TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Mitsui and Co Ltd will acquire a 12.5% stake in an oil field development project off the western coast of New Zealand in return for taking on an equal percentage of the development costs, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without citing sources. The Tui oil field, with estimated reserves of 20 million...

(INFRALINE) — ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas investment arm of India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has told the government that its biggest project, the Sakhalin oil and gas project in Russia, will overrun budget by $800 million. Of this, $400 million would be lent to the Russian oil company Rosneft, a project...

ROME (AFX) – Vladimir Putin faced questions about the Kremlin’s treatment of oil giant Yukos at an EU-Russia summit here last week which has been overshadowed by allegations of a crackdown by the Russian President on a political opponent. European Commission President Romano Prodi sought seek “clarifications” on the arrest on fraud charges of Mikhail...

Despite high domestic prices, Japan’s petrochemical companies have been gradually moving to buy more naphtha feedstock from local refiners at the expense of imports. Reliance on domestically produced naphtha could rise to 40% this year, up from 35.5% in 1999 as ethylene producers grow wary of potential disruption of imported supplies. Higher refining throughput also...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China’s natural gas consumption will rise at an annual rate of 7.5% by 2020, and the total volume will reach 55 billion cubic meters in 2005 and 100 billion cubic meters in 2010, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the general manager of PetroChina Pipeline Co. The news agency quoted Liu Lei, speaking...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Moody’s Investors Service said its rating outlook on Japanese gas companies remains negative, although their credit profiles are currently strong and there are no immediate serious threats to their standing. “The negative outlook reflects Moody’s concern that the progress achieved in liberalizing Japan’s gas utility market may increase business risk and prompt...

PTT, Thailand’s country’s largest oil and gas conglomerate, said it will sell debentures worth some 15 billion baht to institutional and retail investors this month. According to a Business Day report, the proceeds will be used to pay for business expansion and debt refinancing. Fitch Rating (Thailand) has given PTT’s long-term debentures at an investment...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Local brokerage Hwang-DBS Securities Bhd said it is recommending a “trading buy” on Trenergy Bhd as a stock with a link to the shipping sector, supported by technical factors. Trenergy has agreed to buy a 75% stake in SNAP Capital Sdn Bhd, which in turn owns 32.5% of listed Malaysian Merchant...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Ranhill Bhd has served a notice of voluntary partial conditional general offer to buy up to 70%, or 206.15 million shares, of Ranhill Utilities Bhd (RUB) at RM3.10 each via an issue of new Ranhill shares. (US$1=RM3.8). Under the offer, 0.391 new Ranhill shares will be issued at RM7.93 each for...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – The government may yet hold a bidding for the construction of a US$100-million natural gas pipeline from Batangas province to Manila, BusinessWorld newspaper quoted Energy undersecretary Emmanuel de Dios as saying. The move is seen addressing a looming dispute over the right to construct the pipeline, as several groups have expressed interest...

MOSCOW (AFX) – Senior Pentagon advisor Richard Perle said Russia “should be excluded” from the Group of Eight industrial nations for its arrest at gunpoint of its top oil baron, in an interview published today in the business daily Kommersant. “Not one of the G8 countries would allow itself to behave in such a way...

SINGAPORE (AFX-ASIA) – Total Automation Ltd was higher ahead of its third quarter to September results scheduled to be released November 13, dealers said. OCBC Securities has put Total Automation’s net profit for the third quarter at S$1.9 million, flat compared to its second quarter to June net profit of S$1.9 million. (US$1=S$1.75). It has...

Pakistan and Republic of Korea have signed an MoU to co-operate in the oil and gas industry, and to explore investment opportunities in Pakistan. The agreement between the Pakistani Ministry of Petroleum and the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) was signed in Seoul. The signatories were Pakistan’s Ambassador to Korea and President of the Korean...

Australian upstream company Bounty Oil & Gas NL (Bounty) said it has sold off its entire 5% stakeholding in offshore Perth Basin permit TP/15 to Arc Energy NL (Arc) for a cash payment of $500,000. Bounty said it will receive a further $500,000 bonus if TP/15 production reaches either five million barrels of oil or...

Three international energy companies, BP, Statoil and Unocal, have established a joint programme with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, to help local businesses in Azerbaijan benefit from the oil and gas industry. The Supply-Chain Technical Assistance (SCTA) programme will help...

Indonesian state oil and gas company Pertamina has asked the government to allow private companies to build fuel depot and terminals to help solve the country’s fuels shortage crisis. President Ariffi Nawawi conceded Pertamina was unable to deal with the crisis. Speaking last week to the House of Representatives, he said Pertamina did not have...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China’s installed power generating capacity is expected to reach around 900 million kW by 2020, Xinhua news agency reported, citing an official with the Electricity Designing Institute of the State Power Corp. The news agency quoted the unnamed official as saying electricity production capacity generated by nuclear power is expected to reach...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – Seven foreign oil and gas companies and state-owned PT Pertamina have expressed interest to join a tender for the Palmerah oil block in South Sumatra, Bisnis Indonesia reported, citing the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources’ Director General for Oil and Gas, Iin Arifin Takhyan. “The national oil and gas company PT...

SHANGHAI (AFX-ASIA) – Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell Group said it has signed a letter of intent with China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) to jointly invest nearly US$30 million in an auto maintenance joint venture. The 50-50 venture will first launch quick-lube service shops in the eastern city of Shanghai before expanding its network nationwide,...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (SHA 600028; HK 0386; NYSE SNP) plans to raise annual production capacity at its Maoming ethylene plant to 800,000 tons from the current 380,000 tons by 2006, the company’s chief financial officer Zhang Jiaren said. He said in a media teleconference that the company would include...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – PT Medco Energi International lost a tender to acquire an oil and gas field in the province of Riau but continues to bid for three others in Aceh, Sulawesi and another in Riau, the Kompas daily reported, citing Medco finance director Sugiharto. He said Medco lost the tender because of its low...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Japan has reaffirmed its willingness to provide US$7 billion in financial assistance for a Russian project to develop oil fields in eastern Siberia for export, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported from Moscow. The major Japanese business daily reported that Russian Minister of Energy Igor Khanukovich Yusufov, at a press conference there on...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Tenaga Nasional Bhd expects electricity demand for 2004 to grow higher than the 7.5% recorded in 2003, chairman Awang Adek Hussin said. “Since our economic growth rate next year is projected to be higher at around 5.5 to 6%, then our electricity sales will also be higher than 7.5% (achieved this...

(INFRALINE) — Gas Authority of India Limited (Gail) expects to complete its Rs 200 billion national gas grid project by 2008. (US$1=Rs 44). The grid will comprise a nationwide pipeline network covering a length of 7,900 km. Gail chairman and managing director Proshanto Banerjee said that the acquisition of land for the pipeline network would...

The International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), Europe’s leading energy futures and options exchange, and The Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM), Asia’s leading commodity futures market, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to co-operate and promote their business. They will make available trading in financial instruments traded on each exchange, secure regulatory approvals from the UK and...