BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (SHA 600028; HK 0386; NYSE SNP) said it will issue 3.5 billion yuan in 10-year corporate bonds this year at an indicative coupon between 4.55-4.61%. (US$1=8.27 yuan). However, the issue is unlikely to cause too much excitement among investors as their attention swings to the government’s...
JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – BP Indonesia, a unit of BP Plc, is seeking support from the Lower House of Parliament (DPR)’s Commission VIII in asking the government to extend its contract to manage the BP Kangean block by another 15 years, company president Bill Schrader said. “We are seeking a 15 year extension for our Kangean...
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) has released a study that says that the world will require about 40% more energy in 2020 than today with consumption levels reaching almost 300 million oil-equivalent barrels per day (b/d). “Developing reliable, affordable supplies to meet this energy demand will be an enormous challenge. Meeting future demand and developing more...
Australia’s Origin Energy Limited is in negotiations with New Zealand’s Genesis Power for the acquisition of a 50% interest in the Kupe oil and gas field situated in the off shore Taranaki basin. br>Origin said negotiations for the possible acquisition are at an “advanced stage” but are not complete. Earlier, Santos was reported to be...
KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Malaysia has denied involvement in producing nuclear components for Libya, but said a Sri Lankan businessman identified by US and British intelligence as an alleged middleman was under investigation. Allegations that Malaysia had produced centrifuge components for Libya’s uranium-enrichment program were “unfounded,” national police chief Bakri Omar said in a statement....
BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Guangdong province is lobbying the State Council, China’s cabinet, to locate the second-phase of its planned national strategic oil reserve in the province after losing out in the first round, the China Daily reported without citing sources. The Guangdong government has put forward three sites – Huizhou, Maoming and Zhanjiang – as...
KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) Ð Shares of Petra Perdana Bhd have been boosted on speculative buying and hopes that the company will secure a sizeable portion of the RM2 billion offshore installation project from the consortium of Petronas Carigali, ExxonMobil and Shell, dealers said. (US$1=RM3.8). Dealers also noted a news report that said Petra is in...
Pakistan’s domestic oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) sector attracted a record investment of US$960 million in the last financial year. The recently discovered gas fields in Sawan, Bhit and Zamzama will encourage foreign investors to enter the sector. For the year, companies drilled 32 exploratory wells and 45 development wells. They also made...
BAKU (AFX) – A syndicate of bank and international lenders have agreed to lend US$2.6 billion towards the construction of the controversial Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which is to export crude from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. Until recently, some lenders have hesitated about providing credit because of worries that the project was not...
LONDON (AFX) – Shares in BHP Billiton PLC were upgraded to ‘overweight’ from ‘equal weight’ by Morgan Stanley, which expressed a preference for more diversified mining groups in a sector note this morning, dealers said. “While leveraged miners have outperformed diversified miners in the last six months, in 2004 we expect that diversified names will...
Unocal Corporation (NYSE: UCL) said it replaced 149% of its 2003 natural gas and crude oil production through discoveries and extensions, improved recovery and revisions. The company said its drilling program in 2003 not only replaced production, but added almost enough new reserves to offset the sale of 98 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE)....
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd has reported a 209% increase in its net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2003. The amount was Rs 24,030 million as compared to Rs. 7,770 million over the same quarter the previous year. (US$1=Rs45). The gross turnover for the quarter rose by 10% to Rs. 335,500 million. For the...
BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China’s crude oil output is expected to rise 1.8% to 172 million tons this year versus 2003, with natural gas output up 2.5% at 35 billion cubic meters, according to a research report from the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA). The report added that ethylene production is expected to rise...
LIBREVILLE (AFX) – China’s state-run oil company Sinopec signed a technical evaluation deal with the Gabonese oil ministry for three onshore oilfields. Under the deal, Sinopec will evaluate the potential of the three blocks before taking a decision on whether to take up an exploration and production-sharing contract, Gabon’s Energy and Oil Minister Richard Onouviet...
Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, will sell its refined products through the Internet from June, its marketing manager for product sales said. The Dhahran-based company, which exports about 700,000 barrels a day of refined products, is already putting out tenders for liquefied petroleum gas, known as LPG, through the new web-based Saudi Aramco...
Australian upstream company Carnarvon Petroleum Limited is offering shareholders the opportunity to participate in a one for five non-renounceable rights issue to raise new equity as working capital for a drilling programme in Thailand. Carnarvon said it aims to raise A$1.497 million. (US$1=A$1.3). In a statement to shareholders, it said: “For every five shares you...
SEOUL (AFX-ASIA) – Korea Gas Corp said it will raise its 2003 dividend to 1,650 won per share from 1,600. (US$1=1,168 won). It paid out 1,500 won in dividend in 2002. Its net profit fell to 288 billion won in 2003 from 298 billion a year earlier, with operating profit down 2.5% to 618 billion....
Gas supplies from the Moomba plant are expected to return to normal by this weekend Ð ahead of schedule and in excess of previously forecast levels, said Austalian upstream company Santos. The plant has been idled for several weeks after it was damaged by fire on January 1. The company said that supplies were expected...
BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Beijing Tongyi Petroleum Chemical Co Ltd, the only private firm among China’s big three domestic lubricant producers, said its 2004 sales are expected to exceed 2 billion yuan, up 60% from 1.26 billion yuan in 2003, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the company’s general manager. (US$1=8.27 yuan). Li Jia said the company...
French investment bank said that last week’s release of “extremely bearish API statistics” was met with initial disbelief, because the US’s API statistics are often exaggerated. The API reported a 38% increase in US crude imports to 11.5 million b/d pushing commercial crude stocks well above notional “minimum operating stocks”, gasoline stocks swelling by 3.5...
HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – China Power International Holdings Ltd (CPIH) is expected to raise up to US$4 billion this year by listing on the Hong Kong and New York stock markets, The Standard reported, without citing sources. The paper said investment banks Citigroup Inc, CSFB, Merrill Lynch and Deutsch Bank AG would be invited to...
LIBREVILLE (AFX) – Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Gabonese counterpart Omar Bongo signed three bilateral trade accords last week, including one on oil exploration involving China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (SH A 600028; HK 0386; NYSE SNP), officials said. After 45 minutes of closed-door talks between the two leaders on the second day...
MOSCOW (AFX) – Rusia Petroleum, a 63% held unit of BP PLC joint venture TNK-BP, may see its licence to develop a giant Siberian gas field revoked amid a growing conflict over the project with gas monopoly Gazprom, the Natural Resources Ministry said, confirming media reports. “We are investigating the activities of several companies on...
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) has confirmed a decision by the federal court in Anchorage that revised punitive damages awarded in the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident from $4 billion to $4.5 billion plus interest. “The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has twice vacated Judge Holland’s decisions in this matter. This is exactly why ExxonMobil argued before...
JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – The government has given state oil and gas company PT Pertamina six months to restructure its subsidiaries or else it must sell or liquidate them, said Pertamina commissioner Syafruddin Temenggung. The decision followed Pertamina’s extraordinary shareholders meeting last week, Temenggung said. He said the restructuring is part of turning Pertamina into a...