Unocal sells Sarulla project to PLN
Unocal sells Sarulla project to PLN
EL SEGUNDO, California: Unocal Corp. agreed to sell its interest in the Sarulla geothermal project to PLN, the Indonesian state electricity company, for US$60 million, resulting in a third- quarter gain.
The sale includes the operations and sales contracts the Unocal North Sumatra Geothermal Ltd. unit signed with Pertamina and PLN in 1993.
The unit's exploration activities discovered commercial geothermal resources in Silangkitang in 1995, but a presidential decree postponed the project in 1998, due to the economic crisis in Indonesia. The presidential decree was later revoked, the company said.
In a press release on Monday, Unocal said its legal, technical, and commercial requirements to invest further in the project could not be satisfied after several months of negotiations.
The oil and gas producer expects to close the sale in September. -- Dow Jones
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-Yahoo-buying-Overture Yahoo! buying Overture for $1.6b JP/14/Brief
Yahoo! buying Overture for $1.6b
SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo! snapped up online advertising pioneer Overture Services for about US$1.6 billion, giving the Internet powerhouse a potent weapon in the competitive search-engine business.
By buying Overture on Monday, Yahoo gains control of one of its most important business partners and strikes a blow against Google and Microsoft.
Google is the top search engine, and Microsoft has been pouring more resources into the online search on its MSN site.
Overture has been one of Google's fiercest rivals and now its ad-based search engine threatens to become more formidable by tapping into Yahoo's greater resources.
Like Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN service had been collecting a steady stream of profits from Overture.
Although Yahoo executives said they hope to maintain Overture's existing alliances with partners such as MSN, it seems improbable that the rivals will want to subsidize each other, said Danny Sullivan, editor of the industry newsletter Search Engine Watch. -- AP
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SIA filling more flights
SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) said on Tuesday passenger and cargo demand was on the increase following the end of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis, although business was still well down on last year.
SIA said its overall load factor, the amount of cargo space and passenger seats filled, was 70.3 percent in June compared with 74.1 percent for the same month in 2002 but well up from 63.6 percent in May this year.
The passenger load factor for June was 71.8 percent, a big jump from 53.1 percent in May.
The SARS crisis, which reduced visitor arrivals into Singapore by more than 70 percent at its peak, began in mid-March with Singapore being declared free of the virus at the end of May. -- AFP
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ANA suffers 34.1 percent fall
TOKYO:: The number of people flying internationally with All Nippon Airways (ANA) plunged 34.1 percent in the three months to June from a year earlier to 558,679 due to SARS and the war in Iraq, Japan's number two airline said on Tuesday.
As for the domestic operations, ANA's passenger numbers dipped 4.4 percent to 10.1 million over the quarter.
The airline said it expected passenger demand to pick up as fear over Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) subsided, with demand for business class flights already rebounding.
Separately, ANA has reportedly decided to hire Chinese flight attendants for the first time ever as part of a campaign to strengthen services on its routes to China. -- AFP