( (EnergyAsia, January 25 2013, Friday) — Mechel, a leading Russian mining and metals companies, said it has sold a part of its earlier acquired controlling stake in the Vanino port on the Pacific coast to investors. In line with the conditions for financing the acquisition of a 55% stake in Vanino Sea Trade Port,...
(EnergyAsia, January 24 2013, Thursday) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has provided an update on Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry as part of its latest assessment of the economy of the Middle Eastern country. Qatar holds 12% of the world’s proven 7,361 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, putting it in third...
(EnergyAsia, January 24 2013, Thursday) — Commodities trader Gunvor Group said it and partner Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) have secured a seven-year credit facility for US$110 million from ZAO Raiffeisenbank for their jointly-owned fuel oil terminal in the Black Sea. Their equally-owned Novorossiysk Fuel Oil Terminal (NFT) will draw on the facility to refinance (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 24 2013, Thursday) — Boosted by an end-of-the-year surge, China’s oil demand rose 3.4% to a record high of 9.68 million for 2012, said US energy media Platts. And it could go higher this year if the economy continues to improve and the government maintains its stimulus measures. December’s consumption was up 7.7%...
(EnergyAsia, January 23 2013, Wednesday) — Germany’s BASF and Malaysian state energy firm Petronas said they have terminated an agreement to jointly develop a specialty chemicals venture that was part of a proposed RM120-billion oil-petrochemical complex to be developed in the southern state of Johor. (US$1=RM3.05). According to the heads of agreement the companies signed (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 23 2013, Wednesday) — Brent crude’s position as the global benchmark was confirmed last year when its futures trading volume last year exceeded US WTI for the first time. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), trades in the Brent contract surged while the WTI volume fell in response to the growing...
(EnergyAsia, January 23 2013, Wednesday) —– Greenpeace said “government hypocrisy” in support of major fossil fuel projects around the world is fuelling climate change and placing populations at risk. In a new report studying 14 carbon-intensive projects around the world, the environmental group said government support has raised the threat posed by a planned massive (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 23 2013, Wednesday) — While US majors ExxonMobil and Chevron are undergoing a bad patch with the Indonesian govervnment, BP has found strong official backing for one of its most important projects to expand a liquefied natural gas project in Tangguh in West Papua province. The UK major is expected to make a...
(EnergyAsia, January 22 2013, Tuesday) — Canada’s Sunshine Oil Sands Ltd, which is listed on the stock exchanges of Hong Kong and Toronto, has signed a one-year agreement to share oil sands exploration technology developed by the oilfields division of China’s CNOOC Ltd. Calgary-based Sunshine said it has signed an agreement with China Oilfield Services (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 22 2013, Tuesday) — New Zealand’s economy could be brought to its knees if its sole oil refinery was hit by an earthquake, fire or tsunami, warned the country’s air carrier in its submission to the government’s review of energy security. In its report to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Air...
(EnergyAsia, January 22 2013, Tuesday) — Caltex Australia said it has begun supplying bitumen from a new purpose-built import terminal at Port Botany in Sydney following the closure of operations at the nearby Kurnell refinery. The new terminal, designed, constructed and commissioned in less than 14 months by Terminals Australia Pty Ltd, provides 24,000 tonnes (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 22 2013, Tuesday) — Amid declining investor confidence, Indonesia may not achieve its modest crude oil production target of 900,000 b/d for 2013, and certainly not the one-million b/d goal for 2014, said the head of upstream regulator SKMigas. The government, which is currently embroiled in bitter disputes with ExxonMobil and Chevron, two...
(EnergyAsia, January 21 2013, Monday) — A total of 55 people including 32 workers have been reported killed over the course of a four-day hostage crisis in Algeria that ended when security forces battled terrorists who had seized a BP-operated natural gas plant at Ain Amenas in the eastern central part of the country. On (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 21 2013, Monday) — Oil will lose its dominant position as the world’s primary fuel by 2030 as natural gas and coal gain market share to share equal billing, according to BP’s latest energy forecast to 2030. The UK major expects global demand for oil will grow by just 0.8% p.a. between 2011 (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 21 2013, Monday) — US major Chevron Corp said it has signed agreements for two production sharing contracts with Chinese offshore oil company CNOOC Ltd to explore two blocks in the South China Sea. Their joint-venture company, Chevron China Energy Co, will have full contract ownership of blocks 15/10 and 15/28 in the (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 21 2013, Monday) — With an eye on the Asian markets, two leading Russian natural gas producers have agreed to form a joint venture to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the hydrocarbon-rich remote northern Yamal peninsula. State-owned Gazprom and Novatek, Russia’s leading independent gas producer, will invest in facilities to begin producing...
(EnergyAsia, January 18 2013, Friday) — Rolls-Royce, the UK-based global power systems company, said it has secured a US$75million contract to supply PetroChina with equipment and related services to power the flow of natural gas through a tributary in the country’s West-East Pipeline Project (EPP). Rolls-Royce will supply six of its RB211-driven pipeline compressor units (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 18 2013, Friday) — The world is becoming increasingly dependent on unconventional sources of oil and gas to meet its energy needs, said BP in its latest supply-demand outlook to 2030. The recent surge in unconventional supplies has had the biggest impact in the US where the application of technology has enabled the...
(EnergyAsia, January 18 2013, Friday) — After years of drawing on inventory, the world will produce more crude oil than it consumes next year, said the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). In its January short-term energy outlook report, the agency said it expects world production to rise more than 3% over 2012’s 88.99 million b/d (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 18 2013, Friday) — US majors ExxonMobil and Chevron are threatening to reduce investments in Indonesia amid souring relations with the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Jakarta wants ExxonMobil to replace its country president, Richard J. Owen, and has accused Chevron of mismanaging the re-mediation of an ageing oilfield in Riau province....
(EnergyAsia, January 17 2013, Thursday) — With financial support from the the Asian Development Bank (ADB), China will be deploying at least 5,000 new “green” buses in its major cities by 2018 to help reduce the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The bank said it has allocated US$275 million for up to five top-tier financial (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 17 2013, Thursday) — Russia said its crude and condensate output surged to a new high of 10.4 million b/d last year, a figure not seen since the days of the Soviet Union which collapsed in 1991. Russia, the world’s largest oil producer ahead of Saudi Arabia, remains dependent on oil and gas...
(EnergyAsia, January 17 2013, Thursday) — Italian energy company Eni said it has secured a joint agreement to supply a total of 1.7 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 28 cargoes to two customers in Japan and South Korea. Eni said the exact volume to be shipped separately to Korea Gas Corp (Kogas) (more…)
(EnergyAsia, January 17 2013, Thursday) — Singapore’s bunker sales volume fell 1.2% to 42.7 million tonnes last year as the maritime sector continued to face “challenging” conditions brought on by a prolonged economic recession in the US, Europe and Japan, said the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA). The decline ended several consecutive years...
(EnergyAsia, January 16 2013, Wednesday) — Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the US will hasten the global market’s shift away from oil-linked pricing to favour buyers in Asia who are waging a campaign against current suppliers to reduce the fuel’s cost. According to a recent study by consultant Deloitte, the US could export around...