BEIJING/PERTH, Feb 25 (Reuters) – China’s Sinopec clinched
the second-largest single Chinese liquefied natural gas deal,
and ventured for the first time into a foreign
unconventional gas asset to feed a domestic boom for the clean
fuel.

Sinopec Group, parent of Sinopec Corp ,
signed a preliminary deal for 20 years of LNG supplies with
Australia Pacific LNG Pty Ltd (APLNG), and will acquire a 15
percent stake in the giant coal seam project owned by U.S.
energy firm ConocoPhillips and Australia’s Origin Energy
.

PERTH, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Australia’s thermal coal prices, a
benchmark for Asia, climbed to over $126 per tonne as news of a
force majeure at Xstrata’s Ulan mine in New South Wales
boosted prices.

Thermal coal on the globalCOAL Newcastle index for the week
to date was $126.28 per tonne on Monday, up from $125 a week
earlier and up $3.82 from $122.46 on Friday.

SYDNEY/PERTH, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Metals producers and coal
miners said on Thursday they were unable to begin measuring the
impact of Cyclone Yasi on operations in northeastern Queensland
due to high winds and rain in the region but were hoping to
start the process as the storm loses steam.

The 30,000-tonnes-per-year QNI nickel refinery remained shut
after the brunt of the Category 5 cyclone slammed into the
coastline overnight packing winds of up to 300 km (186 miles) an
hour near its core, a spokesman for the refinery said.

PERTH (Reuters) – Global miners BHP Billiton and Peabody Energy have shut several coal mines located in Australia’s coal-rich Queensland state ahead of a cyclone, which is due to make landfall early Thursday.

Cyclone Yasi is hitting Australia’s coal industry just as it is beginning to get back on its feet from devastating floods that slashed coal exports.

PERTH, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Global miners BHP Billiton (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research)
and Peabody Energy (BTU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) have shut several coal mines located
in Australia’s coal-rich Queensland state ahead of a cyclone,
which is due to make landfall early on Thursday.

Cyclone Yasi is hitting Australia’s coal industry just as it
is beginning to get back on its feet from devastating floods
that slashed coal exports.

PERTH, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Australia’s thermal coal prices, a
benchmark for Asia, climbed to more than $127 a tonne week to
date, supported by the ongoing impact of floods in Queensland
state on coal supplies.

Thermal coal on the globalCOAL Newcastle index for the week
to date was $127.88 per tonne on Tuesday, up from $124.44 a week
earlier and up more than $5 from $122.98 on Friday.

PERTH, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Australia’s Gladstone Ports
Corporation said on Tuesday it will export 500,000 tonnes of
coal this week, nearly half of its usual capacity, after weeks
of operating well below capacity due to flooding in Queensland.

“By the end of next week we expect our stockpile to be over
the million tonne mark and increasing,” Leo Zussino, Gladstone
Ports’ Chief Executive said.

PERTH, Jan 24 (Reuters) – As floods that nearly brought
Australia’s $50-billion coal industry to a halt recede in the
state of Queensland, coal mines that stepped up precautions
after similar flooding in 2008 may be able to rebound faster.

The flooding in recent weeks, brought on by rains triggered
by a La Nina Pacific weather pattern, caused coal price spikes.

SYDNEY, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Energy firm Santos ,
which recently approved its $16-billion Gladstone liquefied
natural gas (LNG) investment, said extensive rains and floods
across Australia sharply cut its 2010 output and halted some
coal seam gas exploration.

Santos said its full-year output was reduced by about 3
million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in 2010 and its
full-year output was 49.9 mmboe, near the bottom of its 49 to 52
mmboe guidance range.

PERTH/SYDNEY, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Coal export terminals
showed signs of recovery on Wednesday as Australia begins a
clean-up process from massive flood damages that could take
months and has undermined consumer confidence in the $1.3
trillion economy highly dependent on commodity exports. Flooding blamed on rains triggered by a La Nina Pacific weather pattern has devastated huge areas of the eastern seaboard, killing 25 people and causing thousands to be evacuated, while destroying crops and crippling Australia's A$50 billion coal industry and causing coal price spikes. Risks also remain for more wild weather. Australia's weather bureau issued weather warnings on Wednesday for areas of southeast and south central Queensland, including Gladstone, the location of one of the state's major coal export terminals. "Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds, very heavy rainfall and flash flooding," the bureau said. In a sign of some improvements, Queensland's coal mines are now operating at full permanent staffing levels and the state's two largest coal export terminals said shipments were set to increase as coal rail haulage lines and mines return to normal. "With the Moura rail line open and the Dawson, Callide and Boundary Hill mines railing coal, the port of Gladstone can now start ramping up export capacity," Gladstone Ports Corporation Chief Executive Leo Zussino said in a statement. But there were signs that the coal industry will only make a slow comeback, with Gladstone Port, Queensland's second largest coal export port, saying it would take until the end of March for exports to return to normal. Australia's consumer sentiment has also taken a hit as wall-to-wall media coverage of the floods raised anxieties. Consumer sentiment fell 5.7 percent in January, the biggest fall in about six months, according to a Westpac-Melbourne Institute report. "There is no doubt that the sharp slide in consumer sentiment is almost wholly due to the flood disaster across the nation," Savanth Sebastian, an economist at Commonwealth Securities in Sydney said in a note. Australia, the world's largest coal exporter, accounts for about two-thirds of global coking coal trade, with around 90 percent of that coming from Queensland state. Coking or metallurgical coal is used for steelmaking. The Queensland Resources Council has estimated that only 15 percent of the 57 coal mines are fully operational, 60 percent are operating under restrictions and another 25 percent have yet to restart production. Damage to the industry estimated at A$2.3 billion. Global miners Rio Tinto , BHP Billiton and Xstrata are among major companies involved in coal mining in Queensland. Australian coal-to-retail conglomerate Wesfarmers expects flooding in Queensland state to significantly reduce output at its Curragh coal mine, the firm said on Wednesday. Wesfarmers was one of several companies to declare force majeure after extensive rains in December and January shut most of the region's coal mines. With many mines inundated with floodwaters, Queensland has granted temporary permission to 20 coal mines to pump out excess floodwater and is considering applications from another 16 mines, the state's Department of Environmental and Resource Management said Tuesday. FLOOD MISERY The Australian Industry Group, a business lobby, said the wild summer weather, and a rebuilding estimated to last years and to cost between A$5 billion-A$20 billion, should now prompt the government to rethink a planned 2012-13 return to budget surplus. "We can try and get into surplus by a few dollars in 2013, or we can do what's required now, in the next 12 months, to try and help businesses, and preserve jobs," AIG Chief Executive Heather Ridout told Australian radio. Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters in Brisbane that the government would both rebuild and retain the surplus target. The construction industry said it was still counting the cost of rebuilding. "You're more than a month off having an accurate number. They just literally need to be able to visually inspect hundreds of kilometres of tracks, test rails and bridges,..and inspect buildings," said Peter Barda, executive director of the Australian Construction Industry Forum. "The other great unknown will be not just the scope of the work but the prices. There will be skills shortages, materials shortages, so its likely prices will be higher," he said, declining to give any ballpark figure. The flood misery went on in some areas and thousands of people in the Victorian town of Kerang were forced overnight to flee across the state border into New South Wales, also hard hit by flooding, after a major levee bank sprung a leak. Dozens of cities and towns across Victoria remain under threat from flooding in the wake of record rainfall last week, with residents at Warracknabeal also concerned about the strength of protective levees on Yarriambiack Creek. In Queensland, residents in the rural city of Toowoomba, which was hit by devastating flash floods last week, buried a mother and son on Wednesday. The two had been swept from the roof of their car in the central business district when their rescue rope snapped. (Additional reporting by Rob Taylor in CANBERRA and Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Editing by Ed Davies)