approved the construction of a major wind farm power project off the coast of Shanghai city. When it starts up in 2010, the 102,000-kilowatt project will be the country’s first offshore wind power project. Project promoters include China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holdings, China Datang Group, China Power International Holdings and Shanghai Green Energy Engineering....
emerging solar energy sector. International Trade and Industry Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who recently led a trade mission to Japan, told business people there that Malaysia offered a highly attractive environment for developing the solar power industry. Speaking at a seminar, he said many solar equipment firms including Germany’s Q-Cells have begun investing in Malaysia. Japanese...
reconsider their biofuels policies and crop subsidies in light of the recent sharp rise in food prices. The European Union has announced an aggressive target for 10% of its cars and trucks to run on biofuels by 2020. The plea for a change has come on the back of a leaked report by the World...
consumption despite increasing concerns over its impacts on food prices and the environment. However, it will make a concession by reducing the targeted mandatory minimum biofuels content in fuel from 3.4% by 2012 to 2.5% in following a recommendation from the country’s parliamentary environment select committee. The blending requirement will likely be phased in from...
Canada’s Saskatchewan province in a joint-venture with aboriginal communities. CPC could spend up to C$800million to acquire oil sands leases and develop projects in coming years with partner Indian Oilsands (US$1 = C$1). Indian Oilsands is an initiative that groups many of the province’s First Nations groups. The joint venture could start by focusing on...
process equipment and technologies, clean energy solutions and environmental technologies, said it has secured four new contracts worth a total of S$19.27 million. (US$1=S$1.36). Two of the contracts are for oil and gas projects in Singapore while the other two are petrochemical projects in China. These contracts are not expected to have any material impact...
(EnergyAsia, July 30, Wednesday) — Nasdaq-listed A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailand’s National Power Supply Co Ltd to develop a 600 MW distributed power generation system in Chachengsao province. National Power Supply co is a subsidiary of Advance Agro Public Co. Ltd, a large Thai-based conglomerate....
(EnergyAsia, July 30, Wednesday) — Malaysia’s state oil and gas company Petronas will pay a dividend of RM30 billion to the government, up 50% from last year. (US$1=RM3.26). The huge dividend was declared after the company had reported a 31.5% increase in net profit to nearly RM61 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31....
(EnergyAsia, July 30, Wednesday) — South Korea plans to increase its crude oil storage capacity to 141 million barrels by 2010, up 27% from current levels. The new capacities include storage for emergencies and joint storage with foreign refiners. State KNOC has stated that the expansion will help the country cope with supply disruptions as...
(EnergyAsia, July 30, Wednesday) — The consortium proposing to build a US$6 billion integrated refinery-petrochemicals project in the Indian coastal city of Vishakhapatnam or Vizag is expected to make a final decision by December. The consortium, comprising India’s Mittal group, Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), GAIL and Oil India (OIL), and France’s Total, has been working on...
(EnergyAsia, July 30, Wednesday) — India’s state oil refiners may not be able to upgrade all their facilities to meet the 2010 deadline for producing Euro–IV grade fuels for 11 major cities. The refiners are facing massive project delays amid rising costs and tight supplies for engineering equipment and manpower. The order books of contractors...
(EnergyAsia, July 30, Wednesday) — India’s Essar group will have to wait a bit longer for the Kenyan government to approve its proposed acquisition of a 50% stake in Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd (KPRL). Citing energy security concerns, the government has delayed making a decision on Essar’s offer to take over the stakes of Shell...
(EnergyAsia, July 30, Wednesday) — Asiatic Group Holdings Limited, a Singapore-based engineering management specialist, said it will be building a 44-megawatt (MW) hydroelectric power project in Vietnam’s north-eastern Lao Cai province. Asiatic’s wholly-owned Colben Energy Holdings (Vietnam) Limited will pay US$6.3 million for a 51% stake in a newly established joint venture company, Colben Energy...
(EnergyAsia, July 30, Wednesday) — Australia’s Oil Search said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Papua New Guinea government for the commercialisation of the country’s natural gas resources. The MOU provides a framework for the PNG government and Oil Search to jointly commercialise the substantial discovered PNG gas resource that is...
(EnergyAsia, July 30, Wednesday) — New Zealand’s Contact Energy said it is investigating a new wind farm project on the remote Puketoi Range near Dannevirke in Southern Hawke’s Bay. The proposed 177MW Waitahora wind farm would cost around NZ$500 million to develop. Its 65 turbines would generate enough clean, renewable electricity to power up to...
(EnergyAsia, July 30, Wednesday) — OPEC’s oil export earnings are set to rise to a new record exceeding US$1.251 trillion this year, about US$73 billion more than previously estimated. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said the cartel’s net oil export earnings are expected to surge 86% this year on the back of record-high oil...
branching out into third-party logistics services. Subsidiary Essar Shipping Ports and Logistics (ESPLL) owns a range of ports, terminals and logistics facilities that are currently used to service the group’s other subsidiaries, Essar Steel, Essar Oil and Essar Power. The group plans to open up those assets and services to external clients, mostly oil...
jointly invest in a proposed 300,000 b/d refinery in Ecuador. Ecuador President Rafael Correa said Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA and PetroEcuador are open to the idea of inviting Chinese and Iranian participation in what could become South America’s largest refinery when it is completed in 2013. PetroEcuador has a 51% stake in the project with...
the progress of each of the G8 countries toward addressing climate change. The report, ‘G8 Climate Scorecards 2008’, reveals that the US can make substantial progress on the climate front by improving energy efficiency and increasing research and development funding for energy programmes. The scorecards report ranks the G8 countries – US, UK, Canada, France,...
(EnergyAsia, July 29, Tuesday) — Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of the Netherlands-based Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group BV, said it has been awarded an initial US$38 million contract to supply carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel and incoloy pipes, fittings and flanges for the Saudi Kayan Olefins Plant (more…)
controlling interest in Karachi, Pakistan-based DHA Cogen Limited (DCL). AEI said it has the right to hold up to 52.99% of DCL’s shares, but declined to reveal the full terms of the transaction. The transaction strengthens AEI’s overall Asian presence. It recently acquired Luoyang Yuneng Sunshine Cogeneration Co Ltd in China, and the gas distribution...
million peso to build an oil products storage and blending terminal in Davao city to serve the southern province of Mindanao. (US$1=50 peso). Insular Oil will build the terminal on a 45,300-sq m waterfront plot which it bought from Herma Corp last July. Manila’s Board of Investments has given its approval and also granted Insular...
a post-combustion-capture (PCC) pilot plant at the Loy Yang Power Station in Victoria state’s Latrobe Valley. CSIRO, the country’s leading science agency, said the milestone followed the Garnaut Report’s recognition that Australia has an important role to play in developing low emission coal technologies such as PCC. The 10.5 metre-high pilot plant is designed to...
investments and even shut down existing capacity if the government goes ahead with its planned emissions trading regime. The country’s three major refiners, Caltex, Shell and ExxonMobil, said they would be saddled with huge extra costs without any compensation or support from the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. At the same time, the refiners...
production capacity is not growing as fast domestc demand. The prospects of a crisis have been highlighted by recent instances of diesel supply problems in several major cities including Chennai and Bangalore. Diesel demand is rising by some 25% per year but the diesel capacity at the country’s refineries is growing by around 15% per...