(EnergyAsia, May 18, Friday) — Solar-generated electricity could cost as much as coal-produce power by the end of the decade, said Boston, US-based Photon Consulting. By 2010, the average cost of solar electricity could fall to $0.18/kWh in Germany, $0.13 in California and $0.12/kWh in Spain. The industry’s leaders could even bring prices down...
(EnergyAsia, May 18, Friday) — India’s second-biggest state-run refiner, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), will be deploying radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track its LPG cylinders used for cooking in households. The plan is to initially use RFID to track cylinders within the company’s bottling plants at Mumbai and Visakhapatnam before extending it...
(EnergyAsia, May 18, Friday) — India is targeting to attract foreign direct investments (FDI) of US$25 billion in the current financial year to March 31 2008. In the last financial year, FDI into India rose nearly three times to US$15 billion from just US$5.5 billion dollars in FY2005, said Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal...
(EnergyAsia, May 18, Friday) — Pan-United Corporation Ltd, a Singapore-listed logistics and infrastructure group, said its first quarter net profit rose 35% to S$6.8 million while revenue was also up by 35% to S$87 million. CEO Patrick Ng said: “Singapore has seen a step up in construction demand since last year and this year,...
(EnergyAsia, May 18, Friday) — Toronto-listed CanAlaska Uranium Ltd (CVV — TSX.V) and its Korean consortium partners led by Hanwha Corp are hopeful of making a large uranium find in an area of the Athabasca Basin covering mostly Saskatchewan and a bit of Alberta. CanAlaska recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korean...
(EnergyAsia, May 17, Thursday) — The world is about to enter a new “energy age” brought about by the converging trends of mass production, information technology advances, rising energy prices and the growing pressures of climate change, predicts consultant Hill & Knowlton. Two powerful revolutions, mass production and information technology, changed society over the...
(EnergyAsia, May 17, Thursday) — Environmental organisations say that the European Union’s efforts to curb carbon dioxide emissions by imposing clean fuel mandates for biofuels use will backfire. They said that Europe will have to raise imports of Brazilian soy beans and Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil in order to meet the EU target...
(EnergyAsia, May 17, Thursday) — Australia’s Origin Energy Limited said it has committed to expand the capacity of its gas-fired Quarantine Power Station, located on Torrens Island, approximately 25 km north of Adelaide city. The expansion involves the construction of a 120MW (nominal) peaking power generator adjacent to the existing 95MW installation. This A$80...
(EnergyAsia, May 17, Thursday) — Denmark’s Maersk Contractors last week held a ceremony to name its latest newbuilding drilling rig built and delivered by Singapore’s Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd. Monique Desvoyes, wife of Pierre Desvoyes, former managing director of Total E&P Borneo BV, was the guest-of-honour who named the rig MAERSK COMPLETER. “The...
(EnergyAsia, May 17, Thursday) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the Middle East and Central Asia are headed for another year of strong economic growth, with real GDP to average six percent in 2007 for the fifth year in a row. In releasing its May 2007 outlook, Mohsin Khan, director of the IMF’s...
(EnergyAsia, May 17, Thursday) — While the buzz in Washington and the US media is all about runaway gasoline retail prices and the perceived risk of summer shortfalls at the pump, US energy broker Fimat says a looming crude supply tightness is of greater concern. Gasoline inventories, while tighter than normal this year, typically...
(EnergyAsia, May 17, Thursday) — Malaysia LNG Sdn Bhd (MLNG), a subsidiary of Petronas, said it has signed a new sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with Japan’s Saibu Gas Co., Ltd. (Saibu Gas) to supply up to 390,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for 15 years beginning October 2013. The agreement...
(EnergyAsia, May 17, Thursday) — Japan has agreed to lend 102.8 billion yen for Iraq to rebuild its war-torn oil pipelines, refinery and power infrastructure. (US$1 = 118 yen). About 50 billion yen will be spent on upgrading oil export facilities while nearly 33 billion yen towards the reconstruction of the power sector. Another...
(EnergyAsia, May 17, Thursday) — The Malaysian government has disputed environmentalists’ claims that the destruction of rainforests for palm oil cultivation is threatening endangered wildlife species such as the orang utan. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said oil palm is being planted on sites previously used to cultivate crops such as rubber. He said...
(EnergyAsia, May 17, Thursday) — Indonesia’s upstream services provider PT Apexindo Pratama Duta Tbk said it has received a faxed order from upstream company Total E&P Indonesie confirming its long-term contract extension for lease of Maera, Apexindo’s submersible swamp barge offshore rig. The contract is to be extended for five years at a cost...
(EnergyAsia, May 16, Wednesday) — China needs help to reduce its coal use as part of a wider solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, Greenpeace said. The environmental group argues that western countries should provide financial and technological help to China to reduce dependence on coal in favour of renewable fuels. China...
(EnergyAsia, May 16, Wednesday) — The Taiwanese government has drawn up a blueprint to install more than 100 wind power generators in waters around the island. Economic affairs minister Steve Chen told a public forum that Taipei has set a target of producing 10% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2010, from...
(EnergyAsia, May 16, Wednesday) — The European Union (EU) wants developing nations to do more to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Tom van Ierland, an EU climate change expert, said that to curb temperature hikes developing nations needed to work with western nations. The world must take quick action to curb temperatures from rising...
(EnergyAsia, May 16, Wednesday) — The Philippine Department of Energy has urged provincial authorities in Luzon to develop more hydropower facilities to help meet the province’s rising power needs in the coming years. The DOE said Luzon would need an additional 1,950 to 1,990 megawatts (MW) of capacity to meet its power needs between...
(EnergyAsia, May 16, Wednesday) — Climate change could soon become a major source of tensions between nations around the world, experts told the UN Security Council last month. The national security aspect of climate change was underlined when the Security Council held its first-ever debate on climate change. Many speakers, among them UK foreign...
(EnergyAsia, May 16, Wednesday) — Global warming will increase health threats including malnutrition, diarrhoea, respiratory problems, malaria and many infectious diseases. Many diseases and physical injuries are the direct result of heat waves, flooding and other disruptions caused by global warming, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). As global warming becomes more...
(EnergyAsia, May 16, Wednesday) — Biorefineries will change the face of traditional forestry industries, an Australian scientist told delegates to a major international biotechnology conference in Boston, US, last week. Simon Potter, a researcher from Ensis Ð the forestry research joint venture between Australia’s CSIRO and New Zealand’s Crown Research Institute, Scion Ð said...
(EnergyAsia, May 16, Wednesday) — Reeling from the worst drought in over a century, Australia is bracing for the consequences of power blackouts, crop failures and rising food and grain prices in the coming months. The state of Victoria faces the prospect of power blackouts due to falling hydroelectric power output if the coming...
(EnergyAsia, May 16, Wednesday) — Finland’s W’rtsil’ Corporation has opened a new, fully-equipped service workshop close to Saigon port in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This is part of W’rtsil”s development of its business activities in this rapidly-growing market for the company’s products and services to the Vietnamese shipping, shipbuilding and power industries. Just two...
(EnergyAsia, May 16, Wednesday) — Renewable energy technologies are widely available, but nations around the world lack the political will to develop programmes and regulations to apply these technologies, said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Governments and institutions need to recognise the benefits of using renewable energy sources and technologies by supporting...