Gulf Oil Corporation Ltd (GOC), a Hinduja Group-owned leading lubricant major, and Oil Bangladesh Ltd (OBL) have formed a 51/49 joint venture company called Gulf Oil Bangladesh Ltd (GOBL). The new company will start up a lube blending operation in Bangladesh, according to India’s Financial Express. GOC executive director V Ramesh Rao was quoted as...

(Press Trust of India) — State-run Indian Oil Corporation will swap about Rs 12 billion high cost debt with cheaper loans to reduce its interest burden. (US$1=47 rupees). “We plan to pre-pay Rs 12 billion debt which carries over 10% interest through fresh loans that are now available at just around six per cent. Talks...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – An Australian fuel company and its directors were hit with A$53 million in fines for tax evasion, the biggest such penalty in the country’s corporate history. (US$1=A1.5). Victorian Supreme Court judge Bernard Bongiorno imposed two fines of more than A$26 million each on Australian Petroleum Suppliers and the associated Goulburn Valley Liquid...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – Woodside Petroleum Ltd has been trading higher following broker earnings estimate upgrades after the company announced encouraging production results from its Legendre oil field off the coast of Western Australia, dealers said. Woodside made the announcement last month. Woodside is the operator of Legendre holding a 45.94% stake, while Apache holds a...

LONDON (AFX) – Washington has sent a five-member team of independent experts to Iraq to examine its strategy in the country, amid mounting criticism that the US is not adequately prepared for postwar occupation, the Financial Times reported. The newspaper said US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld asked the team, which left last week from Washington,...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – The national government may borrow again on behalf of state-owned National Power Corp amid reports that the power firm is getting unfavourable investor response to its US$500-million bond offering in the international market, Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho said. Depending on how investors in New York respond tonight to the Napocor issue,...

BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) said it is studying a proposal to merge two listed affiliates, Electricity Generating Plc and Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Plc, ahead of its own listing. “There’s nothing wrong with studying the project to merge them or to delist the two companies,” Sitthiporn Ratanopas, EGAT’s governor....

London’s International Petroleum Exchange has reported ‘record activity’ for June. Europe’s leading energy futures and options exchange traded some 2.7 million contracts, an increase of 12.4% on the previous June record set in 2001. IPE Brent crude futures traded 1,988,883 contracts surpassing the previous record set in June 2001 of 1,606,017 by 23.8%. This represents...

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AFX-ASIA) – Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi failed to secure an agreement with Russia over a pipeline that would ship Siberian oil to Japan, with a long-running border dispute and competing oil demand from China making the projec unattractive to Moscow, officials said. Ms Kawaguchi, on a weekend visit to this Pacific port...

The season for weak oil prices could be over for 2003. The traditionally low-demand second quarter in Asia has come and gone, as has the US invasion of Iraq, but the oil markets have refused to plumb new depths. According to the original script, oil prices would crash once US-led forces marched into Baghdad. That...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – PetroChina Co Ltd (HK 0857) plans to invest up to 7.96 billion yuan over the next two years to expand its gas station network by about a quarter of current levels, the company said in its annual report filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. (US$1=8.28 yuan). China’s largest oil producer...

State-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) has won a multibillion deal to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Taiwan Power’s plant in Taoyuan. According to a China Post report, CPC won the contract against three contenders by offering a “surprisingly low price”, which took many market watchers by surprise. Chinese Petroleum put forth a price of...

California-based IMPCO Technologies, Inc. said that two Mitsubishi Magnas recently completed a 1,500 km journey in South Australia and Victoria states as part of the inaugural Autogas Challenge Clean Air Rally. The event contrasted the fuel consumption figures of conventional gasoline-powered family sedans with cars running on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) autogas. Clean burning LPG...

Australia’s Woodside Energy Ltd. has signed the first major construction contract for its Enfield oil development off the North West Cape in Western Australia state. The company said the contract for construction of the hull for a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel has been signed with Samsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd, of South...

HANOI (AFX) – Vietnam and Indonesia have signed an agreement on their maritime boundary in a potentially oil-rich area of the South China Sea after 25 years of negotiations. The accord was signed in Hanoi by Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien and his Indonesian counterpart Wassan Wirajuda in the presence of the heads of...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – PetroChina Co Ltd (HK 0857) is on track to deliver gas through the west-east pipeline project from the northwest Chinese province of Shaanxi to Shanghai as early as Oct 1, although the project’s joint venture with foreign partners has been delayed, the China Daily reported. Citing Wu Hong, vice president of the...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China and Russia have reached an agreement to jointly survey oil and natural gas resources in their border areas, Xinhua news agency reported, citing an unnamed government official from the northeast Chinese province of Heilongjiang. The news agency said the cooperation, the first of its kind between the two countries, is another...

Shanghai (AFX-ASIA) – China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group), the country’s largest refiner, has sold the 100,000 tons of diesel oil allocated for export in July, a trader with China International United Petroleum & Chemical Co (Unipec) said. Sinopec Group decided to export 100,000 tons of diesel fuel in July, 50% lower than the 200,000 tons...

BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the government plans to set up a second mutual fund, with the size of the fund yet to be determined. He said the fund will be offered to major investors, with minimum investment by any party to be set at 5 million baht. (US$1=42 baht). The fund...

Progas Pakistan has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract of the second phase of its LPG project at Port Qasim Karachi to SNC Lavalin of Canada and China Shanghai (Group) Corporation for Foreign Economic and Technological Cooperation (SFECO). The first phase of the project currently under construction by Pakistan’s premier engineering firm Usmani...

“The headlines were bullish for both crude and light products,” said SG in describing the latest oil data released by the US Department of Energy. The department reported commercial crude stocks down 2.1 million barrels vs an anticipated 1.5 million barrels build; total gasoline stocks drawing by 3.2 million, double the anticipated draw; and distillate...

US-based IMPCO Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMCO), has proven its mettle and its technology in the first Propane Challenge Clean Air Rally by supplying fuel product and systems to all entrants. A group of Mitsubishi, Toyota, Ford and GM Holden motorcars completed the inaugural Propane Challenge Clean Air Rally — a 1,500-km journey through regional towns...

China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group) and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) have jointly issued an internal memo to provincial subsidiaries, the third time since May, asking them to raise the prices of diesel and gasoline to offset declining sales volume, China Oil News said on its website. It said the companies will first raise diesel...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – State run oil and gas company Pertamina plans make monthly adjustments to the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) starting from August in a bid to avoid losses, the Jakarta Post reported, citing Pertamina downstream director Muchsin Bahar. He said that to control too much fluctuation, the company will apply floor and...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China’s State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) has announced it will immediately begin inspecting electricity prices of major power generating and grid firms nationwide, based on reported problems with self-supervision, the Shanghai-based International Finance News reported. The newspaper said the industry watchdog required in March that the country’s 48 major power companies carry...