(EnergyAsia, January 4 2012, Wednesday) — Australian upstream company Santos said it has secured US$1.2 billion in corporate senior debt facilities from the country’s Export Credit Agency (ECA). Santos said the facilities provide it with additional liquidity with flexible drawdown dates during the construction period of the Gladstone LNG (GLNG) project in Queensland state. The (more…)

(EnergyAsia, January 4 2012, Wednesday) — As part of a capital reduction proposal by Australia’s Oakey Power Holdings Pty Ltd (OPH), Contact Energy will sell off its 25% stake in the company for A$31 million to the other two shareholders. (US$1=A$0.96). The proposal, linked to the refinance of Oakey Power Station’s project debt, has been (more…)

(EnergyAsia, January 4 2012, Wednesday) — Mr Westacott, a former ExxonMobil executive, is Aon Risk Solutions’ Asia Pacific director for energy services. Q: Your job scope. You have a wide area to cover in the oil and gas sector, from upstream to downstream. How do you assess risks on exploration and production, and on refineries (more…)

(EnergyAsia, January 3 2011, Tuesday) — US-based Peabody Energy said it is increasing seaborne coal volumes for both the domestic and export markets at its expanded Wilpinjong and Millennium mines in Australia. Following a combined investment of up to A$370 million by 2014, Peabody said it expects to raise annual production at the two mines (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 30 2011, Friday) — The chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has endorsed Singapore’s goal to become a trading hub and pricing centre for the rapidly growing global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market. Fatih Birol, who recently presented the findings of its “World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2011” report in Singapore, said (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 30 2011, Friday) — Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd secured a record of S$10 billion worth of orders from the offshore oil and gas sector. (US$1=S$1.3). Yesterday, the company signed off on its last orders for the year totalling S$150 million through its subsidiaries, Keppel Singmarine Pte Ltd and Keppel Verolme BV, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 30 2011, Friday) — Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA), recently presented the findings of its “World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2011” report in Singapore. Amid uncertain energy future demands, he said the world would need a bold change in policy direction or risks locking itself into an insecure, inefficient (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 30 2011, Friday) — Australian coal haulage firm QR National said it has signed a 10-year contract with Rio Tinto to haul three million tonnes of coal a year starting next month. It will provide the services from Rio Tinto’s Blair Athol/ Clermont mines to the Abbot Point Coal Terminal (APCT), both located (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 29 2011, Thursday) — Dyna-Mac Holdings Ltd, a Singapore-based multi-disciplinary specialist provider of detailed engineering, procurement and construction services to the offshore marine, oil and gas industries, said it has secured orders worth a total sum of S$115 million, boosting its order book to a provisional value of S$190 million to date. (US$1=S$1.3). (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 29 2011, Thursday) — Mechel OAO, an NYSE-listed Russian mining and metals company, said a subsidiary has confirmed the “high quality” of coal deposit from its Elga mine in southwestern Siberia. Southern Kuzbass Coal Company’s washing plant recently produced its first coking coal concentrate out of mine. “A sample lot of some 4,000 (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 29 2011, Thursday) — Amnesty International has reported that a Dutch court has upheld a guilty verdict against European commodities trader Trafigura for illegally exporting and dumping toxic waste that affected the health of thousands of people in the West African country of Côte d’Ivoire. Hailing the decision as “an important step towards (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 29 2011, Thursday) — The following is an edited press release issued by Hong Kong-based commodities trader Noble Group, the majority owner of Australia’s Gloucester Coal, which is targeted for merger by Yancoal Australia Limited. China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Company Limited announced that it has entered into an agreement in relation to a (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 29 2011, Thursday) — The Australian Coal Association (ACA) has called on the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to take a “technology-neutral approach” to investment, adopt a stage-gated approach to financing high risk projects and be subject to reviews by the Productivity Commission. In a submission to the Federal government, the association also (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 28 2011, Wednesday) — The following is an edited commentary by law firm Herbert Smith. Disagreement between Iraq’s Federal Government and the Kurdish Regional Government over control of oil and gas reserves in the semi-autonomous region is yet to be finally resolved but that has not stopped an increasing number of major international (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 28 2011, Wednesday) — Dutch bank ABN AMRO said it is expanding the Asian operations of its global energy, commodities & transportation (ECT), private banking and clearing businesses. Under Maaike Steinebach, CEO for ECT Asia and Country Executive for Hong Kong, the bank said it has rebuilt its regional ECT capabilities over the (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 27 2011, Tuesday) — Brazil, the world’s 11th largest oil producer, provided the climax to a year of strong performance for Singapore’s two leading upstream oil and gas contractors, Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd and SembCorp Marine. According to the Economist magazine, state-owned oil company, Petrobras, has laid out a capital expenditure programme (more…)