Unocal tests Ranggas oil well
Unocal tests Ranggas oil well
SINGAPORE: Unocal Corp said it had taken another step towards development of the deepwater Ranggas oilfield offshore Indonesia with the successful appraisal testing of a fourth well.
The El Segundo, California-based company said subsidiary Unocal Rapak Ltd. had tested the Ranggas-4 appraisal well at a daily rate of 8,158 barrels of oil and 6.4 million cubic feet (181,200 cu metres) of gas.
The well was located 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometers) north of the Ranggas-1 discovery well and 1.2 miles (1.931 km) south of the Ranggas-3 appraisal well, it said in a statement dated Monday.
Unocal said test rates were constrained by test equipment, but initial daily production rates from a well producing from the zone was estimated at upwards of 10,000 barrels of oil and eight million cubic feet (226,500 cu metres) of gas.
"The oil test rates are impressive, and we are very encouraged at this point in our appraisal program," Brian Marcotte, president of Unocal Indonesia Co said in the statement. -- Reuters
;; ANPAf..r.. MoneyMatter-USA-ArthurAndersen Arthur Andersen cuts 7,000 US jobs 2
Arthur Andersen cuts 7,000 US jobs
CHICAGO: Troubled US accountancy Arthur Andersen, weakened by the scandal over collapsed energy group Enron, said Monday it would axe 7,000 jobs out of its 26,000-strong US workforce.
The process of whittling down staff numbers could take several months, the company said. The axe would fall most heavily in the areas of audit practice and administrative services.
"Despite the firm's constant efforts to avoid any workforce reduction, cutbacks are one of many consequences of the events of the last month," the company statement said.
Andersen is up to its neck in legal trouble after being accused of using questionable accounting practices to hide losses at Enron in order to retain lucrative consulting contracts with its Houston-based client. -- AFP
;; ANPAf..r.. Bizbrief-Hongkong-JPMorgan JP Morgan to cut 80 staff in Asia Pacific 3
JP Morgan to cut 80 staff in Asia Pacific
HONG KONG: J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. plans to lay off about 80 staff in its investment banking and brokerage departments in the Asia-Pacific region, as the U.S. investment bank seeks to cut costs in response to a slowdown in its advisory and capital- raising businesses, sources in the bank said late Tuesday.
The move comes on the heels of layoffs by rivals Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs in Asia last week, as the downturn in the investment banking industry bites into cash flows.
About 50 to 60 employees from J.P. Morgan's Hong Kong offices will lose their jobs, said a J.P. Morgan banker. The bank Monday laid off seven staff in China, he said.
The U.S. investment bank originally planned to make the layoffs Monday but decided to postpone it to next week due to leakage to the media, the banker said. -- Dow Jones
;; ANPAf..r.. Bizbrief-USA-Levi's Levi Strauss to close plants 4
Levi Strauss to close plants
SAN FRANCISCO: Levi Strauss & Co., a name synonymous with blue jeans, said on Monday it will shut six of its last eight U.S. plants and slash its staff by 20 percent as it moves away from manufacturing to try to halt five years of declining sales.
The nearly 150-year-old company, long a rugged symbol of the American West, said plants located in Blue Ridge, Georgia, and San Francisco, California, would close by the end of June. Plants in Brownsville and San Benito, Texas, would close in August, and plants in Powell, Tennessee, and El Paso, Texas, would close in October.
About 3,300 employees out of a current worldwide work force of some 16,600 would lose their jobs as a result of the closures.
A company spokeswoman said Levi Strauss will contract the jobs out to plants around the world. Currently, the company outsources manufacturing to more than 50 countries in the world, including Mexico, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and Indonesia. -- Reuters