Industry Developments

Indian energy player ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) inked production sharing contracts for two blocks offshore Vietnam with national oil company PetroVietnam. OVL will operate Blocks 127 and... 2006-05-30

While China's decision to hike retail gasoline and diesel prices by 9.6% and 11% respectively is long overdue, industry insiders fear the revisions - the largest adjustments since... 2006-05-30

With Japanese LNG imports looking to reach at least 91bn cubic metres (bcm) by 2010 according to BMI forecasts, Japanese firms are scouring the globe for stable sources of the liquid... 2006-05-26

French oil major Total recently acquired a 25% interest in four oil blocks offshore Australia's north-west coast, with exploration to begin next year in two different deals. The first... 2006-05-25

India yesterday claimed to have discovered a large, high quality gas deposit in the Rajasthan area that has recently provided billions of barrels of oil in place for UK-based Cairn... 2006-05-25

East Timor recently awarded five offshore energy contracts to Italy's Eni and one contract to Indian energy player Reliance Industries as part of its first offshore bidding round,... 2006-05-23

Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell said yesterday that it is in talks with state-controlled China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNC) over a US$2.4bn refinery project in... 2006-05-23

Indonesia's upstream regulator BP Migas has approved the Cepu oil field's development plan, which will see 36 development wells and four exploration wells drilled. The go-ahead from... 2006-05-19

At a time of high oil prices, market pressures and political uncertainty in the Middle East, Japan is planning on upping national oil reserves by 40% from current levels to the equivalent... 2006-05-18

Despite the failure of the Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) initiative, China is still looking to Australia as an important source of gas supplies, with the first cargo of LNG from... 2006-05-16