(EnergyAsia, April 27 2011, Wednesday) — The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to earn a record US$1 trillion in export revenues this year if crude prices stay above US$100 a barrel. Both US WTI and North Sea Brent have climbed above the US$100 mark since late January, with Brent...

(EnergyAsia, April 27 2011, Wednesday) — Japan’s oil refiners have raised their throughput to the four-million-b/d level they were operating at before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster took down refineries in eastern and northeastern Japan, said the Petroleum Association of Japan chief. They have restarted some of the plants in the affected areas...

(EnergyAsia, April27 2011, Wednesday) — The world oil market will remain tight over the next two years with demand seen rising by 1.5 million b/d in 2011 and 1.6 million b/d 2012, said the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). As a result, the world will have to drawdown inventories and rely on “significant increases” in the...

(EnergyAsia, April 26 2011, Tuesday) — Regulations and widespread government support would be needed for the shipping industry in Southeast Asia to rapidly adopt liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a bunker fuel, said industry experts. They made this point in response to a collective effort by several companies led by Norway’s DNV and the Singapore...

(EnergyAsia, April 26 2011, Tuesday) — After years of debate and planning, the Philippine government has begun building a strategic oil reserve to provide for emergency fuel in the event of supply disruptions. In in a speech marking the 35th anniversary of the Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) last week, President Benigno Aquino III said...

(EnergyAsia, April 26 2011, Tuesday) — Crude oil production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries declined by around 2% on-month to 29.17 million b/d in March, said energy media group Platts. There are signs that the cartel’s output could continue declining in April, with Iran seen cutting production. Saudi Arabia, the holder of the world’s biggest...

(EnergyAsia, April 26 2011, Tuesday) — The absence of Libya’s 1.6 million b/d of oil production is lending strong support to the global markets and keeping prices well above US$100 a barrel, said BP Plc group chief economist Christof Ruhl. Countries wracked by political instability and conflict often take years to return to normalcy, and in...

(EnergyAsia, April 26 2011, Tuesday) — Brent crude oil is expected to trade at a record average US$100 a barrel this year on robust economic growth in emerging markets, the declining value of the US dollar and the loss of Libya’s oil, said various analysts. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is the most bullish, giving a...

(EnergyAsia, April 26 2011, Tuesday) — State-owned oil and gas firm CNOOC plans to build a large natural gas pipeline along the southern coast of China to support the operations of existing and new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals. The proposed pipeline will connect the country’s existing LNG receiving terminals in Guangdong and Fujian, as...

(EnergyAsia, April 25 2011, Monday) — Japan’s nuclear crisis is set to exceed Chernobyl’s impact on the nation’s economy and the environment, making it the worst on record. A month after the Fukushima Dai-Chi nuclear plant was damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, Japanese regulators officially, and reluctantly, raised the scale of the...

(EnergyAsia, April 25 2011, Monday) — Unable to move most of its crude in the face of a tightened Western-led trade sanction, Iran may be storing up to 38 million barrels of crude oil at sea, according to US-listed tanker firm Overseas Shipholding. The company said Iran may be storing the oil in 19 Very...

(EnergyAsia, April 25 2011, Monday) — One of Australia’s leading upstream companies, Woodside Petroleum, has warned that the country’s thriving liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector could face a drastic slowdown if it does not overcome the worsening shortage of skilled workers. CEO Don Voelte has told the government and trade groups to allow for greater...

(EnergyAsia, April 25 2011, Monday) — Australian Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said his country is well-placed to help meet any increase in demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Japan which has lost a significant portion of its nuclear power capacity following the March 11 quake and tsunami disaster. Japan is increasing the use of...

(EnergyAsia, April 25 2011, Monday) — Soaring bunker costs are starting to hurt shipping firms particularly those that trade more of their vessels on the spot freight market and on short intra-Asia trade routes. One of them, MCC Transport, Maersk’s container line subsidiary in Asia, said some shippers are struggling to continue unless customers agree...

(EnergyAsia, April 21 2011, Thursday) — The International Energy Agency (IEA) has kept unchanged its forecast for world oil demand to grow by 1.4 million b/d to 89.4 million b/d for 2011. Despite oil staying above US$100 a barrel since early February, the Paris-based agency expects post-earthquake Japan’s increased oil use for power generation and...

(EnergyAsia, April 21 2011, Thursday) — Crude oil prices could skyrocket to US$200 or even US$300 a barrel if Saudi Arabia succumbs to political unrest, said former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani. However, that’s an extreme scenario and Mr Yamani doesn’t expect this to happen, at least not yet, unless the protests calling for...

(EnergyAsia, April 21 2011, Thursday) — Shell Australia said it plans to convert its 75,000 b/d Clyde oil refinery and Gore Bay Terminal in Sydney into a fuel import terminal. If accepted by the company’s relevant boards, the proposal would see the end to refining operations at the site, with Clyde converted to a competitive...

(EnergyAsia, April 20 2011, Wednesday) — With plenty of help from friends and enterprising traders, Iran has succeeded in getting around the supposedly tough trade sanctions imposed by the West. Punished for pursuing its nuclear energy programme which the West alleges is for military purposes, Iran has continued to import as much as 150,000 tonnes...

(EnergyAsia, April 20 2011, Wednesday) — Post-quake Japan is being forced to adapt to regular blackouts and prolonged periods without electricity as the government is directing Tokyo’s major power users to reduce their peak summer power consumption by 25%. Everyone is affected including households as the country is still struggling to come to terms with...

(EnergyAsia, April 20 2011, Wednesday) — Having breached US$100 a barrel since late January, world oil prices are likely to remain high on account of production constraints and strong demand growth in emerging markets, particularly China, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In an analysis released as part of its World Economic Outlook (WEO), the...

(EnergyAsia, April 20 2011, Wednesday) — On the back of strong economic growth, Singapore’s electricity demand grew nearly nine percent to a record 5,008MW average demand per hour worth a total of nearly S$8 billion last year, said Energy Market Company (EMC), the operator of the nation’s wholesale electricity market. The average annual uniform price...

(EnergyAsia, April 19 2011, Tuesday) — China has started work on the third phase of its long-term project to raise the national strategic oil stockpile to 85 million tons by 2020, equivalent to 90 days’ crude oil import volume. It will soon select the site to hold the third set of stockpile from several locations...

(EnergyAsia, April 19 2011, Tuesday) — China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) expects to start up its 12-million-barrel commercial crude oil storage terminal in Maoming port in southern China this week, according to its parent China Petrochemical Corp. The company said it completed building the 1.7-billion-yuan facility in Guangdong province one month ahead of schedule,...

(EnergyAsia, April 19 2011, Tuesday) — PetroChina and the Fujairah government are looking to jointly invest in oil storage tanks in Fujairah port with the capacity to hold up to one million cubic metres of oil products. PetroChina is prepared to undertake the project on its own or in partnership with other companies including Vopak...

(EnergyAsia, April 19 2011, Tuesday) — Indonesian state-owned Pertamina has assured customers of continued fuel supply after a massive fire followed by several explosions destroyed at least three of its 270 storage tanks at its refinery in Cilacap in Central Java on April 2. There was no report of casualties, but the authorities are investigating...