resume shipping one million b/d of its crude to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey by end-2008, up from 850,000 b/d now. Speaking at a recent oil conference in Baku, Azeri energy minister Natiq Aliyev said the pipeline began pumping again in September after undergoing planned maintenance and repairs to stanch a gas leak near one...

subsidiary of Japan’s Toshiba Corp, said it has completed the first phase of a four-year investment programme with the opening of a new generator coil shop in China’s Zhejiang province.   Toshiba Corp, a world leading supplier of hydro power generating equipment, said the 170-million yuan programme will run to fiscal 2009, doubling the manufacturing...

launched the Global Environment 60SM Index (GE60) to support investment strategies that help build a more sustainable global economy. The GE60 is designed to address global trends that will have a profound impact on capital markets including demographic shifts, industrialisation of the developing world, and climate change.  These trends have already increased both demand for...

work on a new solar cell manufacturing facility in Yasu City in Shiga Prefecture in early 2009. When it starts up in the spring of 2010, it will be Kyocera’s largest manufacturing facility in Japan and boost the company’s total solar cell output to 650MW by March 2012. It will also manufacture Kyocera’s new back-contact...

oil-rich Azerbaijan seems to be cooling toward the West of late following Russia’s successful military incursion into neighbour Georgia in August. The brief war, which led to the temporary suspension of Azeri oil supplies on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to Turkey, has underlined Russia’s dominance in the region and its hold power over the economies...

(EnergyAsia, November 19, Wednesday) — Russia is mulling plans to set up a crude oil reserve in a bid to gain more pricing on the world energy markets. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who oversees the country’s energy sector, said an oil production reserve could enable Russia to act as a swing supplier in international...

(EnergyAsia, November 19, Wednesday) — The Pakistani government’s decision to reduce oil storage levels to 10 days of supplies from 21 days now, could lead to severe shortages and supply disruptions, industry executives said. Islamabad wants to reduce stock level to help save foreign currency reserves amid the worsening global financial crisis. Local oil marketing...

(EnergyAsia, November 19, Wednesday) — India is working hard to tap Kazakhstan’s oil and mineral assets as it tries to catch up with China which has made deep inroads into resource-rich Central Asia. Kazakhstan is quite keen to diversify its trade and investment to avoid becoming too dependent on any one country. Indian firms are...

(EnergyAsia, November 19, Wednesday) — Kazakhstan is tapping its oil wealth to protect its fragile economy and banking system from the fallout of the global financial crisis. The government of Prime Minister Karim Masimov said it is ready to prop up banks and make sure that commitments to international and domestic investors are being met....

(EnergyAsia, November 19, Wednesday) — Finland’s Wärtsilä said it has opened a new office and workshop in Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea, to service power plant installations in the region’s gold, copper and silver mining industries, as well as regional marine applications in the fisheries and offshore oil and gas sectors....

(EnergyAsia, November 19, Wednesday) — Singapore Petroleum Company Limited (SPC) said its wholly-owned subsidiary, SPC E&P Upstream Pte Ltd, has signed a production sharing contract (PSC) to explore the Mahakam Hilir block in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan. The PSC was signed by Indonesia’s state authority, the Badan Pelaksana Kegiatan Usaha Hulu Minyak Dan Gas Bumi or...

(EnergyAsia, November 19, Wednesday) — Indonesian upstream support company Apexindo Pratama Duta Tbk said its shareholders have approved the acquisition of a floating production storage offloading (FPSO) unit. It did not disclose details including the acquisition cost and the FPSO’s supplier.   At a recent extraordinary general meeting in Jakarta, the company said shareholders holding...

(EnergyAsia, November 19, Wednesday) — France’s Alstom SA said it expects to win around $2 billion in hydropower equipment orders from Asian customers this fiscal year ending March 2009. This was about the same as last year, said Alstom’s Hydro Power President Philippe Cochet. Speaking in Vadodara town in India’s Gujarat province where he opened...

  (EnergyAsia, November 19, Wednesday) — The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (Taqa), a listed company on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, said its wholly owned subsidiary, Taqa Bratani Limited, said it has signed a contract with Wood Group Engineering (North Sea) Ltd, a subsidiary of John Wood Group PLC, to provide operating and...

equivalent of six Saudi Arabias, to meet its growing oil appetite by 2030, said the International Energy Agency (IEA). In its latest World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2008 report, the IEA described current global trends in energy supply and consumption as “patently unsustainable — environmentally, economically, socially.” The Paris-based agency has forecast that world primary demand...

in manufacturing and metal-forming, said they have signed an agreement which opens the way to the creation of a joint venture company to be set up in India. The new company will manage the whole process from engineering and manufacturing to selling and commissioning state-of-the-art 600 MW to 800 MW supercritical turbine island power plant...

Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), the Middle East’s leading energy futures and commodities exchange, have announced that DME’s contracts will exclusively trade electronically on the CME Globex® platform from the first quarter of 2009. The final decision is subject to DME board approval. The CME Globex platform offers virtually around the clock access to the broadest...

third quarter operating profit excluding exceptional items rose 18% to 80.8 million euro. Its year-to-date profit for the first nine months of 2009 climbed 14% to 237.6 million euro. (US$1=0.7 euro). Its worldwide capacity rose by 200,000 cubic metres (cbm) to 26.6 million cubic metres as a result of acquisitions in Asia and North America...

back of the American housing bubble, setting off a chain reaction leading to the collapse of Wall Street and recession in the world’s leading economies, said a US study group. Although housing prices are in decline almost everywhere, price declines are generally far more severe in far-flung suburbs and in metropolitan areas with weak close-in...

to operate and maintain a power plant at the Attock oil refinery site near Rawalpindi in Pakistan. The 156 MW plant, which was supplied and installed by Wärtsilä to Attock Gen Ltd, will start commercial operations this year. Wärtsilä has operations and maintenance contracts in three other power plants in Pakistan, supplying a total of...

Aliyev has quickly moved to strengthen his grip on Azerbaijan, the small but oil-rich Central Asian nation in the Caucasus. The results were never in doubt as he romped home against negligible opposition to claim almost 89% of the vote. Mr Aliyev became president in 2003 when he took over from his father. Both father...

Central Asia, may be shifting its allegiance towards Russia and Iran, and away from the US and the West, analysts say. Wedged in between competing interests in Iran, Turkey, Russia and the US, the country of 8.3 million people of mostly Shitte Muslims has so far played a delicate balancing game. However, when the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan...

third-largest oil company, has received approval from the government to build a crude and oil products terminal, and port project in Huizhou.   The one-billion-yuan project will have the capacity to handle 300,000 tonnes of crude and a berth to accommodate large crude carriers. The project is part of CNOOC’s plan to beef up its...