(EnergyAsia, September 28 2011, Wednesday) — Esso Malaysia Berhad (EMB), a unit of ExxonMobil, briefly halted operations at its Port Dickson oil refinery last week after a three-hour fire damaged its marine pump area. No one was injured when a naphtha tank ignited, causing an explosion and sending out a large cloud of black smoke...
(EnergyAsia, September 28 2011, Wednesday) — Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has set a target to almost double its current 65-million-ton/year refining capacity to 125 million tons by 2022 to meet the country’s rising fuel demand. Together with its 51.89%-held subsidiary, Chennai Petroleum Corp, IOC controls half the country’s 20 refineries....
(EnergyAsia, September 28 2011, Wednesday) — State upstream company Oil India Limited (OIL) is looking to venture into the downstream sector by helping Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) expand its two refineries. HPCL owns and operates a 6.5-million-tonne/year refinery in Mumbai and a 7.5-million-tonne/year refinery in Vishakapatnam. Oil India Chairman N. M. Borah said the two companies...
(EnergyAsia, September 27 2011, Tuesday) — China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) said it will soon start storing crude oil at a new 1.2-million cubic metre terminal in the eastern province of Shandong. Asia’s largest refiner said an engineering subsidiary has begun trial operations of the facility, two months ahead of its original schedule in November. Together...
(EnergyAsia, September 27 2011, Tuesday) — Companies have been warned against making “further speculative orders” in building new liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels as they could be hit by a declining freight market. In a recent report, ‘Shifting trade moves LNG shipping out of the doldrums’, energy research consultancy Wood Mackenzie said ships ordered in...
(EnergyAsia, September 27 2011, Tuesday) — The Reserve Bank of Australia has forecast that the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales could rise by threefold over the next five years, placing it as the world’s second largest supplier after Qatar. With A$120 billion worth of confirmed investments, the central bank said in its report, “The...
(EnergyAsia, September 27 2011, Tuesday) — In response to rising domestic oil demand, state Indian Oil Corp (IOC) is looking to expand the capacity of its Koyali refinery in Gujarat by more than 30% to 18 million tonnes. The company’s board is discussing the idea and could appoint a consultant by December to prepare a...
(EnergyAsia, September 27 2011, Tuesday) — Australia’s resources and energy commodity export earnings are forecast to rise by 21% to reach a record A$215 billion for financial year 2011, according to the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE). (US$1=A$0.97). It issued this bullish forecast in the September edition of its Resources and Energy Quarterly (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 26 2011, Monday) — Zhejiang Haiyue, a private Chinese oil company, said it has signed an agreement to cooperate with PetroChina’s Zhejiang Sales Company on retailing and storing oil products in Zhejiang province. Haiyuan said it will lease out its five retail fuel stations for a minimum five-year period, with provision for a...
(EnergyAsia, September 26 2011, Monday) — Spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices in Asia have more than doubled over the last six months to a three-year high of over US$16 per million Btu since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. And they are headed higher as Asia’s major economies of China, Japan, India...
(EnergyAsia, September 26 2011, Monday) — PEC Ltd, a Singapore company which provides engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and plant maintenance services to the energy and pharmaceutical industries, said it has secured a five-year contract to provide tank maintenance and repair services for ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. Starting this month, PEC will maintain the (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 26 2011, Monday) — Dutch oil and chemicals logistics giant Royal Vopak is targeting to grow its liquefied natural gas (LNG) portfolio with the opening of its first newly constructed terminal in the Netherlands and the acquisition of an established terminal in Mexico. At a ceremony last Friday, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 26 2011, Monday) — Chevron Corp is one step closer towards launching its US$25-billion Wheatstone project to develop an export-oriented liquefied natural gas (LNG) business out of vast gas reserves off the coast of Western Australia. Last week, the Australian government’s Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke announced its approval of the proposed complex (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 23 2011, Friday) — Higher oil prices together with strong support from public spending have helped Saudi Arabia’s economy rebound strongly from the global economic crisis, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). With GDP projected to grow 6.5% in 2011, the fund expects Saudi Arabia to focus on economic diversification and sustained growth...
(EnergyAsia, September 23 2011, Friday) — The International Energy Agency has again slashed its forecast for world oil demand growth for 2011 and 2012 in response to the global economic crisis. It now expects 2011 world oil demand to rise by one million b/d to 89.3 million b/d, down from its previous forecast for a...
(EnergyAsia, September 23 2011, Friday) — Energy professionals from more than 50 countries attending this week’s CWC 3rd World LNG Series: Asia Pacific Summit in Singapore confirmed that surging Asian demand will drive the industry’s global development in coming years. More than 270 delegates, with over 70% from outside Singapore, attended the event at the (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 23 2011, Friday) — Residents of the thriving north-eastern Chinese city port of Dalian are increasingly finding out — and pushing back — against the high cost of being a major shipping, oil, gas and petrochemicals centre. In addition to facing regular oil spills in the Bohai Bay, the city’s nearly six million...
(EnergyAsia, September 23 2011, Friday) — Stung by the recent surge in liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, Thai state energy firm PTT said it has cancelled a million-tonne order from Qatar in favour of alternative suppliers. Asian spot LNG prices have more than doubled to over US$16 million BTU since the March 11 earthquake-tsunami tragedy...
(EnergyAsia, September 23 2011, Friday) — BOC, one of the world’s largest banks, said it is setting up its first overseas forfaiting and commodity finance units in Singapore in response to growing demand for commodity and general trade financing. The bank said it chose Singapore for its strategic location and active community of commodity traders (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 22 2011, Thursday) — Singapore’s industrial developer and owner JTC Corporation has appointed Jurong Port Pte Ltd to operate and manage the new Offshore Marine Centre (OMC) in Tuas for the next three years. The 13-hectare Tuas View facility is expected to start up next January once Muhibbah Engineering (Singapore) completes its construction...
(EnergyAsia, September 22 2011, Thursday) — Wikileaks has released US embassy notes on Island Power’s struggle to obtain natural gas supply from Indonesia through pipelines owned by Singapore companies. The US embassy reportedly said that for about six years, Temasek and its subsidiaries “deliberately and successfully blocked” efforts by Intergen and local subsidiary Island Power...
(EnergyAsia, September 22 2011, Thursday) — Hong Kong-listed Kunlun Energy said it expects to start up the first phase of its Dalian LNG terminal project in north-eastern China in the fourth quarter while its Rudong, Jiangsu province terminal recently received its first shipment. In its first half earnings report to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,...
(EnergyAsia, September 22 2011, Thursday) — American Superconductor Corporation, a NASDAQ-listed global power technologies company, said it has filed criminal and civil complaints against one of its largest Chinese customers, Sinovel Wind Group Co Ltd, as part of a series of legal actions it is pursuing in China. AMSC said Sinovel and other parties had...
(EnergyAsia, September 22 2011, Thursday) — Shell Malaysia has officially opened its newly refurbished Westport oil terminal in Pulau Indah in Port Klang on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Located on a 25-acre site, the terminal helps serve more than half a million of Shell’s customers at over 900 retail sites nationwide. Last December, (more…)
(EnergyAsia, September 22 2011, Thursday) — Thai upstream company, PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP), said it has found more natural gas in the offshore AC/RL7 block in Australia’s Timor Sea, about 700 km west of Darwin city. The company’s President and CEO, Anon Sirisaengtaksin, said that wholly-owned subsidiary, PTTEP Australasia Ashmore Cartier (more…)