(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) – Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has announced that it will invest a total of seven billion yen to build facilities for experiments to establish advanced smart grid technologies. The facilities, to be developed within the company’s premises in Japan by March 2012, will support the adoption of sustainable energy sources...

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) — India will provide a total of 350 billion rupees in funding for hydro power projects in Bhutan, which aims to produce 10,000 megawatts of hydro power by 2020 under a joint venture. (US1=45 rupees). The bulk of the power will be exported to India which has agreed to provide...

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) — Organisations in Finland and the US are looking into forest residue and algae to produce biofuels. Finnish forest industry groups UPM and Stora Enso are planning to integrate biofuels production with pulp and paper mills, and are testing synthetic gas technologies to achieve this objective. Last June, Stora Enso...

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) — US President Barack Obama faces an uphill challenge creating renewable energy-related jobs at home as cheaper Asian countries offer a far more attractive alternative to industry players. First Solar Inc, the world’s largest maker of thin-firm solar power modules, will be adding 200 manufacturing jobs at its Ohio plant,...

(EnergyAsia, May 31 2010, Monday) — Koen Verniers, 39, has been named President of Oiltanking Asia Pacific, managing director of Oiltanking Singapore and CEO of Oiltanking Odfjell Terminal Singapore from August 1. He succeeds Rutger van Thiel who has been promoted to become managing director of one of the world’s largest oil storage firm, Oiltanking...

(EnergyAsia, May 31 2010, Monday) — World oil demand is expected to rise by 1.6 million b/d to 86.4 million b/d this year, said the International Energy Agency in its latest monthly forecast. The predicted increase is down from the 1.8 million b/d increase issued in the April forecast, reflecting the Paris-based agency’s concern with...

(EnergyAsia, May 31 2010, Monday) — MISC Bhd, Malaysia’s leading international maritime corporation, said its subsidiary, MTTI Sdn Bhd, has agreed to acquire a 50% stake in fuel storage firm VTTI BV from global trading firm Vitol for US$735 million. The two companies will be entering into a shareholders’ agreement upon the deal’s completion. One...

(EnergyAsia, May 31 2010, Monday) — China’s oil demand surged 12.7% to 35.42 million metric tons (MT) or 8.43 million b/d in April 2010 from year-ago level, said energy and metals information provider Platts. This consumption level was just short of the country’s record of 8.5 million b/d for February 2010. China’s total crude throughput...

(EnergyAsia, May 31 2010, Monday) — Australian Stock Exchange-listed Kangaroo Resources said it is completing the acquisition of five Indonesian coal projects, including the high quality Kubah Indah Coking Coal Project, after successfully concluding due diligence. The acquisitions will be paid for with 300 million Kangaroo shares to be issued to the project vendors upon...

(EnergyAsia, May 27 2010, Thursday) — Singapore has enhanced its nine-year-old Global Trader Programme (GTP) to increase its attractiveness to international commodities traders. The programme’s administrator, the International Enterprise Singapore (IES) has admitted qualify structured commodity financing (SCF) activities for tax concessions, said Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry. To ensure that Singapore...

(EnergyAsia, May 27 2010, Thursday) — Response teams are fighting to contain an environmental disaster after 2,500 tonnes of crude oil spilled into the sea off Singapore’s Changi coast following a collision between Malaysian tanker MT Bunga Kelana and MV Waily, a bulk carrier registered in St Vincent and the Grenadines on Tuesday morning. There...

(EnergyAsia, May 27 2010, Thursday) — Frankfurt-listed LANXESS AG, Germany’s largest specialty chemicals company, has broken ground on 400-million-euro state-of-the-art butyl rubber plant on Jurong Island in Singapore. (US$1=0.75 euro). The 100,000-metric-ton-per-year plant is expected to start up in the first quarter of 2013. Axel Heitmann, LANXESS CEO, said: “In terms of volume, this investment...

(EnergyAsia, May 27 2010, Thursday) — Natural gas is playing an increasingly important role in boosting Australia’s economy while meeting the energy needs of the Asia Pacific region, according to a report just released by the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA). The report found that Australia, which exports 44% of domestic natural gas...

(EnergyAsia, May 26 2010, Thursday) — Oil prices are likely to be supported in the coming years as the scale and devastation of the oil spill from the ruptured BP well in the Gulf of Mexico become clear, said analysts. Political pressure against offshore drilling is fast building up following the April 20 explosion on...

(EnergyAsia, May 26 2010, Thursday) — Europe’s wobbly economies are having a bigger negative impact on the oil markets than the massive loss of crude oil from a ruptured BP well in the Gulf of Mexico. The International Energy Agency has cut its projection for oil demand this year by 220,000 barrels a day to...

(EnergyAsia, May 27 2010, Thursday) — The Indian government is looking to relocate 45 oil depots out of densely populated regions after completing its review of the devastating fire that destroyed the Indian Oil Corporation fuel terminal in Jaipur city. More than a dozen people were killed in the October 29 fire which has forced...

(EnergyAsia, May 26 2010, Wednesday) — US-based EOG Resources Inc (EOG) said its Canadian subsidiary EOG Resources Canada Inc has offered to purchase the shares of Calgary, Canada-based energy development company Galveston LNG Inc. Through its own subsidiary Kitimat LNG Inc, Galveston owns 49% of the Kitimat LNG terminal, a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG)...

(EnergyAsia, May 26 2010, Wednesday) — Russia’s natural resources minister Yuri Trutnev is worried that rising production of shale gas and other unconventional gas around the world could pose a “problem” to Gazprom and exert further downward pressure on already weak natural gas markets. Last year, the US displaced Russia as the largest gas producer...

(EnergyAsia, May 26 2010) — Singapore’s oil and gas industry has been attracting new investors from the Middle Russia and Russia keen on gaining a foothold in Asia’s fast-growing markets. These include Tasweeq of Qatar, which has opened a representative office in the city-state, and Gazprom of Russia, which plans to ramp up trading of...

(EnergyAsia, May 26 2010, Wednesday) — Shanghai-listed China State Construction Engineering Corp Ltd has struck a US$23-billion deal with state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) to build three oil refineries and a fuel complex in the African nation. In a statement, NNPC said the agreement would add 750,000 b/d of capacity to the West African...

(EnergyAsia, May 26 2010, Wednesday) — Logistics firm Panalpina has opened a new facility in Singapore dedicated to serving the oil and gas industry, effectively raising its global warehousing capacity by 10%. The 20,000 sq m facility in Loyang Offshore Supply Base in eastern Singapore is connected to the company’s upstream support operations in the...

(EnergyAsia, May 26 2010, Wednesday) — The huge loss of oil from a ruptured well by BP in the Gulf of Mexico has not affected crude oil prices yet because of the surplus inventory in the US and Europe, and concerns over Europe’s slumping economy. Weak oil demand in the West is weighing heavily on...

(EnergyAsia, May 26 2010, Wednesday) — Stakeholders, in particular the US government, are running out of patience with BP’s inability to stop a well in the Gulf of Mexico from gushing oil into the sea, raising doubts about the British oil giant’s survival. More than a month after a rig collapsed and ruptured a deepwater...