(EnergyAsia, November 9 2011, Wednesday) — German precious metals and technology group Heraeus has launched a full-service photovoltaic (PV) silver paste production facility in Singapore and its first in the Asia Pacific region. As the company’s third regional research centre after US and Germany, the facility will provide specialist services driven by its photovoltaic business (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 9 2011, Wednesday) — Singapore’s RH Petrogas Limited said its wholly owned subsidiaries, Petrogas (Basin) Ltd and RHP Salawati Basin BV, have discovered gas and condensates in the Sorong area in Indonesia’s West Papua province. The company said recent drill stem tests conducted in the North Klalin-1 exploration well drilled in the Kepala (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 9 2011, Wednesday) — Engineering giant Foster Wheeler AG said one of its subsidiaries has signed a 20-year agreement with Essar Projects India Ltd (EPIL), a subsidiary of Essar Group, to provide a technology license for utility-sized circulating fluidised-bed (CFB) steam generators to be sold in India. The terms of the agreement were (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 9 2011, Wednesday) — Australia’s Parliament has voted to pass the government’s carbon tax package that the coal association says contains “fatal flaws” handicapping one of the country’s largest expert earners at a time of uncertainty in the global economy. With the support of the Greens party, the Senate voted 36 to 32 (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 8 2011, Tuesday) — An “astonishing” 7.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) was estimated to have been emitted into Singapore’s atmosphere last year, according to a Frost & Sullivan study commissioned by Germany’s specialty chemicals company LANXESS. The study found that 45% of this emission came from passenger cars which made up (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 8 2011, Tuesday) — The following is an edited version of the speech delivered by Martin Ferguson, Australia’s Minister for Resources and Energy, on October 24. “Pipelines are essential to our standard of living. They provide us with gas for cooking and heating, along with water for drinking and washing – not to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 8 2011, Tuesday) — With 3.6 billion tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) traded, the value of the global carbon markets grew 3% to US$71 billion in the first half of 2011, said the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). Of this, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) market continues to be the second-largest segment globally, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 8 2011, Tuesday) — Indonesian coal miner PT Adaro Energy Tbk said its net income for the nine months ended September 30 2011 surged 96.5% to a record US$376 million. Its net revenue increased 48% year over year (y-o-y) to US$2.9 billion while gross profit margins improved to 34.4% from 31.8% over the same (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 4 2011, Friday) — Singapore’s Ezra Holdings said its subsea construction division EMAS AMC has secured a contract from BP Exploration & Production Inc to perform subsea work in the Atlantis field in Green Canyon Block 743 in the Gulf of Mexico. The project scope consists of the installation and replacement of subsea (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 4 2011, Friday) — Australia’s Cougar Energy Limited has re-affirmed its two-pronged strategy to expand into Asia while seeking recovery of its Kingaroy power plant project in Queensland that has been shut down by the state government. The ASX-listed company is working on developing and commercialising alternative energy projects, using the world’s best (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 3 2011, Thursday) — The Clean Energy Expo Asia 2011 held in Singapore this week aims to raise awareness of sustainable energy innovations in the Asia Pacific region. The annual event which includes a trade fair and conference promotes the development and adoption of renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable mobility by demonstrating (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 3 2011, Thursday) — Thailand’s state PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) said it made a net profit of US$250 million for the July-September quarter, down 32% compared with US$370 million for the second quarter. It blamed the decline on losses from non-recurring items totalling US$178 million due to an unrealised foreign (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 3 2011, Thursday) — Australia’s C@Limited said it will acquire eight highly prospective Mongolian coal licences for US$7.8 million after signing a conditional agreement with Peabody‐Winsway Resources to purchase the entire issued capital in its subsidiary BDBL. C@Limited said the eight coal licences cover 625 square kilometres in a major emerging coal province. (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 2 2011, Wednesday) — The fourth Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) conference opened yesterday with its focus on the theme of “Securing Our Energy Future” Nobuo Tanaka, former Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) delivered the conference’s main speech, “Comprehensive Energy Security”, on Monday. He told the audience of more than (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 1 2011, Tuesday) — Energy consultant Wood Mackenzie expects metallurgical coal prices dropping from the current quarterly price of US$285/tonne for premium hard coking coal to under US$240/tonne a year from now. Still, it said this price remains significantly above the marginal cost of production, and the product remains strongly demanded among Asian (more…)

(EnergyAsia, November 1 2011, Tuesday) — A consortium comprising Singapore’s Sembawang Shipyard and Indonesian shipowning company PT Scorpa Pranedya has secured a US$300 million contract from Mobil Cepu Ltd to convert a tanker into a floating storage offloading (FSO) facility to produce oil in Indonesia’s offshore Cepu block. Mobil Cepu, an Exxon Mobil Corp subsidiary, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 31 2011, Monday) — Canada’s maritime transport group Teekay LNG and Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp have agreed to jointly buy Danish shipping group AP Moller-Maersk’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping subsidiary for US$1.402 billion. In separate statements, the companies said the new joint venture firm will fully acquire six of the subsidiary’s (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 28 2011, Friday) — UK’s BG Group said it has signed an agreement with Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC to purchase 3.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) over a 20-year period from the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana state in the US. Sabine Pass is a subsidiary of (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 28 2011, Friday) — US major Chevron Corp said its Thailand subsidiary has started producing natural gas from the Platong II project in the Gulf of Thailand. The US$3.1 billion project is expected to raise production of natural gas to 330 million cubic feet per day and of natural gas liquids to 18,000 (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 27 2011, Thursday) — OxfordPrinceton is organising the following courses for energy professionals in Singapore in November. Front to Back Office: Trading Controls and Best Practices (FTBO) on November 14. This fascinating and interactive workshop will give delegates a thorough understanding of best practice controls to be applied in commodity trading activities. Delegates (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 25 2011, Tuesday) — Greenlots, a Singapore-based global provider of charging solutions for electric vehicles (EVs), said it has begun a landmark electric vehicle trial in collaboration with Malaysian car manufacturer Proton Holdings Berhad. Last month, Proton’s group managing director, Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir, handed over to the Malaysian government eight (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 25 2011, Tuesday) — MTM Metalizing, a world leading US-based thermal spray coating provider, said it will be carrying out thermal spray aluminium (TSA) coating works for China Power Station in Hong Kong on a sub-contract awarded by Leighton Contractors (Asia). MTM Metalizing will provide TSA coating on three pipelines and fittings to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 24 2011, Monday) — OW Bunker, one of the world’s leading suppliers and traders of bunker fuel, is inviting shipowners and operators to its October 31 seminar focusing on the challenges posed by the start of sulphur emission regulations in Emissions Control Areas (ECAs) around the world in 2015. Experts will share their (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 21 2011, Friday) — The following is an edited version of an essay by Brigid Fitzgerald Reading of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington DC, USA. The number of people in the world is expected to reach seven billion by the end of this month. Our rate of increase continues to slow from (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 21 2011, Friday) — The world’s population will reach seven billion sometime this month, the child likely to be born in Asia, according to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) unit. “There is a good chance that this birth will take place in our region, home to (more…)