(EnergyAsia, February 21 2012, Tuesday) — Saudi Aramco Asia Company Limited (SAAC), a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, said it and Indonesia’s state-owned PT Pertamina have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly evaluate the economic feasibility to build an integrated oil refining and petrochemical project in Tuban in Indonesia’s East Java province. The proposed (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 20 2012, Monday) — Singapore-listed offshore contractor IEV Holdings is venturing into oil and gas exploration after being awarded a concession by Indonesian state-owned upstream company Pertamina EP. Subsidiary IEV Gas accepted the award of an “operation cooperation” programme for the Pabuaran onshore block on February 16, with completion of the terms expected (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 20 2012, Monday) — JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, Japan’s largest oil refiner, said it has agreed to buy 200,000 metric tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year over 17 years from Royal Dutch Shell Plc starting 2015. Singapore-based Shell Eastern Trading Ltd will deliver the LNG in three shipments a (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 20 2012, Monday) — Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp has agreed to invest C$2.9 billion for a 40% interest in a venture to jointly own and develop Calgary-based Encana Corp’s natural gas lands in the Cutbank Ridge resource play in Canada’s British Columbia province. (US$1=C$0.99). Holding the majority 60% stake, Encana said it will be (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 20 2012, Monday) — Faced with rising cost, Australian upstream company Woodside said it is assessing the possibility of selling a small portion of its 50% stake in a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) project off Western Australia state. In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Woodside said it has not (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 17 2012, Friday) — Singapore’s Rotary Engineering Limited said its 51%-owned joint venture company, Petrol Steel Co Ltd, has secured a US$34 million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build 17 field storage tanks in Saudi Arabia. The contract, Rotary’s fourth in the kingdom now worth a total of US$848 million, relates (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 17 2012, Friday) — Canada’s Tethys Petroleum expects to boost its profit margins with the start up of a vital oil storage and rail-loading facility linking its Doris oilfield in Kazakhstan to the nation’s main rail system. The new Aral Oil Terminal (AOT) infrastructure will allow the company to initially double Doris’s production (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 17 2012, Friday) — Battered by Asian competition and a strong local currency, Australia’s largest downstream oil company said it could decide to shut down its two refineries later this year after writing down their combined value by A$1.5 billion. (US$1=A$0.94). Caltex Australia Ltd, half-owned by US major Chevron Corp, said the fate (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 16 2012, Thursday) — Norway’s DNB Bank said Asia’s offshore oil and gas stocks are at the start of a sector up-cycle, naming Singapore-listed Keppel E&P, Sembcorp Marine, STX OSV, Ezion and Jaya as its top picks. In a report last week, authors Kay Lim and Simon Jong also recommended buying Swiber, Ezra, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 15 2012, Wednesday) — Australia’s Environmental Clean Technologies (ECT) Limited said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) giving K-Coal Co Ltd exclusive sales and marketing rights for its Coldry technology in South Korea. ECT chairman and managing director Michael Davies said K-Coal, a member of the S&J Group, is well positioned (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 15 2012, Wednesday) — Canadian mining firm SouthGobi Resources said it has commissioned and started-up a dry coal-handling plant at its Ovoot Tolgoi coal mine in southern Mongolia. With an annual capacity to process nine million tonnes of run-of-mine coal, the plant includes a 300-tonne-capacity dump hopper, which will receive ROM coal to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 15 2012, Wednesday) — Toshiba JSW Turbine and Generator Pvt Ltd, a 75/25 joint venture between Japan’s Toshiba Corporation and India’s JSW Group, have started up its plant to manufacture super critical steam turbines and generators in the Indian city of Chennai. The plant will produce high-efficiency steam turbines and generators for super (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 14 2012, Tuesday) — Singapore Power Limited (SP) said it has appointed board member Mohamed Hassan Marican as its next chairman to succeed Ng Kee Choe who will retire on June 12. Mr Hassan Marican, who served as President and CEO of Malaysian state oil and gas firm Petronas from 1995 to 2010, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 14 2012, Tuesday) — US heavy machinery supplier Caterpillar is deepening its reach into China’s coal industry with the recent sale of an automated longwall plough and the acquisition of a Chinese coal mining equipment company. Caterpillar said it has secured an order to supply its 11th DBT/Bucyrus/Caterpillar plough system in China to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 13 2012, Monday) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it will help China set up a pilot provincial emissions trading system that could pave the way for a national scheme and lower greenhouse gas emissions in the country. The bank said it will provide a US$750,000 equivalent grant and help design the (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 13 2012, Monday) — A consortium of Japanese companies comprising Sumitomo Corp, Toshiba Corp, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co Ltd, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI) said it and other stakeholders have completed the expansion of the 2,640MW Tanjung Jati B coal-fired power plant in Indonesia. The consortium said it completed the plant’s 660MW Unit (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 13, 2012 Monday) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it has approved a loan and political risk guarantee totalling up to US$400 million to help build Uzbekistan’s largest petrochemical plant worth some US$4 billion. Located about 1,300 kilometres from the capital Tashkent in the Karakalpakstan region, the Surgil Natural Gas Chemicals Project (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 10 2012, Friday) — Coal & Oil Group, a Dubai-based family-owned energy company, said it is opening a regional office in Singapore to better serve its growing businesses in Asia-Pacific countries including Southeast Asia, Australia and the Far East. With a turnover of over US$500 million, the company has also established East India (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 10 2012, Friday) — LanzaTech, a New Zealand-based producer of low-carbon fuels and chemicals from waste gases, said it has raised US$55.8 million in its latest Series C round of funding from new investors led by the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund. The Malaysian investors include Petronas Technology Ventures Sdn Bhd, the venture (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 10 2012, Friday) — Reflecting the growth of the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) business, leading international law firm Wikborg Rein has recruited a specialist, Joe McGladdery, as a partner in its London, England office. Mr McGladdery joins from Qatar Gas Transport Company Limited (Nakilat) where he acted as the company’s general counsel (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 10 2012, Friday) — Following their respective roles in an oil spill off the coast of northern China, China’s CNOOC Limited said it is establishing a foundation to protect the marine environment and ecology while US oil company ConocoPhillips has set up a RMB1-billion fund to compensate the fishing industry for loss of (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 9 2012, Thursday) — The cost of nuclear-generated power and issues associated with this energy source will continue to challenge the sector in 2012, said US experts. Following the Fukushima disaster last March, the sector has seen an increase in earthquake-related reactor shutdowns, reactor project cost escalation, infighting at the US Nuclear Regulatory (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 9, 2012 Thursday) — Canada’s Prophecy Coal Corp said it is aiming to complete the project financing and selection of the engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) firm for a power plant in Mongolia by the second quarter. These achievements will then pave the way for the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company to begin construction of (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 9 2012, Thursday) — Australia’s Origin Energy Limited said the first of two units at its 550MW gas-fired Mortlake Power Station is ready to generate electricity for use in Victoria state. Located near Mortlake in south-western Victoria, the plant’s two gas turbines will help to meet the growing demand for peak electricity in (more…)

(EnergyAsia, February 8 2012, Wednesday) — Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a member of US-based United Technologies Corp, said it has signed an agreement with two leading Chinese energy firms to design, construct and operate a commercial-scale advanced gasification demonstration plant in China’s central eastern Henan province. P&W Rocketdyne described the “negotiation framework” agreement as a (more…)