BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – The cabinet has approved the State Enterprise Policy Committee’s (SEPC) proposal to privatize the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), deputy government spokesperson Sansanee Nakpong said. The cabinet has assigned the Energy Ministry to study EGAT’s organisational structure and to oversee its listing, she said. An SEPC meeting approved EGAT’s privatisation plan...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China’s government has branded the former head of the State Power Corp Gao Yan a “traitor against the party and country,” for allegedly embezzling company funds before fleeing to the US, the South China Morning Post reported, citing sources close to the company. Mr Gao, a protege of former Chinese Premier Li...

MOSCOW (AFX) – Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko said oil companies in Russia should switch more of their trade from dollars to euros, as this could boost the euro zone economy. “From the point of view of (Russian) exporters, it would be unwise not to diversify” into euros, Mr Khristenko was quoted as saying by...

Unocal Corporation (NYSE: UCL) said subsidiary Unocal Thailand Ltd has signed a heads of agreement with PTT Public Co., Ltd. (PTT), which is intended to amend and extend two of Unocal’s gas sales contracts, while increasing contracted sales volume from 740 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) to 1,240 mmcfd. Unocal Thailand and its partners...

China’s CNOOC Limited (NYSE: CEO, SEHK: 883) said that Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) has upgraded its rating of the Company and the foreign currency long-term debt rating of subsidiary, CNOOC Finance (2002) Ltd, to A2 from Baa1. Moody’s also upgraded the issuer rating of the company’s parent – China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) from...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Shandong International Power Development Co Ltd (1071.HK) said in the first nine months of this year it generated 21.98 million megawatt-hour of electricity, up 3.31% year-on-year, due to relatively stable demand in Shandong province. It generated a total of 21.27 million mwh in the first three quarters of last year. It...

US energy company Unocal Corporation (NYSE: UCL) said that two of its subsidiaries have signed a natural gas purchase and sales agreement with Petrobangla, the state oil and gas corporation of Bangladesh, to develop and produce natural gas from the Moulavi Bazar field. Under the agreement, Unocal expects to produce 70 to 100 million cubic...

LONDON (AFX) – The repeated sabotage of oil pipelines in Iraq threatens to place a finite limit on the amount of crude oil the country can export, a former adviser to coalition forces said at a conference, “Doing Business in Iraq,” in central London. Dr Muhammad-Ali Zainy, an economist for London-based energy industry think tank...

India’s largest private company Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which operates the country’s largest refinery, said its net profit had risen 26% to Rs 12.63 billion for the June-to-September quarter. Its total income was up 11.29% to Rs 180.36 billion. (US$1=Rs44). In a statement, RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani, said: “We are happy with...

Australian upstream company Carnarvon Petroleum Ltd. has reached agreement in principle with Canada’s Pacific Tiger Energy Ltd on the work programme for its exploration licences in central Thailand for the rest of 2003 and 2004. Pacific Tiger is the operator for production licences 1 and 2, and exploration licence L44/43. The agreement covers the drilling...

LONDON (AFX) – The US will create a new agency, under the aegis of the Pentagon, to oversee the distribution of contracts to rebuild Iraq, a US defence official told a conference here. The new agency, as yet unnamed, will be introduced at the beginning of November under the direction of retired admiral David Nash,...

Natural gas accounted for 12.4% of the fuels used for power generation in the Philippines in the first half of 2003, up from 3.5% the same period last year, said the National Power Corp. The company attributed the increased use of natural gas for power generation to the full commercial operation of the Ilijan gas-fired...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – BP plc (NYSE BP) and Guangzhou Development Industry Holding (GDIH) have signed a joint venture agreement to establish BP Guangzhou Development Oil Products Co Ltd, which will operate an oil products terminal in Nansha in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, BP said in a statement. Guangzhou Development Industry will hold a...

LG International, the trading arm of South Korea’s second largest industrial conglomerate, said it is in talks with Thai Olefin Plc and Oman Oil to take an equity stake in the US$210 million petrochemical plant being built in Thailand’s Rayong district. Lee Sang-Ho, the spokesman for LG, told Business Day that the companies were in...

Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Qatar Shell GTL Ltd (Shell), a Royal Dutch/Shell subsidiary, have signed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) for the construction of the world’s largest gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Ras Laffan, Qatar at a cost of US$5 billion. The agreement was signed by Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Qatar’s Second Deputy Prime Minister and...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Hong Kong’s CLP Power Asia Ltd and four Chinese power companies have invested a total of 40.465 billion yuan to build thermopower plants and hydropower stations in the southern Chinese region of Guangxi, Xinhua news agency reported. (US$1=8.27 yuan). The four Chinese power companies are China Huadian Corp, China Guodian (Group) Corp,...

PetroChina Company Limited (SEHK stock code 0857; NYSE symbol PTR) said it achieved “good performance” for the third quarter. It said the construction of the West-East Gas Pipeline is progressing on schedule. The construction of the eastern section of the pipeline from Jingbian to Shanghai has been completed. The gas transmission started on October 1,...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd, an unquoted oil refiner, has made deals with Japan Energy Corp and South Korea’s S-Oil Corp to purchase a combined 210,000 kiloliters of kerosene and other oil products, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. The purchase is to make up for shortages caused by a fire that damaged an...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp will earmark about 2.2 billion pesos for capital expenditure in 2004 to upgrade its refinery and put up new service stations, the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper reported, quoting the company’s country chair Edgar Chua. (US$1=55 pesos). He said next year’s budget is about the same as that in...

LONDON (AFX) – Oil giant Russia looks unlikely to cooperate with OPEC in cutting output after voicing concern that the cartel’s target price for crude is too high, analysts said. Russian Energy Minister Igor Yusufov said last week that the OPEC oil producers cartel was trying to keep prices too high and insisted that Russia...

SHANGHAI (AFX-ASIA) – China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group), the country’s largest refiner, plans to export 100,000 tons of diesel oil in November, 16.67% lower than 120,000 tons in October due to growing domestic demand, a trader with China International United Petroleum & Chemical Co (Unipec) said. “Sinopec Group has decided to cut diesel oil exports...

Singapore’s Senoko Power Ltd has awarded a project to the Singapore office of Texas-based IT company EnWorkz Inc to establish an electricity trading platform. Enworkz’s Electricity Trading Information System (ETIS) will be built on EnWorkz PowerUpª Software Framework. The ETIS system will capture information on energy transactions in real time, and make “higher levels of...

India’s Petroleum Minister Ram Naik has warned IndianOil Corp staff against confronting the government over the proposal to sell part of its retail network, reported the Times of India. He has also told the unions to be patient. Members of the Indian Oil Officers Association told Mr Naik they were opposed to the proposal, and...

BP and China’s Guangzhou Development Industry Holding (GDIH) have agreed to jointly establish the BP Guangzhou Development Oil Products Company Ltd to operate a “world-class” oil products terminal at Nansha in the Panyu district of Guangdong province. The venture was established at a ceremony last week attended by Huang Huahua, Guangdong’s governor, Zhang Guang Ning,...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – The Manila Electric Co (Meralco) said it asked the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to “provisionally approve” its latest petition for a tariff increase, insisting it is urgently needed due to cash flow pressures. “At present, Meralco’s financial condition, particularly its cash flow constraints, remains critical due to the combined need to operate...