International Petroleum Finance articles from January 2004

International Petroleum Finance archives from January 2004

Brother, can you spare 0.0786 [euro]?
January 1, 2004... The US dollar has begun 2004 much as it ended 2003--falling. In the first few days of January, the greenback plunged to fresh 11-year lows against sterling, three-year lows against the Japanese yen, and hit a new historical nadir of more than...

Winners and losers in the governance game.
January 1, 2004... Ongoing revelations of missing billions at European dairy giant Parmalat have thrust corporate governance into the spotlight again. Not that the issue ever really went away--while accounting scandals may not have dominated last year's headlines...

Aramco spends big to sustain spare capacity.
January 1, 2004... Saudi Arabia's state-owned Saudi Aramco is planning a heavy program of capital investment over the next four years, racking up some significant gains in natural gas and condensate production. But what is equally striking about the $18 billion...

Upstream survey points to rising Capex.
January 1, 2004... The oil and gas industry's global exploration and production (E&P) expenditures are forecast to rise by 4% in 2004, with spending in North America expected to be flat and outlays elsewhere in the world increasing by 6%, as top companies shift...

Europe's majors face Uphill share battle.
January 1, 2004... Rising stock markets did little to help Europe's biggest oil companies in 2003, and the fear for BP, Royal Dutch/Shell and Total this year is that a sustained global recovery in equities will encourage investors to shun defensive old economy...

Can Chinese oils maintain momentum?
January 1, 2004... What is the fourth biggest energy company currently trading on the New York Stock Exchange? Shell Transport & Trading? Wrong. ChevronTexaco? Wrong again. Try PetroChina, which saw its share price more than double last year, raising its market...

Dynergy on slow road to recovery.
January 1, 2004... Dynegy President and Chief Executive Bruce Williamson looks at his company and other former energy merchants as something akin to recovering addicts. "The first step is to admit you have a problem," Williamson tells IPF, alluding to the first...

Shell's reserves shock.
January 1, 2004... Royal Dutch/Shell has announced that it is "recategorizing" 3.9 billion boe--or some 20%--of its oil and gas reserves, reclassifying them under the "scope for recovery" rather than the "proven" heading. The reclassification mainly relates...

Japan hopeful on Azadegan.
January 1, 2004... Japan says it hopes "in the near future" to wrap up an agreement for the $2 billion-plus development of Iran's giant Azadegan field, which a consortium led by Inpex has been negotiating with the state-owned National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) for...

Hydro completes scanraff sale.
January 1, 2004... Norsk Hydro has concluded the agreed transfer of its 25% share in the Scanraff refinery at Lysekil in Sweden to Preem Petroleum. The deal was signed in September, but one condition had been approval by the competition authorities of the...

PDV sells Ruhr Oel stake.
January 1, 2004... State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDV) is selling its 50% stake in German refining joint venture Ruhr Oel to Russia's Alfa Group for an undisclosed sum. PDV owns more than 200,000 b/d of refining capacity through its stake in Ruhr Oel, a...

Petronas inks UK LNG deal.
January 1, 2004... Dutch refiner Petroplus has signed a letter of intent with Malaysia's state-owned Petronas, under which the Malaysian company will take a 30% stake in Dragon LNG, a company set up by Petroplus to develop a UK LNG import terminal at Milford...

Sonatrach revenues soar.
January 1, 2004... Algeria's state-owned Sonatrach saw its export revenues rise 33% last year to $24 billion, "the best result since its creation 40 years ago," according to chief executive Mohamed Meziane. Algeria's hydrocarbons exports account for 95% of the...

Petrom sale delayed.
January 1, 2004... Romania has extended the deadline for the sale of a majority stake in state oil firm Petrom by three months. The final decision is now expected by the end of June, at which time Bucharest also wants to complete the privatization of two national...

Medco bids for Novus.
January 1, 2004... Medco Energi's hostile takeover bid for Novus Petroleum--the first-ever crack by an Indonesian listed company at an Australian counterpart--has run into a solid wall of Australian lawyers, who are arguing that the A$326 million ($275 million)...

Siberia venture formed.
January 1, 2004... Russia's state-owned Rosneft and Gazprom and privately-owned Surgutueftegas have banded together to develop untapped oil and gas reserves in East Siberia. The companies signed an agreement to set up a consortium to work together in East...

CNR jumps on Total talk.
January 1, 2004... Shares in Canadian Natural Resources (CNR) hit a 52-week high of C$71.01 ($54.95) in early January on rumors that France's Total was considering a bid for the company. Although neither company would comment on the rumor, analysts say Total...

Shell sells Thai unit.
January 1, 2004... Royal Dutch/Shell has sold its Thai Shell Exploration & Production affiliate to Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) for $205 million. The acquisition will increase PTTEP's production volumes by some 21%, to 129,000 boe/d from...

Indian share sales planned.
January 1, 2004... India's state oil and gas companies are preparing to offload shares worth $4 billion that they hold in one another. Indian Oil Corp. (IOC), Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and state gas transmission company Gail invested around $1 billion...

Pertamina plans upstream push.
January 1, 2004... Indonesia's state-controlled Pertamina plans to spend 5.9 trillion rupiah ($694 million) expanding its upstream activities this year, up about 28% from the 4.6 trillion rupiah spent in 2003. Upstream director Bambanb Nugroho said only about...

Oil shares close year with double-digit surge.(Equity Markets)
January 1, 2004... Shares of leading worldwide oil and gas companies closed 2003 on a torrid run, with most posting monster double-digit gains in December, allowing the sector to significantly narrow the full-year performance gap versus a resurgent broader...

Capital flows show investors sticking with Russia.(Emerging Markets)
January 1, 2004... The Kremlin's persecution of both Yukos and its former chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky may have served to scupper the oil giant's plans to merge with rival Sibneft, but it does not seem to be deterring investors from putting money into...