(EnergyAsia, October 22, Thursday) — Post-war Sri Lanka recently suffered its worst power failure after a major transmission line linking Colombo from Kolonnawa to the Kelanitissa power complex suffered a cable break, said state power firm Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). Apologising for the massive power shutdown across much of the island, CEB chairman E. Edirisinghe...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Thursday) — Hedge fund investor logi Energy LLC said it has launched ‘The Peak Oil Value Fund’, the first of its kind aimed at institutional and accredited investors. logi Energy said it aims to support the efforts of oil and gas exploration firms aiming to boost their reserves, and to help the...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Thursday) — India’s Reliance Industries said it plans to expand its 580,000 b/d refinery in Gujarat state by another 20% by mid-2010. The refinery, sited next to an older 660,000 b/d plant in Jamnagar port, started up last December, and has been operating at well above nameplate capacity. Reliance officials said they...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Thursday) — The 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck West Sumatra in Indonesia on September 30 did not disrupt the supply of piped gas from South Sumatra to Singapore. More than 1,000 people in Sumatra were believed to have been killed from the quake’s deadly impact. In Singapore, given that 80% of its electricity...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Thursday) — China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) said it has awarded subsidiary China Petroleum Engineering Construction Corporation (CPECC) contracts worth a total of $260 million to work on seven engineering procurement and construction (EPC) projects in Sudan’s Block 6. Operator CNPC, which is leading the block’s development, said CPECC will build two...

(EnergyAsia, October 22, Thursday) — Shell China Limited, a unit of the Anglo Dutch major, said it and its partners recently opened their 10th retail station in Xi’an city in Shaanxi Province. Shaanxi Yanchang and Shell Petroleum Company Limited is a joint venture between Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group Co Ltd, Shaanxi Tianli Investment Company Limited...

(EnergyAsia, October 21, Wednesday) — The Shell group has awarded separate contracts to two Singapore-listed engineering companies, Hai Leck Holdings Limited and PEC Limited. Hai Leck said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Hai Leck Engineering Pte Ltd, was awarded new maintenance contracts by Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd (SEPL) and Shell Chemicals Seraya (Pte) Ltd (SCSL) to...

(EnergyAsia, October 21, Wednesday) — US and European oil refiners are facing the twin threats of declining domestic demand and growing competition from Asian rivals, said Vienna, Austria-based energy consultant JBC Energy. Some operators may be forced to shut down as they will not be able to compete against some of Asia’s larger, newer and...

(EnergyAsia, October 21, Wednesday) — The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has raised its forecast for the world’s oil demand for 2009 and 2010 in light of the improving economic outlook. In its latest monthly report, OPEC said: “With the US oil demand bouncing back from a steep historical decline, the forecast for 2009...

(EnergyAsia, October 21, Wednesday) — US crude oil futures briefly rose to a new 12-month above the $80-per-barrel barrier yesterday, helped by rising investor confidence and the continued slump in the value of the US dollar. With OPEC, the IEA and the US EIA all revising upwards their forecasts for world oil demand this and...

(EnergyAsia, October 21, Wednesday) — The cost of operating ships rose nearly 16% last year due primarily to rising crew wages, according to leading shipping and insurance adviser, Moore Stephens. The consultancy said its operating costs and benchmarking tool, OpCost 2009, covering several vessel types rose by 15.8%. Crew wages rose on average at a...

(EnergyAsia, October 21, Wednesday) — The Iranian government has approved a plan to sell 40% of state-owned Iranian Oil Terminals Company to the private sector. The company, part of the National Iranian Oil Company, owns and operates four storage terminals that load more than 2,000 oil carrier tankers per year. The partial privatisation would cover...

(EnergyAsia, October 21, Wednesday) — NYSE-listed Occidental Petroleum Corporation said it has agreed to acquire oil and gas trading unit Phibro LLC from Citigroup Inc for “approximately net asset value” of about $250 million Occidental said Phibro’s assets consist of cash, marketable securities and readily saleable commodity positions, and does not trade in any exotic...

(EnergyAsia, October 21, Wednesday) — China’s refiners are planning to raise their crude processing capacity by 60% to more than 11 million b/d by 2015, said the country’s main oil and chemical association. The industry is hoping to raise its refining capacity from more than eight million b/d last year to 8.9 million by 2011,...

(EnergyAsia, October 20, Tuesday) — China’s state-owned Yanzhou Coal Mining Co is still interested to acquire Australian coal producer Felix Resources despite facing stiff regulatory hurdles. In August, Yanzhou announced it had agreed to pay A$3.5 billion or A$18 a share, including a dividend and stock in a spin-off unit, valuing the acquisition at A$3...

(EnergyAsia, October 20, Tuesday) — US-based Air Products said it will supply Air Products’ proprietary liquefied natural gas (LNG) process technology and equipment for an LNG project in Yinchuan in China. Air Products said its technology will be vital for two liquefaction trains each producing 400,000 tons per year of LNG for the Ningxia Hanas...

(EnergyAsia, October 20, Tuesday) — First Reserve Corporation, a leading US-based private equity firm specialising in the energy industry, said it has committed to an equity investment of up to US$500 million in KrisEnergy Holdings Ltd, a newly established oil and gas company building a portfolio of exploration, development and production assets in Asia.  Singapore-based...

(EnergyAsia, October 20, Tuesday) — Australia’s leading science agency, CSIRO, said it will be working with the China Geological Survey (CGS) of the Ministry of Land and Resources to introduce its set of geological technology to the Chinese market. CSIRO recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with CGS following their collaboration in several successful...

(EnergyAsia, October 20, Tuesday) — IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Co Ltd to jointly finance projects that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution in Asia’s developing countries. The two institutions will focus primarily on...

(EnergyAsia, October 20, Tuesday) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised its forecast for India’s economy to grow by 6% this year, up from its earlier call for a 5% expansion. Next year’s growth will accelerate to 7%, said the bank in its Asian Development Outlook report for 2009. It attributed this year’s better...

(EnergyAsia, October 20, Tuesday) — State-owned VietNam National Coal and Minerals Industries Group (Vinacomin) has raised its 2009 coal production target by three million tonnes to 43 million tonnes to help meet rising domestic demand. However, the company would be hard pressed to meet its target as its first half output fell 5% year-on-year to...

(EnergyAsia, October 19, Monday) — France’s Total said it has agreed to acquire US major ExxonMobil’s lubricants and specialties business in Vietnam which includes a lubricants blending facility in the southern Dong Nai province and a nationwide lubricants distributor network. Upon successful completion of this transaction, Total said it will significantly increase its market share...

(EnergyAsia, October 19, Monday) — Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine said its wholly owned subsidiary, Jurong Shipyard, has delivered a second ultra-deepwater semi-submersible rig, the Ocean Valor, on schedule to Diamond Offshore Drilling Limited. On September 30, 2009, Diamond Offshore Drilling Limited acquired from PetroRig II Pte Ltd the construction contract to purchase the newbuild, 7,500-foot, dynamically...