(EnergyAsia, August 25, Monday) – Caltex Australia Ltd, the country’s only listed downstream oil company, said lower refining margins contributed to a 33% decline in its first-half profit to A$196 million. (US$1=A$1.14). The company said it will pay an interim dividend of A$0.36 per share. Managing director Des King said the company had benefited from...

(EnergyAsia, August 25, Monday) — An advanced electricity network using distributed energy resources – local, low emission and renewable power – is the vision of a national, collaborative research cluster for Australia’s future energy supply.   The Intelligent Grid Cluster, launched in Sydney last week by Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research,...

(EnergyAsia, August 25, Monday) — US-based Welwind Energy International Corp has provided an update on two of its wind power projects.   It said that last month’s heavy flooding sweeping through most parts of southern China have caused a delay in Welwind’s project in Zhanjiang province. Meetings scheduled with provincial officials had to be postponed...

(EnergyAsia, Aug 25, Monday) — The Indian government has proposed to build a 2.5-million-metric-tonne underground crude oil storage facility in Padoor-Heroor village in Karnataka state’s Udupi district. The government has established Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited as the agency to build and manage the country’s first underground oil storage. The Rs12.5 billion facility will serve...

(EnergyAsia, August 25, Monday) — The Middle East will continue to experience strong oil demand growth this year, said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Buoyed by strong economic growth, the region’s oil demand is expected to rise by at least 290,000 b/d this quarter. It grew by 330,000 b/d to around 6.8 million...

(EnergyAsia, August 22, Friday) — Vietnamese agencies are building a 6,000-tonne natural gas storage facility in Go Dau industrial park in the southern province of Dong Nai at a cost of 215 billion billion. (US$13 million). They will also build a pipeline system and a port that will handle tankers of at least 50,000 tonnes....

(EnergyAsia, August 22, Friday) — PTT Plc, Thailand’s largest state energy firm, said its second quarter net profit rose 13.8% to a record 29.9 billion baht on account of higher gas sales and refinery profits. (US$1=33 baht). Thailand’s biggest listed company at around $21 billion monopolises the country’s gas pipeline business. First-half net profit was...

(EnergyAsia, August 22, Friday) — Netherlands’ Scheuten said it has established a strategic alliance with Taiwanese disc manufacturer Ritek. Scheuten said its solar knowledge combined with Ritek’s optical media and OLED expertise will enable them to take the solar energy to the next level. Ritek will start with the production of 30MW of silicon modules...

(EnergyAsia, August 22, Friday)— Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp plans to more than double its refrigerated LPG storage capacity to 180,000 tonnes to support its petrochemicals production. The privately-held firm has started work on building two new 50,000-tonne tanks in Mai Liao city in northwestern Yunlin county by 2010. The company now has two 40,000-tonne tanks...

(EnergyAsia, August 22, Friday) — Advanced Holdings Ltd, a Singapore-based supplier of proprietary process equipment and technologies, clean energy solutions and environmental technologies, said its net profit jumped by almost a third to S$5.4 million for the first half of 2008 compared with the same period last year. (US$1=S$1.4). Advanced said its revenue grew 60%...

(EnergyAsia, August 22, Friday) — International air passenger growth slowed while cargo traffic fell for June, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA). IATA said cargo contracted by 0.8% compared to June 2007 while passenger demand growth fell to 3.8%, the lowest level since 2003. Passenger load factors dropped to 77.6%, 1.2 percentage points below...

(EnergyAsia, August 22, Friday) — The Indonesian government had cancelled the licences of up to 21 domestic and foreign companies who had proposed to set up oil refineries between 1994 and 2000. State agency Capital Investment Board (BKPM) said the companies had failed to meet the terms of their investment licences after promising to invest...

(EnergyAsia, August 22, Friday) — LDK Solar, a manufacturer of solar wafers, said it has signed a five-year contract to supply multicrystalline solar wafers to India-based XL Telecom & Energy Limited. LDK Solar will deliver approximately 300 MW of multicrystalline silicon solar wafers to XL Telecom & Energy Limited over a five-year period, starting in...

(EnergyAsia, August 22, Friday) — IndianOil Skytanking (IOSL) is interested to build and operate fuel storage facilities at the country’s largest 15 airports, in particular the upgraded international airports in New Delhi and Mumbai, following its success in at the Bangalore International Airport. IOSL, a joint venture between Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Indian Oiltanking and...

(EnergyAsia, August 21, Thursday) — Oil and gas companies are no longer queuing up to explore in Canada’s hydrocarbon-rich Alberta province. The province’s takings from the sale of its land for exploration and production have been steadily declining, the consequence of its new royalty regime that will increase the government’s share of future oil and...

(EnergyAsia, August 21, Thursday) — Canada’s British Columbia province may have enough natural gas to make it self sufficient for decades, according to recent exploration results. The Horn River Basin in the province’s northeastern corner may have more than gas reserves of over 50 trillion cubic feet. Companies keen on tapping the province’s new gas...

(EnergyAsia, August 21, Thursday) — China Petrochemical Corporation or Sinopec Group said it has started filling up its new Chenshan oil products depot in Shanghai city. The 335,000-cubic metre depot is located within the storage terminal of Sinopec subsidiary Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co Ltd. The facility includes 175,000 cubic metres of new tank capacity and...

(EnergyAsia, August 21, Thursday) — Fire has destroyed two oil storage tanks in the southern Malaysian port of Tanjung Langsat in Johor state. About 500 firemen fought the blaze for 67 hours before putting it under control. Local police said the fire started at one of the tanks holding 17.8 million litres of unleaded gasoline...

(EnergyAsia, August 21, Thursday) — Shell Refining Company, the Malaysian subsidiary of the oil major, has reported a record after-tax net profit of RM357 million for the second quarter of 2008.  This represented an increase of RM189 million over the same period last year. (US$1=RM3.33). The second quarter earnings included an after-tax stockholding gain of...

(EnergyAsia, August 21, Thursday) — Canada’s Red Hill Energy said it is undertaking a five-tonne bulk sampling and open pit expansion program at its Ulaan Ovoo coal project in northern Mongolia.  As part of the program, carried out under the supervision of Australia’s Minarco-MineConsult Ltd (MMC), a five-tonne working section representative sample will be removed...

(EnergyAsia, August 21, Thursday) — Canada’s increasingly stringent requirements to bury carbon dioxide (CO2) set free during oil sands extraction could add another US$13 a barrel to the cost of producing oil from Alberta province’s heavy crude deposits. Already, the industry is faced with rising cost from scarce labour and materials which have pushed production...

(EnergyAsia, August 21, Thursday) — Tougher environmental regulations being proposed could hamper the development of oil sands projects in Canada’s Alberta province, French oil giant Total has warned. Often lauded as the “next Saudi Arabia” with proven oil reserves of 177 billion, Alberta may not live up to its promise if proposed tight environmental regulations...

(EnergyAsia, August 21, Thursday) — North America is probably home to much larger natural gas reserves than previously thought due to increasing discoveries and production of gas in shale rock or tight formation. This could potentially reverse the region’s decline in gas production. Firms such as EnCana, Apache and EOG Resources have all put out...