(EnergyAsia, June 7) — Solar Night Industries (SNI) said it has launched a ‘Solar Contractor Supply Market’ aimed at making it easier for architects, installers, residential home builders and remodeling specialists to acquire and install high quality solar products according to their individual client’s needs. Through its commercial distribution arm, SNI said it has...
(EnergyAsia, June 7) — In another setback for political stability in Northeast Asia, a US-led international consortium has announced it is pulling the plug on a US$1.6 billion nuclear project involving North Korea. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) said it will seek compensation from Pyongyang for the dissolution of the costly light-water reactor...
(EnergyAsia, June 7) — IntercontinentalExchange, the NYSE-listed electronic energy marketplace, said its regulated futures subsidiary will list two new contracts based on coal, pending regulatory approval. The coal contracts are based on Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Richards Bay in South Africa, and will be cash settled against the indices API 2 and API 4...
(EnergyAsia, June 7) — The Philippines could save as much as US$2 billion annually if it shifts from imported diesel to locally produced biodiesel, said Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri. The Philippines now spends about $7 billion on crude and oil product imports, a quarter of that for diesel. “The use of fuels derived...
(EnergyAsia, June 7) — UAE-based Aabar Petroleum Investments Company PJSC is completing its takeover of Singaporean upstream company Pearl Energy Limited after its bid for the company closed successfully on May 26. At the close, the total number of Pearl Energy shares owned, controlled or agreed to be acquired by Aabar and parties acting in...
(EnergyAsia, June 6) — Finland’s Wartsil’ Corporation said it has added two sizes of biomass-fuelled plants to its BioPower product range employed for electricity generation and local heating applications. The new BioPower 3 and BioPower 7 plants each deliver approximately 3 and 7.5 MW of electricity. They join the existing BioPower 2 and 5 plants...
(EnergyAsia, June 6) — GE recently marked its first century of doing business in China, by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to expand cooperation in the development of advanced environmental technologies that will support long-term sustainable growth in the country. “From a small trading business in...
(EnergyAsia, June 6) — Reflecting a change in their oil-buying habits, Asian governments are stepping up their programmes to build up emergency oil stockpiles despite record high oil prices. Where in the past the governments of China, Japan and Korea would stay away from the buying frenzy, they are now calling for increased stock building....
(EnergyAsia, June 6) — Upstream company Pearl Energy will mark a short but highly successful stay on the Singapore Exchange once its takeover by UAE’s Aabar Petroleum is completed and its shares are delisted. As of May 26, Aabar Petroleum had acquired more than 97% of Pearl’s shares, with the rest expected to be...
(EnergyAsia, June 6) — General Electric has announced a US$250 million investment in infrastructure and healthcare projects in India and said that GE intends to dramatically expand its industrial and financial presence in the country. Speaking to the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry last month, chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said: “India is a...
(EnergyAsia, June 6) — Malaysian oil retail companies will have to supply locally made biodiesel when a new biofuels law comes into force next year. Lawmakers are hoping to pass the much debated Biofuel Industry Bill in Parliament next month that would make ‘Envo Diesel’ available at the pumps. The oil companies may have...
(EnergyAsia, June 6) — Oil prices continue to hover around the US$70/barrel mark after setting a record US$75 high in late April. A quiet anxiety is spreading across Asia as policy makers and analysts appear unsure how to react to the conundrum of rising oil prices amid reports that their economies and the world economy...
(EnergyAsia, June 6) — Unknown to most policy makers and planners in Asia, a debate on Peak Oil and the sustainability of the world’s economic system has been raging on in the West for several years now. ]In Sweden, there is a national campaign to go completely oil-free by 2020. The US is moving beyond...
(EnergyAsia, June 6) — Environmentally friendly energy products and technologies, even those based on photovoltaic solar cells, will need to produce energy that is competitively priced in a market where oil costs as little as $30 per barrel. At this price, renewable energy produced on either a large or small scale will gain traction and...
(EnergyAsia, June 6) — Singapore’s Keppel Shipyard Limited said it has secured the conversion of a tanker to a floating production storage offloading facility (FPSO) from Maersk Contractors for approximately S$96 million. (US$1=S$1.58). The work scope on the fast-track conversion of VLCC Ellen Maersk to an FPSO includes the installation and integration of the...
(EnergyAsia, June 5) — Thai state energy company PTT and local companies Mitr Phol Sugar Group and Thai Alcohol Plc have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to use molasses and ethanol to produce Octane 95 bio-gasoline as a substitute for gasoline. Mitr Phol is Thailand’s largest sugar producer and exporter while Thai Alcohol Plc...
(EnergyAsia, June 5) — China and members of the Arab League concluded a two-day forum in Beijing last week, with energy and terrorism the focus of the ministerial talks. In a joint statement, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Arab League Secretary-general Amre Moussa said the two sides will decide soon on the date and...
(EnergyAsia, June 5) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it has launched an initiative to invest up to EUR 1.5 billion in energy efficiency, renewables and clean energy projects over the next three years, which could lead to up to EUR 5 billion of total investment. (US$1=0.8 EUR). The Sustainable Energy...
(EnergyAsia, June 5) — Koreans are feeling increasingly jittery about their economic prospects on the high price of oil, rising interest rates and weakening export growth. The country reported a current account deficit of US$1.5 billion in April, its third month of red ink, and the highest deficit in nine years. Economists said rising...
(EnergyAsia, June 5) — Ta Ann group, a Malaysian timber and oil palm company, said it plans to invest RM28mil in a biomass power plant at its plywood processing factory in Sungai Sadit in Sibu city in East Malaysia. Executive chairman Abdul Hamed Sepawi said the plant would use wood waste to generate about...
(EnergyAsia, June 5) — The Philippines could stop using 95 million liters of diesel a year, saving more than P3 billion in in import spendings, if its diesel fuel had a one percent coconut blend, said the Department of Energy (DOE). With oil prices at record high and still rising, the Philippines is desperately looking...
(EnergyAsia, June 5) — Enormous challenges lie ahead to ensure that the projected world population in 2030 of around nine billion people is adequately and equitably fed, and in environmentally sustainable ways, said Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug. Mr Borlaug, called the father of the Green Revolution for his pioneering work on high-yielding wheat varieties...
(EnergyAsia, June 5) — Sri Lanka’s Pelwatte Sugar is planning to build a large power plant fired by sugar cane waste. The 25-megawatt (MW) unit would be the largest of its kind in the country, according to local news media. It will use bagasse, the fibrous residue left over from crushing sugar cane, giving...
(EnergyAsia, June 5) — Ry Ninh 2, a hydropower company, is set to list on Vietnamese stock exchange in Ho Chi Minh City. The company recently received a licence to sell 3.2 million shares to the public. Operating an 81-megawatt (MW) hydro power plant in the coffee-growing central highlands province of Gia Lai, Ry...
(EnergyAsia, June 5) — Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals has promoted R. Rajamani, its former general manager for technical services, to managing director. Maersk Olie og Gas AS has named Franz Willum S¿rensen as vice president in the upstream department. Singapore’s energy services group KS Energy has named Adam Paul Brunet as executive director in charge...