for the expansion of its solar energy business. The trading house has set aside a budget of 110 billion yen to develop solar power manufacturing facilities in Europe to follow on its purchase of a stake in Norway’s Scatec Solar AS. (US$1=110 yen). Itochu and Scatec are also planning to invest about 100 billion yen...

signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the formation of a joint venture to raise a total of A$45 million for drilling for oil and gas drilling off Tasmania in Australia. (US$1=A$1.10). Energy Corp’s wholly owned subsidiary Great South Land Minerals Ltd (GSLM) also signed the agreement with Hong Kong-based Smart Win International Limited, a joint...

awarded a Rs2 billion contract to help build the Nam Chien hydropower project in Vietnam, its first in the power-short country. (US$1=Rs43). The hydropower plant, located in the Muong La district in the Son La province, 350 km north of Hanoi, is slated for completion by end-2010. BHEL said the contract is funded by the...

hydropower project in Bhutan near the border with India. Subsidiary Tata Power Trading will purchase all the power generated from the project. The project’s majority partner is the Bhutan state-owned Druk Green Power Corp (DGPC). The partners have formed Dagachhu Hydro Power Corp to implement and manage the plant. The financial details of the deal...

invest a total of Rs4.5 billion in new wind farm projects in the Indian state of Maharashtra. (US$1=Rs43).   The farms will produce a total of 90MW of electricity, said director-general of Maharashtra Energy Development Agency (MEDA) Mahesh Zagade. BP’s proposed 40MW wind farm in Dhule is its first in Asia. Constructed by Suzlon, the...

Corporation Bhd said they have formed a 70/30 joint venture to buy into in a project company to develop and operate a hydropower project in Laos. Earlier, IJM said it had entered into a shareholders’ agreement with MFCB to incorporate the new company in the British Virgin Island with an initial paid-up capital of US$10,000....

are planning to divert some of their inventories of the cooking oil crop to produce biodiesel.   Malaysia’s Commodities Minister Peter Chin said the government will divert 500,000 tonnes of crude palm oil from its stockpile for biodiesel production this quarter. The country’s palm oil stockpiles now stands at a new high of more than...

memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government to jointly commercialise the country’s “substantial” natural gas resources currently not dedicated to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. Exxon Mobil is leading a consortium to develop PNG’s first LNG facility. Oil Search’s managing director, Peter Botten, said: “We are delighted to have executed...

are teaming up to pursue a broad range of global initiatives including commercial finance, clean energy research and development, aviation, industry and corporate learning. Mubadala added it plans to eventually become one of GE’s top ten institutional investors through the open market. The partners will establish a clean energy technology centre located in Masdar City,...

expenditure of US$625 million for the full development of the Turrum oil and gas field in the Gippsland Basin off the coast of Victoria state. The field development will produce new supplies of natural gas and liquids through new and existing Bass Strait facilities. Turrum is part of the Gippsland Basin joint venture in which...

(EnergyAsia, August 8, Friday) — Singapore-listed KS Energy Services Ltd said its wholly-owned subsidiary Atlantic Oilfield Services Ltd (AOS) has secured a drilling contract with an unidentified international oilfield operator for the supply and management of its newly acquired 2000 hp land rig – the Discoverer-IV. The US$16.95 million contract for confirmed period of one...

(EnergyAsia, August 8, Friday) — Singapore-listed Rotary Engineering Limited said its first half net profit fell 22% to S$21.9 million, while group revenue slipped 8% to S$251.7 million over the same period last year. (US$1=S$1.36). The company said the decline took place as it had completed several key projects on Jurong Island towards the end...

(EnergyAsia, August 8, Friday) — Malaysia’s oil and natural gas reserves edged down marginally to 20.13 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) on January 1, said state oil and gas company Petronas. In 2006, the reserves stood at 20.18 billion boe. Petronas attributed the decline to downward revisions of gas reserves in offshore Sarawak in...

(EnergyAsia, August 8, Friday) — The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects further tightening of world oil supplies after 2010. It has called on producer countries to increase their investments in production and infrastructure. Prices are expected to rise sharply on account of growing demand from emerging economies such as China, India, Latin America and the...

(EnergyAsia, August 8, Friday) — Indonesia’s state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina will have to sharply increase its imports of refined products and fuel in August as its huge Cilacap refinery in Java is undergoing a major overhaul. The company expects fuel import to rise by about 60% in August, compared with the average...

(EnergyAsia, August 8, Friday) — Australia’s planned national emissions trading scheme could damage the viability of country’s massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, an important export earner for the country. Producers, led by Australian upstream giant, Woodside Petroleum, said the scheme could put at risk an estimated A$60 billion in proposed investment in LNG projects....

(EnergyAsia, August 8, Friday) — Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine said its subsidiary PPL Shipyard has secured a second contract from Egyptian Drilling Company (EDC) to build a jack-up rig. The US$220 million rig will be based on PPL Shipyard’s proprietary Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 (BMC Pacific 375) Deep Drilling design and proprietary components. It will...

(EnergyAsia, August 8, Friday) — Japan’s Sanyo Electric Co Ltd said it has completed construction of a two-billion-yen plant in Ohtsu city in Shiga Prefecture for the assembly of HIT solar cell modules as part of a wide plan to develop its solar energy business. (US$1=105 yen). The Shiga plant will have an initial production...

(EnergyAsia, August 8, Friday) — Rating agency Fitch Ratings has affirmed CNOOC Ltd’s long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at ‘A’, short-term foreign and local currency IDRs at ‘F1’, and its senior unsecured ratings at ‘A’. The outlook is stable. ‘CNOOC’s credit quality remains strong on the back of the company’s solid...

year’s budget in the face of high oil prices. (US$1=9,100 rupiah). The Finance Ministry has raised its fuel subsidy estimate to 119.8 trillion rupiah for the second half of this year, up from 60.5 trillion rupiah in the first half, bringing the full-year total to a record 180 trillion trillion. In its most recent budget,...

earlier estimates in the 30-60 million barrel range, said local officials. At present, Thailand’s domestic production meets only 30% of its oil demand, and officials are convinced that the new finds are unlikely to fully meet rising domestic demand. Thailand’s crude oil production is expected to rise to 250,000 b/d within four years, up from...

(LNG) from the Tangguh project: pay up or you won’t see the cargoes. In an increasingly resource-scarce world, suppliers like Indonesia are disregarding the sanctity of contracts and demanding to change terms and raise prices. Pricing of Tangguh’s LNG was agreed upon long before the sharp run-up in oil, gas and coal prices on the...

domestic fuel prices by almost a third late last month. The price hike has raised fears of higher inflation and spurred heavy demand for US dollars, thus driving down the dong. One US dollar cost some 17,500 dong in black market dealing, compared with 16,700 before fuel prices were increased. The dong could fall further...

supply contracts worth a total of S$5.8 million. (US$1=S$1.37). The contracts were awarded by two international offshore oil and gas engineering and production companies with operations in Singapore and Indonesia, as well as from several shipyards in China. Technics declined to name the companies. Norr Systems will design and supply Shipboard Automation Systems, which are...