(EnergyAsia, May 26 2015, Tuesday) — Saudi Arabia’s state-owned energy firm Aramco has opened an energy research centre in Beijing to help drive its innovation and technology development programme in China. Saudi petroleum minister Ali I. Al-Naimi officially opened the 4,400-square metre Beijing Research Center (BRC), the 10th in the company’s global research and development (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 25 2015, Monday) — Crude prices are holding onto recent gains as the market is divided between reports of the growing global oil surplus and escalation in Middle East violence with the Islamic State (ISIS) expanding its territorial control and launching a first attack inside Saudi Arabia.
(EnergyAsia, May 20 2015, Wednesday) — The global oil glut is about to worsen, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) which has raised its forecast for global oil supply over the next two years to widen the gap over demand.
(EnergyAsia, May 18 2015, Monday) — Having done the hard part of attracting A$250 billion worth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) investments, Australia may yet miss out on A$55 billion worth of benefits when the new plants start up over the next few years, said consulting firm Accenture. (US$1=A$1.3). In a new report, the consulting (more…)
(EnergyAsia, May 11 2015, Monday) — Asia, Russia and Europe will account for the bulk of the global shutdown of as much as two million b/d in oil refining capacity over the next 18 months, said a US-based consulting firm.
(EnergyAsia, May 4 2015, Monday) — Australia’s upstream sector is worried even though it appears to be thriving after producing record volumes of natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) last year, and boosting crude and condensate output by more than 18%.
The sector’s outlook has worsened following the collapse of global oil and gas prices since last June, leading to the write-off of more than A$8 billion worth of assets and a fall in the country’s natural gas reserves, said consultant EnergyQuest. (US$1=A$1.3).
“Australia’s gas reserves replacement – a comparison of how much is produced against how much is found – proved disappointing over 2014,” said the Australian firm’s CEO Graeme Bethune.
“Reductions in the Gunnedah Basin (New South Wales), Cooper Basin (South Australia and Qeensland) and John Brookes (Western Australia) contributed to the decline in proved and probable (2P) gas reserves exceeding production.”
Even during the good times, the industry struggled against budget overshoots on huge multi-billion-dollar projects, severe labour shortages and environmental opposition. Many of Australia’s expensively assembled LNG projects will start up over the next few years, thanks to early investment decisions made before the start of the industry’s boom.
But, now instead of rejoicing, the developers are likely to face tough bargaining from Asian customers who sense an impending firesale in a glutted LNG market in the second half of the decade.
In February, ratings agency Fitch said the credit standings of France’s Total, UK’s BG Group, which is being acquired by Shell, and Australia’s Woodside Petroleum are coming under pressure from their costly exposure to their Australian LNG ventures. Having already borne the brunt of high development cost, the companies now face the prospects of losses from selling into LNG a depressed market.
Linked to crude oil, Asia’s LNG prices have fallen from a range of US$15 to US$20 per million BTU between 2011 and 2014 to less than US$8 today.
Fitch said Australia’s new LNG plants starting up from now to 2017 need Asian LNG prices to hold between US$11 and US$13 to break even.
Dr Bethune said the slump in the oil price along with the slump in demand have cast “widespread uncertainty” over the industry.
“China was seen as the big opportunity for LNG, a bottomless pit of gas demand to reduce pollution. However, the iron laws of economics apply in China as they do everywhere else and higher Chinese gas prices are reducing growth in demand,” he said.
On a more positive note, Australia boosted oil production by 18.1% to 84.3 million barrels. It also raised natural gas production by two percent to a record 1,134 petajoules (PJ) and LNG supply to 24.5 million tonnes last year.
Dr Bethune said Australian oil production has been boosted by contributions from the Vincent, Montara, Balnaves and Pyrenees oil fields in Western Australia and Bass Strait’s Turrum field in Victoria.
The industry invested a total of A$4.2 billion in exploration and A$57 billion in development projects last year.
(EnergyAsia, May 1 2015, Friday) — Crude prices are near five-month highs as sentiments continue to favour further upside in the near term. US WTI is poised to top US$60 a barrel for the first time since December while Brent is just over US$3 short of breaking the US$70 mark.
(EnergyAsia, April 30 2015, Thursday) — The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has slashed its forecast for global oil supply next year as more US shale-based producers buckle under the financial pressures of low oil prices and reduced financing for the industry.
(EnergyAsia, April 29 2015, Wednesday) — India’s northwestern Gujarat state is consolidating its status as the country’s main energy hub with plans to add two liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals to its existing 15 million tons/year capacity.
(EnergyAsia, April 28 2015, Tuesday) — China faces a long list of risks in its strategy to develop the old Silk Route and a new maritime channel to connect Asia with the Middle East, Africa and Europe, said consultant Wood Mackenzie. Beijing’s ‘One Route One Belt’ strategy holds the promise of creating a new “commodity (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 27 2015, Monday) — Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries said it has been awarded a contract to develop and operate what will be Myanmar’s largest gas-fired independent power plant. In securing its first investment in the country’s fast-growing power sector, Sembcorp said it beat off competition from international rivals for the proposed 225MW project in (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 24 2015, Friday) — Australian mototrists will bear the brunt of the country’s plan to invest “billions and billions and billions of dollars” to raise its strategic petroleum reserves to meet at least 90 days of consumption from the current level of 52 days, said Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane.
(EnergyAsia, April 22 2015, Wednesday) — Weighed down by sluggish exports, India failed to make the most of the windfall provided by nine months of lower oil prices as it reported a wider merchandise trade deficit for the last financial year to March 31 2015.
(EnergyAsia, April 21 2015, Tuesday) — Pakistan, one of the world’s most politically unstable countries and often rated a failed state, is attracting big investment bets from China and Russia.
(EnergyAsia, April 17 2015, Friday) — Excluding Iran, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could see their oil export earnings plunge by nearly half in 2015 to follow through on last year’s 11% decline, predicts the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The sharp drop in crude prices since June dragged down the collective export (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 16 2015, Thursday) — India may open up its protected oil storage sector to foreign investments to jump-start a long-delayed programme to build strategic reserves.
(EnergyAsia, April 15 2015, Wednesday) — A combination of low oil prices and India’s resurgence will enable South Asia to remain the world’s fastest economic region over the next two years, predicts the World Bank.
(EnergyAsia, Monday April 14 2015, Tuesday) — Gazprom Neft, the oil subsidiary of Russia’s leading gas producer Gazprom, said it plans to invest in Vietnam’s upstream sector as well as acquire a 49% stake in the country’s only oil refinery at Dung Quat. Gazprom Neft said its venture into the Southeast Asian country will be (more…)
INDIA: State firms to build oil storage terminal in Kerala state, Gulf Petroleum starts up depot in Gujarat
(EnergyAsia, April 10 2015, Friday) — A consortium of three state-owned Indian firms is planning to build an oil storage terminal in the country’s southwestern state of Kerala while UAE-based Gulf Petroleum recently started up its terminal in the northwestern state of Gujarat.
(EnergyAsia, April 9, 2015, Thursday) — Amid sharply reduced budgets and activities, the US shale sector is hoping for the stage to be set for oil prices to stabilise and eventually recover, said UK consultant Douglas-Westwood (DW). Another consultant Wood Mackenzie expects exploration costs to fall by a third, spurring drilling activity for 2016 to (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 7 2015, Tuesday) — Growing faster than China’s, the Indian economy will become the world’s third largest by 2019 to exceed the combined size of Japan and Germany, said International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde.
(EnergyAsia, April 6 2015, Monday) — Royal Dutch Shell said it has raised its Singapore ethylene production capacity to more than one million tonnes per year after recently completing a major expansion and upgrade at its Bukom Island complex. The company said its ethylene plant, which is linked to a 500,000 b/d refinery as part (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 3 2015, Friday) — The Indian government has approved a special 495-billion rupee budget to help pay for the cost of procuring and maintaining its strategic crude oil stockpiling programme due to start over the next few months. (US$1=62 rupees).
(EnergyAsia, April 2 2015, Thursday) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has challenged his country to slash its oil and gas import dependence from 77% now to 67% by 2022.
(EnergyAsia, March 31 2015, Tuesday) — Malaysia remains on track to become a “high-income status” economy by 2020, said Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao after recently meeting the country’s leaders in Kuala Lumpur.
Mr Nakao, who met Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and senior Malaysian officials, was in the country to attend the 19th meeting of finance ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He also spoke on the region’s economic outlook and policy challenges in the inaugural year of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).