(EnergyAsia, June 30 2010, Wednesday) — Indonesian state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina said it is teaming up with local and foreign firms to start building the first of three oil refineries this year. The three projects are estimated to cost a combined US$15 billion. Alexander Barus, director for upstream chemical industries at the...

(EnergyAsia, June 30 2010, Wednesday) — India’s coal import bill will rise sharply this year as it could import as much as 60 million tonnes of thermal coal at a significantly higher price. The South Asian nation is said to have signed thermal coal supply contracts at a much higher price than last year in...

(EnergyAsia, June 30 2010, Wednesday) — China and Russia are working to follow through on the 15 deals their governments recently signed covering such areas as the economy, technology, energy and infrastructure during Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s recent tour of its resource-rich neighbour. Of the deals worth a total of US$1.6 billion, joint energy...

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2010, Tuesday) — The Jurong Aromatics Corporation (JAC) is looking for experienced executives to manage its planned US$2 billion aromatics complex on Singapore’s Jurong Island. The company recently advertised for personnel to fill the positions of CEO, CFO and executive vice president to oversee the construction, operation and management of the complex...

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2010, Tuesday) — Singapore’s electricity demand growth fell to a new low of 0.4% in 2009, down from the usual annual rates of 3% to 4% as the economic recession bit.   In value terms, Singapore traded S$6.46 billion worth of electricity, down 6.6 per cent from 2008 as power tariffs fell...

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2010, Tuesday) — Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries has applied to the Energy Market Authority for a licence to build and operate an additional 1,000 megawatts of power generation capacity as it prepares to build a second combined cycle and cogeneration plant.   Sembcorp has also issued documents inviting proposals from potential engineering, procurement...

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2010, Tuesday) — The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and Switzerland’s commodities trading house Aurora Progress SA said they plan to launch a joint venture to develop oil storage facilities including a terminal for handling oil products in the UAE’s Port of Fujairah.   SOCAR AURORA will act as an...

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2010, Tuesday) — The UAE’s Fujairah is expected to more than double the size of fuel storage capacity as it aims to become an oil hub that could rival Rotterdam and Singapore. International companies plan to build an additional 4.2 million cubic metres of fuel storage capacity along the Fujairah coast by...

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2010, Tuesday) — Amid increasingly difficult challenges facing the oil and gas industry, ExxonMobil is sticking with its message that technology and ‘strong international partnerships’ will help the world meet its future energy demand. At the International Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition in China early this month, a senior company executive...

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2010, Tuesday) — Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation’s second-largest oil refiner, may have to reduce its export of naphtha following the successful start-up of its US$3.2 billion naphtha cracker in northern India to meet demand from plastic makers. The state-owned company said the main units at the Panipat refinery has been...

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2010, Tuesday) — A veteran energy analyst is predicting that New York Mercantile Exchange natural gas prices will rise above US$8 per million British thermal units (Btus) by around August or September when North American natural gas inventories decline. Henry Groppe, patriarch of Texas petroleum industry consultancy Groppe Long & Littell, said...

(EnergyAsia, June 28 2010, Monday) — LANXESS, the Germany-based world’s largest manufacturer of synthetic rubber, said it has selected the main suppliers for its new butyl rubber plant on Jurong Island in Singapore. With these suppliers in place, the project execution phase is now in full swing to set up the infrastructure for the construction...

(EnergyAsia, June 28 2010, Monday) — India’s Essar Group is working to develop resources at its recently acquired Aries coal mines in Indonesia. The acquisition, completed in April, gave subsidiary Essar Power access to an estimated resource base of 100 million tonnes of thermal coal and mineable reserves of 64 million tonnes. Essar Power, India’s...

(EnergyAsia, June 28 2010, Monday) — A unit of the Dubai government’s Emirates National Oil Company plans to construct an oil storage and handling terminal next to the Marsaxlokk port in Malta. In a statement, Horizon Terminals Ltd (HTL) said the 600,000-cubic metre terminal for residualr and clean products would have a jetty to handle...

(EnergyAsia, June 28 2010, Monday) — A deputy manager at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd died after falling into the company’s oil storage tank at Chembur, a suburban neighbourhood in India’s Mumbai city. Police said that the oil storage tanks were in poor shape and the company had put up notices warning employees against climbing on...

(EnergyAsia, June 28 2010, Monday) — The Chinese government has imposed a 5% tax on oil and gas production in the largely Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang in an effort to placate rising public anger over the vast profits being made by state-owned energy companies. After a trial, the 5% tax will likely be applied...

(EnergyAsia, June 28, 2010, Monday) — Boosted by rapid economic growth, China’s crude oil import levels surged 29% to 95.7 million metric ton in the first five months of this year, according to preliminary data released by the General Administration of Customs. Imports of refined products by the world’s second-biggest energy consumer reached 3.18 million...

(EnergyAsia, June 28 2010, Monday) — China’s apparent oil demand continued its 2010 climb at a steady clip from a year ago to reach 36.48 million metric tons (mt) or about 8.6 million barrels per day (b/d) in May, said McGraw Hill’s energy media group Platts. Its analysis of official data just released showed that...

(EnergyAsia, June 28 2010, Monday) — Canada’s Encana Corporation said it and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have signed a Heads of Agreement outlining a framework for the two companies to negotiate a potential joint-venture investment to develop Encana’s natural gas assets in Horn River, Greater Sierra and Cutbank Ridge in northeast British Columbia province....

(EnergyAsia, June 25 2010, Friday) — HMS Bergbau AG, a Germany-based international coal supplier with operating know-how of coal mining, transport and trade, said it has acquired a coal harbour in Indonesia for an undisclosed sum. It said the acquisition of Port Kintap in South Kalimantan will provide a reliable stream of income as it...

(EnergyAsia, June 25 2010, Friday) — The BP-operated deepwater Thunder Horse oil field in the Gulf of Mexico that generated so much excitement early in the decade is producing far short of expectations with an output of just 180,000 b/d. When the field was discovered in 1999 in Mississippi Canyon blocks 788 and 822, partners...

(EnergyAsia, June 25 2010, Friday) — China has been boosting its military naval power in response to its growing interest in securing energy and other natural resources around the world, posing a potential challenge to the dominant US presence in the Pacific. China’s military has said it plans to extend its naval power beyond its...

(EnergyAsia, June 25 2010, Friday) — In just under a decade, Chinese oil companies have emerged as major players on the world stage. Its three state-owned oil companies, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNPC), have shown themselves to be savvy buyers and traders of oil...