(EnergyAsia, January 21 214, Tuesday) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is lending as well as approving funds that it administers to support energy access and develop major power projects across the Asia Pacific region. In Indonesia, the bank has approved a US$224 million loan for a US$410 million transmission project to connect rural households...
(EnergyAsia, January 20 2014, Monday) — A consortium led by Dutch oil and chemicals logistics firm Royal Vopak Terminals has secured a contract to operate Singapore’s first underground oil storage caverns on Jurong Island when it starts up in the second half of this year. State-owned industrial landlord JTC Corp said it has awarded the...
(EnergyAsia, January 20 2014, Monday) — Tougher Chinese policies aimed at reducing dependency on coal will help restrain global coal demand growth over the next five years, said the International Energy Agency (IEA). Despite the slightly slower pace of growth, however, coal will meet more of the increase in global primary energy than oil or...
(EnergyAsia, January 17 2014, Friday) — After decades of rapid growth, China’s domestic oil and gas industry may be forced to slow down in the face of growing public pressure to raise safety, environmental and health standards and practices. Unlike in the past where the factory floor and China’s sloppy work practices dominated the safety...
(EnergyAsia, January 17 2014, Friday) — Russia’s leading oil producer Rosneft said it has received the first multi-dollar-billion pre-payment from China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) for a 25-year crude supply contract signed last June. Rosneft said it has begun supplying 290,000 b/d over the 25-year period, up from just 800,000 tonnes or 16,000 b/d last...
(EnergyAsia, January 16 2014, Thursday) — Asia and the Middle East will account for the bulk of a projected addition of 9.5 million b/d to the world’s refining capacity between 2013 and 2018, said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). This includes 8.6 million b/d of new builds and 900,000 b/d of additions to...
(EnergyAsia, January 16 2014, Thursday) — State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has pushed back the start-up of its oft-delayed 300,000-b/d oil Paradip refinery in the northeastern state of Odisha to the middle of the year. Previously scheduled to start up in 2009, 2012 and 2013, the 300-billion rupee refinery will not meet its new launch...
(EnergyAsia, January 15 2014, Wednesday) — Vopak Horizon Fujairah Limited, a subsidiary of Dutch oil and chemical logistics giant Royal Vopak, recently launched five oil tanker berth pipelines connecting its terminals to Fujairah Port in the UAE. The new pipelines will significantly increase the speed and efficiency of operations for customers of Vopak Horizon Fujairah...
(EnergyAsia, January 15 2014, Wednesday) — China’s largest oil refiner is expected to pay heavy fines and large compensations to victims and their families as well as property owners affected by last November’s deadly explosion at one of its pipelines in a busy section of the coastal city of Qingdao. Despite readily accepting responsibility and...
(EnergyAsia, January 14 2014, Tuesday) — Malaysia’s state energy firm Petronas said the construction of its floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel has moved into a key stage with the laying of its keel at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME)’s Okpo shipyard in South Korea. The first block of the keel, the basic structure...
(EnergyAsia, January 14 2014, Tuesday) — Thanks to a tax change, Russian production of diesel and jet fuel will increase 500,000 b/d by 2020, said US consultant ESAI Energy. In a new study, ESAI said amended duties on oil exports from January 2014 will trigger this “explosive growth” in output by altering refining profitability in...
(EnergyAsia, January 13 2014, Monday) — Oil product prices will fall sharply over the next two years on account of rising supplies and growing competition among refiners, predicts US consultant ESAI. In its recently published “Global Fuels Outlook”, the Boston, Massachusetts firm said refined product spreads will narrow, key product trade flows will disappear and...
(EnergyAsia, January 13 2014, Monday) — Amid growing predictions of a world glutted with shale and other hydrocarbons, Asia’s growing anxiety over its oil and gas supplies is emerging as a major paradox of the global energy markets. Instead of being soothed by the record amount of hydrocarbons being discovered and produced worldwide, Asian countries...
(EnergyAsia, January 10 2013, Friday) — Rising crude oil production in the US and additional pipeline and railroad infrastructure helped keep global crude oil prices stable between 2010 and 2013, said the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Last year, the US benchmark crude, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), reached their highest average price of US$98 per...
(EnergyAsia, January 10 2014, Friday) — A Chinese firm is among a group of investors looking to explore for oil and gas as well as build an oil refinery in Nigeria, said the mining and mineral commissioner of the West African country. Speaking to the media this week, Abubakar Baba Jibril declined to name the...
(EnergyAsia, January 9 2014, Thursday) — ExxonMobil has officially started up what is claimed to be the world’s first plant to convert crude oil directly into petrochemicals, bypassing the intermediary oil products stage, that will enable the Singapore plant to compete against Middle Eastern rivals who have the advantage of cheap feedstock. The Singapore plant...
(EnergyAsia, January 9 2014, Thursday) — China’s Shenhua Energy Co Ltd, one of the world’s biggest coal miners, is planning to venture into the booming shale gas industry in the US through a tie-up with Energy Corp of America (ECA). The company said it will invest US$90 million to set up a subsidiary to work...
(EnergyAsia, January 8 2014, Wednesday) — Faced with rising cost and fierce competition for oil and gas reserves, Thailand’s leading upstream company, PTT Exploration and Production Pcl (PTTEP), said it has lowered its production target for 2020 from 900,000 b/d to a “more realistic” figure of 600,000 b/d. For its latest five-year plan, PTTEP expects...
(EnergyAsia, January 8 2014, Wednesday) — The US and Canada are the only major producers of commercially viable natural gas from shale formations in the world, even though about a dozen other countries have conducted exploratory test wells, said the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). http://energycontents.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60&product_id=301 In a recent study it jointly conducted with the...
(EnergyAsia, January 7 2014, Tuesday) — Several international oil and gas companies have left or are leaving India after years of battling bureaucratic and regulatory hurdles blocking their attempts to undertake oil and gas exploration in the country. Australia’s BHP and Santos along with UK’s BP and Cairn Energy have either abandoned or sold out...
(EnergyAsia, January 7 2013, Tuesday) — India will have a new Prime Minister this year after the badly tarnished Manmohan Singh, 81, announced he would not be seeking a third term with a general election due by May. He will likely be succeeded as head of the ruling Congress Party by Rahul Gandhi, 43, an...
(EnergyAsia, January 6 2014, Monday) — Asian companies will continue to acquire upstream oil and gas assets, but they will be more selective in the face of rising costs, shareholder pressure to grow profits and resource nationalism in host countries, said analysts. The growing caution, most noted among Chinese state-owned firms, was reflected in the...
(EnergyAsia, January 6 2014, Monday) — Kyrgyzstan has formally approved a set of agreements with China worth US$3 billion that includes the construction of a vital 225-km pipeline through the landlocked country for the export of natural gas from Turkmenistan. President Almazbek Atambaev signed the agreements into law last week after they were approved by...
(EnergyAsia, January 3 2014, Friday) — The oil and gas industry in emerging markets is an increasingly attractive target for private equity investments, said consultant Ernst & Young (EY) in a recent joint research report with Mergermarket. http://energycontents.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60&product_id=301 In its survey of 100 senior executives in the global equity business, 55% said they are drawn...
(EnergyAsia, January 3 2014, Friday) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc and India’s state-owned upstream ONGC are now the joint owners of Brazil’s offshore Parque das Conchas (BC-10) oil block after acquiring the remaining 35% held by former partner Petrobras for a comined total US$1.56 billion. According to separate announcements by the three companies, Shell will...