(EnergyAsia, March 16 2012, Friday) — India’s Petronet LNG Limited (PLL) expects its much-delayed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Kochi port in the southwestern state of Kerala to start up by October. Chairman G. C. Chaturvedi, who is also India’s petroleum secretary, said construction work is progressing well and will be completed by the...
(EnergyAsia, March 15 2012, Thursday) — State-owned gas company GAIL India said it expects to receive its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo at the long-delayed import terminal at Dabhol port in Maharashtra state later this month. Ratnagiri Gas and Power Co Ltd (RGPPL), in which GAIL has a 31.52% stake, owns and operates a...
(EnergyAsia, March 15 2012, Thursday) — China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has started work to build the country’s first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) receiving and storage terminal near the northern city of Tianjin. CNOOC, which owns and operates a string of onshore import terminal, said the 5.7-billion yuan project will have the annual...
(EnergyAsia, March 15 2012, Thursday) — Australia is the world’s ninth largest energy producer, accounting for around 2.5% of its total energy output and 5% of world exports, said the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE). For the year ended June 30 2010, the agency said Australia exported 68% of its net energy production...
(EnergyAsia, March 13 2012, Tuesday) — Thai state energy firm PTT Plc said it now fully owns Australia’s Red Island Minerals (RIM) after acquiring the remaining 66.5% stake through PTT International’s wholly owned subsidiary PTT Asia Pacific Mining Pty (PTTAPM) for US$50.2 million. The Thai company had first rights to acquire the Perth-based RIM which...
(EnergyAsia, March 13 2012, Tuesday) — Indonesia is expected to boost its thermal coal production by 8.3% to 390 million tonnes in 2012, said the Indonesian Coal Mining Association. The world’s leading coal exporter will benefit from rising production as well as coal prices staying well supported on rising demand in Asia. Bob Kamandanu, the...
(EnergyAsia, March 13 2012, Tuesday) — Indonesia’s powerful mining sector is reeling from shock over the government’s sudden decision to reduce the involvement of international investors and executives as well as uncertainty over the manner of its implementation. According to a decree signed on February 21 by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, foreigners will have to...
(EnergyAsia, March 13 2012, Tuesday) — Some of India’s most powerful business groups are demanding that the government sharply raise electricity tariffs as well as speed up approvals for coal mining and power projects to check the country’s energy crisis to avert an economic crisis. Representatives of the families that own the Reliance, Tata Group,...
(EnergyAsia, March 12 2012, Monday) — Amid mounting political tensions ahead of June parliamentary elections, Mongolia has again delayed plans to develop both the western and eastern blocks of its giant Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit, said to be the world’s largest. Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold said the government has suspended talks with a consortium including...
(EnergyAsia, March 9 2012, Friday) — Mongolia could well be the world’s best performing economy as it is expected to grow by 20% over the next two years, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicting its US-dollar GDP per capita could triple between 2010 and 2016. An IMF team, which visited Mongolia and completed the...
(EnergyAsia, March 8 2012, Thursday) — China is beefing up its coal logistics system to improve the delivery, storage and handling of the fuel to meet the country’s rising energy demand. Last year, its rail system delivered more than 2.27 billion metric tons of coal last year for a 13.4% increase over 2010, said the...
(EnergyAsia, March 7 2012, Wednesday) — The much awaited listing of Mongolia’s state coal mining firm Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi (ETT) could be delayed again, possibly to October, as the government is still unsure what it wants to achieve and how much control it plans to retain after selling an unspecified portion to international investors. Reports...
(EnergyAsia, March 7 2012, Wednesday) — There will be no let up in China’s growing coal appetite for power generation over the next few years despite rising prices and supply shortages for the fuel. By 2015, the country will burn 4.3 billion tons of coal to generate power, up from 1.95 billion tons in 2011,...
(EnergyAsia, March 6 2012, Tuesday) — India’s privately owned Adani Group is planning to beef up its energy portfolio with plans to invest a total of US$6 billion in developing coal assets and activities in Australia and Indonesia over the next three years, and acquire BG Group’s 65% stake in India’s Gujarat Gas Co for...
(EnergyAsia, March 6 2012, Tuesday) — Financing and bureaucratic hurdles are delaying resource-rich Mongolia’s ambitious plan to build a multi-billion-dollar 5,700-km railway network to lift its landlocked economy out of poverty. The proposed network is aimed at linking many of the country’s coal, gold, copper and rare earth metals mines dispersed across its vast landscape to...
(EnergyAsia, March 5 2012, Monday) — The following is an edited version of an article by Jean-Marie Martin Amouroux, a member of the scientific board of consulting firm Enerdata. The competition for oil, gas and coal reserves around the world is intensifying and increasingly driven by players in Asia. Oil remains the leading fuel source,...
(EnergyAsia, March 5 2012, Monday) — Boosted by surging electricity consumption and rising steel production, China’s net coal imports rose by 15.2% to a record of over 167 million tonnes in 2011. According to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s coal deficit widened as it imported more than 182 million tonnes of coal...
(EnergyAsia, February 29 2012, Wednesday) — China said it wants to repair ties with South Sudan following “misunderstandings” that led to the African oil producer expelling the Chinese head of the local oil producing and pipeline company. Last week, the government of recently independent South Sudan said it expelled Liu Yingcai, President of Petrodar, for...
(EnergyAsia, February 29, Wednesday) — China’s Ministry of Land and Resources said the upstream hydrocarbon industry substantially boosted its oil and natural gas discoveries in 2011 to record its second most successful year since the country’s founding in 1949. It found 1.37 billion tonnes of proven oil reserves, up 20.6% compared with 2010, and 765.95...
(EnergyAsia, February 29 2012, Wednesday) — China’s oil imports exceeded five million b/d for the first time last year, raising the country’s dependence on external supplies beyond 55% and putting it on course to reach 67% by 2020, according to an analysis by the CNPC Economics& Technology Research Institute. Of growing concern to Chinese policy...
(EnergyAsia, February 28 2012, Tuesday) — Thailand’s Bangchak Petroleum Plc (BCP) said it plans to invest eight billion baht to over the next eight years to upgrade its 120,000 b/d refinery and expand its nameplate capacity by 20%. (US$1=30 baht). President Anusorn Sangnimnuan said the upgrade and expansion the Bangkok-based plant will be part of...
(EnergyAsia, February 27 2012, Monday) — Led by natural gas and coal, China’s total energy consumption grew by 7% last year to 3.48 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Natural gas demand surged 12% while coal grew by 9.7%, and crude oil use rose by a mere 2.7%....
(EnergyAsia, February 27 2012, Monday) — Indonesia’s state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina is targeting to complete its US$1.4 billion project to upgrade its 348,000 b/d refinery in Cilacap, Central Java by end-2014. Two months after the project was officially launched by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the company expects to meet its deadline of...
(EnergyAsia, February 27 2012, Monday) — Australian engineering and construction company Clough Limited said its joint venture with Curtain been awarded work orders worth approximately A$145 million associated with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) upstream infrastructure project in Papua New Guinea. (US$1=A$0.94). The PNG LNG project is an integrated development that includes gas production and...
(EnergyAsia, February 24 2012, Friday) — New Zealand’s only oil refinery at Marsden Point will undergo a NZ$425 million upgrade aimed at increasing energy efficiency, reducing fuel losses and improving product yields. (US$1=NZ$1.2). The proposed upgrade, New Zealand Refining Company’s third in seven years, largely comprises the construction of a new continuous catalyst regeneration platformer....