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...

Hongkong-listed Beijing Datang Power Generation Company Limited (HKEx: 991; LSE:DAT; ADR:BJDHY) said that its 80-owned Hebei Datang Tangshan Thermal Power Unit 1 (300MW), started commercial operation on March 1 and is now connected to the Beijing Tianjin-Tangshan power grid. The plant passed the safety standard set by North China Grid Company Limited. Tangshan Thermal Power...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Major Japanese refiner Showa Shell Sekiyu KK will keep gasoline production at the current level from April onward, when it will stop supplying gas to Idemitsu Kosan Co, another refiner and oil products distributor, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. Showa Shell boosted output 6% at the end of 2003 as a temporary...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – The government will maintain the current prices of subsidised fuel this year despite higher oil prices in the world market, as the upcoming polls may hamper President Megawati Soekarnoputri’s reelection bid, The Jakarta Post reported quoting Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro. “After a series of discussions, President Megawati Soekarnoputri...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has no plan to increase retail electricity prices, contrary to media reports, an official surnamed Zhang from the NDRC information office said. Mr Zhang made the comments in response to a Xinhua news agency report saying China will raise electricity prices by 0.02 yuan per...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – Mud engineering specialist Scomi Group Bhd plans to expand its marine transport services business and will soon acquire two anchor-handling tug boats worth US$3.6 million each, The Star reported, quoting an unnamed company spokesman. “We are finalising the purchase and expect the deal to be completed by April. The vessels will...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Russian state-owned oil transport company Transneft has outlined a new plan for an oil pipeline that would bring Russian oil to both China and Japan, Xinhua news agency reported, citing official Russian news agency TASS. The new pipeline would start from the Baikal-Amur rail junction and run north of Lake Baikal to...

Australian upstream company Santos Limited said that investigations into the cause of the January 1 fire at its Moomba gas plant are continuing. It said the cause of the gas release that led to the fire was the “unforeseen failure” of a heat exchanger (cold box) inlet nozzle in the Liquids Recovery Plant (LRP) –...

US law firm of Kirby McInerney & Squire, LLP said it has filed a class action lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of “a class of purchasers” of the shares of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and/or The Shell Transport and Trading Company, plc from April 8, 1999...

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) – Australia’s commodity export earnings are forecast to increase by 8% in 2004-05 to A$88 billion, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) said in its March issue of its Australian Commodities report. (US$1=A$1.3). The bureau said higher export shipments in response to a global economic recovery will drive the increase....

Dong Fang Gas Ltd is buying the property interests, including the Cyberport development of Hong Kong’s main fixed-line phone company PCCW Ltd for US$841 million. PCCW would then become a majority owner of Dong Fang, which will pay for the deal by issuing new shares and convertible notes to the telecoms firm. Cyber-Port Ltd, the...

Australian upstream company Santos Limited said that its wholly owned subsidiary, Santos Offshore Pty Ltd, has agreed to farm-out 25% of its equity in the Exploration Permit WA- 264-P to another Australian company, Beach Petroleum Limited. The permit is located in offshore Western Australia and contains the Corowa-1 oil discovery. Under the agreement, the Santos...

DUBAI (AFX) – Iraq has raised oil export capacity from the south to 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) by opening the Khor Al-Amaya terminal on the Gulf, South Oil Company (SOC) director general Javar Ali al-Lueibi said. “Our export capacity in the south is 1.8 million” b/d through the terminals at Basra and Khor...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China’s demand for electricity is expected to exceed supply by 20,000 megawatts this year – 5,000 megawatts more than last year – with some of the country’s power grids already at full capacity, the China Daily reported. Ideally, power grids should be only at 90% of total transmission capacity, the paper said....

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – State-owned Shenzhen Energy Group is preparing for an initial public offering in Hong Kong that could value the dominant power supplier to China’s southern boomtown at about US$2 billion, the Financial Times reported citing people close to the deal. The listing, likely to take place before the end of the year, is...

Ohio, US-based American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP)said it has completed the sale of its 70% interest in Nanyang General Light Electric Company Limited, which owns and operates a power plant in China. The buyer, Henan Power which owns 15% of Nanyang General Light, paid $34.5 million. Nanyang City Hengsheng Development Co. owns the remaining 15%....

HANOI (AFX-ASIA) – A US$450 million gas-fired power plant in Vietnam built and owned by BP PLC and other foreign investors has begun commercial operations, the venture’s partners said. The Phu My 3 power plant, in the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, south of Ho Chi Minh City, officially came onstream last week...

Thailand’s upstream company PTTEP said its revenues rose 16% to 37,014 million baht in 2003 due mainly to higher crude output and sales as well as an increase in its realised per barrel crude price of US$20.62 compared with US$18.59 a year ago. But its net income fell by 26 million baht to 12,028 million...

French oil and gas major Total said that it has signed an agreement with Shell Gas BV, a member of the Royal Dutch/Shell group of companies, to acquire a 26% stake in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) re-gasification terminal project in India. The terminal is expected to receive its first LNG cargo by year’s end...

Indonesian state oil and gas company Pertamina plans to raise the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to more than Rp3,000 from Rp2,850 per kilogram currently. (US$1=Rp8,500). LPG manager Iqbal Hasan said the increase was needed as the product had risen from US$270 to US$350 per metric ton on the international market. He said that...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Oil firm Petron Corp said its board of directors has given management the authority to negotiate a US$150 million long-term loan. No other details about the loan were provided in the company’s disclosure to the stock exchange. Petron said its board also approved the creation of a direct retailing subsidiary outside the...

Bangkok Aviation Fuel Service Plc (Bafs) forecasts that its sales volume will grow by 6% this year in line with the expected growth of the aviation and tourism sector, said managing director M.R. Supadis Diskul, according to a Bangkok Post report He said the company expected demand for aircraft fuelling services to rise by 6%...

LONDON (AFX) – A small US oil company that once held a license to produce oil from the Timor Sea filed a federal lawsuit yesterday accusing ConocoPhillips and the governments of Australia, Indonesia and East Timor of conspiring to illegally seize control of the lucrative oilfields, the Wall Street Journal reported. Citing the suit, filed...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Local oil firms, led by Petron Corp, have reduced the prices of their liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) brands by 1.50 pesos per kilogram effective since the start of the month. (US$1=56 peso). However, Caltex Philippines Inc said that prices of finished fuel products rose further up to the end of February after...