Economy of Asia

An AirAsia flight heading to Bali from Perth plunged 20,000 feet shortly after take-off on Sunday (Oct 15) morning, leaving passengers terrified, Australian media reports said.
Flight QZ 535, with 145 people on board, was forced to turn back just 25 minutes into its journey after the pilot was alerted to a drop in cabin pressure, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

The Russian Hevel corporation and Korean Hyundai signed a memorandum of cooperation for the construction of solar-diesel power plants. The volume of project financing is about 8 billion rubles. The Hevel corporation is a joint venture between Renova and Rosnano, TASS recalls.

Chinese authorities have approved a mega-merger between the country's largest coal producer and a top electricity firm, the government said on Aug. 28, reportedly creating the world's biggest power company in terms of capacity.

Greek oil producer Energean has exceeded its target for gas sales contracts needed before it goes ahead with plans to tap two gas fields off Israel's coast, market sources said on Wednesday. Energean bought the Karish and Tanin fields, located in deep waters around 100 kilometers off Israel's coast, last August for $148 million from US-Israeli partners Delek Group and Noble Energy.

Turkey's Limak has said it became a partner in a $570 million (34 billion rubles) worth highway construction project in the Russian city of Ufa. 

Two tourist agencies that operate tours to North Korea said on Friday the U.S. government will soon ban its citizens from travelling to the North, according to Daily Mail.

Koryo Tours said the ban would be announced on July 27 and would go into effect 30 days later. 

Russia will start supplying gas to China through a new pipeline by the end of 2019, state gas giant Gazprom said on July 4, as part of a mammoth $400-billion deal.

"Today a deal was signed...about the date of the start of gas deliveries through the 'Power of Siberia' pipeline. It is December 20, 2019," Gazprom boss Alexei Miller told journalists.

Iran plans to sign a new contract to develop its giant South Pars gas field with France's Total and China's CNPC on July 3, the first major Western energy investment since sanctions against Tehran were lifted, an Iranian oil ministry official told Reuters on July 2.

Greece's Energean said on Sunday it signed contracts to supply up to 23 billion cubic meters of natural gas to private Israeli power stations from the Tanin and Karish gas fields off the coast of Israel.

In a move aimed at increasing competition in the Israeli electricity sector, Greek developer Energean Oil & Gas has secured its first gas supply deals for Israel’s Karish and Tanin reservoirs.