(EnergyAsia, Monday April 14 2015, Tuesday) — Gazprom Neft, the oil subsidiary of Russia’s leading gas producer Gazprom, said it plans to invest in Vietnam’s upstream sector as well as acquire a 49% stake in the country’s only oil refinery at Dung Quat. Gazprom Neft said its venture into the Southeast Asian country will be...
INDIA: State firms to build oil storage terminal in Kerala state, Gulf Petroleum starts up depot in Gujarat (EnergyAsia, April 10 2015, Friday) — A consortium of three state-owned Indian firms is planning to build an oil storage terminal in the country’s southwestern state of Kerala while UAE-based Gulf Petroleum recently started up its terminal…
(EnergyAsia, April 9, 2015, Thursday) — Amid sharply reduced budgets and activities, the US shale sector is hoping for the stage to be set for oil prices to stabilise and eventually recover, said UK consultant Douglas-Westwood (DW). Another consultant Wood Mackenzie expects exploration costs to fall by a third, spurring drilling activity for 2016 to...
(EnergyAsia, April 7 2015, Tuesday) — Growing faster than China’s, the Indian economy will become the world’s third largest by 2019 to exceed the combined size of Japan and Germany, said International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde….
(EnergyAsia, April 6 2015, Monday) — Royal Dutch Shell said it has raised its Singapore ethylene production capacity to more than one million tonnes per year after recently completing a major expansion and upgrade at its Bukom Island complex. The company said its ethylene plant, which is linked to a 500,000 b/d refinery as part...
(EnergyAsia, April 3 2015, Friday) — The Indian government has approved a special 495-billion rupee budget to help pay for the cost of procuring and maintaining its strategic crude oil stockpiling programme due to start over the next few months. (US$1=62 rupees)….
(EnergyAsia, April 2 2015, Thursday) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has challenged his country to slash its oil and gas import dependence from 77% now to 67% by 2022….
(EnergyAsia, March 31 2015, Tuesday) — Malaysia remains on track to become a “high-income status” economy by 2020, said Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao after recently meeting the country’s leaders in Kuala Lumpur. Mr Nakao, who met Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and senior Malaysian officials, was in the country to attend the…
(EnergyAsia, March 30 2015, Monday) — US major Chevron has sold off its entire long-held 50% stake in Australia’s largest downstream company for A$4.7 billion to focus on developing its core Gorgon and Wheatstoneliquefied natural gas (LNG) projects. (US$1=A$1.30). Despite the exit, Chevron said in a statement it remains one of Australia’s largest foreign investors and...
(EnergyAsia, March 27 2015, Friday) — China could open up its tightly-held oil and gas storage and pipelines sector to foreign investment as the next phase of the national plan to enhance domestic energy security….
(EnergyAsia, March 26 2015, Thursday) — Malaysia’s Johor state has started up Southeast Asia’s first commercial crude oil storage terminal with the receipt of one million barrels of Middle Eastern crude from a supertanker last week. MT Mesdar, a vessel chartered by France’s Total, docked at the Pengerang deepwater terminal jointly owned by Dutch oil...
(EnergyAsia, March 26 2015, Thursday) — Despite rising demand and an improving global economy, oil prices remain under pressure from continuing supply growth, a strong US dollar, insufficient storage and speculative bets for further declines, said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)….
(EnergyAsia, March 25 2015, Wednesday) — Swimming against a new wave of bearish calls based on rising oil stockpiles, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has largely kept its latest forecast for Brent and WTI crude prices for this and next year. The agency expects the 2015 Brent crude price to average US$59 a barrel,…
(EnergyAsia, March 24 2015, Tuesday) — In response to the growing liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, the world’s largest shipping association said it is working with the industry to develop a new contract to provide for better risk and cost-management of the fuel’s transportation under voyage charter terms. The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO),...
(EnergyAsia, March 23 2015, Monday) — After four straight years of decline, Japan’s total energy consumption, buoyed by a mild economic recovery, could begin growing again in the coming financial year starting April 1, according to an analyst at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ)….
(EnergyAsia, March 19 2015, Thursday) — Asia’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices will enjoy a brief rally in the summer that will be quickly cut down by the start-up of new production capacity in Australia, predicts energy consultant Wood Mackenzie. The expected resumption of operations at some nuclear plants in Japan will also pressure Asian...
(EnergyAsia, March 18 2015, Wednesday) — CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives market operator, said it and two US firms expect to launch a physically delivered crude oil storage futures contract on March 29 upong receiving US regulatory approval. The Chicago-based firm said it jointly developed the pioneering contract with LOOP LLC, operator of the...
(EnergyAsia, March 17 2015, Tuesday) — Thanks to its increasingly diversified economy, Malaysia faces “favourable” prospects for 2015 despite sharply reduced earnings from oil and gas exports, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF)….
(EnergyAsia, March 16 2015, Monday) — In separate announcements today, Singapore-based Puma Energy said it has agreed to purchase BP’s bitumen business in Australia and Murco Petroleum’s fuels wholesale and distribution business in the UK. The proposed deals will be subject to local regulatory approvals. The integrated midstream and downstream energy company, which has been...
(EnergyAsia, March 12 2015, Thursday) — The Indian government’s attempt to solve the country’s decade-long energy crisis took an unexpected twist yesterday with the arrest of its powerful former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and some his allies to face charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy related to the alleged illegal sales and allocations of the country’s coal deposits during his time in power.
(EnergyAsia, March 11 2015, Wednesday) — Piracy, maritime accidents and potential terrorist acts are adding to the cost of moving and distributing oil and gas cargoes and general merchandise in Southeast Asia at a time of rising traffic through the increasingly congested Straits of Malacca and the Singapore Straits, said industry officials and analysts.
(EnergyAsia, March 10 2015, Tuesday) — India will emerge as the most important market for metallurgical coal from 2015 as its demand rises to surge ahead of Japan 10 years from now and China by 2035, said UK consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.
(EnergyAsia, March 9 2015, Monday) — Forget about oil prices overshooting to the upside and making a strong recovery even as the growth in global oil supply slows sharply from mid-year, predicts the IEA.
(EnergyAsia, March 6 2015, Friday) — Asia’s collective GDP could be boosted by between 0.25% and 0.5% for 2015 if crude oil prices remain at current levels, said global business services provider TMF Group. For China, the US$50 per barrel plunge in oil price is generating an immediate stimulus worth US$112 billion or the equivalent (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 5 2015, Thursday) — As a result of the oil price collapse, remittances by Central Asian workers in Russia will fall by an estimated total US$1.7 billion this year, said the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). In a recent report, the UN unit said the near 60%...