(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — South Korea and the UAE have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly explore and produce oil in the Middle East country. Representing their countries, state-owned Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (KNOC) signed the agreement that paves the way for South Korean...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group) said it plans to compete against international companies to bid in an auction for 42 offshore exploration blocks off Gabon.  Sinopec Group President Su Shulin announced the company’s interest after meeting Gabon’s energy minister in Libreville, the capital of central African nation, last month. ...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — UK’s Tullow Oil plc said it has made a second “major oil discovery” off the coast of Ghana. The company said results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids from the Owo-1 well showed that the Owo field in the Deepwater Tano licence contains high quality light...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — Coal seam gas explorer L&M Energy said it expects to know the commercial viability of its 173PJ Ohai coal seam gas field by December. The New Zealand-based company said the pilot testing programme at Ohai will be funded by the A$7.1 million capital that it raised in July through...

(EnergyAsia, September 14 2010, Tuesday) –– US major ExxonMobil walked away from its bid to acquire Kosmos Energy’s stake in Ghana’s Jubilee oil field on frustrations over three key issues including the government’s huge demands, according to an analysis by Peace FM Online, citing industry executives and government officials. The Ghanaian news provider said the...

(EnergyAsia, September 14 2010, Tuesday) — As it prepares to fully launch the country’s new mass transportation system, the Nigerian government said it is looking to scrap its generous subsidies on domestic fuel prices by the end of next year. The government is looking for ways to narrow its budget deficit, which is projected to...

(EnergyAsia, September 14 2010, Tuesday) — Russia has agreed to export a minimum 15 million metric tons of coal a year to China over the next five years and to increase the volume to at least 20 million metric tons for 20 years thereafter. In exchange, China will lend Russia US$6 billion to develop its...

(EnergyAsia, September 14 2010, Tuesday) — Preparations are underway for the construction of three new gas pipelines in Singapore worth up to S$400 million, while a fourth line is under consideration. (US$1=S$1.34). The pipelines are crucial to the city state’s plan to develop the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) which will be available when...

(EnergyAsia, September 14 2010, Tuesday) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it will be extending a US$150 million loan to help the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China to improve its aging coal-fired heating systems, making them more energy efficient and less polluting. ADB said its board has approved the loan under phase two...

(EnergyAsia, September 14 2010, Tuesday) — Responding to BP’s report on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, Tzeporah Berman, head of Greenpeace International Energy Campaign, said: “BP’s self penned review is a sorry attempt to spread the blame for the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, but still reveals a devastating litany of human error, incompetence and technical...

(EnergyAsia, September 14 2010, Tuesday) — Investors face growing risks operating in the key oil producing areas of West Africa. Gulf of Guinea: With piracy on the rise, the nations in the Gulf of Guinea which collectively produce more than three million b/d of crude oil, face threats to the operational security of oil producing,...

(EnergyAsia, September 13 2010, Monday) — BP has sought to pin some of the blame on its two main contractors for the disaster that followed after an oil rig it had chartered to work on an exploratory well exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico on April 22. Eleven workers were killed and about...

(EnergyAsia, September 13 2010, Monday) — Environmentalists’ calls for tougher regulations and more stringent inspections on deepwater drilling has been strengthened by a second major oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico just as the BP-linked disaster appears to be headed for a conclusion. An oil slick of more than three km spread across the...

(EnergyAsia, September 13 2010, Monday) — Plant and terminal engineering specialist PEC Ltd said its net profit for the year ended June 30 2010 was up 96% to S$48.2 million compared with S$24.5 million the previous year. (US$1=S$1.34). The Singapore-based company also reported a 35% increase in gross profit from $91.4 million to S$123.2 million,...

(EnerygAsia, September 13 2010, Monday) — Australia’s MetroCoal Limited said it has signed an agreement to invest in Indonesian coal exploration project areas fully owned by an unidentified Australian entity.  The company said it has invested A$130,000 to hold 20% of the expanded capital of this entity, and has an option to increase its holding...

(EnergyAsia, September 13 2010, Monday) —- Equatorial Guinea has begun supplying crude oil to help Ghana operate its loss-making refinery in Tema located 40 km northeast of its capital of Accra. The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) confirmed that it has lifted 1.05 million barrels of crude oil as part of an agreement that it...

(EnergyAsia, September 13 2010, Monday) — China-based coking coal producer Puda Coal posted a five-fold increase in its second quarter net profit to US$8.7 million on the back of higher commodity prices, increased sales volume and extraordinary gains.  The company, which supplies high grade metallurgical coking coal to produce coke for steel manufacturing in China,...

(EnergyAsia, September 13 2010, Monday) — US conglomerate GE said its advanced technology is in use to successfully operate the gasification unit at one of the world’s largest coal-to-olefins projects in China’s Inner Mongolia province. China Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co Ltd recently started up its project in Baotou city, using GE’s technology...

(EnergyAsia, September 9 2010, Thursday) — Wärtsilä, a Finland-based global supplier of decentralised power plant solutions, said it has received four separate orders to supply power plants to Bangladesh, adding more than 300 MW of generating capacity to the national grid. Worth more than 100 million euros, the four orders were signed in July and...

(EnergyAsia, September 9 2010, Thursday) — Banking on the country’s large oil reserves, the Nigerian government has announced plans to launch its first sovereign wealth fund (SWF) as well as issue US$500 million worth of global bonds next month. The US$1 billion fund will be used to help kickstart or finance the construction of critical...

(EnergyAsia, September 9 2010, Thursday) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it expects to soon complete the construction of an important 97-km pipeline to deliver crude oil from Nigeria’s restive southern delta to the Bonny export terminal on the Atlantic Coast. The US$1.1 billion Nembe Creek Trunkline will replace an ageing line to link up...

(EnergyAsia, September 9 2010, Thursday) — To meet rising domestic demand, China Coal Energy Co has set a target to nearly double production to 200 million tons in 2014 from 108.5 million metric tons last year. Speaking at a recent media, President Yang Lieke said his company plans to achieve this goal by developing or...

(EnergyAsia, September 9 2010, Thursday) — The Chinese government may consider reining in domestic coal production over a five-year period from 2011 to slowdown the country’s greenhouse gas emissions output, said the National Energy Administration (NEA). The government may impose an output ceiling of 3.6 billion to 3.8 billion metric tons of coal annually under...