(EnergyAsia, December 27, Thursday) — A crackdown on smuggled oil products from Iran has worsened Pakistan’s supply situation. The Pakistani government has justified the crackdown by stating that it loses up to Rs6 billion in foregone annual tax revenues. (US$1=Rs61). But after Islamabad brought the smuggling to a halt, the country’s oil marketers were not...

(EnergyAsia, December 27, Thursday) — Suzlon, Asia’s leading wind power solutions company, has received an order from ONGC, India’s leading oil exploration and production (E&P) company, for 51 MW of wind turbine capacity. The order, to be supplied in 34 units of Suzlon’s S82 – 1.5 MW turbines, will be installed as part of a...

(EnergyAsia, December 27, Thursday) — The US government’s move to boost its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) has been putting upward pressure on crude oil prices, adding some 10% to prices, according to analysts. Washington has been adding 50,000 b/d of mostly low-sulphur crude oil to the emergency stockpile since August. It plans to increase stockpile...

(EnergyAsia, December 27, Thursday) — Pakistan’s economy is increasingly vulnerable to an oil shock as its oil stockpiles have plummeted to record lows. Oil companies and consumers have been drawing on stockpiles as they are increasingly unable to afford to pay for high oil prices. Stocks of products such as kerosene and diesel are only...

(EnergyAsia, December 27, Thursday) — China’s leading downstream company Sinopec Group expects to complete the construction of a 10-million-ton per year refinery in Qingdao in Shandong province next month. The 12.5 billion yuan refinery will produce up to 7.6 million tons of refined oil a year while earning more than 30 billion yuan of revenue....

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(EnergyAsia, December 26, Wednesday) — China’s top economic planning agency said it has filled up a 33-million-barrel crude oil terminal in Zhenhai, the first of the country’s four strategic petroleum reserve sites.The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said it began filling up the terminal in Zhejiang province shortly after it started operations in October...

(EnergyAsia, December 26, Wednesday) — The Malaysian government is enjoying some windfall revenues on the back of record high crude oil prices.As a net oil exporter, Malaysia will likely use the extra revenue to offset weak export earnings from manufacturing as well as push for a more expansionary fiscal policy in 2008.Malaysian companies in the...

(EnergyAsia, December 26, Wednesday) — China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) is looking to build two 200,000 b/d oil refineries in Shandong and Yunnan provinces as it continues to expand its downstream activities.The Shandong refinery will be located in the coastal city of Weihai, near the Qingdao refinery owned by rival Sinopec, while the Yunnan plant...

(EnergyAsia, December 26, Wednesday) — Private car owners in Indonesia will have to pay more for gasoline from next month as part of the government’s attempt to reduce its fuel subsidy burden. Private car owners will have to pay 6,250 rupiah per litre for premium gasoline of 90-octane. (US$1=9,500).The government and owners of vehicles for...

(EnergyAsia, December 26, Wednesday) — Malaysian engineering firm TRC Synergy Bhd has bought a 26% stake in a Brunei oil and gas company in the hope of securing a stake in a proposed refinery and oil storage project in the sultanate.PetroBru (B) Sdn Bhd was recently approved by the Brunei government to study the viability...

(EnergyAsia, December 26, Wednesday) — China Sunergy recently signed an agreement to supply German module manufacturing company, Advance and Automotive Solar System GMBH (asola), 10.2 MW of solar cells next year.China Sunergy, which manufactures solar cell products in Nanjing, China said it is looking to expand its business in Europe.Asola CEO Reinhard Wecker said he...

(EnergyAsia, December 26, Wednesday) — State Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company or Takreer, Finland’s Neste Oil and Austrian’s oil and gas group OMV said they will form a joint venture company to build a plant to produce sulphur-free, very high viscosity index (VHVI) group III base oil in the Abu Dhabi city of Ruwais.The joint...

(EnergyAsia, December 26, Wednesday) — ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (EMRE) said its technology for converting methanol to gasoline (MTG) has been selected by DKRW Advanced Fuels (DKRW) as part of its coal-to-liquids (CTL) project in Medicine Bow, Wyoming state in the US. Medicine Bow Fuel and Power LLC will be the owner and operator...

(EnergyAsia, December 26, Wednesday) — Singapore-listed KS Energy Services Limited said its wholly owned subsidiary, Atlantic Oilfield Services (AOS), has secured a US$37 million contract for the supply and management of the Discoverer-1, a 1,500-hp land rig in the Middle East.AOS will operate the project from the second quarter for a period of three years,...

(EnergyAsia, December 24, Monday) — Vietnam has begun construction of the country’s first oil products storage terminal in central Khanh Hoa province. Upon completion of the first phase in early 2009, the 56-hectare terminal in Van Phong Economic Zone in Ninh Hoa district will be able to store around 500,000 cubic metres of oil products....

(EnergyAsia, December 24, Monday) — Private oil companies may be allowed to supply aviation fuel in India’s major airports even if they do not own storage facilities, said industry executives and government officials. Airlines complain that the state-owned oil companies which monopolise the jet fuel business over charge them while providing poor service. At a...

(EnergyAsia, December 24, Monday) — China has established a new agency to manage its strategic petroleum reserves and monitor the international oil markets, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The NDRC, which began planning and developing the country’s oil stockpiling efforts in 2004, will hand over responsibility to the new agency which came...

(EnergyAsia, December 24, Monday) — Japan’s Sharp Corp will increase the capacity of its production system for thin-film solar cells at its Katsuragi Plant in Nara Prefecture from the current level of 15 MW to 160 MW per year by October 2008. The company plans to invest 22 billion yen on the expansion. (US$1=112 yen)....

    (EnergyAsia, December 24, Monday) — India’s privately held Essar Oil has begun talks to acquire up to half the stake collectively owned by three Western majors in a four-million-ton-per-year oil refinery in Kenya. Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and BP are believed to be motivated to sell off their downstream assets to focus on exploration...

(EnergyAsia, December 24, Monday) — The Australian government, through the Australian Greenhouse Office, has recently provided AU$100,000 to the Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy to fund a project in the Pacific entitled Pacific Kerosene Displacement Strategies Project. (US$1=A$1.16). The project will be managed by the Regional Secretariat of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency...

(EnergyAsia, December 24, Monday) — Japan has agreed to lend a consortium comprising Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and Marubeni Corp up to $1.336 billion for the construction of a power and desalination project in Fuijairah in the UAE. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) last week signed finance documents with the...

(EnergyAsia, December 24, Monday) — Underpinning the oil market’s continuing strength, crude oil inventories in Japan last week fell to their lowest levels in nearly two years while US stockpiles dipped to an almost three-year low. US benchmark WTI has remained well supported at around $90 a barrel in recent months amid signs that demand...

(EnergyAsia, December 24, Monday) — Good Energies has agreed to buy 66,745,638 ordinary shares and 281,011 American Depository Shares (ADS) of China’s Solarfun Power Holdings from current shareholders including half the stake held by chairman and CEO Yonghua Lu, who will retain a 16.1% stake in the company immediately after the completion of the transaction....

(EnergyAsia, December 24, Monday) — Nasdaq-listed Foster Wheeler Ltd said its joint venture with WorleyParsons Services Pty Ltd has been awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCm) contract by Woodside Burrup Pty Ltd for the onshore portion of its Pluto Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project in Western Australia. The contract value was not disclosed...