KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Genting Sanyen Power Sdn Bhd, a unit of Genting Bhd, plans to acquire more power generation assets in India and other parts of Asia, The Star reported, quoting Genting Sanyen group CEO Ong Tiong Soon. Genting announced on Monday that unit Genting Sanyen Power (Labuan) Ltd acquired a stake in a...

Wirat Uanarumit has joined ABN AMRO bank as Head of Integrated Energy for Thailand, from June 1 2003. He will be responsible for client coverage in the Integrated Energy subsectors- oil and gas, power, chemicals and metals and mining, and report to Eelko Bronkhorst, ABN AMRO’s Managing Director for Integrated Energy, Asia Pacific. ABN AMRO...

US energy company ConocoPhillips and its co-venturers announced this week that the gas development plan for the Bayu-Undan project has been approved by the Timor Sea Designated Authority. The project participants have unanimously approved the gas development phase of the project and, with receipt of this final approval, will proceed immediately with engineering, procurement and...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China’s electricity demand is expected to increase by more than 25,000 MW per year in the next three years, which requires the country to increase generation capacity by over 30,000 MW each year, the China Economic Times reported. The newspaper quoted a report by State Power Grid Co as saying that China’s...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Standard & Poor’s Equity Research said it has initiated coverage of Shenergy Co Ltd (SH A 600642) with a ‘sell’ recommendation and a price target of 11 yuan, indicating downside of some 13.6%. (US$1=8.28 yuan). It said the company’s current share price has overshot its fair value. S&P expects Shenergy’s earnings to...

US independent energy company ConocoPhillips has given the final approval for development of an LNG plant in Australia’s Northern Territory state and the development of the Bayu-Undan oil and gas field in the Timor Sea. The plant and the offshore development worth a total of US$2 billion represents the state’s largest private investment project to...

BAGHDAD (AFX) – The US-led coalition said Iraq now has enough gasoline to meet demand, after weeks of long queues at filling stations around the country since the ousting of Saddam Hussein. Last week, 8.2 million litres of gasoline were produced in Iraq and another 7.9 million were imported from Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey, a...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Listed oil refiner Petron Corp said it expects to spend around 626 million pesos on projects that will enable it to comply with the requirements of the Clean Air Act. (US$1=51 peso) Petron’s board approved late last year a 542.4-million peso miscellaneous capital budget and an additional 83.7 million-peso funding for its...

Foreign investors have expressed disappointment in the Thai justice system, saying that the Central Bankruptcy Court has failed to seek the best solution for both Thai Petrochemical Industry’s (TPI) creditors and the debtor. The court rejected the creditors’ choice for a new plan administrator last week. According to the Bangkok Post, Peter van Haren, chairman...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – Australian Gas Light Co Ltd said its New Zealand unit NGC Holdings Ltd has reached a two-year agreement with Energy Corp of America unit Westech Energy to purchase gas from the Surrey field, onshore Taranaki. In a statement, AGL said that under the agreement, NGC will buy at least one petajoule of...

A joint venture comprising Italian engineering company Saipem, its fully owned subsidiary Technigaz, and the engineering companies Tecnimont and Sofregaz has been awarded a lump sum turnkey contract for the engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and start-up of the Guangdong regasification LNG terminal in China. The contract, awarded by a consortium comprising CNOOC, BP and other...

BAKU (AFX) – Exxon Mobil Corp will begin exploratory drilling in September on the Zafar-Mashal project, a potentially huge oilfield in the Caspian Sea, a company official said. Drew Goodbread, head of Exxon’s operations in Azerbaijan, declined to speculate about the size of reserves. But previous estimates have said the structure could hold between 1-2...

Oil prices are expected to recover some of their heavy losses last week to move into a higher trading range this week. Active profit taking by funds and technical selling characterised most of last week’s activity once it became known that OPEC was going to hold onto to its production quota at its June 11...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Scomi Group Bhd aims to dominate the market for ester-based drilling fluid in the oil and gas industry, which is worth at least RM100 million, after securing rights to distribute the fluid from Germany’s Cognis, online newspaper The Edge reported, citing Scomi’s chief executive Shah Hakim Zain. (US$1=RM3.8). He said the...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Officials of state-owned National Power Corp will hold an international roadshow within the next few weeks to invite investors for its US$500-million bond offering, with Salomon Smith Barney as issue lead manager, market sources said. Napocor needs to raise US$1.2 billion in offshore markets to settle maturing loans and finance its operations...

Australia’s engineering company Clough and Aker Marine Contractors, an Aker Kvaerner subsidiary, have signed an agreement to form a new global subsea construction business to be known as CASP (Clough – AMC Subsea Partnership). The new equal joint venture will be headquartered in Oslo with regional offices in Aberdeen, Houston and Perth. Anne MŸrer, President...

SEOUL (AFX-ASIA) – President Roh Moo-Hyun and his visiting Philippine counterpart Gloria Arroyo have agreed to boost bilateral ties, while sharing the view that an early and peaceful solution must be found to the North Korean nuclear issue to ensure regional stability, a joint statement said. Mrs Arroyo, the first foreign head of state to...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – PT Petrosea said its 2002 net profit fell sharply to 23.390 billion rupiah from 117.515 billion rupiah in 2001, largely due to forex exchange losses and the sharp rise in operating expenses. (US$1=8,200 rupiah). Petrosea’s financial controller Etty Magdalena said the increase in operating expenses was largely due to the rise in...

Oil prices fell in the days after OPEC announced at its June 11 meeting to maintain existing output levels, and said it is bringing forward its next meeting to July 31, dealers said. Ali Rodriguez, former OPEC secretary general and current head of Venezuela’s state oil company, who did not sit in on the ministerial...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Power plants in east China will be forced to sell part of their electricity through a bidding system from early next year in a pilot scheme aimed at setting up a competitive regional power market, the China Daily reported, citing a circular from the State Electricity Regulatory Commission. The pilot will be...

BAKU (AFX) – China’s Shengli oil company, a unit of Sinopec, has agreed to pay US$44 million for a half share in the Pirsaat onshore oil field in Azerbaijan. Shengli will become operator of a consortium developing the field and will hold a 50% stake in the group while Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR will...

OSLO (AFX) – Aker Kvaerner ASA said its E&C Australia unit has been awarded a 3-year engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth A$20-40 million per year from Santos Ltd, an Australian oil and gas company. (US$1=A$1.52). “While the contract is awarded initially for three years, it provides for extensions up to eight years via...

Australia’s Carnarvon Petroleum Limited has described its 40%-owned Wichian Buri oilfield in northern Thailand as a “large resource with the potential for further development the economics of which are likely to be attractive.” Operator Pacific Tiger of Calgary, Canada owns the majority 60% interest. In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, Carnarvon said it...

BAKU (AFX) – A top official with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said she would be recommending to the banks’s board that it approve credits for the controversial BP PLC-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline. The bank has come under fire for even contemplating a loan to the BTC project from campaigners who...

For the week ending June 6, US gasoline inventories (including blending components) increased by 2.6 million barrels while distillate fuel oil inventories increased by 2.8 million barrels, said the US Department of Energy (DoE). However, the builds were nearly offset by a 4.6-million-barrel decline in crude oil inventories. With inventories this spring low for both...