(EnergyAsia, August 20, Thursday) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said its executive board has agreed to lend Pakistan an extra $3.2 billion to fund priority spending and help the government provide assistance to nearly three million people displaced by military operations and a difficult security situation. The additional sum was approved after the board...

(EnergyAsia, August 20, Thursday) — Sinoenergy Corp, a Nasdaq-listed company in China’s compressed natural gas (CNG) industry, has reported a loss of $2.5 million for the three months, and $3.6 million for the nine months ended June 30 2009. The company said sales for the quarter ended June 30 declined 24% to $7.7 million from...

(EnergyAsia, August 20, Thursday) — The US and China are competing to secure Africa’s vast reserves of natural resources. The stakes are high, with oil probably the most sought after prize. West Africa supplies as much oil to the US as Saudi Arabia. By 2015, the region could supply some 25% of US oil imports....

(EnergyAsia, August 20, Thursday) — Convicted of corruption, former Sinopec chairman Chen Tonghai will not be executed yet as he has been given a “suspended death sentence”. Mr Chen, 60, was arrested in May 2007 while still with Sinopec and trying to flee Beijing. Last month, he was found guilty of receiving nearly 200 million...

 (EnergyAsia, August 20, Thursday) — Indonesian officials are considering new regulations under a new law that may force foreign firms to sell up to 20% of their stakes in wholly-owned mines to local investors. The regulations, which could be effected from October, state that foreign investors would have to gradually sell 20% of their stakes...

(EnergyAsia, August 20, Thursday) — US major Chevron Corp said it has sold off its marketing business units in four African countries as part of an ongoing effort to re-align its global market strategy. Subsidiary Chevron Africa Holdings Ltd sold off assets in Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria following through on agreements with various buyers...

(EnergyAsia, August 20, Thursday) — Australian upstream company Santos said it has found natural gas in the Browse Basin off the coast of Western Australia state. The gas reserves were found in a 65-metre gross gas column in the Burnside-1ST1 exploration well in permit WA-281-P of the Brewster Sandstone. Santos said it will undertake more...

(EnergyAsia, August 20, Thursday) — Indonesia said it is close to completing negotiations to supply 25 million metric tons of LNG to a Japanese consortium, extending contracts signed in the 1970s. The signing of the sales and purchase agreement is expected to be completed by October, after being delayed from the original target of June,...

(EnergyAsia, August 19, Wednesday) — US-based Afton Chemical Corp said it is investing in a new manufacturing plant on Jurong Island in Singapore that will be operated by Chemical Specialties Singapore (Pte) Ltd. The Richmond, Virginia company said the new plant will serve its customers in the region by improving security of supply and shorter...

(EnergyAsia, August 19, Wednesday) — Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries has reported a 5% rise to S$275.5 million in its net profit after tax and minority interest (PATMI) for the first six months of 2009. (US$1=S$1.45). Compared with the same period last year, profit before tax grew 7% from S$434.7 million to S$464.7 million, while turnover fell...

(EnergyAsia, August 19, Wednesday) — Singapore may see another player in the bunker business as Switzerland-based Mercuria Energy Trading appears ready to start supplying and trading fuel from a supertanker. The company has leased Ticen Ocean from Titan Petrochemicals Group Ltd for one year and anchored it off southern Malaysian waters. Another trader, Southern Petrochemical...

(EnergyAsia, August 19, Wednesday) — Producers and exporters expect natural gas prices to briefly follow the temporary strength of oil prices despite the supply glut. At their recent meeting in Doha, Qatar, members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), officials noted that natural gas prices tend to lag behind oil prices by about six...

(EnergyAsia, August 19, Wednesday) — Armed men associated with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) recently attacked the strategic Okan manifold of US major Chevron, eroding the country’s oil production capability. The attack, one of several against oil companies in recent months, has further reduced Nigeria’s all-important oil revenue by 2.2...

(EnergyAsia, August 19, Wednesday) — State-owned China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) said it refined 86.9 million tonnes of crude oil in the first half of 2009, up 1.82% from the same period last year. The output of diesel, its main product, fell 5.4% to 32.4 million tonnes, but that decline was largely cancelled out...

(EnergyAsia, August 19, Wednesday) — A new report by the Washington DC, US-based World Resources Institute points to human activity as the primary cause of global warming with evidence that climate change impacts are accelerating. The report compiles peer-reviewed research including evidence that melting rates for mountain glaciers around the world doubled between 2004 and...

(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — Record high oil prices pushed the income of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last year to a little more than US$1 trillion, up 35 % from that of the previous year. In 2008, the average price of benchmark US crude oil futures rose to US$99 from US$72...

(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — Nigeria’s oil production has fallen to less than 1.6 million barrels per day (b/d) or about half of its production capacity as a result of continuing military conflict in the Niger Delta, the heart of the country’s oil and gas industry.   The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger...

(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — Exxon Mobil Corp and Shell are looking for buyers for their combined 36% stake in New Zealand Refining Co, the operator of the country’s only oil refinery. The US major holds a 19% stake while the Anglo Dutch company has a 17% stake. The move represents attempts by both companies...

(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — Northern Pakistan is facing worsening shortages of oil products as the region’s two major refineries, Attock Refinery Limited and Pak-Arab Refining Co (Parco), have slashed production to as low as 30% of capacity. Their reduced production and lower sales to Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has left the state firm with...

(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — Thailand’s PTT Aromatics and Refinery (PTTAR) said it will invest US$200 million to upgrade the company’s oil production facilities to meet Euro 4 pollution standards. It is in talks with construction firms for construction work to start later this year on installing facilities that will produce Euro 4 standard fuels. ...

(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine, said it has been awarded a US$160 million contract by Modec Offshore Production Systems (Singapore) Pte Ltd to convert a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) tanker, the Ohdoh, to a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will...

(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — State oil and gas company PetroVietnam has applied for a licence to build a fuel depot to serve a chain of retail outlets in the increasingly prosperous northern province of Quang Ninh. The depot in Dam Nha Mac town will be managed by subsidiary PVOil Corp which owns and operates...

(EnergyAsia, August 18, Tuesday) — China’s Ministry of Commerce has granted nine companies the licence to operate as wholesalers of refined oil products. The companies include China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the country’s top offshore oil and gas producer; CNOOC’s sales arm, China National Offshore Oil Zhongjie Petrochemical Co Ltd; and the sales subsidiaries...

(EnergyAsia, August 17, Monday) — PetroChina Co, Asia’s largest oil and gas producer, has moved closer to completing the takeover of Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC), which owns one of the city-state’s three major oil refineries. Independent directors of SPC have recommended that shareholders accept the offer of PetroChina, which earlier acquired Keppel Corp.’s 45.51 %...