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Thursday,
December 6, 2001,
Chandigarh, India  
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Oil rises
as Russia ready to cut exports Infosys to
focus on web services
HLL may
spinoff seed trade FM for
more funds for infrastructure Zuari-Chambal
eyes stake in Paradeep
India,
Oman sign pact on urea project |
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Oil rises as Russia ready to cut exports
London, December 5 Brent blend crude oil rose 58 cents to $19.87 per barrel in early London trade. U.S. crude futures gained 70 cents to $20.27 per barrel. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov met with Russian oil companies on Wednesday morning and a government spokesman said the firms "consider it possible to carry out a deeper reduction in the export of oil, which will reach 150,000 barrels a day from January 1, 2002." "This will be music to OPEC's ears," said Peter Gignoux, head of the energy desk a Schroder Salomon Smith Barney in London. After weeks of uncertainty about Russia's position, OPEC officials indicated that this offer could open the way for their fourth output cut within a year to reverse a recent slide in prices. Kuwaiti Oil Minister Adel al-Subaih said: "Kuwait welcomes this decision. It will help a lot to reach a collective cuts deal." But he added: "Non-OPEC has to put together 500,000 bpd." OPEC had demanded that rival producers, including Russia, Norway and Mexico, cut 500,000 barrels from their daily production as a condition for OPEC slashing 1.5 million bpd from January. Mexico had already offered to cut 100,000 bpd and Norway between 100,000-200,000 bpd depending on the size of the Russian curbs. Oslo is expected, at best, to match the Russian cut. With Russia's offer, brokers said a deal now looked within reach. "Russia's offer is the bare minimum that OPEC will accept. It is a realistic cut that OPEC is not likely to shun, especially if it means higher prices," said Lawrence Eagles of GNI Research. Non-OPEC exporters will now wait for some more small cuts by other independent producers like Angola and Oman to reach the magic 500,000 bpd figure. "Prices are already rallying to it and the rally is likely to go further," Eagles added. Oil prices have dropped by a third since mid-September as producers failed to trim supplies enough to match a sharp slow-down in demand as a global recession bites. But with a big supply cut from next month, just as the northern hemisphere enters its winter season of higher demand, some industry analysts believe prices could rise several dollars over the next few months.
Reuters
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Infosys to focus on web services
Bangalore, December 5 Anchoring these initiatives would be Infosys’ SETLabs and the Mobility Research Group, respectively, the company said. “Setlabs (Software Engineering and Technology Labs) in Infosys is working on a project codenamed “4Ge” which stands for fourth generation enterprises where an effort is being made to define what organisations will look like a decade from now,” the company said in a statement. Subu Goparaju, head, SETLabs, said “we need to know exactly how the 4th generation enterprise will evolve. We will continue to track such emerging trends and the enabling technologies and leverage them for the business benefit of our clients”. Deepak Padaki, Head, Mobility Research Group in Infosys, said technology acceleration and converging business were throwing up new challenges in the market place. Service providers are looking for technology frameworks and business models to rapidly realise revenues from wireless data applications. These applications should have the potential to offer more than just the combination of mobility and availability of information from the Internet, he said. Infosys said it will continue to leverage domain expertise in key technology areas for sustained growth. Bags US contract
Infosys Technologies today announced that SunAmerica, a financial services company specialising in retirement savings, has contracted it to help transform its legacy policy administration system into a new web-based thin client J2ee compliant architecture. Infosys will help SunAmerica in redesigning the output management systems and provide a MQ Series and JMS-based Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) solution, the company said in a statement here. “The competition for this assignment was very tough, with many vendors initially contacted by SunAmerica. Infosys won this project based on our knowledge of the insurance business and our commitment to deliver on time and within budget”, Basab Pradhan, Regional Manager and Vice-President, Sales, Infosys Technologies (West North America) said. SunAmerica is a leading financial services company specialising in retirement savings and a member of American International Group Inc.
PTI
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HLL may spinoff seed trade
Mumbai, December 5 HLL informed the BSE today that it was in the process of identifying an appropriate technology partner for its seeds business and in the meanwhile it proposed to transfer the business undertaking on a “going concern” basis to its subsidiary. Through the transfer, HLL’s seeds division would become a separate legal entity, allowing it to induct suitable parties who might add value through technology, marketing and product development as joint venture partners and thereby secure the long term future of the business, the company said. The seed business with an annual estimated turnover of Rs 95 crore was engaged in production, marketing and distribution of a variety of hybrid seeds of cotton, maize, jowar, vegetables. In the new globalised environment, the seed business requires a continuous infusion of contemporary international technology and knowhow. Since HLL’s parent, Unilever, was no longer in seeds research, the company’s seed business had no access to latest technologies. HLL said to secure the long term future of the seed business, it was necessary to ensure uninterrupted flow of technology and knowhow from a technology partner under a technology collaboration agreement or an agreement.
PTI
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FM for more funds
for infrastructure New Delhi, December 5 “I am even prepared to ignore the fiscal deficit and make more money available to the infrastructure sector if the expenditure is productive,” Mr Sinha said while speaking at the 74th Annual General Meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here. The Finance Minister, however, hastened to add that the “government had its own limitations ( in increasing the budgetary allocation for infrastructure),” while adding that the government realised the importance of infrastructure as an essential ingredient for economic revival. Pointing out that over Rs 60,000 crore had been allocated in last year’s Budget for key infrastructure sectors, he said that at this point of time, there was a need to give a major boost to the economy. He urged the private sector players not to leave the task of pump-priming only to the government, pointing out that the interest rates were the lowest in the recent times. Highlighting the need to ensure security of the country’s external sector which will prove to be the bedrock of the economy, the minister said that the easiest way a nation can be destablised today was by destablising its external sector. Expressing satisfaction at the current economic situation of the country, he said the forex reserves were at comfortable levels and external debt was within reasonable
limits.
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Zuari-Chambal eyes stake in Paradeep
Manpura (HP), December 5 “We are interested in acquiring 74 per cent stake in Paradeep Phosphates. We have also given EoI for a 51 per cent stake, which the government intends to offload in NFL,” the Zuari Chambal group Chief Executive Officer H.S. Bawa told PTI on the sidelines of commissioning of ‘technituber’ facility. The company was also interested in acquiring other fertiliser companies too, he said, but did not give details. Outlining the strategy of the Rs 4,000 crore group, Bawa said “IT will also be the area of focus”. The technituber facility has been developed by Chambal Agritech, a joint venture between the K.K. Birla group company Chamber Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd, and Australia-based Technico Pty.
PTI
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India, Oman sign pact on urea project New Delhi, December 5 Fertilizers Secretary Ashok Pahwa signed the agreement on behalf of the government in Oman. Other agreements inked were the Ammonia Off-Take Agreement between IFFCO and OMIFCO, Gas Supply Agreement between the Government of the Sultanate of Oman (GOO) and OMIFCO and the related direct agreements with the lenders. The Urea Off-Take Agreement will provide India with a reliable and long-term source of urea. Under the agreement, of India and IFFCO will commit to buyback all Oman-Indian Fertilisers Company’s urea and surplus ammonia at pre-fixed prices for a 15 and 10-year period, respectively. Under the Gas supply agreement, Oman GOO will supply gas to the project for 20 years, at fixed prices for the first 10 years and at a pre-agreed escalation for the remaining 10 years. The initialling of these key agreements is a significant milestone for the project and will facilitate an early financial close. OMFICO is a $ 969 million project company whose shareholders are Oman Oil Company (50 per cent), KRIBHCO (25 per cent) and IFFCO (25 per cent). The project to produce 1.65 million metric tonnes of granulated urea and 0.25 million metric tonnes of surplus ammonia per year will be built by Snamprogetti of Italy and Technip of France. The funding requirements will be met with $ 320 million of equity and $ 649 million of debt.
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