JDR Cable Systems, a global provider of subsea power cables, offshore
umbilical systems and specialised marine cables has been awarded the
contract for the supply of subsea power array cables for the first phase
of London Array Offshore Wind Farm by the project consortium of DONG
Energy, E.ON and Masdar.
The first phase of the development, consisting of 175 wind turbines and
2 offshore substations will be installed in water depths of up to 23
meters some 20km (12 miles) from the Kent and Essex coasts in the outer
Thames Estuary. The wind farm will be connected by subsea export cables
to an onshore substation at Cleve Hill, on the North Kent coast. From
the substation, the electricity will be fed into the existing 400kV
transmission network.
The scope awarded to JDR includes the engineering, design and
manufacture of over 200km of 33kV array cables complete with proprietary
hang-off and termination systems providing the essential link between
individual wind turbine generators, wind turbine generator arrays and
the offshore substations. The cables will be produced in 2010 and 2011.
“The London Array project team were very clear in their determination to
procure array cables that would provide the highest long-term
reliability available in the market. JDR’s dedication to the highest
levels of quality management and continuous improvement, developed over
many years of providing subsea power cables and umbilical systems for
deepwater oil & gas projects, is fully aligned with the needs of
offshore wind farm operators. We shall also be providing JDR’s
proprietary array cable termination systems, which have been
specifically designed to minimise offshore installation costs. We are
very pleased that JDR was selected as the array cable supplier and we
look forward to embarking on this world class project,” stated Patrick
Phelan, managing director of JDR Cable Systems Ltd.
When complete the first phase of London Array will be among the world’s
largest offshore wind farms, delivering up to 630MW. This is enough
power for approximately 470,000 homes and will make a substantial
contribution to the UK Government’s target of providing 15% of all
electricity supply from renewable sources by 2015.
“JDR has made significant investments over the last three years to
address the growing and vital renewable energy initiatives taking hold
in the UK and other parts of the world. Our plant in Hartlepool was
carefully chosen to be located in the heart of the UK offshore community
to best serve their ambitious projects yet optimally service all of
Northern Europe and other geographies around the world”, commented Pat
Herbert, group CEO, JDR Cable Systems (Holdings) Ltd.
Richard Rigg, the London Array Project Director stated that “London
Array Limited and its Shareholders are very pleased that JDR Cable
Systems have been successful in acquiring this scope of work and that
the project is supporting the new UK facilities developed by JDR at
Hartlepool to serve the offshore wind industry.”
About JDR Cable Systems
JDR is a leading provider of custom-designed and manufactured static and
dynamic subsea power cables, umbilical systems and marine cables for a
broad range of applications throughout the oil and gas sector, offshore
renewable energy industry, and seismic and defence markets.
JDR was featured in The Sunday Times Buyout Track 100 of the UK’s top
Private Equity-owned businesses. JDR ranked twelfth on the annual list
of 100 companies, and was the highest Original Equipment Manufacturer on
the list.
About the London Array Consortium
London Array Limited has three shareholders: E.ON, DONG Energy and
Masdar.
E.ON is one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies – generating and
distributing electricity, and retailing power and gas – and is part of
the E.ON group, the world’s largest investor-owned power and gas company.
DONG Energy is one of the leading energy groups in Northern Europe. We
are headquartered in Denmark. Our business is based on procuring,
producing, distributing and trading in energy and related products in
Northern Europe.
Masdar, wholly owned by the Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala), is
Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted initiative in the development and
commercialization of renewable energy and sustainable technology.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
ETIHAD TO JOIN SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUEL USERS GROUP
Etihad Airways has joined the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG), an airline-led industry working group established in 2008 to accelerate the commercialisation and availability of sustainable biofuels.
James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ chief executive, said: ““Etihad recognises the need for step-changes in aviation to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and meet our industry’s carbon reduction goal. We also recognise that any fuel alternatives must be morally, socially and environmentally acceptable, while not compromising the future sustainability of the aviation industry.”
SAFUG members are bound by stringent criteria for the development of non fossil fuels, including the following:
The development of plant sources must be undertaken in a manner that is non-competitive with food, with biodiversity impacts minimised and without jeopardizing drinking water supplies. The total lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from plant growth, harvesting, processing and end-use should be significantly less than that from fossil sources. In developing economies, development projects should include provisions or outcomes that improve socio-economic conditions for small-scale farmers and their families and that do not require the involuntary displacement of local populations. High conservation value areas and native eco-systems should not be cleared and converted for jet fuel plant source development.
Each SAFUG member has pledged to work through the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels (RSB), a global multi-stakeholder initiative consisting of leading environmental organizations, financiers, biofuel developers, biofuel-interested petroleum companies, the transportation sector, developing-world poverty alleviation associations, research entities, and governments.
“Abu Dhabi, our home base, has itself made a strong commitment towards sustainability and in the promotion of renewable energy through the establishment of Masdar City, which will the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency,” Mr Hogan said.
About Etihad Airways
Etihad Airways is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates based in the UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi. Currently Etihad offers flights to over 55 destinations in the Middle East, Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.
James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ chief executive, said: ““Etihad recognises the need for step-changes in aviation to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and meet our industry’s carbon reduction goal. We also recognise that any fuel alternatives must be morally, socially and environmentally acceptable, while not compromising the future sustainability of the aviation industry.”
SAFUG members are bound by stringent criteria for the development of non fossil fuels, including the following:
The development of plant sources must be undertaken in a manner that is non-competitive with food, with biodiversity impacts minimised and without jeopardizing drinking water supplies. The total lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from plant growth, harvesting, processing and end-use should be significantly less than that from fossil sources. In developing economies, development projects should include provisions or outcomes that improve socio-economic conditions for small-scale farmers and their families and that do not require the involuntary displacement of local populations. High conservation value areas and native eco-systems should not be cleared and converted for jet fuel plant source development.
Each SAFUG member has pledged to work through the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels (RSB), a global multi-stakeholder initiative consisting of leading environmental organizations, financiers, biofuel developers, biofuel-interested petroleum companies, the transportation sector, developing-world poverty alleviation associations, research entities, and governments.
“Abu Dhabi, our home base, has itself made a strong commitment towards sustainability and in the promotion of renewable energy through the establishment of Masdar City, which will the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency,” Mr Hogan said.
About Etihad Airways
Etihad Airways is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates based in the UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi. Currently Etihad offers flights to over 55 destinations in the Middle East, Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.
Monday, December 7, 2009
POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia 2009 Achieves Record-Breaking Attendance.
The Future of Thailand’s Power Market is Discussed in Multi-track Conference.
POWER-GEN Asia, co-located with Renewable Energy World Asia, shattered its past attendance record with nearly 7,000 power professionals attending the most successful event in its 17 year history. Held at IMPACT Exhibition and Conference Centre from 7th to 9th October, POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy Asia saw the region’s power industry professionals gather to discuss the latest developments, issues and challenges related to the region’s power generation, transmission and distribution and renewable energy sectors.
The opening day of the event saw keynote speeches delivered by Sup. Lt. Dr. Prapas Limpabandhu, Vice Minister of Energy, Sutat Patmasiriwat, Deputy Governor – Generation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and Dong-Soo Suh, Executive Vice President Power Plant Business Group from Korean engineering giant Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd., prior to the trio officially opened the exhibition floor in a traditional ribbon cutting ceremony.
Strengthening Energy Security for Sustained Economic Growth
“Strengthening Energy Security for Sustained Economic Growth” was the theme addressed by a line up of 120 leading international specialists from across the industry.
The POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia conference programmes began the conference in perfectly appropriate style. POWER-GEN Asia’s opening speaker in the Country Spotlight session, former Minister of Energy, Dr. Pyasvasti Amranand, outlined the current and future developments of Thailand’s power market, whilst the opening presentation of Renewable Energy World Asia’s Policy & Scene Setting session was delivered by Dr. Twarath Sutabutr, Deputy General Director of Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency, Ministry of Energy, discussing Thailand’s 15 year Renewable Development Plan and the future role of renewable energy in Thailand’s power generation industry.
Nigel Blackaby, Director of Conferences for PennWell’s International Power Group, said, “POWER-GEN Asia’s conference programme is an important platform for industry leaders to come together to exchange information, present new solutions and discuss future developments most critical to the growth of the market. The new Renewable Energy World Asia conference, dedicated to the renewable and sustainable energy, delivered an informative and technical programme of presentations, discussing the region’s issues and challenges in the renewable energy sector.”
“Conference sessions were extremely well attended, with professionals discussing the substantial issues surrounding power provision and how future demands can be met,” added Blackaby.
Busiest Ever Show Floor
The POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia 2009 exhibition opened with an air of anticipation and excitement, as the world recession over this last year has seen most countries around the world reduce electricity consumption.
However, the event posted a record attendance with nearly 7,000 power industry professionals from over 65 countries converging on Bangkok for the region’s premier industry conference and exhibition - offering a hint of optimism of an upturn in the region’s economic prospects.
The record breaking number of exhibitors of over 170, were kept busy as streams of power industry professionals queued to gain access to the regions leading trade show.
Glenn Ensor, Event Director of POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia, said, “To achieve a record attendance of nearly 7,000 registrations is extremely gratifying, particularly in the current economically uncertain times. We are delighted that a growing group of power industry professionals, throughout Asia and beyond, see POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia as the meeting place for this industry.”
With the full support from the Ministry of Energy, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Metropolitan Electricity Authority, Provincial Electricity Authority, Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation and the Thailand Exhibition & Convention Bureau, POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia enjoyed three days of quality conference content and leading
exhibition.
POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia moves to Singapore from 2nd – 4th November 2010 at the new Marina Bay Sands Resort. Further details and information on POWER-GEN Asia, www.powergenasia.com, and Renewable Energy World Asia, www.renewableenergyworld-asia.com.
Editors Notes: PennWell Corporation is a highly diversified, business-to-business media company providing authoritative print and online publications, conferences and exhibitions, research, databases, online exchanges and information products to strategic global markets.
Since 1910 PennWell has been known for providing comprehensive coverage of several strategic markets. In those early days, PennWell was a pioneer in the emerging oil industry with Oil & Gas Journal magazine, founded in 1902. Today PennWell publishes 45 business-to-business magazines and newsletters, conducts over 60 conferences and exhibitions on six continents, and has an extensive offering of books, maps, directories and database services.
POWER-GEN Asia, co-located with Renewable Energy World Asia, shattered its past attendance record with nearly 7,000 power professionals attending the most successful event in its 17 year history. Held at IMPACT Exhibition and Conference Centre from 7th to 9th October, POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy Asia saw the region’s power industry professionals gather to discuss the latest developments, issues and challenges related to the region’s power generation, transmission and distribution and renewable energy sectors.
The opening day of the event saw keynote speeches delivered by Sup. Lt. Dr. Prapas Limpabandhu, Vice Minister of Energy, Sutat Patmasiriwat, Deputy Governor – Generation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and Dong-Soo Suh, Executive Vice President Power Plant Business Group from Korean engineering giant Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd., prior to the trio officially opened the exhibition floor in a traditional ribbon cutting ceremony.
Strengthening Energy Security for Sustained Economic Growth
“Strengthening Energy Security for Sustained Economic Growth” was the theme addressed by a line up of 120 leading international specialists from across the industry.
The POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia conference programmes began the conference in perfectly appropriate style. POWER-GEN Asia’s opening speaker in the Country Spotlight session, former Minister of Energy, Dr. Pyasvasti Amranand, outlined the current and future developments of Thailand’s power market, whilst the opening presentation of Renewable Energy World Asia’s Policy & Scene Setting session was delivered by Dr. Twarath Sutabutr, Deputy General Director of Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency, Ministry of Energy, discussing Thailand’s 15 year Renewable Development Plan and the future role of renewable energy in Thailand’s power generation industry.
Nigel Blackaby, Director of Conferences for PennWell’s International Power Group, said, “POWER-GEN Asia’s conference programme is an important platform for industry leaders to come together to exchange information, present new solutions and discuss future developments most critical to the growth of the market. The new Renewable Energy World Asia conference, dedicated to the renewable and sustainable energy, delivered an informative and technical programme of presentations, discussing the region’s issues and challenges in the renewable energy sector.”
“Conference sessions were extremely well attended, with professionals discussing the substantial issues surrounding power provision and how future demands can be met,” added Blackaby.
Busiest Ever Show Floor
The POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia 2009 exhibition opened with an air of anticipation and excitement, as the world recession over this last year has seen most countries around the world reduce electricity consumption.
However, the event posted a record attendance with nearly 7,000 power industry professionals from over 65 countries converging on Bangkok for the region’s premier industry conference and exhibition - offering a hint of optimism of an upturn in the region’s economic prospects.
The record breaking number of exhibitors of over 170, were kept busy as streams of power industry professionals queued to gain access to the regions leading trade show.
Glenn Ensor, Event Director of POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia, said, “To achieve a record attendance of nearly 7,000 registrations is extremely gratifying, particularly in the current economically uncertain times. We are delighted that a growing group of power industry professionals, throughout Asia and beyond, see POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia as the meeting place for this industry.”
With the full support from the Ministry of Energy, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Metropolitan Electricity Authority, Provincial Electricity Authority, Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation and the Thailand Exhibition & Convention Bureau, POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia enjoyed three days of quality conference content and leading
exhibition.
POWER-GEN Asia and Renewable Energy World Asia moves to Singapore from 2nd – 4th November 2010 at the new Marina Bay Sands Resort. Further details and information on POWER-GEN Asia, www.powergenasia.com, and Renewable Energy World Asia, www.renewableenergyworld-asia.com.
Editors Notes: PennWell Corporation is a highly diversified, business-to-business media company providing authoritative print and online publications, conferences and exhibitions, research, databases, online exchanges and information products to strategic global markets.
Since 1910 PennWell has been known for providing comprehensive coverage of several strategic markets. In those early days, PennWell was a pioneer in the emerging oil industry with Oil & Gas Journal magazine, founded in 1902. Today PennWell publishes 45 business-to-business magazines and newsletters, conducts over 60 conferences and exhibitions on six continents, and has an extensive offering of books, maps, directories and database services.
Ratchaburi Holding Announces 5.5 Billion Baht of Operating Performance
To be armed for business expansion in renewable energy and foreign investment
Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding PCL. announces its 9-month operating performance of 2009. The Company recorded net profit at 5,556.60 million Baht or 3.83 Baht per share, which is an increase of 10.14% from the same period of last year. It is also getting ready for restructuring its business structure to arm the Company’s expansion.
Mr. Thawat Vimolsarawong, Senior Executive Vice President-Business Development, said the Company is prompt for its business expansion by preparing restructuring its investment arms to serve the future business direction. According to the business plan in domestic investment, the Company aims to increase its total capacity in renewable energy project to 100 MWs by 2016. Recently, the Company has increased the registered capital for its subsidiary named Ratchaburi Energy Company Limited to support investment in SPP and VSPP projects corresponding to the country’s power demand and the government’s policy on the promotion of renewable energy. Moreover, the Company is seeking to explore new potential projects in power sectors and other related businesses. Currently, RH International Corporation Limited has been established as an investment arm to support the Company’s business expansion in power generation across South East Asia region and Australia. Therefore, the wholly-own RH International Corporation Limited by Ratchaburi Holding with 5 million Baht in registered capital would facilitate to an efficient investment management for the Company.
For 9-Month operating performance of 2009, the Company gained 28,448.98 million Baht in total revenue, consisting of 26,854.91 million Baht from electricity sales and operating and maintenance revenues, 207.07 million Baht from interest income, 101.29 million Baht from management service fee,168.09 million Baht from other incomes and 1,117.62 million Baht from the Company’s shared profit in its joint ventures. Whereas the Company’s cost of sales and other expenses were 21,347.78 million Baht, consisting of 20,856.27 million Baht in cost of sales, 491.51 million Baht in administration expenses. Meanwhile, the Company’s interest expense was 680.96 million Baht. Nevertheless, the Company committed to pay 863.64 million Baht in income tax which is an increase of 800.14 million Baht compared with the same period of last year.
Mrs. Darunee Abhinoraseth, Senior Executive Vice President-Finance mentioned to the 9-Month Operating Performance of 2009 that the Company recorded net profit at 5,556.60 million Baht, which was 511.59 million Baht or 10.14% higher compared with the same period of the previous year. This resulted from the cost of sales and other expenses of 21,347.78 million Baht which decreased by 6,205.32 million Baht or 22.52% from the previous year.
Furthermore, the interest expense in 2009 was minimized by 30.04% compared with the same period of last year because of the lower interest rate and the principle repayment in every quarter. Also, the Company recorded 26,854.91 million Baht in sales and service revenue which decreased by 5,543.03 million baht or 17.11% compared with the same period of 2008 and 1,117.62 million Baht in shared profit in its joint ventures increased by 337.74 million Baht or 43.31% from the same period of last year which mainly received from the profit sharing from Tri Energy and Ratchaburi Power.
Regarding to the Q3/2009 operating performance, the Company recorded net profit at 1,656.74 million Baht decreased by 418.70 million Baht or 20.17% compared with the same period of 2008. This was mainly resulted from 10,265.44 million Baht in sales revenue decreased by 836.27 million Baht or 7.56% of the same period of last year. Moreover, the company’s income tax was increased at 284.49 million Baht compared with the same period of last year which was due to the expiration of the BOI’s tax exempt since October 2008.
Company’s Information
Established in March 2000, Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding PCL is a leading independent power producer in Thailand with 4,347.37 MW in total installed capacity deriving from its investment in many power plant projects both domestics and foreign. The Company’s capacity portion by equity own in domestic projects are as follows: The current commercial operating plants are located in Ratchaburi province consisted of a 3,645-MW Ratchaburi’s Power Plant, a 350-MW Tri Energy’s Power Plant, a 350-MW Ratchaburi Power’s Power Plant. And there is a 1.75-MW power generating from associated gas, Pratu Thao Power Plant in Sukhothai province, which the Company currently invests in the expansion of 0.875 MW-Pratu Thao Power Plant. The investment projects under development are consisted of a 153.75-MW Nam Ngum 2’s Hydro Power Plant, a 110-MW Nam Ngum 3’s Hydro Power Plant, a 93-MW Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy’s Hydro Power Plant and a 751-MW Hongsa’s Power Plant in Lao PDR. For renewable energy development, the Company invests in Wind Power Project in Phetchabun with capacity proportion of 18 MW. The Company aims to achieve the total installed capacity of 5,479 MWs from its investment and developing projects.
Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding PCL. announces its 9-month operating performance of 2009. The Company recorded net profit at 5,556.60 million Baht or 3.83 Baht per share, which is an increase of 10.14% from the same period of last year. It is also getting ready for restructuring its business structure to arm the Company’s expansion.
Mr. Thawat Vimolsarawong, Senior Executive Vice President-Business Development, said the Company is prompt for its business expansion by preparing restructuring its investment arms to serve the future business direction. According to the business plan in domestic investment, the Company aims to increase its total capacity in renewable energy project to 100 MWs by 2016. Recently, the Company has increased the registered capital for its subsidiary named Ratchaburi Energy Company Limited to support investment in SPP and VSPP projects corresponding to the country’s power demand and the government’s policy on the promotion of renewable energy. Moreover, the Company is seeking to explore new potential projects in power sectors and other related businesses. Currently, RH International Corporation Limited has been established as an investment arm to support the Company’s business expansion in power generation across South East Asia region and Australia. Therefore, the wholly-own RH International Corporation Limited by Ratchaburi Holding with 5 million Baht in registered capital would facilitate to an efficient investment management for the Company.
For 9-Month operating performance of 2009, the Company gained 28,448.98 million Baht in total revenue, consisting of 26,854.91 million Baht from electricity sales and operating and maintenance revenues, 207.07 million Baht from interest income, 101.29 million Baht from management service fee,168.09 million Baht from other incomes and 1,117.62 million Baht from the Company’s shared profit in its joint ventures. Whereas the Company’s cost of sales and other expenses were 21,347.78 million Baht, consisting of 20,856.27 million Baht in cost of sales, 491.51 million Baht in administration expenses. Meanwhile, the Company’s interest expense was 680.96 million Baht. Nevertheless, the Company committed to pay 863.64 million Baht in income tax which is an increase of 800.14 million Baht compared with the same period of last year.
Mrs. Darunee Abhinoraseth, Senior Executive Vice President-Finance mentioned to the 9-Month Operating Performance of 2009 that the Company recorded net profit at 5,556.60 million Baht, which was 511.59 million Baht or 10.14% higher compared with the same period of the previous year. This resulted from the cost of sales and other expenses of 21,347.78 million Baht which decreased by 6,205.32 million Baht or 22.52% from the previous year.
Furthermore, the interest expense in 2009 was minimized by 30.04% compared with the same period of last year because of the lower interest rate and the principle repayment in every quarter. Also, the Company recorded 26,854.91 million Baht in sales and service revenue which decreased by 5,543.03 million baht or 17.11% compared with the same period of 2008 and 1,117.62 million Baht in shared profit in its joint ventures increased by 337.74 million Baht or 43.31% from the same period of last year which mainly received from the profit sharing from Tri Energy and Ratchaburi Power.
Regarding to the Q3/2009 operating performance, the Company recorded net profit at 1,656.74 million Baht decreased by 418.70 million Baht or 20.17% compared with the same period of 2008. This was mainly resulted from 10,265.44 million Baht in sales revenue decreased by 836.27 million Baht or 7.56% of the same period of last year. Moreover, the company’s income tax was increased at 284.49 million Baht compared with the same period of last year which was due to the expiration of the BOI’s tax exempt since October 2008.
Company’s Information
Established in March 2000, Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding PCL is a leading independent power producer in Thailand with 4,347.37 MW in total installed capacity deriving from its investment in many power plant projects both domestics and foreign. The Company’s capacity portion by equity own in domestic projects are as follows: The current commercial operating plants are located in Ratchaburi province consisted of a 3,645-MW Ratchaburi’s Power Plant, a 350-MW Tri Energy’s Power Plant, a 350-MW Ratchaburi Power’s Power Plant. And there is a 1.75-MW power generating from associated gas, Pratu Thao Power Plant in Sukhothai province, which the Company currently invests in the expansion of 0.875 MW-Pratu Thao Power Plant. The investment projects under development are consisted of a 153.75-MW Nam Ngum 2’s Hydro Power Plant, a 110-MW Nam Ngum 3’s Hydro Power Plant, a 93-MW Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy’s Hydro Power Plant and a 751-MW Hongsa’s Power Plant in Lao PDR. For renewable energy development, the Company invests in Wind Power Project in Phetchabun with capacity proportion of 18 MW. The Company aims to achieve the total installed capacity of 5,479 MWs from its investment and developing projects.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Glow’s profitability on track in Q3 2009
Glow Group (“Glow”) posted consolidated total revenues of THB 25,836 million, Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization (“EBITDA”) of THB 5,743 million and Normalized Net Profit (“NNP”, net profit before unrealized foreign exchange gains and losses) of THB 2,669 million for the 9 months of 2009.
The 3rd quarter NNP of 2009 for Glow stood at THB 899 million. The key drivers for the result were strong industrial customers’ sales, whose power and steam consumption have returned back to normal levels since mid year, and favorable operating margins, where fuel prices have stabilized along with the electricity tariffs.
The 3rd quarter result is THB 274 million below the previous quarter, mainly because of two key reasons. First, unlike in the previous quarter, the 3rd quarter result does not include the business interruption compensation for the outage earlier this year of the 150 MW coal-fired Unit 1. The Company expects to receive the remaining business interruption claim of more than THB 100 million. Secondly, there was lower availability in the 3rd quarter due to a minor forced outage and a one-month major maintenance of the 150 MW coal-fired Unit 2, which was deferred from the previous quarter, the total effect was a reduction in profitability in the 3rd quarter by about 100 million baht. The 4th quarter plant availability is expected to return to normal as there is no other major maintenance scheduled until later 2011
Mr. Esa Heiskanen, the CEO of Glow Group commented: “The operation and performance of the Group have returned to normal and our industrial customer sales volumes have returned to expected levels. Our operating margin has also recovered to normal levels as the Ft remains high and fuel prices have stabilized .”
Mr. Esa continued to add “We are following up very closely on what the impact of the temporary suspension ruling has on our numerous customers in Map Ta Phut, Glow currently has all the necessary permits for our expansions, including the 115 MW coal-fired, 382 MW gas-fired, and 660 MW coal-fired IPP. Our expansions will utilize proven technology to ensure low emissions and will include reduction in emission from our existing plants, where the net result will be an improvement in the overall air quality in Map Ta Phut. We are confident that our projects are environmentally sound and will benefit surrounding communities as the total emission from our existing and new plants would be lower than current levels.
”Glow’s year-to-date interest expenses and corporate income tax have increased from same period last year. The effective tax rate has gradually been increasing year on year, as tax privileges for some of Glow’s older plants are starting to expire. However, the overall effective tax rate for the group will come down after the tax exemption period begins for the expansion projects after commercial operation starting in 2010.
Mr. Suthiwong Kongsiri, the CFO of Glow Group further explained: “The increased interest expenses is not due to higher funding costs but it is reflecting the higher debt level due especially to our strategy to pre-fund some of our funding needs at the beginning of the year, this strategy is aimed at mitigating liquidity risk which has resulted from troubles in global financial market. We now have the necessary funding through to the 2nd quarter of 2010 and are very confident in our ability to secure the remaining funds needed for our expansion projects, thanks to our solid business fundamentals, robust performance and improved market conditions.”
The 3rd quarter NNP of 2009 for Glow stood at THB 899 million. The key drivers for the result were strong industrial customers’ sales, whose power and steam consumption have returned back to normal levels since mid year, and favorable operating margins, where fuel prices have stabilized along with the electricity tariffs.
The 3rd quarter result is THB 274 million below the previous quarter, mainly because of two key reasons. First, unlike in the previous quarter, the 3rd quarter result does not include the business interruption compensation for the outage earlier this year of the 150 MW coal-fired Unit 1. The Company expects to receive the remaining business interruption claim of more than THB 100 million. Secondly, there was lower availability in the 3rd quarter due to a minor forced outage and a one-month major maintenance of the 150 MW coal-fired Unit 2, which was deferred from the previous quarter, the total effect was a reduction in profitability in the 3rd quarter by about 100 million baht. The 4th quarter plant availability is expected to return to normal as there is no other major maintenance scheduled until later 2011
Mr. Esa Heiskanen, the CEO of Glow Group commented: “The operation and performance of the Group have returned to normal and our industrial customer sales volumes have returned to expected levels. Our operating margin has also recovered to normal levels as the Ft remains high and fuel prices have stabilized .”
Mr. Esa continued to add “We are following up very closely on what the impact of the temporary suspension ruling has on our numerous customers in Map Ta Phut, Glow currently has all the necessary permits for our expansions, including the 115 MW coal-fired, 382 MW gas-fired, and 660 MW coal-fired IPP. Our expansions will utilize proven technology to ensure low emissions and will include reduction in emission from our existing plants, where the net result will be an improvement in the overall air quality in Map Ta Phut. We are confident that our projects are environmentally sound and will benefit surrounding communities as the total emission from our existing and new plants would be lower than current levels.
”Glow’s year-to-date interest expenses and corporate income tax have increased from same period last year. The effective tax rate has gradually been increasing year on year, as tax privileges for some of Glow’s older plants are starting to expire. However, the overall effective tax rate for the group will come down after the tax exemption period begins for the expansion projects after commercial operation starting in 2010.
Mr. Suthiwong Kongsiri, the CFO of Glow Group further explained: “The increased interest expenses is not due to higher funding costs but it is reflecting the higher debt level due especially to our strategy to pre-fund some of our funding needs at the beginning of the year, this strategy is aimed at mitigating liquidity risk which has resulted from troubles in global financial market. We now have the necessary funding through to the 2nd quarter of 2010 and are very confident in our ability to secure the remaining funds needed for our expansion projects, thanks to our solid business fundamentals, robust performance and improved market conditions.”
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Effort to cut emissions looks away from coal
As Congress debates legislation to slow global warming by limiting emissions, engineers are tinkering with ways to capture and store carbon dioxide, the leading heat-trapping gas.
But coal-fired power plants, commonly identified as the nation's biggest emissions villain, may not be the best focus.
Rather, engineers and policymakers say, it may be easier and less costly to capture the carbon dioxide at oil refineries, chemical plants, cement factories and ethanol plants, which emit a far purer stream of it than a coal smokestack does.
Carbon dioxide typically makes up only 10 percent to 12 percent of a coal plant's emissions, they note, and the gas is so mixed with pollutants that it is difficult to separate.
Cheaper strategies for sequestering carbon dioxide could prove especially important if Congress passes a law setting up a so-called cap-and-trade system.That would set a national ceiling for overall emissions and allot pollution allowances to utilities, manufacturers and other emitters, which could then trade them among themselves.
Companies that exceed their carbon dioxide emission allowances could buy credits from those that pollute less. Under such a system, a coal plant that had exceeded its allotment might pay a chemical plant that could separate a tonne of carbon dioxide more cheaply.
"If we have a cap-and-trade scheme,it will happen wherever it is the most cost-effective," said Jeffrey R. Holmstead,a lawyer and former assistant administrator for air and radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency.
A Texas company, Denbury Resources,is building a 515km pipeline for carbon dioxide that will run from Louisiana to Houston.
Initially the pipeline will take natural underground deposits of carbon dioxide in Mississippi to the aging oil fields of east Texas, where it can be used to force more oil to the surface.
But as the pipeline threads its way through more and more refineries and plants - the chemical heartland of the United States - man-made carbon dioxide captured at those sites could also be added and stored.
Sequestering a tonne of carbon dioxide from a chemical plant would have the same effect on the Earth's atmosphere as storing a tonne from a coal plant,scientists and industry executives emphasize.
"Sequestration is not a coal technology - it is a greenhouse gas abatement strategy," said S. Julio Friedmann, leader of the carbon management programme at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Last month, the Energy Department announced $44 million (1.4 billion baht)in grants to develop the technology,known generally as carbon capture.
Among them was $1.72 million (57 million baht) for Praxair, a chemical company based in Connecticut that operates two plants near Houston that make hydrogen for use in oil refineries.
The money will go toward developing engineering studies on how to capture carbon dioxide from the hydrogen production and deliver it to Denbury.
Carbon dioxide makes up 20 percent of the gas resulting from hydrogen production, twice the concentration found in a gas stream from a typical coal plant.Recovering it from this stream rather than a coal plant smokestack would therefore be cheaper and simpler.
In the oil industry, drillers have for years tapped underground reservoirs of carbon dioxide, brought it to the surface and moved it by pipeline to oil fields.Then they inject it into the fields to help force oil to the surface in a process called "enhanced oil recovery."
If the oil industry left the natural carbon dioxide where it was, and drew on carbon dioxide from industrial plants instead, far less man-made carbon dioxide would enter the atmosphere, experts say.
What oil drillers pay for carbon dioxide depends on the value of the oil it will help produce. When oil is at $70(2,300 baht) a barrel, carbon dioxide goes for $10(333 baht) or $11(366 baht) a tonne,said Tracy Evans, the chief executive of Denbury, the Texas company building the carbon dioxide pipeline.
Should the congressional legislation mandate a cap-and-trade system, that modest price could be very important."Wherever you can go to store a tonne of carbon the most cheaply, you will go," said Holmstead, the former EPA administrator for air.
Other likely sources of pure streams of carbon dioxide are plants that refine natural gas. The natural gas usually comes out of the ground mixed with carbon dioxide, which natural gas sellers routinely remove so the natural gas can be considered "pipeline quality". That carbon dioxide is sometimes reinjected into the ground, but sometimes vented.
Then there are cement kilns, which produce a nearly pure stream of carbon dioxide.
For now, no one is sure what it will cost to capture and sequester carbon dioxide from coal plants because the first such project in the nation, at American Electric Power's coal-fired plant in New Haven, West Virginia, got under way only last month. At the moment,the process consumes 30 percent of the coal plant's energy, but engineers are working to cut that in half.
Even so, experts expect the price to run to $60(2,000 baht) a tonne or more.But pure streams could be captured for the cost of drilling a natural gas well and compressing the gas into liquid form perhaps $10 to $15(500 baht) a tonne,Friedmann of the Livermore laboratory said.
Bruce Nilles, director of the National Coal Campaign at the Sierra Club, also cites natural gas plants as a promising avenue for carbon capture. Natural gas has only half as much carbon dioxide in it as coal does. So the equipment needed to separate and sequester the carbon dioxide at a gas plant would be half as big as the machinery at a coal plant of the same size, and would cost less.
Nilles and others say that biomass fuels, derived from wood, waste and alcohol, could offer an even better opportunity for carbon capture. If an electric plant burns wood chips or other plant material in place of coal, it produces a stream of smoke from which carbon dioxide can be taken and then injected deep into the earth.
The advantage is that if a tree is cut down and burned in a boiler, a new tree can grow in its place, and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That makes the process "carbon negative"; for each tonne burned, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will decline.
Eventually, Evans of Denbury said,most of the carbon sequestration will come from the power sector, because it is a far larger emitter than the chemical or refining sectors.
But for the moment, he said, for companies like his, which use carbon dioxide to drill for oil, there is something of a shortage. His company is still drilling for natural deposits of carbon dioxide,he said, and "we don't have any to sell to others".
But coal-fired power plants, commonly identified as the nation's biggest emissions villain, may not be the best focus.
Rather, engineers and policymakers say, it may be easier and less costly to capture the carbon dioxide at oil refineries, chemical plants, cement factories and ethanol plants, which emit a far purer stream of it than a coal smokestack does.
Carbon dioxide typically makes up only 10 percent to 12 percent of a coal plant's emissions, they note, and the gas is so mixed with pollutants that it is difficult to separate.
Cheaper strategies for sequestering carbon dioxide could prove especially important if Congress passes a law setting up a so-called cap-and-trade system.That would set a national ceiling for overall emissions and allot pollution allowances to utilities, manufacturers and other emitters, which could then trade them among themselves.
Companies that exceed their carbon dioxide emission allowances could buy credits from those that pollute less. Under such a system, a coal plant that had exceeded its allotment might pay a chemical plant that could separate a tonne of carbon dioxide more cheaply.
"If we have a cap-and-trade scheme,it will happen wherever it is the most cost-effective," said Jeffrey R. Holmstead,a lawyer and former assistant administrator for air and radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency.
A Texas company, Denbury Resources,is building a 515km pipeline for carbon dioxide that will run from Louisiana to Houston.
Initially the pipeline will take natural underground deposits of carbon dioxide in Mississippi to the aging oil fields of east Texas, where it can be used to force more oil to the surface.
But as the pipeline threads its way through more and more refineries and plants - the chemical heartland of the United States - man-made carbon dioxide captured at those sites could also be added and stored.
Sequestering a tonne of carbon dioxide from a chemical plant would have the same effect on the Earth's atmosphere as storing a tonne from a coal plant,scientists and industry executives emphasize.
"Sequestration is not a coal technology - it is a greenhouse gas abatement strategy," said S. Julio Friedmann, leader of the carbon management programme at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Last month, the Energy Department announced $44 million (1.4 billion baht)in grants to develop the technology,known generally as carbon capture.
Among them was $1.72 million (57 million baht) for Praxair, a chemical company based in Connecticut that operates two plants near Houston that make hydrogen for use in oil refineries.
The money will go toward developing engineering studies on how to capture carbon dioxide from the hydrogen production and deliver it to Denbury.
Carbon dioxide makes up 20 percent of the gas resulting from hydrogen production, twice the concentration found in a gas stream from a typical coal plant.Recovering it from this stream rather than a coal plant smokestack would therefore be cheaper and simpler.
In the oil industry, drillers have for years tapped underground reservoirs of carbon dioxide, brought it to the surface and moved it by pipeline to oil fields.Then they inject it into the fields to help force oil to the surface in a process called "enhanced oil recovery."
If the oil industry left the natural carbon dioxide where it was, and drew on carbon dioxide from industrial plants instead, far less man-made carbon dioxide would enter the atmosphere, experts say.
What oil drillers pay for carbon dioxide depends on the value of the oil it will help produce. When oil is at $70(2,300 baht) a barrel, carbon dioxide goes for $10(333 baht) or $11(366 baht) a tonne,said Tracy Evans, the chief executive of Denbury, the Texas company building the carbon dioxide pipeline.
Should the congressional legislation mandate a cap-and-trade system, that modest price could be very important."Wherever you can go to store a tonne of carbon the most cheaply, you will go," said Holmstead, the former EPA administrator for air.
Other likely sources of pure streams of carbon dioxide are plants that refine natural gas. The natural gas usually comes out of the ground mixed with carbon dioxide, which natural gas sellers routinely remove so the natural gas can be considered "pipeline quality". That carbon dioxide is sometimes reinjected into the ground, but sometimes vented.
Then there are cement kilns, which produce a nearly pure stream of carbon dioxide.
For now, no one is sure what it will cost to capture and sequester carbon dioxide from coal plants because the first such project in the nation, at American Electric Power's coal-fired plant in New Haven, West Virginia, got under way only last month. At the moment,the process consumes 30 percent of the coal plant's energy, but engineers are working to cut that in half.
Even so, experts expect the price to run to $60(2,000 baht) a tonne or more.But pure streams could be captured for the cost of drilling a natural gas well and compressing the gas into liquid form perhaps $10 to $15(500 baht) a tonne,Friedmann of the Livermore laboratory said.
Bruce Nilles, director of the National Coal Campaign at the Sierra Club, also cites natural gas plants as a promising avenue for carbon capture. Natural gas has only half as much carbon dioxide in it as coal does. So the equipment needed to separate and sequester the carbon dioxide at a gas plant would be half as big as the machinery at a coal plant of the same size, and would cost less.
Nilles and others say that biomass fuels, derived from wood, waste and alcohol, could offer an even better opportunity for carbon capture. If an electric plant burns wood chips or other plant material in place of coal, it produces a stream of smoke from which carbon dioxide can be taken and then injected deep into the earth.
The advantage is that if a tree is cut down and burned in a boiler, a new tree can grow in its place, and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That makes the process "carbon negative"; for each tonne burned, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will decline.
Eventually, Evans of Denbury said,most of the carbon sequestration will come from the power sector, because it is a far larger emitter than the chemical or refining sectors.
But for the moment, he said, for companies like his, which use carbon dioxide to drill for oil, there is something of a shortage. His company is still drilling for natural deposits of carbon dioxide,he said, and "we don't have any to sell to others".
Solar lanterns light the way
For more than 100 Indian villages cut off from the electricity grid, life no longer comes to an end after dark thanks to an innovative solar-powered lantern that offers hope to the nation's rural poor.
While cooking, farming and studying after sunset were once a struggle using inefficient kerosene or paraffin lamps, the solar lantern now provides a cheap and practical source of light.
The simple device, which is charged during the day from a communal rooftop solar panel,uses between five and seven watts of power and has a battery that lasts up to eight hours.
It also boasts a socket for charging mobile phones and a hand crank for topping up the power.
Villagers pay between 3 and 6 rupees (2 to 4 baht) a day to rent the lantern under the "Lighting a Billion Lives"(LaBL) scheme, which was launched last year to promote solar energy as the environmentally friendly answer to India's energy shortages.
"I keep my shop open as late as 9pm. All my fish get sold by that time," a fish seller in Govindorampur district in West Bengal state who uses the lamp told researchers.
He is one of those whose lives have been transformed by the first wave of 5,000 lanterns distributed across nine states in India.
The LaBL scheme, run by The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) in New Delhi, plans to eventually put 200 million lamps into use.
Organisers say each lamp should work for 10 years, saving between 500 and 600 litres of kerosene which would produce about 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Government figures show more than 10,000 impoverished Indian villages have no access to grid electricity, but the solar revolution could also change middle-class lives in urban India,where energy demands have soared.
Power cuts are common even in the smarter suburbs of New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata as residents soak up fragile supplies with airconditioning units, freezers and washing machines.
While per capita electricity use in India -704 kilowatt hours in 2007-2008- is far lower than the 8,000 kilowatt hours per capita in many industrialised countries, there is no sign of consumption slowing.
"There is something like 30 percent overdemand. There's significant undergeneration as it is, even if you don't electrify any more," said Joel Slonetsky, a researcher with LaBL.
One "green" solution to the outages is a solar-charged inverter for backup electricity during cuts.
"People have started realising the scarcity of power," said Chandra Sekhar, CEO of Solar India Solutions, which sells the inverters in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh."They have become scared so they don't mind spending a little extra."
Sekhar said most of his clients belong to the "domestic middle-income group" and they choose to shell out between $3,000 to $6,000 for the solar inverters that work as well as traditional ones.
"Right now the technology is at a stage where we can say that it stands side by side with conventional electricity," said Ajay Prakash Shrivastava, president of the Solar Energy Society of India.
Increased efficiency and new materials mean the price of solar-powered equipment has been coming down for years, although initial installation costs are steep, said Shrivastava.
While the long-term benefits may be an incentive for some, he acknowledged that most people who have opted to use solar energy have done so out of necessity rather than a desire to be environmentally friendly.
"There are certainly people thinking in that direction," said Shrivastava."But that group is not very large."
Slonetsky said although the Indian solar industry is constantly evolving, the options for domestic solar power use are still somewhat limited.
"It may just be a lag both in terms of consumer awareness and supply here." he said.
It is certainly not for lack of sunshine India receives a high level of solar radiation,equivalent to more than 5,000 trillion kilowatts or up to 3,200 hours of sun a year, according to government statistics.
The government hopes to harness this potential into 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2020 as part of its National Solar Mission to promote renewable energy.
The plan envisions railway signals and water pumps eventually running on solar technology,but for now, villagers are content with the portable lamps that have made daily tasks such as cooking and cleaning easier.
"The lanterns have changed our position in society," said Ayesha Begum from Sahsoul village in the eastern state of Bihar.
While cooking, farming and studying after sunset were once a struggle using inefficient kerosene or paraffin lamps, the solar lantern now provides a cheap and practical source of light.
The simple device, which is charged during the day from a communal rooftop solar panel,uses between five and seven watts of power and has a battery that lasts up to eight hours.
It also boasts a socket for charging mobile phones and a hand crank for topping up the power.
Villagers pay between 3 and 6 rupees (2 to 4 baht) a day to rent the lantern under the "Lighting a Billion Lives"(LaBL) scheme, which was launched last year to promote solar energy as the environmentally friendly answer to India's energy shortages.
"I keep my shop open as late as 9pm. All my fish get sold by that time," a fish seller in Govindorampur district in West Bengal state who uses the lamp told researchers.
He is one of those whose lives have been transformed by the first wave of 5,000 lanterns distributed across nine states in India.
The LaBL scheme, run by The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) in New Delhi, plans to eventually put 200 million lamps into use.
Organisers say each lamp should work for 10 years, saving between 500 and 600 litres of kerosene which would produce about 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Government figures show more than 10,000 impoverished Indian villages have no access to grid electricity, but the solar revolution could also change middle-class lives in urban India,where energy demands have soared.
Power cuts are common even in the smarter suburbs of New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata as residents soak up fragile supplies with airconditioning units, freezers and washing machines.
While per capita electricity use in India -704 kilowatt hours in 2007-2008- is far lower than the 8,000 kilowatt hours per capita in many industrialised countries, there is no sign of consumption slowing.
"There is something like 30 percent overdemand. There's significant undergeneration as it is, even if you don't electrify any more," said Joel Slonetsky, a researcher with LaBL.
One "green" solution to the outages is a solar-charged inverter for backup electricity during cuts.
"People have started realising the scarcity of power," said Chandra Sekhar, CEO of Solar India Solutions, which sells the inverters in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh."They have become scared so they don't mind spending a little extra."
Sekhar said most of his clients belong to the "domestic middle-income group" and they choose to shell out between $3,000 to $6,000 for the solar inverters that work as well as traditional ones.
"Right now the technology is at a stage where we can say that it stands side by side with conventional electricity," said Ajay Prakash Shrivastava, president of the Solar Energy Society of India.
Increased efficiency and new materials mean the price of solar-powered equipment has been coming down for years, although initial installation costs are steep, said Shrivastava.
While the long-term benefits may be an incentive for some, he acknowledged that most people who have opted to use solar energy have done so out of necessity rather than a desire to be environmentally friendly.
"There are certainly people thinking in that direction," said Shrivastava."But that group is not very large."
Slonetsky said although the Indian solar industry is constantly evolving, the options for domestic solar power use are still somewhat limited.
"It may just be a lag both in terms of consumer awareness and supply here." he said.
It is certainly not for lack of sunshine India receives a high level of solar radiation,equivalent to more than 5,000 trillion kilowatts or up to 3,200 hours of sun a year, according to government statistics.
The government hopes to harness this potential into 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2020 as part of its National Solar Mission to promote renewable energy.
The plan envisions railway signals and water pumps eventually running on solar technology,but for now, villagers are content with the portable lamps that have made daily tasks such as cooking and cleaning easier.
"The lanterns have changed our position in society," said Ayesha Begum from Sahsoul village in the eastern state of Bihar.
Banpu profit rises 22%
The coal miner Banpu Plc reported thirdquarter profits of 3.8 billion baht, an increase of 22% from the same period last year.
Consolidated nine-month net profit jumped 68% from the same period last year to 12.58 billion baht.
In a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the company said its thirdquarter revenues fell 3% year-on-year to 13.9 billion baht, due primarily to lower coal prices. Coal sales totalled 12.8 billion baht, down 4% year-on-year and representing 92% of total revenue.
Coal sales volume in the quarter was 5.31 million tonnes, up 15% year-onyear and up 18% from the previous quarter thanks to increased production at its Indonesian mines. Average selling prices for the quarter were $69.49 per tonne, a decline of 17% year-on-year and 6%quarter-on-quarter due to lower market prices and quality of coal.
Quarterly profits included a gain of 1.03 billion baht from financial derivatives on coal swaps and 109 million from oil hedging and interest-rate swaps.
Total reserves at the end of September were 581.37 million tonnes, compared with 588.1 million at the end of June.
Shares of Banpu closed yesterday on the SET at 448 baht, down two baht.
Consolidated nine-month net profit jumped 68% from the same period last year to 12.58 billion baht.
In a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the company said its thirdquarter revenues fell 3% year-on-year to 13.9 billion baht, due primarily to lower coal prices. Coal sales totalled 12.8 billion baht, down 4% year-on-year and representing 92% of total revenue.
Coal sales volume in the quarter was 5.31 million tonnes, up 15% year-onyear and up 18% from the previous quarter thanks to increased production at its Indonesian mines. Average selling prices for the quarter were $69.49 per tonne, a decline of 17% year-on-year and 6%quarter-on-quarter due to lower market prices and quality of coal.
Quarterly profits included a gain of 1.03 billion baht from financial derivatives on coal swaps and 109 million from oil hedging and interest-rate swaps.
Total reserves at the end of September were 581.37 million tonnes, compared with 588.1 million at the end of June.
Shares of Banpu closed yesterday on the SET at 448 baht, down two baht.
UMS targets 30% growth in 2010
Coal importer Unique Mining Services Plc is optimistic its sales will jump by 30% in 2010 from flat growth this year thanks to the economic recovery.
UMS managing director Chaiwat Cruecha-Em said an improved recovery will drive demand and coal prices, boosting the company's overall revenue.
"Last year, coal prices went up to nearly US$140(per tonne), but this year it has dropped to about $70," Mr Chaiwat said."Next year, the government's stimulus programmes should start to take effects and help spur demand.
UMS will unlikely hit its growth target this year as the recession has crimped output for its major customers, particularly those in the cement sector, he said.
Small and medium-sized companies,the main revenue source for UMS, are still expanding, he said, which will keep 2009 coal volume on par with last year at about one million tonnes.
Mr Chaiwat said UMS was not affected by the Map Ta Phut suspensions as it has few clients there.
UMS projected 2009 first-half revenue would fall by 10% from last year to 3.14 billion baht.
UMS has recently been acquired by Hermelin Shipping Co, a subsidiary of Thoresen Thai Agencies Plc, the country's largest dry-bulk carrier. Hermelin, which will be renamed Athene Holdings Ltd,purchased 73,649,166 shares or 48.46%from UMS's two former major shareholders Phaibul Chalermsaphayakorn and Mr Chaiwat.
"The acquisition should set a business direction for UMS regarding logistics in the coal industry," Mr Chaiwat said.
The firm is still interested in acquiring a coal mine in Indonesia, but the matter must be discussed with the new shareholder before any decision, he said.
UMS posted first-half revenue of 1.39 billion baht, down from 1.56 billion the same period last year. First-half net profit fell to 191.49 million baht, down from 240 million year-on-year.
Established in 1994, UMS engages in the coal trading business by importing coal from Indonesia to serve small and medium-sized industrial buyers in Thailand. UMS shares closed yesterday on the Market for Alternative Investment at 22.70 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 43.81 million baht.
UMS managing director Chaiwat Cruecha-Em said an improved recovery will drive demand and coal prices, boosting the company's overall revenue.
"Last year, coal prices went up to nearly US$140(per tonne), but this year it has dropped to about $70," Mr Chaiwat said."Next year, the government's stimulus programmes should start to take effects and help spur demand.
UMS will unlikely hit its growth target this year as the recession has crimped output for its major customers, particularly those in the cement sector, he said.
Small and medium-sized companies,the main revenue source for UMS, are still expanding, he said, which will keep 2009 coal volume on par with last year at about one million tonnes.
Mr Chaiwat said UMS was not affected by the Map Ta Phut suspensions as it has few clients there.
UMS projected 2009 first-half revenue would fall by 10% from last year to 3.14 billion baht.
UMS has recently been acquired by Hermelin Shipping Co, a subsidiary of Thoresen Thai Agencies Plc, the country's largest dry-bulk carrier. Hermelin, which will be renamed Athene Holdings Ltd,purchased 73,649,166 shares or 48.46%from UMS's two former major shareholders Phaibul Chalermsaphayakorn and Mr Chaiwat.
"The acquisition should set a business direction for UMS regarding logistics in the coal industry," Mr Chaiwat said.
The firm is still interested in acquiring a coal mine in Indonesia, but the matter must be discussed with the new shareholder before any decision, he said.
UMS posted first-half revenue of 1.39 billion baht, down from 1.56 billion the same period last year. First-half net profit fell to 191.49 million baht, down from 240 million year-on-year.
Established in 1994, UMS engages in the coal trading business by importing coal from Indonesia to serve small and medium-sized industrial buyers in Thailand. UMS shares closed yesterday on the Market for Alternative Investment at 22.70 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 43.81 million baht.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
MINISTRY SEEKS OPTIONS AS GAS RESERVES SHRINK
Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul headed a delegation to Hong Kong and Shenzhen to review possible tie-ups in clean coal and nuclear power firms "to obtain the best options for our future energy needs" at the weekend.
"Thailand will face a shortage of natural gas in 15-20 years as local fields are being exhausted. This poses great concern as the country depends on gas to generate 70 per cent of electricity needs."
Wannarata says coal-fired plants provide 20 per cent while hydro, biogas, bomas and solar sources make up the rest. "Even with the push toward solar and wind farms, there will still be a considerable shortfall," he says.
There is urgency in examining the options as negotiations, construction as well as public relations exercises to gain public support will take considerable time, he says. "At present many global energy firms are in talks with the ministry."
The construction of a nuclear power plant take about five years before it becomes operational. While Thailand has about 200 nuclear technicians, it will need more if the nuclear option is exercised. "Indonesia and Vietnam have opted to go nuclear," says Wannarat. "But the Philippines and Malaysia have not."
The minister admits that nuclear remain a highly sensitive issue and it required the support of local communities if it is to succeed.
"It cannot be achieved without the acceptance of the public," he told reporters in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
The government is keen to avoid a repeat of the 1986 tantalum plant fiasco in Phuket where a US$25-million (Bt840 million) facility was burnt to the ground when authorities ignored objections from angry villagers.
Violent clashes also often erupt at several botched attempts by authorities to impose power plants on provincial communities.
Deputy director-general of policy and planning Chavalit Pichalai concurs with Wannarat, saying "any nuclear proposal must be made trans-parent publicly if we hope to inspire confidence".
At Daya Bay, the largest nuclear facility in China's Guangdong province that powers much of the needs of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, executives at the enterprise took Wannarat on a thorough tour, which includes seeing the insides of a new nuclear plant.
China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding's vice chairnman chang Shanming showed the operations and training centres at the massive complex was among the world's "most modern, safest and efficient".
When the plant was conceived in 1984, one million people in Hong Kong - then under British rule - protested, one executive notes.
"Since it began operation 10 years ago, no big accident has taken place," says Jimmy Wang, general manager of China Nuclear Power Engineering. Wang who is a key member of the team was a 34-year veteran at Bechtel, the US giant that runs most of America's commercial nuclear plants.
The facility has also earned several awards. At its entrance, tree-lined apartments for 15,000 workers with landscaped parks projects an orderly run industrial estate. The radiation levels at he plant is actually lower than those outside, says Wang.
Wannarat says nuclear is a possible option as it does not emit carbod dioxide. But nuclear waste requires under-ground burial as it takes several hundred thousand years to decay.
CLP Power, the Hong Kong-based supplier of electricity, owns 25-per-cent of Daya Bay and buys most of its power. Its Thailand chief Peck Khamkanist says the Chinese group is keen to invest in Thailand.
Peck says CLP, which is already heavily invested in the Kingdom, also wants the ministry to consider using clean-coal. Atits facility at Black Point, CLP executives and the ministry's Dr Twarath Sutabutr, director of policy and strategy at the permanent secretary's office, show how lignite plants can be run more responsibly.
CLP waters its coal supply three hours daily to prevent dust from spewing outside. It ranks safety and corporate social responsibility as key strategies. Exxon is its key partner at the coal-fired plant.
The plant generates power for 2.2 million households, says CLP director general David Crighton.
The company is one of Hong Kong's most respected and oldest names. Its flagship properties include the Peninsula Hotel.
Dr Twarath says solar is becoming an important option as falling costs makes it an attractive choice.
A local delegate observes: "No one minds if you build a solar farm next door. But nobody wants a nuclear plant nearby."
A recent IAEA survey says while the technology is safe, opponents are more fearful some companies and governments lack the integrity to maintain sound standards.
"Thailand will face a shortage of natural gas in 15-20 years as local fields are being exhausted. This poses great concern as the country depends on gas to generate 70 per cent of electricity needs."
Wannarata says coal-fired plants provide 20 per cent while hydro, biogas, bomas and solar sources make up the rest. "Even with the push toward solar and wind farms, there will still be a considerable shortfall," he says.
There is urgency in examining the options as negotiations, construction as well as public relations exercises to gain public support will take considerable time, he says. "At present many global energy firms are in talks with the ministry."
The construction of a nuclear power plant take about five years before it becomes operational. While Thailand has about 200 nuclear technicians, it will need more if the nuclear option is exercised. "Indonesia and Vietnam have opted to go nuclear," says Wannarat. "But the Philippines and Malaysia have not."
The minister admits that nuclear remain a highly sensitive issue and it required the support of local communities if it is to succeed.
"It cannot be achieved without the acceptance of the public," he told reporters in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
The government is keen to avoid a repeat of the 1986 tantalum plant fiasco in Phuket where a US$25-million (Bt840 million) facility was burnt to the ground when authorities ignored objections from angry villagers.
Violent clashes also often erupt at several botched attempts by authorities to impose power plants on provincial communities.
Deputy director-general of policy and planning Chavalit Pichalai concurs with Wannarat, saying "any nuclear proposal must be made trans-parent publicly if we hope to inspire confidence".
At Daya Bay, the largest nuclear facility in China's Guangdong province that powers much of the needs of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, executives at the enterprise took Wannarat on a thorough tour, which includes seeing the insides of a new nuclear plant.
China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding's vice chairnman chang Shanming showed the operations and training centres at the massive complex was among the world's "most modern, safest and efficient".
When the plant was conceived in 1984, one million people in Hong Kong - then under British rule - protested, one executive notes.
"Since it began operation 10 years ago, no big accident has taken place," says Jimmy Wang, general manager of China Nuclear Power Engineering. Wang who is a key member of the team was a 34-year veteran at Bechtel, the US giant that runs most of America's commercial nuclear plants.
The facility has also earned several awards. At its entrance, tree-lined apartments for 15,000 workers with landscaped parks projects an orderly run industrial estate. The radiation levels at he plant is actually lower than those outside, says Wang.
Wannarat says nuclear is a possible option as it does not emit carbod dioxide. But nuclear waste requires under-ground burial as it takes several hundred thousand years to decay.
CLP Power, the Hong Kong-based supplier of electricity, owns 25-per-cent of Daya Bay and buys most of its power. Its Thailand chief Peck Khamkanist says the Chinese group is keen to invest in Thailand.
Peck says CLP, which is already heavily invested in the Kingdom, also wants the ministry to consider using clean-coal. Atits facility at Black Point, CLP executives and the ministry's Dr Twarath Sutabutr, director of policy and strategy at the permanent secretary's office, show how lignite plants can be run more responsibly.
CLP waters its coal supply three hours daily to prevent dust from spewing outside. It ranks safety and corporate social responsibility as key strategies. Exxon is its key partner at the coal-fired plant.
The plant generates power for 2.2 million households, says CLP director general David Crighton.
The company is one of Hong Kong's most respected and oldest names. Its flagship properties include the Peninsula Hotel.
Dr Twarath says solar is becoming an important option as falling costs makes it an attractive choice.
A local delegate observes: "No one minds if you build a solar farm next door. But nobody wants a nuclear plant nearby."
A recent IAEA survey says while the technology is safe, opponents are more fearful some companies and governments lack the integrity to maintain sound standards.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Local fuel-conversion kit
Do you want to switch to E20 or E85 gasohol, but your car is not compatible?
Yontrakit subsidiary Advance Auto Parts&Service,which is responsible for marketing and sales of auto parts and lubricants, has ventured into the alternativefuel business and is now offering an ethanol conversion kit called the FFI Platinum.
It is an electronic upgrade program for the electronic control unit, so that a car's engine can run on E20 to E85 gasohol without the need for further tuning or any othe rengine modifications, said FFi product manager Puranima Jiamvijak.
The FFI Platinum althers the air-fuel ratio in the combustion chambers and adjusts the timing of the fuel injectors.
The product is widely used in the US and 42 other countries, Puranima said.
The company plans to sell 2,000 FFI sets in the first year.
Yontrakit subsidiary Advance Auto Parts&Service,which is responsible for marketing and sales of auto parts and lubricants, has ventured into the alternativefuel business and is now offering an ethanol conversion kit called the FFI Platinum.
It is an electronic upgrade program for the electronic control unit, so that a car's engine can run on E20 to E85 gasohol without the need for further tuning or any othe rengine modifications, said FFi product manager Puranima Jiamvijak.
The FFI Platinum althers the air-fuel ratio in the combustion chambers and adjusts the timing of the fuel injectors.
The product is widely used in the US and 42 other countries, Puranima said.
The company plans to sell 2,000 FFI sets in the first year.
WIND STUDY SLOWS DOWN ALTERNATIVE-ENERGY PLAN
Implementation of the 15-year alternative-energy development plan is proceeding more slowly than planned, as the government has just commissioned a feasibility study of the potential to use wind in power generation, according to the Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency Department.
"Private companies have proposed the sale of as much as 1,800 megawatts of electricity generated by wind. But only 160MW has been bought," director-general Krairit Nilkuha said yesterday.
Krairit said the department had hired Silpakorn University to conduct a study of wind speeds in order to determine where wind-power plants should be located. The university has previously conducted similar studies in Cambodia and Vietnam.
"It will take nine months to conduct the study. And this may rather delay implementation of the master plan as scheduled," he said.
The alternative-energy development plan covers the period from 2008 to 2022.
He added that companies had proposed the sale of 1,800MW of wind-generated electricity to the Provincial Electricity Authority, against the agency's target of 800MW over the next 15 years. However, to date only 160MW have been purchased.
"We have to study the potential for wind power again, as there has been no study of the potential to harness wind at a level above 40 metres from the ground. We're now studying the wind-speed potential at 90 metres above the ground," said Krairit.
However, the Energy Ministry is confident there will be an overall reduction in fuel oil consumption of 20 per cent a year through all types of alternative energy - equivalent to 7.5 million tonnes or Bt180 billion annually - by 2011, he said.
The department is also studying the country's solar potential by hiring Silpakorn University for Bt10 million to conduct a study, which is expected to be completed in the next 10 months.
Besides, he said, the department would focus on continuous promotion of energy conservation.
Next year, it will use Bt2 billion from the Energy Conservation Fund to support research-and-development projects for improving production processes in the industrial sector.
As to tax privileges for the energy-conservation project's second phase, Krairit said there were 138 participants. Of the total, 134 have been approved and 100 given funding support.
"Private companies have proposed the sale of as much as 1,800 megawatts of electricity generated by wind. But only 160MW has been bought," director-general Krairit Nilkuha said yesterday.
Krairit said the department had hired Silpakorn University to conduct a study of wind speeds in order to determine where wind-power plants should be located. The university has previously conducted similar studies in Cambodia and Vietnam.
"It will take nine months to conduct the study. And this may rather delay implementation of the master plan as scheduled," he said.
The alternative-energy development plan covers the period from 2008 to 2022.
He added that companies had proposed the sale of 1,800MW of wind-generated electricity to the Provincial Electricity Authority, against the agency's target of 800MW over the next 15 years. However, to date only 160MW have been purchased.
"We have to study the potential for wind power again, as there has been no study of the potential to harness wind at a level above 40 metres from the ground. We're now studying the wind-speed potential at 90 metres above the ground," said Krairit.
However, the Energy Ministry is confident there will be an overall reduction in fuel oil consumption of 20 per cent a year through all types of alternative energy - equivalent to 7.5 million tonnes or Bt180 billion annually - by 2011, he said.
The department is also studying the country's solar potential by hiring Silpakorn University for Bt10 million to conduct a study, which is expected to be completed in the next 10 months.
Besides, he said, the department would focus on continuous promotion of energy conservation.
Next year, it will use Bt2 billion from the Energy Conservation Fund to support research-and-development projects for improving production processes in the industrial sector.
As to tax privileges for the energy-conservation project's second phase, Krairit said there were 138 participants. Of the total, 134 have been approved and 100 given funding support.
Extractor targets smaller palm farms
Community palm-oil extraction facilities are being marketed to serve small-scale plantations and support Thailand's emerging biodiesel industry.
Expanding to a single site with a harvested area of 10,000 rai is no longer possible but smaller sites of about 1,000 to 3,000 rai have appeared in recent years to cash in on the alternative energy boom, said Nared Chin-inmanu, assistant vice-president of Great Agro Co, a unit of Charoen Pokphand Group.
"These new plantations, mostly located far from crushing plants and biodiesel refiners, face higher expenses from transport and lengthy delivery times that could degrade palm nuts," he said.
To solve the problem, Great Agro joined with the National Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC) to develop an innovative steamless palm-oil extraction machine at an affordable price.
The CPP1500 model costs 4.5 million baht and can crush a tonne of fresh palm fruit each hour to create 200 litres of palm oil for a biodiesel plant.
The steamless production process maintains crude palm oil (CPO) quality and curbs the environmental impact from waste water, said Mr Nared.
Steam extraction has been widely used in Thailand. A machine with capacity to extract 15 to 60 tonnes of palm fruit an hour needs an investment of at least 100 to 150 million baht.
The cheaper machine has attracted new operators, notably palm-nut traders in the South who want to diversify to supply refined palm oil for biodiesel plants.
Last week, Great Agro sold its first machine to four palm-nut traders in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Krabi and Surat Thani. The company expects to sell 10 machines by the year-end.
High oil prices have raised the value of energy crops and encouraged farmers to plant more palms, which Mr Nared estimates will cover 3.5 million rai next year - up from 3 million rai at present.
Sakda Hengparinyathorn, a palm-nut dealer, plans to install the machine at a plant in Krabi next year and said the investment was viable because palm product prices were good.
Extracted palm oil is currently 23 baht per kilogramme, a strong price despite the slide from more than 30 baht last year, he said.
In addition to palm oil, investors can sell byproducts such as waste and kernels,which are used in animal feed.
The government is attempting to promote alternative fuels from several crops - including ethanol from cassava and sugarcane, as well as biodiesel from jatropha and oil palm - to cut the cost of imported fuel.
The Energy Ministry estimates diesel use in transport and industry at 49 million litres per day but only about 1.27 million litres are B100 biofuel or 100% crude palm oil.
Expanding to a single site with a harvested area of 10,000 rai is no longer possible but smaller sites of about 1,000 to 3,000 rai have appeared in recent years to cash in on the alternative energy boom, said Nared Chin-inmanu, assistant vice-president of Great Agro Co, a unit of Charoen Pokphand Group.
"These new plantations, mostly located far from crushing plants and biodiesel refiners, face higher expenses from transport and lengthy delivery times that could degrade palm nuts," he said.
To solve the problem, Great Agro joined with the National Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC) to develop an innovative steamless palm-oil extraction machine at an affordable price.
The CPP1500 model costs 4.5 million baht and can crush a tonne of fresh palm fruit each hour to create 200 litres of palm oil for a biodiesel plant.
The steamless production process maintains crude palm oil (CPO) quality and curbs the environmental impact from waste water, said Mr Nared.
Steam extraction has been widely used in Thailand. A machine with capacity to extract 15 to 60 tonnes of palm fruit an hour needs an investment of at least 100 to 150 million baht.
The cheaper machine has attracted new operators, notably palm-nut traders in the South who want to diversify to supply refined palm oil for biodiesel plants.
Last week, Great Agro sold its first machine to four palm-nut traders in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Krabi and Surat Thani. The company expects to sell 10 machines by the year-end.
High oil prices have raised the value of energy crops and encouraged farmers to plant more palms, which Mr Nared estimates will cover 3.5 million rai next year - up from 3 million rai at present.
Sakda Hengparinyathorn, a palm-nut dealer, plans to install the machine at a plant in Krabi next year and said the investment was viable because palm product prices were good.
Extracted palm oil is currently 23 baht per kilogramme, a strong price despite the slide from more than 30 baht last year, he said.
In addition to palm oil, investors can sell byproducts such as waste and kernels,which are used in animal feed.
The government is attempting to promote alternative fuels from several crops - including ethanol from cassava and sugarcane, as well as biodiesel from jatropha and oil palm - to cut the cost of imported fuel.
The Energy Ministry estimates diesel use in transport and industry at 49 million litres per day but only about 1.27 million litres are B100 biofuel or 100% crude palm oil.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Teheran will "never give up its right to nuclear energy"
Iran will never abandon its "legal and obvious" right to nuclear technology and will not halt uranium enrichment, its foreign minister said,despite talks the West hopes will lead to restraints on the disputed programme.
"The meetings with world powers and their behaviour shows that Iran's right to have peaceful nuclear technology has been accepted by them ... Iran will never abandon its legal and obvious right,"Manouchehr Mottaki said yesterday.
Talks between Iran and three world powers on a uranium supply deal to address concerns about Teheran's enrichment programme began on Monday in Vienna but their scheduled resumption yesterday was delayed by two hours.
It was not clear whether the delay was related to Mr Mottaki's remarks, in which he also said Iran did not need France to be part of the tentative deal,whose politically sensitive details remain to be ironed out.
French, US and Russian delegations were conferring behind closed doors outside the meeting hall.
The meeting, hosted by the Inter-national Atomic Energy Agency, offered the first chance to build on proposals raised earlier this month to defuse a standoff over suspicions that Iran's uranium enrichment programme is a cover for developing nuclear weapons.
Mr Mottaki praised the talks, which Western diplomats said were based on an Iranian agreement in principle to send uranium to Russia and France for processing into fuel for a Teheran reactor producing medical isotopes.
"We see serious development in the talks ... the continuation of talks can lead to a deal over supplying Iran with the 20% enriched uranium," Mr Mottaki told a news conference in Teheran.
"What we want is our right based on the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It says the member countries should be supplied with nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes by those members that have the fuel."
The West hopes the step of farming out a large amount of Iran's low-enriched uranium reserve for conversion as fuel for the medical isotope reactor will minimise the risk of Iran refining the material to levels suitable for bombs.
"The meetings with world powers and their behaviour shows that Iran's right to have peaceful nuclear technology has been accepted by them ... Iran will never abandon its legal and obvious right,"Manouchehr Mottaki said yesterday.
Talks between Iran and three world powers on a uranium supply deal to address concerns about Teheran's enrichment programme began on Monday in Vienna but their scheduled resumption yesterday was delayed by two hours.
It was not clear whether the delay was related to Mr Mottaki's remarks, in which he also said Iran did not need France to be part of the tentative deal,whose politically sensitive details remain to be ironed out.
French, US and Russian delegations were conferring behind closed doors outside the meeting hall.
The meeting, hosted by the Inter-national Atomic Energy Agency, offered the first chance to build on proposals raised earlier this month to defuse a standoff over suspicions that Iran's uranium enrichment programme is a cover for developing nuclear weapons.
Mr Mottaki praised the talks, which Western diplomats said were based on an Iranian agreement in principle to send uranium to Russia and France for processing into fuel for a Teheran reactor producing medical isotopes.
"We see serious development in the talks ... the continuation of talks can lead to a deal over supplying Iran with the 20% enriched uranium," Mr Mottaki told a news conference in Teheran.
"What we want is our right based on the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It says the member countries should be supplied with nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes by those members that have the fuel."
The West hopes the step of farming out a large amount of Iran's low-enriched uranium reserve for conversion as fuel for the medical isotope reactor will minimise the risk of Iran refining the material to levels suitable for bombs.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
WIND STUDY SLOWS DOWN ALTERNATIVE-ENERGY PLAN
Implementation of the 15-year alternative-energy development plan is proceeding more slowly than planned, as the government has just commissioned a feasibility study of the potential to use wind in power generation, according to the Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency Department.
"Private companies have proposed the sale of as much as 1,800 megawatts of electricity generated by wind. But only 160MW has been bought," director-general Krairit Nilkuha said yesterday.
Krairit said the department had hired Silpakorn University to conduct a study of wind speeds in order to determine where wind-power plants should be located. The university has previously conducted similar studies in Cambodia and Vietnam.
"It will take nine months to conduct the study. And this may rather delay implementation of the master plan as scheduled," he said.
The alternative-energy development plan covers the period from 2008 to 2022.
He added that companies had proposed the sale of 1,800MW of wind-generated electricity to the Provincial Electricity Authority, against the agency's target of 800MW over the next 15 years. However, to date only 160MW have been purchased.
"We have to study the potential for wind power again, as there has been no study of the potential to harness wind at a level above 40 metres from the ground. We're now studying the wind-speed potential at 90 metres above the ground," said Krairit.
However, the Energy Ministry is confident there will be an overall reduction in fuel oil consumption of 20 per cent a year through all types of alternative energy - equivalent to 7.5 million tonnes or Bt180 billion annually - by 2011, he said.
The department is also studying the country's solar potential by hiring Silpakorn University for Bt10 million to conduct a study, which is expected to be completed in the next 10 months.
Besides, he said, the department would focus on continuous promotion of energy conservation.
Next year, it will use Bt2 billion from the Energy Conservation Fund to support research-and-development projects for improving production processes in the industrial sector.
As to tax privileges for the energy-conservation project's second phase, Krairit said there were 138 participants. Of the total, 134 have been approved and 100 given funding support.
"Private companies have proposed the sale of as much as 1,800 megawatts of electricity generated by wind. But only 160MW has been bought," director-general Krairit Nilkuha said yesterday.
Krairit said the department had hired Silpakorn University to conduct a study of wind speeds in order to determine where wind-power plants should be located. The university has previously conducted similar studies in Cambodia and Vietnam.
"It will take nine months to conduct the study. And this may rather delay implementation of the master plan as scheduled," he said.
The alternative-energy development plan covers the period from 2008 to 2022.
He added that companies had proposed the sale of 1,800MW of wind-generated electricity to the Provincial Electricity Authority, against the agency's target of 800MW over the next 15 years. However, to date only 160MW have been purchased.
"We have to study the potential for wind power again, as there has been no study of the potential to harness wind at a level above 40 metres from the ground. We're now studying the wind-speed potential at 90 metres above the ground," said Krairit.
However, the Energy Ministry is confident there will be an overall reduction in fuel oil consumption of 20 per cent a year through all types of alternative energy - equivalent to 7.5 million tonnes or Bt180 billion annually - by 2011, he said.
The department is also studying the country's solar potential by hiring Silpakorn University for Bt10 million to conduct a study, which is expected to be completed in the next 10 months.
Besides, he said, the department would focus on continuous promotion of energy conservation.
Next year, it will use Bt2 billion from the Energy Conservation Fund to support research-and-development projects for improving production processes in the industrial sector.
As to tax privileges for the energy-conservation project's second phase, Krairit said there were 138 participants. Of the total, 134 have been approved and 100 given funding support.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Iran dismisses US warning on nuclear issue
Iran dismissed yesterday a US warning that major powers would not wait forever for Teheran to prove it was not developing nuclear bombs,saying any threats or deadlines would have no impact on the Islamic republic.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi, speaking a week before talks on a proposal to send Iranian uranium abroad for further processing, also reiterated Iran's refusal to discuss its "nuclear rights" with the six world powers.
"We have announced several times that we have nothing to discuss regarding that," he told a Teheran news conference in comments translated by Iran's state Press TV.
"That means continuation of our activities within the framework of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the safeguards agreement of the IAEA and enrichment on that basis," he said,referring to the UN nuclear watchdog.
Such comments were likely to fan Western suspicions that Iran is seeking to win time by stringing out inconclusive talks while mastering nuclear technology and stockpiling enriched uranium of potential use for atomic energy or weaponry.
Western diplomats believe Iran is trying to show just enough flexibility to keep trade allies Russia and China opposed to painful UN sanctions which could target its energy sector.
The West suspects Iran is seeking nuclear weapons capability behind the facade of what Teheran says is a civilian enrichment programme aimed at generating electricity.
Britain said yesterday it had ordered financial firms to cease business with Iran's Bank Mellat and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines to counter a "significant risk" posed by Iranian activity facilitating development of nuclear weapons.
"The international community will not wait indefinitely for evidence that Iran is prepared to live up to its international obligations," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in London on Sunday, alluding to UN demands for a nuclear halt.
Asked about her remark, Mr Qashqavi said:"If there is a deadline or any kind of threat in their comments,they will not impact us in any way."
In talks that both sides called constructive, Iran agreed with the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain in Geneva on Oct 1 to give UN inspectors access to a newly disclosed enrichment plant near the city of Qom.
Western diplomats say Iran also agreed in principle to send about 80%of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing and return to Teheran. This would replenish dwindling fuel stocks for a reactor in the capital that produces medical isotopes, mainly for cancer care.
Iranian, Russian, French, US and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials will meet in Vienna on Oct 19 to flesh out conditions, such as amounts of uranium to be sent abroad.
"There are 150 hospitals dependent on this reactor ... We want to receive this fuel from outside. That's why we are going to have the meeting and we hope that we'll reach an agreement,"Mr Qashqavi said.
But, echoing remarks by a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, he also suggested Teheran could provide the highly processed fuel material itself if there was no deal on external supply.
A Western security source in Europe said Iran earlier this year approved a plan to enrich uranium to 19.7%well above the level needed for generating electricity - to yield material for the Teheran reactor without foreign help. The plan set out a timetable of one year for fulfilment, he said.
Iran needs uranium refined to a purity of 19.7% for its Teheran reactor.Uranium refined to 20% or above is classified as highly enriched theoretically usable for the fissile core of a nuclear bomb, although a minimum 80-90% is normally required for a viable weapon.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi, speaking a week before talks on a proposal to send Iranian uranium abroad for further processing, also reiterated Iran's refusal to discuss its "nuclear rights" with the six world powers.
"We have announced several times that we have nothing to discuss regarding that," he told a Teheran news conference in comments translated by Iran's state Press TV.
"That means continuation of our activities within the framework of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the safeguards agreement of the IAEA and enrichment on that basis," he said,referring to the UN nuclear watchdog.
Such comments were likely to fan Western suspicions that Iran is seeking to win time by stringing out inconclusive talks while mastering nuclear technology and stockpiling enriched uranium of potential use for atomic energy or weaponry.
Western diplomats believe Iran is trying to show just enough flexibility to keep trade allies Russia and China opposed to painful UN sanctions which could target its energy sector.
The West suspects Iran is seeking nuclear weapons capability behind the facade of what Teheran says is a civilian enrichment programme aimed at generating electricity.
Britain said yesterday it had ordered financial firms to cease business with Iran's Bank Mellat and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines to counter a "significant risk" posed by Iranian activity facilitating development of nuclear weapons.
"The international community will not wait indefinitely for evidence that Iran is prepared to live up to its international obligations," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in London on Sunday, alluding to UN demands for a nuclear halt.
Asked about her remark, Mr Qashqavi said:"If there is a deadline or any kind of threat in their comments,they will not impact us in any way."
In talks that both sides called constructive, Iran agreed with the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain in Geneva on Oct 1 to give UN inspectors access to a newly disclosed enrichment plant near the city of Qom.
Western diplomats say Iran also agreed in principle to send about 80%of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing and return to Teheran. This would replenish dwindling fuel stocks for a reactor in the capital that produces medical isotopes, mainly for cancer care.
Iranian, Russian, French, US and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials will meet in Vienna on Oct 19 to flesh out conditions, such as amounts of uranium to be sent abroad.
"There are 150 hospitals dependent on this reactor ... We want to receive this fuel from outside. That's why we are going to have the meeting and we hope that we'll reach an agreement,"Mr Qashqavi said.
But, echoing remarks by a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, he also suggested Teheran could provide the highly processed fuel material itself if there was no deal on external supply.
A Western security source in Europe said Iran earlier this year approved a plan to enrich uranium to 19.7%well above the level needed for generating electricity - to yield material for the Teheran reactor without foreign help. The plan set out a timetable of one year for fulfilment, he said.
Iran needs uranium refined to a purity of 19.7% for its Teheran reactor.Uranium refined to 20% or above is classified as highly enriched theoretically usable for the fissile core of a nuclear bomb, although a minimum 80-90% is normally required for a viable weapon.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Official airs nuclear fuel needs
Iran needs up to 300kg of nuclear fuel to cover the requirements of a reactor in Teheran for 18 months,an official said on Saturday.
Ali Shirzadian, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, also suggested the Islamic Republic could take steps to provide the fuel itself if it did not obtain it from abroad - a development likely to worry the West.
Western diplomats say Iran agreed in principle at Oct 1 talks in Geneva to send about 80% of its stockpile of lowenriched uranium to Russia and France for processing and return to Teheran to replenish dwindling fuel stocks for a reactor in the capital that produces isotopes for cancer care.
Mr Shirzadian referred to it as Iran's proposal, to turn over low-enriched uranium and receive fuel refined to 20%in return, in comments carried by Isna news agency.
"This proposal is feasible and it has been decided that the different ways of realising this goal should be discussed,"he said."The amount of fuel this reactor would need depends on the way the fuel works and it would range from 150kg to 300kg for a period of 18 months."
It was not immediately clear how much uranium Iran would need to send abroad. Iran's low-enriched uranium stocks total around 1.5 tonnes.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday inter-national powers would not wait forever for Iran to prove it was not developing nuclear bombs. Britain's Foreign Minister David Miliband, whom Ms Clinton met in London, said Iran would never have a better opportunity to establish normal ties with the world but that it had to start behaving like a "normal country".
Iran agreed at the meeting with six world powers on Oct 1 to allow UN experts access to a newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom. Ms Clinton said the meeting was a constructive beginning but added that it had to be followed by action.
"The international community will not wait indefinitely for evidence," she said.
Ali Shirzadian, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, also suggested the Islamic Republic could take steps to provide the fuel itself if it did not obtain it from abroad - a development likely to worry the West.
Western diplomats say Iran agreed in principle at Oct 1 talks in Geneva to send about 80% of its stockpile of lowenriched uranium to Russia and France for processing and return to Teheran to replenish dwindling fuel stocks for a reactor in the capital that produces isotopes for cancer care.
Mr Shirzadian referred to it as Iran's proposal, to turn over low-enriched uranium and receive fuel refined to 20%in return, in comments carried by Isna news agency.
"This proposal is feasible and it has been decided that the different ways of realising this goal should be discussed,"he said."The amount of fuel this reactor would need depends on the way the fuel works and it would range from 150kg to 300kg for a period of 18 months."
It was not immediately clear how much uranium Iran would need to send abroad. Iran's low-enriched uranium stocks total around 1.5 tonnes.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday inter-national powers would not wait forever for Iran to prove it was not developing nuclear bombs. Britain's Foreign Minister David Miliband, whom Ms Clinton met in London, said Iran would never have a better opportunity to establish normal ties with the world but that it had to start behaving like a "normal country".
Iran agreed at the meeting with six world powers on Oct 1 to allow UN experts access to a newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom. Ms Clinton said the meeting was a constructive beginning but added that it had to be followed by action.
"The international community will not wait indefinitely for evidence," she said.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Shell plans big f loating LNG plant
The Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell said yesterday it was preparing a blueprint for what could be the first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant - and the world's biggest vessel - off Australia.
If it goes ahead, the move would have significant implications for the industry because it could unlock "stranded" gas reserves previously considered too costly to develop because of their small size or distance from shore.
"We're in the front end engineering and design phase now," a Shell spokeswoman told AFP."Once that's complete it will then be decided whether we go to the final investment decision."
Shell refused to give a date when the giant facility, which would draw LNG from its Prelude and Concerto gas assets in the Browse Basin off northwest Western Australia, could be operational.
But it said the floating structure, which reportedly would cost US$5.0 billion,would be some 480 metres in length,75 metres wide, and weigh about 600,000 metric tonnes.
It would be significantly the largest vessel in the world when it's constructed,Malcolm Brinded, Shell's executive director upstream international, said on Thursday.
Although the technology is commercially untested, the project would have the capacity to produce 3.5 million tonnes of LNG per year, as well as liquefied petroleum gas over its 20-year lifespan.
The plant, in the shape of an enormous ship, would be towed to each spot and temporarily anchored to the seabed. Reports said it would be designed to withstand extreme weather such as a onein-10,000-year cyclone.
Brinded said demand for LNG would probably rise as rapidly industrialising Asian countries such as India and China increasingly sought cleaner-burning fuels.
"Gas is an absolutely key energy source as a bridge to a fully sustainable energy future, and I think it will be a bridge that will last most of this century," he told reporters.
The technology is particularly relevant for Australia which is believed to have stranded gas reserves worth about A$1.0 trillion (US$890 billion).
Western Australia is the centre of Australia's booming LNG industry which some analysts believe is on course to rival Qatar, the world's biggest producer.
LNG is natural gas that is chilled for shipping as a liquid, then turned back into gas at its destination and distributed by pipeline.
If it goes ahead, the move would have significant implications for the industry because it could unlock "stranded" gas reserves previously considered too costly to develop because of their small size or distance from shore.
"We're in the front end engineering and design phase now," a Shell spokeswoman told AFP."Once that's complete it will then be decided whether we go to the final investment decision."
Shell refused to give a date when the giant facility, which would draw LNG from its Prelude and Concerto gas assets in the Browse Basin off northwest Western Australia, could be operational.
But it said the floating structure, which reportedly would cost US$5.0 billion,would be some 480 metres in length,75 metres wide, and weigh about 600,000 metric tonnes.
It would be significantly the largest vessel in the world when it's constructed,Malcolm Brinded, Shell's executive director upstream international, said on Thursday.
Although the technology is commercially untested, the project would have the capacity to produce 3.5 million tonnes of LNG per year, as well as liquefied petroleum gas over its 20-year lifespan.
The plant, in the shape of an enormous ship, would be towed to each spot and temporarily anchored to the seabed. Reports said it would be designed to withstand extreme weather such as a onein-10,000-year cyclone.
Brinded said demand for LNG would probably rise as rapidly industrialising Asian countries such as India and China increasingly sought cleaner-burning fuels.
"Gas is an absolutely key energy source as a bridge to a fully sustainable energy future, and I think it will be a bridge that will last most of this century," he told reporters.
The technology is particularly relevant for Australia which is believed to have stranded gas reserves worth about A$1.0 trillion (US$890 billion).
Western Australia is the centre of Australia's booming LNG industry which some analysts believe is on course to rival Qatar, the world's biggest producer.
LNG is natural gas that is chilled for shipping as a liquid, then turned back into gas at its destination and distributed by pipeline.
Monday, October 5, 2009
IAEA to inspect nuclear plant
Inspectors are to visit Iran's new uranium enrichment plant on Oct 25, UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday, adding that "concerns" remained about Teheran's nuclear aims.
Iran had given the assurance that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors would be given access to the new plant which is being built in a mountain near the holy city of Qom,south of Teheran, Mr ElBaradei told a news conference in Teheran.
"There are concerns about Iran's future intentions and this is not a verification thing," he said."We are concerned but we are in no way panicking about Iran's nuclear programme."
ElBaradei was speaking after holding talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other officials about Iran's nuclear energy programme, which the West believes is a cover for a nuclear weapons production. Mr Ahmadinejad was later quoted by the Iranian news agency Isna as saying that all matters between the Islamic republic and the IAEA had been ironed out.
"Because of good cooperation between Iran and the agency, important issues were resolved and today there is no ambiguous issue left between Iran and the agency," he said.
Mr ElBaradei said that Teheran had been late in disclosing the fact it was building a new uranium enrichment plant near Qom.
"Based on the IAEA regulations, all countries should inform the IAEA on the day they begin construction" of a nuclear plant, he said. Iran informed the agency on Sept 21, about a year after it started constructing it.
Mr ElBaradei also announced that officials from the US, Russia, France and Iran would hold talks in Vienna on Oct 19 on the possiblity of enriching Teheran's uranium abroad.
The meeting is a follow up to talks in Geneva last week between six world powers and Iran over Teheran's nuclear ambitions, the first such talks in 15 months. Iran tentatively agreed in Geneva to ship some of its stocks of low enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for processing into fuel for an internationally supervised research reactor in Teheran.
Amid fears among Western powers that Iran may have amassed enough LEU eventually to create a nuclear bomb,senior US officials and analysts have said the move might help ease tensions.
Mr ElBaradei said he was "very pleased" about the enrichment project as it was a "confidence building" initiative between world powers and Teheran.
Uranium enrichment is central to the controversy: highly enriched uranium can be used in atomic weapons.
Iran had given the assurance that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors would be given access to the new plant which is being built in a mountain near the holy city of Qom,south of Teheran, Mr ElBaradei told a news conference in Teheran.
"There are concerns about Iran's future intentions and this is not a verification thing," he said."We are concerned but we are in no way panicking about Iran's nuclear programme."
ElBaradei was speaking after holding talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other officials about Iran's nuclear energy programme, which the West believes is a cover for a nuclear weapons production. Mr Ahmadinejad was later quoted by the Iranian news agency Isna as saying that all matters between the Islamic republic and the IAEA had been ironed out.
"Because of good cooperation between Iran and the agency, important issues were resolved and today there is no ambiguous issue left between Iran and the agency," he said.
Mr ElBaradei said that Teheran had been late in disclosing the fact it was building a new uranium enrichment plant near Qom.
"Based on the IAEA regulations, all countries should inform the IAEA on the day they begin construction" of a nuclear plant, he said. Iran informed the agency on Sept 21, about a year after it started constructing it.
Mr ElBaradei also announced that officials from the US, Russia, France and Iran would hold talks in Vienna on Oct 19 on the possiblity of enriching Teheran's uranium abroad.
The meeting is a follow up to talks in Geneva last week between six world powers and Iran over Teheran's nuclear ambitions, the first such talks in 15 months. Iran tentatively agreed in Geneva to ship some of its stocks of low enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for processing into fuel for an internationally supervised research reactor in Teheran.
Amid fears among Western powers that Iran may have amassed enough LEU eventually to create a nuclear bomb,senior US officials and analysts have said the move might help ease tensions.
Mr ElBaradei said he was "very pleased" about the enrichment project as it was a "confidence building" initiative between world powers and Teheran.
Uranium enrichment is central to the controversy: highly enriched uranium can be used in atomic weapons.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
B10 biodiesel tests to start
Local field tests will start soon on biodiesel B10, a blend of 10%methyl ester with 90% diesel fuel, according to an Energy Ministry official.
PTT Plc and the ministry's Department of Energy Business are carrying out the tests, which are expected to finish next year. The goal is to widen the choice of fuels available to motorists and increase the share of alternative fuels in the country's overall energy use.
The ministry expects biodiesel B5 to replace all existing B2 in the domestic market by 2011, but B10 use is not expected to be universal until 2022.
The ministry introduced B5 in 2007 and manufacturers of diesel-engine cars last month agreed to accredit the fuel.
"We are preparing well in advance to have a guarantee for the public about the quality of B10 before mandatory use in 2022," said the official.
The national renewable energy plan projects biodiesel use will reach 4.5 mil-lion litres per day, replacing 10% of existing diesel, by 2022.
Ensuring the availability of sufficient raw materials for biodiesel is a key part of the planning process.
"We are in the preparatory stage before the supply of crude palm oil will be enough for the transport sector," said the official."Raw palm now is slightly in surplus in the food sector."
Thailand has a total demand for palmbased methyl ester of 1.8 million litres per day, out of overall methyl ester capacity of 4.4 million litres daily.
Biodiesel B5 is rapidly gaining acceptance, according to statistics from the department. Demand for B5 doubled year-on-year in August to 22.3 million litres per day. However, B2 consumption dropped 24% to 23.4 million litres.
Demand for ethanol-blended petrol (gasohol) rose 16.2% to 11.5 million litres per day in August. Gasohol demand has been increasing steadily since 2006,helped by subsidies of pump prices by the state Oil Fund.
PTT Plc and the ministry's Department of Energy Business are carrying out the tests, which are expected to finish next year. The goal is to widen the choice of fuels available to motorists and increase the share of alternative fuels in the country's overall energy use.
The ministry expects biodiesel B5 to replace all existing B2 in the domestic market by 2011, but B10 use is not expected to be universal until 2022.
The ministry introduced B5 in 2007 and manufacturers of diesel-engine cars last month agreed to accredit the fuel.
"We are preparing well in advance to have a guarantee for the public about the quality of B10 before mandatory use in 2022," said the official.
The national renewable energy plan projects biodiesel use will reach 4.5 mil-lion litres per day, replacing 10% of existing diesel, by 2022.
Ensuring the availability of sufficient raw materials for biodiesel is a key part of the planning process.
"We are in the preparatory stage before the supply of crude palm oil will be enough for the transport sector," said the official."Raw palm now is slightly in surplus in the food sector."
Thailand has a total demand for palmbased methyl ester of 1.8 million litres per day, out of overall methyl ester capacity of 4.4 million litres daily.
Biodiesel B5 is rapidly gaining acceptance, according to statistics from the department. Demand for B5 doubled year-on-year in August to 22.3 million litres per day. However, B2 consumption dropped 24% to 23.4 million litres.
Demand for ethanol-blended petrol (gasohol) rose 16.2% to 11.5 million litres per day in August. Gasohol demand has been increasing steadily since 2006,helped by subsidies of pump prices by the state Oil Fund.
Time "for new world order"
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi urged African and South American leaders on Saturday to strive for a new world order countering Western economic dominance.
They spoke on the first day of a 28-nation summit that was long on idealistic speeches but short on concrete steps beyond an agreement to set up a development bank for South America with an intended $20 billion start-up.
"This is the beginning of the salvation of our people," Mr Chavez said in a speech welcoming his guests to the Caribbean island of Margarita.
President Chavez said the meeting,coming just after the UN General Assembly in New York and the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, would help poor nations rely less on Europe and the US:"The 21st century won't be a bipolar world, it won't be unipolar. It will be multipolar. Africa will be an important geographic, economic and social pole.And South America will be too."
The leftist leader has governed for more than 10 years and says he wants to remain in office for decades more to turn Venezuela into a socialist state.He casts himself as the leader of a global,"anti-imperialist" movement.
Mr Gadhafi, who is celebrating four decades in office and had a white limousine flown to Venezuela to meet him at the airport, echoed his host's message.
"The world isn't the five countries on the UN Security Council," he said.
"The world's powers want to continue to hold on to their power. When they had the chance to help us, they treated us like animals, destroyed our land,"Mr Gadhafi added."Now we have to fight to build our own power."
Other leaders, from influential developing nations like Brazil and South Africa, also gave sweeping, critical summaries of global problems, though in less radical terms. Analysts say Brazil and South Africa's model of businessfriendly economics mixed with a focus on helping the poor is more popular among many African countries than Mr Chavez's revolutionary approach.
The leaders planned to sign a document yesterday urging global bodies like the UN and World Bank to give poor countries more clout.
Mr Chavez, hoping to create an alternative to multilateral lenders like the IMF, said South American countries had agreed to start up a regional development bank, called Banco del Sur,with $20 billion.
"Lula, now we need to find the money!" he joked to Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
On the eve of the summit, Venezuela caused a stir by saying it was working with its ally Iran to find uranium deposits in the South American nation.
A Chavez aide, Jesse Chacon, who is minister of light industry, sought to play down the issue on Saturday.
Mr Chacon told reporters attending the Margarita conference that Venezuela was investigating its mineral deposits with a variety of nations.
"We want nuclear energy for medicine and peaceful purposes," Mr Chacon added.
Analysts say Venezuela is more than a decade away from being able to generate nuclear power.
Mr Chavez says he opposes nuclear weapons but insists the developed world does not have the right to stop other countries from developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Venezuela's opposition called Mr Chavez irresponsible for reaching out to what it said were unsavoury regimes around the globe.
"Venezuela's dangerous friendship with autocratic and totalitarian governments like Belarus, Sudan, Libya,Zimbabwe, show Mr Chavez's irresponsibility in seeking ties and alliances at any cost, without regard to the pariah state of these regimes," opposition group Mesa Unitaria said.
They spoke on the first day of a 28-nation summit that was long on idealistic speeches but short on concrete steps beyond an agreement to set up a development bank for South America with an intended $20 billion start-up.
"This is the beginning of the salvation of our people," Mr Chavez said in a speech welcoming his guests to the Caribbean island of Margarita.
President Chavez said the meeting,coming just after the UN General Assembly in New York and the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, would help poor nations rely less on Europe and the US:"The 21st century won't be a bipolar world, it won't be unipolar. It will be multipolar. Africa will be an important geographic, economic and social pole.And South America will be too."
The leftist leader has governed for more than 10 years and says he wants to remain in office for decades more to turn Venezuela into a socialist state.He casts himself as the leader of a global,"anti-imperialist" movement.
Mr Gadhafi, who is celebrating four decades in office and had a white limousine flown to Venezuela to meet him at the airport, echoed his host's message.
"The world isn't the five countries on the UN Security Council," he said.
"The world's powers want to continue to hold on to their power. When they had the chance to help us, they treated us like animals, destroyed our land,"Mr Gadhafi added."Now we have to fight to build our own power."
Other leaders, from influential developing nations like Brazil and South Africa, also gave sweeping, critical summaries of global problems, though in less radical terms. Analysts say Brazil and South Africa's model of businessfriendly economics mixed with a focus on helping the poor is more popular among many African countries than Mr Chavez's revolutionary approach.
The leaders planned to sign a document yesterday urging global bodies like the UN and World Bank to give poor countries more clout.
Mr Chavez, hoping to create an alternative to multilateral lenders like the IMF, said South American countries had agreed to start up a regional development bank, called Banco del Sur,with $20 billion.
"Lula, now we need to find the money!" he joked to Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
On the eve of the summit, Venezuela caused a stir by saying it was working with its ally Iran to find uranium deposits in the South American nation.
A Chavez aide, Jesse Chacon, who is minister of light industry, sought to play down the issue on Saturday.
Mr Chacon told reporters attending the Margarita conference that Venezuela was investigating its mineral deposits with a variety of nations.
"We want nuclear energy for medicine and peaceful purposes," Mr Chacon added.
Analysts say Venezuela is more than a decade away from being able to generate nuclear power.
Mr Chavez says he opposes nuclear weapons but insists the developed world does not have the right to stop other countries from developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Venezuela's opposition called Mr Chavez irresponsible for reaching out to what it said were unsavoury regimes around the globe.
"Venezuela's dangerous friendship with autocratic and totalitarian governments like Belarus, Sudan, Libya,Zimbabwe, show Mr Chavez's irresponsibility in seeking ties and alliances at any cost, without regard to the pariah state of these regimes," opposition group Mesa Unitaria said.
A NEW ASSET CLASS
Scientific consensus is growing that some floods, droughts and storms over the past decade may have been triggered by activities such as farming, deforestation and burning fuel for transport and manufacturing.
Global alarm over climate change inspired the Kyoto Protocol, which set ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions among industrialised nations.
Carbon trading allows these countries to buy reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from other countries with fewer emitting activities - an opportunity that Thailand's business community is becoming alert to. What is carbon trading?
The Kyoto Protocol establishes specific mechanisms for industrialised countries to lower greenhouse gases. Emissions trading allows countries to trade greenhouse gases, which include carbon dioxide (CO
2), methane, nitrous oxide,hydrofluorocarbon, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.
In the Kyoto Protocol, Annex I countries - developed countries that agree to reduce their emissions to below 1990 levels - are given assigned amount units (AAUs), setting the emissions they have to cut.
AAUs can be bought or sold if an Annex 1 country cannot reach its committed reduction in emissions, or if it can cut emissions beyond the level of AAUs assigned to it. The carbon bought and sold is called "carbon credits".
Carbon credits are divided into three categories, according to the three mechanisms they are intended to serve.Emission reduction units (ERUs) are carbon credits resulting from joint implementation (JI) schemes between developed countries investing in projects that will help reduce gases. What is the Clean Development Mechanism?
The CDM is how developed countries assist developing countries in certain projects, such as helping build biogas plants. The gas emissions saved will be transferred in the form of certified emission reductions (CERs) to the developed country that assisted in the project. How are carbon credits calculated?
Greenhouse gases emitted by factories are measured in tonnes per year, with one tonne equalling one CER. If a CER is sold, it is called a "carbon credit",which is measured in tonnes of CO
2equivalent per year.
Carbon credits are bought and sold in the carbon market, which varies in each country. The price of carbon credits is based on negotiation, so there is no calculation formula. The carbon market in Thailand:
Being a non-Annex I country, without an obligation to reduce greenhouse gases,Thailand is allowed to participate in buying and selling carbon credits within the CDM mechanism.
Thailand mostly has bilateral CDM projects jointly invested with developed countries. But some projects are unilateral - without help from Annex I countries. Since Thailand does not have to commit itself to lowering greenhouse gases, demand for CERs comes from foreign buyers.
The Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation (TGO) was set up in 2007 to promote greenhousegas (GHG) emissions reduction activities in Thailand and to review CDM projects for approval. The process takes an average of 110 to 180 days.
CDM projects approved by the TGO then go to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for further approval for registration.
Up to this point, the process takes between 18 months and two years.Although Thailand has registered 24 CDM projects with the UNFCCC, only two have sold carbon credits. We still have a long way to go:
The TGO has given letters of approval to 90 CDM projects (as of Sept 17,2009),which would save about 5.82 million tonnes of CO
2equivalent per year,according to its calculations.
Of the 90 projects,50.8% are in the renewable biogas sector and 17% are related to biomass. A total of 152 projects are to be proposed for consideration,while 13 are being returned for resubmission. Eight projects are currently under consideration by the TGO.
The figures put Thailand in fourth place when compared with its neighbours for the amount of projects approved by the UNFCCC. Ranking first is Malaysia,followed by the Philippines and Indonesia. Thailand's ranking reflects high transaction and technology costs and the fact that it joined the carbon market after other countries. What are the obstacles?
Business operators in Thailand still lack sufficient understanding of CDM projects, which has resulted in a small total to date.
Due to the projects' high risks and high investment needs, private financial institutions are still not confident about providing loans.
The long wait for investment returns also means that most interested investors are large-scale business operators.
Issuing loans for CDM projects is also something that financial institutions overlook, since they consider money from selling CERs as a byproduct. Many also lack knowledge in certain aspects of CDM projects, which would be helpful in giving advice.
While Thailand does not currently waive taxes for business operators of CDM projects, the topic is under negotiation at the Board of Investment.
Global alarm over climate change inspired the Kyoto Protocol, which set ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions among industrialised nations.
Carbon trading allows these countries to buy reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from other countries with fewer emitting activities - an opportunity that Thailand's business community is becoming alert to. What is carbon trading?
The Kyoto Protocol establishes specific mechanisms for industrialised countries to lower greenhouse gases. Emissions trading allows countries to trade greenhouse gases, which include carbon dioxide (CO
2), methane, nitrous oxide,hydrofluorocarbon, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.
In the Kyoto Protocol, Annex I countries - developed countries that agree to reduce their emissions to below 1990 levels - are given assigned amount units (AAUs), setting the emissions they have to cut.
AAUs can be bought or sold if an Annex 1 country cannot reach its committed reduction in emissions, or if it can cut emissions beyond the level of AAUs assigned to it. The carbon bought and sold is called "carbon credits".
Carbon credits are divided into three categories, according to the three mechanisms they are intended to serve.Emission reduction units (ERUs) are carbon credits resulting from joint implementation (JI) schemes between developed countries investing in projects that will help reduce gases. What is the Clean Development Mechanism?
The CDM is how developed countries assist developing countries in certain projects, such as helping build biogas plants. The gas emissions saved will be transferred in the form of certified emission reductions (CERs) to the developed country that assisted in the project. How are carbon credits calculated?
Greenhouse gases emitted by factories are measured in tonnes per year, with one tonne equalling one CER. If a CER is sold, it is called a "carbon credit",which is measured in tonnes of CO
2equivalent per year.
Carbon credits are bought and sold in the carbon market, which varies in each country. The price of carbon credits is based on negotiation, so there is no calculation formula. The carbon market in Thailand:
Being a non-Annex I country, without an obligation to reduce greenhouse gases,Thailand is allowed to participate in buying and selling carbon credits within the CDM mechanism.
Thailand mostly has bilateral CDM projects jointly invested with developed countries. But some projects are unilateral - without help from Annex I countries. Since Thailand does not have to commit itself to lowering greenhouse gases, demand for CERs comes from foreign buyers.
The Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation (TGO) was set up in 2007 to promote greenhousegas (GHG) emissions reduction activities in Thailand and to review CDM projects for approval. The process takes an average of 110 to 180 days.
CDM projects approved by the TGO then go to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for further approval for registration.
Up to this point, the process takes between 18 months and two years.Although Thailand has registered 24 CDM projects with the UNFCCC, only two have sold carbon credits. We still have a long way to go:
The TGO has given letters of approval to 90 CDM projects (as of Sept 17,2009),which would save about 5.82 million tonnes of CO
2equivalent per year,according to its calculations.
Of the 90 projects,50.8% are in the renewable biogas sector and 17% are related to biomass. A total of 152 projects are to be proposed for consideration,while 13 are being returned for resubmission. Eight projects are currently under consideration by the TGO.
The figures put Thailand in fourth place when compared with its neighbours for the amount of projects approved by the UNFCCC. Ranking first is Malaysia,followed by the Philippines and Indonesia. Thailand's ranking reflects high transaction and technology costs and the fact that it joined the carbon market after other countries. What are the obstacles?
Business operators in Thailand still lack sufficient understanding of CDM projects, which has resulted in a small total to date.
Due to the projects' high risks and high investment needs, private financial institutions are still not confident about providing loans.
The long wait for investment returns also means that most interested investors are large-scale business operators.
Issuing loans for CDM projects is also something that financial institutions overlook, since they consider money from selling CERs as a byproduct. Many also lack knowledge in certain aspects of CDM projects, which would be helpful in giving advice.
While Thailand does not currently waive taxes for business operators of CDM projects, the topic is under negotiation at the Board of Investment.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
GOVT URGED TO STABILISE ETHANOL COSTS
Ethanol manufacturers are calling for the government to increase ethanol reserves to stabilise production costs, which have risen in line with sugar prices and thus affected oil retailers.
"We've already proposed this solution to the government, but they don't seem very interested. They prefer we store ethanol ourselves instead of crops, but that requires an investment in tanks, which in turn risks evaporation and explosion," said Thai Ethanol Manufacturing Association chairman Sirivuthi Siamphakdee.
He said it was easier to store molasses, the main raw material in ethanol production.
Thailand's promotion of gasohol will not be successful unless the government solves fluctuations in the price of ethanol, Sirivuthi said. The Energy Ministry fixed the price at Bt20.21 a litre this month, but that will probably rise to Bt25 or Bt26 in the fourth quarter, due mainly to an increase in the price of molasses.
Oil retailers who mix 10-per-cent ethanol into gasohol products complain the high prices are preventing them from lowering their retail oil rates when global crude drops.
"Thailand's ethanol price changes too rapidly, because the government announces the reference price each month based on the average molasses price over the previous three months, which is not up to date with present conditions. Instead, it should set the price on a quarterly basis," he said.
He said molassas was now going for US$140 (Bt4,700) per tonne, but the Office of the Cane and Sugar Cane Board has announced a price of $110.
Molasses is expected to be more costly next year from reduced supply, and ethanol producers may not be able to handle the pressure of high costs and low selling price, he added.
So far, 45 ethanol plants have won production licences, but only 18 have started operations, with combined daily production capacity of 2.775 million litres. By the end of next year, five more plants are expected to operate, which will boost the country's ethanol supply to 5.695 million litres a day.
However, ethanol consumption is forecast to increase from 1.56 million litres a day now to 2.21 million litres next year, due to the government's promotion of alternative energy.
The price of molasses will move in line with sugar, which is expected to rise in the next couple of years because of higher imports by India and Indonesia, which have suffered drought, said Chalush Chinthammit, assistant vice president for business development and production at the KSL Group.
Next March and April, raw sugar could exceed 20 cents a pound, due to speculation by hedging funds, he said.
Thanks to higher prices in the 2009-10 harvest season, about 72 million tonnes of sugar cane is expected, up from 66.46 million tonnes in the previous season. The primary price of sugar cane will be Bt950 a tonne, but future increases will push sugar cane to about Bt1.1 billion per tonne.
"Oil retailers complain the high prices are preventing them from lowering their retail oil rates when global crude drops."
"We've already proposed this solution to the government, but they don't seem very interested. They prefer we store ethanol ourselves instead of crops, but that requires an investment in tanks, which in turn risks evaporation and explosion," said Thai Ethanol Manufacturing Association chairman Sirivuthi Siamphakdee.
He said it was easier to store molasses, the main raw material in ethanol production.
Thailand's promotion of gasohol will not be successful unless the government solves fluctuations in the price of ethanol, Sirivuthi said. The Energy Ministry fixed the price at Bt20.21 a litre this month, but that will probably rise to Bt25 or Bt26 in the fourth quarter, due mainly to an increase in the price of molasses.
Oil retailers who mix 10-per-cent ethanol into gasohol products complain the high prices are preventing them from lowering their retail oil rates when global crude drops.
"Thailand's ethanol price changes too rapidly, because the government announces the reference price each month based on the average molasses price over the previous three months, which is not up to date with present conditions. Instead, it should set the price on a quarterly basis," he said.
He said molassas was now going for US$140 (Bt4,700) per tonne, but the Office of the Cane and Sugar Cane Board has announced a price of $110.
Molasses is expected to be more costly next year from reduced supply, and ethanol producers may not be able to handle the pressure of high costs and low selling price, he added.
So far, 45 ethanol plants have won production licences, but only 18 have started operations, with combined daily production capacity of 2.775 million litres. By the end of next year, five more plants are expected to operate, which will boost the country's ethanol supply to 5.695 million litres a day.
However, ethanol consumption is forecast to increase from 1.56 million litres a day now to 2.21 million litres next year, due to the government's promotion of alternative energy.
The price of molasses will move in line with sugar, which is expected to rise in the next couple of years because of higher imports by India and Indonesia, which have suffered drought, said Chalush Chinthammit, assistant vice president for business development and production at the KSL Group.
Next March and April, raw sugar could exceed 20 cents a pound, due to speculation by hedging funds, he said.
Thanks to higher prices in the 2009-10 harvest season, about 72 million tonnes of sugar cane is expected, up from 66.46 million tonnes in the previous season. The primary price of sugar cane will be Bt950 a tonne, but future increases will push sugar cane to about Bt1.1 billion per tonne.
"Oil retailers complain the high prices are preventing them from lowering their retail oil rates when global crude drops."
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
A piece of the action
And the crowd went wild as Steve "President for Life" Jobs of Apple Computer came out on the stage to emcee the now-annual September music sales pitch, with loads of new stuff; in the biggest news, the iPod Nano got a video camera and FM radio, and Steve showed off the new iTunes Ver 9 management software; he also showed off the iPhone OS 3.1, available for download, which actually recommends apps you might like, has better synching for music and video, and lets you save video from email attachments into your playlist, aka Camera Roll.
Apple cut the prices of its old iPod models just hours ahead of announcing new iPod models; the price of the 32-gigabyte iPod Touch was cut $120 to $279, or 9,500 baht in real money; a 120-gig iPod Classic now costs $229, a $20 cut by the generous folks who run Apple. Palm introduced a smaller,cheaper smartphone than the successful Pre; the Pixi, as it's called, is aimed at younger users; it's slimmer, has a smaller screen, but features a Qwerty keyboard,8GB of memory and a two-megapixel camera.
US President Barack Obama, in a controversial school-time speech to most US children, advised them to be careful about what they put on Facebook and other social networks;"Whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life," he warned.
First Solar of America signed a contract with the Chinese government to build the world's largest solar power plant in Inner Mongolia; assuming it is built, the Ordos City plant will push out 2,000 megawatts of electricity,around four times the size of the projects being built by the US Army in the Mojave Desert and by First Solar in California;the China project isn't near anything much; Ordos City is a coal-producing,eight-year-old, planned low-carbon development with about 1.5 million residents, roughly 800km west of Beijing.
Networking firm Huawei of China,which has suffered a scandal or two in its Thailand work, was stung to the quick by mean stories in the Australian media that it might be tied to the Chinese espionage services; Guo Fulin, managing director of Huawei in Australia, was hurt by the insensitive stories that his company was under investigation by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation; Huawei is a public-owned company, he said, and it is unthinkable that any government agency would be using Huawei to conduct spying.
The government of Cuba took a huge security gamble, and authorised post offices to provide Internet access to the public - just in case the Cuban government ever authorises the public to use the Internet at some point in the future; the only public access currently allowed is to an inside-Cuba intranet for email, provided by post offices at a cost of the equivalent of 55 baht an hour, in a country where the average wage is 680 baht a month.
Japan fired an unmanned cargo craft into orbit; the 16.5-tonne unmanned H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) is on a mission to re-supply the space station;it will stay up there to continue ferrying stuff to the US shuttle fleet next year.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown publicly apologised for the way that people treated World War Two code-breaker and extraordinary computer geek Alan Turing for being gay; Turing was prosecuted for homosexual conduct in 1952,and a mere two years later, he committed suicide;"I am pleased to have the chance how deeply sorry I and we all are," said Mr Brown.
Google , which plans to give away grazillions of books in order to get the (commercial) goods on its customers,offered to let all its opponents have a piece of the action;Amazon.com , which wants to sell grazillions of books to make tonnes of money directly, scoffed.Rupert Murdoch, the American media mogul, began collecting money at the tollgate to his news sites, in an interesting experiment to see if people will actually pay for news on the Net.
IBM, Microsoft, Oracle Corp and Google all responded to a plaintive "Help" from the Newspaper Association of America on how to get money from customers who don't want to pay for news; Randy Bennett, who is the senior president for vice in newspapers, said he's looking over 11 different proposals on how to squeeze money out of you;Google, to no one's surprise, offered to put all newspapers behind one vast,semi-expensive firewall, because that would be so convenient for everyone to just pay one company one time, and then Google would spread the money around; sure, that ought to work.
South African technology firm Unlimited IT dispatched Winston, a pigeon,from its office in Pietermaritzburg, with some data for its main hub in Durban strapped to the bird's leg; it took Winston one hour and eight minutes to fly the data card; meanwhile, Unlimited IT tried to send the same data via the speedchallenged Internet connections provided by leading Internet Telkom , and that download was four percent finished by the time Winston arrived; so it's not only countries that start with "T" that have Internet problems.
T-Mobile of Germany and Orange of France merged their yuppiephone operations in Britain, creating a new $13.5 billion company with 28.4 mobile phone customers; the Deutsche Telekom-France Telecom venture will be the biggest provider in the UK, with a 37 percent market share, larger than O2 of Telefonica.
Apple cut the prices of its old iPod models just hours ahead of announcing new iPod models; the price of the 32-gigabyte iPod Touch was cut $120 to $279, or 9,500 baht in real money; a 120-gig iPod Classic now costs $229, a $20 cut by the generous folks who run Apple. Palm introduced a smaller,cheaper smartphone than the successful Pre; the Pixi, as it's called, is aimed at younger users; it's slimmer, has a smaller screen, but features a Qwerty keyboard,8GB of memory and a two-megapixel camera.
US President Barack Obama, in a controversial school-time speech to most US children, advised them to be careful about what they put on Facebook and other social networks;"Whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life," he warned.
First Solar of America signed a contract with the Chinese government to build the world's largest solar power plant in Inner Mongolia; assuming it is built, the Ordos City plant will push out 2,000 megawatts of electricity,around four times the size of the projects being built by the US Army in the Mojave Desert and by First Solar in California;the China project isn't near anything much; Ordos City is a coal-producing,eight-year-old, planned low-carbon development with about 1.5 million residents, roughly 800km west of Beijing.
Networking firm Huawei of China,which has suffered a scandal or two in its Thailand work, was stung to the quick by mean stories in the Australian media that it might be tied to the Chinese espionage services; Guo Fulin, managing director of Huawei in Australia, was hurt by the insensitive stories that his company was under investigation by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation; Huawei is a public-owned company, he said, and it is unthinkable that any government agency would be using Huawei to conduct spying.
The government of Cuba took a huge security gamble, and authorised post offices to provide Internet access to the public - just in case the Cuban government ever authorises the public to use the Internet at some point in the future; the only public access currently allowed is to an inside-Cuba intranet for email, provided by post offices at a cost of the equivalent of 55 baht an hour, in a country where the average wage is 680 baht a month.
Japan fired an unmanned cargo craft into orbit; the 16.5-tonne unmanned H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) is on a mission to re-supply the space station;it will stay up there to continue ferrying stuff to the US shuttle fleet next year.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown publicly apologised for the way that people treated World War Two code-breaker and extraordinary computer geek Alan Turing for being gay; Turing was prosecuted for homosexual conduct in 1952,and a mere two years later, he committed suicide;"I am pleased to have the chance how deeply sorry I and we all are," said Mr Brown.
Google , which plans to give away grazillions of books in order to get the (commercial) goods on its customers,offered to let all its opponents have a piece of the action;Amazon.com , which wants to sell grazillions of books to make tonnes of money directly, scoffed.Rupert Murdoch, the American media mogul, began collecting money at the tollgate to his news sites, in an interesting experiment to see if people will actually pay for news on the Net.
IBM, Microsoft, Oracle Corp and Google all responded to a plaintive "Help" from the Newspaper Association of America on how to get money from customers who don't want to pay for news; Randy Bennett, who is the senior president for vice in newspapers, said he's looking over 11 different proposals on how to squeeze money out of you;Google, to no one's surprise, offered to put all newspapers behind one vast,semi-expensive firewall, because that would be so convenient for everyone to just pay one company one time, and then Google would spread the money around; sure, that ought to work.
South African technology firm Unlimited IT dispatched Winston, a pigeon,from its office in Pietermaritzburg, with some data for its main hub in Durban strapped to the bird's leg; it took Winston one hour and eight minutes to fly the data card; meanwhile, Unlimited IT tried to send the same data via the speedchallenged Internet connections provided by leading Internet Telkom , and that download was four percent finished by the time Winston arrived; so it's not only countries that start with "T" that have Internet problems.
T-Mobile of Germany and Orange of France merged their yuppiephone operations in Britain, creating a new $13.5 billion company with 28.4 mobile phone customers; the Deutsche Telekom-France Telecom venture will be the biggest provider in the UK, with a 37 percent market share, larger than O2 of Telefonica.
NATIONAL ENERGY PANEL MULLS INCREASING MARGINS FOR RETAILERS
The National Energy Policy Committee will review oil retailers' marketing margins to see if there is a possibility of increasing it from Bt1.50 to Bt2.20 per litre owing to rising investment costs, a source from the committee said yesterday. According to a study by the Energy Policy and Planning Office, the new margin is based on a 12 per cent return on investment for a medium-sized two-rai petrol station.
However, the source said this rate does not take into account returns on non-oil businesses such as convenience stores or car-cleaning services.
The study also pointed out that the margin for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) should be raised from Bt3.257 to Bt3.03 per kilogram.
"The office has presented the study, but we will discuss if it |could be used as an official reference point at the meeting," the source said.
The committee will also consider incentives to boost consumption of E85 gasohol, which could prompt the Oil Fund to increase the subsidy from Bt7.13 per litre to Bt10.
The higher subsidy would lower the cost of the high-ethanol-content fuel by Bt3 per litre from Bt22.72 at present.
The panel will also consider raising the Oil Fund's budget to convert LPG taxis to ones driven by natural gas for vehicles (NGV) and the pricing structure for purple oil - the high-sulphur oil used for small fishing boats.
However, the source said this rate does not take into account returns on non-oil businesses such as convenience stores or car-cleaning services.
The study also pointed out that the margin for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) should be raised from Bt3.257 to Bt3.03 per kilogram.
"The office has presented the study, but we will discuss if it |could be used as an official reference point at the meeting," the source said.
The committee will also consider incentives to boost consumption of E85 gasohol, which could prompt the Oil Fund to increase the subsidy from Bt7.13 per litre to Bt10.
The higher subsidy would lower the cost of the high-ethanol-content fuel by Bt3 per litre from Bt22.72 at present.
The panel will also consider raising the Oil Fund's budget to convert LPG taxis to ones driven by natural gas for vehicles (NGV) and the pricing structure for purple oil - the high-sulphur oil used for small fishing boats.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Experts wary of energy-crop drive
The government needs to have a clear management plan for distinguishing cultivation areas between energy and food crops to prevent possible adverse impacts on food security and the overall food industry in which Thailand is currently a key producer, say industry executives.
"The idea to develop the region as an export hub for biofuels and alternative fuels is viable, given plenty of raw materials for producing biofuels, but what the food industry is concerned is that this may lead to head-on competition in the future between land for growing energy crops and for food," said Paiboon Ponsuwanna, chairman of the food industry club of the Federation of Thai Industries.
"A wide-ranging debate is a must to determine what types of crops we are going to invest in and where and how many plantation areas we need to grow energy crops, otherwise it would severely hit the raw material supply to the Thai food industry."
Apichart Jongskul, secretary-general of the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE), said the region had high capacity to produce alternative energy given its diversity of energy crops, but production for export would definitely bring about problems later.
The plan would definitely affect food crops and regional food security, he added.
"Producing biodiesel locally to replace imported oil is completely unlikely," Mr Apichart said."What is possible is that the we should rather focus on improving national energy security by reducing the dependence on imported oil.
"The government should also come up with a clear commitment on how far we can go to produce alternative fuels to substitute for imported oil. Becoming a hub [for alternative fuel] is sort of a dream."
Pornsil Patchrintanakul, deputy secretary-general of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, agreed that placing too much emphasis on crops as fuel could be dangerous.
Among 10 Asean members, he said,only Brunei and Indonesia currently can produce enough energy for themselves and for export. Other Asean members including Thailand are net importers of fuel oil and natural gas and have yet to cut fuel oil consumption substantially in their own countries.
Any plans to produce energy for export are unlikely to work and what the region should focus on is alternative energy to substitute for imported energy, he said.
"I am wondering why the government
does not promote a plan to cut oil imports and shift instead to using earth energy or fuel from heaven such as wind, waves and sunlight in place of 'fuel from hell' such as coal, oil and natural gas,as the fuel from heaven generates no pollution and reduces global warming," said
Mr Pornsil."More importantly, this would also create benefits from carbon credits if it was properly developed."He said Asean members should cooperate to produce alternative energy for the best benefit of the region and to cut energy costs.
"Should the region opt for producing biofuels or alternative fuels for export,we have to compete not only with natural gas but also the biggest alternative energy producing countries such as Brazil," he added.
"We have to think twice about whether it's worth the investment, as the initiative will undeniably eat into arable land for food crops."
"The idea to develop the region as an export hub for biofuels and alternative fuels is viable, given plenty of raw materials for producing biofuels, but what the food industry is concerned is that this may lead to head-on competition in the future between land for growing energy crops and for food," said Paiboon Ponsuwanna, chairman of the food industry club of the Federation of Thai Industries.
"A wide-ranging debate is a must to determine what types of crops we are going to invest in and where and how many plantation areas we need to grow energy crops, otherwise it would severely hit the raw material supply to the Thai food industry."
Apichart Jongskul, secretary-general of the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE), said the region had high capacity to produce alternative energy given its diversity of energy crops, but production for export would definitely bring about problems later.
The plan would definitely affect food crops and regional food security, he added.
"Producing biodiesel locally to replace imported oil is completely unlikely," Mr Apichart said."What is possible is that the we should rather focus on improving national energy security by reducing the dependence on imported oil.
"The government should also come up with a clear commitment on how far we can go to produce alternative fuels to substitute for imported oil. Becoming a hub [for alternative fuel] is sort of a dream."
Pornsil Patchrintanakul, deputy secretary-general of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, agreed that placing too much emphasis on crops as fuel could be dangerous.
Among 10 Asean members, he said,only Brunei and Indonesia currently can produce enough energy for themselves and for export. Other Asean members including Thailand are net importers of fuel oil and natural gas and have yet to cut fuel oil consumption substantially in their own countries.
Any plans to produce energy for export are unlikely to work and what the region should focus on is alternative energy to substitute for imported energy, he said.
"I am wondering why the government
does not promote a plan to cut oil imports and shift instead to using earth energy or fuel from heaven such as wind, waves and sunlight in place of 'fuel from hell' such as coal, oil and natural gas,as the fuel from heaven generates no pollution and reduces global warming," said
Mr Pornsil."More importantly, this would also create benefits from carbon credits if it was properly developed."He said Asean members should cooperate to produce alternative energy for the best benefit of the region and to cut energy costs.
"Should the region opt for producing biofuels or alternative fuels for export,we have to compete not only with natural gas but also the biggest alternative energy producing countries such as Brazil," he added.
"We have to think twice about whether it's worth the investment, as the initiative will undeniably eat into arable land for food crops."
IN SEARCH OF A BIOFUEL BONANZA
Thailand wants Asean to take the lead in creating and controlling the market for alternative fuels, but political and environmental challenges are daunting. By Yuthana Praiwan
In recent decades, the petroleumrich Middle East lapped up profits from parts of the world that lack that vital resource.Now that global supplies of oil are dwindling, Thailand believes Asean's agriculture sector has the potential to become a leader in biofuels.
Following the Middle East's Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), Thailand's Energy Ministry has pitched an "Opec for Biofuels" to its Asean friends.
Biofuels are defined as liquid or gas fuels derived from biomass including crops, and they produce far lower carbon emissions than fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum.
Sarawut Kaewthip, senior planning and policy analyst from the Energy Ministry, said some countries in the region clearly had vast potential to become major exporters of biofuels, but there was still a long way to go before the region could create the equivalent of an Opec for the commodity.
"The collaboration must be very close between leading producers Indonesia,Malaysia and Thailand. It could take many years of price increases and drops for them to learn how to control the market," said Dr Sarawut.
World trade conditions have also changed dramatically since the formation of Opec, making a biofuel cartel tougher to arrange for policymakers and private operators, said Dr Sarawut.
"The Thai government sees the readiness and plentifulness of biofuel resources not used for food production.From now on the three big players have to co-develop their resources to set up an Opec of biofuels and also prevent deforestation," he said.
"But we have to accept that biofuel cannot completely replace fossil oil;biofuels are only another choice for countries that want to reduce dependency on oil imports or cut greenhouse gases."
The Energy Ministry and the International Energy Agency both expect that biofuels could replace up to 25%of fossil oils in the transport sector by 2030, a significant leap from 1.5% this year.
Biofuels could supply 30 million barrels per day 20 years from now compared to total fossil oil demand today of 85-86 million bpd.
"If Asean could limit biofuel production in Asia-Pacific to only 500,000 to 600,000 barrels of supply, we could dominate the regional price," Dr Sarawut said.
"But how many years or decades from now that happens depend on the attention devoted by each government and the private sector.
"Thailand is the world's largest exporter of cassava and second largest for sugar, but there is no value added to these commodities. If you develop them to be ethanol and biofuels we can sell them at a higher price and a higher margin."
He said Brazil controlled ethanol prices as the world's largest exporter and it could be a major partner to Asean as Brazil emphasises the Atlantic Ocean market while Asean would focus on the Pacific.
Biofuel development is tough but needs to be done quickly, said Capt Dr Samai Jai-Indr, an energy expert with the Royal Thai Navy and a member of the House of Representatives Energy Committee.
He warned that industrialised countries would keep their eyes on the biofuels industry.
Europe, the United States and East Asia will never welcome biofuels unless they can secure their own resources in some way, he said.
"The companies that benefit from exploration and production in the Middle East - the US's Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell from the Netherlands and Britain, Total of France, BP of Britain and Mitsubishi of Japan - are all from developed countries that dominate the natural resources of other countries,"said Dr Samai.
"They may move fast to control world fuel plantation areas including those here in Asean. If [developed countries]can't control the industry, they would seek ways such as human rights, the environment or increased food prices to slow demand in the industry because otherwise they would have to depend on imported biofuels.
"Look at Brazil for an example. Its private and public sectors withstood complaints by developed countries that Brazil's sugarcane plantations demolished parts of the Amazon forest."
Now some developed countries buy biofuel resources in Africa and Latin America.
Dr Samai suggested biofuel producers explore opportunities in Burma and Indochina, as they possess the proper climate for fuel crops and have low labour costs.
Meanwhile, Srihasak Arirachakaran,executive director of Thai Agro Ethanol,one of the first ethanol producers in Thailand, hopes to see an organisation materialise.
"Yet these are very much rhetorical,academic questions as there are many hurdles to overcome, not just the wills of leaders," said Dr Srihasak.
Thailand is in an early stage of biofuel development as the cost of production is still too high and the whole industry needs to develop from upstream to downstream, said Dr Srihasak.
"It is important to consider crop yields, proximity, sourcing and distribution. In the meantime, each government needs to monitor closely what it needs and what it can export to assure sufficient supply for the region. This is not difficult if ministers co-operate."
Biofuels are appropriate for mature economies such as Europe, Japan and North America, where governments are tackling emission problems by replacing fossil fuels with biofuels and subsidising green fuel prices, said Dr Srihasak.
While the Thai government believes in the fast development of the techno-
ogy, Dr Sarawut points out that the new generation of biofuel technology should focus on making it commercially viable.
Malaysia and Indonesia,the world's largest and secondSamai: Developed largest exporters nations seek control of palm oil, have shown interest in an Asean biofuel Opec.
Dadan Kusdiana, Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources representative, said Indonesia was ready to collaborate with other countries, particularly the Asean region.
Biofuels development is on the national agenda as Indonesia hopes to not only curb fossil fuel imports but also improve local employment and standards of living.
Indonesia set a target for renewable energy of 17% of total energy use in 2025 by providing incentives for investment and subsidising costs for some types of renewables.
"There is no deforestation here and we are researching ways to find efficient land uses and increase productivity,"he said.
Malaysia's Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities says its development of biodiesel is aimed at reducing dependence on fossil fuels and protecting the environment, even though using palm oil for biodiesel is not economically viable.
Since 2006, Malaysia has encouraged innovative local biodiesel production technology for normal and winter-area grade biodiesel; namely, Malaysia Palm Oil Biofuel. Now the technology has been exported to Thailand and South Korea.
"The move to develop biofuels does not come from the cost of fossil fuels,but to generate a return for local agriculture and industries involved with this sector," said a Malaysian report.
In recent decades, the petroleumrich Middle East lapped up profits from parts of the world that lack that vital resource.Now that global supplies of oil are dwindling, Thailand believes Asean's agriculture sector has the potential to become a leader in biofuels.
Following the Middle East's Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), Thailand's Energy Ministry has pitched an "Opec for Biofuels" to its Asean friends.
Biofuels are defined as liquid or gas fuels derived from biomass including crops, and they produce far lower carbon emissions than fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum.
Sarawut Kaewthip, senior planning and policy analyst from the Energy Ministry, said some countries in the region clearly had vast potential to become major exporters of biofuels, but there was still a long way to go before the region could create the equivalent of an Opec for the commodity.
"The collaboration must be very close between leading producers Indonesia,Malaysia and Thailand. It could take many years of price increases and drops for them to learn how to control the market," said Dr Sarawut.
World trade conditions have also changed dramatically since the formation of Opec, making a biofuel cartel tougher to arrange for policymakers and private operators, said Dr Sarawut.
"The Thai government sees the readiness and plentifulness of biofuel resources not used for food production.From now on the three big players have to co-develop their resources to set up an Opec of biofuels and also prevent deforestation," he said.
"But we have to accept that biofuel cannot completely replace fossil oil;biofuels are only another choice for countries that want to reduce dependency on oil imports or cut greenhouse gases."
The Energy Ministry and the International Energy Agency both expect that biofuels could replace up to 25%of fossil oils in the transport sector by 2030, a significant leap from 1.5% this year.
Biofuels could supply 30 million barrels per day 20 years from now compared to total fossil oil demand today of 85-86 million bpd.
"If Asean could limit biofuel production in Asia-Pacific to only 500,000 to 600,000 barrels of supply, we could dominate the regional price," Dr Sarawut said.
"But how many years or decades from now that happens depend on the attention devoted by each government and the private sector.
"Thailand is the world's largest exporter of cassava and second largest for sugar, but there is no value added to these commodities. If you develop them to be ethanol and biofuels we can sell them at a higher price and a higher margin."
He said Brazil controlled ethanol prices as the world's largest exporter and it could be a major partner to Asean as Brazil emphasises the Atlantic Ocean market while Asean would focus on the Pacific.
Biofuel development is tough but needs to be done quickly, said Capt Dr Samai Jai-Indr, an energy expert with the Royal Thai Navy and a member of the House of Representatives Energy Committee.
He warned that industrialised countries would keep their eyes on the biofuels industry.
Europe, the United States and East Asia will never welcome biofuels unless they can secure their own resources in some way, he said.
"The companies that benefit from exploration and production in the Middle East - the US's Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell from the Netherlands and Britain, Total of France, BP of Britain and Mitsubishi of Japan - are all from developed countries that dominate the natural resources of other countries,"said Dr Samai.
"They may move fast to control world fuel plantation areas including those here in Asean. If [developed countries]can't control the industry, they would seek ways such as human rights, the environment or increased food prices to slow demand in the industry because otherwise they would have to depend on imported biofuels.
"Look at Brazil for an example. Its private and public sectors withstood complaints by developed countries that Brazil's sugarcane plantations demolished parts of the Amazon forest."
Now some developed countries buy biofuel resources in Africa and Latin America.
Dr Samai suggested biofuel producers explore opportunities in Burma and Indochina, as they possess the proper climate for fuel crops and have low labour costs.
Meanwhile, Srihasak Arirachakaran,executive director of Thai Agro Ethanol,one of the first ethanol producers in Thailand, hopes to see an organisation materialise.
"Yet these are very much rhetorical,academic questions as there are many hurdles to overcome, not just the wills of leaders," said Dr Srihasak.
Thailand is in an early stage of biofuel development as the cost of production is still too high and the whole industry needs to develop from upstream to downstream, said Dr Srihasak.
"It is important to consider crop yields, proximity, sourcing and distribution. In the meantime, each government needs to monitor closely what it needs and what it can export to assure sufficient supply for the region. This is not difficult if ministers co-operate."
Biofuels are appropriate for mature economies such as Europe, Japan and North America, where governments are tackling emission problems by replacing fossil fuels with biofuels and subsidising green fuel prices, said Dr Srihasak.
While the Thai government believes in the fast development of the techno-
ogy, Dr Sarawut points out that the new generation of biofuel technology should focus on making it commercially viable.
Malaysia and Indonesia,the world's largest and secondSamai: Developed largest exporters nations seek control of palm oil, have shown interest in an Asean biofuel Opec.
Dadan Kusdiana, Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources representative, said Indonesia was ready to collaborate with other countries, particularly the Asean region.
Biofuels development is on the national agenda as Indonesia hopes to not only curb fossil fuel imports but also improve local employment and standards of living.
Indonesia set a target for renewable energy of 17% of total energy use in 2025 by providing incentives for investment and subsidising costs for some types of renewables.
"There is no deforestation here and we are researching ways to find efficient land uses and increase productivity,"he said.
Malaysia's Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities says its development of biodiesel is aimed at reducing dependence on fossil fuels and protecting the environment, even though using palm oil for biodiesel is not economically viable.
Since 2006, Malaysia has encouraged innovative local biodiesel production technology for normal and winter-area grade biodiesel; namely, Malaysia Palm Oil Biofuel. Now the technology has been exported to Thailand and South Korea.
"The move to develop biofuels does not come from the cost of fossil fuels,but to generate a return for local agriculture and industries involved with this sector," said a Malaysian report.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)