Energy policy and administration

The government said yesterday that a gold mine in Kompong Cham province that has damaged about 1 square km of land with chemical waste would cost at least $4 million to clean up. Speaking at a workshop in Phnom Penh on revenue transparency, Sim Sisokhaly, director ...

Deputy Prime Minister Sok An will meet Thai Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan on Thursday to discuss the possibility of extracting oil from disputed maritime areas in the Gulf of Thailand, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday. Mr Siphan said that Mr Sok An, who ...

The Cambodian government yesterday offered a subsidy on equipment to private electricity distributors in an effort to expand the Kingdom’s limited power grid. Private power suppliers who have completed between 70 to 80 per cent of their planned investments in electricity networks can request subsidies on ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen will officially open the Chinese-made Kamchay dam in Kampot province today, the largest hydropower dam to date to operate in Cambodia and capable of supplying an extra 193.2 megawatts of energy. Environmental and human rights groups yesterday criticized the dam’s builder and ...

The Royal Government needs to address the environmental impacts not only from climate change but from man-made, water-based infrastructure such as dams before another natural disaster like the recent flooding claims hundreds of lives, community representatives said yesterday. At the first NGO Forum conference on climate ...

China’s Erdos Hongjun planned to build a bauxite processing plant in Kratie province as part of the company’s US$1.5 billion venture in the Kingdom’s northeast, provincial officials said yesterday. The plant would serve Erdos’s mine in neighbouring Mondulkiri, an exploration licence for which was granted by ...

A consulting firm commissioned by the Lao government to prepare a report on the controversial US$3.8 billion Xayaburi dam project has rejected claims by environmentalists that their assessment was “biased” due partly to existing ties with a project backer. On Wednesday, conservation group International Rivers claimed ...

JAPAN Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation has started preliminary surveying as the sole operator in Cambodia’s Block 17 onshore oil field, a 6,500 square-kilometre area of hilly forest in Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear and Siem Reap provinces, according to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) ...

An environmental group yesterday refuted the validity of a report commissioned by Laos in September claiming that construction of its controversial Xayaburi dam would not have a significant impact on the Mekong River. The report, completed for the Lao government by Swiss engineer Poyry Energy AG, ...

Atok-Big Wedge Co. Inc., a listed company owned by the group of former Trade minister Roberto Ongpin, acquired Tidemark Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong company that owns 25.9 percent of Forum Energy Plc, an oil and gas firm controlled by Philex Mining Corp. Atok-Big Wedge said ...

Thailand is reportedly preparing to re-enter negotiations with Cambodia on the Overlapping Claims Area after officials from the two countries talked this week at the ASEAN Energy Business Forum in Brunei. Thai Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said yesterday that he met informally with Ministry of Industry ...

Tractors carried members of 50 families from Lor Peang village in Kampong Chhnang province’s Kampong Tralach district to the provincial courthouse early yesterday morning, where their hopes faded as they waited for court officials to accept their latest complaint against a company they accuse of ...

The government has given a Chinese mining company the right to extract gold from 28 square km of land in Kratie province’s Sambor district, a provincial official said yesterday. On July 5, the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy granted Hing Yuan Hanng Yeak Co Ltd ...

VISA, Mastercard, Dell and Cisco Systems have been added to a growing list of US companies looking to enter the Cambodian market, according to Frances Zwenig, counsellor of the US-ASEAN Business Council. The financial services and information technology companies joined GE, Chevron, Johnson & Johnson ...

Weak enforcement of mining laws excludes local communities from the decision-making process and smudges the revenue transparency, said George Boden, a campaigner at watchdog group Global Witness. Weak enforcement of mining laws excludes local communities from the decision-making process and smudges the revenue transparency, said ...

Democrat MP for Surat Thani Suthep Thaugsuban denies he held secret talks with Cambodian officials about oil and gas interests in the overlapping marine area during the tenure of the Democrat-led government. Mr Suthep, a former deputy prime minister, conceded yesterday he met Cambodian Deputy Prime ...

Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has extended a deadline for 52 villagers embroiled in a long-standing land dispute with a development company owned by the wife of Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem to pay court fees, a court official and rights workers said ...

Energy planners are pushing the revival of talks with Cambodia on the oil-rich overlapping claims area (OCA) between the two countries to ensure energy security. They also urge all parties not to turn it into a political issue so that the talks stand a chance ...

Cambodia agreed to acquire Chinese-made Z-9 helicopters for US$195 million in one of 26 memorandums of understanding agreed by the two countries on Saturday. Cooperation was pledged in sectors such as energy, mining, agriculture and road construction, as well as defense spending and aid. The ...

Cambodia on July 28th hosted the 3rd Greater Mekong Sub- Region Environment Ministers to look forward to sustainable economic development in the region and to talk about current projects to reduce harm for regions and also to minimize several environmental challenges affecting natural resources, forest and ...

Bauxite reserves in Mondolkiri province abandoned by Australian mining form BHP Billiton in 2009 are now being explored by China’s Mongolia Erdos Hongjun Holding Group, the same firm that is behind the controversial development of Boeng Kak lake in Phnom Penh. Kong Pisith, director of ...

According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) the regional and national power grids are key to development, though plans for their development have come under criticism by a number of NGOs who believe that power generation should be decentralized. The ADB’s Greater Mekong Subregion program ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called for greater regional cooperation to tackle a range of environmental problems in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, but did not specifically address the threat posed by dams. “I call on all countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region to place more emphasis ...

Cambodian officials yesterday touted the potential for green energy to meet its goal of bringing electricity to 100 percent of households by 2020. The Kingdom was looking to develop solar energy, small-scale hydropower and biomass-fuelled power to meet the target, said Ministry of Industry, Mines and ...