(EnergyAsia, March 27 2012, Tuesday) — Australia’s third liquefied natural gas (LNG) project started up last week when operator Woodside announced that its Pluto project in Western Australia began processing gas from offshore fields last week. The A$14.9 billion project has been plagued by cost over-run of up to A$1 billion, and weather problems and (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 26 2012, Monday) — China has started stockpiling crude oil at a new emergency storage reserve in Gansu province and is planning another in nearby Henan province, both in the country’s northwest. The Lanzhou depot in Gansu, which can hold 18.9 million barrels of crude, is part of China’s second-phase programme to stockpile...
(EnergyAsia, March 26 2012, Monday) — Announcing a five-year programme to tap China’s vast unconventional gas reserves, the country’s energy regulator has set a target for shale gas production to reach 6.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year by end-2015. Zhang Yuqing, head of the National Energy Administration (NEA)’s oil and gas department, said production...
(EnergyAsia, March 26 2012, Monday) — Fujairah is expected to nearly double the capacity of its oil storage terminal as well as set up liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading terminals over the next three years. According to Salem Kelil, a government technical adviser, Fujairah will nearly double its oil storage capacity of 6.8 million cubic...
(EnergyAsia, March 26 2012, Monday) — More airlines could fold up this year as the industry faces the bleak prospect of losing more than US$5 billion if fuel prices continue to rise beyond the present level with Brent crude hovering around US$125 a barrel, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and members. Last December, (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 26 2012, Monday) — In defiance of US threats against countries trading with Iran, India’s Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy said it will continue to import crude oil from the Islamic regime as it does not violate international law. India, which imports around 400,000 b/d of crude oil from Iran to meet about 12% (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 23 2012, Friday) — Canadian oilsands producer Cenovus Energy Inc has exported its first crude oil cargo to China that it hopes could lead to a long-term supply deal. The Calgary, Alberta-based company declined to reveal the identity of the Chinese buyer which took the 250,000-barrel cargo of heavy crude last month as...
(EnergyAsia, March 23 2012, Friday) — China’s latest plan to reform energy use and resource pricing will benefit the state companies that own and operate the nation’s electricity grid, nuclear power plants and retail oil markets, but not the thermal power industry, said US ratings agency Fitch. In his report to the National People’s Congress...
(EnergyAsia, March 23 2012, Friday) — China failed to meet its targets to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions last year, putting the government under pressure to accelerate its energy conservation and environmental plans as part of an ambitious economic restructuring programme in coming years. According to Zhang Ping, Minister of the National Development and...
(EnergyAsia, March 23 2012, Friday) — Three of China’s main state oil companies each plan to build new storage terminals to serve major markets in the northern and southern parts of the country. China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group) and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) said they will each build a 300,000-ton terminal in Tianjin city...
(EnergyAsia, March 23 2012, Friday) — The Shaw Group Inc, a US-based global provider of engineering, construction, technology, fabrication, remediation and support services, said it has been awarded contracts to provide a process design package and technology licence for the addition of a 30,000 b/d deep catalytic cracking (DCC) unit for IRPC’s oil refinery in (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 22 2012, Thursday) — Exploration and production spending is expected to rise in Asia in 2012, creating an environment ripe for oil and gas professionals to switch jobs, even though employers are frequently offering incentives to keep them in their current position, said Rigzone, a leading online resource for oil and gas information, (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 22 2012, Thursday) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief said Brent crude oil could surge 20% to 30% from its current level of US$125 a barrel if oil flows from Iran were disrupted in the event of conflict with the West. Following her visit to China and India earlier this week, Christine (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 22 2012, Friday) — Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) said it is continuing its efforts to raise and upgrade the emirate’s power capacity and infrastructure to keep pace with the growth of demand. The agency upgraded its 132kV power transmission grid by opening a 120-million-dirham 132/11kV main substation with a 150 MVA (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 22 2012, Thursday) — China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Shell China Exploration and Production Company Limited, a subsidiary of the European major, said they have signed what could be the country’s first shale gas production sharing contract (PSC). Still to be approved by the Chinese government, the contract is for the exploration, (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 22 2012, Wednesday) — As a strategy to stay ahead of their East Asian rivals, India’s oil refiners are aggressively expanding plant capacity and upgrading capabilities while boosting product exports to offset losses from their domestic downstream operations. Led by IndianOil Corp, BPCL, HPCL and Essar Oil, Indian refiners expect to increase their...
(EnergyAsia, March 21 2012, Wednesday) — Vietnam has substantial biomass resources, which are mainly used by households and small businesses. Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre is hoping to leverage the country’s solid biomass fuel resources on an industrial scale through an energy and environment partnership programme operated by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In...
(EnergyAsia, March 21 2012, Wednesday) — As part of its great economic rebalancing act, China appears to be reducing its US dollar holdings, de-emphasising exports and increasing oil imports that contributed to a larger-than-expected trade deficit of US$31.49 billion for February, its biggest monthly on record. Even taking into account reduced activity during the Lunar...
(EnergyAsia, March 21 2012, Wednesday) — India’s privately owned Essar Oil Ltd said its Vadinar refinery in Gujarat state produce can now produce Euro V-grade gasoil with the start-up of a new diesel hydrotreater unit. The Essar Group company said it would complete the first phase expansion of the refinery with the commissioning of the...
(EnergyAsia, March 21 2012, Wednesday) — France’s Total and two subsidiaries of Kuwait Petroleum Corp said they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop an integrated oil refining-petrochemicals complex in Zhanjiang, China’s southern-most major city in Guangdong province with Chinese major Sinopec. Through its subsidiaries, Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) and Petrochemicals Industries Company (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 21 2012, Wednesday) — The following is an edited version of an article by Arabinda Acharya and Wang Zhihao of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). At the National Peoples’ Congress early this month, the Chinese government announced an 11% increase in spending on domestic security. At US$ 111 billion, this is (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 20 2012, Tuesday) — Rotating Offshore Solutions (ROS) has become the second company to invest in Singapore’s new Offshore Marine Centre (OMC) owned and managed by state industrial landlord JTC Corp. ROS, an engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning services (EPCC) for the oil and gas industry, said its S$25 million facility ona two-hectare (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 20 2012, Tuesday) — As it struggles to replace depleting mature oil fields at a time of surging global energy demand, the upstream oil and gas sector will face a critical loss of more than 22,000 senior key technical professionals through retirement by 2015. According to oilfield services company Schlumberger, the industry will (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 20 2012, Tuesday) — Malaysian state energy company Petronas said it has awarded the contract for the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for a 3.6 million tons/year liquefied natural gas (LNG) project to JGC Corporation and to a Chiyoda Corporation-Saipem SpA partnership. Petronas, which is building train 9 at its LNG complex in (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 20 2012, Tuesday) — Japan’s leading upstream company, INPEX Corp, said its subsidiary, INPEX Oil & Gas Australia Proprietary Limited, has agreed to acquire a 17.5% interest in the Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project from Shell Development (Australia) Proprietary Limited (SDA), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc. Neither company disclosed (more…)