(EnergyAsia, July 19 2010, Monday) — With the support of other green groups and the Sabah state government, the Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa) and the Sandakan Anti-Coal Committee plan to file an injunction to oppose the construction of a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant in a pristine offshore part of the eastern Malaysian state. Sepa...
(EnergyAsia, July 19 2010, Monday) — Indonesia’s state electricity firm, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), is projecting its coal consumption to more than double by 2014 due to the start-up of more coal-fired power plants, a company official said. Nur Pamudji, PLN director of primary energy, said its coal consumption would rise to 95.3 million...
(EnergyAsia, July 19 2010, Monday) — Australia’s Origin Energy said it has completed final commissioning of its 630MW Darling Downs power station in Queensland state. The station has three 120 MW gas turbines and a 270 MW steam turbine which will emit less than half of the greenhouse gas and requires less than three per...
(EnergyAsia, July 19 2010, Monday) — The Chinese government has approved a proposal by state-owned China Coal Import & Export Company (CCIEC) to establish a A$30 million joint venture mining project with Australia’s MetroCoal Limited. (US$1=A$1.2). CCIEC, , a subsidiary of China National Coal Group or China Coal, has acquired a 51% interest in MetroCoal’s...
(EnergyAsia, July 16 2010, Friday) — Malaysia’s second-largest electricity producer, MMC Corp, expects the government to approve its application to expand the capacity of its Tanjung Bin coal-fired power plant in Johor state. Hasni Harun, MMC group managing director, said that there could be a power reserve shortfall if electricity from the Bank hydroelectric dam...
(EnergyAsia, July 16 2010, Friday) — Faced with rising cost and intense competition for dwindling opportunities, Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas is looking to pull back on overseas exploration and focus on developing domestic oil and gas operations and reserves, said company chief executive Shamsul Azhar Abbas. In the race for scarce oil and gas...
(EnergyAsia, July 16 2010, Friday) — Singapore-based offshore oil and gas support services provider EOC Ltd (the Group), a subsidiary of Ezra Holdings Ltd, said it achieved a net profit of $13.5 million for the nine months ended May 31 2010. (US$1=S$1.38). This was down more than 16.1% from S$16.1 million for the same period...
(EnergyAsia, July 16 2010, Friday) — Ezra Holdings Ltd, a Singapore-based specialist in offshore support and marine services for the oil and gas industry, said its net attributable profit (PATMI) for the nine months ended May 31 surged 26% year-on-year to S$54.5 million. (US$1=S$1.4). Group revenue increased 4% year-on-year to S$244.3 million, boosted mainly by...
(EnergyAsia, July 16 2010, Friday) — Malaysia’s leading power generation company, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), said it made a net profit before forex of RM2,145.4 million for the first nine months of its FY2010 compared to RM1,687.1 million for the same period last year. (US$1=RM3.2). For the three-month period to May 31, its net profit...
(EnergyAsia, July 16 200, Friday) — The stock price of Malaysia’s largest power generation company, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, has been rated a ‘sell’ by MayBank’s analyst Teh Chi-Chang. Citing the pressure on power margins caused by rising coal prices and operating expenses, Mr Teh assessed Tenaga’s target share price on the Malaysian stock exchange...
(EnergyAsia, July 16 2010, Friday) — From July 1 2010, ships operating in the EU Emission Control Area must burn fuel with a maximum sulphur content of 1%, down from the previous limit of 1.5%. Ship owners are now faced with not only fuel switching difficulties but the additional need for lubricant switching as they...
(EnergyAsia, July 16 2010, Friday) — Indonesian state oil firm Pertamina is eyeing acquisitions to help meet its target to increase crude oil production to one million b/d by 2015, said the company’s President Karen Agustiawan She said the company is also planning to boost refining capacity to 1.5 million b/d from one million b/d...
(EnergyAsia, July 15 2010, Thursday) — Electricity Vietnam (EVN) has begun construction work on its 600MW coal-fired power plant in Nghi Son province, about 200 km south of Hanoi city. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who attended the ground-breaking ceremony on July 3, said the US$1.2 billion Nghi Son 1 plant will supply electricity to...
(EnergyAsia, July 15 2010, Thursday) — Tajikistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have agreed on a new partnership strategy for 2010 to 2014 to advance the Central Asian nation’s drive to strengthen energy supplies and transport links, and to diversify its economy. For 2010 to 2012, ADB said it has earmarked public sector investments...
(EnergyAsia, July 15 2010, Thursday) — Malaysia has room to increase palm oil exports to the EU by targeting its growing biofuels market, but will have to pay close attention to European concerns over environment and sustainability issues. The European Commission last month adopted guidelines to implement the union’s renewable energy directive, which requires member...
(EnergyAsia, July 15 2010, Thursday) — Reliance Power, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, has agreed to acquire three coal mines from Indonesia’s Sugico Group for as much as US$1.6 billion. A wholly-owned unit of the Indian firm, Reliance Coal Resources, will pay 5 billion rupees up front and the balance upon the mines meeting...
(EnergyAsia, July 15 2010, Thursday) — Indonesia’s recently declared two-year moratorium on forest clearance could put a complete halt to open-cast mining in the country and possibly reduce coal production, according to Indonesian Coal Mining Association chairman Bob Kamandanu. The industry is “clarifying” the ban and new rules related to an environmental law and a...
(EnergyAsia, July 15 2010, Thursday) — India will likely offer Kuwait the use of its oil terminals to store crude oil in return for assured long-term supplies from the Middle East nation. The proposal was discussed during last month’s visit to New Delhi by the Kuwaiti Oil Minister, Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al Sabah, a senior...
(EnergyAsia, July 15 2010, Thursday) — PetroChina has started building an oil storage terminal at a major railway station in Lhasa, Tibet to improve the supply of refined oil products to the region. The 180-million-yuan Lhasa Railway Oil Terminal Project will have the capacity to hold 38,000 cubic metres of gasoline, diesel, aviation and kerosene....
(EnergyAsia, July 14 2010, Wednesday) — By Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx. Electric vehicles use electricity wholly or partly for traction – making them go along. That encompasses an increasingly large variety of modes of travel by land, sea and air. Electric vehicle manufacturers and those supplying their components vary from ones that are so...
(EnergyAsia, July 14 2010, Wednesday) — Astonfield Renewable Resources and Belectric said they have agreed to jointly build a 5MW solar power plant in Osiyan in India’s Rajasthan state. The project is one of several Astonfield plants expected to be approved under the Migration Phase of India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and will be...
(EnergyAsia, July14 2010, Wednesday) — Olympus Capital Holdings Asia said it is investing a total of US$300 million in two of Indonesia’s largest export coal mining companies that are wholly owned by India’s Tata Power. Olympus Capital said its investment in Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) and Arutmin may be used to support additional resource acquisitions...
(EnergyAsia, July 14 2010, Wednesday) — Mosaic Oil NL, a Sydney-based explorer and producer of oil and gas, said it has received an unsolicited proposal from AGL Energy Ltd, Australia’s largest gas and energy retailer, to acquire all its shares a cash price of 15 Australian cents per share. (US$1=A$1.2). AGL stated that the proposal...
(EnergyAsia, July 14 2010, Wednesday) — Singapore’s Housing Development Board (HDB) has made the country’s largest order of solar panel for public housing homes from Norway’s REC. In an opening tender involving 14 companies, REC said it won the 1 MW tender to supply PV panels for residential rooftop installations for HDB apartment homes in...
(EnergyAsia, July 14 2010, Wednesday) — Agriculture can be part of the solution to climate change while supporting the development and food security requirements of developing countries, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) told a recent UN working group preparing long-term approaches to climate change mitigation. In a formal submission to the working group, the...