FACTBOX-Global energy investment hit by financial crisis

(Adds Marathon)

Feb 3 28 (Reuters) - The deepening of the global financial crisis and the sharp drop in energy prices have forced companies to scale back spending and delay projects, with expensive ventures in the Canadian oil sands hardest hit.

Below is a list of projects that have been delayed or scaled back in recent months, as well as other related news.

Feb 3 - Marathon said it would delay the completion of a 15,000 barrel per day expansion at its Detroit refinery to mid-2012 in an effort to cut spending. The project had been scheduled for completion in late 2010. [ID:nN03505778]

Jan 28 - ConocoPhillips said it would defer refinery upgrade projects at two of its plants to reduce capital spending, but did not identify which projects.

Jan 28 - Australian Worldwide Exploration Ltd (AWE.AX) (AWE) will see production fall by about 10 percent in fiscal 2009 on weaker output from its main field, while the drop in oil prices will hurt its profits, the oil and gas company said.

Jan 27 - Leading U.S. refiner Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) said it was cutting capital spending in 2009 by $800 million by delaying construction of a diesel hydrotreater and aromatics unit at its Norco refinery in Louisiana and the upgrade of an FCC at its Memphis refinery in Tennessee. [ID:nN27455546]

Jan 22 - Peru's state-owned energy company Petroperu S.A. has placed under review a $1 billion plan to modernize its Talara refinery because of low crude oil prices, Peru's mining and energy minister said. The project would raised the refinery's capacity to 90,000 barrels per day from 62,000 bpd.

Jan 20 - Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO), Canada's No. 2 oil sands producer, halts construction of its C$20.6 billion oil sands expansion called Voyageur, including the planned upgrader and new stages of its steam-assisted production operation known as Firebag. Suncor also halves its previously lowered 2009 capital spending budget to C$3 billion.

Jan 19 - The $2.2 billion Al Dur power and water project in Bahrain is delayed. The Al Dur project is 50 percent owned by the Gulf Investment Corp, with France's GDF Suez (GSZ.PA) owning the other 50 percent.

Jan 17 - Canada's Enbridge Inc (ENF_u.TO) shelves plans for a C$346 million ($277 million) pipeline reversal that would have shipped 170,000 barrels per day of oil sands crude from Sarnia, Ontario, to a tanker port in the state of Maine, supplying refineries in Montreal en route and replacing the imported oil the line now carries.

Jan 13- Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft [TRPRO.UL] said contractor problems caused by the global financial crisis pose a threat to its launch of a major oil route to China this year.

Jan 9 - Suncor delays a C$120 million expansion of its St. Clair ethanol plant at Sarnia, Ontario, scheduling completion for 2011 instead of late 2009.

Jan 8 - Hit by falling oil prices, Ecuador plans to delay some gas and oil projects while it seeks loans and investment to boost the OPEC nation's key sector, Oil Minister Derlis Palacios said.

Jan 5 - North Sea gas pipeline operator Gassco says the 10 billion crown ($1.81 billion) Skanled gas pipeline project to Scandinavia could be delayed from its planned 2012 launch, partly due to worries over investment plans by British chemicals group Ineos, a key client.

Dec 19 - Italian energy group Eni (EN.MI) delays its decision on picking a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit for the Goliat oil discovery in the Barents Sea from its end-2008 deadline.