Petromin is very pleased to have been selected by KISR to act as the main liaison group to help facilitate the transfer of Canadian heavy oil technology to Kuwait. This appointment is designed to assist Kuwait with enhancing the development of their heavy oil resources.
In late February of 2007, a high level delegate from the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) visited Alberta. The purpose of this visit is to extend invitation from Kuwait to the Canadian heavy oil industry to participate in the upcoming first Middle East Oil and Chemical Conference in Kuwait later this year. Petromin was pleased to introduce the delegate to Alberta's top tier, heavy oil groups including ARC, APA and the Provincial Government Trade Department.
Canadian Heavy Oil Association (CHOA) president Gerry Belyk is excited about the potential opportunity for Canadian heavy oil service providers, manufacturers and investors with this event. The exhibition and conference will provide a new venue for Canadian technology in heavy oil development, of which Kuwait will need to develop its vast heavy oil resources estimated to be well over 100 billion barrels.
As quoted by Mr. Peter Ho, senior Vice President of Petromin, Kuwait and other Middle East countries such as Iraq, Iran and even Saudi Arabia posses massive heavy oil resources which can be exploited and develop with existing Canadian heavy oil technology such as SAGD, VAPEX, THAI.
The opportunity in the future, to invest and develop these resources will prove to be a challenge to the Canadian groups considering the enormous geological structure in the area.
Petromin believes the strong participation of this event by Canadian companies will serve to enhance the Canada/Kuwait's technology transfer and further the main objective of establishing Petromin Resources, as the lead technology provider to Kuwait.
For further info about this event, please visit http://www.wecec-kuwait.com/
Capturing Carbon Opens Paths Into China Energy BEIJING -- China is expected to produce more greenhouse gas than any other country over the next 20 years, but Beijing is working to develop technology that can capture carbon dioxide and store it underground.
And these efforts are creating new investment opportunities for foreign companies as the more common paths into China's energy sector are being closed off and reserved for state enterprises.
Carbon sequestration, the removal and storage of carbon dioxide, a gas tied to global warming, is gaining more attention in China because of the country's vast coal reserves, aging oil fields and new coal-fired power stations. Burning coal produces carbon dioxide.
The U.S. and other countries are trying to develop power plants that trap carbon dioxide and stick it underground, perhaps to help recovery in aging oil fields or to use in other industrial contexts.
Carbon sequestration is still in the early phases of development, but there is increasing interest, despite the technical challenges.
The latest reminder came Friday, when energy companies from Hong Kong and Canada said they would team up with China's leading producer of natural gas from coal.
Hong Kong-listed Enviro Energy International Holdings Ltd. and Canada's Petromin Resources Ltd. signed a deal with China United Coalbed Methane Corp. for a five-year project in the coal-rich province of Shanxi in northern China.
Supported in part by funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) project will involve drilling wells in a coal bed that is 1,000 meters below the surface and unsuitable for commercial mining. Canada's Alberta Research Council will provide technical expertise.
"The ultimate target for this project is to try to capture CO2 from power plants and chemical plants and then inject this C02 into the deep coal [bed] and also to enhance coal-bed-methane production," said Sun Maoyuan, chairman of China United Coalbed Methane.
China wants to increase the use of methane, the explosive gas that has caused scores of deadly accidents in China's coal mines. Typically, methane is just burnt off, releasing more greenhouse gases, but it can be captured and used to power turbines in power plants.
China wants the methane from coal beds to supplement natural-gas supplies. Two-thirds of China's energy needs are met by coal, which produces around three times more carbon dioxide than gas-power generators. A typical 500-megawatt power station emits more than 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide a day.
Rising electricity demand has forced China to add more than 90 gigawatts of power-generating capacity in each of the past two years. That is equivalent to the combined generating capacity of the U.K. and France in 2006-07. A $9 million test project at the nearby South Qinshui Basin in Shanxi province, involving the Alberta Research Council, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and China United Coalbed Methane, showed that methane rates nearly double to 55% when carbon dioxide is injected into the coal bed.
Write to David Winning at david.winning@dowjones.com
Excerpt from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120147840362020717.html
Alberta - Canada
It is significant to note that this pilot project will be a milestone project for the clean development of China's deep CBM reserves. This project will be a key step towards reducing C02 emissions (and therefore global warming) while enhancing energy supply. CO2 geological storage is viewed as one of the most promising mechanisms to store large quantities of captured C02 emissions. As outlined in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guide Book, this technology is looked upon as a major C02 mitigation method. CUCBM and Petromin feel that enough data and information can be obtained to evaluate commercial expansion of this type of project in coal fields in other parts of China. In other words, when proven feasible, the same type of pilot test can be implemented in other coal-rich regions of China. 
