(EnergyAsia, September 5 2013, Thursday) — South Korea’s steel and power producer, Posco, said it and Mongolia’s largest conglomerate, MCS, will jointly own and operate a US$2 billion plant to produce liquid fuels from coal. Their newly established Baganuur Energy Corp will build the “clean energy” plant in the Baganuur district of Mongolia’s Ulan Bator...

(EnergyAsia, September 4 2013, Wednesday) — European energy group GDF Suez said it and consortium partners have been awarded a contract to build and operate a 415 coal-fired power plant with a steam capacity of 587MW in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator. GDF Suez, Japanese trading house Sojitz Corp, South Korean power producer Posco...

(EnergyAsia, September 3 2013) — in Singapore, Crystal Yeo has rejoined energy education and training firm The Oxford Princeton Programme as regional sales manager for the Asia-Pacific region while energy efficiency and customer engagement company Opower has opened its Asia Pacific headquarters as part of its global expansion. Before rejoining Oxford Princeton, Ms Yeo, who...

(EnergyAsia, September 2 2013, Monday) — Australian Pacific Coal Limited said it and Rio Tinto Exploration have begun jointly exploring for coal in Mount Hillalong in Australia’s Queensland state. Last week, the partners activated their exploration option and joint venture agreement for work on the Bowen Basin deposits that they had signed on August 8...

(EnergyAsia, September 2 2013, Monday) — Belgian gas ship owner and operator EXMAR said it has agreed to provide a 700,000 tonnes/year floating liquefaction and storage unit for a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) project along the Douglas Channel on Canada’s British Columbia province. EXMAR said it signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Houston,...

(EnergyAsia, August 29 2013, Thursday) — India’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and UK major BP said they have jointly found new gas condensate reserves off the east coast of India in the Cauvery basin. The deepwater block CY-DWN-2001/2 (CYD5) reserves, located 62 km from the coast in the Cauvery Basin, is the second gas discovery...

(EnergyAsia, August 28 2013, Wednesday) — US WTI crude prices reached a new high for 2013 while Brent cruised to a six-month peak on escalating tensions in the Middle East as Western officials talked up the possibility of a military strike on Syria. In New York, US WTI closed at US$109.01 after touching US$109.32 a...

(EnergyAsia, August 27 2013, Tuesday) — India’s main gas importer, Petronet LNG Ltd, has started up its long-awaited second import terminal in Kerala state with the receipt of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from Qatar. Qatar’s RasGas, , which is also supplying LNG to Petronet’s other terminal at Dahej in Gujarat state, delivered the...

(EnergyAsia, August 26, 2013, Monday) — Australian upstream company Santos said it has paid compatriot AWE an initial sum of US$100 million for a 50% stake in Indonesia’s Northwest Natuna production sharing contract (PSC). The payment could rise by another US$88 million if Santos, which has taken over as operator, decides to develop the Ande...

(EnergyAsia, August 23 2013, Friday) — State-owned Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has issued a request for tenders for the construction of the emirate’s first clean coal-fired power plant that could generate 12% of its total electricity demand. Coal will become an important component of Dubai’s energy mix under the ‘Integrated Energy Strategy’ plan...

(EnergyAsia, August 22 2013, Thursday) — Australia’s Altona Energy said it will add a coal-to-methanol (CTM) unit to its earlier proposal to build a plant to convert coal to liquid fuels and generate electricity in South Australia state. The company, which has been working with China’s state-owned CNOOC to build a coal-to-liquids (CTL) and power...

(EnergyAsia, August 22 2013, Thursday) — Offshore engineering services giant Halliburton has expanded its manufacturing and technology centre in Senai town in Malaysia’s southern Johor state to better serve its oil and gas customers in the Asia Pacific region. With the additional 9,844 sq metres of space boosting the total to 29,434 sq metres, the...

(EnergyAsia, August 21 2013, Wednesday) — China’s annual crude oil import bill will reach a record US$500 billion by 2020, far greater than any incurred by any country in history, predicts consultant Wood Mackenzie. The UK-based firm arrived at this sum based on its forecast for China to import 9.2 million b/d of crude oil...

(EnergyAsia, August 20 2013, Tuesday) — Three Singapore Exchange-listed companies involved in the upstream oil and gas industry, Kris Energy, Interra Resources and Jaya Holdings, have provided updates on their activities. Kris Energy said it and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum have decided to jointly develop the G11/48 block as part of the Nong Yao field...

(EnergyAsia, August 19 2013, Monday) — Germany’s Siemens said it has secured a large order of components for the construction of a 4,000MW gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Saudi Arabia. State energy firm Saudi Aramco placed the US$966.8 million order for the plant which is expected to start up in 2016 to power up the...

(EnergyAsia, August 16 2013, Friday) — Sembcorp Industries said it plans to invest more than S$250-million to build a plant on Singapore that has the capacity to produce 140 tonnes per hour of steam using industrial and commercial waste while emitting 50% less carbon dioxide compared with a coal-fired facility. (US$1=S$1.26). Located on Jurong Island’s...

(EnergyAsia, August 15 2013, Thursday) — The US Energy Information Administration (EIA)’s latest 30-year energy forecast will worry environmentalists as fossil fuels demand growth is not expected to slow down. At the same time, worldwide energy-related carbon dioxide emissions is seen rising from about 31 billion metric tons in 2010 to 36 billion metric tons...

(EnergyAsia, August 13 2013, Tuesday) — Australia’s Queensland state government has approved a A$6.4 billion proposal by Waratah Coal Pty Ltd to develop the coal deposits in the Galilee Basin and a support rail network. (US$1=A$1.1). But, the firm, controlled by mining tycoon Clive Palmer, will have to wait for the Federal government to give...

(EnergyAsia, August 7 2013, Wednesday) — Australia’s Modun Resources said it has been granted a licence to mine a major thermal coal project now under development in Mongolia. The Mineral Resources Authority of Mongolia (MRAM) has approved Modun’s right to mine 2,497 hectares of the Nuurst’s project for an initial period of 30 years with...

(EnergyAsia, August 7 2013, Wednesday) — Celsius Coal Limited has affirmed its focus on developing Kyrgyzstan’s vast coking coal deposits following the findings of a study which showed strong demand and further growth prospects for the fuel in neighbouring China’s Xinjiang autonomous region. The Australia-listed company presented its conclusion based on a first phase Xinjiang...

(EnergyAsia, August 5 2013, Monday) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it will boost investment in improving end-user energy efficiency to help Asia Pacific countries tackle surging power demand and growing environmental threats from greenhouse gas emissions. The bank announced its initiative at a recent conference in Manila, Philippines in which it also released...

(EnergyAsia, August 5 2013, Monday) — Finnish engineering consulting firm Poyry said it has been awarded a contract to provide engineering services for the development of a 1,320 MW coal-fired power plant project in Vietnam. The contract was awarded by Japan’s Sumitomo Corp for the Van Phong 1 plant comprising two 660MW units which will...

(EnergyAsia, August 2 2013, Friday) — The power subsidiary of India’s Adani Group said its net loss for the April-June 2013 quarter surged 47.9% to 11.98 billion rupees compared with 810 billion rupees for the same period last year. (US$1=60 rupees). Adani Power Ltd attributed the increased loss to the decline in in the value...

(EnergyAsia, August 2 2013, Friday) — Australia’s Origin Energy Limited said it has completed a set of related agreements involving the A$50 million purchase of a state-owned power-generating company and new fuel supply agreements. Last month, the company said it had signed agreements with the New South Wales government for the A$50 million acquisition of...

(EnergyAsia, August 1 2013, Thursday) — Canadian miner Teck Resources Ltd said it is slowing the development of its Quintette coal mine in British Columbia province until prices for the commodity recover. (US$1=C$1.03). Owing to the continued weak outlook for metallurgical coal prices that contributed to a 50.5% plunge in second quarter earnings, the Vancouver-based...