Oil & gas news

Peabody Energy has signed two agreements to develop clean coal in China. The first will see the development of a 2000 MW supercritical power plant substitute natural gas facility; the second, the development of a green coal energy campus including a 1200 MW power plant that will capture CO2 and convert it into green building materials.

The Indonesian Government has announced it intends to ban exports of low-quality coal, starting in 2014. Coal with an energy value of less than 5600 kCal/kg will no longer be exported.

The BP Energy Outlook 2030 is the first of BP’s forward looking analyses to be published after 60 years of producing definitive historical data in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

Wood Mackenzie’s latest analysis of the UK upstream oil and gas industry has found that the steady recovery seen in 2010 will continue in 2011.

The Port of Gladstone expects to reach full export capacity by the end of March, as the first coal shipments from the Blackwater line are expected this week. The ports of Bundaberg and Alma remain closed.

Peabody Energy Australia has awarded Thiess Pty Ltd a contract to extend mining operations at its Burton coal mine in the Bowen basin, Queensland, Australia. The mine extension will maintain the current production level of 2.5 million tpa of high quality coking coal.

Arch Coal, Inc. announced an agreement with Canadian Crown Corporation Ridley Terminals Inc. to facilitate coal exports to Pacific Rim markets. The five-year agreement will give Arch throughput capacity at the terminal of up to 2 million t of coal for 2011 and up to 2.5 million t of coal for 2012 through 2015.

GE and Shenhua have agreed to form an industrial coal gasification joint venture to advance the deployment of cleaner coal technology solutions in China.

Wood Mackenzie’s analysis of the implications of the Queensland floods for the coal industry finds that over half of Australian exports are likely to be affected and the impact of the decrease in exports in this ongoing situation will be felt strongly in global coal markets.

Rosneft and BP have agreed to explore and develop three licence blocks on the Russian Arctic continental shelf.