(EnergyAsia, May 13 2013, Monday) — Russian coal and steel group Mechel remains interested to sell off a minority stake in subsidiary Mechel Mining following recent talks with several Asian companies including China’s Baosteel Group Corp. With net debt of some US$9.4 billion, the company disclosed its plan to attract investment during a conference with...

(EnergyAsia, May 10 2013, Friday) — Indonesia, one of the world’s largest coal exporters, may have to import the fuel by the end of the decade as its consumption is rising faster than domestic production, said state utility PLN. While Indonesia’s thermal coal production has remained in the 300-to-400 million-ton range, its consumption is expected...

(EnergyAsia, May 10 2013, Friday) — The Indonesian government is coming under growing pressure to reverse or at least slow down its export ban on low grade coal in the face of weak international demand and falling prices. Amid lower demand from China, the world’s largest coal consumer, prices for the commodity have fallen by...

(EnergyAsia, May 9 2013, Thursday) — Royal Dutch Shell is looking to co-operate with Indian state upstream company ONGC as it seeks to re-enter the oil and gas industry of Asia’s third largest economy. The two companies have begun talks for a long-term alliance to jointly undertake upstream projects in India and abroad. Having tied...

(EnergyAsia, May 9 2013, Thursday) — Adaro Energy, Indonesia’s second largest coal miner, blamed the commodity’s weak price on the global markets for the 65.8% plunge in its net profit in the first quarter this year. Net income for the January-to-March quarter slumped to US$41.6 million while revenue slipped 19.1% to US$740.6 million compared to...

(EnergyAsia, May 9 2013, Thursday) — The Indian government and Royal Dutch Shell said the country must speed up the development of its energy infrastructure to support the growth of the economy. Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Panabaka Lakshmi recently called on government agencies and oil companies to co-operate to develop major...

(EnergyAsia, May 8 2013, Wednesday) — Australia’s Aquila Resources said Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp has withdrawn from a proposed joint venture project to explore for coal in Queensland state. The participation of Sumitomo subsidiary Sumisho Coal Australia Pty Limited in the project would have helped Aquila’s cause in raising capital to fund a A$7.4...

(EnergyAsia, May 8 2013, Wednesday) — Australia needs more certainty in planning laws to support its coal export sector, said the industry’s main association. The Australian Coal Association (ACA) said future investment is at risk if governments continue to ignore the impact of high costs, delays and uncertainties in the approval process for mining projects....

(EnergyAsia, May 7 2013, Tuesday) — The Indian government is having second thoughts about approving state upstream firm ONGC’s plan to pay US$5 billion for an 8.4% stake in Kazakhstan’s giant offshore Kashagan oilfield. Announced last November, ONGC’s plan to acquire ConocoPhillips’ stake in one of the world’s largest oil fields with reserves estimated at...

(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — India’s main upstream firms, ONGC and Oil India Ltd, are hurting from the recent decline in crude oil prices with benchmark Brent crude briefly sliding to nine-month lows at less than US$100 a barrel. While their revenues have fallen sharply, ONGC and OIL remain saddled with the responsibility to...

(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — Reversing years of decline, US coal production is expected to edge up by nearly 0.5% in 2013 to over 1.025 billion short tons, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In its April short-term energy outlook, the agency said US coal production continued its recent decline into the first quarter...

(EnergyAsia, May 6 2013, Monday) — India’s refined products consumption will grow by 4.9% in the current financial year to March 2014, just slightly slower than the previous year’s 5% increase, predicts the planning unit of the Petroleum Ministry. This forecast could prove conservative as India’s economy is expected to grow by 5.7% this year...

(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — Petronet LNG Ltd, India’s main gas importer, said it is interested to buy a 25% stake in a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in the country’s northwestern state of Gujarat. State-owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) has a 50% stake in the proposed five-million-tonne/year terminal at Mundra...

(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — India’s largest coal producer said it will continue supplying the fuel to its main customer despite on-going disputes over a number of issues including pricing and product quality. Coal India Limited (CIL), which accounts for over 80% of the country’s domestic coal production, has been accused of supplying sub-standard...

(EnergyAsia, May 3 2013, Friday) — Australia’s output of greenhouse gases from its power sector have fallen to a 10-year low, thanks to the increased use and production of renewable energy and a decline in the use of coal, said consultant RepuTex. Coal now accounts for around 74.8% of the power generation mix, down sharply...

(EnergyAsia, May 2 2013, Thursday) — Western Canada is emerging as a strong frontline beneficiary of Japan’s plan to invest heavily in infrastructure and hydrocarbon reserves abroad to secure long-term energy supplies for its embattled economy. Japanese officials attending last month’s inaugural Pacific Energy Summit in Vancouver city tipped the resources rich provinces of British...

(EnergyAsia, May 2 2013, Thursday) — The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has slashed its forecasts for both global oil demand and supply growth over the next two years. On account of slower growth in the emerging economies and Europe, the EIA’s April forecast calls for world consumption to grow by one million b/d to...

(EnergyAsia, May 2 2013, Thursday) — Singapore-listed coal miner, Geo Energy Resources Limited, said it has signed a conditional agreement to acquire an Indonesian mine concession, making this its fifth for the year. Geo Energy said the 4,600-hectare concession area holds at least 40 million metric tonnes of coal reserves of 7,200 kilocalorie per kg...

(EnergyAsia, April 30 2013, Tuesday) — Terminals NZ has added a 10.4-million-litre fuel tank at Port Tauranga near North Island’s Auckland city while Z Energy is considering building two 10-million-litre tanks to support operations at Lyttelton Port near Christchurch city in the South. Faced with rising fuel demand in New Zealand, oil companies are under...

(EnergyAsia, April 30 2013, Tuesday) — China’s first-quarter oil demand rose 3.5% over the same period last year to 10.15 million b/d, continuing the previous quarter’s above 10-million b/d demand level, said US energy media Platts. However, the pace of demand growth has eased from the fourth quarter of 2012 when the year-over-year increase was...

(EnergyAsia, April 29 2013, Monday) — Europe’s largest utility, GDF Suez SA, said it has signed separate agreements with two state-owned Chinese firms to jointly develop six natural gas storage sites in China as well as moor a floating import terminal off the country’s northeastern city of Tianjin. The French firm said it signed a...

(EnergyAsia, April 26 2013, Friday) — India’s main upstream company ONGC is aiming to produce 28.6 million tonnes of crude in the current financial year ending March 2014, a 9.5% increase over last year’s 26.12 million tonnes. In an interview with a local TV station, chairman and managing director, Sudhir Vasudeva, said it will achieve...

(EnergyAsia, April 26 2013, Friday) — India’s export of oil products is expected to continue growing this financial year ending March 2014, said Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Panabaaka Lakshmi. In a statement to Parliament, she said India exported 60.8 million metric tonnes of oil products worth a total of US$59.3 billion...

(EnergyAsia, April 25 2013, Thursday) — India said its crude oil imports from Iran fell by 26.5% in the last financial year ended March 31 on account of tougher Western trade and financial sanctions against the Islamic regime. Faced with restrictions to finance trade with Tehran and unable to secure tankers to take delivery of...

(EnergyAsia, April 25 2013, Thursday) — Indian Oil Corp, the country’s largest downstream oil company, is venturing into the liquefied natural gas (LNG) business with plans to build a five-million-tonne per year import terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu state. The state-owned oil refining and marketing firm is reviewing submissions to its invitation “seeking Expression...