(EnergyAsia, January 9 2014, Thursday) — China’s Shenhua Energy Co Ltd, one of the world’s biggest coal miners, is planning to venture into the booming shale gas industry in the US through a tie-up with Energy Corp of America (ECA). The company said it will invest US$90 million to set up a subsidiary to work...
(EnergyAsia, January 8 2014, Wednesday) — Faced with rising cost and fierce competition for oil and gas reserves, Thailand’s leading upstream company, PTT Exploration and Production Pcl (PTTEP), said it has lowered its production target for 2020 from 900,000 b/d to a “more realistic” figure of 600,000 b/d. For its latest five-year plan, PTTEP expects...
(EnergyAsia, January 8 2014, Wednesday) — The US and Canada are the only major producers of commercially viable natural gas from shale formations in the world, even though about a dozen other countries have conducted exploratory test wells, said the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). http://energycontents.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60&product_id=301 In a recent study it jointly conducted with the...
(EnergyAsia, January 7 2014, Tuesday) — Several international oil and gas companies have left or are leaving India after years of battling bureaucratic and regulatory hurdles blocking their attempts to undertake oil and gas exploration in the country. Australia’s BHP and Santos along with UK’s BP and Cairn Energy have either abandoned or sold out...
(EnergyAsia, January 7 2013, Tuesday) — India will have a new Prime Minister this year after the badly tarnished Manmohan Singh, 81, announced he would not be seeking a third term with a general election due by May. He will likely be succeeded as head of the ruling Congress Party by Rahul Gandhi, 43, an...
(EnergyAsia, January 6 2014, Monday) — Asian companies will continue to acquire upstream oil and gas assets, but they will be more selective in the face of rising costs, shareholder pressure to grow profits and resource nationalism in host countries, said analysts. The growing caution, most noted among Chinese state-owned firms, was reflected in the...
(EnergyAsia, January 6 2014, Monday) — Kyrgyzstan has formally approved a set of agreements with China worth US$3 billion that includes the construction of a vital 225-km pipeline through the landlocked country for the export of natural gas from Turkmenistan. President Almazbek Atambaev signed the agreements into law last week after they were approved by...
(EnergyAsia, January 3 2014, Friday) — The oil and gas industry in emerging markets is an increasingly attractive target for private equity investments, said consultant Ernst & Young (EY) in a recent joint research report with Mergermarket. http://energycontents.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60&product_id=301 In its survey of 100 senior executives in the global equity business, 55% said they are drawn...
(EnergyAsia, January 3 2014, Friday) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc and India’s state-owned upstream ONGC are now the joint owners of Brazil’s offshore Parque das Conchas (BC-10) oil block after acquiring the remaining 35% held by former partner Petrobras for a comined total US$1.56 billion. According to separate announcements by the three companies, Shell will...
(EnergyAsia, January 2 2014, Thursday) — With global oil demand growth on a tear, it’s little wonder crude prices have rebounded: US WTI is finishing the year above US$100 while Brent is holding firm north of US$110 a barrel. Affirming this growth theme of the last six months, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)...
(EnergyAsia, January 2 2014, Thursday) — In its last monthly report for 2013, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is forecasting global oil demand to grow by 1.27% from 90.25 million b/d to a record high of 91.43 million b/d in 2014. The EIA has consistently been more bullish in its outlook on global oil demand...
(EnergyAsia, December 31 2013, Tuesday) — Royal Vopak said it will launch the seventh phase of expansion of its Fujairah, UAE storage terminal after securing a long-term contract from a customer to support its plans to build 478,000 cubic metres (cbm) of new capacity to store and handle crude oil. As part of the expansion...
(EnergyAsia, December 31 2013, Tuesday) — In its final month report for 2013, the International Energy Agency (IEA) raised its forecast for global oil demand to 91.17 million b/d for this year, and to 92.37 million b/d for 2014. Both represent new all-time highs, beating the agency’s previous record forecasts last month for 2013 demand...
(EnergyAsia, December 30 2013, Monday) — In delivering its 21st oil rig for 2013 last Friday, Singapore’s Keppel FELS set a world record in completing the most number of rigs in a single year. The subsidiary of mainboard-listed Keppel Corp delivered the US$210 million rig to Arabian Drilling Company (ADC) five days ahead of schedule...
(EnergyAsia, December 30 2013, Monday) — Not for the first time, Indonesia’s oil and gas industry will likely miss the government’s annual production targets amid charges of corruption, mismanagement and failure to attract foreign investments to make up for the decline of old fields. Southeast Asia’s largest oil and gas producer has seen both decline...
(EnergyAsia, December 27 2013, Friday) — Due to the industry’s use of “advanced technologies”, the US will continue to boost domestic crude oil production through 2020 while natural gas output will rise through 2040, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In its latest forecast, the EIA expects US oil production to rise by 800,000 b/d...
(EnergyAsia, December 27 2013, Friday) — The International Energy Agency (IEA) is dousing any hope for Iran to soon resume oil exports following the Islamic regime’s landmark preliminary agreement last month with six world powers to try resolve long-running disputes over its controversial nuclear energy programme. On November 24, the P5+1 group comprising the five...
(EnergyAsia, December 26 2013, Thursday) — Russia’s state energy giant Ronseft is hoping to boost its downstream operations by acquiring the global physical oil trading business of Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley for an undisclosed sum. The proposed deal caps a busy year for Rosneft which has emerged as a important upstream player with access...
(EnergyAsia, December 26 2013, Thursday) — Geopolitical fears have returned to haunt the oil markets with Brent reclaiming their old lofty levels above US$110 and US WTI creep back up towards US$100 on outbreak of fighting in South Sudan and continued troubles in Libya, Iraq and Nigeria. Oil has now snapped out of the brief...
(EnergyAsia, December 24 2013, Tuesday) — France’s Technip said it and China Offshore Oil Engineering Co Ltd (COOEC) have signed a five-year agreement to meet the Asian country’s growing demand for engineering, procurement, construction and installation services to serve its deepwater exploration and production sector. http://energycontents.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60&product_id=301 The agreement combines the partners’ know-how, technical resources, complementary...
(EnergyAsia, December 24 2013, Tuesday) — After more than four years of construction, Japan’s INPEX Corp recently announced the start-up of its new liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Joetsu city in Niigata Prefecture. The terminal at Naoetsu comprises two aboveground tanks with a combined capacity to hold 180,000 kilolitres of fuel, a berth...
(EnergyAsia, December 23 2013, Monday) — Foster Wheeler AG said a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract to design and supply hydrogen reformers for a US$9 billion refinery being built in the Nghi Son economic zone in Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa Province. The Zug, Switzerland-based engineering giant said the...
(EnergyAsia, December 23 2013, Monday) — Having brushed aside Greenpeace’s protests, Russia has begun producing oil in the Arctic waters for the first time to open up the vast mineral riches buried in one of the world’s last major frontiers to full-scale exploitation. State-owned Gazprom said last week it has started oil production at the...
(EnergyAsia, December 20 2013, Friday) — Oman has awarded separate contracts to UK’s BP to develop onshore unconventional gas reserves and France’s Total to explore for hydrocarbons in a deepwater offshore area, the two companies have announced. BP said it will invest US$16 billion to drill 300 wells over 15 years as part of its...
(EnergyAsia, December 20 2013, Friday) — While superpower rivalry has undermined the political stability of much of the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, the wily dictators of Central Asia’s energy-rich states have thrived on it to stay in power and successfully grow their nations’ economies. Since breaking away from the former Soviet Union in...