(EnergyAsia, February 11 2011, Friday) — ICE Futures Europe, the UK-based futures subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), said it will launch four new price risk management contracts on February 21 2011 to serve the US and Indonesian coal markets. Traders using the four contracts will benefit from margin offsets offered against positions in the ICE Rotterdam,...
(EnergyAsia, February 11 2011, Friday) — US-based environmental solutions provider Evergreen Energy Inc said it will develop and commercialise K-Fuel, its coal upgrading technology, in Australia in a joint venture with a domestic company WPG Resources. According to their memorandum of understanding, the joint venture will construct and operate K-Fuel plants around the country. WPG...
(EnergyAsia, February 11 2011, Friday) — Australia’s MetroCoal Ltd said it has signed an agreement with Drillstralis Pty Ltd to provide drilling services for the Bundi project area within EPC 1164 Wandoan West in Queensland state’s Surat Basin. The drilling programme consists of 70 holes on an 800-meter offset grid to optimise drill spacing for...
(EnergyAsia, February 10 2010, Thursday) — Mechel OAO, a leading Russian mining and metals company, said it has secured a 6.189-billion-rubles loan to double the production capacity of a coal mine in southern Siberia to 2.4 million tonnes a year. (US$1=29.4 rubles). Transcreditbank OAO will disburse the loan to Mechel’s subsidiary, Southern Kuzbass Coal Company...
(EnergyAsia, January 31 2011, Monday) — Arch Coal Inc, a leading US mining and processing company, is positioning to export to Asia after announcing it had signed a five-year deal giving it access to coal-handling capacity near Prince Rupert Port in north-western Canada. For 2011, the St Louis, Missouri miner will export two million tonnes...
(EnergyAsia, February 10 2011, Thursday) — Indonesian coal exports are likely to resume after a four-week deadlock brought on by the Energy and Mineral Ministry’s refusal to renew traders’ permits. More than 70 vessels holding some 3.5 million tonnes of coal have been held up in Indonesian ports pending the government’s investigations into allegations that...
(EnergyAsia, February 10 2011, Thursday) — Thanks to higher prices, Vietnam’s coal export earnings surged 22% to US$1.6 billion last year despite a 21% drop in export volume to 19.8 million metric tons. The Ministry of Industry and Trade said the actual export volume exceeded the 19.2 million tons earlier projected by the General Statistics...
(EnergyAsia, February 10 2011, Thursday) — Dubai’s Emirates National Oil Co (ENOC) is looking to expand its oil products storage capacity in Fujairah to 2.1 million cubic metres from 1.5 million cubic metres. Expected to be in placed by the end of 2011, the additional tanks will be used to support the company’s trading and...
(EnergyAsia, February 10 2011, Thursday) — Shareholders of UK’s BG Group received a rosy update of the company’s prospects in the decade ahead as well as a boost in its near-term outlook. At its annual strategy update and full year 2010 results yesterday, the gas giant affirmed its forecast for oil and gas production to...
(EnergyAsia, February 9 2011, Wednesday) — Amid growing concerns about a supply shortage, Singapore may soon lift a ban on additional piped natural gas (PNG) imports from Indonesia and Malaysia. While intended to be temporary, the measure underlines concerns that Singapore may face supply or cost challenges in obtaining feedstock to meet its rising demand...
(EnergyAsia, February 9 2011, Wednesday) — US-based GE and China’s state-owned mining and energy company Shenhua Group Corp Ltd said they have agreed to jointly set up an industrial coal gasification company to deploy cleaner coal technology solutions in China. Due to start up later this year, the JV will combine GE’s expertise in industrial...
(EnergyAsia, February 9 2011, Wednesday) — US energy major Chevron Corporation said its Australian subsidiary has signed a 20-year sales and purchase agreement with Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co for a portion of Chevron’s offtake of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Gorgon project in Western Australia state. The Fukuoka, Kyushu-based power supplier will receive...
(EnergyAsia, February 9 2011, Wednesday) — Australian Securities Exchange-listed Hunnu Coal Ltd said it has acquired an additional 15% stake in the Unst Khudag thermal coal mine and surrounding licences in Mongolia, raising its total interest to 80% Located in Dundgobi province, 290 km from Ulaanbatar, the 324-metric-tonne (MT) thermal coal project consists of two...
(EnergyAsia, February 9 2011, Wednesday) — Indonesia’s coal output is expected to rise to 340 million tons this year as its miners attempt to meet rising domestic and international demand. This will represent a sharp increase from last year’s production of 275 million tonnes and 254 million tonnes in 2009. The Indonesian Coal Mining Association...
(EnergyAsia, February 9 2011, Wednesday) — Singapore is looking to increase the use of renewable feedstock like palm oil, sugarcane, plant material and agricultural waste to produce chemicals, industrial polymers and plastics. The move is part of the island state’s ambition to position itself as a hub for developing and using biomass-to-chemicals conversion technologies. The...
(EnergyAsia, February 8 2011, Tuesday) — Australia’s Queensland state said it has suffered damages worth more than A$5 billion from the recent two months of the country’s worst flooding in over a century. (US$1=A$0.99). The disaster will force Queensland to revise its budget and tone down its economic forecast, with Premier Anna Bligh announcing the...
(EnergyAsia, February 8 2011, Tuesday) — Global warming made 2010 among the three hottest years on record, according to latest data provided by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). It said 2010’s temperatures were slightly behind only 1998’s and above 2005’s. In the latest confirmation of the planet’s global warming trend, the WMO confirmed the first...
(EnergyAsia, February 8 2011, Tuesday) — China’s coal appetite shows no sign of letting up with last year’s imports surging 31% while its exports fell 15%, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). China’s coal imports totalled 164.83 million tons to completely dwarf exports at just over 19 million tons. Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, Mongolia...
(EnergyAsia, February 8 2011, Tuesday) — Global thermal coal prices are likely to continue rising on an unexpected tightening of supply following the flooding in Australia as well as the continued bad weather in other producing countries like Columbia and Indonesia, according to Standard Chartered Global Research. The bank has raised its price forecasts for...
(EnergyAsia, February 8 2011, Tuesday) — US-based Peabody Energy, the world’s largest privately owned coal company, and Yankuang Group Co Ltd, a leading Chinese state-owned coal mining company, said they are jointly developing the Wucaiwan Energy Center in the Zhundong region of Xinjiang in northwestern China. The centre would include a 20-million-ton-per-year surface coal mine,...
(EnergyAsia, February 8 2011, Tuesday) — Australia’s Gladstone Ports Corp in Queensland state said its coal stockpile has risen above one million tonnes as it prepares to boost its operating rate beyond 55% following two months of devastating rain and floods. The country’s biggest coal-producing state has suffered severe damages to its mines and infrastructure,...
(EnergyAsia, February 7 2011, Monday) — Buoyed by the strong performance of its offshore and marine segment, Singapore’s Keppel Corp reported 12% rise in net profit to a record of around S$1.419 billion last year. (US$1=S$1.28). For the fourth consecutive year, its return on equity stayed above 20%. The company said its board has recommended...
(EnergyAsia, February 7 2011, Monday) — Mongolia’s economy could grow by 10% this year, but it faces overheating with inflation threatening to top 20%, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). An IMF team led by Steven Barnett visited the resource-rich country on January 20 to February 1, 2011, and met with representatives of government, businesses...
(EnergyAsia, February 7 2011, Monday) — ExxonMobil expects world natural-gas demand to grow by two percent a year through 2030, up from 1.8% in its previous forecast issued last year. By then, natural gas will have overtaken coal to supply 26% of the world’s energy needs, with oil still the leader at 32%. Gas consumption...
(EnergyAsia, February 7 2011, Monday) — Canada’s SouthGobi Resources Ltd said it has completed its first “direct delivery” sale of coal from its Ovoot Tolgoi mine in southern Mongolia to China’s Risun Mining Co Ltd as part of a 500,000-tonne sales contract for this year. SouthGobi said it transported the coal to a customs-bonded yard...