programme to take advantage of the recent sharp drop in oil prices. The country’s crude oil imports surged 30% in October, much of the extra purchases going into storage tanks. China’s refiners have raised their product output by only 5.5% this year so far. This divergence has prompted speculation that the government has used...
has agreed to buy up to 50.1% in local oil refiner Petron. The seller is London-based investment firm Ashmore Investment Management, which holds its Petron stake through subsidiary SEA Refinery Holdings BV. Financial terms were not disclosed but industry observers said the deal may be worth some US$660 million. State-owned Philippine National Oil Co...
use of the US dollar to pay for their bilateral trade. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he wants the two countries to switch payments to national currencies despite the difficulties in implementing the move on account of their foreign exchange controls. Trade between the two communist giants will likely set a record of...
admitting western energy majors to do business in its country. While Russia’s Gazprom and Lukoil are already very active in the energy sector of this Central Asian nation, western companies complain that they are still being practically locked out. But given the scarcity of opportunities to find and produce new energy resources in the...
its Vung Ro refinery project to 2009. Work on the $1.7 billion project was to have begun in late 2008. Without providing an explanation for the delay, state officials said that land clearing at the 200-hectare site in Phu Yen province was still continuing. So far, the project located near a port has displaced...
(EnergyAsia, December 23, Tuesday) — The gC ICE Newcastle coal futures contract, developed jointly by IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and globalCOAL, has begun trading on ICE Futures Europe. The first trade of the new contract on December 5 was financially settled against the globalCOAL NEWC Index, the leading price benchmark for seaborne thermal coal in the Asia-Pacific (more…)
the S$25 million Energy Research Development Fund (ERDF) to seek energy solutions suited to the local environment and needs. (US$1=S$1.5). The new fund is different from existing energy research public funds as it focuses on developing enabling capabilities. It will go beyond technology research, and will seek to build up knowledge to support policies including...
(EnergyAsia, December 22, Monday) — The Oxford Princeton Programme will be holding its ‘Derivatives Pricing, Hedging and Risk Management’ course in Perth, Australia from January 19 to 20. The course aims to provide delegates with a comprehensive overview of energy derivatives instruments and markets as well as an introduction to current best practices in pricing, (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 22, Monday) — Oxford Princeton’s workshop, ‘Overview of Physical Crude Oil Trading and Operations’, will be held in Singapore on February 17 to 18. The introductory workshop will provide delegates with an understanding of the physical crude oil trading market. The course will explore the linkage between well production, marketing, transportation, storage, refining (more…)
Singapore-based subsidiary of the Conergy Group in Asia-Pacific, have jointly launched the region’s first renewable energy private trust to spur their growth and investments in wind, solar, small hydroelectric, biogas and biomass power generation in Asia. The Renewable Energy Trust Asia (RETA) is an investment vehicle focused on the US$7 billion annual renewable energy markets...
wind farm development projects from Investec Wind Holdings Pty Ltd for A$14 million. (US$1=A$1.5). They include a proposed 63MW project in Glenthompson in Victoria state and the two-stage 500MW project in Kingaroy in Queensland. AGL managing director Michael Fraser said the transaction was consistent with its strategy to develop a diverse pipeline of renewable projects...
Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to deliver Russian crude oil to consumers in Mumbai, Chennai and elsewhere on the subcontinent. Russia now ships oil supplies to India through the Black Sea via the capacity-constrained Turkish Straits. Tankers and ships have to be smaller than 130,000 tonnes according to restrictions imposed at the Turkish port of Ceyhan, which...
barrels of crude oil in an offshore super tanker in a bet that oil prices will soon rise from their four-year low. Other companies and traders have also started booking offshore oil storage capacities in anticipation of higher oil prices. Crude oil has plunged to well below US$35 per barrel, down from its high of...
only 2% this year, the lowest growth rate in almost 30 years. In the first nine months of this year, world LNG production was up by just 0.4% from the same period last year, consultant Andy Flowers recently told Bloomberg. In 2007, world LNG imports reached 17m2.6 million tonnes, up 7.3% from 2006. Production...
decline in oil companies’ share values, could trigger a new wave of mergers and acquisitions. Crude oil is now trading well below US$35 per barrel, sharply below its peak of US$147 in July. Some analysts now see oil dropping to as low as US$25 in 2009. As a first response, many oil companies have cancelled...
Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) by buying out BP’s stake. Operated by US oil major Chevron, the CPC line delivers Kazakh crude oil to a Russian Black Sea port for shipment overseas. Its other shareholders include BP, Rosneft, Shell, Eni, BG Group and Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGaz. The Russians and the Kazakhs want to push out...
(EnergyAsia, December 19, Friday) — Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have agreed to establish a transport system to deliver Kazakh crude oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline for export to Europe and other markets. Kazakhstan is looking to the BTC line as an alternative to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) which ships oil from its Tengiz field...
(EnergyAsia, December 19, Friday) — China is expected to more than double its sales of marine and bunker fuel by 2011, thanks in large part to the arrival of cheap Venezuelan supplies. By 2011, China’s bunker sales are expected to hit one million tonnes each month, up from 400,000 tonnes now. China’s ports are aiming...
(EnergyAsia, December 19, Friday) — Azerbaijan has committed to play an increasingly vital role in supplying oil and gas to Europe, a move seen as weakening Russia’s attempt to tighten its grip on its neighbours’ energy vulnerabilities. This message was affirmed at last month’s Energy Summit in Baku city, capital of the strategically located Central...
(EnergyAsia, December 19, Friday) — Local analysts are calling for the Chinese government to quickly to fill up the country’s strategic petroleum reserves (SPRs) as quickly possible to take advantage of current low oil prices. Oil has plummeted from a US$147 per barrel peak in July to just above US$50 per barrel. China’s state and...
(EnergyAsia, December 19, Friday) — China’s refiners and petrochemicals producers are facing losses, slower sales and production growth amid the global economic slowdown and financial crisis, said the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA). Both sales and production growth slowed markedly in August and September. Oil refiners reported losing more than 120 billion yuan...
(EnergyAsia, December 19, Friday) — Qatar is planning to build a 10-million-tonne-per-year refinery and petrochemicals project in a joint venture with PetroChina and Shell. The project’s location has yet to be determined but will most likely be somewhere on China’s eastern coast. PetroChina would hold a majority stake of 51% in the venture, with Shell...
(EnergyAsia, December 19, Friday) — China is working to mediate a dispute between two of its allies, Myanmar and Bangladesh, over offshore oil and gas exploration rights in the Bay of Bengal. The quarrelling neighbours recently deployed warships to protect their interests. Bangladesh insists that the disputed area near St Martin’s Island falls within its...
(EnergyAsia, December 19, Friday) — The US-India Business Council (USIBC) said it will partner with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and US Department of Commerce to undertake the largest trade mission of American commercial nuclear executives ever to visit India. The visit will take place in January after the original mission on November 27 was...
(EnergyAsia, December 19, Friday) — China‘s Longwei Petroleum Investment Holding Ltd said it has hired RedChip Companies Inc. to lead its public and investor relations programmes. Operating through its subsidiary, Longwei Trading, the company is a leading distributor and wholesale supplier of diesel, gasoline, fuel oil and solvent oil in Taiyuan city in China‘s Shanxi province....