China plans to have « clean energy » account for 15 percent of its total consumption under a 10-year renewable energy promotion program soon to be made public, a state-run newspaper cites the head of the country’s National Energy Administration as saying, reported AP.

The government will spend billions of dollars on building nuclear and solar power plants, wind farms and on research into renewable energy technology, Zhang Guobao said in Tuesday’s edition of the China Daily.

The plan would accelerate efforts already under way to help ease reliance on expensive oil imports and heavily polluting coal, which fuels about three-quarters of China’s electricity generation.

It also is in line with Beijing’s pledges to rein in output of greenhouse gases by reducing China’s carbon intensity — its use of fossil fuels per unit of economic output — by 40 to 45 percent by 2020.

Renewable energy accounted for 9.9 percent of China’s total energy consumption last year, up from 8.5 percent the year before, the report said. Under the plan, by 2020, the government intends to raise that to 15 percent.

Source : Konaxis

China National Offshore Oil Corp may pay up to $2.5 billion for Ugandan assets owned by Heritage Oil Plc, reported Monday’s Reuters.

The sale process for the oil fields, which executives say contain around 2 billion barrels of oil, has been a competitive process between British, Italian and Chinese oil majors.

On Friday, Italy’s Eni SpA pulled out of a planned $1.5 billion purchase of Heritage Oil’s 50 percent share of Ugandan Blocks 1 and 3A — in which London-listed Tullow Oil Plc has preemption rights.

Tullow and Heritage control three oil blocks that cover the Ugandan side of Lake Albert, but the explorers lack the resources to develop the project alone.

Tullow has said it wants to sell the Heritage assets on to CNOOC.

Heritage Oil said on Monday it will receive $1.35 billion on completion of the sale of its Ugandan assets.

CNOOC said last week it aims to produce 275-290 million barrels of oil and gas equivalent (boe) this year, up from an estimated 226-228 million boe in 2009.

Australian miner Resourcehouse said Saturday it had signed a $60 billion coal deal with China, describing it as the country’s « biggest-ever export contract », reported AFP.

Resourcehouse chairman Clive Palmer said the company had negotiated a 20-year agreement to supply China Power International Development (CPI) with 30 million tonnes of coal per year from a proposed mine in central Queensland.

Palmer, Australia’s fifth-richest man, said he had awarded the engineering and construction management contract for the thermal coal mine, named « China First » to Metallurgical Corp of China (MCC).

The Export-Import Bank of China had financed a six billion dollar loan, Palmer said, but emphasised the project was 100 percent Australian-owned.

Executive director Phil McNamara said the « once-in-a-century project, » which is expected to begin construction later this year, would include open-cut and underground mines and a 495-kilometre (308-mile) rail line.

Palmer plans to float Resourcehouse on the Hong Kong stock exchange next month in a bid to raise up to three billion dollars for coal, iron ore and oil and gas projects in Australia and oil and gas exploration in Papua New Guinea.

Source : Konaxis

The China Gold Association reported that domestic gold output increased 11.3% to a record of 312 tonnes last year, clinching the county’s position as world’s largest gold producer for the third year in a row, wrote Wealth Daily.

China’s booming gold industry reported 138 billion yuan ($20 billion) of gross industrial output value in 2009 — an increase of 19%, compared to the previous year.

Nearly 60% of China’s gold output last year came from the five producing provinces: Shandong, Henan, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Yunnan.

The ten largest gold firms produced 149 tonnes — 47.3% — of the country’s total output. China had more than 700 gold producers in 2009, down from more than 1,200 firms in 2002 as the industry consolidated.

The China Gold Association gave no figures for domestic gold demand. However, metals consultancy group GFMS said last month that it expects China to overtake India as the world’s largest gold consumer in 2009. Total Chinese demand is forecast to reach 432 tonnes as investors defy record bullion prices.

Source : Konaxis

Australian mineral explorer Venus Resources Ltd announced on Monday it had entered into share subscription and joint venture deals with a Chinese entity, reported Xinhua.

Venus recently expanded its exploration focus to identifying world-class iron ore, precious metals, uranium and base metal exploration targets within prospective, mineral-rich orogenic belts of Western Australia.

Venus will raise A$4 million ($3.6 million) through a placement of 2 million shares at A$2 a share to HD Mining & Investment Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Minerals.

This will give HD Mining a stake in Venus of about 7 percent.

HD Mining will also take a 50 percent stake in Venus’ Yalgoo iron ore project in Western Australia.

The deals are subject to approval by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board.

Shandong province also paid a premium for a 13 per cent stake in fellow Perth miner Bauxite Resources, which was approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board last year.

Source : Konaxis

The U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday it would investigate whether to impose countervailing and antidumping duties against Chinese imports of drill pipe, reported Dow Jones.

The case is the latest response to an increasing number of complaints by U.S. companies and unions of unfair trade practices by Chinese manufacturers, bringing the total number of Commerce duty investigations involving the country to over 20.

The petitioners are United Steelworkers union, TMK Ipsco, VAM Drilling, Texas Steel Conversion and Rotary Drilling Tools. They are seeking countervailing duties against what they allege are government subsidies, while claiming that the pipe is being sold at less than normal value and thus warrant antidumping duties.

U.S. imports of the Chinese pipe, used in oil drilling, doubled between 2006 and 2008 in volume. They were valued at $195 million in 2008.

Before it can proceed with the investigation, Commerce has to await a decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission on whether there is a reasonable chance that U.S. producers are being hurt by the imports. The ITC is scheduled to rule on Feb. 16, and Commerce plans to make a preliminary decision on countervailing duties in March and on antidumping duties in June.

Source : konaxis

Beijing Shougang Steel Group is planning an acquisition of Tonghua Iron & Steel Group, reported Tuesday’s China Daily.

Sources had said that Shougang Steel and State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration of Jilin province had reached an initial agreement to pay some 2 billion yuan for a controlling stake in Tonghua Steel, according to Beijing News.

But Shougang Steel said the deal is still in the early stages of negotiation. « No decision has been made about whether the restructuring should go ahead or not. Therefore, financial details have not been worked out, » the paper quoted the company as saying.

Earlier reports said Shougang Steel on Jan 6 sent about 30 staff from production, equipment, finance, and administration to Tonghua Steel to do a field study of the company.

Last year, Tonghua Steel planned to be acquired by Beijing Jianlong Heavy Machinery Group, with subsidiaries operating iron and steel, resources, shipbuilding, and machinery, but the move was protested by a large number of workers.

Tonghua Steel is the largest iron and steel mill in Northeast China’s Jilin province. The possible buyers include Beijing Shougang Steel, Angang Steel, Hunan Valin Steel.

Source : Konaxis

Energy giant PetroChina Co. Ltd. has pulled out of a $40 billion deal to buy natural gas from a project off Australia, leaving Woodside Petroleum Ltd. looking for new customers, reported AP.

Reasons for letting the preliminary agreement lapse were not given, but analysts said Tuesday it was probably because PetroChina had become dissatisfied with the cost in the two years since the deal was signed.

Woodside informed Australia’s stock exchange on Monday that an early stage agreement for the Browse Basin liquefied natural gas project off Western Australia state had not been settled by a Dec. 31 deadline and had now lapsed.

Under the September 2007 agreement, PetroChina would potentially buy up to three million metric tons (3.3 million tons) of LNG per year from the project for up to 20 years.

At the time, it was one of Australia’s largest export deals with an estimated worth of AU$45 billion ($40 billion).

PetroChina would probably look for other sources of gas, said Yang Wei, an oil industry analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai.

« I think it’s probably that the price is not right. It’s too expensive, » he said.

Woodside said an agreement for CPC Corporation Taiwan to buy up to three million metric tons of LNG per year for up to 20 years from the Browse project was still in place, and the company was looking for more customers.

Source : Konaxis

Standard Chartered Private Equity Limited announced on Friday (25th, Dec) that it has finished its first investment in China’s renewable energy field of 23.3 million U.S. dollars, reported Xinhua.

The investment went to solar water heater maker Sangle Solar Energy Co., Ltd., who was working to float its initial public offering on Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Zhu Wei, managing director of Standard Chartered Private Equity for Greater China, said that China’s solar water heater sector will see fast development in the coming years thanks to government subsidies and the untapped market in rural areas.

Based in East China’s Shandong province, Sangle Solar now has more than 10,000 distributors and five production bases across the country.

It’s not clear how much shares Standard Chartered Private Equity will take at Sangle Solar via the capital injection.

Shandong Provincial Academy of Science, backed by the local government, would remain a major shareholder in Sangle, said the British Bank.

It’s predicted that Sangle Solar will produce 10 million solar water heaters by 2015, up from estimated 1.2 million units in 2009.

Source : Konaxis

China’s top legislature Tuesday discussed a legal amendment to require electricity grid companies to buy all the power produced by renewable energy generators, reported Xinhua.

The State Council energy department and the state power regulatory agency should supervise the purchases, said the draft amendment to the Renewable Energy Law, which was submitted to the government for its second reading.

A national plan on renewable energy development issued in 2007 set a target to increase renewable resources to supply 15 percent of its total energy consumption by 2020.

Power enterprises refusing to buy power produced by renewable energy generators will be fined up to an amount double that of the economic loss of the renewable energy company, the draft said.

However, some lawmakers said the development of renewable energy in China faced many problems such as difficulties in connecting with the grid, over-production of wind power and solar cell material, and a lack of innovative key technologies.

They suggested that revision of the law should focus on prevention of blind development of renewable energy.

Of various types of renewable energy in China, lawmakers said, hydropower’s quality and technology was the best. They suggested to further standardize hydropower development.

Other lawmakers said the country should support the development of biomass energy using crop straw so as to improve ecological environment and farmers’ income.

Source : Konaxis