(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — Thailand’s PTT Aromatics and Refinery (PTTAR) said it will invest US$200 million to upgrade the company’s oil production facilities to meet Euro 4 pollution standards. It is in talks with construction firms for construction work to start later this year on installing facilities that will produce Euro 4 standard fuels. ...
(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine, said it has been awarded a US$160 million contract by Modec Offshore Production Systems (Singapore) Pte Ltd to convert a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) tanker, the Ohdoh, to a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will...
(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — State oil and gas company PetroVietnam has applied for a licence to build a fuel depot to serve a chain of retail outlets in the increasingly prosperous northern province of Quang Ninh. The depot in Dam Nha Mac town will be managed by subsidiary PVOil Corp which owns and operates...
(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — China’s Ministry of Commerce has granted nine companies the licence to operate as wholesalers of refined oil products. The companies include China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the country’s top offshore oil and gas producer; CNOOC’s sales arm, China National Offshore Oil Zhongjie Petrochemical Co Ltd; and the sales subsidiaries...
(EnergyAsia, August 17, Monday) — PetroChina Co, Asia’s largest oil and gas producer, has moved closer to completing the takeover of Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC), which owns one of the city-state’s three major oil refineries. Independent directors of SPC have recommended that shareholders accept the offer of PetroChina, which earlier acquired Keppel Corp.’s 45.51 %...
(EnergyAsia, August 17, Monday) — Lanka Maritime Services, a unit of Sri Lankan conglomerate John Keells Holdings, said it has expanded its floating storage with the acquisition of an 8,800 DWT double-hull tanker to provide bunkering services at Sri Lanka’s Colombo port. Lanka Maritime Services said it was prompted to acquire the ship because of...
(EnergyAsia, August 17, Monday) — ABB, the Switzerland-based power and automation technology group, said it has won orders worth $28 million from India’s Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited for substations to help improve the efficiency and reliability of the state’s network. The 220kV and 132kV substations will be located in the Nashik, Amravati and...
(EnergyAsia, August 17, Monday) — NXP Semiconductors of the Netherlands said it is partnering Tata BP Solar India Ltd, a joint venture of BP Solar and India’s Tata Power, to jointly develop solar energy solutions. Tata BP intends to use various electronic solutions for solar applications developed by Eindhoven-based NXP. These solutions have been developed...
(EnergyAsia, August 17, Monday) — The solar energy revolution is within reach with module price now poised to reach the parity price of US$1 per watt sometime next year, said Chinese manufacturer QS Solar. This means that electricity generated by solar energy, even without the support of subsidies, will cost less than electricity from the...
(EnergyAsia, August 17, Monday) — The number of jobs in America’s emerging clean energy economy grew nearly two and a half times faster than overall jobs between 1998 and 2007, according to a report released by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Pew said it developed a clear, data-driven definition of the clean energy economy and conducted...
(EnergyAsia, August 17, Monday) — The Ion Exchange Resins business unit of German specialty chemicals group Lanxess AG recently unveiled its premium products for biodiesel production at the 1st Biofuels Roundtable Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The focus was on its ion exchange resin Lewatit GF 202, which a part of the “Lewatit Green Fuels”...
(EnergyAsia, August 17, Monday) — Worldwide sales of biodiesel and ethanol markets are expected to reach US$247 billion by 2020 from US$76 billion in 2010, according to a report from Pike Research, a US market research and consulting firm. Biofuel and ethanol production and consumption are rising on account of government mandates, environmental concerns, technological...
(EnergyAsia, August 14, Friday) — German specialty chemical firm Lanxess said it has decided to postpone the construction of its 400-million-euro butyl rubber facility on Singapore’s Jurong island due to the global economic crisis. (US$1=0.7 euro). The Leverkusen-based company had originally planned for the 100,000-tonne-per-year plant to start up in 2012. “We expect the new...
(EnergyAsia, August 14, Friday) — India’s largest hydropower company, state-run NHPC, said it raised US$1.25 billion through a fully subscribed initial public offering (IPO) on the Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange. The money raised will finance the construction of seven hydropower plants by 2012. At the end of its first trading day last Friday, the company...
(EnergyAsia, August 14, Friday) — A Philippine non-government organisation has asked Japanese prime minister Taro Aso to cancel an agreement between the Philippine government and a UK-based Japanese firm for a 600,000-hectare biodiesel project. In his letter to Mr Aso, Fernando Hicap, chairman of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) described the...
(EnergyAsia, August 14, Friday) — Avoiding the most catastrophic impacts of climate change demands that global temperature increase is kept as far below 2°C as possible. This is still possible, but time is running out and we are in danger of overshooting, said Greenpeace. To stay within this limit, global greenhouse gas emissions will need...
(EnergyAsia, August 14, Friday) — China’s Zhaoheng Hydropower said it has raised US$57.5 million to help finance new projects and expansions. The largest contributors were two funds controlled by US private equity firm Olympus Capital Holdings Asia. Zhaoheng, which owns 11 hydropower plants with a combined 200MW capacity, said it will use the money to...
(EnergyAsia, August 14, Friday) — Banpu, Thailand’s largest coal producer, said it expects to hit its 2009 sales target of 20.5 million tonnes with higher sales in the second half helping to compensate for a slower first half of the year. The company, which owns the fourth largest coal miner in Indonesia, is looking to...
(EnergyAsia, August 14, Friday) — The Chinese government has set the tariffs for wind-generated power at between 0.51 yuan and 0.61 yuan per kilowatt hour depending on the region, but these may be too low to attract new investments, said analysts. (US$1=6.82 yuan). The powerful National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s leading economic agency,...
(EnergyAsia, August 14, Friday) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it is providing a $3 million grant to help design and deliver renewable energy products for the development of small pilot projects in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The planned activities include the development of a mini hydroelectric project in Papua New...
(EnergyAsia, August 13, Thursday) — Construction work has started on a 20 million kilowatt (KW) wind power station in Gansu province. The project at Jiuquan will have an initial capacity of just over 5 million KW by end 2010. It is expected to be gradually expanded to 20 million KW by 2020, and up to...
(EnergyAsia, August 13, Thursday) — India’s Jaiprakash Associates plans to raise more than 15 billion rupees by merging two of its power units in a deal valued at up to Rs 40 billion. (US$1=Rs48). The deal combined Jaiprakash Power Venture Ltd with listed company Jaiprakash Hydro Power. The move is aimed at helping Jaiprakash to...
(EnergyAsia, August 13, Thursday) — Singapore-listed marine fuels supplier Chemoil said it will continue to provide sustainable marine fuel solutions to help ship operators reduce emissions to meet new requirements proposed for waters off the US and Canada. This follows a joint application to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) by both the US and Canada...
(EnergyAsia, August 13, Wednesday) — Dynamic Engineering, a leading US engineering firm in chemical production technologies for polysilicon, said it has signed a multi-level contract with Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon Technology Development Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China’s GCL Solar Energy Technology Holdings Inc. The contracts represent DEI’s most comprehensive polysilicon services relationship to-date and the...
(EnergyAsia, August 13, Thursday) — UK energy major BP and Nasdaq-listed Martek Biosciences Corp said they have signed an agreement to jointly work on the production of microbial oils for biofuels applications. The partnership combines a broad technology platform and operational capabilities to advance the development of a step-change technology for the conversion of sugars...