(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 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 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 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 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) — 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 13 2012, Thursday) — Australian national resources giant BHP Billiton Ltd said it has agreed to a US$1.63-billion cash sale of its stakes in the proposed Browse liquefied natural gas project (LNG) in Australia to PetroChina Co. According to BHP, China’s largest listed oil producer by market value will take over its 8.33% (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 13 2012, Thursday) — Qatargas Operating Company Limited said it has signed a 20-year contract for a jointly-owned subsidiary to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Thai state-owned PTT Public Company Limited starting 2015. Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited 3 or QatarGas will supply two million tonnes of LNG a year starting 2015, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 13 2012, Thursday) — ExxonMobil thinks energy independence would be too modest a goal for North America. By 2025, the region will become a net energy exporter, radically altering the global energy landscape to create new opportunities for international trade and economic growth, predicts the US major in its latest “Outlook for Energy: (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 12 2012, Wednesday) — Indonesia’s MedcoEnergi and Switzerland’s Puma Energy have launched their new joint venture to build a major fuel trading and distribution business in Indonesia. In a joint statement, the companies said PT Puma Medco Petroleum started up early this month with around 60 staff to deliver high quality fuel products (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 12 2012, Wednesday) — Rail operator Aurizon said it has secured a contract from Rio Tinto Coal Australia (RTCA) to haul coal from its Clermont mine to the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (DBCT), both in Queensland state. Under the new 10-year contract which replaces an existing one due to expire in June 2013, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 11 2012, Tuesday) — South Korea’s K-Coal Co Ltd has signed a letter of intent (LOI) to become a 5% equity partner in a Coldry commercial demonstration plant (CDP) to be established by Australia-listed Environmental Clean Technologies (ECT) Limited. In a letter of intent (LOI) signed by the two companies, ECT said K-Coal (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 11 2012, Tuesday) — With its successful C$5.9-billion capture of Canada-based Progress Energy, Malaysian state oil firm Petronas expects to complete the development of a natural gas project culminating in the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a terminal off Prince Rupert by 2018. The project, costing between C$9 and C$11 billion, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 10 2012, Monday) — Against the tide of Canadian public opinion, the government has approved the separate purchases of two Calgary, Alberta-based upstream companies by China’s CNOOC Ltd and Malaysia’s Petronas for a total of more than C$20 billion. (US$1=C$0.99). After months of agonising debate, Prime Minister Stephen Harper surprised the market with (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 10 2012, Monday) — Russian state oil giant OAO Rosneft and US major Exxon Mobil Corp have signed an agreement to launch a pilot programme to assess tight oil reserves in Western Siberia with plans to begin drilling in 2013, the companies said in a joint statement. Upon completion of the programme, they (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 7 2012, Friday) — Coal will remain the leading fuel for power generation in the US through 2040, but its share will continue to decline with the growing popularity of natural gas, nuclear and renewable energy sources, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In its latest Annual Energy Outlook report, the EIA predicts (more…)

(EnergyAsia, December 5 2012, Wednesday) — Thanks to a surge in exploitation of unconventional reserves, US produced nearly 6.5 million b/d of crude oil and condensate in September for its highest monthly level since early 1998, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The last time US crude and condensate production reached 6.5 million b/d was (more…)