(EnergyAsia, September 19 2011, Monday) — Canada must seize the current window of opportunity and huge potential to expand its energy trade and investment ties with Asia, according to a poll of 645 citizens conducted by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APFC) who are professionally engaged with the region. Noting that the window “will (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2011, Friday) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it is providing a multitranche financing facility of up to US$500 million to help Uzbekistan reconstruct around 230 kilometers of poor quality roads that will improve road connectivity and safety, as well as boost trade along a key regional transport corridor linking Asia (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2011, Friday) — With global energy demand and prices expected to stay high, researchers at Norway’s DnB NOR Markets have maintained their bullish outlook on companies in the offshore oil and gas sector. In its fifth annual survey of 65 global exploration and production (E&P) companies in (E&P), DnB NOR said they (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2011, Friday) — Wartsila, the Finland-based marine solutions provider, said it and Shell Oil Company have signed a multi-year agreement to jointly promote the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a marine fuel. Supplies of low cost, low emissions LNG fuel will be made available to Wartsila’s natural gas-powered vessel operators, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2011, Friday) — Australian engineering and construction company Clough Limited said its Clough Downer Joint Venture (CDJV) has been awarded a A$600 million contract to construct pipelines, compression facilities and associated infrastructure for the Santos-led liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Queensland state. (US$1=A$0.95). CDJV secured the project from main contractor Fluor (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 14 2011, Wednesday) — Solid Energy New Zealand (SENZ) said it has begun constructing a commercial-scale demonstration plant using GTL Energy Ltd’s proprietary coal upgrading process and equipment. SENZ is due to start up the first phase of its plant at Mataura by mid-2012 producing up to 90,000 tonnes a year of low-moisture (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 14 2011, Wednesday) — Australia’s MetroCoal said it is selling 32 million shares representing a 15% stake to a leading Chinese coal services groups, DADI Engineering Development Group Co Ltd (DADI), for A$24 million. (US$1=A$0.95). MetroCoal said the money raised from selling 32 million shares at A$0.75 each will be used to develop (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 13 2011, Tuesday) — Six months after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan, three experts at a forum in the US have laid out eight key concerns related to continuing health threats, unaddressed design flaws with nuclear plants and inadequate regulatory responses. The regulatory, scientific and health experts who agree that the “3/11” (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 12 2011, Monday) — Japan’s Zeon Corporation is looking to add a S$1 billion project in Singapore after breaking ground on its S$240 million synthetic rubber plant on Jurong Island early this month. (US$1=S$1.22). Naozumi Furukawa, Zeon’s President and CEO, said it is weighing a decision by next March on whether to build (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 9 2011, Friday) — Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI) said it and CTCI Corporation, Taiwan’s largest engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm, have received a full-turnkey order from Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) to jointly construct three 800MW coal-fired supercritical-pressure power generation units. The project’s value was not disclosed. The three units will (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 8 2011, Thursday) — Mechel OAO, a leading Russian mining and metals company, said it has jointly established Mechel Somani Carbon Private Limited with the Somani Group to distribute metallurgical coals in India. Mechel Carbon AG, a subsidiary of Mechel OAO’s mining division Mechel Mining OAO, owns a 51% stake in the new (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 8 2011, Thursday) — Canada’s Prophecy Coal Corp said it secured coal sales agreements with Mongolian and Russian buyers totalling 92,000 tonnes for 2011. The Vancouver, British Columbia company said it has sold 22,000 tonnes of coal to Energy LLC, a company registered in Russia’s Buryatia Republic, for use as a trial feedstock (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 7 2011, Wednesday) — Banking giant Standard Chartered said it has acquired Gryphon Partners Advisory Pty Ltd and Gryphon Partners Canada Inc from its management principals to “significantly strengthen its mining and metals capability.” Gryphon Partners is a corporate advisory firm focused on the mining and metals sector, with professionals based in Australia (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 7 2011, Wednesday) — A leading Australian energy company, Origin Energy, said there is no certainty over whether coal or gas-fired power generation produces more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In a statement, it said: “Evidence to assess the more specific question of how the lifecycle emissions of a baseload gas-fired plant fuelled by (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 7 2011, Wednesday) — The Australian Coal Association has named Nikki Williams its new CEO, replacing executive director Ralph Hillman who retired at the end of last month. The association’s chairman, John Pegler, said Dr Williams, currently the New South Wales Minerals Council CEO, will take over the position in November. With more (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 6 2011, Tuesday) — France’s Air Liquide said its Engineering & Construction division has signed a contract with the Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group (SNCG) in China, one of the world’s largest coal companies, to build a 500,000 tonne/year methanol-to-propylene (MTP) plant. To be located in Ningdong in Ningxia province, the plant will (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 5 2011, Monday) — Sino Clean Energy Inc, a Nasdaq-listed producer and distributor of coal-water slurry fuel (CWSF) in China, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and a preliminary engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) agreement with Nathalin Welstar Energy Company Limited to jointly build a coal water slurry plant in (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 2 2011, Friday) — AES Corporation said it has closed on a US$1.5 billion long-term non-recourse financing for the construction of its 51%-held 1,200 MW Mong Duong II coal-fired power plant in Vietnam’s Quang Ninh province. The NYSE-listed company said 12 commercial banks and two South Korean government export credit agencies participated in (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 2 2011, Friday) — Australian natural resources giant BHP Billiton has approved separate investments totalling more than US$800 million to expand a coal port in Newcastle in Australia and a coal mine in La Guajira in Colombia The company said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Hunter Valley Energy Coal Pty Ltd, will pay US$367 million (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 31 2011, Wednesday) — Asia, the Middle East and Africa will account for more than 80% of the world’s planned oil refining capacity addition by 2016, said UK-based consulting group GlobalData. In its study, “Planned Oil Refineries – Global Market Analysis, Competitive Landscape and Capacity Forecasts to 2016”, the company forecasts that the (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 31 2011, Wednesday) — Oil prices and world demand should continue to rise in the third quarter of 2011 but the supply outlook remains unclear, according to Ernst & Young’s latest oil and gas survey. Despite an uncertain economic recovery, deficit-reduction initiatives in the US and the debt crisis in Europe, the company (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 29 2011, Monday) — The following is an edited version of the speech by Jurong Aromatics Corp’s CEO Mehdi Adib at the plant’s groundbreaking ceremony on Jurong Island last Friday. The event was attended by Lim Hng Kiang, Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Oh Joon, the South Korean Ambassador to Singapore, and (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 29 2011, Monday) — The following is an edited version of the speech by ChemOne Holdings’ vice chairman M.Y. Ling at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Jurong Aromatics plant on Jurong Island last Friday. The event was attended by Lim Hng Kiang, Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Oh Joon, the South Korean (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 29 2011, Monday) — Côte d’Ivoire’s new government must ensure that the compensation paid out by oil trader Trafigura reaches the thousands of victims affected by a toxic waste dumping in 2006, Amnesty International said, on the fifth anniversary of the disaster. Trafigura has paid US$260 million in a number of payouts but (more…)

(EnergyAsia, August 26 2011, Friday) — Amnesty International has demanded that Shell “totally overhaul their procedures” for cleaning up oil spills in Nigeria following the release of a long-awaited UN report confirming the company’s extensive role in polluting the Niger Delta region. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report said Shell’s oil spill clean-up procedures (more…)