(EnergyAsia, July 5 2012, Thursday) — NYSE-listed InterOil Corp said it is separating the roles of chairman and chief executive and added two members to its board including a former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. The company, which is focused on developing oil and gas projects in Papua New Guinea, said Rabbie Namaliu, who (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 4 2012, Wednesday) — Canada’s Erdene Resource Development Corp said it has agreed to separate its domestic and Mongolian mineral and coal assets into two companies. Erdene will sell off its 25% interest in the Donkin coal project in Cape Breton in Canada’s Nova Scotia province to another Canadian firm, Advanced Primary Minerals (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 4 2012, Wednesday) — Aspire Mining Limited said it and rail giant JSC Russian Railways (RZD) are discussing the possibility of extending the Trans-Mongolian Railway across northern Mongolia that would help deliver coking coal from the Australian firm’s Ovoot mine. The discussion is provided for under a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) that (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 4 2012, Wednesday) — Brent crude rebounded above US$100 a barrel July 3 for the first time since June 11 on worries that oil supplies could be affected by the growing tensions between Iran and the West, strike action by Norwegian oil workers, and possible work disruption in the Gulf of Mexico with (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 4 2012, Wednesday) — China’s energy use and production growth are showing signs of slowing down. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s electricity production grew by just 4.7% to just under 3,900 billion watt-hours in the first five months of the year, with thermal power output rising by just 4.1%. (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 3 2012, Tuesday) — Following on the Queensland state government’s announced support for the expansion of two major coal mining areas, Australia’s QR National said it is evaluating a joint proposal for an integrated rail proposal after awarding a A$76-million contract for a new loop section to the Wiggin Island project. (US$1=A$0.97). Australia’s (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 3 2012, Tuesday) — Japanese trading house Sojitz Corporation said it has agreed to pay RMB30 million for a 10% stake in Inner Mongolia Zhongmeng Coal Co Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China’s Inner Mongolia Erdos Group, which is involved in Mongolia’s resource business. (US$1=RMB6.36). As Japan’s third largest coal trader, Sojitz, which (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 3 2012, Tuesday) — Australia mining giant BHP Billiton said it will invest US$845 million to expand its Appin metallurgical coking coal mine, south-west of Sydney, to replace production from its nearby West Cliff mine. The company expects the new 3.5-million-tonne site to be operational in 2016 in time to maintain its production (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 2 2012, Monday) — Australia’s resources and energy commodity export earnings are forecast to reach a record A$209 billion in the financial year ending June 30 2013, said the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE). The agency did not give an estimate for the country’s export earnings for the last financial year (more…)

(EnergyAsia, July 2 2012, Monday) — Australia’s International Coal (ICX) said it has concluded a farm-in and joint venture agreement with Queensland Coal Investments Pty Ltd (QCI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd (HPPL), with respect to various tenements in the Maryborough basin. Located in a well-known and highly prospective hard coking (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2012, Friday) — Malaysia’s state-owned energy company Petronas has agreed to purchase Canadian gas producer Progress Energy Resources Corp for C$5.5-billion, and to build a liquefied natural gas export terminal in the coastal town of Prince Rupert. (US$1=C$1.03). The proposed acquisition will build on the companies’ previous announcement to develop a portion (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2012, Friday) — The Shah Deniz consortium, led by UK’s BP and Norway’s Statoil, has concluded its evaluation of potential gas export routes towards Southeastern and Central Europe. In a statement, the consortium operator BP said the Nabucco West project with a route running from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Baumgarten has been (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2012, Friday) — Hong Kong-listed upstream firm MIE Holdings Corporation said it has agreed to acquire a 51% stake in Sino Gas & Energy Limited (SGE) as part of a strategic partnership with its Australia-listed parent firm, Sino Gas & Energy Holdings Limited, which is undertaking exploration work in China’s Shanxi province. MIE (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 29 2012, Friday) — The Kazakhstan government has agreed to pay a Western consortium US$2 billion for an immediate 10% stake in the development of the country’s Karachaganak condensate and gas fields that is shaping up to be one of the largest upstream projects in the world. In a statement, key shareholder UK’s (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 28 2012, Thursday) — A coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has issued a report outlining the challenges and negative impacts arising from an increasingly troubled US$16 billion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea’s Hela province. ExxonMobil is leading a consortium to extract natural gas from the onshore Hela region (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 28 2012, Thursday) — Oil production capacity is surging in the US and several other countries at such a fast pace that global oil output capacity is likely to grow by nearly 20% by 2020, which could prompt a plunge or even a collapse in oil prices, according to a new study by (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 27 2012, Wednesday) — Thai state upstream firm PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) is targeting Myanmar for expansion after securing its another two production sharing contracts with state Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MGOE). PTTEP, which will partner with Myanmar’s Win Precious Resources Pte Ltd (WPR), signed the agreement early (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 26 2012, Tuesday) — Wison Offshore & Marine Ltd, a subsidiary of China’s Wison Group, said it has secured a contract from the Exmar group to undertake the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) of the world’s first floating LNG liquefaction, regasification and storage unit (FLRSU). The unit will be deployed off (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 26 2012, Tuesday) — The world still has serious energy worries ahead despite a near 1.9% rise in its oil reserves to a record 1,653 billion barrels at the end of 2011 to keep well ahead of consumption growth of only 0.7%, according to BP’s latest annual Statistical Review of World Energy. Exploration (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 26 2012, Tuesday) — A private company is set to become Sri Lanka’s largest private investor if and when it completes its US$4 billion programme to develop a heavy industry zone and infrastructure in Sri Lanka’s north-eastern Trincomalee harbour. According to the state Board of Investment (BOI), Sri Lanka Gateway Industries Pvt Ltd (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 25 2012, Monday) — Australian’s coal production and greenhouse gas emissions will rise to record levels as it continues to attract investments despite increased cost from the imposition of a new carbon tax from July 1 as part of the government’s long-term clean energy plan, said carbon analytics firm RepuTex.According to the company’s (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 25 2012, Monday) — China’s natural gas consumption will rise from 130.7 billion cubic metres last year to 200 bcm by 2020 and 550 bcm by 2030, said the president of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC). Since 2000, it has risen by 5.3 times to make China the world’s fourth largest natural gas (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 25 2012, Monday) — Two leading state oil and gas companies of India and China have signed a landmark memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate in upstream and downstream projects around the world. India’s ONGC said its chairman and managing director, Sudhir Vasudeva, and China National Petroleum Corporation’s (CNPC) chairman, Jiang Jiemin, signed (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 22 2012, Friday) — The oil markets hit an 18-month low with Brent crude futures sinking below US$90 a barrel and US benchmark WTI crashing through US$80 on further evidence of slowing economic activities in the US, Europe and Asia. Both benchmarks lost more than 3% of their overnight value with Brent touching (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 22 2012, Friday) — As a result of weaker oil prices, Saudi Arabia’s economy is expected to grow by 6% this year after expanding 7.1% last year, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In a report issued after an IMF team met with Saudi officials last month, the fund praised the government for providing (more…)