(EnergyAsia, September 8, Tuesday) — Nigeria is unlikely to meet its ambitious GDP targets over the next few years as growing violence has sharply curbed oil and gas production in the oil-rich Niger Delta.   Briefing senior government officials recently, Petroleum Minister Rilwanu Lukman revealed that the country is losing more than one million b/d...

(EnergyAsia, September 8, Tuesday) — The US government has awarded more than US$2 billion in grants to private companies to develop batteries and components for use in electric vehicles which it hopes will revitalise the auto sector and create jobs in the renewable energy industry. Asian companies now dominate in the production of EV batteries....

(EnergyAsia, September 8, Tuesday) — Meridian Energy, New Zealand’s largest electricity generator from renewable resources, said it has purchased Cleantech America, Inc, the San Francisco-based developer of utility scale photovoltaic solar farms. Cleantech America’s first project, CalRENEW-1, is a five-megawatt photovoltaic solar utility-scale facility in Mendota, California that has been approved by the California Public...

(EnergyAsia, September 8, Tuesday) — The World Bank Group has endorsed hydropower development as a multipurpose solution for countries to reduce poverty, combat climate change and manage water resources.   In a special report, Directions in Hydropower, the World Bank Group, encompassing the World Bank, IFC and MIGA, described the current period as timely and...

(EnergyAsia, September 7, Monday) — French engineering firm Technip said it has been awarded a lump sum contract by PT. Chevron Pacific Indonesia to provide services for the Minas field located in Sumatra, Indonesia.   The contract covers detail engineering, project management, procurement assistance and construction management for water treatment and cooling facilities, polymer and...

(EnergyAsia, September 7, Monday) — Australia’s leading integrated energy company, Origin Energy, said its 30 megawatt (MW) Cullerin Range wind farm, located 30 km west of Goulburn in New South Wales (NSW), has begun generating power. This is the first wind farm to become fully operational in that state. The company said the A$95 million...

(EnergyAsia, September 7, Monday) — Singapore’s Keppel FELS Ltd, a subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), said it has delivered the second of three DSS 21 deepwater rigs to Maersk Drilling. Maersk Discoverer has been contracted by Woodside Energy for drilling operations in Australia for three years.  Keppel O&M said it is...

(EnergyAsia, September 7, Monday) — Cavico Corp, a leading infrastructure development company based in Vietnam, said its wholly owned subsidiary, Cavico Transport Construction JSC, has been awarded additional work from the Dakdrinh Hydropower Joint Stock Company for stone processing related to its hydropower plant in Son Tan village in Quang Ngai province. Cavico said the...

(EnergyAsia, September 7, Monday) — Chevron Corp said it expects to start producing oil from its estimated 800-milion-barrel Tombua-Landana field in Angola sometime this year. Start-up had originally been scheduled for this quarter, but this is could be delayed till the last quarter. Chevron said it has invested $3.8 billion into developing the Tombua-Landana field,...

(EnergyAsia, September 7, Monday) — ReneSola Ltd, a leading vertically integrated Chinese manufacturer of solar products, said it has been granted the exclusive right in a letter of intent to develop a 150 megawatt (MW) on- grid solar power project in Taiyangshan Development Zone in Wuzhong city in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The RMB 4.8...

(EnergyAsia, September 7, Monday) — The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) plans to invest US$700 million to rehabilitate the Takoradi Port into the most preferred port in West Africa, particularly to serve the region’s booming oil and gas industry.   The agency will initially pump in US$50 million for a project to be tendered...

(EnergyAsia, September 7, Monday) — Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), a joint venture led by the Anglo Dutch major, said it has resumed production at its EA oilfield in Bayelsa state after more than three years. Production was suspended in February 2006 when the platform became one of the first military targets...

(EnergyAsia, September 4, Friday) — The Australian government has approved the country’s largest wind farm project to be developed at Broken Hill town in New South Wales state. The 1,000MW farm will comprise 600 turbines on a 32,000-hectare site. Officials said the A$1.7 billion project will generate electricity for over 400,000 homes. Initially, the developers...

(EnergyAsia, September 4, Friday) — Shipbrokers have reported receiving a surge in orders for tankers to store gasoil in the waters off Singapore the past two months. They estimate that tankers are now being used to store about 1.5 million metric tonnes of gasoil due to the favourable contango markets in play in Singapore. The...

(EnergyAsia, September 4, Friday) — Singapore is expected to pipe in more natural gas from Indonesia and Malaysia over the next few years as new deals for imports from the two countries take effect and demand recovers. Keppel Gas has a deal worth more than US$3 billion to supply ExxonMobil’s refinery and petrochemical complex on...

(EnergyAsia, September 4, Friday) — Exxon Mobil decided to invest in a second petrochemical complex in Singapore in August 2007, way before its board of directors visited the city state in March this year, the oil giant clarified in a statement. The clarification followed recent remarks by Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew that the...

(EnergyAsia, September 4, Friday) — US major Chevron Corp will buy natural gas from ConocoPhillips in Indonesia under a preliminary $2.5 billion deal. Chevron will use the gas to improve recovery of oil from its Duri field in Central Sumatra to help it meet production targets. The US major is said to be producing 300,000...

(EnergyAsia, September 4, Friday) — A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a provider of distributed power generation systems in China and manufacturer of wind turbines, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire Evatech Co Ltd, a 22-year-old Japanese designer and manufacturer of industrial equipment for liquid crystal displays (LCD) and plasma display panels (PDPs)....

(EnergyAsia, September 4, Friday) — Origin, Australia’s leading integrated energy company, said it welcomes the passage of the government’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) legislation to deliver 20% electricity through renewable sources by 2020. The company’s executive general manager for policy and sustainability, Carl McCamish, said the legislation was a great start in providing a cohesive...

(EnergyAsia, September 4, Friday) — A Sino-Australian consortium said it has been awarded a A$2.724 million research grant to research and develop second-generation biofuels in Australia. (US$1=A$1.2). Sancon Resources Recovery Inc, an environmental services and waste recycling company with operations in China and Australia, said the Algal Fuels Consortium (AFC) clinched the research grant under...

(EnergyAsia, September 3, Thursday) — The US is moving to strengthen economic ties with key crude oil supplier Angola following last month’s successful visit to the African nation by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.   Mrs Clinton met with Angola President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, Oil Minister and Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries president...

(EnergyAsia, September 3, Thursday) — Uganda’s fledgling oil industry could be threatened by the activities of a new rebel group, the Popular Patriotic Front (PPF) in the country’s oil-rich Albertine Rift basin area. The PPF has been recruiting members to fight the Ugandan government in the Masindi and Amuri districts which holds most of the...

(EnergyAsia, September 3, Thursday) — Japan’s Tokuyama Corporation said it will invest 65-billion yen in a new factory in Malaysia’s Sarawak state to manufacture polycrystalline silicon for solar cells. Work on the new factory at the Samalaju Industrial Park is due to start in early 2011, with completion expected in the second quarter of 2013....

(EnergyAsia, September 3, Thursday) — The global credit crisis is impeding the growth of the solar energy industry in the US, despite increased federal and state subsidies and rising demand for solar energy in markets like New Jersey and California, said Pike Research. In a recent report, Pike Research, predicts the US solar market will...

(EnergyAsia, September 3, Thursday) — The recent visits to Africa by US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were part of the US government’s strategy to try offset China’s growing influence in the continent, particularly over claims to its energy resources. Patrick Morris, President and CEO of Gold Star Resources Corp, a...