(EnergyAsia, April 17 2013, Wednesday) — European commodities group Gunvor Group said it has recently secured a total of US$950 million in credit to support its fast-growing oil and gas business in Asia and the Middle East. Last week, a wholly owned subsidiary, Gunvor Singapore Pte Ltd, launched US$650 million in syndicated revolving credit facilities (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 17 2013, Wednesday) — The US has made its first direct crude oil sales to China since November 2005, but it is far from certain if this heralds the start of a trend amid the growing clamour for American companies to export oil and gas in the face of rising domestic production. Without (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 16 2013, Tuesday) —Hong Kong-listed Brightoil Petroleum (Holdings) Limited said its chairman and CEO Sit Kwong Lam has raised his shareholding in the company from 74.49% to 74.8%. Dr Sit’s wholly owned Canada Foundation Limited bought 27,077,000 shares of Brightoil Petroleum on the open market between March 11 and April 11 2013, the (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 16 2013, Tuesday) — Oil prices sank to nine-month lows as global crude benchmark Brent and US WTI crude joined other commodities in a mass sell-off triggered by panic over spreading economic worries in North America, Europe and Asia. Brent could soon break US$100 support after touching US$100.02 early in New York trading (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 15 2013, Monday) — Canada’s Erdene Resource Development Corp said it has recruited Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd after terminating its seven-year-old alliance with the local subsidiary of Swiss firm Xstrata to develop coal mining projects in Mongolia. Teck, one of Canada’s largest mining companies, will start fieldwork in Mongolia with its new partner (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 15 2013, Monday) — Asia’s gasoline prices will be supported by a 100,000 b/d decline in China’s exportable surplus of the fuel in 2013, about the same as last year, predicts US consultant ESAI Energy. The bulk of that decline is down to a production shortfall at Sinopec’s refineries which are struggling to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 12 2013, Friday) — About 40 officials representing the Indonesian and Japanese governments held a one-day meeting in Tokyo last month to discuss issues affecting the coal industry and their countries’ trade in the fuel. The Indonesian delegation, led by Edi Prasodjo, coal director in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, met (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 12 2013, Friday) — Asia’s latest major oil storage and distribution hub started up in South Korea’s Yeosu port city early this month amid rising concerns over the unpredictable regime in the neighbouring North. State-owned Korean National Oil Corp (KNOC), the largest shareholder of Oilhub Korea Yeosu Co Ltd (OKYC) with a 29% (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 11 2013, Thursday) — Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp said it has signed two 20-year deals to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Cove Point project in the US to two major utilities in Japan. Subject to approval from the US government, Tokyo Gas Co, Japan’s biggest city gas supplier, will import (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 10 2013, Wednesday) — India must implement reforms to counter the country’s structural bottlenecks, declining investment inflows and worsening current account deficit to restore the economy to high growth, said the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In its flagship annual Asian Development Outlook 2013 (ADO 2013) report, the bank projects India’s GDP to grow (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 9 2013, Tuesday) — Japan has stepped up its pursuit of overseas oil and gas assets with two of its largest utilities recently securing deals in the US and Australia. Tokyo Gas Co said it has agreed to pay US$485 million for a 25 % stake in the oil and gas assets of (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 8 2013, Monday) — Coal will be the biggest loser in the world’s energy mix to 2040 as it cedes market share to oil, gas, nuclear and renewables, said ExxonMobil’s latest long-term forecast. With global energy demand forecast to rise by 35% from 2010 to 2040, ExxonMobil said the world will need a (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 5 2013, Friday) — With coal prices on the mend, SouthGobi Resources Ltd, a Canadian coal mining company controlled by UK’s Rio Tinto Group, said it will resume production at its flagship Ovoot Tolgoi mine in Mongolia. The Vancouver-based company said the mine, which has been idled since last June, is expected to (more…)

(EnergyAsia, April 5 2013, Friday) — Singapore LNG Corp (SLNG), the country’s monopoly importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), said the just-completed first tank of the Jurong Island import terminal received its first cargo on March 27. State-owned Qatargas delivered the commissioning cargo from its Ras Laffan terminal on its 260,000-cubic metre Umm Slal tanker, (more…)

(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) — 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 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 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 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, 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) — 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 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…)