In their historic meeting last week, the Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, and the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, discussed bilateral co-operation in the energy sector. The two countries have opened up high-level dialogue to reduce border tensions and the potential for conflict over the disputed province of Kashmir, now under India’s control....

Shell Malaysia, a Royal/Dutch Shell subsidiary, said its Jintan gas field, located about 275 km north west of Bintulu, off Sarawak state, has started production. This is the second gas field to start production this year under the SK8 production sharing contract off Sarawak. The first, Serai, came onstream in June. According to Bernama news...

Oil prices are unlikely to keep above US$40 for long as the world markets are oversupplied despite fears of a supply crunch by consumer countries, said the International Energy Agency. In its September monthly report, the Paris-based organisation predicted that rising inventories will cushion against possible supply disruptions in the coming months. It said world...

The Indian government will soon raise the administered price (APM) of natural gas for fertiliser manufacturers by 12% to Rs 3,200 per million cubic metre (mcm) and power companies by 26% to Rs 3,600 per mcm. The gas, supplied by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) from public sector fields,...

Clough, one of Australia’s largest multidisciplinary engineering, construction, operations and maintenance contractors, and AMEC, the international project management and services company have won a multi-million dollar contract from ConocoPhillips to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services for the Bayu-Undan field development in the Timor Sea. In a statement, Clough said the Clough AMEC joint venture...

Indonesian state oil company Pertamina wants to control and directly operate at least 20% of the country’s total retail fuel stations after the sector is opened to competition in November next year. The company plans to build hundreds of new gas stations by then. A Jakarta Post report quoted Pertamina’s director of marketing and business...

The share price of Hong Kong-listed oil exploration company, South Sea Petroleum, was hit by sharp selling last week on news that an unnamed financial institution had forced a sale of pledged shares that belonged to the company’s chairman. In only 90 minutes of frenzied trading, over half of South Sea’s shares were in play...

Australia’s Origin Energy today said its subsidiary Origin Energy CSG Marketing Pty Limited has entered into a 10-year gas supply contract for 7 petajoules (PJ) per annum with Incitec Pivot Limited. Origin will supply gas to Incitec Pivot at Wallumbilla in central Queensland. Origin said Incitec Pivot will arrange the transportation of the gas from...

Dongfang Electric, a leading power equipment manufacturer in China, will be bidding for new power projects in India to gain a foothold in the country’s growing electricity market. It is expected to open an office in Kolkata while looking out for projects and working on projects with CESC, the power-generating arm of the West Bengal...

Oil India Ltd (OIL) is planning to join the growing number of companies in search of oil and gas reserves overseas. OIL, with its Burmah Oil Company legacy, possesses detailed geological knowledge of Africa and Asia, and is seen to be in a better position to explore in African countries than Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)...

Beijing’s electricity costs will increase by 3 fen per kilowatt-hour, representing an average monthly increase of about 3 yuan per household. (US$1=8.27 yuan). The China Daily said the increase is below what many residents had feared as authorities were mindful of the need to keep inflation down. The city recently raised its water charges by...

The success of low-cost airlines in Asia is having a noticeable impact on jet fuel consumption, said a Business Day report. According to the Bangkok Aviation Fuel Services Plc (BAFS), Thailand’s only jet fuel service provider, its jet fuel sales volume rose 15% in August year-on-year. BAFS, which provides refuelling services at all Thai airports,...

State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has announced that it is borrowing US$220 million to pay for crude oil imports. In a statement, IOC said it has signed agreements for short-term financing with BNP Paribas’s Singapore office for US$100 million and the Bank of America’s Taiwan branch for US$120 million. The agreement was signed by IOC...

new US$30 million fund has been proposed by Sri Lanka’s Energy Conservation Fund (ECF) to encourage local industries and domestic customers to invest in energy saving technology. A recent survey by the ECF and the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) showed that that there has not been enough investment in energy conservation in recent...

San-ai Oil Co, a major oil materials vendor listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is reported to be favourite to win a tight race among companies to buy over gasoline distributor Kygnus Sekiyu. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, Kygnus’s equal shareholders, TonenGeneral Sekiyu Ltd, a leading oil refiner, and Nichimo Co, a seafood and...

Taiwan’s industrial giant, Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), reported a sharp rise in its first half earnings. CENS news agency said the success of the vertical integration of FPG’s naphtha-cracking complex in Yunlin County in central Taiwan laid the foundation for the company’s sound financial performance. Its five listed firms including Formosa Plastics Corp., Nan Ya...

State-owned monopoly Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco) is looking to expand overseas, targeting to have international generation capacity of 5 million kilowatts by 2010, said the Korea Times. “The domestic electric power market has become saturated as the growth rate, which stayed in the 10% range in the 1970s and the 1980s, has presently fallen...

Global carbon dioxide emissions could double by 2050 if energy-saving measures are not universally adopted, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development warned at an international energy meet in Sydney, Australia this week. The warning is contained in a report, Energy and Climate Change, released at the World Energy Conference by the council, a coalition...

India hopes to persuade Iran to give oil exploration opportunities in the giant Yadavaran oilfield in exchange for India buying 5 million tons of LNG from Iran, according to a report in the Tehran Times. India’s petroleum minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, will discuss this possibility with his Iranian counterpart when they meet on the sidelines...

Marubeni Corp will enter into an agreement with FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCEL) and Kawasaki Heavy Industries to become a packager of Direct FuelCell(R) power plants in Japan. Marubeni and Kawasaki are Japanese companies. Kawasaki will purchase a DFC300A power plant from Marubeni, to be installed at the Kawasaki Akashi Works near Osaka, Japan, where it...

Sri Lanka’s leading business chamber wants local fuel and electricity prices to rise to close the gap against international energy costs. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce met recently to discuss the impact of rising international oil prices on the Sri Lankan economy. The Chamber wants “an immediate revision of gasoline, diesel and electricity prices in...

The Nam Con Son Gas Project, Vietnam’s largest gas-to-power venture, recently celebrated the production of its 2 billionth tonne of gas. The Nam Con Son pipeline reached the supply milestone on July 6 after 18 months of production, said the Vietnam News Agency. During the period, the project met 100% of its customer’s gas nominations,...

UK-based Cairn Energy said it has received approval from the Indian government for the farm-out of certain assets to Indian upstream company ONGC and its farm-in to two exploration exploration blocks belonging to ONGC. Approval was given by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. Cairn said completion of the transaction is subject to execution of...

The Philippines and China have agreed to undertake joint oil explorations in the disputed Spratly group of islands in the South China Sea, according to a Philippine Star report. The deal was one of two major agreements signed by both countries during the recent three-day state visit of President Arroyo to Beijing. The two countries...

Kuwait Petroleum (Thailand) has decided — for now — against selling off its 125 retail stations in Thailand under the brand Q8 after receiving “poor” offers during its recent sale exercise. In July, Kuwait Petroleum said it wanted to unload its Thai retail oil operations, citing low margins and the highly competitive nature of the...