WASHINGTON (AFX) – Surging crude oil prices are beginning to raise fears of a new oil shock that could tip the US economy, the world’s largest oil importer, back into a fresh recession, analysts said. “It now appears as though the probability of a ‘double dip’ is increasing, but not because of global competition and...

Japan’s businesses have been officially told they will be hit with a new fossil fuels tax aimed at reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Earlier this week, Environment Minister Shunichi Suzuki told a delegation from the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) led by chairman Hiroshi Okuda of its plans to introduce the tax from 2005....

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – State-owned National Power Corp senior vice-president Roland Quilala said blackouts are likely if the company is forced to shut down its Masinloc coal-fired power plant due to a protest at the facility. Mr Quilala said the Masinloc plant, located in Zambales in central Luzon, is running out of coal, with current inventory...

Police have arrested more than a dozen people including low-level officials in Huizhou in Guangdong province for allegedly embezzling compensation money meant for villagers affected by a US$4.35 billion petrochemical project. The group allegedly tried to cheat the government of more than US$1 million from a compensation fund set aside for farmers displaced by the...

NEW YORK (AFX) – Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said it placed the ‘AA+’ long-term corporate credit rating of BP plc on its CreditWatch list with negative implications, and said it was unlikely that a review of the situation would produce a debt rating downgrade of more than one notch. At the same time, it...

MILAN (AFX) Ð Italy’s ENI SpA chief executive Vittorio Mincato said he believes there will be room for more than just US oil companies in developing Iraq’s oil resources after any war over Iraq. In an interview, he said a removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will lead to US, European and Russian oil companies...

Often thought of as a crude oil exporter, the Middle East is becoming increasingly important too as an oil market and an oil products exporter. Population growth and industrialisation continue to fuel the region’s oil demand growth, which together with the pressure to improve product quality, have led to a steady build-up and sophistication of...

LONDON (AFX) – Premier Oil PLC said that following drilling in the eastern part of Block A in the Natuna Sea in Indonesia it has plugged and abandoned its Kuda Nil-1 and Binturong-1 exploration wells as they are considered of insufficient quality to be commercial. The independent oil and gas company said that because both...

The US government has rejected Jakarta’s request to intervene in US court hearings into the dispute between state oil and gas company Pertamina and independent power producer Karaha Bodas Company (KBC), according to local media reports. However, the report said Washington will help broker an out-of-court settlement of the long-running dispute that has its roots...

LONDON (AFX) – Royal Dutch/Shell Group kept its 3% annual production growth target over the medium term and plans US$2 billion in asset disposals each year despite the market uncertainty, chairman Philip Watts said. Following the recent release of group’s annual results, he described the near term outlook of the market as “extremely uncertain” amid...

SHANGHAI (AFX-ASIA) – China’s oil stocks have been trading higher over the past week as mounting fears of a US-led war against Iraq drove international oil prices to a 28-month high, analysts said. “Investors are still betting on the possible positive impact of the tensions in Iraq on oil producers’ sales revenue,” an oil analyst...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Royal Dutch/Shell Group is aware of allegations of corruption surrounding a 350-400 million yuan fund for relocating residents to make way for its proposed petrochemical complex in Guangdong with China National Offshore Oil Corp and is seeking further information from the local government, Shell China spokeswoman Song Hui told AFX-Asia. (US$1=8.28 yuan)....

LONDON (AFX) – Total Fina Elf, the French oil giant, has a sales representative in Baghdad and has kept in close contact with the government officials who control Iraq’s oilfields, The Sunday Times reported without naming sources. British and American oil companies have so far been frozen out of the region, which is thought to...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – PT Medco Energi said its oil production in 2002 amounted to 85,100 barrels per day (b/d) compared to 82,200 b/d the previous year. Medco Energi investor relation did not give a figure for oil sales but said they will be higher in 2002 and continue to be boosted this year by the...

BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) Ð Shares of PTT Exploration Production Plc has been trading lower with investors selling out of the stock because of its poor dividend yield, dealers said. Bualuang Securities senior vice president Padermbhop Songkroh said investors sold down the stock due to its relatively lower dividend yield compared with its peers in the sector....

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) said it declines to comment specifically on rumours of a A$100 million exposure to US energy trader, El Paso Corp. (US$1=A$1.7). “I can’t comment on specific customer accounts, but we’ve been closely following the US energy sector for some time and developments recently in...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Four Asian companies have expressed an interest in participating in the bidding for the National Transmission Co (Transco) concession, Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp (PSALM) president Edgardo del Fonso said. The government last week launched the privatisation plan for Transco, which holds the state’s power transmission assets. The two-step plan...

SEOUL (AFX-ASIA) – Korea Gas Corp said its 2002 net profit rose to 298.3 billion won from 296.9 billion a year earlier, boosted by an increase in sales and better foreign exchange management. Operating profit rose to 633.9 billion won in 2002 from 634.5 in 2001, while sales increased to 7.27 trillion from 7.22 trillion....

BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – BankThai Plc senior executive vice president Taveeb Chardtumrong said Houay Ho Power Co Ltd recently appointed the bank as sole provider of a 5-year US$68 million interest rate swap for the company. In a statement, Taveeb said Houay Ho Power runs and operates a 150 MW hydroelectric power plant in Champassak, Laos....

Hongkong-listed Panva Gas said it is negotiating for more than 20 city pipeline and LPG distribution projects in China and intends to complete some of them this year, although it does not have a “definitive” completion time-table. The company has also held preliminary discussions with Shenzhen municipal government in relation to the potential acquisition of...

Singapore’s Tuas Power Ltd has begun construction of Blocks 3 and 4 of its four-block combined cycle power plants (CCP) earlier this week. The new blocks cost a total of S$500 million and have a generation capacity of 367.5 MW each. (US$1=S$1.76). Blocks 3 and 4 are expected to be fully operational at the end...

TAIPEI (AFX-ASIA) – The steering committee of the State Stabilisation Fund is set to convene if domestic financial markets sustain a major non-economic disruption — the outbreak of war in the Middle East, Vice Premier Lin Hsin-i said. “The steering committee will convene according to pertinent regulations (and decide on the need for intervention),” he...

TEHRAN (AFX) – MPs voted to increase oil production by 600,000 barrels per day in line with new government targets which call for increased output to meet an expected rise in world demand. Iran’s output quota within the OPEC oil cartel currently stands at 3.18 million b/d but actual production is closer to 3.6 million...

The Indian government is expected to keep prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene from rising despite upward pressure brought on by the threat of a US-Iraq war. LPG and kerosene are subsidised products widely used by the poor. Instead, the government might even reduce the deposit money for LPG cylinders. Earlier, the deposit...

Almost five years into one of its most ambitious reform programmes, China has succeeded in jolting its once lumbering oil and gas companies into thinking they can be world beaters. Three of the country’s largest oil and gas companies have raced from being state-run Communist bureaucracies to blue-chip listings on the prestigious stock exchanges of...