(EnergyAsia, September 22, Tuesday) — The global airlines industry could report record losses of $11 billion this year, up from an earlier forecast of $9 billion, on account of poor margins and rising fuel costs.   In releasing its latest grim forecast, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said industry revenues for the year are...

(EnergyAsia, September 22, Tuesday) — EarthRights International (ERI) has released separate reports accusing two Western oil companies of being party to corruption, murder and labour abuses in Myanmar and two Singapore banks with helping the regime deposit billions of dollars. ERI said France’s Total and US Chevron played a role in forced labour, killings, high-level...

(EnergyAsia, September 22, Tuesday) — Ezra Holdings Limited, the Singapore-listed owner and operator of offshore support vessels, said it has awarded a US$23 million contract to Aberdeen-based Triton Group Holdings to build five new remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Ezra said Triton will provide the group with ship interface engineering and installation services from its support...

(EnergyAsia, September 22, Tuesday) — Environmental solutions provider Keppel Integrated Engineering Limited (KIE) said it has acquired waste treater Senoko Incineration Plant (SIP) from the Singapore government for S$462 million. (US$1=S$1.41). SIP, with the capacity to treat 2,400 tonnes of waste per day, is owned by Senoko Trust, which is indirectly wholly-owned by KIE. With...

(EnergyAsia, September 22, Tuesday) — Impoverished Sierra Leone and its neighbours are primed for an oil boom after an Anadarko Petroleum-led consortium announced that it had made a potentially multi-billion-barrel find in a 1,100-km stretch off the waters of West Africa. Houston, US-based Anadarko said it found an “active petroleum system” in a deepwater discovery...

(EnergyAsia, September 22, Tuesday) — Australia has made a strong case to become the world’s next energy superpower with the recent spate of announcements and deals involving the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, and export deals. The massive Gorgon LNG project, undertaken by a joint venture partnership consisting of Chevron (50% and operator),...

(EnergyAsia, September 18, Friday) — Canadian Solar said it has signed a second memorandum of understanding with LG CNS Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the LG Group of South Korea, to implement a minimum 10 MW of PV power projects in South Korea next year. LG CNS has been a customer of Canadian Solar since...

(EnergyAsia, September 18, Friday) — Oil and gas contractors have spent US$2.8 billion on goods and services in Indonesia in the first half of the year, said the country’s upstream oil and gas regulator BP Migas. The agency estimated that the 60 registered contractors operating in Indonesia would spend US$15 billion this year. The Indonesian...

(EnergyAsia, September 18, Friday) — Investor appetite for debt securities issued by state-owned energy companies in emerging markets continues to be strong, due mostly to the strength of the oil markets this year and improved prospects of a global economic recovery. Malaysia’s Petronas has raised US$4.5 billion from this year’s biggest dollar-denominated bond issue in...

(EnergyAsia, September 18, Friday) — Qatar Petroleum and Exxon Mobil Corporation have jointly announced the completion and start-up of their Qatargas 2 Train 5, one of the largest operating liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facilities in the world. This follows the start-up of the Qatargas 2 Train 4 in the second quarter. Each has a...

(EnergyAsia, September 18, Friday) — State-owned CPC Corp of Taiwan has started work on expanding its third naphtha processing plant in Kaohsiung after a four-year delay. When completed at a cost of NT$47 billion in 2012, the plant will be able to produce 800,000 tons of ethylene per year, up from its current 270,000-ton capacity....

(EnergyAsia, September 18, Friday) — The share of natural gas in China’s total energy mix is expected to increase over the next several years, as new liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other gas infrastructure projects come on stream. China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) recently received Beijing’s approval to build its fourth LNG terminal with...

(EnergyAsia, September 18, Friday) — Commodity prices will be sharply higher next year because of severe supply constraints, US investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted in a research note. Famed for making accurate bullish calls on commodities, the investment bank said that supply shortages from underinvestment have worsened because of the global financial crisis and tight...

(EnergyAsia, September 18, Friday) — Chevron Corp said its Australian subsidiaries have signed a heads of agreement (HOA) to deliver 1.5 million tonnes per year (mt/y) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas) for 15 years from the Gorgon project. The two companies have an option to extend the agreement for a...

(EnergyAsia, September 17, Thursday) — Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine said its subsidiary, PPL Shipyard Pte Ltd (PPL), has delivered the third ultra-premium high-specification jack-up rig ordered by US-based Vantage Drilling Company. The Aquamarine Driller, based on PPL’s proprietary Pacific Class 375 design, was delivered two months ahead of schedule with payment fully received. Sembcorp Marine said...

(EnergyAsia, September 17, Thursday) — Evergreen Solar and its contract manufacturing partner, Jiawei Solarchina Co, have begun constructing a 100 megawatt manufacturing plant in Wuhan city in China. The plant is due to be completed by spring 2010. The new facilities are part of an agreement between the two companies through which Evergreen Solar will...

(EnergyAsia, September 17, Thursday) — Yantai Raffles Shipyard Limited, one of China’s leading offshore shipyard, recently launched its first elevating support vessel (ESV) for Cyprus-based Remedial Offshore. Yantai said the innovative ESV design is optimised for well intervention in water depths of up to 325 feet. The unit combines capabilities of a jack-up platform, an...

(EnergyAsia, September 17, Thursday) — Canada’s Scotiabank has laid out a case for Alberta province to diversify the exports of its oil sands to China and other markets in Asia instead of relying overwhelmingly on the US. In a recent report, Patricia Mohr, the bank’s vice-president for economics, and commodity market specialist, presented two key...

(EnergyAsia, September 17, Thursday) — US major Chevron Corp said its Australian subsidiaries have signed three long-term sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) for its share of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the giant Gorgon project. The company said the agreements are for a total supply of nearly three million tonnes per year (mt/y) of LNG...

(EnergyAsia, September 17, Thursday) — With A$300 billion in confirmed 20-year sales to China, India and Japan, Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell have announced their decisions to jointly invest A$43 billion to develop the first phase of Australia’s giant offshore Gorgon gas field. (US$1=A$1.2). Chevron Australia Pty Ltd, a unit of the...

(EnergyAsia, September 17, Thursday) — Cairns, Australia-based InterOil Corp said it and its joint venture partners, Petromin PNG Holdings Ltd and Pacific LNG Operations Ltd, have submitted a project agreement to the government of Papua New Guinea for the construction of a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Port Moresby. The NYSE-listed company said...

(EnergyAsia, September 16, Wednesday) — Australian upstream company Oil Search Limited said it recently signed an agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to conduct seismic tests in Block K42 in Iraq. The 511-sq km onshore block lies in the south-eastern fairway of the Zagros Fold Belt of Kurdistan, adjacent to the Pulkhana discovery and...

(EnergyAsia, September 16, Wednesday) — Coal-fired power plants appear to be contaminating the US’ freshwater fish supply with unsafe levels of mercury. A comprehensive study by the US Geological Survey found that all of hundreds of fish samples taken from 291 freshwater streams had been contaminated with mercury. More than a quarter was found to...