(EnergyAsia, June 25 2013, Tuesday) — US major ExxonMobil has launched a new major laboratory in the Chinese city of Shanghai to provide analysis for lubricants and oil used in industrial machinery across the Asia Pacific region. The company said its latest Signum laboratory, the fourth in the world, will offer the most modern oil (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 25 2013, Tuesday) — Russia fast-tracked its largest oil producer Rosneft towards global supermajor status by helping it secure a record number of landmark oil and gas agreements with international companies and two governments. At the conclusion of last week’s 17th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced and watched (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 24 2013, Monday) — Russian energy major Rosneft has become a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier by securing its first long-term contracts last Friday with Switzerland’s Vitol and Japan’s Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd (Sodeco) and Marubeni. In breaking Gazprom’s monopoly over the country’s LNG trade, Russia’s largest crude oil producer (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 24 2013, Monday) — Ships sailing the congested narrow straits off Malaysia and Singapore are at risk of accidents from poor visibility caused by record-thick smog set off by forest fires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. With more than 140 ships from oil tankers to container ships and passenger ferries sailing the (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 21 2013, Friday) — Brazil’s state energy firm Petrobras said it has signed a letter of intent with China Petroleum and Chemical Corp or Sinopec build a 300,000-b/d oil refinery in South America’s largest country. Petrobras, which is looking to build four similar-sized refineries to meet rising domestic fuel demand, said the two (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 21 2013, Friday) — Despite a projected 5% p.a. rise in demand through 2018, the oil tanker market faces a struggle to recover as it “is still blighted by surplus capacity”, according to the latest findings by UK-based consultant Drewry Maritime Research. “Prompt excessive ordering” could overwhelm the projected healthy 5% growth rate (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 20 2013, Thursday) — Natural gas prices at Henry Hub will experience “significant” price volatility when the US starts exporting liquefied natural gas, said New York City-based consultant PIRA Energy Group. In a study, entitled “Liquefied Henry Hub: The Repercussions of North American LNG Exports at Home and Abroad,” PIRA predicts the volatility (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 20 2013, Thursday) — Tethys Petroleum Limited said it has completed an agreement with France’s Total Exploration and Production and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) for their subsidiaries to each acquire a one- third interest in its production sharing contract (PSC) in Tajikistan’s Bokhtar oil and gas field. Tethys, listed on the main (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 19 2013, Wednesday) — Hong Kong-listed Brightoil Petroleum Holdings Limited said it expects to complete the construction of a RMB1.32-billion yuan oil storage terminal on Waidiao Island in Zhoushan city in China’s Zhejiang province by the second half of 2015. (US$1=6.13 yuan). The company said wholly owned subsidiary Brightoil Petroleum Storage (Zhoushan) Co (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 18 2013, Tuesday) — UK gas giant BG Group said it has completed the sale of its 65.12% stake in India’s largest private natural gas distributor to a firm owned by the Gujarat state government for 24.6 billion rupees. (US$1=58 rupees). The deal is a follow through of an agreement that BG announced (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 18 2013, Tuesday) — Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL), a global cooperative funded by more than 160 energy companies to combat oil spills and pollution at sea, last week officially open an new expanded base in Singapore with enhanced response capabilities. Equipped with well capping and large specialised equipment, dispersant, a training centre (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 17 2013, Monday) — US major ExxonMobil and Russia’s Rosneft, the largest energy companies in the two countries, said they have agreed to jointly establish an Arctic Research Centre (ARC) and share technology to support their joint ventures in developing hydrocarbon reserves around the world. Rosneft will hold a two-third share in ARC (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 17 2013, Monday) — Angola has exported its first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) with the start-up of its long-delayed US$10 billion plant near the northern city of Soyo along the Congo River, said owner and operator Angola LNG Ltd. Sonangol, the West African nation’s state oil and gas company which owns (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 14 2013, Friday) — Coal made a big comeback last year as its share in the global energy mix reached 29.9%, its highest level since 1970, said BP. Reflecting the world’s declining concern with global warming, its consumption of coal, the leading source of greenhouse gases, grew by 2.5%, ahead of oil’s 0.9% (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 14 2013, Friday) — World production of oil, shale, oilsands and natural gas liquids (NGL) collectively rose 2.2% to a record 86.152 million b/d last year, with the US responsible for nearly half that increase, said BP. But average oil prices were also at an all-time high as demand continued to climb to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, June 13 2013, Thursday) — Switzerland-based energy trader Gunvor Group and Germany’s Oiltanking GmbH have announced they will jointly build a new oil storage terminal on the Indonesian island of Karimun by mid-2015. Oiltanking Karimun, located more than 60 km west of Asia’s main oil trading hub in Singapore, will have an initial storage (more…)