(EnergyAsia, May 7 2013, Tuesday) — Singapore’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fired power plant is on course for a full start-up in the fourth quarter, said owner PacificLight Power Pte Ltd, previously known as GMR Energy. The 800MW combined-cycle plant on Jurong Island will sell electricity at prices based on crude or high-sulphur fuel oil, (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 7 2013, Tuesday) — The Indian government is having second thoughts about approving state upstream firm ONGC’s plan to pay US$5 billion for an 8.4% stake in Kazakhstan’s giant offshore Kashagan oilfield. Announced last November, ONGC’s plan to acquire ConocoPhillips’ stake in one of the world’s largest oil fields with reserves estimated at...
(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — India’s main upstream firms, ONGC and Oil India Ltd, are hurting from the recent decline in crude oil prices with benchmark Brent crude briefly sliding to nine-month lows at less than US$100 a barrel. While their revenues have fallen sharply, ONGC and OIL remain saddled with the responsibility to...
(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — Reversing years of decline, US coal production is expected to edge up by nearly 0.5% in 2013 to over 1.025 billion short tons, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In its April short-term energy outlook, the agency said US coal production continued its recent decline into the first quarter...
(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — Chevron Oronite has named Desmond (Des) King, a former CEO and managing director of Caltex Australia, as President to succeed Ron Kiskis who is retiring on August 31. The company also announced the appointments of Jirong Xiao as vice president of sales and marketing, and Barbara Smith as vice (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — India’s refined products consumption will grow by 4.9% in the current financial year to March 2014, just slightly slower than the previous year’s 5% increase, predicts the planning unit of the Petroleum Ministry. This forecast could prove conservative as India’s economy is expected to grow by 5.7% this year...
(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — Petronet LNG Ltd, India’s main gas importer, said it is interested to buy a 25% stake in a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in the country’s northwestern state of Gujarat. State-owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) has a 50% stake in the proposed five-million-tonne/year terminal at Mundra...
(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — India’s largest coal producer said it will continue supplying the fuel to its main customer despite on-going disputes over a number of issues including pricing and product quality. Coal India Limited (CIL), which accounts for over 80% of the country’s domestic coal production, has been accused of supplying sub-standard...
(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — Australia-listed MetroCoal Limited said a Chinese shareholder recently raised its 19.6% shareholding in the Brisbane-based miner to 22.6%. Dadi Engineering Development (Group) Co Ltd, described as one of China’s leading coal services groups, bought 6.25 million shares from investor Mathews Capital to increase its ownership of Metrocoal shares to (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — Australia’s output of greenhouse gases from its power sector have fallen to a 10-year low, thanks to the increased use and production of renewable energy and a decline in the use of coal, said consultant RepuTex. Coal now accounts for around 74.8% of the power generation mix, down sharply...
(EnergyAsia, May 2 2013, Thursday) — Western Canada is emerging as a strong frontline beneficiary of Japan’s plan to invest heavily in infrastructure and hydrocarbon reserves abroad to secure long-term energy supplies for its embattled economy. Japanese officials attending last month’s inaugural Pacific Energy Summit in Vancouver city tipped the resources rich provinces of British...
(EnergyAsia, May 2 2013, Thursday) — The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has slashed its forecasts for both global oil demand and supply growth over the next two years. On account of slower growth in the emerging economies and Europe, the EIA’s April forecast calls for world consumption to grow by one million b/d to...
(EnergyAsia, May 2 2013, Thursday) — Malaysian state energy firm Petronas said the first customer for its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Canada’s British Columbia province has agreed to purchase 10% of its output for 20 years. Petronas and its Calgary, Alberta-based subsidiary, Progress Energy Canada Ltd, expect their jointly owned Pacific NorthWest (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 2 2013, Thursday) — Singapore-listed coal miner, Geo Energy Resources Limited, said it has signed a conditional agreement to acquire an Indonesian mine concession, making this its fifth for the year. Geo Energy said the 4,600-hectare concession area holds at least 40 million metric tonnes of coal reserves of 7,200 kilocalorie per kg...
(EnergyAsia, April 30 2013, Tuesday) — Horizon Terminals Limited (HTL), a subsidiary of Dubai’s Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), expects to start up its new US$142-million oil storage terminal at Jebel Ali that will include a 60-km pipeline link to supply jet fuel to Dubai’s new Al Maktoum International Airport. Supplied by both ENOC’s 120,000 (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 30 2013, Tuesday) — Terminals NZ has added a 10.4-million-litre fuel tank at Port Tauranga near North Island’s Auckland city while Z Energy is considering building two 10-million-litre tanks to support operations at Lyttelton Port near Christchurch city in the South. Faced with rising fuel demand in New Zealand, oil companies are under...
(EnergyAsia, April 30 2013, Tuesday) — Iran’s crude oil export revenues plunged 27% last year as sales fell to their lowest level since 1986, the result of tighter Western trade sanctions, said the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The agency estimated Iran took in US$69 billion in net oil export revenue last year, compared with (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 30 2013, Tuesday) — China’s first-quarter oil demand rose 3.5% over the same period last year to 10.15 million b/d, continuing the previous quarter’s above 10-million b/d demand level, said US energy media Platts. However, the pace of demand growth has eased from the fourth quarter of 2012 when the year-over-year increase was...
(EnergyAsia, April 29 2013, Monday) — KPMG held its inaugural Global Energy Conference in Singapore last Friday to coincide with the launch of its Global Energy Institute for the Asia-Pacific region. The one-day conference brought together some 300 regional business leaders in the energy sector, along with members of government and academia to deliver insights (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 29 2013, Monday) — The Gulf Oil International Group, owned by India’s Hinduja Group, has started up two new lubricants blending plants in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE and Argentina. Gulf RAK Oil, a joint venture of the Ras Al Khaimah government and Gulf Oil International, last month opened a lubrication manufacturing (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 29 2013, Monday) — Singapore’s energy regulator and natural gas companies will meet again next month to help shape guidelines on the import of additional volume of liquefied natural gas (LNG), said trade and industry minister S. Iswaran. The Energy Market Authority (EMA) initiated the first round of industry consultations last year after (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 29 2013, Monday) — Europe’s largest utility, GDF Suez SA, said it has signed separate agreements with two state-owned Chinese firms to jointly develop six natural gas storage sites in China as well as moor a floating import terminal off the country’s northeastern city of Tianjin. The French firm said it signed a...
(EnergyAsia, April 26 2013, Friday) — India’s main gas importer Petronet LNG has signed an initial 20-year agreement with Houston, US-based United LNG to purchase four million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the two companies have announced. They are now discussing commercial terms including prices linked to Louisiana state’s Henry Hub that are expected (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 26 2013, Friday) — India’s main upstream company ONGC is aiming to produce 28.6 million tonnes of crude in the current financial year ending March 2014, a 9.5% increase over last year’s 26.12 million tonnes. In an interview with a local TV station, chairman and managing director, Sudhir Vasudeva, said it will achieve...
(EnergyAsia, April 26 2013, Friday) — Global diesel prices will weaken when state-owned Saudi Aramco starts up its 400,000 b/d refinery in Jubail in Saudi Arabia next year, said US consultant ESAI Energy. The sophisticated plant will add to the supply of clean diesel in Saudi Arabia and Europe, markets currently supplied by India, said (more…)