BANGKOK: Thailand's oil refiner Bangchak Petroleum Pcl has declared a force majeure to temporarily stop an export of a 16 million litres of low sulphur fuel oil to a Japanese firm, its president said on Thursday. The force majeure will affect the delivery of the cargo because the refiner has to reserve some fuel oil for power generation, Anusorn Sangnummuan told Reuters. The incident happened after Myanmar unexpectedly stopped supplying natural gas to Thailand between May 6-9 because of an outage at the Yetagun field, which forced the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) to shift to fuel oil. Sutat Patmasiriwat, governor at state-owned EGAT, Thailand's sole power distributor, the situation was back to normal now. "It's normal for EGAT to use fuel oil or diesel in case of an disruption of natural gas supply. It happened only short period and it's over," he said. The incident has resulted in a drop in fuel oil ...

SINGAPORE: Brent crude slipped to a near four-month low on Thursday as investors shunned riskier assets following turmoil in Greece and the euro zone while oil supply could rise as G8 countries may tap emergency reserves ahead of sanctions on Iran in July. Greece faces a possible exit from the euro zone as it failed to form a government to implement austerity measures in exchange for rescue funds from the common currency region. Investors feared Greece's exit could drag down other EU economies. Brent crude for July was down 36 cents at $109.39 by 0332 GMT, after slipping to $109.01, the lowest intraday price since Jan. 25. US crude gained for the first time in five sessions, rising 33 cents to $93.14. "The euro zone crisis can only go one way, that is, Greece leaving the EU on a temporary basis," Jonathan Barratt, chief executive of BarrattBulletin, a Sydney-based commodity research firm. "If the ...

KABUL: Afghanistan will start pumping oil within months, an official said Wednesday, as part of the troubled nation's efforts to tap its underground treasures estimated at billions. China's National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and its Afghan partner the Watan Group will start extracting oil in five months, initially producing 5,000 barrels a day, mining ministry spokesman Jawad Omar told AFP. This would be the first extraction of oil in Afghanistan, a mineral-rich country which is still one of the poorest in the world after three decades of war. "The maximum production at the beginning will be 5,000 barrels a day but this will increase to 45,000 barrels a day," Omar said, without giving a timetable for the increase. The extraction will start in the "Afghan-Tajik Zone", one of the major oil deposits along the Amu Darya river border in relatively peaceful northern Afghanistan, the spokesman said. Under a deal signed last December, the oil will be ...