(EnergyAsia, March 2 2011, Wednesday) — Malaysia’s leading power company, Tenaga Nasional, expects to face a challenging year as rising coal prices eat into its operating margins. The recent massive floods in Australia’s main coal-mining state of Queensland have led to sharp increases in international coal prices in recent months. Without approval from the Malaysian...
(EnergyAsia, March 2 2011, Wednesday) — Reeling from over four months of record rainfall and floods, mining firms in Australia’s battered Queensland state are keeping a wary eye on the weather after successfully restarting operations early last month. Rio Tinto Group and Xstrata Plc have restarted coal production in the state’s Bowen Basin and are...
(EnergyAsia, March 2 2011, Wednesday) — Oil demand will likely hit a record high this year but any further rise in prices will likely be capped by higher production by the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) and release of stockpiles from the developed economies, said the International Energy Agency (IEA).Increased output by Iraq boosted (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 2 2011, Wednesday) — Last year, the World Bank launched a new programme to put a value on each country’s ecosystems in the same way that it measures its national income and product accounts, or GNP and GDP. Janet Ranganathan, an expert at the US-based World Resources Institute (WRI), provided this interview on (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 2 2011, Tuesday) — Pakistan’s Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) and China’s Global Mining Company Limited (GMC) are jointly looking to convert two of the six plants at the Bin Qasim Power Station from using fuel oil to coal. The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding for the project as part (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 1 2011, Tuesday) — BP Oil New Zealand said it has re-opened its Lyttelton oil storage terminal after giving it a thorough safety inspection in the wake of the deadly earthquake that struck on February 22. At least 145 people are believed to have died in the city of Christchurch in South Island (more…)
(EnergyAsia, February 28 2011, Monday) — US-based Occidental Petroleum Corp (Oxy) said it will partner the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) in a US$10-billion project to jointly develop the Shah gasfield in the UAE. Occidental said ADNOC has a 60% stake while it will hold the remaining 40% interest in a 30-year contract. The (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 1 2011, Tuesday) — The Iraqi government expects to achieve its oil exports target of around 2.2 million b/d for 2011, thanks to a steady rise in shipments from the country’s northern Kurdish region. Iraqi oil exports reached 2.16 million b/d at the end of last month, their highest since the US invasion (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 1 2011, Tuesday) — Fresh from raising the country’s estimated total oil reserves to 143 billion barrels, the Iraqi government said it plans to auction off 12 oil and gas exploration sites block this year and raise the country’s energy production at the same time. The Oil Ministry said it also plans to (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 1 2011, Tuesday) — China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) has agreed to acquire a 15% stake in Australia Pacific LNG Pty Ltd and to purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG) over a 20-year contract, expected to start in 2015. The value of the stake and the contracts were not mentioned in a statement issued by (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 1 2011, Tuesday) — The US and Saudi Arabia face direct threats from the Middle East unrest spreading to the tiny state of Bahrain, a regional financial centre and home to major US military and naval bases. Since 1948, Bahrain has been the headquarters of US naval activity in the Gulf. It is (more…)