Iran has started exporting diesel to Pakistan by road, starting with 5,000 tons of the product for oil-fired generators in Baluchistan province last month. According to the Iranian press, a private Iranian company TAVANIR, is handling the transaction. Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) had asked the Iranian Petroleum Ministry to transport the diesel...

HANOI (AFX-ASIA) – China has agreed to lend Vietnam US$85.5 million for the construction of the Cao Ngan thermal power plant in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, the official Vietnam News Agency said. The agreement was signed last month after being finalised by Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Lai Quang Thuc and China’s...

Indonesian labour and student groups have stepped up their protests against the government following announcements of price hikes for basic products like fuels and electricity since New Year’s Day. Demonstrations against the administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri have erupted in almost all the country’s major cities this week. State PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) will...

SEOUL (AFX-ASIA) – Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Ltd said it has secured a combined US$910 million in orders from Exxon Mobil and ACT-OG of China. Exxon Mobil ordered US$750 million worth of floating production storage and off-loading facility, which will be installed offshore of Angola and completed by 2005. Hyundai Heavy also obtained a US$160...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – The Energy Regulatory Commission said it has allowed the Manila Electric Co to collect from consumers 5.758 billion pesos in purchased power adjustment costs it incurred from Jan 2000 to Sept 2002. (US$1=52 peso). However, the ERC said in its order that the collection of the PPA costs will have to be...

Malaysia’s Tenaga Nasional Bhd is expecting to maintain its year to August 2002 net profit performance in the current financial year, based on a forecast that demand for electricity will grow 5-6% in the current period, Tenaga chairman Awang Adek Hussin said. In the year to August 2002, Tenaga posted a net profit of RM1.4...

Australia’s Bass Straits project has been given full authority and approvals to proceed to construction, said the joint venture partners Origin Energy Resources Limited (OERL), Australian Worldwide Exploration Limited (AWE), CalEnergy Gas (Australia) and Wandoo Petroleum. OERL, as operator on behalf of the JV, said: “The decision of the joint venture partners to proceed follows...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – The long-awaited reform of China’s electricity sector announced last week is likely to have little if any impact on the industry in the short term, although employees are likely to be among the first casualties, analysts said. The government formally launched the break up of state-run electricity conglomerate State Power Corp into...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – The cabinet has approved a plan to introduce technology to recycle garbage, cattle dung and other waste as a source of energy to 500 communities across Japan by 2010. “The premier ordered ministries and branches of government to devise ways to use biomass,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference....

KUWAIT CITY (AFX-ASIA) – Kuwait and Japan’s Arabian Oil Co (AOC) Ltd have signed a deal finalizing the takeover by the Gulf emirate of AOC’s drilling concession in the neutral zone shared with Saudi Arabia, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah said. The deal includes a transition arrangement, a five-year technical service agreement, a...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Tenaga Nasional Bhd is in talks with Australia-based Intermoco Ltd and its Malaysian partner Diligent Network Sdn Bhd to implement Intermoco’s automated meter reading (AMR) system to monitor the utility’s large commercial customers, Malay Mail quoted unnamed sources as saying. Sources said Intermoco stands a good chance of securing the contract...

The world’s two leading energy exchanges are involved in an increasingly nasty legal suit as the competition heats up over business for the paper oil business. IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. (ICE) this week filed a suit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., (Nymex) seeking...

Charles Goodyear has taken over as CEO of Australia’s BHP Billiton, following the resignation of Brian Gilbertson because of “irreconcilable differences” with the board. Mr Goodyear, a 44-year-old American, was chief development officer, and was BHP Ltd.’s CFO when it took over Billiton Plc in 2001 when Mr Gilbertson, 59, was Billiton’s CEO. Mr Goodyear,...

How many major wars can the US fight at once? At the start of December, US defence officials were confidently sizing up an attack on Iraq while continuing a global initiative against Al Qaeda terrorists and holding the peace in fractious Afghanistan. As the year came to a close, unpredictable and possibly nuclear-armed North Korea...

TAIPEI (AFX-ASIA) – Taiwan authorities are planning to deregulate the electricity industry next year, Energy Commission deputy secretary-general Wang Yunn-ming said. “After parliament passes the electric power industry bill, the monopoly which state-owned Taiwan Power Co has enjoyed will be ended to open the market for competition,” he said. Currently, private companies are only allowed...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – The long-awaited reform of one of China’s last remaining monopolies, the power sector, has been formally launched on New Year’s Day, a State Power Corp official confirmed to AFX-Asia. The reform centres around the break-up of State Power Corp, a sprawling conglomerate which owns more than half the country’s generating capacity and...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – The first unit of Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s Janamanjung plant located in Manjung, Perak will be operational from January, ahead of its scheduled operational date in September, TNB Janamanjung Sdn Bhd chairman Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar said. TNB Janamanjung is a wholly-owned unit of Tenaga. Bernama news agency quoted Raja Ahmad...

BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – Bangchak Petroleum Plc’s financial structure should be completely revamped by February, with new lending sources tapped to lower borrowing costs, BusinessDay reported, citing the sub-committee tasked with resolving the state-controlled oil firm’s debt problem. Chairman of the sub-committee Chai-Anand Samuthvanich said the burden of servicing its huge amount of debt had affected...

The power shortage in China’s fast-growing southern province of Guangdong, in particular its Pearl River Delta, has eased significantly following the completion of eight major power grid projects last month. The Pearl River Delta accounts for about 10% of China’s economy. Residents and businesses have complained about persistent overload of the province’s power grid in...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) has called of a memorandum of understanding to buy electricity from Beijing Datang, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported, citing a company spokeswoman. Under the memorandum, Beijing Datang was to have supplied a minimum 4,000 gagawatt hours of electricity a year to Chalco for 880 million...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Hong Kong and China Gas said it has formed a joint venture with Changzhou Blaze Gas Thermodynamics General Co, a state-owned enterprise, for the supply of piped gas in Jiangsu Province. The project will start supplying natural gas to Changzhou in Jiangsu Province in 2004, and will have a total investment...

Australia’s Santos Ltd has confirmed a flow rate of 2,000 barrels/day of crude oil from its first on-shore oil discovery in Papua New Guinea. Santos, the operator of the PPL 190 permit in the Southern Highlands of PNG, earlier confirmed a successful flow test of the Bilip1 oil discovery. Bilip 1 is located 10 kilometres...

Tullett Liberty (Energy) Pte Ltd and Starsupply Energy Ltd have announced the merger of their oil businesses to create one of the largest and most experienced energy broking operations worldwide. Last year, the two companies entered into a joint venture with their London based crude oil broking teams. Now they have formed two new companies,...

The Andhra Pradesh (AP) state government and privately owned Reliance Industries have launched a joint study to determine the state’s gas demand to help plan its development as India’s natural gas hub. The government is preparing to unveil incentives to encourage investments in the state’s gas industry. The study found that AP state could consume...

The Indonesian Consumers Institute (YLKI) has criticised Pertamina’s decision to raise the price of LPG as ‘arbitrary’ and unjustified. Pertamina, the state oil and gas company, raised LPG price on December 14 from Rp.28,800 per cylinder (12kg) to Rp.32,400 per cylinder. (US$1=9,000 rupiah). YLKI board member Daryatmo said consumers were unfairly made to bear the...