Company of Abu Dhabi have signed an exploration and production sharing agreement with Oman’s Ministry of Oil and Gas to develop a gas field in the sultanate. Occidental said it will serve as operator with a 48% interest, with Mubadala holding a 32% interest and the Oman Oil Company the remaining 20%. The parties will...

could be delayed by the global credit crisis. Analysts said projects that could be delayed by financing issues include Woodside Petroleum’s Browse LNG project and Chevron’s Gorgon projects, both located off northwest Australia. The UK’s BG Group, Japan’s Inpex and Malaysia’s Petronas have also been checking out large LNG projects in Australia but must now...

an A$70 million solar cell factory next year. (US$1=A$1.55). The plant, likely to be sited near the nation’s capital Canberra, is expected to create 115 jobs. Initially, it will produce 19,000 million solar cells each year, enough to provide power for some 20,000 homes. The bulk of the output would be exported to Europe. In...

Islamic fundamentalism from its big southern neighbour, Iran. Iran resents the fact that Azerbaijan, a secular Shiite Muslims nation, seems to favour Europe and the US in its energy and political dealings, analysts said. The Islamic regime is irritated by what it sees are Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s expanded ties with the US. Iran fears...

licences have been approved by the Papua New Guinean government. The top file process involved the relinquishment of and re-application for licences 245, 246, 249 and 252. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company said the new licenses granted will have fresh six-year terms along with new expenditure commitments for each licence. “We are very pleased to...

government to introduce a feed-in tariff scheme to support its residents who produce solar energy. “This is a positive step by the NSW government to encourage households to invest in generating their own solar power,” said Carl McCamish, executive general manager for corporate development. Origin is a leading provider of grid connected solar solutions to both...

China, strengthening the company’s ability to provide process automation solutions for customers in the Asia Pacific region. The centre expands production capacity and services for Emerson Process Management’s leading flow metering and measurement technologies that serve the oil and gas, refining, petrochemicals, marine, life sciences, food and beverage, metals and mining, and pulp and paper...

problems including pollution and climate change, according to a report released by Friends of the Earth-US (FOE). The environmental group praised China’s effort to improve the sustainability of its financial sector and said it could provide US regulators with ideas for how to approach the financial crisis. The report, The Green Evolution: Environmental Policies and...

Sunrise Consulting Group Inc said it wants to become a major player in the fast-growing international solar energy market. Sunrise Solartech is one of China’s largest solar photovoltaics (PV) manufacturers. Due to the growing demand for clean energy, solar PV production has been doubling every two years, making it the world’s fastest-growing energy technology. Solar...

in Yasu City in Shiga prefecture. Construction of what will be the group’s largest manufacturing facility in Japan will start in early 2009 and be completed by year’s end, with plant start-up scheduled in the spring of 2010. Combined with the company’s existing Yohkaichi plant, the new facility will enable Kyocera to raise its annual...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Wednesday) — Kazakhstan has started shipping oil through the strategic Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey. The oil, from Kazakhstan’s Tengiz field, comes via tanker shipment across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan where it is loaded into the BTC pipeline. Officials did not...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Wednesday) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it is helping to upgrade an ageing facility in Tajikistan’s electricity supply network which is in danger of collapse. The Nurek Hydroelectric Power Plant produces over 70% of the country’s electricity. It also plays a key role in regulating the frequency of power transmitted...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Wednesday) — Iraq’s government has pared back its 2009 budget due to declining oil prices. Crude oil prices have fallen sharply to less than $50 per barrel after hitting a peak of more than US$147 in early July. As a resulted, the government has lowered the state budget by US$13 billion to...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Wednesday) — Western nations have an obligation to reform their economies and change their lifestyles to fight climate change, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said. Speaking at a recent UN gathering in Beijing to discuss technology transfers and related climate programmes, he said that the world must press ahead with measures to fight...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Wednesday) — Azerbaijan is playing a high-stakes game in baiting Russia and Europe to compete for its natural gas reserves. While till now an oil producer, Azerbaijan also holds natural gas reserves estimated at nine billion cubic metres in its Shah Deniz II field which is awaiting development proposals. The field’s first...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Wednesday) — ProLogis said it will install its first photovoltaic system in Japan, a one-megawatt PV system at ProLogis Parc Zama I, a five-story distribution facility totaling more than 113,000 square meters. The PV system, to be located in the city of Zama, a logistics hub in Kanagawa Prefecture, is expected to...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Wednesday) — France’s AREVA said it has signed a contract to supply 32 MOX fuel assemblies for units 3 and 4 of the Takahama power plant in Japan’s Fukui prefecture operated by electrical utility Kansai. MOX is a blend of oxides of plutonium and natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium. The...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Wednesday) — China’s JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd said it and BP Alternative Energy Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of BP plc, plan to jointly develop and market part of their solar photovoltaic product portfolio over the next five years. The definitive commercial agreement is expected to be signed before year end.  JA...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Wednesday) — Australia’s science agency CSIRO said it has agreed to license a piece of forestry software to CO2 Australia, the manager of the country’s largest dedicated forest carbon sink projects. The CABALA software can be used to design and manage tree plantings for use in large greenhouse gas abatement projects. Based...

a three-year agreement to exclusively license Samsung C&T Corp to market and sell its renewable energy solutions as well as provide full maintenance and warranty service in South Korea. Satcon said it is also supplying Samsung with Satcon PowerGate™ Plus inverters for the Korean firm’s solar power projects around the world. Satcon is a leading...

negative impact on US energy policy as its spending billions, even trillions, on economic bailouts will make it less likely to invest in comprehensive energy reform. According to a report by Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), the spike in energy costs, which have boosted annual energy outlays for the typical American family by roughly $1,600...

has several sites that could be developed into hydropower plants, said a team of researchers from the Department of Energy Central Office (DOE), Research specialist Jaime Planas revealed the prospect to Mayor Celso Lobregat during a briefing conducted after three days of inspection of some of the city’s major rivers and waterfalls. The group visited...

Kazakh Shelf in the Caspian Sea. Both governments are in broad agreement about granting Chinese oil players a major role in those projects, officials said. Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov and China’s Premier Wen Jiabao recently discussed co-operating to jointly develop oil and gas projects. Recently, Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (KMG) and...

biomass-to-power plant in Bera in Pahang state. The project is expected to be completed by end-2009 and to start up in 2010.   AGNI said the new plant is more efficient than similar existing plants. It will need to burn 120,000 tonnes of biomass a year to produce 10 MW of electricity. State Federal Land...