(EnergyAsia, May 2, Friday) — China’s Trina Solar said it has decided to discontinue the development of its previously announced 10,000 MT polysilicon production facility having a total estimated cost of $1 billion. The company also announced that its related equipment supply contract with GT Solar Incorporated, which was subject to final approval by the...

(EnergyAsia, May 2, Friday) — Finland’s engineering firm Wärtsilä said it has secured an order for an engine-driven combined heat and power (CHP) plant that will run on the liquid biofuel extracted from the seeds of the jatropha plant. The plant will be the first power plant in the world ever to produce both electricity...

(EnergyAsia, May 2, Friday) — The Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), operated by BP, has announced the start-up of oil production from the Deep Water Gunashli (DWG) platform complex as scheduled. The start-up completes the third phase of development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea. ACG’s shareholders include...

(EnergyAsia, May 2, Friday) — Shares in Origin Energy Ltd, Australia’s second-largest power retailer, surged nearly 40% on Wednesday after UL’s BG Group offered to acquire it for A$13 billion. (US$1=A$1.07). The rise reflected the premium BG is prepared to pay over Origin’s share price before news of the proposed takeover was announced. BG has...

(EnergyAsia, May 2, Friday) — Australian natural resources giant BHP Billiton said it has secured a “significant long term” agreement with another Australian company, Origin Energy, to supply gas to the southeastern part of the country. Under the agreement, 250 petajoules (PJs) of natural gas will be supplied over 10 years from the Gippsland Basin...

(EnergyAsia, April 30, Wednesday) — China’s refined oil traders will need to maintain a minimum commercial reserve of 15 days of sales effective May 1 under a new mandate issued by the central government. The measure is aimed at reducing the fuel shortages and rationing that have plagued China over the past year and to...

(EnergyAsia, April 30, Wednesday) — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) plans to boost its 47 million tonnes of refining capacity to 80 million tonnes per year by 2012 in a bid to make India a leading oil refining hub in the world. IOC’s projects include a large petrochemicals complex at Panipat in the northern state of...

(EnergyAsia, April 30, Wednesday) — India’s airlines are making a beeline for the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad to fill up their planes because it offers the country’s cheapest aviation turbine or jet fuel. The low cost is due to the airport’s new open-access competitive systems for jet fuel supplies and a sharp...

(EnergyAsia, April 30, Wednesday) — India’s Reliance Industries is seeking to acquire or invest in oil storage terminals in key locations around the world as it embarks on a more aggressive global trading strategy. This will take into account the start-up of its new 580,000 b/d export refinery at Jamnagar in India’s western Gujarat state...

(EnergyAsia, April 30, Wednesday) — Nippon Oil, Japan’s biggest oil refiner, plans to convert its majority-owned Toyama refinery into an oil storage terminal facility from next March. The move comes amid declining oil demand in Japan, the world’s third-biggest consumer of oil. The 60,000 b/d Toyama refinery in northern Japan is operated by Nihonkai Oil,...

(EnergyAsia, April 30, Wednesday) — The US government will continue to buy crude oil for its strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) even with oil prices holding are well above US$100 a barrel, officials said. The US Energy Department expects to spend almost US$600 million to replace the 11 million barrels of crude it sold to refineries...

(EnergyAsia, April 30, Wednesday) — Philippine oil firm Petron is looking for an alternative storage site to replace its Pandacan oil depot which is under orders by the Supreme Court to be relocated.   One option would be for a build-operate-transfer deal under which a third party investor would finance the construction of a new...

(EnergyAsia, April 30, Wednesday) — PetroVietnam has signed a joint venture deal with Japanese and Kuwaiti partners for a $6 billion oil refinery-petrochemicals complex in Nghi Son in Thanh Hoa province.  PetroVietnam will be teaming up with Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), and Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan and Mitsui Chemicals to build the plant located south of...

(EnergyAsia, April 30, Wednesday) — Citing the threat of rising fuel costs, Australia’s Qantas airlines said it will suspend share buybacks and raise air fares from May 9 to maintain profitability. Domestic fares will increase by approximately 3.5% while international fares will rise by around 3% for all Qantas and QantasLink routes across all classes....

(EnergyAsia, April 30, Wednesday) — The power plant of Hong Kong-based’s CLP-owned Samana Wind Farm was recently inaugurated by the Chief Minister of India’s Guarant state, Narendra Modi at a reception attended by Energy Minister Shri Saurabh Patel and Minister for Water and Irrigation Shri Nitin Patel. CLP India will invest Rs5 billion in the...

(EnergyAsia, April 29, Tuesday) — China and India are ready to help build new oil refineries in Nigeria, which increasingly is exporting its crude to Asia. The refineries would process Nigerian crude for its domestic market as well as for export of finished products to China and India. Despite its role as Africa’s largest oil...

(EnergyAsia, April 29, Tuesday) — Car travel is not sustainable and needs to be drastically curbed to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, a professor from Australia’s Monash University argued in a new research paper. Damon Honnery said governments must focus on phasing out private car travel, for the sake of energy efficiency and lower...

(EnergyAsia, April 29, Tuesday) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted Asia’s economic growth to slow down by 1.25 percentage points to 6.2% in 2008 due to the weak outlook for the advanced economies. While Asia’s prospects will remain buoyant, led by continued strong performances by China and India, the IMF’s April Regional Economic...

(EnergyAsia, April 29, Tuesday) — IndianOil Corp said its share of the domestic oil market grew to 48.9% in FY2007 following an 8.7% rise in its sale of oil products. As its refineries increased production, the company saw sales hit a record 58.3 million tonnes while export of oil products rose 8.5% to 3.3 million...

(EnergyAsia, April 29, Tuesday) — Two hundred megawatts of highly efficient gas-fired peaking capacity to support increasing levels of renewable electricity generation have come a step closer, with Contact Energy executing contracts to purchase two fast-start gas turbine peaking units. Contact Energy CEO, David Baldwin, recently signed an agreement with General Electric (GE) to purchase...

(EnergyAsia, April 29, Tuesday) — China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) said it is on track to complete its new 12-million tonne per year refinery at Huizhou in the southern province of Guangdong in October. It will be the upstream company’s first oil refinery, which could be eventually expanded to 24- million tonnes per year....