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State-owned PetroVietnam has received government approval to prepare plans to issue global bonds in 2007, a company official said on Monday.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has agreed that PetroVietnam can borrow from international markets to raise funds for its ongoing investment projects, the official with PetroVietnam’s headquarters said.

He nevertheless confirmed a state media report saying the state-owned Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam will help PetroVietnam raise $1.5 billion from bond issuance and bank loans.

The report, in Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper, didn’t give any further details of the bonds and loans.

PetroVietnam is the first Vietnamese company to be allowed to prepare its own global bond issue. The PetroVietnam official said the bonds aren’t expected to get a government guarantee.

“PetroVietnam is a large company and fully capable of paying its debts, so it won’t require government guarantees,” he said.

The Ministry of Finance will monitor all the preparation work by the BIDV and PetroVietnam, and “the bond issue can be done by mid-2007,” he said.

Unlisted PetroVietnam, which doesn’t disclose its revenue, has targeted contributing $4 billion to the nation’s budget in 2007, down 16.3% from this year, Finance Minister Vu Van Ninh told the National Assembly last month.

PetroVietnam is involved in a number of large projects, including a $2.5 billion refinery in Quang Ngai province, a $2 billion gas-power-fertilizer complex in Ca Mau province and some gas-fired electricity plans in the south.

A Ministry of Finance official said the government has issued regulations allowing companies to borrow from foreign markets, and any domestic company can issue bonds overseas based on their need.

“Vietnam is building a market economy and companies are allowed to borrow funds from both the domestic and foreign markets,” the ministry official said.

The draft of China’s first energy law, which will shape the country’s energy policies, will be completed by the end of the year, sources with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said yesterday.

The law will paint broad brush strokes and not delve into details of each sector in the industry, according to experts.

A team led by the NDRC and comprising 15 ministry-level departments was set up at the beginning of this year to frame the law.

It will override current industry laws such as the Electricity Law and the Coal Law, and serve as a guideline for the legislation of any future laws on a certain energy sector, said Zhou Dadi, a researcher with the Energy Research Institute affiliated to the NDRC.

“It will be like a ‘constitution’ for the energy industry,” Zhou said, adding that the preliminary draft will be completed by the end of next month.

Though the details of the draft are unknown, media reports have said that it would be a comprehensive law covering resource exploitation, production and transportation, consumption, and conservation.

At a recent discussion, energy experts called for the law, which may take up to two years to be passed, to define regulations for foreign acquisitions and set up an umbrella body to approve all energy projects, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Energy security will be an important component, experts said.

Chen Shouhai, a professor at China University of Petroleum, said the law will underscore the necessity of strategic reserves of important energy sources such as oil.

“The energy law will help facilitate promulgation of a series of new laws in the industry,” he said.

Han Xiaoping, president of the China Energy website (china5e.com), agreed. “The law, given its significance, will help break down the barriers between different interest groups in the energy field.”

Han suggested using the country’s huge foreign reserves, about US$1 trillion, to build up a strategic reserve.

China now has four energy laws, covering the coal, electric power, energy conservation and renewable energy sectors.

Malaysia tycoon Ananda Krishnan is expanding his global power generation business.

A pan-Asian business consortium which he heads has emerged as the front runner in the bidding war for two lucrative power plants in the Philippines.

Financial executives familiar with the bidding contest say that Powertek has teamed up with Japan’s Mitsubishi and Hong Kong’s CLP Holdings to take over the Philippine power generation facilities owned by Mirant of the United States.

Powertek officials declined to comment.

Mirant’s two power plants in the Philippines are valued at between US$2.5 billion (S$3.9 billion) and US$3 billion.

The US company has put them up for sale as part of its corporate strategy to concentrate on its operations at home.

The auction for Mirant’s business assets has attracted other bidders such as Korea Electric Power and two other Japanese companies - Marubeni and Tokyo Electric - say executives close to the bidding contest.

The winning bid for Mirant’s coal-fired power plants, which have a combined generating capacity of 2,200MW, is expected to be announced some time next week, the executives say.

Over the past decade, Mr Ananda has emerged as a major player in Asia’s multimedia business.

Through his broadcasting and satellite concern - Malaysia-based Measat Broadcasting Network System - the businessman controls an integrated multimedia operation, which includes telecommunications delivery systems and content.

The businessman has also been expanding his power generation business.

Mr Ananda’s Powertek is a wholly owed subsidiary of his main corporate vehicle, Tanjung, an investment holding company which is listed on the Malaysian and London stock exchanges.

Powertek ranks as Malaysia’s second-largest independent power producer, after Malakoff, a power company controlled by businessman Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.

Earlier this year, Powertek became Egypt’s biggest power company when it acquired two power plants - Suez Gulf Power and Port Said East Power - for US$360 million.

The company is also the largest private power generator in Abu Dhabi.

Several regional bankers say that the bid for Mirant’s power assets is a prelude to the listing of Powertek on the Malaysian and London stock exchanges.

Over the past decade, Mr Ananda has emerged as a major player in Asia’s multimedia business. The tycoon has also been expanding his power generation business

  Japan, Indonesia to set up a working panel for stable LNG supply

The Japanese trade minister and the visiting Indonesian energy minister agreed on Tuesday to set up a working panel to ensure that Indonesia will keep supplying liquefied natural gas and other energy resources to Japan in a stable fashion.

”Both sides recognize that the security of supply of natural gas including LNG is important not only in the context of economic development, but also in terms of strengthening the partnership between the two countries,” Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari and Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said in a joint statement issued after their one-day meeting in Tokyo.

The two countries will use the envisaged panel to ”exchange information on policy, development and security of supply in oil and natural gas,” the statement said.

Amari and Yusgiantoro agreed to launch the panel as early as possible, a Japanese official said.

The two ministers did not go into specifics of the current bilateral LNG supply contracts, which will expire in 2010 and 2011, only saying both sides ”pledge to honor the existing contracts,” according to the statement.

Yusgiantoro told Amari that there are other LNG projects going on in Indonesia and called for Japan’s investment in these projects, the official said.

Japan is poised to secure long-term commitment for stable energy supply from Indonesia, the No.1 supplier of LNG to Japan. But Indonesia is reportedly considering sharply cutting shipments to Japan from 2010 as its domestic demand is growing rapidly.

Chad in state of war with Sudan
 
 
Chad is in a state of war with Sudan and its military is on the highest alert, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

At a news conference, government spokesman Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said: “Today we are in state of war with forces from Sudan,” he said. “We consider ourselves under attack by Sudan.”

Earlier Tuesday a Chadian military reconnaissance plane was shot down in the volatile east by rebels using a surface to air missile, officials said.

Doumgor said the plane was downed close to the Sudanese border. He gave no word on the fate of the plane’s crew and no other details.

Doumgor accused Sudan of backing the rebels. The eastern border region with Sudan is used by insurgents to launch attacks on government forces.

“The state of emergency will be reinforced and the military put on the highest alert,” Doumgor told journalists, calling on the U.N. and African Union to evacuate Sudanese refugees who are in camps near the border.

Doumgor claimed some refugees were working for the Sudanese government to destabilize Chad. He also repeated allegations made a day earlier that Saudi Arabia finances and supplies the rebels .
 

Thailand’s state-owned PTT has submitted a bid to buy ConocoPhillips’ 147 retail outlets the US company put up for sale earlier this year, PTT President Prasert Bunsumpun said on Tuesday.PTT is among other oil companies looking to buy Conoco’s retail network. Shell and Malaysia’s Petronas have also been reported to be interested in the assets.

Kazakhstan, keen to become a global gas exporter, is looking for export routes to Western markets which avoid the network of Russia’s Gazprom , the head of the Kazakh gas pipeline company was quoted on Tuesday as saying.Kazakhstan, a large oil producer and exporter, has big reserves of natural gas. It wants to raise its weight as a gas exporter on the global market but its main concern is export routes.

Kazakhstan, keen to become a global gas exporter, is looking for export routes to Western markets which avoid the network of Russia’s Gazprom , the head of the Kazakh gas pipeline company was quoted on Tuesday as saying.Kazakhstan, a large oil producer and exporter, has big reserves of natural gas. It wants to raise its weight as a gas exporter on the global market but its main concern is export routes.

Australian Pipeline Trust has entered into a 15-year agreement with base metals miner Xstrata to build, own and maintain a A$30 million ($23 million) gas-fired power station at Mt Isa in the eastern state of Queensland, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.The 30 MW power station is to be fueled by natural gas transported on the Carpentaria Gas Pipeline from the gas processing hub at Ballera and then to the Mt Isa Town Lateral Pipeline, both of which are wholly owned by APT. As part of the project, APT will spend an additional A$3 million expanding the Mt Isa Town Lateral Pipeline, the company said.

Australian Pipeline Trust has entered into a 15-year agreement with base metals miner Xstrata to build, own and maintain a A$30 million ($23 million) gas-fired power station at Mt Isa in the eastern state of Queensland, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

APT is Australia’s largest listed energy transmission company, with interests in more than 10,000 km of natural gas pipeline infrastructure; over 2,300 km of gas distribution network in southeast Queensland; a coalbed methane processing plant; and gas storage facilities