NEW DELHI (AFX-ASIA) – A delay in the sale of stakes in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) will not set back India’s privatisation programme as the government is fully committed to privatisation, Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran said. The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency quoted Maran...

The Singapore government said it arrested 21 men last month for alleged involvement in planning to attack various strategic installations including water pipelines, the Defence Ministry, the airport, an American vessel in the Changi Naval Base and the oil and petrochemical complex of Jurong Island. Nineteen of the 21, who are all Singaporeans, are said...

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN Sep 18 2002 Ð It is a great pleasure to be with you today to mark the beginning of the construction phase of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. This remarkable commercial and engineering project will deliver oil from the Caspian Sea through Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean coast in Ceyhan 1,760 kilometres away –...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Hutchison Whampoa Ltd unit Husky Energy has applied to Canadian authorities for 25-year exploration rights to an oil field in a lake in western Canada, the Ming Pao Daily reported, quoting securities sources. Husky plans to begin oil production from the oil field in 2005, with a daily output of 30,000...

US-based FAME Information Services, Inc. has launched energySCOPE 5.0, the company’s latest version of Internet-enabled charting software. This updated software solution is a Java¨-based graphing and reporting tool, which enables users to access energy market data from a central FAME Energy database across Web pages, intranets, and extranets. “EnergySCOPE is FAME’s next generation of decision...

SINGAPORE (AFX-ASIA) – China Aviation Oil said it is confident that the Spanish government will approve its proposed acquisition of a 5% stake in storage company Cia Logistica de Hidrocarburos (CLH). The Spanish government is currently reviewing the transaction as part of the sale process. Under current Spanish legislation regarding strategic sectors of the economy,...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho said the government loses “hundreds of millions of pesos” in tax revenue through the duty-free importation of jet fuel by airlines. Mr Camacho said the government is now conducting a review on this following a petition from local oil companies saying the present tax policy on jet...

Hongkong’s Fire Services Department (FSD) has launched surprise checks on illegal fuelling stations in recent weeks and warned the operators to cease their activities. Early this month, its officers seized 12 metal drums each containing 200 litres of diesel fuel and dispensing facilities at an open carpark at King Yip Street in Kwun Tong following...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – China will send 47 delegates from government and industry to attend the first Indonesia-China Energy Forum this month, which is part of high-level strategic moves between the two countries to strengthen cooperation in the energy sector. Leading the delegation will be Zeng Peiyan, chairman of the State Development Planning Commission which determines...

France’s Technip-Coflexip and its Iranian partner Nargan said this week the contract that they signed in March 2001 with Iran’s JAM Petrochemical Company for the design, equipment and material supply and construction supervision of a petrochemical complex has come into effect. The 1.345 million ton-a-year of ethylene plant, said to be the world’s largest steam...

Fuel and Marine Marketing LLC (FAMM), a ChevronTexaco company, said its joint venture company FAMM-Indah has signed a lease agreement with Westport Bunkering Services (WEBS) for its bunker terminal in Port Klang, Malaysia. The multi-year agreement became effective earlier this year and construction to upgrade the 200,000 metric ton (mt) capacity facility has begun. The...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – PT Bahana Securities said it forecasts PT Apexindo Pratama Duta’s 2002 sales will reach 591 billion rupiah, rising to 938 billion in 2003. (US$1=9,100 rupiah) Apexindo, which provides drilling services, is a unit of PT Medco Energi Internasional. The forecasts are based on a year-end exchange rate of 9,100 rupiah against the...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Energy Commission chairman Mohd Annas said the commission will propose that local governments include the construction of gas pipelines in new residential development projects as one of the requirements, the New Straits Times reported. “We will not force them … this is just a suggestion. But it will help us meet...

Oil prices are at their current high levels because of low inventory in the US, not the so-called war premium, said the US Department of Energy. US commercial crude oil inventories have fallen to 287.8 million barrels, their lowest levels since March 9, 2001. Inventories fell another 5.4 million barrels last week, and have now...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – Merrill Lynch is raising its 2002 oil price forecast to US$25 per barrel from US$24 on expectations that inventory will fall below normal levels over the next few months following improvements in market fundamentals. Analysts with the brokerage said in a research note that OPEC is likely to increase production by the...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Thousands of people living alongside the route of a 4,000-km pipeline to transport natural gas across China could become potential opponents of the project if the developers do not pay enough attention to their concerns, a United Nations report warned. Overall, there seems to be a strong “benefit of the doubt” view...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Hong Kong and China Gas Co Ltd is interested in bidding for a 24% stake in Shenzhen Gas Group, a piped gas monopoly in Shenzhen, managing director Alfred Chan Wing-kin said, according to a South China Morning Post report. Shenzhen Gas supplies gas to 400,000 households in Shenzhen, with the number...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – W.M.P. Simanjuntak, president of state-run PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN), confirmed that the company is in talks with a number of creditors including China, which has given ‘indicative’ funding of US$800 million to the planned US$1.7 billion gas pipeline project. Mr Simanjuntak was speaking to AFX Asia on the sidelines of a...

Petronet LNG is no longer interested to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Kochi town in India following the withdrawal of National Thermal Power Corp from the consortium championing the project. NTPC pulled out as it plans to set up a terminal elsewhere. Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), which had been trying...

France’s Vivendi Environnement’s water division, Vivendi Water, has signed a contract with Malaysia’s state energy company, Petronas, for outsourcing services in water treatment and supply at the Kertih petrochemical complex on the east coast of Malaysia. Under the 20-year contract, Vivendi Water will operate a potable water production plant with a capacity of 250,000 cubic...

The Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE) has warned that domestic oil prices would eventually rise as a result of the “continuous upward” pressure on world oil markets. But seeking to pre-empt public anger, Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez, Jr. described any attempt to raise transport fares as a result of higher oil prices as “premature.”...

India’s state Bharat Petroleum Company Limited (BPCL) has started marketing its lower-sulphur gasoline and diesel fuels in the main cities of New Delhi and Mumbai. The fuels were launched by Ram Naik, the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, last month. He said the fuels provided benefits such as better combustion, low carbon deposit, maximum...

Singapore’s Continental Chemical Corporation Pte Ltd yesterday announced the completion of its restructuring to position the company for aggressive growth in Asia. The company said it now has a strong manufacturing and marketing presence in five countries across Asia to provide world-scale facilities, products and services to their worldwide customers. The company is the region’s...

Steve Ollerearnshaw will succeed Chris Haynes as chief executive officer of Australia’s North West Shelf Venture from November 4. Mr Haynes, who joined Woodside in July 1999, has accepted the position as Shell’s country chairman in Syria and CEO of the Al Furat Petroleum Company. Mr Ollerearnshaw is currently managing director of Petroleum Development Oman....

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Hong Kong & China Gas Co Ltd said the slight rise in its six months to June net profit to HK$1.704 billion vs HK$1.701 billion reflected lower operating costs for the period. (US$1=HK$7.87). The company reported sales before fuel cost adjustment rose to HK$3.790 billion from HK$3.691 billion a year earlier,...