(EnergyAsia, November 30 2012, Friday) — Sri Lanka’s only oil refinery at Sapugaskanda near the capital city of Colombo resumed operations earlier this month after being forced to shut down for about two weeks on October 26. State-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) said it had to halt operations at he 50,000 b/d refinery, which is...
(EnergyAsia, November 30 2012, Friday) — India’s already hefty annual coal import bill could surge at least 25% over the next five years to a record US$18 billion, officials and traders warn. Unable to rely on domestic production to feed the country’s surging coal demand, India has seen its imports rise sharply over the last...
(EnergyAsia, November 30 2012, Friday) — Far from being extinguished by official policy and competition from the large state-owned players, some of China’s small oil refineries are thriving as their owners plot expansion as well as take on a direct role in importing crude oil. The “teapot” refineries, each of less than 40,000 b/d in...
(EnergyAsia, November 29 2012, Thursday) — The following is an edited version of an article on world oil refining outlook by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Since the 2008 financial crisis, global refinery throughput has increased by more than three million b/d, reflecting the improvement in world oil demand. This recovery in global oil...
(EnergyAsia, November 29 2012, Thursday) — Nearly a decade after the US military invasion of Iraq, launched presumably to take over the world’s second largest oil reserves among other reasons, it is China, an opponent of the ill-fated war, that has made some of the biggest gains. The various post-Saddam regimes have awarded Chinese state-owned...
(EnergyAsia, November 28 2012, Wednesday) — The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has slightly reduced its forecasts for global oil demand to grow to reach 88.80 million b/d in 2012 and 89.57 million b/d next year. In its latest monthly report, the cartel expects global oil demand to edge up by just 0.87% or...
(EnergyAsia, November 28 2012, Wednesday) — The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has once again reduced its forecast for global oil demand growth for 2012 and 2013. In its November short-term energy outlook, the agency expects world demand to grow by 750,000 b/d this year, down from last month’s forecast of 790,000 b/d, to reach...
(EnergyAsia, November 28 2012, Wednesday) — Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) has started using its new oil storage terminal in Chennai on India’s east coast while Indian Oil Corp (IOC) expects to complete construction of a new depot in Orissa state by 2014. HPCL invested 3.3 billion rupees in the new 140,000-cubic metre storage terminal...
(EnergyAsia, November 27 2012, Tuesday) — China aims to produce 250 million tonnes of oil and 450 billion cubic metres of natural gas by 2030, up from 203 million tonnes and 101 billion cubic metres respectively last year. According to the Ministry of Land and Reserves, the bulk of the new production will come from...
(EnergyAsia, November 27 2012, Tuesday) — South Korea’s Samsung Engineering has secured a US$2.48 billion engineering, procurement and construction to add a delayed coker and a carbon black unit to the oil refinery in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi by early 2016. Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (ADNOC) awarded the contract for the new plants to refine...
(EnergyAsia, November 26 2012, Monday) — China has re-affirmed its goal to significantly improve energy efficiency and conservation at the same time that it plans to grow the economy by 7.5% a year in the current five-year plan from 2011 to 2015. In its latest white paper on energy policy, the government has set a...
(EnergyAsia, November 26 2012, Monday) — China’s October oil demand rose 6.6% year-on-year to 41.28 million metric tons (mt), or 9.76 million b/d, the third highest on record, according to energy media Platts. In its latest analysis of recent Chinese government data, Platts said the October demand was slightly lower than the record 9.8 million...
(EnergyAsia, November 23 2012, Friday) — Two state oil companies of Abu Dhabi and South Korea have signed a first agreement to cooperate on strategic oil stockpile. On Wednesday, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) became the 12th company to stockpile oil in South Korea when it signed on to lease tanks from Korea National...
(EnergyAsia, November 23 2012, Friday) — China is ready to spring its next big surprise by becoming a global oil products exporter over the next five years as its projected refining capacity expansion will far exceed its domestic oil demand growth by 800,000 b/d, predicts the International Energy Agency (IEA). In its latest medium-term oil...
(EnergyAsia, November 22 2012, Thursday) — Fed up with being paid low prices by domestic consumers, US natural gas producers and traders are actively lobbying the government to allow them to sell the fuel abroad, especially to Asia where the fuel sells for an average five times more. Gas producers, shippers, terminal operators and developers,...
(EnergyAsia, November 22 2012, Thursday) — Turkmenistan is investing heavily to expand the domestic production of its crude and refined products. At a conference last week, government and industry officials revealed on-going investments to boost exploration and production in new fields. Russia’s Itera, Germany’s RWE and Cyprus’ Buried Hill are looking to invest billions of...
(EnergyAsia, November 22 2012, Thursday) — The International Energy Agency (IEA) has again reduced its forecasts for world oil demand for 2012 and 2013, reflecting its downbeat outlook on the economy. In its latest November monthly report, the Paris-based agency said world oil demand will grow by 700,000 b/d to 89.6 million b/d for 2012,...
(EnergyAsia, November 21 2012, Wednesday) — China’s recoverable oil and gas reserves, a closely guarded secret, rose last year, according the China Mining Resources Report citing an anonymous source from the Ministry of Land and Resources. The report said China’s recoverable oil reserves edged up 2.1% to 3.24 billion tonnes last year while its natural...
(EnergyAsia, November 21 2012, Wednesday) — Russia is switching its attention to exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) as negotiations to develop gas sales to China and South Korea through pipelines remain deadlocked, according to consulting firm GlobalData. In its latest report, GlobalData said China and Russia have once again failed to reach agreement on gas...
(EnergyAsia, November 20 2012, Tuesday) — China is becoming increasingly dependent on oil from the Middle East, with Iraq and Saudi Arabia the big winners. To fuel its fast-growing economy, China is expected to raise its refining capacity by one million b/d this year and by 2.9 million b/d at the end of 2017, said...
(EnergyAsia, November 19 2012, Monday) — Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producing company, has signed engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts with eight companies to build a 400,000 b/d refinery and an oil terminal on the country’s west coast. At a ceremony last week, Aramco signed the contracts for the construction of the Jazan...
(EnergyAsia, November 19 2012, Monday) — China’s crude oil demand and imports are set to rise sharply over the next few years, said government officials and industry analysts. The Energy Research Institute, an affiliate of the top policy-making National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), expects the country’s crude oil demand to rise from 450 million...
(EnergyAsia, November 19 2012, Monday) — Asia offers a “viable and attractive” market for western Canada’s natural gas exports which look set to lose further ground in the increasingly glutted US after plunging 80% since 2008, said energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. Its upstream and global gas consultants estimate that western Canadian producers have lost...
(EnergyAsia, November 16 2012, Friday) — The Norwegian government will provide a US$850,000 technical assistance (TA) grant to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help Myanmar update its 1984 Electricity Law. According to the bank, the grant will enable the Southeast Asian country to bring forward its laws to reflect current international standards that would...
(EnergyAsia, November 15 2012, Thursday) — In response to weak domestic demand, US coal production will decline over the next two years from 1,095 million short tons (mmst) in 2011, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The agency sees US coal production falling by 6.2% to 1,027 mmst in 2012 and by a further one...