(EnergyAsia, December 24 2012, Monday) — Boosted by its surging natural gas output, Australia produced a record 143.2 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in the latest September quarter, according to Adelaide-based EnergyQuest. Australia’s natural gas production reached a record 611 petajoules (PJ) in the July-September period, surpassing the previous high of 547 PJ in (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 24 2012, Monday) — The Sri Lankan government is set to buy back the Trincomalee oil storage tank farm in northeastern China Bay now being leased to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The leases was signed in 2002 by the United National Party (UNP) government when Colombo was fighting a civil war against...
(EnergyAsia, December 21 2012, Friday) — Wartsila, a Finnish supplier of flexible and efficient power plant solutions, said it has signed a contract to supply and install the largest gas-fired power plant in Mozambique worth 138 million euro. (US$1=0.75 euro). The company said it will also construct a sub-station and a gas pipeline as part (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 21 2012, Friday) — UK gas major BG has named Chris Finlayson to succeed the retiring Frank Chapman as chief executive from January 1. Mr Finlayson, 56, who joined BG from Royal Dutch Shell in 2010, overcame close competition from chief financial officer Fabio Barbosa and chief operating officer Martin Houston to take (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 21 2012, Friday) — With the acquisition of Canadian natural company Progress Energy, Malaysia’s state energy firm Petronas has raised the value of its proposed investment in an export-oriented liquefied natural gas (LNG) project which includes a terminal at Prince Rupert Port to between C$9 and C$11 billion as well as nearly tripled...
(EnergyAsia, December 20 2012, Thursday) — A PetroChina International subsidiary and Canada’s Encana Corp have signed a C$2.18 billion venture to jointly develop the latter’s Duvernay gas reserves in Alberta province. (US$1=C$0.99). Encana said it did not need to seek the approval of the Canadian government as Phoenix Duvernay Gas would acquire a 49.9% stake (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 20 2012, Thursday) — UK’s Petrofac said it has been awarded two engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages worth a total of US$1.4 billion for a US$4 billion oil refinery and storage terminal project in the southwestern Saudi Arabian city of Jazan. Saudi Aramco, which awarded the contracts, expects to start up the (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 20 2012, Thursday) — Citing potential heath damage to Americans, a group of 107 medical and scientific experts has petitioned the US government to stop hydraulic fracturing, or fracking of shale gas to support the growing movement to develop liquefied natural gas (LNG) for export. One of the signatories was Louis W. Allstadt, (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 20 2012, Thursday) — Buoyed by improved fuel sales and higher refinery output this year, Australia’s largest downstream company, Caltex, said it expects a return to profitability to reverse a loss of A$714 million from last year. (US$1=A$0.95). The company said it expects to achieve after-tax profit in the range of A$45 million...
(EnergyAsia, December 19 2012, Wednesday) — Royal Dutch Shell has announced plans to expand an already substantial Singapore presence in its global weighting underlining the major’s continuing shift of focus to Asia. In recognition of Asia’s huge and still fast-growing energy market, the European major said it will relocate the global headquarters of its integrated...
(EnergyAsia, December 19 2912, Wednesday) — Oil and gas companies boosted upstream investments by nearly 20% to US$384 billion to raise hydrocarbon reserves by 2% last year, said consultant Ernst & Young. Growth was prominent in Asia’s natural gas reserves, Canada’s oil sands and US shale reserves, with global oil reserves edging up by 1% (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 19 2012, Wednesday) — Asia liquefied natural gas (LNG) spot prices for month-ahead delivery surged 15.5% in December from November to $15.63 per million British thermal units (mmBTU), said energy media Platts. That is the price based on the company’s latest monthly Japan/Korea Marker (JKM) data derived from an assessment of LNG prices (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 19 2012, Wednesday) — Iran plans to hold more military drills in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s leading oil and gas shipping route, over the course of the first quarter of next year, said a naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Speaking to Iranian media, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi...
(EnergyAsia, December 18 2012, Tuesday) — Gulf Petrochem Group, a UAE-based oil company, said it has started building an oil storage terminal in the city port of Pipavav in India’s Gujarat state. Gulf did not disclose the size of the proposed investment or the capacity of the terminal which it said is located near vital...
(EnergyAsia, December 18 2012, Tuesday) — Vitol Tank Terminals International (VTTI) is on course to start work in 2014 to add one million barrels of capacity to its 1.18-million barrel terminal at the port of Fujairah located outside the Strait of Hormuz. Jointly owned by European oil trader Vitol and Malaysia’s state-owned shipping company MISC...
(EnergyAsia, December 18 2012, Tuesday) — Exxon Mobil expects to complete the demolition of its 63-year-old refinery at Port Stanvac in Australia’s Adelaide state by end-2013. The company said contractor EDS Australasia Pty Ltd has started work to take down and remove the refinery’s units and facilities including pipes, storage tanks, chimney stack and office (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 18 2012, Tuesday) — Indian Oil Corporation Ltd said it is planning to build a 15-million-tonne greenfield refinery at Paradip on the country’s west coast as part of a long-term programme to expand its refining business. India’s largest state-owned downstream company said it is aiming to raise its current 66-million tonne refining capacity...
(EnergyAsia, December 17 2012, Monday) — UK-based consultant GlobalData has named Russia’s OAO Gazprom the world’s largest oil and gas producer, with last year’s output of 3,340 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) almost trebling the levels of its nearest rival. In its latest report, GlobalData placed Venezuelan state-owned firm Petróleos de Venezuela S.A (PDVSA) (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 17 2012, Monday) — After several years of decline, US coal consumption for power generation is expected to recover next year to grow by 5%, said the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). In its latest short-term energy forecast, the EIA said it expects US coal consumption for electricity generation to reach 873.6 million...
(EnergyAsia, December 17 2012, Monday) — The world generated three percent more heat-trapping pollution last year, with China leading the charge while the US and Germany were the only major economies to report reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Global Carbon Project study, the world emitted a record of nearly 38.2 billion...
(EnergyAsia, December 17 2012, Monday) — Natural gas will surpass coal as the world’s second most popular fuel after oil by 2025, predicts ExxonMobil in its latest long-term forecast to 2040. Coal demand will start declining after peaking around 2025 while natural gas will continue to surge as more countries consume cleaner-burning fuels to curb (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 14 2012, Friday) — Indonesia has raised its benchmark coal price for December to US$81.75 per tonne, making this the first increase in three months to coincide with a recovery in winter demand. The benchmark price was US$81.44 in November, according to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. But the market is still...
(EnergyAsia, December 14 2012, Friday) — AMEC, the UK-based international engineering and project management company, said it has been awarded a US$528 million project management consultancy (PMC) contract by the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) for a new oil refinery at Al Zour in Kuwait. The 615,000 b/d refinery is expected to be the largest (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 14 2012, Friday) — China’s U & D Mining has been cleared by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) to complete its A$71 million acquistion of Queensland-based coal explorer Endocoal. (US$1=A$0.94). Endocoal, whose board supports the takeover, said it was informed last week by FIRB that it had no objections to the Chinese (more…)
(EnergyAsia, December 14 2012, Friday) — Australia’s largest independent coal miner is confident of obtaining Federal government clearance to develop its largest project located in New South Wales state to produce more than 10 million metric tons of high quality coking coal for steel making from 2016. It also produces thermal coal for power generation....