(EnergyAsia, March 25, Wednesday) — Indonesia’s state energy firm Pertamina remains keen on upgrading its Balikpapan refinery, and recently recruited Japan’s Itochu and Dubai-based ETA Star to review plans for the project. Pertamina is considering expanding the refinery by 20,000 b/d to 280,000 b/d, with a technology upgrade to allow for more processing of sour...

(EnergyAsia, March 25, Wednesday) — The Bharat Oman Refineries Company has delayed its plan for an initial public offering (IPO) to raise money to help finance a Rs104 billion refinery. (US$1=Rs51). The company, a joint venture between India’s Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Oman Oil Company, was set up largely to build a six-million...

(EnergyAsia, March 25, Wednesday) — The Chinese government wants private companies and refiners to join in the national effort to stockpile oil for emergency use. It is working with six independent refineries to use their combined 2.3 million tonnes of storage capacity to hold strategic oil stockpiles. The refiners have reduced operating rates in past...

(EnergyAsia, March 25, Wednesday) — The Kuwaiti government has cancelled a proposed US$15 billion refinery project after it ran into further opposition in parliament. Opposition politicians and government watchdogs have repeatedly said that the contract awards for the 615,000 b/d project violated the country’s regulations, with some critics alleging corruption. The project has been the...

(EnergyAsia, March 25, Wednesday) — ExxonMobil Chemical Company, the fully-owned subsidiary of the US oil major, said it has decided to build a technology centre in Shanghai city, China to provide product applications support for its growing business in Asia. Expected to start up next year, the new technology centre in the Shanghai Zizhu Science-based...

(EnergyAsia, March 25, Wednesday) — Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang toured the state-of-the-art SunFab Solar Module Reliability Testing facility of US-based Applied Materials in Xi’an city in Shaanxi province, China last week. He discussed with company executives the prospects for solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity in China, viewed the solar PV array at the campus, and...

(EnergyAsia, March 25, Wednesday) — China has completed filling up the first phase of its four strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) terminals as it took advantage of the recent sharp decline in oil prices. The reserves hold an estimated 100 million barrels of crude oil. In a second expansion phase, China is planning to lift its...

(EnergyAsia, March 24, Tuesday) — India’s privately held Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is bidding to take over Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) to boost their competitiveness on the world oil market. As part of the deal, RIL is offering to pay Rs60 per share for Chevron’s 5% stake in RPL. (US$1 = Rs51). With RPL firmly...

(EnergyAsia, March 24, Tuesday) — China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) said it has received approval from the central government to build a large oil refinery in the southern province of Guangdong.   The proposed 10-million-ton-per-year refinery, CNPC’s first unit on China’s southeastern coast, will process heavy Venezuelan crude oil. The bulk of CNPC’s refining capacity...

(EnergyAsia, March 24, Tuesday) — China and Russia are inching closer towards building a US$4 billion joint venture refinery in Tianjin.   The project would be jointly developed by China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Russia’s Rosneft.   The 10-million-tonne-per-year plant will be located in Tianjin’s Binhai industrial zone, and scheduled to start up as...

(EnergyAsia, March 24, Tuesday) — A well-connected Malaysian consortium is due to start work on an ambitious oil refinery complex in the northern state of Kedah in July, said the state government. The project will be sited in the Sungai Limau Hydrocarbon Hub (SULIHH), formerly known as the Yan Petroleum Industry Zone. Menteri Besar or...

(EnergyAsia, March 24, Tuesday) — Indonesian state oil company Pertamina plans to rebuild its Plumpang depot in the northern part of Jakarta city, and relocate some of the 7,000 affected families in the process. The depot suffered massive damage, with one storage tank destroyed and two other tanks damaged, in a blaze in January. The...

(EnergyAsia, March 24, Tuesday) — ENN Solar Energy Co Ltd said it has produced China’s first 5.7-sq metre high-efficiency, tandem junction thin film photovoltaic (PV) panels using a SunFab™ thin film line supplied by Applied Materials Inc. Working at ENN’s leading-edge facility in Langfang city in China, ENN and Applied achieved this milestone just five...

(EnergyAsia, March 24, Tuesday) — The 10-member ASEAN group of countries is still working to complete an energy pact that would giving consumer countries access to oil at discounted prices. ASEAN, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, was to have signed the agreement at a summit in...

 (EnergyAsia, March 23, Monday) — Oerlikon Solar and Sun Well Solar, a subsidiary of CMC Magnetics, said they have completed the 40 MW amorphous thin film silicon production line one month ahead of schedule.The installation includes the innovative Oerlikon Solar LPCVD TCO front and back contact technology, which has clearly proven its capability in mass...

 (EnergyAsia, March 23, Monday) — One of the most promising clean energy sectors now stands accused of building up — and ignoring — the health, environmental and safety threats posed to workers and residents from its production process and waste. The use and build-up of toxic chemicals and byproducts from solar cells manufacturing is starting to...

 (EnergyAsia, March 23, Monday) — The oil trade in Singapore remained “resilient” in January and February despite the financial crisis and lower global oil demand.In fact, firms are setting up trading desks in Singapore, said trade promotion agency International Enterprise (IE) Singapore.One recent entrant is bunker fuel supplier Brightoil which set up a trading desk...

 (EnergyAsia, March 23, Monday) — Keppel Corp and SembMarine, the world’s two largest oil rig builders, could see a significant reduction in business and profit in the wake of the global financial crisis and lower oil demand.Analysts said that customers of the two Singapore-listed companies may delay payments, try to renegotiate contracts or even cancel...

(EnergyAsia, March 23, Monday) — Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) is shifting its investments towards developing renewable energy.The company is looking to build a 20-30 megawatt (MW) hydroelectric power plant on Luzon island, and undertaking feasibility studies for hydropower projects in Babuyan and Langogan in Palawan.It is also planning to invest in wind, geothermal, ocean...

(EnergyAsia, March 23, Monday) — GE Energy said it recently signed a contract for nearly US$1 billion to supply more than 30 Frame 7EA gas turbines for the Saudi Electricity Company’s (SEC) Riyadh Power Plant 10 (PP10).The project, the latest in a series of GE contracts for SEC power projects, will add 2,000 megawatts (MW)...

 (EnergyAsia, March 23, Monday) — A prominent lobby group for electric vehicles, Plug In America, is celebrating one of its biggest victories with the stimulus bill that President Obama signed into law last month.The lobby said that intense congressional advocacy and more than 60,000 emails from our supporters helped shape the bill’s plug-positive legislation, which...

(EnergyAsia, March 23, Monday) — China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has applied to state regulators to double the capacity of its upcoming 10-million-tonne-per-year refinery in Qinzhou in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.CNPC has also submitted plans to build depots to store three million tonnes of crude and one million tonnes of refined products.China’s largest...

(EnergyAsia, March 20, Friday) — ExxonMobil has managed to fully replenish all the oil it produced in 2008, and then some. Additions to the company’s proven reserves were 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, or 103% of 2008 production. Stripping out asset sales, reserve additions were even higher, at 110% of production. The US major...