The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched its US$150 million Trade Finance Facilitation Programme (TFFP) aimed at boosting liquidity and stability of the Asia-Pacific’s trade finance system. The programme marks ADB’s first use of its partial credit guarantee (PCG) to support and encourage a large number of international and regional confirming banks to take commercial...

The theme “Convergence and Connectivity” is significant as it reflects the developments that are shaping the gas industry today. Market reform and advances in technology have indeed brought about dramatic changes in the global energy market. Gas and electricity markets have become a fatal attraction, to the extent that it is increasingly difficult to discuss...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – The Shanghai Bureau of Commodity Prices has raised the retail price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by another 3.4% to 2.15 yuan per liter, due to rising international oil prices, an official surnamed Hong in the bureau told AFX-Asia. (US$1=8.27 yuan). In March, the local government lifted retail LPG prices to 2.08...

JAKARTA (AFX-ASIA) – Oil and gas authority BP Migas sees additional oil production from a number of fields reaching 100,000 barrels per day (b/d) this year and 190,000 b/d next year, BP Migas Deputy Chairman Kardaya Warnika said. He told reporters at parliament that with the additional output, the government’s oil output target of 1.15...

Khmer Electrical Power Co Ltd (KEP), an independent power producer, has awarded a contract to a consortium led by Finland’s W’rtsil’ Corporation to supply a 30 MW diesel power plant to be installed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The plant will consist of four W’rtsil’ 18V32 diesel generating sets and will be of a fairly conventional...

Japan’s emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming increased 2.2% for the year to March 31 2003, making it the first rise in two years, latest government data showed. According to Japan Times, Environment Minister Yuriko Koike said the rise was due partly to increased power generation at thermal power stations...

Korea Electric Power Corp plans to provide grants and low-interest loans to the tune of 65 billion won to small and mid-sized energy companies hit by rising crude oil and raw material prices. (US$1=1,100 won). According to the Korea Herald, the power monopoly has promised ‘soft’ financial support as well as technical and marketing assistance...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – KNM Group Berhad said its wholly-owned unit KNM International Sdn Bhd (KNM) has agreed to buy from FBM-Hudson Italiana SpA a 50% stake in FBM manufacturing plant in Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai (FBM-KNM FZCo) for 10 million euro in cash. (US$1=0.83 Euro). KNM is one of the leading process equipment...

Japan’s downstream company Cosmo Oil Co. tried to punish an employee who tipped off the public about a leak of personal customer data from the company’s credit card database, according to the Japan Times. The April 21 tip-off appeared on a Japanese language Internet bulletin board claiming that data pertaining to holders of credit cards...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – The International Monetary Fund has downplayed the possible negative impact of a Chinese economic slowdown and a spike in oil prices on global growth, saying China’s share of world output and trade is relatively small. Raghuram Rajan, director of research at the International Monetary Fund, estimated that a slowdown in the Chinese...

Los Angeles, California-based Sonoran Energy, Inc. (OTCBB:SNRN) has assembled a consortium of International companies to pursue development of several large oil fields in the Middle East. The consortium, which includes Sonoran Energy, COWI, and France’s Eurovia, plans to conduct feasibility studies of selected oil fields in the region. “This strong group of companies has the...

Oil storage companies Royal Vopak of the Netherlands and Oiltanking of Germany have applied to Indonesian state oil and gas regulator BP Migas to build fuel storage tanks in the country. Tubagus Haryono, BP Migas’s chief, told local reporters that foreign investors were welcome into Indonesia’s downstream oil and gas industry under Law No22/2001 covering...

Malaysia’s state oil and gas company Petronas said it has signed two Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) with subsidiary Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd and Newfield Exploration Company of the US for deepwater Block 2C off the coast of Sarawak and Block PM318 off the coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Block PM318 covers an area of about 1,600...

Thailand’s upstream company PTT Exploration and Production Plc is looking into building a small gas-turbine power plant to support its work in the Sirikit oil field. The plant will use natural gas from the S1 exploration block that the company acquired earlier this year from Thai Shell. According to the Bangkok Post, President Maroot Mrigadat...

Woodside Energy Ltd has awarded French engineering company Technip two major contracts worth a total of A$200 million as part of the development of the offshore Otway gas project in Australia. (US$1=A$1.45). The project includes the development of the Geographe and the Thylacine gas fields, both located about 70 km south of Port Campbell, Victoria....

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Nippon Oil Corp, Japan’s largest oil refiner and distributor, posted a net loss of 133.53 billion yen in the year to March 2004 due to a hefty charge for impaired assets. (US$1=110 yen). The loss compares with a profit of 32.28 billion yen the previous year. The refiner attributed the loss primarily...

State-owned Bangchak Petroleum Plc said it is looking to increase the output of light oil products at the expense of fuel oil through a US$80 million upgrade of its refinery, said acting president Pichai Chunhavajira. The company is studying the possibility of converting its existing hydro-skimming refinery to a cracking process by 2006. According to...

The Philippines government said there is no need for rationing oil even though domestic prices have been rising with worrying consequences on the economy, said Energy Undersecretary J.V. Emmanuel A. De Dios. Earlier, the Department of Energy (DOE) said it is planning to ask local oil companies to increase their inventories. “The real issue nowadays...