Archive

BY MONICA DOBIE
HERSHEY Foods Corp. will cut 400 jobs and close plants because it wants to concentrate on growing their existing Reese’s peanut butter cups and Hershey’s bar brands, which account for just 35 per cent of sales.

The Pennsylvania-based company will begin closures next year but did not specify which plants or how many will go.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
NESTLE India Ltd is considering the introduction of chocolate vending machines after the success of a similar initiative for tea and coffee. Indian press reports have quoted an official spokesperson as confirming that the multinational is “studying the feasibility of setting up vending machines for chocolates.”…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE PRICE of Sri Lankan coconuts could tumble if a plan by the country’s Coconut Cultivation Board to double the national annual production to about 7.6 billion nuts by increasing yields through scientific cultivation techniques is successful.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EU has agreed with a number of sugar-producing ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) countries and separately with India on the supply of cane sugar to European refiners over the next five years. A duty-free quota of 10,000 tonnes has been set for India but may be increased if other supplies fall short.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
EUROPEAN Commission officials believe that rapidly growing oil and gas shipments from Russia to the EU could in time pave the way for the adoption of the Euro as a petro-currency. Gerassimo Thomas, spokesman for the Commissioner in charge of the euro, Pedro Solbes, said that the Commission had considered pushing for the euro to be used globally to denominate the price of oil but “we can’t tell the market how to behave.”…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE EL Paso Corporation, of Texas, is making preparations to begin work on the Blue Atlantic Transmission System, a pipeline project designed to transport new natural gas supplies off the coast of Canada’s Nova Scotia to eastern and the north-eastern regions of the USA.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S plans to make drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, as part of the Kyoto Protocol, is worrying the country’s energy sector, particularly companies in oil-rich Alberta who claim they have been left in the dark by the federal government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers (environment) have agreed in principle that sulphur-free petrol and diesel should be introduced in every Member State from January 1, 2005, making the use of cleaner petrol mandatory from January 1, 2009; ministers agreed that sulphur-free diesel fuel should also become mandatory from that date, although this will be confirmed by a Commission review which will be completed no later than December 31, 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IRAQ’S petroleum revenues are surging again through the UN’s so-called oil-for-food programme, six months after a row over the future of the scheme had led to exports being suspended. As the scheme’s 11th phase started this month, (December), during the week ending December 7, Baghdad earned an estimated Euro110 million in revenue; the previous week, Iraq had earned Euro 334 million.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
PETRO-Canada, the country’s third largest oil producer, has proposed to spend up to CAN$5.8 billion on new oil sands projects in northern Alberta. The corporation has applied to regulators to develop its Meadow Creek lease, about 45 kilometres south of Fort McMurray, Alberta, at a cost of $700-million-$800-million.…