(EnergyAsia, February 16 2011, Wednesday) — Amongst all the renewable energy (RE) technologies, geothermal power and small hydropower attracted the most private sector investments in Indonesia last year, a trend that consultant Frost & Sullivan expects will continue through 2011. According to the company’s Asia Pacific Program Manager for the Energy & Power Systems Practice,...

(EnergyAsia, February 16 2011, Wednesday) — Energy consultant Wood Mackenzie said it expects global upstream mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to continue growing in 2011 after reaching US$183 billion in 2010. The Edinburgh, Scotland-based research firm identified four key themes: unconventional oil and gas, weak US gas prices, restructuring among the international oil companies (IOCs) and...

(EnergyAsia, February 16 2011, Wednesday) — With coal production set to rise further this year on rising global demand, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MHSA) wants US miners to immediately improve their safety practices after the industry reported a record number of 48 fatalities last year.   In his speech to the West...

(EnergyAsia, February 15 2011, Tuesday) — Korea Resources is leading a consortium of nine South Korean firms, two Russian firms and four Japanese companies for the right to develop a giant coal block being auctioned by the Mongolian government. The consortium will be competing against 14 other bidders including steelmaker ArcelorMittal and iron ore miner...

(EnergyAsia, February 15 2011, Tuesday) — The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) is building an 80,000-tonne oil tank farm in Hambantota as part of its long-term plan to turn the southern port into a major ship fuelling base. Built with the help of Chinese loans and engineering expertise, the new port started operations last November....

(EnergyAsia, February 15 2011, Tuesday) — Vietnamese officials are working on expanding the country’s first oil refinery, a month after it was officially inaugurated in Dung Quat port in the central province of Quang Ngai. At last month’s ceremony, state-owned PetroVietnam revealed that it is looking to invest at least US$1 billion to expand and...

(EnergyAsia, February 15 2011, Tuesday) — Hong Kong-based oil and natural gas group China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd (CNOOC) said it is planning to invest US$8.77 billion to achieve net production of 355 to 365 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in 2011. Assuming WTI crude at US$82 a barrel, the largely Chinese state-owned...

(EnergyAsia, February 15 2011, Tuesday) — India’s state-owned International Coal Ventures Ltd (ICVL) consortium has joined in the global bidding for a piece of Mongolia’s coal reserves after abandoning its plans to compete for Australian miner Riversdale. ICVL said it has submitted a bid to develop Mongolia’s Tavan Tolgoi coal mine, one of the world’s...

(EnergyAsia, February 15 2011, Tuesday) —Over the last few days, Mongolian government officials heard presentations from some 20 international investment banks bidding for a role to handle the planned equity sale and listing of state Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi which owns a vast untapped coal deposit in the Gobi Desert. The government is targeting to raise...

(EnergyAsia, February 14 2011, Monday) — Canada’s Prophecy Resource Corp said it has been granted full licence by the Mineral Resources Authority of Mongolia to mine the 141-million-tonne Chandgana Tal coal reserve. Prophecy said it previously only had mining rights to a small portion of the deposit which is located nine km north of its...

(EnergyAsia, February 14 2011, Monday) — Coal, natural gas and oil will each account for around 26% to 27% of world energy demand by 2030. Natural gas use will grow the fastest, followed by coal, said BP in its first 20-year Energy Outlook report. “Oil, excluding bio-fuels, will grow relatively slowly at 0.6% per year....

(EnergyAsia, January 31 2011, Monday) — US technology firm Honeywell said Petrovis LLC, Mongolia’s largest petroleum provider, is using its technology to improve operational efficiency and safety at a newly constructed fuel depot near the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Honeywell said the fully-automated depot will become Mongolia’s largest and will help meet growing demand for petroleum products,...

(EnergyAsia, February 14 2011, Monday) — Indonesia plans to pass new legislation on the country’s coal exports in an attempt to raise revenue. The new law will make it mandatory for the country’s miners to export better quality coal with a minimum heating value of 5,600 kilocalorie per kg, said the directorate general of coal...

(EnergyAsia, February 14, Monday) — Australia’s Coal Services Pty Limited has praised the New South Wales (NSW) state government for introducing Order Numbers 41 and 42 to the Coal Industry Act 2001 to improve work safety for the industry. The orders govern the health surveillance requirements of coal miners and the monitoring of airborne dust...

(EnergyAsia, February 11 2011, Friday) — Hong Kong-based Kaisun Energy Group Ltd said it has signed a three-year agreement with Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Coal Geology Bureau to explore and develop coal mining resources in China and central Asia. The partnership will leverage on Kaisun’s proven operating model and Xinjiang Coal Bureau’s expertise in exploration....

(EnergyAsia, February 11 2011, Friday) — The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) said it is enrolling 15 scientists and engineers from the Xi’an Research Institute of the China Coal Technology & Engineering Group in a pilot programme on high-technology solutions to help China address its poor record on mine safety. China’s coal mining...

(EnergyAsia, February 11 2011, Friday) — Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI) said is has received two orders for core components of a total of five 660 to 700-megawatt (MW) supercritical-pressure coal-fired boiler-and-steam-turbine sets to be installed in high-efficiency coal-fired power plants in the Indian states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The first order is...

(EnergyAsia, February 11 2011, Friday) — ICE Futures Europe, the UK-based futures subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), said it will launch four new price risk management contracts on February 21 2011 to serve the US and Indonesian coal markets. Traders using the four contracts will benefit from margin offsets offered against positions in the ICE Rotterdam,...

(EnergyAsia, February 11 2011, Friday) — US-based environmental solutions provider Evergreen Energy Inc said it will develop and commercialise K-Fuel, its coal upgrading technology, in Australia in a joint venture with a domestic company WPG Resources. According to their memorandum of understanding, the joint venture will construct and operate K-Fuel plants around the country. WPG...

(EnergyAsia, February 11 2011, Friday) — Australia’s MetroCoal Ltd said it has signed an agreement with Drillstralis Pty Ltd to provide drilling services for the Bundi project area within EPC 1164 Wandoan West in Queensland state’s Surat Basin. The drilling programme consists of 70 holes on an 800-meter offset grid to optimise drill spacing for...

(EnergyAsia, February 10 2010, Thursday) — Mechel OAO, a leading Russian mining and metals company, said it has secured a 6.189-billion-rubles loan to double the production capacity of a coal mine in southern Siberia to 2.4 million tonnes a year. (US$1=29.4 rubles). Transcreditbank OAO will disburse the loan to Mechel’s subsidiary, Southern Kuzbass Coal Company...

(EnergyAsia, January 31 2011, Monday) — Arch Coal Inc, a leading US mining and processing company, is positioning to export to Asia after announcing it had signed a five-year deal giving it access to coal-handling capacity near Prince Rupert Port in north-western Canada. For 2011, the St Louis, Missouri miner will export two million tonnes...

(EnergyAsia, February 10 2011, Thursday) — Indonesian coal exports are likely to resume after a four-week deadlock brought on by the Energy and Mineral Ministry’s refusal to renew traders’ permits. More than 70 vessels holding some 3.5 million tonnes of coal have been held up in Indonesian ports pending the government’s investigations into allegations that...

(EnergyAsia, February 10 2011, Thursday) — Thanks to higher prices, Vietnam’s coal export earnings surged 22% to US$1.6 billion last year despite a 21% drop in export volume to 19.8 million metric tons. The Ministry of Industry and Trade said the actual export volume exceeded the 19.2 million tons earlier projected by the General Statistics...