China General Nuclear signs agreement with Laos for renewable energy base
The state-run People's Daily, which is a daily newspaper published by the Chinese government, reported that the power company China General Nuclear had signed an agreement to expand a renewable energy base planned for the northern region of Laos. The new deal includes a second phase that will include 580 Megawatts (MW) of wind and solar power in Luang Namtha Province and a solar plant with a capacity of 420 MW in Oudomxay Province. This agreement follows an initial…
Rosneft Buys Huge Arctic Oilfield
Russia's Rosneft said on Monday it had bought the rights to a huge oilfield in the Taymyr peninsula in the Arctic, as it presses ahead with plans to use the Northern Sea Route to ship oil and products.In a regulatory disclosure, Rosneft said it had bought Taymyrneftegaz, the company controlled by Rosneft's ex-chief Eduard Khudainatov which owns the huge Payakha oilfield, for an undisclosed sum.It declined to comment further.The potential deal was first reported by daily newspaper Kommersant earlier this month.
Chinese Seismic Vessel Returns to Waters off Vietnam Amid Virus 'Distraction' Charges
A Chinese ship embroiled in a standoff with Vietnamese vessels last year has returned to waters near Vietnam as the United States accused China of pushing its presence in the South China Sea while other claimants are pre-occupied with the coronavirus.Vietnamese vessels last year spent months shadowing the Chinese Haiyang Dizhi 8 survey vessel in resource-rich waters that are a potential global flashpoint as the United States challenges China's sweeping maritime claims.On Tuesday…
GSF Condemns Maersk's Sulphur Surcharge
The Global Shippers Forum has reacted with suspicion to the announcement by the Maersk container shipping line of new fuel surcharge arrangements from 1 January 2019 to recover presumed costs from the introduction of low-sulphur marine fuel from 1 January 2020.Based on the information released by Maersk, the new charges, which are additional to agreed contract rates, are based on two factors - an average cost of fuel and a ‘trade factor’ that upscales the costs on head trades and discounts the fuel cost on reverse trades.
France Awards Climate Grants to U.S.-Based Scientists
Emmanuel Macron plans to award multi-year grants for several U.S.-based scientists to relocate to France, his office said on Monday on the eve of a climate summit hosted by the president to raise finances to counter global warming. Macron unveiled the "Make our Planet Great Again" grants after President Donald Trump in June said he was pulling the United States out of an international accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that was brokered in Paris in 2015. Macron repeatedly tried to persuade the U.S. leader to reverse his decision.
Lundin Petroleum CEO to be Questioned on Sudan Allegations
Swedish prosecutors will question the CEO and chairman of Swedish oil firm Lundin Petroleum about possible crimes against international humanitarian law in Sudan, a company spokesman said on Friday. In 2010, prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into Lundin Petroleum's activities in the country after a report by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS) said the company was possibly complicit in human rights abuses between 1997 and 2003. "Personally, I am convinced the investigation will not lead to prosecution…
Shell CEO Says Interested in Yuzhno-Kirinskoye Field
Royal Dutch Shell is interested to take part in developing Russia's Yuzhno-Kirinskoye field, Chief Executive Ben van Beurden told Russia's Vedomosti daily newspaper in an interview. He added that expansion of the Sakhalin-2 LNG project in Russia's Pacific Island of Sakhalin may need gas both from that field and from the Sakhalin-1 project. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Dmitry Solovyov)
Total's Marketing Head to Quit, Eyes Solar Power
Total said on Friday executive committee member and new energies head Philippe Boisseau, who led the oil major into solar power, would quit next month and confirmed a newspaper report it aims to produce solar energy within two decades. Boisseau, also head of marketing and services, will be replaced from April 15 by Momar Nguer, 59, senior vice president for Africa and Middle East marketing and services, Total said on Friday. Philippe Sauquet, president for refining and chemicals and a member of the executive committee, was named interim president for new energies.
Petrobras Gas Line Sale Could Fetch $6 bln
Canada's Brookfield and CPPIB, France's Engie may bid. China's CNPC shows interest in pipeline company. Brazil's state-led oil company Petrobras is expected to fetch as much as $6 billion from the sale of a natural gas pipeline unit in Brazil's industrialized Southeast, the Valor Economico daily newspaper reported on Thursday. Bids of between $5 billion and $6 billion for Nova Transportadora do Sudeste are expected by a Tuesday deadline from Canadian, French and Chinese companies, the paper said, without citing the source for its information.
US Crude Climbs on Iran Support for Oil Output Cap
U.S. crude futures rose as much as 3 percent in early Asian trade on Thursday after Iran backed plans by Russia and Saudi Arabia to cap crude oil production at January levels, extending steep gains in the previous session. U.S. crude jumped $1.06 shortly after Asian markets opened, and was trading up 77 cents at $31.43 a barrel as of 2346 GMT, up 2.5 percent. The U.S. benchmark surged 5.6 percent in the previous session to close at $30.66 a barrel. "The price rebound looks like an overreaction as the probability of Iran not increasing production is still low in our view…
Iran Resist Crude Production Curbs
Iran said on Wednesday it would resist any plan to restrain its oil output as fellow OPEC ministers tried to persuade the country to join the first global oil pact in 15 years. Talks in Tehran between Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh and his counterparts from Iraq, Qatar and Venezuela began on Wednesday. Iran is the major obstacle to the first joint OPEC and non-OPEC deal since 2001, having pledged to increase output sharply to regain market share lost during years of sanctions.
LNG Deliveries to Lithuania to Triple
LNG deliveries to Lithuania will triple to the end of September as a result of two new contracts signed by the country's Klaipeda terminal, its operator Klaipedos Nafta said on Friday. Lithuania opened the floating import terminal in Klaipeda at the end of 2014 to cut its dependence on Russian energy imports. Klaipedos Nafta said in a statement it has signed contracts with Lithuanian fertilizer producer Achema and gas supplier Lietuvos Duju Tiekimas (LDT). It already had a deal with Lithuanian Litgas.
Ecuador Inks Supply Deal with Thailand
Ecuador's state oil company Petroecuador has signed a crude oil supply agreement with a division of Thailand's state-run PTT under which the Andean country will receive a $2.5 billion up-front payment, local media reported on Friday. The agreement was signed in June with International Trading Pte Ltd for the sale of 116.6 million barrels of Oriente and Napo crudes, daily newspaper El Universo reported. "We have signed an up-front sale of crude with (PTT)," Petroecuador International Trade Manager Nilsen Arias said in an interview.
Mozambique Turns 40, High on Promise of Gas
Former Portuguese colony hopes troubles behind it; economic expectations pinned on vast gas reserves. Mozambique turned 40 on Thursday, mixing formal military parades with exuberant African dancing as it turned from a generation of civil war and poverty to look to a more prosperous future, powered, it hopes, by vast amounts of natural gas. In contrast to the early years of independence from Portugal in 1975, when the challenge was navigating the choppy waters of the Cold War…
Russia to Suggest oil Output Cuts, Eyes Oil Reserve
Moscow may make oil output cuts of 15 mln t in 2015; Russia risks fall into recession with oil under $60 per barrel. Russia, in desperate need of higher oil prices, is making a last-ditch attempt to sway this week's OPEC meeting by suggesting Moscow could cut output if the group does the same. Thursday's OPEC meeting is among the most difficult to call in years after Saudi Arabia signalled it was prepared to withstand lower oil prices for a prolonged period. Non-OPEC member Russia needs an oil price of $100 per barrel to balance its budget.
Putin Mulls End of Gazprom Monopoly Pipeline Gas Sales to China
The Russian government should consider allowing gas producers other than Gazprom to export gas from new fields in east Siberia and Far East, Vedomosti daily newspaper said, citing an order from President Vladimir Putin. Russia's Gazprom has a monopoly right to export gas via pipelines, clinching a $400 billion deal to ship gas to China over 30 years in May. Russia's top oil producer Rosneft, led by CEO Igor Sechin, promised to take Gazprom to the court if it refuses to allow other producers to ship gas via the planned 'Power of Siberia' pipeline…
Beijing's bid to move polluting firms adds pressure on nearby regions
China's capital has ordered more than 50 companies to shut down this year in an effort to cut pollution but pushing factories out could raise objections in surrounding areas reluctant to host Beijing's polluters. Smog-shrouded Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei have become a front in a "war against pollution" declared by Premier Li Keqiang last month. But experts say efforts to cut coal consumption and industrial output in big cities like Beijing is likely to put pressure on other regions to endure more pollution to keep the economy growing…
LNG Foes go to the Mat in Maryland
Maps of Indian and Japanese ports paper the walls of a Dominion Resources Inc conference room in a small Maryland town, population 1,835, known more for crabbing and bird watching than global trade and the U.S. natural gas revolution. Dominion, an American energy company long focused on U.S. markets, hopes to begin an expansion worth billions of dollars at its Cove Point complex on Chesapeake Bay later this year. As part of the plan, compressors fired by a new power…
