State Electricity of Viet Nam is hoping to attract investments in power projects worth nearly VND 10 trillion (US$650 million) to bolster power supply in the country’s southern provinces. The economically more affluent area around Ho Chi Minh City is hit by chronic power shortages as a result of fast growing demand. By 2005, it...
CHINA: Competition for oil retail market share leads to gang wars
SHANGHAI (AFX-ASIA) – Armed gangs attacked workers building 50 petrol stations along a highway in China’s Henan province late last month, the Financial Times reported, noting that the attacks appear to be part of a struggle for control of petrol stations along the country’s key roads. Citing a police officer in the province, the report...
CHINA: Sinopec’s net profit down sharply in first quarter
Sinopec said its first quarter net profits fell to RMB 102 million (US$12.32 million) from RMB 3.27 billion (US$395 million) from year-ago levels as a result of lower domestic prices for crude, oil products and chemical products. The company also blamed the weaker performance on “the cost of sales, sales taxes and surcharges.” Its revenue...
AUSTRALIA: Origin’s Quarantine power station officially opened
Mike Rann, Premier of South Australia, last week officially opened Origin Energy’s fully-owned Quarantine power station, located on Torrens Island. The 95 megawatt plant was built in response to expected peak summer demand for extra generation capacity into the National Electricity Market and South Australian electricity grid. Grant King, Origin Energy’s managing director said: “Construction...
OMAN: Technip-Coflexip, Snamprogetti wins contract for US$770 m ammonia-urea complex
A joint venture comprising France’s engineering group Technip-Coflexip and Italy’s Snamprogetti, has just signed with Oman-India Fertilizer Company (OMIFCO), a lump sum turnkey contract worth about US $770 million for the design and construction of a fertiliser complex in Oman. The complex to be built at Sur, 150 km south of Mascate consists of two...
CHINA: Royal Dutch/Shell, Unocal in talks to invest US$400 m in CNOOC gas project
AMSTERDAM (AFX) – A spokesman for Royal Dutch/Shell Group said the company is in talks to make a US$400 m joint investment with Unocal Corp in an offshore gas project of CNOOC Ltd. The companies are in talks for a joint investment in the Xihu Trough project in the East China Sea, a Shell spokesman...
MALAYSIA: Terengganu state seeks potential investors in petrochemical sector
KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Terengganu state aims to be the South East Asian region hub for petrochemical operations and is seeking potential investors in this industry, Bernama news agency quoted Terengganu deputy state secretary for development Mazlan Ngah as saying. “The type of petrochemical activities that Terengganu is seeking are mid to hi-tech, low to...
AUSTRALIA: Green electricity consumers seek assurance from suppliers
Consumers in the Australian state of Victoria considering whether to purchase green electricity are questioning energy suppliers’ ability to deliver it and traditionally sourced electricity via existing distribution networks, an Origin Energy spokesperson said on World Earth day, Monday 22 April. Origin Energy reported that the most common questions customers ask about green electricity are:...
PHILIPPINES: Petron protests tax demand at tax appeals court
MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Petron Corp said its lawyers have filed a petition for review with the Court of Tax Appeals protesting the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s assessment that Petron owes the government 739.003 million pesos in excise taxes. (US$1= 51 peso). Petron said in a letter to the bourse that it is asking the court...
VIETNAM: Government to keep product prices steady
The Vietnamese government said it will keep oil products available at unchanged prices in the domestic market in the face of rising world oil prices. The Vietnam News Agency reported that the head of the Government Pricing Committee (GPC), Pham Ngoc Tuan, made the pledge as world oil prices rose to their highest levels since...
UAE: Crude output capacity to reach 4 million b/d
The UAE is pushing ahead with ambitious plans to maintain its position as one of the biggest oil producers by adding more than one million barrels per day to its output capability, according to a state report. Citing the Information and Culture Ministry’s annual book for 2002, the local Gulf News said that current sustainable...
MALAYSIA: MLNG3-Japex deal
KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Malaysia LNG Tiga Sdn Bhd’s (MLNG3) latest US$1.6 billion 20-year deal to supply up to 480,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year to Japan Petroleum Exploration Co Ltd (Japex) is a credit positive for MLNG3’s major stakeholder Petronas of Malaysia, JP Morgan Securities said. This is the third supply...
MARKET: US Interior Secretary Norton says Iraqi embargo increases need for Arctic oil
WASHINGTON (AFX) – US Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Iraq’s oil embargo makes it even more necessary that the Senate approves the opening up of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. Talking to reporters during a press briefing here, Norton said pro-Israeli groups have become the Bush administration’s latest allies in its...
MALAYSIA: Petronas may proceed alone in JDA gas pipeline project if Thailand opts out
KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) said it is willing to proceed alone with the gas pipeline project in the joint development area (JDA) with Thailand even if Thailand decides not to go ahead with the plan, Petronas president and chief executive Hassan Marican said. Bernana news agency quoted Hassan as saying Petronas...
FEATURE: Russian tanker completes 2-week trial voyage from Seoul to Sakhalin
The MV Primorye, is the flagship of Primorsk Shipping Corporation (PRISCO), Russia’s only private tanker owner/operator. This vessel a 105,177 dwt double hull, aframax tanker – is the company’s newest and largest tanker in a fleet of 46. Built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2000, the MV Primorye recently completed a successful 2 week trial...
MARKET: ESAI expects oil prices to stay firm
The gyrations in oil pricing in recent days appears to be ample proof that high crude prices are mostly the result of a lingering state of political uncertainty in the market, said US-based energy consultant ESAI in the latest Atlantic Basin Stockwatch. In the April 15th report, ESAI reviews the factors involved and their importance....
CHINA: Shenzhen Petrochemical unit under investigation for smuggling
SHANGHAI (AFX-ASIA) – Shenzhen Petrochemical Industry (Group) Co Ltd said its subsidiary Shenzhen Petrochemical Fine Chemical Co Ltd is currently under investigation by customs authorities over allegations of smuggling. The authorities are seeking to establish whether Fine Chemical wrote off materials which were imported tax-free in 1999 and 2000, and should by law have been...
PHILIPPINES: Petron sees staggered oil price hikes this month, possible rise in May
MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Petron Corp expects to implement staggered price increases this month to recover increased crude costs since the start of last month, company spokeswoman Virginia Ruivivar said. Ms Ruivivar said in a local raio interview that while Petron has no plans to immediately follow the 0.10 peso per litre price hike of Caltex...
CHINA: Shanghai Futures Exchange seeks approval to resume oil futures market
HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – The Shanghai Futures Exchange has completed a study on the trading of fuel oil futures and submitted an application to the China Securities Regulatory Commission to resume this activity, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Jiang Yang, general manager of the exchange, as saying. Jin Dehuan, dean of the Securities and...
AUSTRALIA: Clough wins contract to build PNG’s first oil refinery
InterOil Corporation has awarded Clough Niugini Limited the contract to build Papua New Guinea’s first oil refinery. The construction of the 32,500 barrels/day plant is valued at US$204 (A$385) million. Clough Niugini is the Papua New Guinea operating arm of the Australian engineering and construction contracting company Clough Engineering Limited. Clough Niugini will undertake the...
AUSTRALIA: Santos outlines expansion strategy
Australian upstream company Santos Limited said its strategy for new and vigorous growth profile is starting to take shape. Speaking at its annual general meeting in Adelaide yesterday, chairman Stephen Gerlach said: “The strategy that we released twelve months ago was aimed at growth. I am pleased to say that we are getting runs on...
MARKETS: Platts shifts Dubai, Oman crude assessments from New York to Singapore
Oil pricing media Platts said it will shift the basis of its strategically important Dubai and Oman crude oil price assessments from New York to Singapore on June 3, 2002. Platts, a unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies, currently assesses the key benchmarks of the world’s crude oil markets-Brent, West Texas Intermediate, Dubai and Oman-through a...
COMPANIES: Japan’s Cosmo Oil forecast, Taiwan’s CPC raise prices
TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Cosmo Oil Co Ltd said it expects to post a net loss of 5.5 bln yen in the year to March 2002, compared with a 5.5 bln yen profit forecast earlier. It said it downgraded the earnings projections because of over 10 bln yen in extra losses arising from depreciation of inventory...
INDIA: Committees set up to ensure CNG supply to Delhi
The Indian government has set up two committees to look into ensuring uninterrupted supply of compressed natural gas (CNG) to New Delhi. Lt-Governor Vijai Kapoor will head the committee responsible for providing land and infrastructure for CNG distribution while petroleum secretary P Chaturvedi will take charge of the committee for supply to buses, auto-rickshaws and...
MALAYSIA: Petronas JV in US$1.6 billion deal to supply Japan Petroleum with LNG
KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Malaysia LNG Tiga Sdn Bhd has agreed to supply up to 480,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year to Japan Petroleum Exploration Co Ltd for 20 years beginning 2003, in a contract worth some US$1.6 billion, major stakeholder Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) said in a statement. Under the deal,...