Energy News From Asia
(EnergyAsia, May 13 2013, Monday) — Russian coal and steel group Mechel remains interested to sell off a minority stake in subsidiary Mechel Mining following recent talks with several Asian companies including China’s Baosteel Group Corp. With net debt of some US$9.4 billion, the company disclosed its plan to attract investment during a conference with...
(EnergyAsia, May 10 2013, Friday) — Australia’s Celsius Coal has announced personnel and structural changes at its board and management to position for long-term growth at its operations in Kyrgyzstan. The company said managing director Grant Thomas has resigned but will remain as a consultant while Kyrgyz country manager Alistair Muir has been promoted to (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 10 2013, Friday) — Indonesia, one of the world’s largest coal exporters, may have to import the fuel by the end of the decade as its consumption is rising faster than domestic production, said state utility PLN. While Indonesia’s thermal coal production has remained in the 300-to-400 million-ton range, its consumption is expected...
(EnergyAsia, May 10 2013, Friday) — Two Australian companies, International Coal Limited (ICX) and Coal Face Resources Pty Limited, have agreed to jointly explore and develop the EPC 2286 permit, also known as the Don Juan project, in Queensland’s state Surat Basin. ICX said it will hold up to 71% of the partnership to jointly (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 10 2013, Friday) — The Indonesian government is coming under growing pressure to reverse or at least slow down its export ban on low grade coal in the face of weak international demand and falling prices. Amid lower demand from China, the world’s largest coal consumer, prices for the commodity have fallen by...
(EnergyAsia, May 9 2013, Thursday) — Royal Dutch Shell is looking to co-operate with Indian state upstream company ONGC as it seeks to re-enter the oil and gas industry of Asia’s third largest economy. The two companies have begun talks for a long-term alliance to jointly undertake upstream projects in India and abroad. Having tied...
(EnergyAsia, May 9 2013, Thursday) — Adaro Energy, Indonesia’s second largest coal miner, blamed the commodity’s weak price on the global markets for the 65.8% plunge in its net profit in the first quarter this year. Net income for the January-to-March quarter slumped to US$41.6 million while revenue slipped 19.1% to US$740.6 million compared to...
(EnergyAsia, May 9 2013, Thursday) — Platts, a leading source of benchmark price assessments for energy, petrochemical and metal products, said it has launched two new thermal coal price assessments for China to serve the domestic market and Asia. The CFR South China assessment covers the seaborne spot trade in physical open-thermal coal including the (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 9 2013, Thursday) — The Indian government and Royal Dutch Shell said the country must speed up the development of its energy infrastructure to support the growth of the economy. Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Panabaka Lakshmi recently called on government agencies and oil companies to co-operate to develop major...
(EnergyAsia, May 8 2013, Wednesday) — SinoCoking Coal and Coke Chemical Industries Inc, a Nasdaq-listed vertically-integrated coal and coke processing firm, said it started trial production at a newly leased coking coal production plant in China’s Henan province last month. Subsidiary Pingdingshan Hongli Coal & Coke Co Ltd, which owns and operates another plant located (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 8 2013, Wednesday) — Australia’s Aquila Resources said Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp has withdrawn from a proposed joint venture project to explore for coal in Queensland state. The participation of Sumitomo subsidiary Sumisho Coal Australia Pty Limited in the project would have helped Aquila’s cause in raising capital to fund a A$7.4...
(EnergyAsia, May 8 2013, Wednesday) — More than two decades after planners began considering liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the country’s energy mix, Singapore launched commercial operations of its S$1.7 billion terminal this week with the receipt of the first cargo from exclusive importer BG Group of the UK. (US$1=S$1.25). At the terminal’s launch, Trade (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 8 2013, Wednesday) — Australia needs more certainty in planning laws to support its coal export sector, said the industry’s main association. The Australian Coal Association (ACA) said future investment is at risk if governments continue to ignore the impact of high costs, delays and uncertainties in the approval process for mining projects....
(EnergyAsia, May 7 2013, Tuesday) — Singapore Exchange last month launched its South China coal swap contract with 25 lots representing 25,000 metric tons changing hands on the opening day. The exchange said Straits (Singapore) Pte Ltd and Tullett Prebon Energy Singapore Pte Ltd brokered the first two trades in the API 8 CFR South (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 7 2013, Tuesday) — Mechel OAO, a leading Russian mining and metals companies, said it has secured an agreement for the annual supply of 500,000 tons of coking coal to South Korean iron and steel maker POSCO Corporation for three years. Mechel Carbon (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a trading subsidiary of the company’s mining (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 7 2013, Tuesday) — Singapore’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fired power plant is on course for a full start-up in the fourth quarter, said owner PacificLight Power Pte Ltd, previously known as GMR Energy. The 800MW combined-cycle plant on Jurong Island will sell electricity at prices based on crude or high-sulphur fuel oil, (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 7 2013, Tuesday) — The Indian government is having second thoughts about approving state upstream firm ONGC’s plan to pay US$5 billion for an 8.4% stake in Kazakhstan’s giant offshore Kashagan oilfield. Announced last November, ONGC’s plan to acquire ConocoPhillips’ stake in one of the world’s largest oil fields with reserves estimated at...
(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — India’s main upstream firms, ONGC and Oil India Ltd, are hurting from the recent decline in crude oil prices with benchmark Brent crude briefly sliding to nine-month lows at less than US$100 a barrel. While their revenues have fallen sharply, ONGC and OIL remain saddled with the responsibility to...
(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — Reversing years of decline, US coal production is expected to edge up by nearly 0.5% in 2013 to over 1.025 billion short tons, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In its April short-term energy outlook, the agency said US coal production continued its recent decline into the first quarter...
(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — Chevron Oronite has named Desmond (Des) King, a former CEO and managing director of Caltex Australia, as President to succeed Ron Kiskis who is retiring on August 31. The company also announced the appointments of Jirong Xiao as vice president of sales and marketing, and Barbara Smith as vice (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — India’s refined products consumption will grow by 4.9% in the current financial year to March 2014, just slightly slower than the previous year’s 5% increase, predicts the planning unit of the Petroleum Ministry. This forecast could prove conservative as India’s economy is expected to grow by 5.7% this year...
(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — Petronet LNG Ltd, India’s main gas importer, said it is interested to buy a 25% stake in a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in the country’s northwestern state of Gujarat. State-owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) has a 50% stake in the proposed five-million-tonne/year terminal at Mundra...
(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — India’s largest coal producer said it will continue supplying the fuel to its main customer despite on-going disputes over a number of issues including pricing and product quality. Coal India Limited (CIL), which accounts for over 80% of the country’s domestic coal production, has been accused of supplying sub-standard...
(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — Australia-listed MetroCoal Limited said a Chinese shareholder recently raised its 19.6% shareholding in the Brisbane-based miner to 22.6%. Dadi Engineering Development (Group) Co Ltd, described as one of China’s leading coal services groups, bought 6.25 million shares from investor Mathews Capital to increase its ownership of Metrocoal shares to (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — Australia’s output of greenhouse gases from its power sector have fallen to a 10-year low, thanks to the increased use and production of renewable energy and a decline in the use of coal, said consultant RepuTex. Coal now accounts for around 74.8% of the power generation mix, down sharply...