(EnergyAsia, April 18 2012, Wednesday) — State-owned Indian Oil Corp said its refineries processed a record volume of 55.6 million tonnes (MT) of crude oil for the last financial year ending March 31 2012. It achieved its previous best of 53 million tonnes the previous year. It is India’s largest refiner with a nameplate capacity...
(EnergyAsia, April 18 2012, Wednesday) — China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) is planning to expand its existing 160,000 b/d oil refinery and petrochemical complex on Hainan Island. Together with the Hainan provincial government, the company is hoping to obtain Beijing’s approval this year for the proposed 39-billion-yuan investment to add 100,000 b/d of refining...
(EnergyAsia, April 17 2012, Tuesday) — Australia’s Origin Energy Limited said it has agreed to develop low-carbon, cost efficient trigeneration precincts to supply cleaner energy to central Sydney, the country’s largest city. Origin said its wholly owned subsidiary, Cogent Energy, will invest A$100 million over a 10-year period to build trigeneration precincts in four zones (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 17 2012, Tuesday) — Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) has announced that it will be investing US$100 million to develop new technology centre in Kangqiao, east of Shanghai, China. When completed in 2013, the 60,000 sq m facility will house some 200 commercial and corporate function staff as well as a team of (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 17 2012, Tuesday) — Malaysian state energy firm Petronas said it is making progress in developing an integrated oil refinery-petrochemical project in Pengerang town in the southern Malaysian state of Johor. The proposed RM60-billion Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) complex will include a 300,000 b/d refinery to supply feedstock to an adjoining (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 17 2012, Tuesday) — Southeast Asia will be an attractive area for gas activity amid growing demand for energy in the region, according to the International Gas Union (IGU). Globalenergy demand is expected to increase in tandem with growing population, economic expansion, individual’s prosperity and urbanisation. It is projected that the world will (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 17 2012, Tuesday) — Swiss energy trader Vitol SA said it has signed a long-term agreement to supply Korea Midland Power (KOMIPO), a South Korean power company 400,000 tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year for 10 years starting 2015. The contracted volume is equal to about 17% of KOMIPO’s annual consumption (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 16 2012, Monday) — Swiss trading giant Vitol Group said its subsidiary, Vitol Energy (Bermuda) Ltd, has bought a 9.1% stake in Canada’s CIC Energy Corp, which owns and operates a coal mine in Botswana, for C$10 million. (US$1=C$0.99). Vitol said it bought a total of 5,263,158 CIC Energy common shares through a...
(EnergyAsia, April 16 2012, Monday) — India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) said it will be investing 142.25 billion rupees to expand as well as upgrade its 190,000 b/d Kochi oil refinery in the southwestern part of the country. (US$1=51 rupees). On completion by December 2015, the plant will have the capacity to refine 310,000...
(EnergyAsia, April 16 2012, Monday) — Helped by its rising oil bill, India’s trade deficit surged more than 77% to reach a record US$185 billion for the financial year ending March 31 2012. Oil accounted for US$150 billion of India’s US$485 billion import bill last year as its economy took on the chin with...
(EnergyAsia, April 16 2012, Monday) — Trafigura Pte Ltd has announced its entry into the oil refining and storage business with plans to invest up to US$250 million for a minority stake in a refinery and storage facility under construction in India’s east coast Tamil Nadu state. The Dutch commodities trader said it will pay (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 16 2012, Monday) — The Australian government should clarify the country’s business taxation system for the upstream oil and gas industry as it is being threatened by speculation and fears over imminent changes. In making this call, the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) said the speculation is “creating investor uncertainty” that (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 13 2012, Friday) — China’s power companies have set an ambitious target to reduce energy consumption from the middle of this decade. China Electricity Council (CEC) said the industry is aiming to use just under one billion metric tonnes of coal equivalent of energy (CEE) by 2015 and 770 million tonnes CEE by 2020,...
(EnergyAsia, April 13 2012, Friday) — SOCAR Trading, the trading subsidiary of State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), has begun operation of its jointly owned Aurora terminal in Fujairah port in the UAE. The company recently took in its first shipment of fuel oil at the terminal’s first phase 114,000-cubic metre facility which it jointly...
(EnergyAsia, March 13 2012, Friday) — China’s appetite for coal shows no signs of letting up despite growing calls to reduce the country’s energy intensity and greenhouse gas emissions. While it improved its energy efficiency slightly last year, China did not meet its conservation targets. Its economy expanded by 9.2% last year but its total...
(EnergyAsia, April 13 2012, Friday) — IHC Merwede, the Netherlands-based global supplier of efficient dredging and mining vessels and equipment, and custom-built ships, has opened an Asia Pacific office in Singapore. The company said the PSA Building office will be the corporate headquarters for IHC Offshore & Marine’s Southeast Asia businesses to add to the (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 13 2012, Friday) — Australia’s MetroCoal Limited has released an update on its attempt to form a joint venture to develop and market its fully-owned Surat Basin thermal coal Bundi project in Queensland state said to hold 1.56 billion tonnes of thermal coal reserves. Since it began seeking a joint venture partner last (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 12 2012, Thursday) — Jaya Holdings, a Singapore-based leading offshore energy services group, has named Max Hartvigsen as President of its offshore division. Reporting directly to the CEO, he will be responsible for the division’s business development, profit and loss for the fleet of owned and chartered vessels and operational excellence of the (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 12 2012, Thursday) — Australia’s Aquila Resources Limited said its wholly owned subsidiary, IP Coal Pty Ltd, has agreed to sell its 50% joint venture interest in the Isaac Plains coal mine to Ocean Coal Mining Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo Corp for A$430 million. (US$1=A$0.96). Aquila said Sumitomo (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 12 2012, Thursday) — The Australian Coal Association (ACA) has included a long-term national carbon capture and storage (CCS) strategy among 12 recommendations submitted to the federal government’s draft Energy White Paper. ACA chief executive Nikki Williams said the use of CCS technology is key to economically achieving emissions reductions targets. She said: (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 12 2012, Thursday) — S&P held a media roundtable in Singapore last month featuring three experts to discuss the commodities markets and the economies of China, Japan and India. Jodie Gunzberg, S&P Indices’ Director of Commodity Indices, Mike Davis, ICE Futures Europe’s Director of Market Development, and Nicholas Kennedy, NYSE Liffe’s Head of (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 11 2012, Wednesday) — Qatar and India have signed a broad agreement to cooperate on oil and gas projects, but remain far apart on meeting New Delhi’s increasingly urgent request for additional supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes. The pact to jointly develop upstream and downstream projects was among six agreements signed...
(EnergyAsia, April 11 2012, Wednesday) — Days after a refinery in Assam state was set on fire by local separatists, India’s intelligence and security officials warn that two of the country’s largest oil refineries are being targeted by Pakistan-based terrorists, The country’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) said the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) group is planning to bomb...
(EnergyAsia, April 11 2012, Wednesday) — India’s power shortages are set to worsen following disruptions to coal supplies from Indonesia and Australia, and Qatar’s decision to sharply raise its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export prices. Indonesia has followed up recent moves to nationalise its main coal mining companies with plans to impose a 25% tax...
(EnergyAsia, April 11, 2012, Wednesday) — Singapore’s Keppel Shipyard Ltd said it has secured two floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) upgrading projects from its repeat customers SBM Offshore NV and Bumi Armada Berhad. The combined contract value of the two projects is S$170 million. (US$1=S$1.26). Keppel said it will target to complete the refurbishment (more…)