(EnergyAsia, October 10 2012, Wednesday) — Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest privately owned energy company, said it has agreed to increase its crude oil import from Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA to between 300,000 b/d and 400,000 b/d for 15 years. PDVSA currently supplies around 270,000 b/d of heavy crude oil to Reliance’s two refineries in (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 9 2012, Tuesday) — Environmental Clean Technologies (ECT) Limited, an Australian firm focused on commercialising clean coal and iron-making technologies, has informed shareholders that it has been granted patent coverage for its Coldry technology in Europe. “We are in receipt of notification that our European Patent application has now been issued as a (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 9 2012, Tuesday) — Australia’s Origin Energy Limited has announced it has successfully secured A$2.4 billion of syndicated bank loan facility with terms of four and five years maturing between October 2016 and October 2017. (US$1=A$0.98). The company’s executive director for finance and strategy, Karen Moses, said: “Origin continues to receive strong support (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 8 2012, Monday) — Boosted by huge sales increases to China and Europe, US coal exports surged 39.1% to 37.53 million short tons (mmst) in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA). China became the largest market for US coal in the second quarter (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 8 2012, Monday) — BP said it has agreed to sell off all its interests in purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production in Malaysia to India’s Reliance Global Holdings Pte Ltd for a total of US$230 million. The agreement covers the UK major’s 100% equity in BP Chemicals (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (BPCM) located in (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 5 2012, Friday) — UK’s BG Group said it has agreed to sell its majority interest in India’s Gujarat Gas Company Limited (GGCL) for 24.6 billion rupees or $470 million to GSPC Distribution Networks Limited, a subsidiary of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation. The agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval, involves the sale (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 4 2012, Thursday) — As a result of weaker commodity prices, Australia’s resources and energy commodity export earnings are expected to decline 2% to A$189 billion for the year to June 30 2013, according to the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE). The sector’s export earnings hit a record high of A$193 (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 4 2012, Thursday) — UK’s BG Group said it has secured the support of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) for the long-term supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan as well as create opportunities for Japanese companies to participate in energy projects around the world. Under the cooperation agreement, BG (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 4 2012, Thursday) — Three Singapore-listed companies involved in the upstream oil and gas industry have provided updates on their recent activities. Loyz Energy has agreed to sell off its non-core sanitary ware division to focus on becoming an independent upstream player in the Asia Pacific region while Interra Resources has completed drilling (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 3 2012, Wednesday) — Mechel OAO, a leading Russian mining and metals company, said it has started up a seasonal washing plant to process coking coal mined at the Elga deposit. Equipped with the latest technology, the 2-billion-ruble plant has the capacity to produce up to three million tonnes of coking coal concentrate (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 3 2012, Wednesday) — Offshore and marine services provider Atlantic Navigation Holdings has listed on Singapore’s Catalist exchange under the stock code of “5UL” with a market value of just under S$165 million (US$1=S$1.23). The company was acquired by Fastube Limited for S$146 million through a shares issue, and renamed Atlantic Navigation, said (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 3 2012, Wednesday) — Gazprom Marketing and Trading (GM&T), the fully-owned subsidiary of the Russian gas giant, has signed an agreement for the annual supply of 2.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to India’s GAIL for 20 years, the companies announced. The deal follows through on the Basic Framework Agreement (BFA) (more…)

(EnergyAsia, October 2 2012, Tuesday) — Crew costs are once again the main factor driving up the operating expenses of shipping companies, said international accountant and shipping consultant Moore Stephens. In its latest survey covering more than 2,700 vessels, the firm said the industry’s total annual operating costs rose by an average 2.1% last year (more…)

 (EnergyAsia, October 1 2012, Monday) — Germany’s engineering and infrastructure giant Siemens has launched a global competition, “Empower people. Award” to reward the best solutions to urban challenges in cities. The company is encouraging people across the world to provide innovative and sustainable solutions to address the pressing problems faced by developing countries. The competition, (more…)

 (EnergyAsia, October 1 2012, Monday) — Canada must look beyond the US to develop new markets in Asia, in particular China, if it is to realise the potential of its oil and gas resources and play a bigger role on the global markets, said a former Cabinet Minister from the ruling Conservative government. Jim Prentice, (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 28 2012, Friday) — Indonesia’s economy will grow at a slower rate of 6% this year from 6.5% in 2011, but inflation will rise to 5% on account of stronger domestic demand and the effects of a moderate fiscal stimulus, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The fund recently issued this report following (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 28 2012, Friday) — From next January, Qatargas, the world’s leading liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer, will supply Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO) 500,000 tonnes of the fuel a year for 15 years. In separate statements, the two companies announced the conclusion of the new agreement to add to an existing (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 28 2012, Friday) — International marine lubricant supplier TOTAL Lubmarine has launched three new barges at the port of Singapore, strengthening its global service offering to the shipping industry. The 700 dwt double-hulled barges – Marine Champion, Marine Prosper, and Marine Talent – have a cargo load capacity of 860 cubic metres for (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 27 2012, Thursday) — Norway’s DNV said it has launched a code of Recommended Practice (RP) to assess and manage risks involved in the entire life cycle of shale gas extraction. It said the code provides an independent reference document that hopefully could become the basis for a globally recognised standard for safe (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 27 2012, Thursday) — Schlumberger, the US-based supplier of technology, integrated project management and information solutions to the oil and gas industry, has opened its China Petroleum Institute in Beijing. Located in Schlumberger’s China headquarters office building in the city’s Chaoyang district, the institute provides “best-in-class” petro-technical services and will undertake joint R&D (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 26 2012, Wednesday) — China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), one of China’s biggest energy companies, and Europe’s Airbus said they are jointly developing and producing renewable aviation fuel for regular commercial use in China. Sinopec is helping the central government to establish a Chinese airworthiness certification for the new bio-aviation fuels that (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 26 2012, Wednesday) — Longwei Petroleum Investment Holding Ltd, a specialist in storing and distributing petroleum products in China, said it expects to complete the purchase of a 100,000-metri-ton fuel storage depot in northern Shanxi province by the end of this month. Longwei said it has agreed to pay Huajie Petroleum Co Ltd (more…)

(EnergyAsia, September 25 2012, Tuesday) — China’s apparent oil demand fell 1.5% year-on-year in August to 37.87 million metric tons (mt), or 8.95 million b/d, the second monthly contraction this year, said US energy media Platts. According to an analysis of recent Chinese government data, Platts said the August decline follows a 1.9% dip in (more…)