05.07.2009
As prices of oil tumble from a high of $147.2 in July 2008 to a low of $40 by the end of the same year, OPEC has been debating to cut production of between 1-2 million barrels per day
As oil prices increase, the US and Europe are putting pressure on OPEC to increase production in the hope that it will decrease the price of oil. OPEC, however, is mostly resisting the trend to increase production, saying that speculators and a weak dollar are responsible for the price of oil climbing to nearly $120 a barrel in the beginning of 2008 rather than a tight oil market
The more moderate and pro-Western states within OPEC like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates understand that high energy costs are hurting demand and might push consumers to seek alternatives to oil and are thus keen to keep oil at around or even below $100 a barrel, in order to also ease the political backlash against the cartel. Another group, composed of OPEC’s traditional price hawks, such as Iran and Venezuela increasingly need high prices to finance a wide range of social and political policies and to maintain their power play and influence in their respective regions.
A market condition in which sellers are so few that the actions of any one of them will materially affect price and have a measurable impact on competitors. While cartel is often used in place of oligopoly, cartels don’t necessarily have the ability to control the market, and they aren’t necessarily created for the purpose of exerting control, while the primary function of an oligopoly is to preserve its own power by exerting influence over markets when they feel it is in the interest of members to do so. > >
Any of a class of unsaturated open-chain hydrocarbons such as ethylene, having the general formula CnH2n
Crude oil development and production in oil reservoirs can include up to three distinct phases: primary, secondary and tertiary (or enhanced) recovery. During primary recovery, the natural pressure of the reservoir or gravity is what drives oil into the wellbore, combined with artificial lift techniques (such as pumps) which bring the oil to the surface. But only about 10 percent of a reservoir’s original oil in place is typically produced during primary recovery. Secondary recovery techniques add to the field’s productive life generally by injecting water or gas to displace oil and drive it to a production wellbore, resulting in the recovery of 20 to 40 percent of the original oil in place. However, with much of the easy-to-produce oil already recovered from many oil fields, producers have attempted several tertiary, or enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques that offer prospects for ultimately producing 30 to 60 percent, or more, of the reservoir’s original oil in place.
Theory postulated by Luciani Giacomo according to which countries in which there is a steady and significant income from oil, there is no struggle for human rights. The political and social tranquility attained by regimes with a steady income from oil is a result of their ability to fulfill the needs of their citizens, generally free of charge (the citizens pay no taxes). Conversely, a severe drop in oil prices could bring about social and political unrest
The government of Israel determined on 26 December 2004, that Oil Refineries Ltd. (“ORL”) will be privatized by way of splitting the oil refineries into two companies, so that a subsidiary of ORL named Oil Refinery – Ashdod Ltd. (“ORA”) will be established and all it’s shares will be sold, by private sale, as one block. The refinery which was founded in 1972 was thus privatized on September 27, 2006 for 3.25 billion shekels and became a subsidiary of Paz Oil Company Ltd.
The company refines the crude oil into a variety of products which are used in power generation, industrial operations, transportation, the defense establishment and private consumption. The Ashdod Oil Refinery is the first industrial plant to use natural gas in its refining process instead of crude oil as of October 2005. YT and Paz – on 3.9.2004 YT signed an agreement with the Paz Oil Refinery for the total supply of 1.3 bcm of gas over a ten year period or until Paz consumes the total quantity, whichever comes first. The total value of this contract (100%) is about $120 million. Paz completed in March 2009 the construction of a 45 MW cogeneration IPP which will supply all the steam needs and all the electricity needs (25 MW) of the refinery. The remainder electricity will be sold to to the grid or to end consumers. In July 2009 Paz IPP entered into an agreement to supply all of Numonyx’s electricity needs for its factory in Kiryat Gas. Numonyx is owned by Intel (45.1%), the Swiss company ST Microelectronics (48.6%) and the private equity investment company Francisco Partners (6.3%).
In September 2009, Paz launched a second IPP at the Ashdod Oil Refinery, namely a 60 MW cogeneration IPP within the refinery compound. The refinery will consume itself 40 tonsper hour of steam generated from the station. The cost of construction of the IPP is about 200 million shekels. The IPP will be cooled with purified water constructed at the cost of 70 million shekels and the power generated is to be sold to private consumers.
The first station started operations at the end of 2009 and is a 45 MW cogenerations IPPs. The power is used 55% by the Oil Refinery and the rest 45% is sold to Numonix. The steam capacity production is 52 tons of steam an hour which is consumed by the Oil Refinery in Ashdod. The cost of setting up the station was $30-$40 million.
The second station is to start operations at the end of 2012 and is to be a 60 MW cogen. The steam is to be consumed by the Oil Refinery and the electricity is to be sold to private consumers. Cost of set up is $60-70 million
16.5.2011 – The Paz Group that has an IPP at their Oil Refinery in Ashdod has signed a PPA t o sell 1 MW of electricity for 4 years for a total of 10 million shekels to the Beit Levinstein Hospital with sales starting next month at a tariff lower than that of IEC.