Archive

BY MARK ROWE
THE RUSSIAN government has banned imports of American chicken amid concerns about the number of chemicals used in the US poultry market. American suppliers had commanded a 50 per cent share of the Russian chicken market, estimated at two million tonnes a year.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has authorised Germany to pay Euro 1 million, (Pounds 610,000), in national aid to beef farmers in North Rhine-Westphalia as compensation for losses arising out of the BSE crisis. Aid will be in the form of subsidised loans worth some Pounds 15 per animal and will cover up to 500 farmers.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
WHILE BSE and Foot and Mount Disease ravaged Britain, Australia remained disease-free making it an attractive alternative meat source, even for cuts that are traditionally eaten in the Outback as so-called “bush tucker”.

Australian market reports claimed demand from British meat buyers for kangaroo increased by 30 per cent in 2000 and 2001.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
TALISMAN Energy (UK) Ltd has announced first oil from the Hannay field located in the central North Sea, about 13.5 kilometres northwest of its Buchan Alpha facility. The field is currently producing 15,000 bbls/d from a single well.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
SHELL Gas Lanka Ltd and David Pieris Motor Co have launched gas conversion equipment in Sri Lanka for three-wheeled vehicles that includes a special 4 kg LPG cylinder, to provide a cheaper alternative to petrol. The two companies claim that the equipment will allow motorists to reduce fuel bills by more than 35 per cent.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE CEYLON Petroleum Corporation is building a SLRupees 10 billion tank farm at Muthurajawela, near Columbo, that will enable tankers to unload cargo from six miles offshore through a single-point buoy mooring system. The corporation has also introduced unleaded petrol to dealers in most larger Sri Lankan cities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COSTA Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama have signed a Convention on Cooperation in the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Northeast Pacific, which will lead to an assessment of oil pollution risks and a spills strategy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MORE than 300 environmental experts at a World Health Organisation-supported meeting in Thailand have called for Asian governments to quickly restrict and ban leaded petrol. Researchers from Thailand’s Mahidol University released research on lower lead blood contamination in Bangkok children after the introduction of unleaded petrol.…

BY RICHARD HURST
THE SOUTH African Department of Minerals and Energy and Shell South Africa have announced the signing of a letter of intent to develop a natural gas industry in the country’s southern Cape provinces. The two parties are to jointly evaluate the prospects of introducing natural gas from the Kudu fields in neighbouring Namibia; this assessment will include the transmission of gas, including the possible construction of a pipeline.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE CHINESE Petroleum Corporation (CPC), one of Taiwan’s largest state-owned enterprises, is setting up a joint company with the China mainland counterpart company China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) to extract and refine oil. CNPC does not have the means to refine crude oil and currently contracts out this work to Japan but is keen to use Taiwan, because it can offer lower coats and is closer to markets in southern China.…