(EnergyAsia, July 3, Thursday) --- Open Systems International Inc (OSI), a US-based provider of open automation solutions to utilities worldwide, said it has established a wholly foreign owned enterprise (WFOE) in Beijing, China. The enterprise is a Chinese legal entity licensed to do business in the country.

The enterprise, OSI Automation Software Systems (Beijing) Co Ltd, will serve as a centre for strategic business operations in the region, helping the company to become a larger player in China’s electric and network automation markets.

OSI’s existing Chinese clients include Anhui Electric Power, Hunan Electric Power, Hong Kong Electric Company, Jiangxi Electric Power, Sichuan Electric Power, Qinghai Electric Power, Xining Electric Power, Xinjiang Electric Power and Zhejiang Electric Power Bureau.

China’s demand for energy management and monitoring systems is growing rapidly as part of its rapid industrialisation and economic growth.

“China is the second largest electric utility market in the world after North America and the tremendous growth potential in this sector, as well as other network control segments such as oil and gas, provide OSI with great opportunities for expansion. With our presence in China we will be able to bring OSI’s superior technology to utilities in the region while leveraging local project implementation, development and support infrastructures,” said Bahman Hoveida, President and CEO of OSI.

“Flourishing China needs world-class leading technologies and products to achieve rapid and persistent development. As a leading provider of advanced automation solutions, OSI will make more great contributions to China’s industrialisation and modernisation,” said Guo Jian, managing director of OSI Automation Software Systems (Beijing) Co Ltd.

OSI provides open, state-of-the-art, and high-performance automation solutions to utilities worldwide. These solutions include Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems, Network Management Systems (NMS), Energy Management Systems (EMS), Distribution Management Systems (DMS) and Generation Management Systems (GMS), as well as individual software and hardware products and e-business solutions for utility operations. OSI is headquartered in Minneapolis in Minnesota state.

(EnergyAsia, July 3, Thursday) --- ‘The Chemicals Shipping Market - Chartering and Operations’, a workshop organised by the Oxford Princeton Programme, will be held in Singapore from October 13 to 15.

Shipping is a vital part of the supply chain in the chemical sector. It is a key element in the profitability, trade, marketing and safe transportation of chemical commodities.

Topics covered include the chemical tankers market, chemical transportation economics, developments on IMO regulations, cargoes and ships, managing operational risks and chemical carrier vetting, techniques of successful negotiation advantages and disadvantages of various contract options, business coverage and competition strategies, commercial aspects of key charter party clauses, chemical tanker demurrage and  syndicate work.

The workshop will be conducted by the founding partner of Richardson Lawrie Associates, Jacquelin Richardson.

For more information on ‘The Chemicals Shipping Market - Chartering and Operations’, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

(EnergyAsia, July 1, Tuesday) --- Finland-based Wärtsilä said it has been awarded contracts to supply two power plants of combined output of 90 MWe to Papua New Guinea.

The orders were made by China ENFI Engineering Corporation.

The power plants will be installed at the Ramu nickel mine and the nickel refinery in the port area in the Madang region.

The power stations will supply electricity to the entire nickel mining and refining project facilities and will complement the existing 120 MWe of power supported by Wärtsilä in the region.

ENFI Ramu Nickel Project team spokesperson said:  "Wärtsilä is one of the world’s leading power plant equipment suppliers. Our commercial and technical evaluation team did exhaustive work to compare proposals made by Wärtsilä and other leading power plant equipment suppliers.

“Considering the project’s tight schedule, we selected Wärtsilä to supply these power plants since the equipment model and delivery time proposed by Wärtsilä met the project needs. Furthermore, we put considerable value on Wärtsilä's after service capability in the PNG area which, considering the location of the power plants is a great advantage.”

Wärtsilä will supply the equipment together with an engineering and technical assistance package. The refinery installation will include a heat recovery system with the waste heat being utilised in the complex refinery process.

Both installations are scheduled to be completed before the end of 2009.
  
Raymond Vinton, Australian Wärtsilä business development manager for power plants, said:
“Wärtsilä’s portfolio of medium speed engines enabled us to find a configuration that suits the customer's needs. Combined with the after sales support that we can offer from our new Papua New Guinea service centre, these have helped us to secure this valuable order.”

Wärtsilä said the power plants will be installed with some spare capacity due to the remote location of the installations.
  
Wärtsilä, listed on The Nordic Exchange in Helsinki, Finland, focuses on the marine and energy markets.

(EnergyAsia, June 27, Friday) --- Australia has entered its biggest ever era of petroleum exploration as energy prices and demands for liquid natural gas escalate.

“We are in a unique position to reap enormous rewards from our resources,” says APPEA CEO Belinda Robinson, who will chair the first day of SEAAOC, northern Australia’s largest and longest established petroleum conference, in Darwin in July.

The event will be held at a time of unprecedented interest from domestic and international companies in Australia’s prospecting activity, and the announcement by the Federal government of 35 new offshore petroleum exploration areas in Commonwealth waters.

“We now have more than A$100 billion worth of petroleum projects under development or in planning, and recognising the hurdles to achieving that potential, the new Rudd Government has signaled a strong willingness to partner with industry to get more gas projects off the ground,” Ms Robinson said. (US$1=A$1.05).

“The investment being considered is almost eight times the original investment in Australia’s biggest ever resource project, the North West Shelf gas project based at Karratha.”

She welcomed the announcement by Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson that the UN had agreed to extend Australia’s territory by an area five times the size of France.

“Australia’s crude oil and condensate production has declined from nearly 100% of Australia’s needs in 2000 to just over 60 percent today and an anticipated 32% by 2017.

“With more area to explore for new oil and gas reserves comes more promise. The challenge will be to increase our knowledge of the petroleum prospectivity of these areas and encourage explorers into them.”

According to ExxonMobil, demand for liquefied natural gas in the US and Europe will surpass Asian consumption by as early as 2015, while global LNG demand is set to triple between now and 2030.

A key speaker at SEAAOC will be Luluk Sumiarso, Indonesia’s director general of oil and gas, who will give an overview of oil and gas developments in his country.

Indonesia’s state-owned Pertamina is aiming to increase its crude oil output 28% to 183,000 barrels a day this year from 143,000 barrels in 2007. It also plans to increase gas output to 1.485 billion cubic feet a day from 1.114 billion cubic feet a day in 2007.

Robin Antrobus, a vice president at ConocoPhillips Australia, will review achievements and future opportunities in northern Australia. Conoco Phillips operates the Bayu-Undan facility in the Timor sea, where a 502km subsea pipeline sends gas to the Darwin liquefied natural gas plant to be converted to LNG for export to Asia.

Another key speaker is Eros Agostinelli, managing director of Eni Australia. Eni operates oil fields and is an active explorer, with exploration areas over 12,000 sq km between the southern coast of Timor and the northern boundary of the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA).

Chris Hart, managing director of MEO Australia, will review The Tassie Shoal LNG and methanol projects in the Timor Sea, as well as plans for exploration and production in the North West Shelf. MEO is undertaking extensive appraisal drilling to confirm gas reserves to underpin supply to the Tassie Shoal projects.

(EnergyAsia, June 27, Friday) --- ‘Indonesia Power Conference 2008’ will be held at the Hotel Mulia Senayan in Jakarta, Indonesia from August 27 to 28.

The conference will feature a keynote address from Indonesia’s director general for electricity and energy utilisation in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

‘Indonesia Power’ will provide updates on the country’s power sector, investment opportunities, financing power projects, renewable energy, alternative power sources and clean energy development.

The conference’s other speakers include Chris de Lavigne (Frost and Sullivan), Fahmi Mochtar (Perusahaan Listrik Negara), Muhamad Lutfi (Investment Coordinating Board), Ernst G. Tehuteru (Ali Budiarjo, Nugroho, Reksodiputro), James Booker (Paiton Energy), Joseph A. Anderson (Morrison & Foerster LLP),

Laurent Margoloff (Fortis Merchant Banking), Dung Ho (Standard Chartered Bank), Anthony J. Anderson (Prima Wahana Caraka), Duncan Ritchie (Aequero), Anton Wahjosoedibjo (The Indonesian Electrical Power Society), Jochen Overberg (Siemens Indonesia), Yoga P. Suprapto (Badak LNG), Handry Santriago (GE Energy), Raswari (Indonesian Professional Engineer Association (PIPI)), Martin Daniel (Platts), Rehan Kausar (Asian Development Bank) and Agus Sari (EcoSecurities).

‘Indonesia Power Conference 2008’ is organised by the Asia Business Forum. For more information, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

(EnergyAsia, June 27, Friday) --- ‘Fuel Oil and Bunker Trading’, an international oil supply and trading seminar, will be held in Singapore from July 24 to 25.

The course aims to provide a clear understanding of the oil markets including oil refining economics and product quality, price structure, supply, trading and transportation fundamentals.

Other topics addressed include the supply-demand outlook in the Asia Pacific region, operating costs, price risk management, implementation of Marpol Annex VI, the bunker market in Singapore, blending issues, freight costs, contract issues and negotiations.

The programme is highly interactive with numerous illustrations, worked examples and exercises based on real market situations.

The course will also provide conclusions and forecasts from a large multi-client study ‘Bunkers and heavy fuel oil new market issues and future trends’.

‘Fuel Oil and Bunker Trading’ is organised by Vostock Capital (UK) Limited. For more information, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

(EnergyAsia, June 26, Thursday) --- ‘Petrochemicals in Nontechnical Language’ is an authoritative book that has been re-written and expanded to include extra chapters on methyl tertiary butyl ether and higher alcohols.

Packed with diagrams and tables, the third edition of this book will provide a clear and comprehensive primer for anyone seeking to understand the petrochemicals industry.

The book features contributions from Donald L. Burdick and William L. Leffler.

For more information on ‘Petrochemicals in Non-technical Language’, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

www.energyasia.com/component/page,shop.product_details/flypage,shop.flypage_showcat/
product_id,517/category_id,9/manufacturer_id,0/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,26/.

Check out www.EnergyAsia.com for more books.

(EnergyAsia, June 26, Thursday) --- ‘Oil Refineries in the 21st Century: Energy Efficient, Cost Effective, Environmentally Benign’ is a practical guide for engineers, managers and consultants involved in the refining industry.

The book provides a detailed approach to the methodology, information and criteria necessary for analysing energy use, economics and the environmental impact of refineries as well as solutions for fulfilling the requirements of the Kyoto agreement.

The book provides a detailed approach to improving energy efficiency and cost effectiveness in petroleum processing, and the role of management and refinery operators.

Topics covered include the technological and energy characteristics of the chemical process industry, economic aspects of efficiency and effectiveness, blending of products and management in increasing energy and processing efficiency and effectiveness.

For more information on this book, please click:
www.energyasia.com/component/page,shop.product_details/flypage,shop.flypage_showcat/
product_id,493/category_id,9/manufacturer_id,0/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,26/.

Alternatively, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

(EnergyAsia, June 26, Thursday) --- ‘Renewables-Based Technology: Sustainability Assessment’, the first book in the ‘Wiley Renewable Resources’ series, covers a range of sustainability assessment methods and their uses.

Sustainability is a key driving force for industries in the energy, chemical, food, packaging, agricultural and pharmaceutical sectors. These days, company reports incorporate quantitative sustainability indicators. This trend is driving the uptake of renewable resources and the adoption of renewables.

(EnergyAsia, June 25, Wednesday) --- The ‘National Photovoltaic Conference 2008 (NPVC 2008)’ will be held at the Putrajaya Marriott Hotel south of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on August 14.