Esther Tanquintic-Misa

Spurred by its growing domestic demand for electricity parallel to its increasing population and rapid urbanization, imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by China will climb 30 per cent to a record high in 2012.

After building more than enough stockpiles in September and October that will last its country's energy requirements through the winter, imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by South Korea, the world's second-largest buyer of the commodity, had fallen 34.5 per cent in November compared to a year ago.

Chevron Corporation's Australia unit, the Chevron Asia Pacific Exploration and Production Company, announced on Thursday its discovery of another natural gas find in the Exmouth Plateau area of the Carnarvon Basin, offshore Western Australia. The recent find is the company's 12th in Australia since mid 2009.

U.S. coal giant Peabody Energy said it will increase seaborne export coal volumes at its Wilpinjong and Millennium mines in Australia by 3 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes after expanding both operations.

The independent Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental watchdog group, in a report released on Tuesday said some 20 sites in 10 US States risk toxic contamination from coal ash.

Member-nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have agreed to raise its oil yield quota to 30 million barrels a day (mbpd), which is actually what the cartel has almost been producing lately.

Luxor Capital Group, a leading hedge fund based in the United States, has offered to buy Canadian miner Crocodile Gold for about C$121 million, prompting shares of the latter to climb more than 40 per cent during Wednesday trading.

Latest data released by China's Ministry of Commerce showed foreign direct investment (FDI) in November into the world's second-largest economy tumbled to $8.76 billion, a 9.76 per cent drop from a year ago, and its first in 28 months, spurred by the economic crisis in Europe and weakness in the US.

As exports and home sales continue to slide, no thanks to the continuing European debt crisis and stringent real estate policies at the home front, China's manufacturing has been forecast to contract for a second month in December.A preliminary reading of HSBC Holdings PLC's China purchasing managers' index (PMI) released Thursday (2:30GMT) showed the activities in the country's mainland's factories continue to dip in December, 49.0.

Asian buyers of the much coveted precious metal gold went into a buying spree as other skilled investors liquidated their investments of the safe haven metal on speculation of a dollar strength rising.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection of China has finally come up with a set of draft safety rules to ensure not only the efficiency but also safety of the country's nuclear plants once it goes online again.

Toyota Tsusho Corp., trading company of Japan's biggest automaker, Toyota group, announced recently it has entered an arrangement to supply coal-bed methane to BG Group Plc.'s liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

China will definitely raise the bar for natural gas importation as it gets more aware of the impacts of its fuel emission contributions to the environment over the last decade.

As the world continues to rely more on liquefied natural gas (LNG), prices will slowly be given a separate mechanism and move away from being linked to crude oil over the next decades.

China's Fenxi Mining Group has been chosen by Kenya to develop coalmines that cover at least two blocks from the Mui basin in the country's eastern province.

Global miner BHP Billiton on Tuesday announced it had approved to sell a portion of stakes of 8 per cent in its South African coal arm to a consortium of black investors led by investment firm Pembani Group (Pty) Ltd. to help meet regulation requirements of black ownership targets.

One possible scenario that China is looking into is slashing taxes in 2012 to help boost economic growth in the face of an export slowdown.

France's Total SA has recently upped its equity holdings in Russian OAO Novatek, buying an additional 2 per cent into the company for $800 million. Total SA's overall stake control in Russia's fastest-growing gas producer is now at 14.1 per cent.

Imports of gold from Hong Kong by the world's second-largest economy reached an all-time high of 85.7 tonnes in October, a 50 per cent hike from a month ago and up by more than 40 times from a year ago, data from the Hong Kong government showed.

Rare earths metal (REM) miner Matamec Explorations of Canada and Toyota Tsusho Corp., Toyota Motor's trading company, have entered into a non-binding arrangement to form a possible joint venture that will develop the Canadian company's Kipawa heavy REM deposit in southwest Quebec.

Despite erratic global supply and skyrocket prices, French chemicals company Rhodia had entered into a strategic alliance with China Rare Metals and Rare Earth Co. Ltd. (Chinalco) where both companies will develop opportunities in the rare earth metals business.

Iran has discovered a gas field reserve with a potential 1.4 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in the Caspian Sea.The field, located 2,300 feet deep (700 meters), lies within Iran's maritime borders, Rostam Qasemi, Iran's oil minister, said in the Ministry of Petroleum's news website.

Member-nations of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) should re-evaluate their current charts and slash output production to help acclimatize itself to the pending return of Libyan crude to the global markets as well as a potential increase in oil production from Iraq.

China and India have sworn they will cooperate with the world's more than 190 nations towards an international treaty that would include limiting the fossil fuel emissions of industrialized as well as emerging economies like them. Australia had earlier refused to commit if other countries are also not cooperating towards a new Kyoto Protocol.

GAIL (India) Ltd. has signed a 20-year import supply agreement with U.S. based Cheniere Energy Partners L.P. (CQP) for an annual supply of 3.5 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) has agreed to raise by 10 per cent its equity interest holdings in the Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. The LNG project is a joint venture between Origin Energy Ltd. and US giant ConocoPhillips.

The fiscal revenue growth of the world's second-largest economy expanded 10.6 per cent in November from a year ago figures of $101 billion. However, it was a sharp fall month-on-month from October's 16.9 per cent and September's 17 per cent recorded growth, data from the Ministry of Finance showed on Sunday.

Gold output from small-scale producers in Zimbabwe has helped the African country's overall deliveries to rise for November by contributing over 50 percent to total output, according to a recent report by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Australian mining firms, especially those with operations in Queensland, are gearing for a potential massive rainfall in the coming months.