(EnergyAsia, October 12) — Sakhalin Energy said it has signed Letters of Intent for the provision of services during the operation stage of the Sakhalin II Phase 1 and Phase 2 assets with two companies for the contracts together valued at about $200 million.   The execution of the contracts will contribute to the development...

 (EnergyAsia, October 12) — Resource nationalism, once the rage in the developing world, is back with a vengeance. Add that to geopolitical tensions, paper speculation, strong world demand growth and fears of oil depletion, oil prices are more likely to test new highs in the coming years than plunge back to the average US$20-30 barrel...

(EnergyAsia, October 12) — US oil statisticians tend to under-estimate the strength of the oil markets, said commodities broker Fimat.   With a delay of several months, the US Department of Energy on October 10 quietly released its review of last year’s oil statistics, Petroleum Supply Annual 2005. Although the PSA deals with historical data,...

(EnergyAsia, October 12) — US-based SulphCo¨ Inc has released an interim progress report on its 210,000-barrel-per-day crude oil refinery in the UAE.  The board of Fujairah Oil Technology Inc, the joint venture between SulphCo¨, Inc and Fujairah government owned Trans Gulf Petroleum, met in Fujairah, UAE last month to review the progress of the Sonocracking...

  (EnergyAsia, October 12) — Thai state upstream company PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) said it has leased a Floating Production Storage and Off-Loading (FPSO) to step up the extraction of natural gas from the offshore Arthit field. The field is expected to yield an average of 120 to 150 million standard...

(EnergyAsia, October 11) — Taiwan’s power supply company Powercom and China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Company (SMIC) have agreed to jointly produce and market solar cells from next month. Powercom expects the venture will enable to enter into China’s solar cell market.   The Taiwanese firm will supply polysilicon, the main feedstock for solar cells, while...

(EnergyAsia, October 11) — India is expected to reveal a new policy on biofuels within six months, said Minister for Non-Conventional Resources Vilas Muttemwar.   The new policy will lay the groundwork for Indian to exploit its potential to generate 15,000MW of energy from its biomass and biofuels resources. Feedstocks are widely available from the...

(EnergyAsia, October 11) — China’s motorists are forecast to use increasing volumes of ethanol-blended gasoline over the next five years.  Today, ethanol is equal to about 2% of the country’s gasoline consumption, but that is expected to go up to 5%, or more than 3 million tonnes per year, according to forecasts by the National...

(EnergyAsia, October 11) — SunTechnics, one of the world’s largest system integrator for renewable energy and the flagship company of the Conergy Group, has ventured into India.   Its wholly owned Indian subsidiary, SunTechnics Energy Systems Pvt Ltd, has committed to invest more than Rs250 million in an assembly facility that currently has 40 employees...

(EnergyAsia, October 11) — A nationwide ethanol shortage could threaten to derail India’s attempt to promote the use of biofuels as a substitute for petroleum fuels.   Petroleum Mininster Murli Deora looks set to face defeat in his high-profile support for a national programme to produce and sell ethanol-blended fuels from November 1. In an...

(EnergyAsia, October 11) — The northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region plans to become China’s largest windpower province by 2020 with the construction of nine new wind power plants with a total capacity of 2.15 million kilowatts (kw). The projects are worth a total US$2.2 billion. As of last year, Ningxia had an installed windpower capacity...

(EnergyAsia, October 11) — Two Japanese firms, Matsushita Electric Works Ltd (MEW) and Mitsui & Co Ltd, said they have jointly invested in Beijing Tsinghua Tellhow Intelligence Tech Ltd to develop a full-scale building energy-saving engineering business in China. The company is a member of the Tellhow Group specialising in building engineering services in China....

(EnergyAsia, October 11) — The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released its Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP) Strategic Plan, which details measures to accelerate the development and reduce the cost of new and advanced technologies that avoid, reduce, or capture and store greenhouse gas emissions.   The DOE said the programme represents the technology...

(EnergyAsia, October 11) — Two Indian sugar mills said they plan to expand ethanol production to help meet the country’s growing demand for biofuels. The government has chosen nine states to take part in a programme to sell gasoline with a five-percent ethanol blend as part of the government’s plan to reduce dependence on imported...

(EnergyAsia, October 11) — Vietnam has started importing electricity from Honghe in China’s Yunnan province. Hailed as China’s largest cross-border power project, the 220 kilowatt (KW) plant was recently completed at a cost of RMB286.2 million. (US$1=RMB7.9).   The Honghe prefecture is home to one of Yunnan’s three largest thermal power bases. It also has...

(EnergyAsia, October 10) — Singapore-listed China EnerSave Limited said it has agreed to sell carbon credits or Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) to UK-based EcoSecurities Group PLC generated by the group’s bio-mass projects.   CERs are certified units of emission reductions of greenhouse gases (GHG) generated by Clean Development Mechanism (CDM ) projects as defined by...

(EnergyAsia, October 10) — Canada’s InterOil Corporation said it has completed its acquisition of the assets of Shell Papua New Guinea which includes four terminals, three depots and 28 retail sites operating under the Shell name.   InterOil is developing a vertically integrated energy company whose primary focus is Papua New Guinea and the surrounding...

(EnergyAsia, October 10) — Singapore-based solar power company Orb Energy said it has begun operations in Bangalore in India’s Karnataka state where it will be assembling and marketing solar systems for back-up power and thermal applications.   Orb said it expects to invest $2.5 million in India, with plans to build a national branch network...

(EnergyAsia, October 10) — Partha S Bhattacharya has been appointed chairman and managing director of Coal India Ltd, succeeding Sashi Kumar from October 1. Mr Bhattacharya, an accountant and physicist by training, was previously managing director of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd, Dhanbad, a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd. He was previously finance director at Western...

(EnergyAsia, October 10) — US energy major Chevron Corp said it and the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have formed a strategic research alliance to advance the development of renewable transportation fuels. Chevron Technology Ventures LLC (CTV), a subsidiary of Chevron Corp, and NREL, headquartered in Golden, Colorado, have signed...

(EnergyAsia, October 10) — Singapore-listed ASL Marine Holdings Ltd said its wholly-owned subsidiary, ASL Shipyard Pte Ltd, has secured new shipbuilding contracts worth a total of S$51.4 million for the construction of four Azimuth stern drive tugs and one offshore maintenance vessel.   The vessels have been ordered by an unnamed European customer which will...

(EnergyAsia, October 10) — Indian oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Essar Power are venturing into the windpower business.           HPCL expects to begin producing up to 25MW of electricity from its new wind farms in Karnataka and Maharashtra states from next March. The company has set aside Rs5 billion to build up 100...

(EnergyAsia, October 10) — Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI) said it has established its Middle East office in Dubai from October 1, 2006. The opening of the office is to respond to increasing business opportunities in the Middle East for large-scale projects related to the improvement of social infrastructure, such as power generation plants,...

(EnergyAsia, October 10) — Australian motorists appear to be warming up to the idea of using biofuels, latest polls in New South Wales state indicate. Eight out of 10 motorists sampled in a state survey said they support Canberra’s plan to promote the use of alternative fuels, but nine out of 10 continued to express...

(EnergyAsia, October 10) — Energy major Royal Dutch Shell and US retail giant Procter & Gamble (P&G) are interested in pursuing biodiesel projects in Malaysia.   State agency Federal Land Development Authority Holdings Bhd (Felda) said it has formed a joint venture with P&G to own and operate a biodiesel plant early next year. Its...