(EnergyAsia, August 8 2012, Wednesday) — Two German firms are planning to establish an equal joint venture company to develop infrastructure for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a marine fuel in Europe. Bomin, a leading marine fuels supplier, and technology company The Linde Group aim to start up their Hamburg-based company later (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 8 2012, Wednesday) — Apple’s clean energy policies have significantly improved, but the company still gets low scores for its energy choices when compared with sector leaders, said Greenpeace International. Despite a welcome commitment by Apple in May that its data centres will be coal-free and powered by 100% renewable energy, Greenpeace said (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 7 2012) — US major Chevron Corp said it and its partners have approved plans to separately develop a field off the west African coasts of Congo and Angola, as well as explore off Suriname in Latin America. An international consortium led by subsidiary Chevron Overseas Congo Limited will invest US$2 billion to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 7 2012, Tuesday) — L&L Energy Inc, a US-based company with coal operations in China, said it recently signed a letter of intent with AVIC Sichuan Coal Logistics Co Ltd to jointly explore business opportunities in two of western China’s largest cities. As part of the agreement, AVIC Sichuan will share its customer (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 7 2012, Tuesday) — Australian freight operator QR National said it has signed a new long-term contract with miner Cockatoo Coal Ltd to transport from its Baralaba and Wonbindi mines. Under the 10-year contract, QR National will deliver an additional three million tonnes of coal a year to the Wiggins Island Coal Export (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 7 2012, Tuesday) — Companies liable under Australia’s newly launched carbon price mechanism will pay up to 45% less than initially expected, with cost savings totalling over A$10 billion translating into significantly reduced carbon price impacts for the country’s consumers and commodities buyers in Asia, said research firm RepuTex. (US$1=A$0.93). The carbon analytics (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 6 2012, Monday) — Helped by an improving electricity supply outlook, the Japanese economy is experiencing a domestic-led recovery, with growth expected to reach almost 2.5% this year, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, the fund warned that it could slash this by 0.25 percentage point if the country’s electricity supply outlook (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 6 2012, Monday) — The unconventional oil and gas bubble may have burst with Australia’s BHP Billiton writing off a massive US$2.84 billion off the value of US shale gas assets it bought last year. The company paid a total of US$17 billion for the Fayetteville assets from Chesapeake Energy in February 2011 (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 3 2012, Friday) — Coal Asia Holdings said it plans to offer 800 million shares at par value in its upcoming initial public offering (IPO) on the Philippine Stock Exchange’s first board by the fourth quarter. (US$1=42 peso). The company, which holds the country’s second largest coal reserves, aims to raise 726.87-million peso (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 3 2012, Friday) — Singapore listed linen and apparel company Aussino Group Ltd is morphing into a retail fuels operator with its proposed S$70 million takeover of Max Myanmar Group’s energy business unit which owns and operates a downstream business in Myanmar. (US$1=S$1.25). Aussino began its transition early last month when it signed (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 3 2012, Friday) — China’s state-owned Chalco said it has extended its offer to acquire a majority stake in Mongolian coal miner SouthGobi Resources Ltd for the second time. The aluminium producer, a major customer of SouthGobi, is facing strong resistance from Mongolia which is wary of China’s growing role in its economy (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 2 2012, Wednesday) — US major Chevron Corp is further boosting its natural gas profile in Asia with plans to raise production in Bangladesh after making additional finds in Australia. The US major said a subsidiary will invest US$500 million to expand production capacity at the Bibiyana field in northwestern Bangladesh by 300 (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 2 2012, Wednesday) — BASF, the German chemicals giant, recently opened its global mining research and development centre at the Australian Minerals Research Centre (AMRC) in Perth in Western Australia state. Its scientists will study and develop solutions to specifically meet the needs for mineral processing and metal production with the aim of (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 2 2012, Wednesday) — Australia’s Cougar Energy Limited said it has appointed former Linc Energy executive Rob Neill as CEO and managing director from August 6. Mr Neill succeeds Len Walker who stepped down from these roles but remains a board director to focus on the commercial development of underground coal gasification (UCG) (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 1 2012, Wednesday) — Mongolian coal miner Sharyn Gol said it has been approved by the government to operate an open pit mine at its Shaazgait thermal coal deposit in Ulaanbaatar. The company said it met all government conditions after completing its feasibility study and environmental impact assessment report which has been accepted (more…)

(EnergyAasia, August 1 2012, Wednesday) — Kuwait recently began commercial operation of phase two of its Sabiya combined cycle plant in time to meet its peak electricity demands during the hot summer months. State-owned Sabiya, Kuwait’s largest power plant, operates on GE’s advanced gas turbine-generator technology to produce more than 2,000-megawatts (MW) of additional electricity (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 1 2012, Wednesday) — Contract miner Thiess said it has been awarded a six-year contract worth A$2.3 billion to expand operations at Jellinbah Group’s Lake Vermont coal mine in Australia’s Queensland state. (US$1=A$1.07). Thiess has agreed to expand current operations with the aim of doubling production at the resource-rich Bowen Basin mine to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 31 2012, Tuesday) — Over the next 25 years, the world will become significantly more dependent on electricity produced from various sources including coal to meet its energy needs. In a new report, consultant Frost & Sullivan has forecast global electricity generation to grow from 21,224 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2010 to 33,370 (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 31 2012, Tuesday) — US WTI crude prices could again exceed US$100 a barrel while Brent looks to reclaim US$110 in the coming weeks as pressure grows on the US and Eurozone governments to inject another round of stimulus into their flagging economies, and military tensions resume in the Middle East. After slumping (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 31 2012, Tuesday) — Russia will undertake an expensive and challenging venture into its Arctic region to counter the declining production from several of its major oil and gas fields, according to a report by UK-based business intelligence providers GlobalData. The Russian government has deemed it necessary to tap the Arctic as part (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 30 2012, Monday) — PetroChina’s pursuit of a stake in a proposed refinery in Ecuador shows that Chinese oil companies are looking to expand their downstream as well as upstream presence abroad, said UK consulting firm GlobalData. While discussions with the Ecuadoran government, PetroEcuador and Petroleos de Venezuela have just started, PetroChina is (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 30 2012, Monday) — Australia will lose a fifth of its 660,000 b/d oil refining capacity when Caltex shuts down its 135,000 b/d plant in Kurnell in Sydney city in the second half of 2014. Following a review of its domestic refining operations, Caltex said it will invest A$250 million to convert the (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 30 2012, Monday) — China has successfully engineered a “soft landing” for its red-hot economy to expand by 8% this year and 8.5% next year, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In proclaiming its confidence that the Chinese economy will be able to sustain annual growth of seven to eight percent, the fund (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 30 2012, Monday) — A Sinopec subsidiary has agreed to partner Talisman Energy to develop the Canadian firm’s North Sea assets while two other Chinese state-owned companies, CNOOC and CNPC, have signed upstream agreements with Royal Dutch Shell. Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corp will pay US$1.5 billion to acquire a 49% (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 27 2012, Friday) — Wartsila, the Finland-based marine industry’s leading solutions and services provider, said it will be supplying engines for vessels built for the subsidiaries of state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC). Wartsila will supply the main engines for the first liquefied natural gas-fuelled (LNG) two (more…)