WASHINGTON (AFX-ASIA) – The forecast for Iraqi oil export revenue has been raised to US$13.5 billion, up US$1.5 billion from the previous estimate, Treasury Department undersecretary for international affairs John Taylor said. Mr Taylor, in a telephone conference call as he visited Baghdad, added that the Iraqi economy “is beginning to work and thrive again...

V.Ships Consulting said it has been awarded a contract by Primorsk Shipping Corporation of Nakhodka (PRISCO) for the full technical management of three ice-class tankers. These vessels will be on taken long-term time charter to the Sakhalin-1 consortium for operations in Phase 1 of the Sakhalin-1 project operated by Exxon Neftegas Limited, a subsidiary of...

LONDON (AFX) – News that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is to launch a formal non-public investigation into last month’s massive reserve cut by Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies was welcomed by the market. But dealers were quick to caution the news does not remove the uncertainty of such a probe surrounding the stock....

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), parent of Hong Kong-listed CNOOC Ltd (HK 0883; NYSE CEO), said it posted a net profit of 14.4 billion yuan for 2003, up 23.7% from a year earlier, boosted by strong sales. (US$1=8.27 yuan). CNOOC registered 49.2 billion yuan in sales revenue last year, up 43%,...

ExxonMobil’s additions to its base of proved oil and gas reserves worldwide in 2003 exceeded produced volumes for the 10th year in a row, the company said. The announcement came one day after El Paso Corp. , a production and pipeline company, cut its proven reserves estimate by 41%, helping throw the market into a...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – ST Hubei Tianfa Co Ltd (SZA 000670) said it plans to invest 122 million yuan to set up a joint venture to sell oil products with its subsidiary Hubei Tianfa Fuhong Petrochemical Co Ltd. (US$1=8.27 yuan). The venture, to be named Wuhan Tianfa Petroleum Logistics Co Ltd, will have registered capital of...

New oil and gas fields in the East Siberian and Far Eastern regions will let Russia make up for declining production in traditional producing areas as well as export to Asia’s fast-growing markets. Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry outlined this as its strategy in a special report, “An Outlook for Tapping Hydrocarbon Primary Materials Fields in...

UK’s BG Group said it will acquire Mauritania Holdings BV, a subsidiary of Australia’s Hardman Resources, that owns interests in production sharing contracts A and B covering blocks 3, 4 and 5 off the coast of Mauritania in West Africa. Hardman Resources Limited is an independent exploration company. Through this acquisition BG Group will obtain...

BAKU (AFX) – ExxonMobil Corp has re-spudded an exploratory well on its Zafar Mashal prospect in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian because of difficult geological conditions, a company executive said. Drew Goodbread, General Manager of ExxonMobil subsidiary Exxon Azerbaijan, said the problems were not unusual for exploration in the Caspian and that drilling work on...

South Africa’s Sasol and Malaysia’s Petronas have agreed to merge their liquid fuels business to create a leading South African liquid fuels business. The new company will comprise Sasol’s and Engen’s liquid fuels marketing and distribution businesses in the retail, commercial and wholesale markets. Together with their Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partners, the former Exel...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (HK 0386; SHA 600028; NYSE SNP) said in a statement it has won a contract to supply asphalt for the construction of the Formula-1 (F-1) racetrack at the Shanghai Intl Circuit, but no detailed figures were given. An spokesman with the surname of Xu from Sinopec...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China Datang Group, one of China’s five main state-owned power generation groups, said it is targeting 19.65% growth in sales revenue this year to 32.8 billion yuan. (US$1=8.27 yuan). The group did not specify its sales figure for 2003, but said it registered a great increase in sales last year over 2002....

Esso Malaysia Berhad has reported a much improved performance for 2003, with after-tax profits reaching RM57 million compared with a loss of RM7 billion in 2002. Revenues rose 19% to RM4.8 billion, reflecting higher average sales prices, while sales volumes stayed at around 97,000 barrels/day. In a statement, chairman Rob Fisher said: “These results were...

Houston, Texas-based OMNI Flow Computers, a leading international custody metering flow computer specialists in natural gas and liquids, has been awarded the flow computer supply contract for a major pipeline project in China. Chinese state oil and gas company Sinopec awarded the contract for an oil products pipeline project linking the southern cities of Maoming...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) Ð Shares of Shell Refining Co (Federation of Malaya) Bhd have been boosted after posting better full year to Dec 2003 results, dealers said. The company said its net profit for the full year rose to an all-time high of RM182.28 million from RM153.93 million previously, mainly due to strong refining margins...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Malaysia has summoned the US charge d’affaires to lodge a formal protest over President George W Bush’s remarks linking it to a nuclear weapons black market, officials said here today. Envoy Robert Pollard was called to the foreign ministry yesterday and given a note in which Malaysia said it was “offended...

WASHINGTON (AFX) – The US said it is “deeply concerned” by Japanese plans to participate in a major oil development project in Iran, which is under US economic embargo. “We remain deeply concerned about deals such as this and disappointed that these things might go forward,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. He said the...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China’s main generating companies including Huaneng Group, China Power Investment Group and China Datang Group, are eyeing some of the 11 power plants the country’s new grid company, State Grid Corp, is planning to sell off, the China Daily reported citing company sources. “No one will miss this opportunity as we understand...

Hong Kong-listed Beijing Datang Power Generation Co Ltd’s (991.HK) subsidiary Hebei Datang Tangshan Thermal Power Co Ltd will buy assets worth 155 million yuan from the group’s parent, China Datang Group Corp. (US$1=8.27 yuan). In a statement, Beijing Datang said Hebei Datang will buy assets of Tangshan Power Generation Plant (TPGP), currently a wholly-subsidiary of...

HANOI (AFX-ASIA) – BP PLC said its Nam Con Son operation, the largest foreign oil and gas project in Vietnam, has generated 1 billion cubic metres of gas sales since the launch of the pipeline serving it. The company said it reached the milestone on Sunday, 14 months after its 399-kilometer pipeline – the world’s...

Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL) said it has reached a conditional agreement to sell its product tanker and bunkering business Neptune Associated Shipping Pte Ltd (NAS) to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed oil services company Titan (Holdings) Limited, Titan Orient Lines Pte Ltd. The sale of NAS, which is due to be completed...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – Origin Energy Ltd is well placed to achieve annual net earnings per share growth of 10-15% in the medium term helped by new upstream oil and gas projects coming on-stream, the integrated energy group’s chief executive Grant King said. He told reporters that this growth will be achieved without acquisitions, helped by...

Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin Energy Control Systems Inc. (ECS) and Taiwan-based TECO Electric and Machinery Co. Ltd recently signed a C$15.4 million contract with the Taiwan Power Company (TPC) to supply, install and commission a new Feeder Dispatch Control System (FDCS) at its Taipei South District Office. (US$1=C$1.3). “This new turnkey mandate continues to confirm...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Showa Denko KK said it posted net profit of 10.3 billion yen in 2003, down 20.8% from a year earlier, hit by a sharp decline in capital gains. In 2003, the petrochemical producer posted capital gains of only 1.9 billion yen via the sales of equity holdings, while it generated 15.9 billion...

Environmental lobby group Greenpeace recently released what it says are “new visual evidence of the impacts of climate change” in Patagonia, showing ‘disappearing glaciers.’ It said that new photos of Patagonian glaciers taken by the research team on board the Greenpeace vessel, Arctic Sunrise, show the extent to which climate change has caused the ice...