US, Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Company has signed contracts valued in excess of $350 million to provide components, instrumentation and control equipment and technical and engineering support services to four new nuclear power plants in South Korea. The plants are Korea Standard Nuclear Plant Plus design, based on the Westinghouse System 80 technology design. They have...

Indonesia-based Gulf Resources (Grissik) Ltd., an indirect subsidiary of Conoco Inc., has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the supply of natural gas from Sumatra Island to Malaysia. The MOU was signed with Indonesian state oil company Pertamina and Malaysia’s national oil and gas company Petronas. About 73% of the natural gas required by...

India’s largest private company, the Reliance group has named Mukesh Ambani as chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd, and Anil Ambani, younger brother of Mukesh, as vice chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries. The Ambani brothers are sons of Dhirubhai Ambani, Reliance’s founder, who died after a stroke last month. The company...

The High Court of Hong Kong last week dismissed a procedural complaint filed by Pertamina, Indonesia’s state oil and gas company, as part of an ongoing legal dispute with Karaha Bodas Company (KBC). The dispute centres on KBC’s attempt to enforce against assets held by Pertamina in Hong Kong an arbitral award granted to KBC...

China’s state CNOOC is negotiating to buy equity stakes in two large natural gas fields in Indonesia and Australia. The company, China’s largest offshore oil producer, announced this shortly after it awarded supply contracts to two consortia producing natural gas in the two countries. CNOOC and Guangdong LNG terminal partners selected Australian LNG (ALNG) for...

SINGAPORE (AFX-ASIA) – AP Oil International Ltd said it has secured contract, worth a total of S$9 million (US$1=S$1.75), to supply base oils and additives to companies in Myanmar, Thailand and Philippines. The company said that it was awarded a S$1.3 m tender contract from Myanmar Petroleum Chemical Enterprise, contracts worth S$3.9 m from Thailand...

The Philippine government has confirmed to Greenpeace that the proposed 50 megawatt coal-fired power station for Pulupandan in the province of Negros was officially “dead” and that renewable energy was the solution to the province’s power needs. The announcement came on the final day of Greenpeace’s Choose Positive Energy Tour in the Philippines. “The Department...

Stephen Robinson, formerly with Bominflot (Gibraltar) Ltd. and Bomin Bunker Oil in Singapore, is joining Cockett Marine Oil (Asia) Pte. Ltd. in Singapore as managing director. He succeeds Cecil Cheong who has resigned to join Searights Maritime Services Pte Ltd, a supplier and barge operator....

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Tenaga Nasional Bhd said its three months to May results were affected by substantial forex losses following the strengthening of the yen and a higher quarter-on-quarter cost of production. The net loss of RM356.1 million (US$1=RM3.8) in the third quarter against a profit of RM333 million a year ago dragged the...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) — a 50:50 joint venture between BP PLC and Rio Tinto PLC — today offered a 51 pct stake to the central government for sale to local investors, after receiving confirmation that legal action against it has been dropped. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro told...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina said it has lowered the price of premium gasoline to 1,735 rupiah per litre in August from 1,750 in July due to lower world oil prices. (US$1=9,000 rupiah). In a statement, Pertamina said the price of automotive diesel has fallen to 1,760 rupiah per litre from...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – The Manila Electric Co and National Power Corp have agreed to reduce their rates to industrial customers by about 25% under a pricing incentive called Special Program to Enhance Electricity Demand (SPEED), Energy Secretary Vicente Perez said. Mr Perez said Meralco and Napocor will give fixed discounts of 0.92 peso and 0.80...

The HongKong government has adjusted the ceiling prices of motor liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for dedicated LPG filling stations from August 1 2002 to January 31 2003. A government spokesman said the adjusted ceiling prices, ranging from HK$1.76 per litre to HK$2.05 per litre, is adjusted based on a specified pricing formula. This compares with...

Australia’s North West Shelf Gas Venture has awarded a A$15 (US$8) million contract to BGC Contracting Pty Ltd of a West Australia state, for the supply of rock to protect and stabilise sections of the venture’s second gas trunkline. The 130 kilometre trunkline, currently under construction, will link the venture’s offshore gas production and onshore...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – The Energy Commission has allowed 20 small power generation plant operators to sell electricity produced from renewable energy resources to Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Energy, Communications and Multimedia Minister Leo Moggie said. The Star quoted Leo Moggie as saying the operators are now working out the commercial arrangements to sell the electricity...

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company (BTC Co), jointly owned by private and state oil companies, was formed in London last week. The formation of the company was regarded as an important step forward in the realisation of a major pipeline to export crude oil 1,760 kilometres from Azerbaijan and the Caspian region through Georgia to Ceyhan...

Malaysia’s rising power demand has led to its current shortage of gas supply, said Mohd Hassan Marican, president of state oil and gas company Petronas. Speaking to reporters recently, he said that under an agreement signed with the government in the mid-1990s, Petronas had agreed to produce 2 billion cubic ft of gas per day...

Pacific Petroleum Trading and Kamei Corp have joined Japan’s J-Oil Exchange (JOX), an Internet-based oil products and swaps trading portal serving mostly the Japanese oil industry. Pacific Petroleum is a joint venture between Indonesia’s state Pertamina and Japanese companies. JOX also announced it has started spot trading of physical cargoes last week. The exchange was...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – East Timor has asked Australia to take over part of its maritime security in a new treaty that would substantially increase the ocean area in which the two countries share oil and gas revenue, the Australian Financial review reported, citing East Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta. According to the report, if...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Shenyang Public Utility Holdings Co Ltd said Beijing Beida Hi-Tech Industrial Ltd will inject 1.250 bln yuan into its controlling shareholder Shenyang Public Utility Group Co Ltd (SPU) in exchange for a 50% interest in SPU. (US$1=HK$7.87). In a statement, Shenyang Public Utility said Beijing Beida Hi-Tech, a company controlled by...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – PetroChina will invest US$361 to 482 million to buy or build another 1,500 gas stations this year, Lin Qingshan, vice president and refining and marketing head said. Mr Lin told the Xinhua news agency in an interview that 30-40% of the plan has been completed. By the end of last year, PetroChina’s...

A six-member consortium led by state-owned Japan National Oil Corp will jointly begin operations of a gas-to-liquids pilot plant in Tomakomai on Hokkaido island. The plant has the capacity to produce 1.1 kiloliters of liquid fuel per day. JNOC, Cosmo Oil Co., Nippon Steel Corp., Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Chiyoda Corp. and Inpex Corp. are...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – Karaha Bodas Co (KBC), the former partner of state oil and gas firm Pertamina, said it received US$75 million through an insurance claim for the companies’ failed joint venture, the Jakarta Post reported, citing Karaha spokesman Mohammad Saleh. The insurance claim to Lloyd’s of London follows the suspension of their geothermal power...

Conoco Canada Resources Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Conoco Inc, and Gulf Indonesia Resources Limited said that the offering period of Conoco Canada’s tender offer for all the outstanding shares of Gulf Indonesia not owned by Conoco Canada expired on July 30. During the subsequent offering period, 6,117,210 shares of Gulf Indonesia were tendered...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – OCBC Investment Research said it is maintaining its ‘market perform’ recommendation on Tenaga Nasional after the company signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with SKS Power Sdn Bhd last month. The research house said the PPA is in favour of Tenaga, while still ensuring a reasonable return to independent power producer...