(EnergyAsia, December 19 2011, Monday) — Australia’s largest downstream oil company may follow the lead of its rivals to scrap its loss-making refinery operations following another warning of a large full-year profit downgrade. Caltex, which has already begun reviewing its refining business, expects its 2011 after-tax operating profit including significant items to fall to between (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 16 2011, Friday) — US ratings agency Fitch said it expects merger-and-acquisition (M&A) activities to remain strong in Asia’s oil and gas sector in the coming year. In a new report, “2012 Outlook: Asia Oil & Gas”, Fitch Ratings said it is keeping its ‘stable’ rating on the sector even though sustained high...
(EnergyAsia, December 16 2011, Friday) — The annual average price of global crude benchmark Brent for 2011 is expected to be the highest in both real and nominal terms in the 151-year history of the industry, said US consultant HIS CERA. It expects Brent to average about $111 for the year at the end of...
(EnergyAsia, December 16 2011, Friday) — US-based energy and natural resources company PHI Group Inc said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Sao Nam Group, a Vietnamese company engaged in energy, mining, real estate, and infrastructure, to build a coal-fired power plant in Hai Lang District in Vietnam’s southeast Quang Tri Economic Zone....
(EnergyAsia, December 16 2011, Friday) — Singapore-based upstream company Ramba Energy Limited said it expects to raise S$3.18 million from the sale of shares in a subsidiary to finance its exploration of the Lemang block in southern Sumatra in Indonesia. (US$1=S$1.3). Ramba, which plans to start drilling the block in the first quarter of next (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 16 2011, Friday) — China’s DADI Engineering Development (Group) Co Ltd has completed its acquisition of a 15.3% stake in Australia’s Metrocoal for A$24 million. (US$1=A$1). The Australian miner said the Chinese firm has fully paid for its purchase of 32 million of its ASX-listed shares at A$0.75 each. With Chinese regulators giving (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 15 2011, Thursday) — Forty-eight carrier ships will soon be fuelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG), with more to follow, said consultant Zeus Development Corporation which will share this and other findings from its survey of the marine industry at an upcoming conference in Houston, Texas. The company will discuss the use of (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 15 2011, Thursday) — KazMunaiGas, the state-owned oil and gas company of Kazakhstan, has agreed to pay US$3 billion for a 10% stake in the country’s Karachaganak gas and condensate project in a landmark agreement to settle years of disputes with foreign investors. According to the consortium developing the project, KazMunaiGas (KMG) will (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 15 2011, Thursday) — The Shaw Group Inc, a US engineering company, said it has been awarded a contract by Iraq’s state-owned South Refineries Company to provide a feasibility study for the rehabilitation of its 140,000 b/d refinery in Basra city. The study will assess the refinery’s condition and estimate the engineering, equipment (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 15 2011, Thursday) — Denmark’s Maersk Oil said it and Germany’s Siemens have agreed to jointly develop and build turbines for its proprietary tri-generation clean power generation technology. Maersk Oil said its TriGen power generator burns natural gas mixed with pure oxygen to produce clean power, water and ‘reservoir ready’ carbon dioxide (CO2) (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 15 2011, Thursday) — Japanese companies have agreed to import around 70% of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) output from the Ichthys project off Australia’s Northern Territory state for 15 years from 2017. Upstream company Inpex Corp said its 74.8%-owned Ichthys LNG Pty Ltd will supply a total of four million tonnes of...
(EnergyAsia, December 14 2011, Wednesday) — US energy media group Platts said Saudi Arabia produced just 9.7 million b/d of crude oil last month, well below the 10 million b/d figure claimed by Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi at a conference in Riyadh early this month. In a speech delivered on his behalf by a...
(EnergyAsia, December 14 2011, Wednesday) — The global food system needs to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels to succeed in feeding a growing world population, said the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). “There is justifiable concern that the current dependence of the food sector on fossil fuels may limit the sector’s ability to...
(EnergyAsia, December 14 2011, Wednesday) — US Peabody Energy said it has acquired a 5.1% equity interest in Hong Kong-listed Winsway Coking Coal Holdings Ltd for an undisclosed sum. Deutsche Bank brokered the acquisition which was made over a series of purchases, said Peabody. The two companies, which operate a joint venture in Mongolia that holds...
(EnergyAsia, December 14 2011, Wednesday) — The World Energy Council (WEC) expects rapid Chinese and Indian transport fuel demand growth to enable consumption in the developing countries to exceed that of the developed world by 2025. Between now and 2050, the council expects fuel demand to grow by 200% in China and by 300% in (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 14 2011, Wednesday) — In a report confirming the complaints of environmental and farming groups, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it found toxic chemicals used in producing natural gas through the hydraulic fracturing process in drinking water in Wyoming state. The agency said its draft analysis of data obtained from an (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 13 2011, Tuesday) — China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec), Asia’s biggest oil refiner, has agreed to raise its 15% holdings in a US$20 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Queensland state to 25%. Sinopec Group, which paid US$1.5 billion for its initial 15% stake in the Australia Pacific LNG Pty Ltd project in...
(EnergyAsia, December 13 2011, Tuesday) — The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised its crude oil output by 550,000 b/d to 30.6 million b/d in November from 30.05 million b/d in October, said energy media group Platts. But the McGraw-Hill subsidiary disputed Saudi Arabia’s claims that it was producing more than 10 million...
(EnergyAsia, December 13 2011, Tuesday) — Governments submitted to the wishes of polluting corporations at the expense of the people after two weeks of the UN climate summit in the South African city of Durban, said Greenpeace. On the closing of the latest round of UN climate talks, Greenpeace said it became “clear that governments (more…)
(EnergyAsia December 13 2011, Tuesday) — Singapore-based Mercuria Energy Trading Pte Ltd said it received “overwhelming” response in securing a US$755 million revolving credit facility with 29 international banks syndicated for one and three-year terms. The facility, launched at US$480 million, closed oversubscribed and was upsized to US$755 million. The company said it plans to (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 13 2011, Tuesday) — US Cheniere Energy Partners said a subsidiary has signed an agreement to supply India’s state gas utility GAIL (India) 3.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually for 20 years, with an option to extend the deal for a further 10 years. The Houston, Texas-based company said that (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 12 2011, Monday) — French industrial gas giant Air Liquide said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Soxal, is investing 35-million euro in a new air-separation plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island. The plant, which takes Air Liquide’s recent investment in Singapore to a total of 280-million euro, will produce argon for trade as well as supply (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 12 2011, Monday) — Knust-SBO, a US precision machining manufacturer of equipment for the oil, gas, geophysical and semiconductor industries, has opened a plant in Singapore yesterday. The Houston, Texas-based subsidiary of Austria’s Schoeller-Bleckman Oilfield (SBO) Equipment expects the manufacturing plant in Tuas Loop to be fully operational by the end of the (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 12 2011, Monday) — Russia’s grip on Central Asia’s economies along with its bargaining position in protracted talks with China over piped oil and gas sales are likely to have been weakened by Turkmenistan’s expanded long-term natural gas sales to China. Already an important market for Central Asia’s natural gas export since 2009,...
(EnergyAsia, December 12 2011, Monday) — Russia will focus on developing liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in the coming year as it shifts its natural gas export policy towards Asia away from pipelines. According to the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), Japan’s rising gas demand following Fukushima, Turkmenistan’s success at expanding piped gas...