66 has purchased a cargo of Algerian crude oil for its Bayway refinery in New Jersey for
the first time since 2013, two sources said, the latest U.S. refiner on the East Coast to shun
domestic crudes in favor of cheaper imports.
The rare shipment suggests East Coast refiners are ramping up efforts that started in the past
year to shift to a diet of foreign crudes as the era of cheaper
domestic supplies continues to fade.
A Panamax-sized vessel named Energy Century carrying
about 433,000 barrels of Saharan Blend crude oil arrived in
New York Harbor on Monday after leaving the Algerian port of
Skikda on March 29, according to Reuters Eikon shipping
data.
The oil, which is very similar to U.S. Bakken crude, is headed
to the 238,000 barrel-per-day Bayway refinery owned by one of the biggest U.S. independent
refiners, according to two sources familiar with the plant's operations. Phillips 66 declined to
comment.
Sarah Emerson, a managing principal at ESAI Energy LLC, says the return of Algerian crude to
the East Coast was expected given the collapse of the discount U.S. crude once enjoyed against
Brent, the global benchmark.
Low prices make it nearly impossible for U.S. shale producers with crude that has to travel
thousands of miles by rail to compete with foreign crude, which costs less to ship. "Price dictates
the flow of oil," Emerson said.
The move marks a return of Algerian crude after years of being shunned from one of the world's
biggest energy markets as the U.S. shale revolution made it cheaper to buy locally. Phillips 66 has
also routine crude deliveries from Canada and West African nations such as Gabon and Angola,
according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Phillips 66, like other East Coast refiners, built rail terminals to unload Bakken crude flowing from
North Dakota. Miles of trains flowed to the East Coast daily as Bakken traded at a deep discount
to Brent, but the discount has vanished in recent months amid the prolonged oil rout, and so have
the trains as they have imported more.
For Phillips 66, it is the first purchase of Algerian crude for its Bayway refinery since December
2013, according to the EIA. The last time Algerian crude was imported to the East Coast was in
July 2014, EIA data shows.
Before the U.S. shale revolution, Algerian crude was a mainstay on the East Coast. In 2012, more
than 15 million barrels, or roughly 40,000 barrels per day (bpd), were imported to the East Coast.
Overall, U.S. rail traffic of crude oil and other petroleum products is down 21 percent in the first
quarter of this year compared to the same stretch last year, according to the American Association
of Railroads. The East Coast imported 807,000 bpd in January, the highest monthly total since
September, according to the latest data from EIA

India: Reliance Industries Begins CBM Test Production in India
Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has commenced test production of coal bed methane (CBM) at its
two blocks in Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Mint, a business daily reported citing company
sources.
The two blocks, Sohagpur East and West, were allocated to the company in 2001. Commercial
production is expected to begin soon.
Gas would be injected into 302-km pipeline from Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh to Phulpur in Uttar
Pradesh. Customers are likely to receive the gas starting May.
The gross in-place CBM potentials of RIL’s Sohagpur East block is 1.69 trillion cubic feet (47.7
billion cubic metres) while it is 1.96 trillion cubic feet (55.5 billion cubic metres) for the Sohagpur
West acreage.
The initial gas output from RIL’s blocks would be less than 1
million metric standard cubic metres of gas per day
(mmscmd), Mint added. Peak output is envisaged at 2.5-3
mmscmd in two years from production.
Currently, GEECL and Essar Oil are two other private sector
firms producing CBM in India.

NewBase 20 April 2016 Khaled Al Awadi
NewBase For discussion or further details on the news below you may contact us on +971504822502 , Dubai , UAE
Crude futures fall after Kuwaiti oil workers end strike
Reuters + NewBase
Crude futures fell on Wednesday after Kuwaiti oil workers ended a three-day strike that had cut
production from the Middle Eastern country, and data showed U.S. stockpiles rose last week.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 68 cents at $43.35 a barrel at 0302 GMT. On Tuesday,
they settled up $1.12, or 2.6 percent, at $44.03 a barrel. U.S. crude CLc1 was down 85 cents at
$40.23. The contract rose $1.30, or 3.3 percent, to $41.08 in the previous session.
Kuwaiti oil and gas workers ended a three-day strike that had temporarily cut the OPEC member's
crude production by nearly half, the trade union said in a statement posted on its Twitter account
on Tuesday. Kuwait Oil Company was forced to cut output to as little as 1.1 million barrels per day
(bpd) from a normal level of about 3 million bpd. By Tuesday, output had recovered to around 1.5
million bpd.
The end of the strike revived the bearish mood brought on by the failure of major producers to
reach an agreement on Sunday on a production freeze, to help overcome a market imbalance that
has caused a slump in prices since 2014.
"In the near term we are going to see more downward pressure than upward," said IHS analyst
Victor Shum. Adding to the bearish tone, data from industry group American Petroleum Institute
(API) also showed U.S. crude stocks rose more than anticipated last week. Crude inventories rose
by 3.1 million barrels in the week to April 15 to 539.5 million, compared with analysts' expectations
for a rise of 2.4 million barrels. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 235
Oil price special
coverage

NewBase Special Coverage
News Agencies News Release 20 April 2016
When will Russia break? A mid A rock bottom oil price,
Reuters - John Lloyd ( images added by NewBase )
When will Russia break? A rock bottom oil price, Western sanctions, inflation, a demographic
crisis… when is the Second Russian Revolution? Next year, on the centenary of the first? 1917-
2017?
In the first, workers and peasants and soldiers – not in huge numbers, but enough – rose against
the wealthy aristos in their gilded St. Petersburg palaces. The post-Soviet ruling class, led by
President Vladimir Putin, has shifted to the gilded palaces of Moscow’s Kremlin, and has made up
for not having been born to wealth by thrusting great wealth upon each other. A tempting target for
a discontented people, you would think.
Yet no sign of a revolution, not even of serious demonstrations. And the man at the center of the
Kremlin web still has sky-high popularity ratings, bouncing merrily between 80 and 90 percent in
the polls. It has been like that for two years, ever since Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of
Crimea in March 2014.
In Vladimir Nabokov’s 1945 story, “A Conversation Piece,” a Russian White Guard émigré colonel,
bitter enemy of the Communists who had stolen his country, bursts out in admiration of Joseph

Stalin. “The great Russian people has woken up and my country is again a great country…. today,
in every word that comes out of Russia, I feel the power, I feel the splendor of old Mother Russia!”
The prominent liberal commentator Andrei Kolesnikov writes that the current Russian leadership is
bent on “making unfreedom sacred” – since “the new social contract demands that the Russian
people surrender their freedom in return for Crimea and a sense of national pride.”
Accompanying this surge of pride goes attitudes that bolster it – increased admiration for Stalin,
greatly decreased admiration for the United States and the European Union. The bulk of the
Russian people are united with the émigré colonel in admiration for displays of raw power.
This card — the inculcation of pride that “Russia is again a great country” — is the largest, maybe
the only, one in the Kremlin deck and will need to be played again and again.
In a recent essay, Robert Kaplan observes that Putin’s “foreign policy must become more
creative and calculating… the more chaos he can generate abroad, the more valuable the
autocratic stability he provides at home will appear.” Whether or not the Russian president really
does hate the West, his survival depends on acting as if he does.
But there’s a problem for all Putin’s success. The capture of Crimea compensated for hard
economic times, evident before sanctions were imposed. It changed the subject from the Putin-
esque social contract, which was to demand obedience to the state and leave it for the leaders to
enrich themselves, in return for steadily increasing consumption.
As Kolesnikov puts it – “the state ideology offers no overriding concept for the future; its
foundation is Russia’s past glory. In this sense, it may have a decidedly limited life span.” Kaplan
agrees: “Putin will not be able to shelter his regime from the fallout of economic collapse.”
One of Russia’s most brilliant economists tried, earlier this week, to give some solid underpinning
to the expectation that the revival of Russian nationalism/imperialism is brittle, and must change,
or be changed.
(Kaplan thinks that “a coup like the one which toppled (the Soviet leader) Nikita Khrushchev in
1964 cannot be ruled out.”) Mikhail Dmitriev, now a professor at Florida State University, was an

economics minister in Putin’s first presidency, one of a group of bright young liberals who believed
that reform was possible in the Putin spring – and left as they saw it drift away into autocracy.
In his talk — the annual Russia Lecture at London’s main foreign policy think tank, Chatham
House – Dmitriev was the model of the careful economist. Russia’s economy is not an unmitigated
disaster. The Central Bank has managed the decline as well as any could.
Unemployment is low, at
around 6 percent – much
lower than in many West
European states. Starved of
imports, there has been
some success in substituting
domestic production for their
loss. The dependence on
the oil price made obvious
by its fall has stimulated new
interest in diversification of
the economy into other
areas.
For all that, the country
remains in recession – an
estimated decline of –1.5
percent in the economy this
year. At best, a return to
very low growth is expected
thereafter: 0.9 in 2017, 1.2 in 2018. With luck, the country will return to pre-crisis levels of GDP
only after a decade. Employment has remained high because, rather than let workers go,
employers cut wages. Consumption has suffered, badly.
Not surprisingly, the political class’ popularity has fallen. Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, has
seen approval levels drop substantially: as have the governors of most regions.
But not Vladimir Putin. Like many autocrats before him, he is above the political fray even as he
commands it. He is the rock on which the regime is built, the indispensable man. If the support –
love, even – that the majority of the Russian people now give him falters, all is lost for the present
power structure.
Then we – the rest of the world – are in unknown territory, with a Russia no longer united around a
leader, no obvious successor and the liberals a small, still distrusted group.
The hope, ironically, is in protest. Dmitriev observed that in Russia, protests typically lag some
years behind economic turbulence: the wave of protests in 2011 were three years after the sharp
decline – with most of the rest of the world — in 2008. A protest movement could throw up as
leaders either a stronger, more aggressive nationalist group – or those who see in the demise of
Putinism an opportunity to recalibrate a great country into a new relationship with Europe, itself in
need of revival.
A “European destiny” was the subtext of Mikhail Gorbachev’s attempt to open up the Soviet Union
in the late 1980s. It sustained, fitfully, the government of Russian President Boris Yeltsin in the
1990s. It was played with, then decisively ditched, in the 2000s by Vladimir Putin.
Were he to fail, it has a chance of revival. Those who wish it would need courage and strength
and support. Were they to fail, we’d be deeper in perilous territory than we are now.

NewBase For discussion or further details on the news below you may contact us on +971504822502, Dubai, UAE
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NewBase energy news is produced daily (Sunday to Thursday) and
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For additional free subscription emails please contact Hawk Energy
Khaled Malallah Al Awadi,
Energy Consultant
MS & BS Mechanical Engineering (HON), USA
Emarat member since 1990
ASME member since 1995
Hawk Energy member 2010
Mobile: +97150-4822502
khdmohd@hawkenergy.net
khdmohd@hotmail.com
Khaled Al Awadi is a UAE National with a total of 25 years of experience in
the Oil & Gas sector. Currently working as Technical Affairs Specialist for
Emirates General Petroleum Corp. “Emarat“ with external voluntary Energy
consultation for the GCC area via Hawk Energy Service as a UAE
operations base , Most of the experience were spent as the Gas Operations
Manager in Emarat , responsible for Emarat Gas Pipeline Network Facility &
gas compressor stations . Through the years, he has developed great
experiences in the designing & constructing of gas pipelines, gas metering & regulating stations
and in the engineering of supply routes. Many years were spent drafting, & compiling gas
transportation, operation & maintenance agreements along with many MOUs for the local
authorities. He has become a reference for many of the Oil & Gas Conferences held in the UAE
and Energy program broadcasted internationally, via GCC leading satellite Channels.
NewBase : For discussion or further details on the news above you may contact us on +971504822502 , Dubai , UAE
NewBase 20 April 2016 K. Al Awadi

New base energy news issue 834 dated 20 april 2016

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New base energy news issue 834 dated 20 april 2016