(EnergyAsia, June 7 2012, Thursday) —  Australia-listed Aspire Mining Limited said a pre-feasibility study into its proposed Ovoot coking coal project in northern Mongolia has found it to be viable and worthy of a two-stage execution costing a total of A$1.275 billion with production start-up from 2016. (US$1=A$1.03). According to the study by Xstract (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 7 2012, Thursday) — Following its conclusion of a collaboration agreement with J.P. Morgan Treasury Services last month, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) said it is looking to expand its range and offering of trade finance services to energy companies operating in the Arab world and beyond. Starting this month, APICORP, a multilateral (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 7 2012, Thursday) — GE said its technology is supporting the new 160MW Taji power plant supplying electricity to the greater Baghdad area as part of the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity’s efforts to meet the country’s urgent energy needs. GE said it supplied four Frame 6B gas turbines for the Taji plant, located (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 6 2012, Wednesday) — Australia’s thermal coal has become uncompetitive and too costly against other producers, according to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). In a research report, the bank found that Australia’s production cost has risen by an average nominal rate of 25% a year since 2007 on a combination of the (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 6 2012, Wednesday) — Essar Energy said it has agreed to commit 240MW of its Tori II 600MW coal-fired plant under construction in Jharkhand state in India to supply power to Noida Power Company Ltd. Essar Energy plc, a privte India-focused integrated energy company, said its subsidiary, Essar Power Jharkhand Limited (EPJL), won (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 6 2012, Wednesday) — Australia’s mining sector including coal, iron ore and liquefied natural gas (LNG) pulled in a record US$260.8 billion worth of investment commitments as of April 30 2012, up 12.5% from the last update by the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) six months ago. (US$1=A$1.04). The money was (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 5 2012, Tuesday) — Australia’s MetroCoal Limited said the Queensland state government has declared its Tenement to Terminal Limited’s (3TL’s) Yarwun coal terminal project at Gladstone a ‘significant project.’ 3TL is 20%-owned by MetroCoal Limited. The declaration means that approvals for the project will be assessed using a more streamlined whole-of-government approach, managed (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 5 2012, Tuesday) — L & L Energy Inc, a US company with a five-year track record of profitable underground coal mining and distribution operations in China, said it has started delivering coal to Datang International Power Generation Co Ltd and a new customer, Luk Fook Co Ltd. On May 14, the Seattle-based (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 5 2012, Tuesday) — Canada’s Prophecy Coal Corp said it has secured a sales contract to supply 22,100 tonnes of thermal coal from its Ulaan Ovoo mine in Mongolia to a local direct reduced iron (DRI) manufacturing plant. According to Prophecy, the unidentified buyer has indicated that this is an initial purchase is to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 4 2012, Monday) — Keppel FELS Limited said it has won a contract order from Maersk Drilling Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Denmark’s A.P. Moller – Maersk A/S, to build a repeat Gusto MSC CJ70 ultra harsh environment jackup rig worth about US$560 million. Scheduled for delivery in 1Q (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 4 2012, Monday) — Caving in after days of angry protests and reports of fuel hoarding in major Indian cities, state-owned oil refiners said they partially rolled back a 10%-11% hike in gasoline prices on June 3. In New Delhi, gasoline now costs 71.16 rupees a litre instead of the record 73.18 rupees (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 4 2012, Monday) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF)  expects the economies of sub-Saharan Africa to grow by an average 5.5% this year, continuing from last year’s average 5% rise despite the uncertain global outlook. In its 2012 Regional Economic Outlook for the region, the IMF said new resource production in Angola, Niger, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 4 2012, Monday) — Australia’s Pan Asia Corp has declared that its flagship thermal coal project Transcoal Minergy Coal (TCM) in Indonesia’s South Kalimantan province is technically and financially feasible. In a statement, the company said a study carried out by Indonesian mining equipment group PT Kopex Mining Contractors expects the mine to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2012, Friday) — Australian underground coal gasification company Cougar Energy which is waging a legal battle with the Queensland government is looking for a new CEO following the resignation of embattled founding chief Len Walker. The company said Dr Walker will remain as a board and executive director to share his expertise (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2012, Friday) — Australia’s Queensland state has given conditional approval to the development of a A$10 billion coal mine in the untapped Galilee Basin owned by Indian infrastructure group GVK and mining tycoon Gina Rinehart. (US$1=A$1.02). GVK described the conditional approval as an important step towards the Alpha Coal Project receiving final (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2012, Friday) — Canada’s Prophecy Coal Corp said it has signed a cooperation covenant with the Energy Authority of Mongolia, targeting to start up the 600 MW Chandgana power project by 2016. The covenant provides support for the construction and operation of the plant comprising four units of 150 MW capacity each (more…)

(EnergyAsia, May 31 2012, Thursday) — Shares of UK-listed Cove Energy, which owns a stake in a Mozambique gas field, rose to a record high of 259.75 pence after the African country approved its takeover by Thailand’s state-owned PTTEP. The Mozambique government’s approval opens up a bidding war between PTTEP and Royal Dutch Shell for (more…)

(EnergyAsia, May 31 2012, Thursday) — Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa recently launched the country’s largest independent power generation and water desalination plant. According to owner Al-Dur Power & Water Company, the US$2.1 billion plant, which started operating in February, produces up to 1,234 MW of electricity and 218,000 cubic metres per day of the (more…)

(EnergyAsia, May 30 2012, Wednesday) — Fuel shortages and hoarding continue to grip many Indian cities sparking angry protests and demands that the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh scrap its six-day-old gasoline price hike. Chennai in the east coast state of Tamil Nadu has been the worst hit after retailers serving the city of (more…)

(EnergyAsia, May 30 2012, Wednesday) — Horizon Terminals Ltd (HTL), Emirates National Oil Company’s (ENOC) wholly-owned storage terminalling operator, has started work on its US$142 million bulk liquid facility in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone. Equipped to receive jet fuel from marine tankers and from the nearby ENOC refinery, the 141,000 cubic metre fully automated (more…)

(EnergyAsia, May 30 2012, Wednesday) — ExxonMobil Lubricants and Petroleum Specialties Company, a division of Exxon Mobil Corporation, has introduced three next generation high-performance industrial lubricants, expanding its line of energy-efficient industrial lubricants. These next generation Mobil SHC high-performance lubricants include the SHC 600, SHC Gear and SHC Gear OH. Mobil SHC 600 is the (more…)

(EnergyAsia, May 29 2012, Tuesday) —  Despite a four-fold increase in oil prices over the past decade, the world has coped well by becoming more energy efficient, holding back wage increases, diversifying to other energy sources and using macroeconomic policy to mitigate oil’s inflationary effects, said a study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). World (more…)

(EnergyAsia, May 29 2012, Tuesday) — A consortium of international banks and export credit agencies has agreed to lend a total of US$8.5 billion for the construction of the Australia Pacific LNG joint (APLNG) venture in Queensland state. The consortium was led by the Export-Import Bank of the US (US EXIM) and The Export-Import Bank (more…)

(EnergyAsia, May 28 2012, Monday) — The world’s Q1 spare oil production capacity, held mostly by OPEC members, has fallen to about 2.4 million b/d, the lowest level since 2008, said the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). It has also fallen to less than 3% of total world crude oil consumption, the lowest proportion since the (more…)

(EnergyAsia, May 28 2012, Monday) — India, Pakistan and Afghanistan have committed to import natural gas through a planned 1,800-km pipeline to tap the reserves of Turkmenistan, said the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has been coordinating and facilitating talks among the various parties for a decade. Meeting in the Turkmen city of Turkmenbashi last (more…)