(EnergyAsia, November 14) — IndianOil’s Gujarat refinery has started producing Euro-III grade gasoline following the successful commissioning of its motor spirit quality upgrade (MSQU) project. IndianOil chairman Sarthak Behuria last week inaugurated the plant to mark the launch of the country’s second-generation green fuel technology. The company said it would now be catering to the...
(EnergyAsia, November 14) — The war in Iraq isn’t the only issue that US policy is about to undergo change following the Democratic Party’s decisive victory in the November 7 mid-term elections. Environmentalists and analysts believe the Democrats, who now control both the House of Representatives and Senate, will boost the role of renewable energy...
(EnergyAsia, November 14) — The shares of Swiber Holdings Limited, an integrated offshore engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commission (EPCIC) contractor with a complementary business in the supply of marine support vessels, made a strong trading debut on the Singapore Exchange last week. The stock opened at S$0.550, and closed at S$0.505, a premium...
(EnergyAsia, November 14) — Thai upstream company PTTEP has released its third quarter operating results and plans for expansion in the future. Maroot Mrigadat, PTTEP’s president, said its revenue rose 20% to 23,896 million baht in the third quarter from year-ago level. (US$1=37 baht). He attributed the increase to this year’s average sales price of...
(EnergyAsia, November 14) — Myanmar’s edible oil crop sector will be developed over the next three years with technical assistance from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and a loan of US$12.3 million from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). The total budget of the project amounts to US$14 million with the balance...
(EnergyAsia, November 13) — The European Commission (EC) will contribute up to 80 million Euro over the next four years to the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF) for promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in developing countries. (US$1=0.77 Euro). “The GEEREF will accelerate the transfer, development and deployment of environmentally-sound...
(EnergyAsia, November 13) — Consultant Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) has stepped up its attack on the proponents of the ‘peak oil’ theory, calling it dangerous for policy making. With growing belief and discussion that world oil production will soon reach a peak, CERA has announced that tomorrow it will release a new analysis...
(EnergyAsia, November 13) — India could derive as much as 16% of its electricity needs from wind power by 2030 by fully tapping its wind resources, said President Abdul Kalam in a special address at a renewable energy conference last week. Despite growing by 47% last year, wind power supplied just 6,000MW of India’s...
(EnergyAsia, November 13) — Western Australia could see a massive boost in its wind power capacity if a bill submitted by the Greens Party for renewable energy to supply 20% of the state’s need by 2020 is passed. Party official Paul Llewellyn believes that as many as 250 wind power turbines could be developed...
(EnergyAsia, November 13) — The US and its five partners in the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate have endorsed detailed action plans and nearly 100 collaborative projects, said the US State Department. The partnership is a US-led effort to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies through a voluntary public-private...
(EnergyAsia, November 13) — Jaipur-based Compucom Software Ltd is expanding its renewable energy base with plans for the setting up of a Rs40 million wind power plant in Karnataka state. (US$1=Rs45). The company told the Bombay Stock Exchange that it has placed an order for the plant, which it expects to start up before...
(EnergyAsia, November 13) — Denmark’s wind power company Vestas has said it has received orders for a total of 145 MW consisting of 50 units of the V80-2.0 MW turbine and 53 units of the V52-850 kW turbine for two wind power projects in China. The orders were made by Longyuan Pingtan Wind Power Co...
(EnergyAsia, November 13) — Australia’s Natural Fuel Limited last week broke ground on Singapore’s Jurong Island for what it said will be the world’s largest biodiesel plant. Costing US$130-million, the plant’s first of three units will start up late next year producing 600,000 tonnes of biodiesel a year. When fully completed within five years, the...
(EnergyAsia, November 13) — American Superconductor Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed energy technology company, said it has received a follow-on order for 450 PowerModule PM1000 systems from Austria’s Windtec Systemtechnik GmbH for use in China. Windtec, a developer and licensor of proprietary wind turbine system designs and a developer and supplier of wind turbine electrical systems,...
(EnergyAsia, November 13) — Having been defeated in its plan to enforce ethanol-mixed gasoline sales at the start of the month, the Indian government said it is now targeting to make the programme mandatory from mid-2007. Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan said gasoline sold at the pumps could contain as much as 10% ethanol from...
(EnergyAsia, November 10) — When he stepped down in September after more than five years as Japan’s Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi was hailed as the country’s strongest leader since the 1970s, and a popular reformer who revived the economy and successfully fought obstructionist bureaucrats. He also left behind a legacy that could make it...
(EnergyAsia, November 10) — Thai solar panel producer Solartron said it is investing Baht1.2 billion to build a new factory to meet growing domestic demand. (US$1=Baht36.7). The factory, to be completed by late 2007, will have an annual capacity of seven million panels a year. Solartron said it expects the Thai government to...
(EnergyAsia, November 10) — State refiner Thai Oil has formed a joint venture company with zinc smelter Padaeng Industry and sugar producer Mitr Phol to build a 100,000 litres per day ethanol plant in northern Thailand. The new company Maesod Clean Energy Co expects to start up the Baht100 million plant in 2009. (US$1=Baht36.7). ...
(EnergyAsia, November 10) — China’s Fujian province has announced plans to build six wind power plants with a combined capacity of 600,000 kilowatt (KW) by 2010. The plants will cost a total of more than 10 billion yuan. (US$1=7.8 yuan). The farms will be sited in Zhangpu Liuao, Dongshan Aojiao, Hui’an Chongwu, Changle Jiangtian,...
(EnergyAsia, November 10) — Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and ExxonMobil Chemical said they have begun work on a feasibility study to define a potential project that would grow their two joint petrochemical ventures at Yanbu and Jubail. The project would target a domestic supply of carbon black and rubber and thermoplastic specialty polymers (EPDM,...
(EnergyAsia, November 10) — At a time of record high oil prices, who would believe oil companies are still obsessed with maximising profits? And that they need help? While most outsiders look on in envy and even anger at today’s record oil profits, they forget that many oil companies struggled to survive in the...
(EnergyAsia, November 10) — China’s oil imports reached a record 3.3 million barrels per day in September, up 24% from the same period last year. Meanwhile, its crude exports plunged by 76% to just 130,000 tonne, or a mere 910,000 barrels for the month, according to the General Administration of Customs. For the first...
(EnergyAsia, November 10) — Greenpeace has released new photographs of rapidly melting glaciers in Europe to call upon the world’s governments attending this week’s Climate Conference in Nairobi to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’. The climate crisis is urgent: the science is indisputable, the moral obligation is unquestionable, and the economic imperative for urgent...
(EnergyAsia, November 10) — Foster Wheeler North America Corp., an operating unit of Foster Wheeler Ltd’s Global Power Group, said it has been awarded a contract by Harbin Power Engineering Company Ltd (HPE) for the design of two 545 tons per hour sub-critical circulating fluidised-bed (CFB) steam generators for the Cam Pha power plant power...
(EnergyAsia, November 10) — Australian resources company BHP Billiton has announced the results of the Ruby-1 exploration well that was recently drilled off the coast of Trinidad. The well and subsequent testing confirm an oil and gas resource with commercial potential in shallow waters off the east coast of Trinidad. Drilling of the Ruby-1...