UK-based Cairn Energy said it has signed petroleum agreements for a 100% operated interest in five new exploration blocks with Nepal’s Department of Mines & Geology. The blocks are No.1 (Dhangari), 2 (Karnali), 4 (Lumbini), 6 (Birganj) and 7 (Malangawa). All the blocks are located within the Terai plains that lie adjacent to Nepal’s border...

China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation Ltd (CAO) has announced its largest investment to date: the purchase of 88 million ordinary shares of Singapore Petroleum Company Limited (SPC), representing approximately 20.6% of SPC’s issued share capital. The deal, subject to shareholders’ approval, will help CAO realise its new vision of becoming the first overseas Chinese integrated...

Titan Chios, a unit of Hongkong’s Titan Holdings, recently entered into an agreement to buy a VLCC from shipping company Esco Trading for US$23 million. Titan Chios has paid a 10% deposit for the 1986-built vessel, and will complete the payment upon taking delivery of the vessel. In a statement, Titan said it will fund...

Australian upstream company Woodside Petroleum said its first half after tax net profit rose to A$724.6 million from year-ago levels of A$272.2 million, helped largely by a hefty A$373.6 million profit from on the sale of a 40% interest in two upstream oil projects. (US$1=A$1.4). It added that revenue gains from a 22% increase in...

Rising oil prices could force the Malaysian government to tweak its growth strategies, said the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Mustapa Mohamed. Oil prices have been rising to new highs almost every day this month, with New York futures surging past US$48 a barrel. “If this level is sustained over a period of three...

Australian upstream company Santos Limited said it has signed a sales gas contract with Newcrest Mining Limited (Newcrest) with supply from its John Brookes field. Under the contract Santos (45%) and Apache (55% and operator) will supply Newcrest with 120 petajoules (PJ) of gas over 15 years from the John Brookes field. Santos said this...

Malaysian state oil and gas company Petronas, through its subsidiary Asean LNG Trading Co. Ltd, has signed a sales agreement with British Gas Trading Ltd, a subsidiary of Centrica plc of the UK, to supply up to 3 billion cubic metres a year of natural gas for 15 years beginning 2007. The deal is estimated...

Pakistan’s Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Nouraiz Shakoor has said the government will decide on at least one natural gas import pipeline project by end of this year to meet future demand. In an interview with the Dawn newspaper, the minister said the government was working on three major projects to meet the increasing demand...

A subsidiary of Malaysia’s state oil and gas company Petronas has been awarded a licence by the Indonesian government to import and sell fuels in the country. The unit, PT Petronas Niaga, would sell fuels with research octane numbers 92, 95 and 97, said Bisnis Indonesia, quoting the company’s president director, Faris Mustafa. The company...

California, US-based Largo Vista Group said it has helped establish the Zunyi Gas Association in Zunyi City in China’s Guizhou province. The association has been accepted by the administration of Zunyi city which has a population of 40 million. Largo Vista is a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) service and trading company. Its general manager, Denise...

China’s Huaneng Power International, Inc recently announced its unaudited operating results for the six months to June 30. The net operating revenues of the company and its subsidiaries were up 23.3% to RMB12.964 billion (US$1=RMB8.27) over the same period last year. It said its consolidated net profit rose 8.58% to RMB2.481 billion with earnings per...

InterOil Corporation, a Canadian company with operations in Papua New Guinea, said it has completed its first sale of oil products from its refinery in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The products were delivered by ship from InterOil’s marine facility to Papua New Guinea’s domestic market. “We are extremely excited about this milestone of the...

US-based Parker Instrumentation said it has signed a distribution agreement for Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan with Asia Caspian Engineering Co. (ACECO), covering fluid instrumentation valve and tube fitting product lines. ACECO already operates industrial distribution centres in Iran and Dubai, and is currently opening a further regional office and stocking centre in Ashgabat, positioning it to...

South Korean oil exports dropped sharply in June, and likely stayed depressed in July, pushing Singapore margins back up after their second quarter slide. However, US energy consultants ESAI, in the latest edition of the Pacific Basin Stockwatch, said it expects margins to moderate from current peaks in the coming months, as additional Japanese and...

Two of Thailand’s largest energy companies, PTT Exploration and Production Plc and Banpu Plc, have reported a sharp rise in their second quarter revenues on the back of higher oil prices. According to Business Day, PTTEP, a unit of PTT Plc, the country’s largest oil company, reported a 24% rise in sales revenue to 11.60...

Consumers around the world are now facing a “50/50 oil market,” according to Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA). “There is now a 50/50 probability that the price of oil will reach $50 per barrel within the next 50 days.” A price spike to $50 would be likely to occur if one...

ConocoPhillips subsidiary ConocoPhillips (Grissik) Ltd said it has signed a gas sales agreement with Indonesia’s state-owned gas transportation company, PT Perusahaan Gas Negara Tbk (PGN), to supply a base load volume of gas for delivery to the industrial market located in West Java and Jakarta. The agreement was concluded with PGN for the supply of...

Helped by a recovering economy, Taiwan’s energy supply and consumption has grown in the first half of this year, according to a recent report issued by the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The Central News Agency reported the study as stating that a total of 66.49 million kiloliters of fuel was...

Oil supply and services specialist KS Tech Ltd, said it has entered into a joint venture agreement with Atlantic Marine Offshore Services (AMOS) to acquire, refurbish, upgrade, mobilise and manage a jack-up rig. The rig will be mobilised to undertake a charter contract with Maersk Olie og Gas AS. KS Tech said it has formed...

Hong Kong-listed CNOOC Limited said it has uncovered significant reserves drilling appraisal well Panyu (PY) 34-1-2 in the Eastern South China Sea. Located about 250 km southeast of Hong Kong, PY 34-1-2 is an appraisal well drilled on the PY 34-1 structure in Baiyun Sag. The well was drilled to a total depth of 3,600...

Engineers India Limited (EIL) has named the UAE as one of its key markets this year as part of its plans to capture US$60 million worth of business in the Middle East market. EIL earned nearly $30 million in the last financial year to June 30 2004, up almost three times the previous year, said...

Almost A$50 million will be invested in waters off the Northern Territory state over the next six years following Canberra’s approval of new petroleum exploration licences. (US$1=A$1.45). According to ABC News, two permits were issued for waters off Western Australia, and two in the Bonaparte and Browse Basins which are administered by the Northern Territory....

India’s ONGC Videsh (OVL) and GAIL are expected to participate in the exploration and production of the offshore A3 block in Myanmar, adjacent to the proven gas bearing block A1. The A3 block had originally been awarded to Korea’s Daewoo International Corporation by the Myanmar government in February. The two parties later agreed to allow...

Pakistan’s Punjab state government has prepared a plan to produce a total of 300 megawatt of “inexpensive” electricity for its people, said the Pakistan News Service (PNS). Officials told PNS that they have identified 42 sites for the establishment of small hydro power stations to produce inexpensive electricity in the next few years. The state...

Shell Refining Company (Malaya) Berhad has announced its highest ever quarterly after-tax income of RM175 million for the April-June period, exceeding by RM53 million the previous record of RM122 million set in the first quarter. (US$1=RM3.8). The latest result represents a dramatic turnaround from the after tax net loss of RM 45 million for the...