Totalgaz LPG, a subsidiary of the French energy giant TotalFinaElf, has formally launched its commercial operation in Bangladesh’s Chittagong city. The country’s Water Resources Minister LK Siddiqui inaugurated the Totalgaz LPG plant at Maddhya Sonaichhari in Sitakunda upazila. The plant, jointly owned by local partners, is the second largest French investment in Bangladesh after Lafarge...

India’s crude oil producing states Gujarat and Assam will each earn an extra Rs 2 billion this fiscal year after the central government approved a proposal to raise the royalty rate on crude from an ad hoc fixed rate of Rs 850 per tonne to an ad valorem rate of 20%. The additional royalty burden...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Huaneng Power International Inc shares have been trading lower on concerns that the company is overpaying for its acquisition of a 25% stake in Shenzhen Energy Group, dealers said. The company yesterday announced that it would pay 2.39 billion yuan for the stake. Dealers said the price represents a P/E of...

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 group’s annual results, Mr Watts described the near term outlook of the market as “extremely uncertain” amid the threat...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) Ð Malaysian power company Tenaga Nasional Bhd said its first quarter to November 2002 results improved over the same period last year due to increased volume of electricity sold. For the first quarter to November 2002, pretax profit rose to RM798.2 million from RM788.1 million and net profit rose to RM663.2 million...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – President Gloria Arroyo has approved the two-step privatisation plan of the National Transmission Co, Energy Secretary Vicente Perez said. He said in a statement the plan will allow the privatisation of the government’s transmission assets even while it waits for Congress to grant Transco a franchise. “The president sees the importance and...

India’s upstream company ONGC has reported a 84% jump in net profit to Rs. 25.93 billion for the OctoberÐDecember quarter on a 35% rise in gross revenue to Rs. 75.88 billion. For the three quarters (April -December), it reported a 34% rise in revenue to Rs. 237.98 billion and net profit by 50% to Rs....

Australia’s upstream company Santos Limited said its wholly owned subsidiary Santos (Sampang) Pty Ltd had entered into a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with PT Indonesia Power for the sale of the entire gas reserves of the off-shore Oyong field in East Java, Indonesia. The Oyong field is estimated to contain in excess of 90 billion...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – BHP Billiton Ltd said oil and condensate production in the second quarter to December fell 16% year-on-year and 12% quarter-on-quarter to 16.4 million barrels following a natural field decline, maintenance work, and adverse weather conditions. “The decrease was mainly due to the natural field decline in the Bass Strait (Australia) and Laminaria...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Sumitomo Corp will in April resume construction of a 1,200-megawatt thermal power plant in Java, Indonesia, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without citing sources. The project will require an investment of about US$2 billion, and the plant is expected to begin operating in 2005, it said. The project began in 1997, when...

BP has agreed an exchange of interests with Amerada Hess under which BP will swap its 25% interest in block A-18 of the Malaysia Thailand Joint Development Area (JDA), for Amerada Hess’s interests in Colombia. In a statement, BP said: “The Colombian interests include a 12% stake in the Santiago de las Atalayas, Tauramena and...

Prices of low-sulphur waxy residuals (LWSR) in Asia in recent weeks as they believe the product is either in a balanced or even oversupplied state. According to Reuters and Dow Jones News, LSWR prices rose to new highs and stayed largely between US$27 and $29/barrel FOB Indonesia for most of January. FEOP Index panel members...

Abu Dhabi’s Dolphin Energy Limited (DEL) has announced the signature of key contractual gas purchase and sales agreements (GPSAs) Ð covering the purchase of Omani natural gas from 4th Quarter 2003, and onward sale of this gas to the Fujairah customer: Union Water & Electricity Company – PJSC (UWEC). Signing ceremonies were held in Abu...

China’s CNOOC Limited has completed its acquisition of a 12.5% equity interest in the reserves associated with the Tangguh liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Indonesia. The project comprises three production sharing contract (PSC) areas: the Berau PSC, the Muturi PSC and the Wiriagar PSC. CNOOC Ltd acquired the stake from BP for US$275 million...

SINGAPORE EXCHANGE COLUMN Oil prices are stuck in a tight range for now as US war efforts against Iraq look to be grounded in a complex struggle on the diplomatic front. After weeks of alarm and tension build-up, the oil markets are feeling the strain of reading yet another headline about Iraq not complying with...

IRVING, TX (AFX) – The US’ largest oil company ExxonMobil Corp said it added 1.9 billion oil-equivalent barrels to its global proven oil and gas reserves in 2002, replacing 117% of production, including property sales. Excluding property sales, reserve replacement was 118% of production, the company said in a statement. It added that significant reserve...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – JB Were said it has increased its 2002 net profit forecast for Novus Petroleum Ltd by 5% following the release of fourth quarter production data last week. “Higher realised oil and condensate prices have resulted in our earnings forecast for 2002 increasing by 5% to A$17.4 million,” the brokerage said in a...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) Ð Santos Ltd shares have risen, with gains driven by an optimistic earnings outlook after reporting a 1.3% rise in revenue to A$1.48 billion in 2002, dealers said. This was its second highest annual sales figure in the company’s history. (US$1=A$1.7). The performance follows a 45% year-on-year rise in the average Australian oil...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – The government is looking at the possibility of seeking court arbitration for a long-running supply dispute between Manila Electric Co and state-owned National Power Corp, Energy Secretary Vicente Perez said. “If we do not come to a resolution soon, one possibility is that we will mutually agree to take this into arbitration...

US oil inventories fell across the barrel last week, with middle distillates showing the greatest decline, said the US Department of Energy. Its latest report said: “With large inventory declines last week in distillate fuel and gasoline putting these products below the lower end of the normal range for the end of January, they join...

A joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and South African based petrochemicals group Sasol will build a US$900 million, 34,000 barrels/day gas-to-liquid (GTL) plant in Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar. The venture, ORYX GTL Limited, last week announced awarding a US$675 million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to Technip-Coflexip of Italy for the construction...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – South China Resources Inc said it has increased its participating interest in an offshore exploration project in the Sulu Sea Sandakan Basin to 2.5% from 1.5%. The exploration is permitted under service contract 41 issued by the government. South China gave no other details in its disclosure to the local stock exchange....

US independent energy company Unocal Corporation said its preliminary proved oil and gas reserve estimates for 2002 fell to 1.77 billion barrels-of-oil-equivalent (BOE) from 2001’s 1.82 billion BOE. The year-end reserves estimates reflect additions of 140 million BOE from discoveries and extensions and a net 89 million BOE from performance-related revisions and improved recovery. These...

BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – The finance ministry’s Economic Policy Committee said world oil prices will likely rise to US$40/barrel if a US-led war on Iraq breaks out, although the conflict would likely be short and have only a limited impact on Thailand, The Nation newspaper reported. “The committee believes the US-Iraq war will happen, but it...

TAIPEI (AFX-ASIA) – Taiwan Ratings Corp said it has affirmed its twAAA corporate credit and unsecured corporate bond ratings on Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) while the outlook on the corporate credit rating is stable. At the same time, the twA-1 short-term corporate credit rating on Taipower has been affirmed, a Taiwan Ratings statement said. The...