About 60% or 4,400 of Thailand’s retail oil stations have begun operating shorter hours, heeding the government’s call to save energy in the face of high oil price. Many have ceased operating round-the-clock and have stopped selling fuels between midnight and 5am last week. According to Business Day, the Department of Energy Business director general...

Comment on the increasing impact of US natural gas prices on global oil markets by Deborah White, an economist at French investment SG. “It has been difficult to raise our price sights for oil and natural gas quickly enough. Today’s special lays out short-term and long-term scenarios for North American natural gas consistent with our...

After months of trying, Indonesia’s PT Medco Energi Internasional has succeeded in buying a controlling stake in Australia’s upstream company Novus Petroleum Ltd after a majority of its shareholders agreed to its A$350 million bid. In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, Medco said 60.2% of Novus shareholders had accepted its A$1.90 per share...

Finland’s W’rtsil’ will supply two turnkey power plant extensions, totalling 65 MW, to the Lungtan factory of Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (CPT) in Taiwan to meet the increased power demands of CPT’s new production facilities. Wartsila said the first contract, for a 12 MW standby power plant extension, was signed in January 2004. The second...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – China has started building a 1,050 megawatt gas-fired power plant in Guangdong province, and plans to build more such facilities around the country in an effort to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions from coal-burning thermal facilities, an industry official said. “Work at the Guangdong plant has started, and plans for more gas-fired plants...

Following three consecutive weeks of declining retail gasoline prices, including nearly a five cents drop the past week, the US EIA said that “it certainly does look like retail prices have turned the corner and are now trending down, after rising almost every week for the first five months of the year.” The EIA’s Administrator,...

Rodrigo Rato, the new managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has called for a new energy initiative to help counter the surge in the price of crude oil, reported the New York Times. He said that the climb in the price of oil was largely the result of strong demand and the world needed...

Vietnam’s parliament, the National Assembly, has begun debating the need and course for the liberalisation of the country’s power sector as it struggles to meet surging demand. For now, Vietnam’s electricity industry is controlled by state-owned Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) with several private companies playing support roles in supplying electricity. “Market rules must be applied...

Australian upstream company Amity Oil has unveiled its growth strategy in a recent interview given by its managing director Howard McLaughlin and online service, www.corporatefile.com.au. Mr McLaughlin said the company’s main growth opportunities currently are in gas exploration in Oklahoma and Texas in the US and the development of Whicher Range in Western Australia in...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Rising energy prices may arrest growth in Pacific Rim economies, a study by an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum warned. An APEC forum study on energy and security issues warned that “rising energy prices may cause growth in APEC economies to stall due to high oil import dependency and an inflexible energy...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Beijing should brace itself for brownouts this summer, a vice mayor of the capital said, as rising temperatures see China’s power shortages worsen. The official Xinhua news agency quoted Zhang Mao as saying that the capital, which imports 59% of its power needs from other parts of the country, may join a...

LONDON (AFX) – Iraqi Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban said in an interview with the Financial Times that the new government will assume control of the world’s second biggest oil reserves and dismiss US advisors in all ministries when the country formally regains its sovereignty on July 1. In the interview, conducted in the Jordanian capital,...

Thailand’s domestic car market will be negatively affected by high oil prices as consumers will have less disposable income from slower economic growth and higher inflation, said a senior member at the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB). Arkhom Termpittayapasith told the Business Day that automotive sales is likely to slow down this year...

Oklahoma-based Syntroleum (Nasdaq: SYNM – News) said it has signed two agreements with Marathon Oil Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO – News), including one related to the proposed Marathon-led Qatar Gas-To-Liquids project. This agreement establishes the terms for a Syntroleum process site licence for use in the 120,000 barrels/day...

The Sri Lankan government will increase its subsidies for fuels sold at the pump in the face of rising oil prices on the world markets. According to the Lanka Business Online, motorists should be paying at least 20% more at the pumps in June if the formula prices for retail sales were applied. Gasoline would...

SHANGHAI (AFX-ASIA) – China may see its oil refining capacity constrained in coming months due to strong domestic demand along with a fast growing economy, with the shortage unlikely to be eased by the end of the year, analysts said. “The capacity of domestic refiners cannot meet the strong demand for refined oil at home,...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – China Power International plans to increase the size of its share offering to US$1 billion from US$500 million, and has appointed Merrill Lynch as bookrunner for the offering, a source close to the deal said. The company plans to list the shares on June 29, the source added. China Power, one...

LONDON (AFX) – Royal Dutch/Shell Group may be forced to leave Nigeria in 2008 due to worsening conflict in the country, according to a study funded by the Anglo-Dutch oil giant. The study, conducted by a team of experts on the Nigerian conflict led by David Nyheim, was completed late-2003. The potential exit of Shell...

CNPC, China’s largest oil company, has signed an agreement with Uzbek Oil and Gas to expand their joint drilling programme in Uzbekistan. According to the China Daily, the deal is one of 10 agreements signed this week during a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to the Central Asian country where he met his counterpart,...

Thailand’s six oil refiners have agreed not to take payment from the country’s Oil Fund which has sunk into more than 8 billion baht in the red from subsidising domestic oil and gas sales since January 10. (US$1=40 baht). The decision was announced by Energy Policy and Planning Office director Metta Banterngsuk. According to The...

To curb the country’s strong energy appetite amid rising oil and gas prices, the Thai government last week approved a slew of measures including raising annual taxes on luxury cars and limiting the operating hours of gas stations. According to Business Day newspaper, the measures are aimed at eventually weaning Thailand off oil price subsidies....

Vietnam’s earnings from coal exports rose 56% to US$115 million in the first five months of 2004, thanks to higher oil prices, said the Ministry of Trade. The export coal price is $26-28 per tonne and expected to increase as oil prices remain high, the ministry said, according to the Vietnam News. Citing the ministry,...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – The government has offered the former US naval base at Subic Bay, north of here, as a storage facility for Libyan oil for distribution in Asia, Foreign Secretary Delia Albert said. He made the proposal on an official trip to Tripoli, where he met with Abdullah Salem el-Badri, chairman of the state-run...

OPEC’s 10 members pushed out an additional 670,000 barrels per day (b/d) of crude in May to produce an average 26.36-million b/d, according to a Platts survey on June 10. Platts said the May average already leaves the OPEC-10 pumping more than the two new 25.5- and 26-million b/d output ceilings, agreed June 3 in...

The UAE’s economy is expected grow by 4.3% this year down from 5.2% last year on easing oil prices, officials say. Last year’s gains, however, were offset by the country’s seven percent rise in population, which pushed the UAE’s per capita income from Dh60,205 (US$16,400) in 2002 to Dh59,844 ($16,300) last year. But it remained...