(EnergyAsia, September 17 2010, Friday) — Encouraged by the boom in Africa and Brazil, Angola is expected to consider opening bidding for its offshore oil prospects next year after suspending all activities the past four years. With oil prices holding steady in the US$70-80 range, the African nation expects strong investor interest given the recent...

(EnergyAsia, September 17 2010, Friday) — Weaver’s Cove Energy LLC is bent on building its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and shipping route in affluent Massachusetts state in the US. LNG vessels will sail through two Taunton River bridges to a land-based Fall River terminal despite moves from the Coast Guard to reject the...

(EnergyAsia, September 17 2010, Friday) — Ghana has set its sight on becoming the regional oil refining centre for West Africa, said the head of the country’s only refining company, which operates a 45,000 b/d ageing plant. Ato Ampiah, the recently appointed managing director of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), said Ghana is looking to build...

(EnergyAsia, September 17 2010, Friday) — The Dow Chemical Company said it and American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) have each acquired a minority equity investment in Blade Dynamics Ltd, a designer and manufacturer of advanced wind turbine blades based on proprietary materials and structural technologies, through its venture capital group. Monty Bayer, the global director of...

(EnergyAsia, September 17 2010, Friday) — Nigeria’s finance minister, Olusegun Aganga, believes his resource-rich country has a realistic chance of achieving 10% to 12% annual economic growth in the coming years. Despite its well-known problems with militia groups, separatists, and unreliable electricity supply, Nigeria is running high on confidence these days as investors, led by...

(EnergyAsia, September 17 2010, Friday) — Boosted by the development of coal seam gas (CSG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, Australia’s pipeline industry is on the cusp of a multi-billion dollar expansion of the nation’s gas transmission infrastructure. The construction of the high-pressure gas transmission pipelines associated with Queensland’s massive coal seam gas projects...

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2010, Thursday) — Intergraph®, a US-based global provider of engineering and geospatial software, said it has launched a series of Intergraph 2010 conferences that will be held in six countries in the Asia-Pacific region with over 2,000 customers attending.  The company said the conferences will feature Smart 3D (SmartPlant® and SmartMarine® 3D)...

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2010, Thursday) — Nigeria lost a total of US$100 billion worth of oil investments over the last five years as a result of flawed reforms by its government, said Anglo-Dutch major Shell, the country’s leading oil producer. Ann Pickard, Shell’s top executive in charge of upstream operations in Africa and Australia, said...

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2010, Thursday) — Gazprom Marketing & Trading (GM&T), a unit of the Russian gas giant, said it and InfiniteEARTH have approved the world’s first methodology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) under the Voluntary Carbon Standard programme, the leading international standard for voluntary emission reduction credits. Gazprom said...

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2010, Thursday) — In the latest sign of its resolve to diversify its energy markets, Russia last month officially opened a vital section of a major pipeline to export crude oil to China. The 64-km section on Russian soil is envisioned to initially carry 30 million tons of oil a year to...

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2010, Thursday) — State-owned Qatargas has continued to operate all five of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains over the last two months, helping to put downward pressure on natural gas prices in recent months. The plants, each capable of producing 7.8 million tonnes of LNG per year, were briefly shut down...

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2010, Thursday) — The Nigerian government plans to establish a sovereign wealth fund that will be funded by oil revenues, according to Finance Minister Olusegun Aganga. The US$1 billion fund, targeted to be ready next month, will help pay for the construction of infrastructure projects the country badly needs. Part of it...

(EnergyAsia, September 16 2010, Thursday) — The oil industry has understated the risks of deepwater oil activities, and does not really know how to deal with a full-scale disaster such as the recent Deepwater Horizon rig tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, said industry insiders and analysts. Eleven workers were killed when the BP-chartered rig...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — China’s new natural resources tax, which will soon be implemented nationwide, could sharply reduce the profits of the country’s large oil and gas companies. The government has proposed to link the tax to oil prices instead of the volume of oil produced. Analysts estimate that PetroChina Company Limited could...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — India’s oil refiners learnt the value of stockpiling crude oil last month when they were forced to draw on inventories after two major Mumbai ports was briefly closed following an accident. Two Panamanian-registered vessels collided off the coast, causing the closure of Mumbai Port Trust and Jawaharlal Port Trust,...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — Slumping foreign investments in Nigeria’s oil industry will check the country’s ability to raise production. Foreign direct investments in the troubled West African country’s petroleum sector fell to US$5.85 billion in 2009 from US$13.96 billion three years earlier. The sharp decline, triggered by the government’s failure to shell out...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — Nigeria needs crucial policy reforms to make the country’s oil work for the good of its citizens, according to a U.S. academician and opinion writer. Jason Hickel, a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia’s Department of Anthropology, has proposed five key provisions for Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — South Korea and the UAE have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly explore and produce oil in the Middle East country. Representing their countries, state-owned Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (KNOC) signed the agreement that paves the way for South Korean...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group) said it plans to compete against international companies to bid in an auction for 42 offshore exploration blocks off Gabon.  Sinopec Group President Su Shulin announced the company’s interest after meeting Gabon’s energy minister in Libreville, the capital of central African nation, last month. ...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — UK’s Tullow Oil plc said it has made a second “major oil discovery” off the coast of Ghana. The company said results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids from the Owo-1 well showed that the Owo field in the Deepwater Tano licence contains high quality light...

(EnergyAsia, September 15 2010, Wednesday) — Coal seam gas explorer L&M Energy said it expects to know the commercial viability of its 173PJ Ohai coal seam gas field by December. The New Zealand-based company said the pilot testing programme at Ohai will be funded by the A$7.1 million capital that it raised in July through...

(EnergyAsia, September 14 2010, Tuesday) –– US major ExxonMobil walked away from its bid to acquire Kosmos Energy’s stake in Ghana’s Jubilee oil field on frustrations over three key issues including the government’s huge demands, according to an analysis by Peace FM Online, citing industry executives and government officials. The Ghanaian news provider said the...