(EnergyAsia, April 22 2014, Tuesday) — South Korean engineering firms have secured contracts worth a total of US$7.2 billion to expand and upgrade two refineries in Kuwait to add to an earlier US$6 billion order for work on an Iraqi refinery. Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co Ltd said it will be involved in two separate...

(EnergyAsia, April 21 2014, Monday) — Russia has gained first-mover advantage in the mass exploitation of the Arctic’s vast oil and gas reserves. Four months after it started production work in the offshore Prirazlomnoye field, the oil subsidiary of gas giant Gazprom has shipped its first crude cargo produced from the platform stormed by 28...

(EnergyAsia, April 18 2014, Friday) — Iran is planning to develop Jask Island on the Gulf of Oman as its second crude oil export terminal after Kharg Island which serves the Persian Gulf. State-owned companies are preparing to build the terminal and oil storage facilities, and a 2,200km pipeline linking them to Iran’s oilfields. President...

(EnergyAsia, April 17 2014, Thursday) — Sinopec, Asia’s largest oil refiner, will soon fully own a Kazakhstan crude oil producing firm after agreeing to pay US$1.2 billion to buy out its equal partner, Russia’s Lukoil. The deal, expected to close by end-2014 after clearing regulatory and shareholder approvals, will strengthen the Chinese firm’s plan to...

(EnergyAsia, April 16 2014, Wednesday) — Australians are concerned that they may end up paying higher prices for domestic natural gas supplies as the country surges ahead of Qatar to become the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) later this decade. In a recent survey, the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE)...

(EnergyAsia, April 15 2014, Tuesday) — Days after the UN published a major report warning of further climate catastrophe from the world’s growing fossil fuels production and consumption, Japan announced it plans to develop coal as a major energy source. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week approved a new national energy plan...

(EnergyAsia, April 14 2014, Monday) — Japanese companies are helping efforts to develop coal-fired power plants in Indonesia and Turkey. They are working with Indonesia’s state-owned power producer PT PLN to build energy-efficient plants equipped with ultra supercritical coal (USC) technology, and conducting feasibility studies for two plants in southern Turkey. PLN and a group...

(EnergyAsia, April 11 2014, Friday) — Japan’s trading losses will continue to rise after reaching a record 20.7-trillion yen last year on the back of soaring energy import costs caused partly by the government’s misplaced economic policy, said a senior economist at the Tokyo-based Institute of Energy Economics of Japan (IEEJ). (US$1=102 yen). In a...

(EnergyAsia, April 10 2014, Thursday) — Rising domestic oil and gas production has enabled the US to slash net energy imports to a 20-year low while raising the pressure on the Obama administration to fast-track the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, said analysts. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), US net imports...

(EnergyAsia, April 9 2014, Wednesday) — Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions are expected to rise as its energy-starved economy consumes more oil and coal to offset the loss of nuclear energy and the rising cost of imported natural gas. The Japanese economy is increasingly feeling the burden of rising energy cost brought on by the complete...

(EnergyAsia, April 8 2014, Tuesday) — Australia’s fears for its growing fuel import dependence rose another notch last week when BP said it plans to close a 102,000 b/d refinery in Queensland state that has been operating since 1965. When the Bulwer Island refinery in Brisbane shuts around mid-2015, Australia will be left with just...

(EnergyAsia, April 7 2014, Monday) — Bowing to domestic pressure, Malaysia’s state-owned energy Petronas has decided to proceed with its hotly debated proposal to invest US$27 billion in an oil-petrochemical complex in southern Johor state. Last week, Petronas said it had approved the project’s final investment decision (FID) although it will delay the refinery’s start-up...

(EnergyAsia, April 4 2014, Friday) — As it continues to open up to the world, Myanmar’s rapidly growing economy faces the twin threats of rising inflation and a widening current account deficit, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Real GDP is expected to grow by 7.75% for the current year to March 31 2015 after...

(EnergyAsia, April 3 2014, Thursday) — The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is seeking public feeback for its plans to launch an electricity futures contract to help consumers manage their energy costs and producers hedge their costs in a more competitive market. SGX is proposing to launch the contract on its derivatives trading platform and settled trades...