Environmental lobby group Greenpeace has issued an unusually optimistic statement hailing the start of a revolution for renewable energy. Following the largest ever inter-governmental meeting on renewable energy, held in Bonn last week, Greenpeace described the event as a significant step. However, it did warn that the outcomes lacked the political will and urgency required...

UK-based Cairn said it achieved “successful result” from its number 4 appraisal well on the Mangala oil field in northern Rajasthan in India. The Mangala-4 was drilled 1.75km up-dip from Mangala-2 and 1.5km from the Mangala-1 discovery well. The well encountered 110 net metres of excellent high quality oil bearing Fatehgarh sands. The oil down-to...

Thailand has reported its first monthly current account deficit in two years due partly to rising cost of imported oil and gas. Energy costs pushed the country’s trade balance for April into deficit, hurting the current account which also suffered from heavy profit repatriations by foreign businesses. According to the Bank of Thailand, the April...

Since China launched its economic reforms and opened up to the outside world, its natural gas industry has made remarkable progress, especially over the last decade. Along with increasing supply, the urban gas supply system has also become more efficient. One important challenge we now face is the transition of the urban gas industry as...

China’s upstream oil and gas company CNOOC Limited said its new Qikou 18-2 field in the western part of the Bohai Bay has started producing crude oil at a rate of more than 2,800 barrels per day from 5 wells. Located about 6 kilometers southwest of the producing 18-1 field, 18-2 is a part of...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – Manila Electric Co said it will not pay any dividends to shareholders this year, even as the company expects the 2004 net profit to exceed last year’s 907 million pesos on the back of higher energy sales and a rate increase that took effect middle of last year. (US$1=56 pesos). Meralco chairman...

A listing of the key players in the Asia Pacific oil, power, petrochemical and gas industries. The directory contains a listing of more than 5,000 senior personnel, address of energy companies, their subsidiaries and branch offices in the region and a description of their business. The directory covers energy companies in Asia Pacific and Middle...

OPEC’s decision to raise its official production quota by 2 million b/d to 25.5 million b/d was a response to political pressure from consumer countries, said French investment bank SG. The new quota is “more or less what the cartel actually produced in May,” SG said in its latest weekly commentary. The decision appears to...

Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co. said its employees falsified inspection data on the firm’s power facilities for Kansai International Airport. According to Japan Times, the company said employees of the Kansai International Airport Energy Center fabricated data on gas compressors for power generation to clear annual mandatory checkups for three years beginning in 2001. Kepco...

BAKU (AFX) – The first oil will flow out of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from Azerbaijan’s offshore Azeri field in the first half of 2005, said David Woodward, head of BP PLC’s Azerbaijan operations. He insisted that construction work on the pipeline, which will link the landlocked Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, is not behind...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Shares of Japanese oil refiners and distributors have been buoyed by expectations that they may beat their profit forecasts for the current year to March 2005 because of rising crude oil prices, analysts said. According to a recent survey by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the average retail price of regular gasoline at...

KGI Securities has rated Thai upstream company PTT Exploration and Production Plc (PTTEP) an ‘outperform’ stock, according to the Bangkok Post. PTT Plc, PTT Exploration and Production’s parent firm, recently forecast that the country’s demand for natural gas would rise by as much as 2.3-billion cubic feet per day (cf/d) by 2011. This marks a...

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said rising oil prices are the latest threat to the industry. “A year after the devastating impact of SARS and the War in Iraq, industry efforts to rebuild passenger confidence see traffic largely recovered. The problem is now on the cost side,” said IATA’s CEO and Director General Giovanni...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – Government fuel subsidy spending this year may swell to 36 trillion rupiah against the 14.5 trillion assumed under the state budget due to high world oil prices, the daily Kompas reported quoting the president of state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina. (US$1=9,200 rupiah). Pertamina President Ariffi Nawawi said high oil prices...

The Korean government said it may have to scrap plans to break up state Korea Electric Power Corp.’s distribution business after a government-sponsored study concluded that the move would not result in lower electricity rates. Instead, the year-long study said a break-up and subsequent privatisation could hurt supply stability. The findings of the study by...

I would like to focus on recent developments that symbolise the enhanced role of natural gas, especially LNG, in this new century, as well as the direction that the industry as a whole should pursue to promote greater use of natural gas in the Asia-Pacific region. The region’s natural gas markets have been developed mainly...

Natural gas will become the energy of choice of Thailand, said Chitrapongse Kwangsukstith, PTT Public Company Limited (PTT)’s senior executive vice president (Gas Business Group) at last week’s GASEX gathering in Singapore. Dr Chitrapongse delivered a paper on the outlook for Thailand’s gas business. Thailand’s natural gas demand last year stood at 2,650 million cubic...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – Oil and gas firm PT Medco Energi Internasional has secured a US$320 million bridging loan to help it fund the takeover of Australia’s oil and gas firm Novus Petroleum Ltd, the Koran Tempo reported quoting Medco finance director Sugiharto. He said Medco will obtain the loan in two tranches worth US$120 million...

HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) – Wah Sang Gas Holdings Ltd (8035.HK) said the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has raised concerns about the accuracy of information on the company’s subsidiaries and “suspicious fund flows” found at its China units. The company said “it is taking the matter seriously” even as it announced the formation of a...

Bermuda-headquartered engineering group Foster Wheeler Ltd said its subsidiary Foster Wheeler International E&C (Shanghai) Company Limited has been awarded a professional services contract to provide support to the construction of the Nanhai petrochemicals complex in China’s Guangdong province. The US$4.3 billion project is being undertaken by CSPC, the joint venture between China National Offshore Oil...

BANGKOK (AFX-ASIA) – The finance ministry today said it has lowered its 2004 growth forecast for Thailand to 7.1% from 7.9% due to soaring oil prices and other negative factors, including an expected economic slowdown in China. “Our previous estimate was based on oil prices being at US$31 a barrel, but now it is US$5.6...

LONDON (AFX) – Royal Dutch/Shell Group assured that it is not planning further downgrades in its proved reserves. “We’ve done a lot of work….and we’re not planning further changes at the moment,” Malcolm Brinded, the head of the group’s exploration and production business, told reporters and analysts recently after Shell announced the final outcome of...

Energy Ministers from the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) grouping will meet in Manila on June 10 to address urgent issues facing the energy industry including security and threats from terrorism. This will be the sixth meeting of APEC Energy Ministers and will follow on from the last meeting in Mexico City in 2002. One...

OPEC’s June 3 meeting was a non-event for the market, said French investment bank SG. Saudi Arabia and the UAE reaffirmed their promises to increase production in June while OPEC as a whole rubber-stamped a steep pro-rata increase in quotas of 2 million b/d effective 1 July and promised a further increase if conditions warrant....

ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, has announced plans to establish the ExxonMobil LNG Safety and Environmental Institute (EMLSEI) as an anchor tenant at the Science and Technology Park (STP) in Education City, here. Start-up plans include an estimated $20-25 million investment over the first five years, according to a report...