Qantas unit to start Bali flights
Qantas unit to start Bali flights
BRISBANE: Australian Airlines, a budget carrier owned by Qantas Airways Ltd., will start flying a weekly service to the Indonesian island of Bali starting June 27.
The airline announced on Tuesday that the flights will leave Sydney and stop in the southern city of Melbourne before flying on to Bali.
The announcement was good news for Bali's tourism industry, which was plunged into crisis after terrorist bombs killed 202 people, including 89 Australians, in the resort town last Oct. 12.
Before the attack, Bali was one of the favorite overseas vacation destinations of Australians.
Australian Airlines said it will also begin a nonstop service to Bali and then on to Singapore on July 25. That service will fly three times a week. -- AP
S. Korea's Kogas to sign LNG deal
SEOUL: South Korea's state-run Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) said on Tuesday that it will sign a contract May 9 to buy 1.5 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas a year over seven years from a Malaysian company.
The seven-year midterm contract will be signed with Malaysia LNG Sdn. Bhd., an affiliate of state-run oil company Petronas, in Kuala Lumpur with Kogas chief executive Kim Myung-Kyu attending, according to Kim Cha-Joong, a company spokesman.
The deal will also include the option to purchase an additional 500,000 tons a year.
"A characteristic of this midterm deal is that about 80 percent of the LNG will be supplied during the winter months," when there is more demand, which will lessen the burden on the company's storage tanks, said Kim.
Delivery may begin as early as May, as negotiations on the delivery schedule are set to be finished this month.
Financial terms were not released, said Kim.
Separately, in March, Kogas signed another seven-year midterm contract with an Australian firm to purchase 500,000 tons of LNG a year.
Last year, Kogas, the world's single largest company purchasing LNG, bought about 18 million tons of LNG through long- term contracts with Indonesia, Malaysia, Qatar and Oman. -- Dow Jones
Mahathir to open $4.4b Petronas plant
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is expected to open Malaysia's Petronas 16.6 billion ringgit (US$4.4 billion) liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex in the eastern Sarawak state on Borneo island on Thursday.
The official Bernama news agency on Tuesday described the LNG facility in Bintulu as the "the world's largest LNG production facility on a single location."
Owned by Malaysian state-controlled oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), the facility consists of three plants with total production capacity of 22.7 million tons a year, it said.
Bernama said the complex was complete with storage tanks and loading jetties for the LNG to be stored and exported to overseas customers via special tankers.
The three plants currently employ about 850 people.
The plant had began operation in 1983. Up to March, 2003, some 188 million tons of LNG had been shipped from the complex, generating $36 billion in revenue.
Most of the LNG is exported to Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, where Malaysia's share of their LNG markets stands at 25 percent, 49 percent and 21 percent respectively. -- AFP
Mitsubishi to invest in Saudi
TOKYO: Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy said on Tuesday it will spend up to US$84 million to turn a patch of desert in Saudi Arabia into forest to improve the environment and generate fresh water.
The Saudi government will take part in the scheme, while China as well as countries in Europe and South East Asia have also expressed an interest.
"Thus the desert greening project will begin proceeding as an international project," Japan's largest heavy machinery maker said.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. will begin drawing up plans to create the greenbelt of about 50 square kilometers (31 square miles) before next March.
Construction of facilities to green the sandy landscape around the Red Sea coast will not start until 2006.
The area was chosen because surrounding air was very moist and would accelerate the greening effect, the firm said in a statement.
"This is a research project and should lead to developing new technologies and new products," company spokesman Chris Gramshe said, explaining why the firm chose to embark on the scheme.
But the true benefits of greening the desert would not be felt for 10 to 15 years after the project gets underway, he added. -- AFP
Credit Suisse reports profit
ZURICH: The Swiss banking group Credit Suisse on Tuesday announced a first-quarter net profit of 652 million Swiss francs (US$486 million) in 2003, reversing a record loss at the end of 2002.
Credit Suisse had ended last year with a loss of 950 million Swiss francs in the last three months.
That dragged down its result for the year as a whole to a net loss of 3.3 billion Swiss francs, the bank's worst performance ever.
The first-quarter profit of 652 million euros by the second- biggest Swiss banking group was also a big improvement on the comparable first-quarter profit last year of 368 million Swiss francs.
The group said in a statement that its U.S.-based investment banking arm Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) also returned to profit in the first three months of 2003, while insurance unit Winterthur improved its financial results. -- AFP