TOKYO: Japanese oil companies are close to signing a
TOKYO: Japanese oil companies are close to signing a development contract for Iran's Azadegan oil field, Kyodo News quoted the Iranian state-run news agency IRNA as saying Thursday.
Quoting Iranian Ambassador to Japan Ali Majedi, the news agency said both parties plan to sign the contract by March 2003.
The oil field, located in southwest Iran near the border with Iraq, has more than 26 billion barrels of oil in confirmed reserves, one of the biggest in Iran. Japan hopes the oil field will provide a steady source of oil supply.
Japan was given priority rights to negotiate a development contract when Iranian President Mohammed Khatami visited Japan in October 2000. The Japanese consortium is led by INPEX Corp., formerly known as Indonesia Petroleum Ltd.
IRNA said the contract, which would adopt the so-called "buyback" format, is worth $2.8 billion. Under the buyback method, a developer receives oil as compensation for the cost of development. -- Dow Jones
Citigroup to pay $300m-350m fine
NEW YORK: Citigroup Inc will likely agree to pay a fine of about US$300-$350 million in response to a probe into faulty stock research by the firm's analysts, the Wall Street Journal said Thursday.
The company is also expected to spend up to a further $100 million for independent research to settle the inquiry, said the daily citing people familiar with the matter.
But the firm's Chief Executive, Sanford Weill, is likely to avoid facing separate charges of misleading investors, it added.
The bank could also be required to publicly apologize as part of a broad regulatory inquiry into whether the nation's big brokerage firms misled small investors with overly optimistic research on investment-banking clients.
Any settlement will not preclude separate charges against Jack Grubman, the former star telecom analyst at Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney unit who has been at the center of the case.
Regulators have been investigating whether Weill prodded Grubman to upgrade his rating of ATT Corp, a corporate client, in late 1999, as well as his involvement with other ratings of such clients. -- AFP
SingTel carries out 3G trial
SINGAPORE: Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel) made its first public person-to-person mobile video call on Thursday as part of preparations to launch 3G (third generation) services within two years.
The islands three mobile phone service operators -- SingTel, MobileOne Ltd. and StarHub Pte. Ltd. -- have been set a Dec. 31, 2004 deadline to launch 3G mobile networks.
Objections by the three companies to the deadline were rejected by industry watchdog, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).
SingTel, StarHub and MobileOne Asia each paid S$100 million (US$56 million) a year ago for a 3G licence and argued that rollout schedules should be commercial decisions for individual companies.
SingTel completed 3G voice trials in November last year. -- AFP
UOB opens eighth office in RI
JAKARTA: PT Bank UOB Indonesia (UOBI), a subsidiary of Singaporean banking firm United Overseas Bank (UOB) Limited, has opened a subbranch in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, its eighth office in the country.
The company said in statement that the opening of the Kelapa Gading office reflected UOB's commitment to Indonesia.
UOB has also underlined its commitment to Indonesia by raising its interest in UOBI to 99 percent from 79.9 percent in September this year through the purchase of the stake owned by Bank Bali.
UOBI recorded a net profit before tax of Rp 111.5 billion (US$12.5 million) and total assets of Rp 2.1 trillion by the end of 2001.
It has offices in Jakarta, Batam, Surabaya, Bandung, Bali and Bintan. -- JP