liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Iran. In 2004, India’s largest downstream oil company and Malaysia’s Petronas signed an agreement to help develop Iran’s giant Pars gas field. The agreement expired last month. IOC said Iran had failed to allocate its share of the natural gas to India as part of the agreement. India has...

  (EnergyAsia, November 16, Friday) — American International Group Inc (AIG) said it plans to provide funding to support projects that reduce or sequester greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, through the purchase of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission offset credits, in China’s Xinjiang and Sichuan provinces. The proposed projects will generate 310,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide...

  (EnergyAsia, November 16, Friday) — Singapore-listed oil trader Chemoil said it lost US$2.5 million in the third quarter while revenues rose 31.2% to US$1.6 billion compared with year-ago levels. For the first nine months of the year, the company had total net profit of US$15.9 million on revenue of US$3.91 billion, about 20% higher...

  (EnergyAsia, November 16, Friday) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said record high oil prices are unlikely to dent world economic growth by much. US WTI benchmark surged past $98 a barrel in early November on increased geopolitical risks, bad weather in the oil-producing Gulf of Mexico area, tightening market conditions and the weaker...

  (EnergyAsia, November 16, Friday) – Germany’s Oiltanking Group said it has entered into a joint venture with the Huizhou Dayawan Petrochemical Industry Park Development Group Co Ltd to build, own and operate a public jetty for bulk liquid petrochemicals in the Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Industrial Park. One jetty with 2 berths of up...

  (EnergyAsia, November 16, Friday) — Shipper Maersk Line said it has implemented the QUEST software solution to enable its refrigerated containers or reefers to significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. QUEST, short for Quality and Energy Efficiency in Storage and Transport, helps control vessel temperature, enabling the company to reduce energy used for...

  (EnergyAsia, November 16, Friday) — Courage Marine Group Limited, a Singapore-listed dry bulk shipper of infrastructure and energy commodities, has reported a 234% year-on-year growth in net attributable profit (PATMI) to US$20.1 million for the third quarter. The company said a sharp upturn in the dry bulk freight rates and the high fleet utilisation...

  (EnergyAsia, November 16, Friday) — Singapore-listed China Aviation Oil (CAO) said its third quarter net profit jumped 39% year-on-year to US$10.5 million due largely to a drop in financing costs and a rise in bank deposits. Revenue, however, fell 19% to US$747.4 million, weighed down by a drop in jet fuel deliveries for the...

  (EnergyAsia, November 16, Friday) — Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI) and India’s Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) have agreed to jointly establish a company to manufacture and sell steam turbines and generators, equipment used in coal-fired power generation plants. L&T-MHI Turbine Generators Private Limited is being set up in respose to India’s rapidly...

  (EnergyAsia, November 16, Friday) — China Classification Society and Det Norske Veritas last month jointly launched their CCS-DNV Technology Institute in Shanghai. The institute aims to support both the maritime and offshore industries on various laboratory and research challenges. The first phase will focus on coating testing to respond to the IMO rules on...

  (EnergyAsia, November 16, Friday) — The equal joint venture between Australia’s AGL Energy Limited (AGL) and Arrow Energy NL (Arrow) have acquired the gas merchant and pipeline businesses of the Queensland Power Trading Corporation (Enertrade) from the Queensland state government for a total purchase price of A$268 million plus transaction costs of approximately A$12...

some A$3 billion in subsidies that are currently allocated for fossil fuels to renewable energy programmes. (US$1 = A$1.08). Under the Green’s scheme, some A$300 million of fossil fuel subsidies would be used  to promote solar and wind power every year. Proponents say the money would help re-establish Australia as a leader in the research...

feedstock for biodiesel fuel. The company said its patented photo-bioreactor allows for algae suitable for biodiesel to be grown at a low cost. AlgaeLink president Hand van de Ven said it designs, builds, owns, operates and markets photo-bioreactors for algae. Algae feed could eventually emerge as an important eco-friendly alternative to conventional hydrocarbon-based fuels. He...

around the world, with populations of eight million each by 2015, are facing increased risks from global warming. Worldwatch Institute further identified 21 cities as being highly vulnerable. They include Dhaka, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tianjin, Alexandria, Cairo, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jakarta, Tokyo, Osaka-Kobe, Lagos, Karachi, Bangkok, New York and Los Angeles. Already, about...

electrify 54 remote villages in Manipur state. Under its rural electrification programme, the country aims to provide electricity to remote villages and hamlets through alternative power sources, such as solar and small hydroelectric projects as well as biomass and windpower. The government also recently approved electrification programmes for 128 villages in Arunachal Pradesh state, 462...

on track to start exports to customers in South Korea and China from 2009. Local officials said Tangguh is set to begin producing in late 2008 with first shipments expected for early 2009. Buyers for Tangguh’s gas include terminals in China’s Fujian province (2.6 million tonnes per year), Korea’s K-Power and Posco (1.1 million tonnes...

First Ship Lease Trust (FSL Trus”), said it has acquired two product tankers from two affiliates of privately held Groda Shipping & Transportation Ltd for a total of US$113 million. These vessels were concurrently leased back to the sellers for a base lease term of seven years. The sellers will continue to employ the vessels...

record after tax and minority interest net profit of S$40.5 million for the nine months ended September 30 2007. (US$1=S$1.45). This is an increase of 49% over the S$27.2 million it registered in the same period the previous year, and, 15% up from the S$35.2 million it made in the whole of FY2006. Group turnover...

said the planet is at risk from the threats of climate change, rising extinction of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing human population. The report, Global Environment Outlook: environment for development (GEO-4), was released last month, 20 years after the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission) produced its seminal report,...

subsidiary, opened a solar cell production plant this week with a ceremony attended by approximately 80 guests and company executives including Yoshiko Shiotani, the governor of Kumamoto prefecture, Junichi Mitsuyama, the deputy general manager of Natural Resources, Energy and Environment Department, Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry...

not create negative environmental and social impacts and are not slowed down by trade barriers that would lead to the development of a global market, according to a new report released by the Global Bioenergy Parnership (GBEP). The report, “A Review of the Current State of Bioenergy Development in G8+5 Countries,” was released at last...

huge losses from making wrong bets on the foreign exchange markets. SembCorp Marine and its accountants are investigating how it lost more than US$303 million on unauthorised foreign exchange trades. The company has not revealed full details of the losses but fired its veteran group finance director Wee Sing Guan last month. It remains unclear how...

the point that it threatens to break the earth’s ability to regenerate while widening income disparity between the rich and poor, said think tank New Economics Foundations. It has coined the term “Ecological Debt Day” as representing how humanity is living beyond its environmental means. If other nations had the same consumption rates as the...

world-scale petrochemical project in Singapore last week with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as the guest-of-honour. When completed in 2011, the Jurong Island plant will be ExxonMobil’s largest owned and operated petrochemical complex as well as its largest integrated chemical and refining site in the world. The project will create 400 plant and business positions in...

secured an engineering, procurement and construction contract worth S$45.5 million from Oiltanking Odfjell Terminal Singapore Private Limited (OOTS). The project involves the engineering design and construction of tanks to store mono ethylene glycol (MEG) and propylene oxide (PO), and facilities adjacent to OOTS’s existing chemical terminal on Jurong Island. Construction is expected to be completed...