(EnergyAsia, April 5 2013, Friday) — The Vietnamese government has suspended the development of a proposed 8-trillion-dong coal handling terminal at the Ke Ga deepwater port in Binh Thuan province. (US$1=21,000 dong). No reason was given but state-owned Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) which has been working on the project since 2009...
(EnergyAsia, April 5 2013, Friday) — Upstream energy equipment and solutions services providers are anticipating a continuing surge in Asian demand in coming years as China and other countries step up their exploration and production activities. While China’s international expansion has been capturing most of the headlines, Beijing is also encouraging deepwater projects off its (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 4 2013, Thursday) — Sri Lanka’s state Ceylon Electricity Board is planning to build a 500 MW coal-fired power plant in the country’s southwestern coast, said Power Minister Pavithradevi Wanniarachchi. The Sri Lankan government is looking to Japan to provide both the funds and technology for the proposed plant at Ahuruwella in Induruwa....
(EnergyAsia, April 4 2013, Thursday) — State-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) is working with the railways and coal ministries to increase the country’s rail coal-carrying capacity. As part of a long-term solution to ensure prompt delivery of coal supplies to power plants across India, CIL said it is also planning to invest US$1.4 billion to...
(EnergyAsia, April 4 2013, Thursday) — The Queensland state government has confirmed that it plans to sell nearly half its stake in Australia’s rail-based coal transporter Aurizon Holdings for around A$806 million. (US$1=A$0.96). The state government’s Treasurer and trade minister Tim Nicholls said it will sell 200 million shares to domestic and international institutional and (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 4 2013, Thursday) — From the April 2013 issue of EnergyAsia Report: Depending on who’s telling the story, the world is either headed for a bleak conflict-ridden future of scarce, unaffordable oil and gas supplies, or it will be glutted for decades as major countries become energy superpowers by exploiting their newly-discovered huge...
(EnergyAsia, April 3 2013, Wednesday) — Under pressure from the Indian government, state-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) has agreed to accept production and supply targets for the current financial year ending March 31 2014 which it is not confident of achieving. The embattled company which accounts for more than 80% of India’s coal production has...
(EnergyAsia, April 3 2013, Wednesday) — The Chinese government has approved state-owned China National Petroleum Corp’s (CNPC) proposed venture with Royal Dutch Shell to jointly develop shale gas in Sichuan province, paving the way for the European major to invest US$1 billion in the country’s huge unconventional hydrocarbon reserves. According to their contract signed last...
(EnergyAsia, April 3 2013, Wednesday) — About 40 energy officials representing the governments of Japan and Vietnam held their first bilateral dialogue in Hanoi last month to dicsuss trade and policy issues facing the coal industry. The delegations were led respectively by Akira Yasui, the coal division director of Japan’s Ministry of Energy, Trade and (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 3 2013, Wednesday) — China sharply boosted its domestic crude oil and natural gas reserves last year as a result of making new finds, said the country’s Ministry of Land and Resources. The ministry said China raised its crude oil reserves by 13% to 1.52 billion tonnes and natural gas by 33% to...
(EnergyAsia, April 2 2013, Tuesday) — Mechel OAO, a leading Russian mining and metals company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, last month celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding. Mechel, which started with a few production assets including Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant and Southern Kuzbass Coal Company, now comprises some 30 producers of coal, (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 2 2013, Tuesday) — The World Coal Association (WCA) has described a new report released by the board advising the International Energy Agency (IEA) as “an important step on the pathway to near-zero emissions coal”. Milton Catelin, WCA’s chief executive, said the report provides an important piece of advice to policy makers on (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 2 2013, Tuesday) — Australia has displaced Qatar to become the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan, the world’s biggest buyer, said Australian consultant EnergyQuest. As a result of fast-rising domestic production, Australia’s 15.9 million tonnes of exports of LNG to Japan exceeded Qatar’s 15.7 million tonnes, and Malaysia’s 14.6 (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 2 2013, Tuesday) — China’s electricity consumption growth is expected to accelerate to 7.5% this year compared with 5.5% in 2012, reflecting a pick-up in economic expansion, said the China Electricity Council. In a recent update, the council predicts China will consume about 5,330 billion kWh in 2013 compared with 4,960 billion kWh...
(EnergyAsia, April 1 2013, Monday) — Indian Oil Corp’s (IOC) is expected to complete the construction of a new oil refinery in the eastern state of Odhisa, previously known as Orissa, by November, said the country’s Minister of State for Petroleum Panabaaka Lakshmi. In a written statement to Parliament, she said the completion of the...
(EnergyAsia, April 1 2013, Monday) — The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has kept its latest forecast for 2013 world oil demand almost unchanged at 89.67 million b/d compared with 89.68 million b/d previously. In its March report, the cartel expects world oil demand to rise by 840,000 b/d or 0.94%, about the same...
(EnergyAsia, April 1 2013, Monday) — Helped by expansion at its upstream operations in Pakistan and China, Hong Kong-listed United Energy Group said it raised production by 20% to 26,015 barrels/day of oil and gas equivalent (BOE) and reserves by 13.2% to 60.34 million BOE last year. It said gross profit rose 8.5% times from (more…)
(EnergyAsia, April 1 2013, Monday) — Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings said it recently paid 1.036 billion euros to raise its stake in Spain’s largest oil and gas company Repsol from 1.25% to 6.3%. (US$1=0.78 euro). Temasek paid 16.01 euro a share for the 64.7 million Repsol treasury shares. The Spanish firm now accounts...
(EnergyAsia, March 28 2013, Thursday) — China’s Wison Engineering Services Co Ltd said subsidiary Wison Engineering Ltd has safely and successfully completed scheduled work on six projects at PetroChina’s integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in Sichuan province. China’s largest privately owned chemical engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contractor said it built the project’s integrated paraxylene-aromatic (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 28 2013, Thursday) — China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) and South Africa’s state-owned PetroSA have signed a framework agreement to build Africa’s largest oil refinery with a 400,000 b/d processing capacity. The agreement for the US$10 billion project to be developed in Port Elizabeth’s Coega industrial zone was signed in Pretoria in...
(EnergyAsia, March 28 2013, Thursday) — North America’s rising oil production and Asia’s growing energy demand will lead to a drastic shift in the direction of the world’s oil flows through 2020, said US consultant ESAI Energy. The Boston-based consultant predicts that by the end of the decade, crude oil flows west of Suez will (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 28 2013, Thursday) — China’s February oil demand rose 1.9% over the same month last year to an average 10.19 million b/d, said US energy media Platts. In an analysis of Chinese government data, Platts said the latest data represented a slow-down in the 6.7% growth reported in January. It attributed the slower...
(EnergyAsia, March 27 2013, Wednesday) — A significant expansion in US Gulf Coast hydrocracking capacity will increase diesel output to easily meet Latin America’s diesel import requirement in 2013, predicts US-based consulting firm ESAI. In its recently published Global Refining Outlook, ESAI is forecasting a more than 100,000 b/d rise in US Gulf Coast diesel (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 27 2013, Wednesday) — Ten years after the US-led military invasion to oust former dictator Saddam Hussein, war-battered Iraq is expected to enjoy rapid oil production and economic growth, and slower inflation in 2013. In a statement last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted Iraq’s oil production would surge 10% to 3.3 (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 27 2013, Wednesday) — A subsidiary of China’s Wison Group has agreed to provide support services to two European firms developing export-oriented liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in North America. EDF Trading and Exmar NV are looking to export LNG by using offshore barge-mounted natural gas liquefaction facilities that have been jointly developed (more…)