US, Chicago-based GlobalView Software Inc. (GVSI), a leading provider of software solutions and integrated information for the commodities markets, said it has started including oil swaps data from a new source: ForwardMarket Curve LLC, (FMCL). In a statement, GVSI said: “The data supplied will be in four reports covering crude oil, light products, middle distillates...

Petronas’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex in Bintulu in Malaysia’s Sarawak state was officially declared open by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad last week. The complex, comprising three gas liquefaction plants and other related facilities, has been developed over the past 20 years by Petronas and its joint venture partners as an integrated world-class LNG production...

The Open Society Institute has released a report calling for accountability, transparency, and public oversight in the oil and natural gas industries of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. The report, Caspian Oil Windfalls: Who Will Benefit? urges foreign oil companies, their home governments, and international financial institutions to promote good governance and democracy in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan...

TAIPEI (AFX-ASIA) – Chinese Petroleum Corp has chosen the coastal industrial zone in Yunlin county as the site for its new naphtha cracker, the Economic Daily News reported, citing its chairman C T Kuo. Chinese Petroleum has secured a pledge from the Yunlin county government that the cost for the 1,000-hectare site would not be...

BAKU (AFX) – ExxonMobil Corp is to drill a first exploratory well on the Zafar Mashal prospect, in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea, in the third quarter of this year, a company spokeswoman said. The prospect, 138 kilometres south-east of the Azeri capital, Baku, is thought to contain crude oil reserves of some 140...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – Indonesia’s crude oil output will drop by an estimated 17% to around one million barrels a day in 2005 unless new resources are found, Kompas daily quoted Zainal Achmad, deputy head of the Agency for Oil and Gas Upstream Activities, as saying. He said the government must promote exploration for new oilfields...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – The government will incur a tax exemption and subsidy of RM829.1 million in May compared to RM738.1 million in April as it leaves the retail price of petrol and diesel unchanged this month, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said (US$1=RM3,8). The New Straits Times quoted Muhyiddin as saying...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Tenaga Nasional Bhd shares have weakened after the company announced its six months to February net profit declined to RM705.9 million from RM1.321 billion a year earlier due to a forex translation loss of RM19.1 million against an Rm813.6 million gain previously, dealers said. (US$1=RM3.8). Dealers said the decline is also...

TASHKENT (AFX) Ð Russia’s LUKoil said that under no circumstances would it relinquish the lucrative Iraqi oil field of West Qurna-2. “The fact is that LUKoil’s project at Western Qurna-2, Iraq, has proven oil reserves of one billion (metric tonnes), thus exceeding the remaining reserves of the legendary Surgut and Samotlor fields as a whole,”...

MOSCOW (AFX-ASIA) – Russian oil export capacity is sufficient to justify building an oil pipeline to China but not yet enough for a Pacific coast route that Japan wants, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov implied. Russia earlier announced preliminary plans to build oil export pipelines to both Daqing in China and Nakhodka on the Pacific coast...

China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation Ltd (CAO) said the recent sharp drop in its jet fuel sales to China will test its fuel trade diversification policy. Jet fuel sales have been hard hit by flight cancellations as a result of the SARS epidemic spreading in East Asian countries over the last few months. The company...

Japan’s Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp. and the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of the Netherlands have agreed to invest $10 billion over five years in a joint oil and gas development project in Russia, company officials told Japan Times. The agreement marks the full-scale start of the project dubbed Sakhalin 2. The firms have been...

After months of volatility, the oil markets appear to be ready to settle into some sort of range trading. After testing five-month lows last week, crude rebounded to US$25-$28/barrel in the western markets, while on the Singapore Exchange, the Middle East Crude Oil futures contracts ended yesterday at US$23.35 to $23.80/barrel.* The past week, selling...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – BGP Ltd, an exploration subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), has agreed to use energy-saving technology developed by Beijing Zhongtoujietian Co Ltd in order to cut costs, the China Daily said. The newspaper said according to the contract, Beijing Zhongtoujietian will help BGP upgrade its boilers and heating systems, as well...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – CLP Holdings (2.HK) chairman Michael Kadoorie said the company is looking partners to develop power projects in Thailand, China, Australia and India, without giving details. The company also continues to study the feasibility of wind and solar power generation, he said noting that it may launch wind power generation projects in...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Malakoff Bhd has been trading higher on speculation that it plans to seal a deal with Tenaga Nasional Bhd to buy an additional 20% stake in Segari Energy Ventures Sdn Bhd and sell a 20% stake in GB3 Sdn Bhd to Tenega in return, dealers said. “An increased investment in Segari,...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – Moody’s Investors Service said it has assigned a B3 foreign currency long-term rating to the US$150 proposed guaranteed Notes of MEI Euro Finance Ltd (MEI), with stable outlook. It said the rating is based on the unconditional and irrevocable guarantee by PT Medco Internasional Tbk which owns 100% of MEI. It said...

PARIS (AFX) – Claude Mandil, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said he is concerned about the current low levels of commercial and industrial crude inventories, as they contribute to price volatility on the oil market. Speaking at an IEA briefing following its ministerial meeting here, he said that in light of the need...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) Ð Manila Electric Co shares have been trading higher after the company said it will likely return to net profit in the first quarter to March after booking a 2 billion pesos in 2002, a reversal from the net profit of 1.4 billion previously. (US$1=52 pesos). Meralco president Jesus Francisco told AFX Asia...

BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – PTT Plc could save 1 billion baht in annual interest expenses from the current 7 billion baht with its refinancing plan, said Senior executive vice president Pichai Chunhavajira. (US$1=42 baht). The company’s AGM last month approved its plan to raise approximately 50 billion baht to fund the company’s 5-year investment plan. “The...

UK engineering firm Rotork has been selected to supply valve actuators throughout the largest and most significant gas industry distribution project ever planned in China. The US$25 billion West to East natural gas pipeline will extend for 4,000 kilometres from Lunnan in Xinjiang through nine provinces to Shanghai, carrying gas from the Tarim Basin fields...

Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) has awarded a lump sum turnkey contract worth US $566 million for the development of oilfields under the North East Abu Dhabi (NEAD) phase 1 project. The winners were French engineering company Technip-Coflexip and the National Petroleum Construction Company of Abu Dhabi (NPCC). TechnipCoflexip said that the...

SINGAPORE (AFX-ASIA) – The fallout from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus threatens to deflate the boom in China’s vehicle market, the fastest growing in Asia, an industry consultancy said. In Asia, vehicle sales are forecast to be flat this year, with production seen to fall more than 2% as demand for cars and...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s reserve margin currently stands at 32% and this is expected to increase at the end of the company’s year to August as more power generation plants come on stream, chairman Awang Adek Hussin said. Mr Awang, who spoke at a briefing to announce Tenaga’s first half results, did...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – Oil and gas developer Santos Ltd has lifted expected savings from its cost reduction program to A$100 million by the end of 2003. (US$1=A$1.6). In his speech to the company’s AGM, chief executive John Ellice-Flint said: “In May 2001 we set a market commitment of achieving capital and operating cost savings of...