LONDON (AFX) – The US government is to soon announce a new team of executives to run the Iraqi oil sector along the lines of an American corporation, The Wall Street Journal Europe reported without giving its sources. “The US government is setting up Iraq’s oil industry to run much like an American corporation, with...
KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Sime Darby Bhd, through its unit Sime Engineering Services Bhd (SES), is looking at reconstruction opportunities in Iraq and other Middle East countries for oil and gas projects, online paper The Edge reported. It quoted DMIB non-executive director Martin Giles Manen as saying: “We will be looking at what is available”....
Singapore Petroleum Company said its first quarter net profits dipped 12.4% to S$15,135 million despite a 72.2% surge in revenues to S$876 million on higher oil prices brought about by supply fears over the US-led war on Iraq. (US$1=S$1.8). The company said revenues grew because of higher oil prices and a 20.2% increase in the...
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...
BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – Thai oil and gas refiner PTT Plc said that it is studying the feasibility of a merger with its subsidiary, PTT Exploration and Production Plc (PTTEP), in a bid to increase its market value, reported Businessday. PTT’s senior executive vice president for finance Pichai Chunhavajira said that once PTT bought the remaining...
Asia’s informal oil swaps market is expected to continue growing despite the outbreak of SARS, a new deadly pneumonia-like disease currently hurting the region’s economy and depressing oil demand growth. While Asian oil consumption growth will suffer, brokers and analysts say they expect the swaps trade to expand this year as more companies hedge their...
MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – The country’s three biggest oil refiners plan to seek a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the courts against the closure of their Pandacan depot in Manila, Petron spokeswoman Virginia Ruivivar said. “We are making preparations (for the TRO) in the event the Manila City Council does not grant an extension of our...
BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – HSBC has upgraded its 2003 earnings forecast for CNOOC (HK 0883; NYSE CEO) and PetroChina Co Ltd (HK 0857; NYSE PTR), while forecasts for China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (SH A 600028; HK 0386; NYSE SNP) and China Oilfield Services Ltd (COSL) (HK 2883) were unchanged. HSBC said in a statement...