(EnergyAsia, March 8 2013, Friday) — Global oil demand will grow at a “robust” rate of nearly 1.4% per year through 2017 while production will increasingly run into constraints as non-OPEC supply peaks out in 2015 and OPEC members reduce exports to meet rising domestic demand, said Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) in a (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 8 2013, Friday) — A minority shareholder of Coal India Limited (CIL) has formally demanded that the embattled state-owned company fire its chairman and managing director, S. Narsing Rao. UK-based hedge fund TCI has written to demand Mr Rao “be immediately replaced with someone who can run CIL professionally,” complaining that he has...
(EnergyAsia, March 7 2013, Thursday) — Australia should promote the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a shipping fuel as it makes financial as well as environmental sense, said an industry study led by Norwegian classification and inspection firm DNV. In replacing traditional bunker fuel with LNG, the four-month study found that Australia gains (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 7 2013, Thursday) — Citing a study that it commissioned, Australia’s Modun Resources Nuurst said its Nuurst coal mine in Mongolia could deliver as much as 84.7 million tonnes of sub-bituminous thermal coal over a 30-year operation. The study undertaken by Brisbane’s Bluefield Group has bolstered the Australia-listed company’s confidence to develop Nuurst (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 7 2013, Thursday) — Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka could collectively slash greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth by 2020 at little long-term cost by introducing a variety of clean technologies, according to a new study from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The South Asian countries are projected to produce (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 7 2013, Thursday) — In anticipation of further export increases to Asia, Canada’s Port Metro Vancouver has approved a C$200 million expansion of its coal handling capacity that will help make it the largest in North America. (US$1=C$1.03). The port will more than double its Neptune Bulk Terminals’ current capacity to export 8.5...
(EnergyAsia, March 6 2013, Wednesday) — Manila Electric Co (Meralco) and its main shareholder, Hong Kong-listed First Pacific Co Ltd, have agreed to jointly pay S$660 million for a 70% stake in the GMR Energy (GMRE) power company in Singapore. (US$1=S$1.24). The subsidiary of India’s GMR Group is developing an 800 MW combined cycle gas (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 6 2013, Wednesday) — Canada’s Challenger Deep Resources Corp said its wholly owned subsidiary, PT Bestindo Energy, has signed an exclusive agreement to fully acquire privately-held PT HAAS which owns the rights to mine and market coal from the Alam Bahteria Barito Raya (ABBR) project in Central Kalimantan as well as its mining (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 6 2013, Wednesday) — The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) said its newly launched “landmark” US$150 million petroleum shipping fund has acquired five medium range (MR) petroleum product tankers to be leased out to the regional and international markets for five years. APICORP, the Saudi Arabia-based multilateral development bank owned by the Organization (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 6 2013, Wednesday) — China, Australia, US, Indonesia and Russia are projected to maintain their 97% share of coal production in the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region through 2035. According to APEC’s latest fifth edition of its energy demand and supply outlook, China will remain the group’s and the world’s largest...
(EnergyAsia, March 5 2013, Tuesday) — Despite growing at its slowest rate in recent years, Chinese coal production still hit a new high of 3.65 billion tons last year, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The country’s miners were able to raise production by 3.8% over 2011 levels in the face of weaker...
(EnergyAsia, March 5 2013, Tuesday) — With energy security a growing concern, India’s state oil and gas companies have boosted their investment spending plans by 2.9% to 790,522 billion rupees for the current financial year to March 31 2014. (US$1=55 rupees). Upstream company ONGC will have the largest budget, drawing on internal resources to invest...
(EnergyAsia, March 5 2013, Tuesday) — Australia’s Endocoal Limited said its shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of its A$71 million takeover by the local subsidiary of China’s U&D Mining. (US$1=A$0.98). The Queensland state coal explorer said 91.6% of its shareholders voted in favour of the offer by U&D Mining Industry (Australia) Pty Ltd at (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 5 2013, Tuesday) — Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said it and China’s CNPC are aiming to conclude protracted talks for a gas supply deal before the end of the year. With China exploring options to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from North America and Africa, expand existing agreements with Australia as well as...
(EnergyAsia, March 4 2013, Monday) — Australia’s Whitehaven Coal has blamed weak commodity prices and a strong local currency for its first half loss of A$47 million, reversing a profit of A$19.9 million for the same period the previous year. (US$1=A$1.03). The company also blamed a rail outage at its Narrabri mine in New South...
(EnergyAsia, March 4 2013, Monday) — US oil production climbed to a 20-year high of more than seven million b/d in the last two months of 2012, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The agency attributed the surge to the revolution in exploiting unconventional and shale reserves in the states of North Dakota and Texas,...
(EnergyAsia, March 4 2013, Monday) — Australia’s Hodges Resources said it may acquire metallurgical coal resources in the US to build up its coal portfolio while BHP Billiton is looking to close one of its mines in Queensland state. Hodges Resources said it has signed a binding heads of agreement with Specialty Metallurgical Coal Assets (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 4 2013, Monday) — US upstream company ConocoPhillips is looking to reduce its stakes in the Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) project in Queensland state as well as its oil sands activities in Canada to focus on developing shale reserves in the US. At last Thursday’s briefing for analysts and investors, CEO Ryan Lance...
(EnergyAsia, March 1 2013, Friday) — Angolan state oil and gas firm Sonangol and a company partly owned by Swiss commodities trader Trafigura said they are planning to jointly establish a new company to trade liquefied natural gas (LNG). Sonangol’s trading arm, Sonanci, and DT Group, a joint venture trading firm between Trafigura Pte Ltd (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 1 2013, Friday) — Foster Wheeler AG said a subsidiary of its Global Power Group has been awarded a contract to design and supply a circulating fluidised-bed (CFB) steam generator for a coal-fired power plant in the Philippines due to start up in 2015. The contract was awarded by South Korean engineering firm (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 1 2013, Friday) — Rotary Engineering Limited, a Singapore-based provider of engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance (EPCM) services for the oil, gas and petrochemicals industry, has proposed paying shareholders a final dividend of 0.5 Singapore cent per share despite the company reporting a full-year 2012 net loss and a 16.3% drop in revenue (more…)
(EnergyAsia, March 1 2013, Friday) — Two leading Japanese upstream companies looking to expand in Canada have joined other foreign investors in expressing their concerns over hurdles they face to build projects to export oil and gas to Asia. At last month’s inaugural international LNG conference in Vancouver, state-backed INPEX and Mitsubishi Corp’s Diamond Gas...
(EnergyAsia, February 28 2013, Thursday) — Hours after CNOOC Ltd completed its US$15.1 billion purchase of Canada’s Nexen, another Chinese state Sinopec said it had agreed to pay more than US$1 billion for a 50% stake in US-based Cheaspeake Energy which is developing oil-rich shale fields in Texas, Colorado and Wyoming states. The swoop will (more…)
(EnergyAsia, February 28 2013, Thursday) — Bowing to further evidence of a near-term global economic recovery, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised its forecast for 2013 world oil demand growth to 840,000 b/d after holding it unchanged at under 800,000 b/d the three previous months. In its February report, OPEC said it expects (more…)
(EnergyAsia, February 28 2013, Thursday) — Exxon Mobil Corporation said its board is expected to appoint Tom Walters as president of ExxonMobil Production Company and Rob Franklin as president of ExxonMobil Gas & Power Marketing Company from March 1. Mr Walters, the president of ExxonMobil Gas & Power Marketing Company and a vice president of (more…)