AMFELS Inc, the US subsidiary of Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), has delivered an ultra premium KFELS B Class jackup drilling unit, named Tonala, to Mexican Owner, Perforadora Central SA de CV. Upon the delivery of the rig, Tonala is starting a contract with Petroleos Mexicanos in the Bay of Campeche (PEMEX)....

Thailand’s Ministry of Energy said it is ready to go ahead with a plan to float the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by the second quarter of this year as the LPG price in the world market is likely to drop below this month’s current level of $265 per tonne, according to the Business...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Huadian Power International Corp Ltd (HK 1071) plans to buy a power plant, that is still under construction, from its parent China Huadian Corp, one of the nation’s five largest power companies, the Securities Times reported today, citing He Gong, chairman of Huadian Power International. Zhang Gelin, an official in the securities...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China will need over 220 billion yuan in investment to build its natural gas infrastructure by 2020, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing Bai Rongchun, director of the State Development and Reform Commission’s (SDRC) Energy Bureau. (US$1=8.27 yuan). The funds would go to the construction of over 50,000 kilometers of pipelines,...

LONDON (AFX) – Royal Dutch/Shell Group is facing more class action lawsuits in the US after the Anglo-Dutch oil giant admitted two months ago that it overstated reserves. Law firms Berger & Montague and Vianale & Vianale launched separate legal actions against the group a few days after the ouster of chairman Sir Philip Watts...

The headline number of last week’s US gasoline deliveries showed “stunning strength” with a second consecutive week at 8.97 million barrels/day, 6.5% (547,000 b/d) more than last year, said French investment bank SG. It said: “The bloom could have been taken off the rose a bit by gasoline imports topping 1 million b/d for the...

LONDON (AFX) – OPEC will stick to its decision to cut production quotas by 1 million barrels per day from April 1, despite high prices, said Qatari Minister of Energy Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah. Earlier, cartel sources said OPEC would consider raising output if prices remained high for the two following weeks. Mr Al-Attiyah told...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – The government has refused to comment on the state of talks between state-owned oil group China National Petroleum Corp and its supposed foreign partners over their participation in a US$5.6 billion pipeline to ship natural gas across China to the energy-hungry eastern seaboard. Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell Group, US oil group...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China and Pakistan have agreed on the technical details for the sale of a second nuclear power plant, estimated to be worth US$600-700 million, to Pakistan, the Financial Times said. The newspaper quoted Islamabad officials as saying that that the agreement for the sale of the 300 megawatt plant came following secret...

Offshore support and marine services provider Ezra Holdings Limited has signed a letter of intent with listed company KS Tech Ltd to set up a joint venture company to co-own offshore support vessels to tap into the lucrative offshore support services industry. In a statement, Ezra’s managing director Lionel Lee said the venture will further...

Oil-market fundamentals persist in arguing for an imminent decline in prices, says French investment bank SG. In its weekly commentary, SG said: “All the estimates of supply and demand converge in a market surplus which would exceed 4 million b/d in 2Q 04 if OPEC continued to produce at its current level of 28 Mb/d....

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – Citigroup said it has made upward revisions to its forward earnings estimates for diversified resources group BHP Billiton on the back of expectations of increased oil prices, prompting it to lift its target price on the Anglo-Australian group. In a note to clients, Citigroup said it has lifted its target price on...

Singapore-listed China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation Ltd (CAO) said its jet-fuel procurement requirements for the April-June 2004 quarter will grow at least 84% from year-ago levels. Chen Jiulin, CAO’s managing director and CEO, said: “This figure represents only the initial bulk purchase, and there may be additional spot tenders later in the quarter. The high...

Shell Malaysia said that a Shell-Petronas Carigali-Conoco Phillips joint venture has made a ‘major’ oil discovery with their Gumusut-1 exploration well in Deepwater Block J, on the northwest of Sabah state. According to The Edge newspaper, the exploration well encountered a long gross oil column in excellent reservoir quality rock, the company said in a...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China’s crude oil output last year increased 1.5% to 169.3 million tons, slower than the 2.5% growth in 2002, Xinhua news agency reported, citing sources from the ongoing national meeting of the petroleum and chemical industry. China’s crude oil imports reached 91.13 million tons in 2003, up 31.3% from 69.41 million tons...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), the parent company of Hong Kong and New York listed CNOOC Ltd (883 HK; NYSE CEO), plans to increase its domestic oil and natural gas output by 8% to 40 million cubic meters of oil equivalent by 2008, from about 37 million cubic meters of oil...

SAN FRANCISCO (AFX) — “AAA believes the long-term trend for gas prices is higher, not lower,” Chief Executive Robert Darbelnet of AAA said in a statement at a news conference at the Detroit Economic Club. Specifically, AAA expects average gasoline prices to continue to rise over the next five years, mainly due to “rising demand...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China Merchants Group, the parent company of China Merchants Holdings International (HK 0144), plans to list its oil shipping operations on a domestic stock exchange, chairman of the group Qin Xiao was quoted as saying by the International Financial News. Mr Qin said the group’s oil shipping operations will be restructured within...

BAKU (AFX) – Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili warned that political forces are planning to block completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, a US$3 billion project to export crude from the landlocked Caspian Sea to world markets. Speaking on a visit to neighbouring Azerbaijan, which is also a partner in the project, Mr Saakashvili said...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – Oil and gas producer PT Medco Energi Internasional said it has signed an agreement to supply natural gas to state-owned steel maker PT Krakatau Steel from 2006, and another deal to sell liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to state-run oil and gas firm PT Pertamina this year. It said the gas will be...

China plans to launch a spot oil-trading center in Shanghai soon to better manage its access to energy, a top oil official told Xinhua News Agency. Quoting Chinese industry sources, Xinhua said the oil trading center, to begin operating in June, would be jointly launched by China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), China National Offshore Oil...

Dutch oil and chemical logistics company Royal Vopak said its 2003 net profit dropped more than 6% to 104.5 million Euro from the previous year. Revenues were also lower at 749.6 million Euro in 2003 from 796.2 million in 2002. (US$1=0.81 Euro). The company said the decline was mainly caused by the strong Euro, which...

WASHINGTON (AFX) — New House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Joe Barton will not back an energy bill that does not protect makers of a controversial gasoline additive known as MTBE. The Senate is seeking to strip those protections in hopes of getting the stalled energy bill on President Bush’s desk this year. In his...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – State-run oil and gas firm PT Pertamina is seeking an equal split of its share of the Cepu oil field with the joint operating contractor, US-based ExxonMobil, Pertamina spokesman Hanung Budia said. He told AFX-Asia that the negotiations between the two parties are still ongoing and nothing is final yet until the...

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Ltd is gearing up to meet the challenges to be posed by the entry of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Ltd and Reliance Industries into the domestic retail market from April 1, according Infraline. IOC executive director for retail development, A.M. Nanjundan, gave this message in delivering a recent keynote...