Recently in Asia Category

Not everyone standing on the sidelines is cheering Australia's play to challenge Qatar as the world's largest LNG producer by the middle of this decade.

LNG is a boom industry in Australia, with eight new projects currently under construction, worth a total of more than $175 billion. The new projects will add capacity of nearly 70 million mt/year to Australia's existing LNG industry, which comprises the Woodside Petroleum-led 16.3 million mt/year North West Shelf joint venture and the 3.6 million mt/year Darwin LNG
plant, operated by ConocoPhillips.

It's the Lunar New Year in China, which marks the start of the zodiac Year of the Dragon. And 2012 will be another year that the world will again focus on China and actions to be taken by world's second largest oil consumer.

So given the importance of the number eight in Chinese culture, here are eight areas of focus for China's energy demand for 2012.

Japan and South Korea initiated talks at the end of November on LNG policy that could challenge the domination of the LNG supply chain by the international oil majors and producing countries.

Indeed, the talks could be seen as setting out an outline for an eventual forum of major LNG consuming countries that would provide a counterweight to moves by gas exporting powers to exercise more control over international gas supply.

Indonesia used to be a major exporter of oil. It hasn't been in that position for more than five years, and its decline in production has resisted efforts to be reversed. But have those efforts been adequate? In this week's Oilgram News column "Petrodollars," Platts' Meghan Gordon -- normally based in Washington, but who recently spent a month in Asia -- discusses what might be needed for significant change.

China's oil demand, which has been showing signs that its strong growth rate might be waning, turned in a sharp upward growth rate in October.

You can read about the results of our monthly survey here.

Nobuo Tanaka seems to enjoy speaking more freely now that he's no longer head of the International Energy Agency. In that role, reporters would parse his every word for clues about possible movements in oil prices and supply.

At Singapore International Energy Week, Tanaka proclaimed on a range of issues Monday in a way he almost certainly would have avoided when he was executive director of the west's energy watchdog.

Platts' Singapore-based managing editor Shailaja Nair was on the BBC today, talking about the impact of a new resource tax being levied in China. You can see it here. 

Australian chemical company Penrice Soda Holdings this week took a big step toward realizing a commercial project using innovative technology to produce saleable chemicals from brine extracted from coalseam gas water.

Penrice CEO Guy Roberts first spoke to Platts in November 2010 about the company's plans to use a new method to treat brine from water produced by thousands of coalseam gas wells to be drilled in the eastern state of Queensland. Penrice subsequently signed an agreement with US-based GE Power & Water to build pilot plants to demonstrate the technology.