The finances of state Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) remain stable despite the dire losses the company suffered after three of its hydroelectric power plants were damaged by tropical storm Mindulle earlier this month, a company official has said. “We still have no precise statistics on our total losses, as floodwater in the Chingshan and Tehchi...

West Australia state could face widespread power blackouts as industrial action add to potential disruptions on maintenance work on the Dampier-Bunbury gas pipeline, said The West Australian. “It could be tight,” a Western Power spokesman told The Western Australian newspaper in reference to whether the beleaguered utility would be able to maintain supplies. The pipeline...

Iraq’s domestic fuels demand is soaring, said an official with the Oil Ministry. “Fuel consumption has witnessed a big increase, with the consumption of benzene reaching 20 million liters a day and liquefied petroleum gas rising to 20 million tons a day,” the official was quoted as saying by local newspaper Al Nahdhah. The unidentified...

China will allow fuel oil futures to resume at the Shanghai Futures Exchange, about 10 years after the government had abolished it, said Wang Jianxi, the vice secretary-general of the market watchdog, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). According to Interfax News, the Shanghai Futures Exchange sent out an invitation to local brokers to participate in...

The board of directors of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has elected James J. Mulva as chairman, succeeding Archie W. Dunham who retires on September 30. Mr Mulva will continue to serve as president and CEO. In a statement, Mr Mulva thanked Mr Dunham for his 40 years of dedicated service and his outstanding record of achievement at...

Indonesia’s state oil and gas company Pertamina has handed over one of the two very large crude carriers/VLCC ordered by the company in South Korea, to Frontline Ltd. The handing over was conducted last week at Hyundai Heavy Industries’ premises in Ulsan, South Korea. According to Pertamina’s public relations manager Hanung Budya, the supertanker was...

US-based Karaha Bodas Company (KBC) has seized the assets of Pertamina Energy Trading Ltd (Petral) as part of its efforts to hunt down the assets of Indonesian state oil company Pertamina. KBC recently won a long-drawn legal battle to recover US$261 million in debts it claims is owed by Pertamina. Petral controls about 60% of...

Following the drilling of the Mangala-5 and Mangala-6 appraisal wells in India’s northern Rajasthan state, UK-based Cairn Energy said it has successfully concluded its appraisal drilling campaign on the Mangala oil field. Cairn said: “Mangala-5 was drilled up-dip 1.5 kilometres from the Mangala-1 discovery well and two kilometres from Mangala-3. The well encountered 125 net...

Huaneng Power International (NYSE: HNP; HKEx: 902; SSE: 600011) said the Chinese government had approved its plans to purchase stakes in power companies and their assets, as was proposed in agreements signed on April 16. They include the China Huaneng Group, Huaneng International Power Development Corporation (HIPDC) and Jiangxi Provincial Investment Corp (JPIC). Huaneng Power...

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) has joined an international consortium to bid for a US$6 billion oil project in Kuwait, said the Middle Eastern country’s Energy Minister Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah. In Hongkong recently during a visit to East Asia, Mr Al-Sabah said China’s second-largest oil firm had teamed up with US ChevronTexaco, France’s Total,...

Three cogeneration plants with a total power capacity of 17.5 megawatts (MW) will begin operating in Malaysia in October, said Mohd Ariffin Aton, the president and chief executive of the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia Bhd (Sirim). The plants, worth a total of RM63 million, will supply part of their output to the...

TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) – Itochu Corp, Japan’s third largest general trading house by sales, and Osaka Gas Co, a major gas provider, said they have signed contracts with a state-run company in Oman to purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG). Under the agreements, Itochu will buy 700,000 tons annually from the state-owned Qalhat LNG SAOC for 20...

BAKU (AFX) – The Chinese oil firm Shengli, a subsidiary of Sinopec Corp, has taken a stake in an onshore oilfield in the Caspian Sea state of Azerbaijan, the country’s top oil official said. Shengli, in a joint venture with Dubai-registered oil trader Middle East Petrol last month, has purchased a 75% stake in the...

Qatar and an Exxon Mobil Corporation subsidiary, ExxonMobil Qatar GTL Limited, said they have signed a Heads of Agreement (HOA) for an approximately $7 billion gas-to-liquid (GTL) project, making it the world’s largest single, fully integrated GTL project. The facility would be built at the Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, said a Qatar Petroleum...

Huaneng Power International, Inc. (NYSE:HNP; HKEx: 902; SSE: 600011) has announced an 18.87% rise in its power output to 48.83 billion kWh for the first half of 2004. It said most of that increased output came from its plants in Fuzhou, Dandong, Weihai, Jining and Nantong, and from two plants in Yushe and Xindian acquired...

MANILA (AFX-ASIA) – The government expects to sell 70-80% of state-owned National Power Corp’s power generating assets by end-2005, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp (PSALM) said. PSALM, the government agency tasked to privatize Napocor, is optimistic it will be able to sell at least 16 power plants by end-December next year, PSALM...

Stockbroker CLSA Asia Pacific Markets has maintained its “buy” call on Hongkong-listed Datang International Power (991HK), endorsing the utility’s acquisition of a 28% stake in Ta Shan mine in coal-rich Shanxi province as boosting the firm’s “strategic value”. “At an investment cost of 210 million yuan, the deal is cheap and will provide the company...

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) expects to commission its proposed Paradip oil refinery by September, 2009, Industries Minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan told the State Assembly last week. He did not mention the refinery’s capacity or cost. IOC and the government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the refinery in February 2004 covering tax concessions, he...

Japanese gasoline wholesalers will likely refrain from hiking prices in July if current exchange rates and crude oil prices persists, halting the recent string of retail price increases, the head of Japan’s petroleum refining industry was quoted as saying. “Probably, wholesale price hikes will not take place in July if the (yen-dollar) exchange rate and...

The Qatar-Shell joint venture building the US$5 billion gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant hopes to award the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in early 2006, said Robert Dakers, Shell’s country manager in the Middle East country. According to a Qatar Peninsula report, Mr Dakers said that front-end engineering and design (Feed) work was now being conducted...

The oil markets, helped by strong gasoline prices in the US, will be further supported by gasoil. According to French bank SG, the gasoil price on the IPE has risen by US$45/tonne since June 29, an increase of almost 15%, caused by growing concerns about supplies in the Atlantic Basin. These worries relate to the...

Cash-flush Kazakhstan, riding a tide of increasing crude exports and high oil prices, is making a hostile bid — described by one analyst as a “lose-lose” proposition — to wrest a slice of its Kashagan field from the Western oil majors investing in the project, reported the Moscow Times. Kashagan, the site of the world’s...

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) – Beijing economic planners have threatened to cut off power to the capital’s hotels unless they implement a 20% reduction in consumption during peak periods, officials said. The Beijing government’s development reform commission ordered the power reductions last month, but tourist officials, representing the hotels, have come out strongly against the plan and...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFX-ASIA) – There will be no electricity tariff increase until January, but a rise is inevitable given the government’s generation policy shift from gas to coal, which may result in higher costs, the Star reported. It quoted minister of energy, water and communications Lim Keng Yaik as saying that for now, the government...

China has started talks with six Middle Eastern countries to establish a free trade pact. According to the China Daily, a Middle East delegation led by Kuwait’s Finance Minister Mahmoud Al-Nouri recently visited Beijing to meet with China’s Commerce and Finance Ministers to discuss the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA). Kuwait’s ambassador to...