Dahana, Oiltech cooperate

Dahana, Oiltech cooperate

JAKARTA (JP): PT Dahana, a state-owned company under the
supervision of the Agency for Management of Strategic Industry,
will cooperate with PT Bina Reksa Perdana-Oiltech, a joint
venture between the Humpuss Group and Oiltech Services Pte. Ltd
of the United States, in exploratory drilling using Oiltech's
shape charge technique.

Shape charge is an explosive material commonly used in either
oil drilling or for military purposes.

Dahana's President, Edisuharia Bratanatadiria, said yesterday
that the cooperation between Dahana and Bina Reksa Perdana
Oiltech is aimed at transferring the shape charge technology from
Oiltech to Dahana as well as marketing the technology to other
oil companies in the country.

According to Edisuharia, Dahana is able to produce 500,000
shape charges annually, but the company has yet to master the
technology of using shape charge for oil exploration.

The Antara news agency reported that the joint cooperation
agreement was signed by Edisuharia, Tonny Hardianto, the
president of Bina Reksa Perdana, and John T. Blair representing
Oiltech, while President Soeharto's youngest son, Hutomo Mandala
Putra, chief commissioner of the Humpuss Group, witnessed the
signing. (03)

UAE-RI air services upped

JAKARTA (JP): Gulf Air will expand its flight services between
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jakarta because its load
factor for Indonesian flights has reached 80 percent, an
executive says.

The carrier, which is equally owned by Oman, Bahrain, Qatar
and the UAE, will increase the frequency of its Jakarta-Abu Dhabi
flights from two to three times a week beginning in July, Nurdin
Purnomo, president of PT Air Cardinal Raya, Gulf Air's sole agent
in Indonesia, said here Wednesday evening in a ceremony to mark
the opening of Cardinal's new office.

He remarked that some 360 passengers fly between Indonesia and
Abu Dhabi by Gulf Air each week.

Gulf Air, which operates 48 aircraft, will use an Airbus-340
for flights between Indonesia and the UAE. (icn)

Malaysia to buy RI planes

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysia will buy 18 short-range
transport planes from Indonesia's Industri Pesawat Terbang
Nusantara (IPTN), the national Bernama news agency said.

Quoting a Ministry of Defense official, the agency said a
memorandum of understanding for the purchase will be signed
during Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak's four-day visit to
Jakarta beginning on May 17.

The aircraft purchase is tied to a cross-trade agreement
between Malaysia and Indonesia involving the export of Malaysian
Proton cars into Indonesia and the purchase of Malaysian light
trainer aircraft by Indonesia, it said yesterday.

Quoting the unnamed official, Bernama said the memorandum was
one of the three to be signed during the visit. The others cover
the Proton car and light aircraft deals.

An umbrella government-to-government memorandum, which will
pave the way for the three related agreements, will also be
signed by Najib and Indonesian officials.

Bernama said the CN-235 transport planes will replace the
fleet of aging Canadair Caribou transport aircraft which the
Royal Malaysian Air Force has been using over the last three
decades.

The planes are expected to be delivered within two or three
years.

U.S. oil tops $18/barrel

LONDON (Reuter): The futures price of U.S. light crude oil
traded above the psychologically important barrier of US$18 per
barrel on Thursday for the first time since Oct. 25.

Traders said technical factors -- options on New York futures
expire yesterday -- helped the latest extension of a rally by oil
prices that began just over a month ago.

But underlying the recovery are concerns about supply, fueled
by civil war in Yemen which exports 340,000 barrels of crude oil
a day.

Oil still hasn't retraced all of 1993's recession-led slide
from values at around $20 to $21. But it is up from $13 to 14
where it began 1994. And forecasts of $10 oil are as yet
unfulfilled.

Traders say there has been a reversal in market psychology
with fears of an imminent glut succeeded by concern that supply
might be tight later in 1994.

A cold northern winter may have drained excess Western stocks
of oil. And a reviving global economy is firing up consumption of
petroleum. Traders also no longer expect the United Nations will
quickly ease or lift its Gulf War embargo on Iraqi oil exports.

Japan cuts LNG imports

TOKYO (AFP): Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. said
yesterday it would cut imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by
3.8 percent to 13.5 million tons this year, the first reduction
since it started importing LNG in 1968.

The country's biggest electrical power company said the
reduction, amounting to 500,000 tons, would be spread uniformly
among its suppliers -- Australia, Abu Dhabi, Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia and the United States.

L. American free trade

MEXICO CITY (Reuter): Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela reached a
final accord Thursday on a free trade agreement, the Mexican
commerce ministry said.

The accord struck in Bogota between the so-called Group of
Three creates a new free-trade bloc in the Americas, following on
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and two other
deals linking Mexico to Chile and to Costa Rica.

"After more than three years...Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela
concluded negotiations in Bogota on a Free Trade Agreement of the
so-called G-3 after reaching a final accord on technical aspects
that emerged during a legal revision of the texts," the commerce
ministry said in a statement.

"The (G-3) accord would open a market of 50 million
inhabitants, who import more than US$20 billion annually, to
Mexico's exports," it said.

The accord goes into effect on Jan. 1, 1995, pending
legislative approvals in the three countries.

It would gradually lower tariffs and other trade barriers
among the three nations. Like NAFTA, it sets standards for
commerce and establishes a dispute-resolution mechanism.

Taiwan to cut tariffs

TAIPEI (AFP): Taiwan is to cut tariffs on 758 items, about
one-third of them agricultural products, by an average of 2.81
percent to promote free trade and boost its chance of being
admitted to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT,)
financial officials said yesterday.

The cabinet Thursday approved a revised tariff schedule
reducing import duties on 514 industrial goods and 244 farm
products as proposed by the ministries of finance and economic
affairs, the officials said.

The rates would become effective after endorsement by
parliament, they said.

Average tariffs on the affected industrial items would be
lowered from 6.52 percent to 6.38 percent, while those on the
agricultural goods would be cut from 21.64 percent to 20.79
percent.

The tariff reductions would cost US$94.3 million in custom
revenues, they added.

U.S. $1.5t budget approved

WASHINGTON (Reuter): President Clinton's US$1.5 trillion
spending plan for fiscal 1995 won final approval in Congress
Thursday with a 53-46 vote in the Senate, putting the country's
budget deficit on a downward path.

The budget projects revenues of $1.338 trillion, spending of
$1.513 trillion. The difference between the two is the deficit,
$175 billion.

The measure passed the House of Representatives earlier this
month. It does not need a presidential signature, because it sets
the outline for Congress as it makes final decisions on
government spending for fiscal 1995 starting Oct. 1.

The biggest ticket items in the budget are Social Security at
$337 billion, defense at $271 billion, interest at $213 billion
and Medicare at $161 billion.

The measure includes a $13 billion reduction over five years
in spending caps on discretionary spending, starting with a $540
million reduction in fiscal 1995.

Tokyo property prices down

TOKYO (AFP): An inventive Japanese housing cooperative is
undercutting market prices by as much as a fifth, enabling it to
sell a tiny home in the Tokyo suburbs for the (comparatively)
rock-bottom price of US$465,000.

The cooperative, West Tokyo Home Center, purchases the land
and carries out the construction itself, thus cutting out the
layers of intermediaries which inflate property prices, the
Mainichi daily said yesterday.

The home, measuring 89 square metres (957 square feet), lies
on a tiny parcel of land of 109 sq. metres (1,171 sq. feet) at
Higashi-Kurume, a 40-minute train ride from central Tokyo.

Housing prices in Japanese cities are notoriously high,
although they have recently dropped, reflecting the country's
economic difficulties, and the fall has accelerated this year.