Santos signs gas MOU with KL
Santos signs gas MOU with KL
JAKARTA: Australian oil and gas company Santos Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Malaysia's state-owned oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Bhd. (Petronas) and Indonesia's Pertamina.
Sidick A. Nitikusuma, the spokesman for the country's oil and gas upstream authority, Balak, confirmed the memorandum.
He said the MOU was signed last Thursday at the Tampak Siring presidential palace in Gianyar, Bali, on the sidelines of a ceremony officially marking the first delivery of natural gas from Indonesia to Malaysia.
Santos, Pertamina and Petronas are negotiating a 20-year contract to supply gas from onshore gas fields in southern Sumatra in Indonesia to Malaysia.
The gas fields include the Bentu production-sharing contract operated by Santos.
The financial details of the MOU were not disclosed, but Santos managing director John Ellice-Flint told Dow Jones on Monday that under the existing agreement, which is expected to be formalized by the end of this year, gas supplies were scheduled to begin early 2005. -- JP
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-Indofood Indofood off to hefty profit JP/14/Brief
Indofood off to hefty profit
JAKARTA: PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, the world's largest instant noodle maker, said Monday net profit more than doubled to Rp 571.1 billion in the first half, mostly due to foreign exchange gains.
The local currency rose against the dollar to an average of Rp 9,499 in the first half, from Rp 10,643 in the year-earlier period, Indofood's president director Eva Riyanti Hutapea said in a statement.
This resulted in net foreign exchange gains of Rp 317.4 billion, compared with losses of Rp 366.6 billion in the first half of 2001.
The company reported net profit of Rp 217.2 billion in the first half of last year.
The sharp increase also was due to new accounting principles for derivative instruments and hedging activities, which were implemented in January 2001, Indofood said.
Without the implementation of the accounting standard, the increase in net profit would have been 62 percent, it said. -- Dow Jones
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-CPC-Australia CPC to explore oil in Australia JP/14/Brief
CPC to explore oil in Australia
TAIPEI: Taiwan's state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC) is negotiating to acquire rights to explore oil reserves in northwest Australia as part of moves to diversify its supply, company officials said Monday.
A contract with an Australian firm will be signed to give CPC the exploration rights for the block, a company spokesman told AFP.
But he declined to provide name of the Australian firm or details of the location of the exploration site, saying details were still under negotiation.
The Australian project is part of CPC's five-year, NT$15 billion (US$442.2 million) exploration plan, the spokesman said.
The company's five-year program includes oil and natural gas exploration in Taiwan and six other overseas areas, including Brazil and Canada, he said.
CPC, which controls 75 percent of the domestic oil market, already has joint venture operations in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Indonesia. -- AFP
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-Beijing-Sony-Ericsson Sony Ericsson to expand to China JP/14/Brief
Sony Ericsson to expand to China
BEIJING: Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson is to invest 40 million euros (US$39 million) in operations in China and will massively increase production of handsets in the country, it said Monday.
The money will go on establishing a research and development center in China as well as forming a holding company, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd. said at the launch of its Chinese operation.
The firm said it also plans to expand capacity at two of Ericsson's handset plants -- operated in joint ventures with local partners -- in Beijing by 50 percent to meet growing demand locally and around the world.
China now has around 170 million mobile subscribers, making it the world's biggest mobile market.
The Japanese-Swedish joint venture will also launch a major advertising campaign in coming weeks to promote several new Sony Ericsson handsets to be introduced into the Chinese market. -- AFP
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-Fuji-closes-HK-office Fuji TV closes HK office JP/14/Brief
Fuji TV closes HK office
HONG KONG: One of Japan's largest private television networks Fuji Television Network closed its Hong Kong office Monday in a bid to slash costs and focus resources on its Beijing office, a company official said Monday.
The official confirmed to AFP that it had closed Monday. "We closed the Hong Kong office to cut costs and because Hong Kong no longer has any news."
The number of foreign media organizations in Hong Kong has fallen from around 180 in 1997 to a little over 100.
Several local and foreign firms, including media companies, have announced planned jobs cuts and pay freezes this year amid a deepening economic downturn in Hong Kong, with the jobless rate soaring to 7.7 percent. --AFP