ALSTOM said it has been awarded a 65 million Euro contract (US$1=0.90 Euros) to supply a 300 MW circulating fluidised bed boiler for the site of Baima in China’s Sichuan province. The contract was signed last month in Beijing by Zhao Xizheng, president of the State Power Grid Corporation of China and Patrick Kron, ALSTOM’s...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (386.HK) shares have been trading higher after reporting a strong improvement in its first quarter results on the back of stronger oil product prices and demand, dealers said. Last week, the company said its first quarter net profit rose to 6.42 billion yuan from 542...

CNOOC Limited (NYSE “CEO”, SEHK 883) has reported unaudited revenues of RMB 7.50 billion (US$ 906.0 million) for the first quarter of 2003, an 87.3% increase from the first quarter of 2002. It said the significant revenue growth was a result of both higher production volume and higher oil prices. Total production increased by 23.2%...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – Drilling contractor PT Apexindo Pratama Duta said its net profit rose to 47.676 billion rupiah in 2002 from 38.667 billion rupiah in the corresponding period a year earlier on the back of higher operating profit and lower costs. (US$1=8,700 rupiah). Apexindo finance director Agus Lomboan said the company’s efforts to cut operating...

Oil prices seem ready to settle into a trading range after recent weakness brought the market to their lowest levels in five months. Crude prices have been hovering at around US$22-$25/barrel in the major trading centers of New York, London and Singapore since late last week. Funds which had pushed prices down more than US$5...

BAKU (AFX) – LUKoil said it has sold its 10% stake in Azerbaijan’s oil consortium, the Azeri-Chiraq-Guneshli (ACG) oil field, to Japanese company Inpex for US$1.354 billion. “I am pleased to announce the completion of one of the most important energy deals in the region in recent times,” LUKoil President Vagit Alekperov said in the...

LAGOS (AFX) – Royal Dutch/Shell said it was taking steps to defend a major offshore oil storage and export facility lying off Nigeria’s Niger Delta from an attack by armed militants. Shell said it had credible evidence that “criminal elements” had began making preparations to destroy the Sea Eagle, a mammoth floating oil station designed...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp (PSALM) president Edgardo del Fonso said he hopes Standard & Poor’s rating downgrade on National Power Corp will not adversely affect the latter’s planned bond issues. He said the guarantee cover to be provided by international financial institutions for the bond offers should make pricing...

BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Plc said its first quarter net profit rose by 873 million baht from the previous year because of an increase in power plants’ installed capacity and a fall in interest expenses. (US$1=42 baht). The company’s subsidiary, Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Co Lt, had a total capacity of 3,645 megawatts...

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (or Sinopec Corp) (HKEX: 386; NYSE: SNP; LSE: SNP; CH: 600028) said its first quarter net profit rose more than 1,084% to RMB6.42 billion on revenue of RMB102.72 billion. (US$1=RMB8.28). Revenue was up 55.6% over year-ago levels. “During the first quarter of 2003, the Chinese economy grew at a 9.9%...

US independent Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) has announced an agreement to sell 120 to 130 million gross cubic feet of natural gas per day from its Block 9 operations in Oman to the Omani government beginning mid-2004. As the operator of Block 9, with a 65% working interest, Occidental will add approximately 10,000 barrels of...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Tenaga Nasional Bhd said it is planning to issue RM200 million worth of convertible bonds to finance its capital expenditure. (US$1=RM3.8). In a statement, the company said the 200 million rgt nominal value of 5-year unsecured convertible redeemable income securities (CRIS) will enable the company to raise funds at lower costs....

J. Ray McDermott, S.A., a subsidiary of McDermott International Inc, said it has signed a contract with ExxonMobil Middle East Gas Marketing Ltd. to fabricate and install a 2,100-ton wellhead deck and a 1,300-ton jacket. The contract also includes installation of a second 96-km, 38-inch pipeline from the platform to the onshore terminal for the...

NATURAL GAS MAP OF ASIA PACIFIC Description Of Our Upcoming 143 cm by 100 cm Laminated Wall Map Existing and proposed LNG terminals in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, India, Qatar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Brunei Natural gas fields in Asian, Central AsianÊand Mid East countries Existing and proposed gas pipelines in Asia Please click to subscribe....

Commentary below by the US Department of Energy: With the war in Iraq virtually over and the start of the peak gasoline season (Memorial Day weekend) less than a month away, many analysts are wondering what the outlook for U.S. crude oil markets will be during the next few weeks. The near-month futures price of...

World Oil Refining & Trading Map Locates oil refineries by capacity and by company Oilfields, oil pipelines (including those planned, proposed or under construction) and tanker terminals Inset maps of California, Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, Hawaii, New Orleans to Alabama Gulf Coast, Northwest Europe, Southeast Europe, Japan and the Bo Hai Gulf Area of...

BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – Finance Minister Suchart Chaovisit said the ministry will propose next week the establishment of a joint committee to help supervise the rehabilitation plan for Thai Petrochemical Industry Plc. The committee will comprise both debtors and creditors. Mr Suchart will also next week meet TPI’s CEO Prachai Leophairatana and the company’s creditors. “The...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – BHP Billiton shares have been trading lower after Macquarie Equities cut its rating and other brokers downgraded earnings forecasts to reflect generally unimpressive third quarter production figures, dealers said. BHP Billiton has been dowgraded after its third quarter production figures showed a 22% fall in oil and condensate output. Dealers said it...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Warren Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc raised its stake in PetroChina Co Ltd (HK 0857; NYSE PTR) seven times this month, paying around HK$1.42 billion to double its holding to over 13% of the state-owned oil producer’s Hong Kong publicly-traded stock. (US$1=HK$7.78). However, with PetroChina’s parent, China National Petroleum Corp holding...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – PT Medco Energi Internasional said its net profit in 2002 rose to US$84.138 million from US$78.191 million in 2001 due to lower taxes and the absence of provision for doubtful receivables. The company reported a pretax profit of US$162.790 million for 2002, down from US$165.750 million a year earlier, while tax charges...

SEOUL (AFX-ASIA) – Korea Gas Corp said its preliminary net profit in the three months to March fell to 206.7 billion won from 239.8 billion a year earlier, pressured by forex-related losses and higher natural gas prices. (US$1=1,200 won) Sales rose 20.19% year-on-year to 2.86 trillion won in the quarter to March on stronger household...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Philippine National Oil Co will pay a 2003 cash dividend of 560.55 million pesos to the national government, the state-run company’s president Thelmo Cunanan said. (US$1=52 peso). He said just under 50%, or 279.3 million pesos of the amount, will come from PNOC’s operations, while Petron Corp’s cash dividend to PNOC will...

TAIPEI (AFX-ASIA) – Formosa Petrochemical Corp, a member of the Formosa Plastics group, plans to invest NT$60 billion in another naphtha cracker with an annual ethylene capacity of 1.2 million tonnes at the group’s Mailiao complex, the Economic Daily News reported, citing group chairman YC Wang. (US$1=NT$35) The project will increase Mailiao’s yearly ethylene capacity...

It used to be said that when the US sneezed, the rest of the world would catch a cold. Today, when China sneezes, people die, economies go into a tailspin and oil prices fall. With the world oil markets already in surplus, the outbreak of the deadly flu called SARS in China and major cities...

VIENNA (AFX) – OPEC could decide to cut its oil output again at its next meeting in June, Qatari oil minister and OPEC president Abdallah ben Hamad Al-Attiya said. OPEC last month announced a 2 million barrel per day production cut along with an increase in its output quota in June to 25.4 million b/d...