Toyota July Auto Sales Slip 20%

- Toyota July Auto Sales Slip 20%



Aug 2, 2011

Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc.(NYSE:TM) announced Tuesday that its July U.S. sales fell 22.7% as it continued to deal with parts shortages stemming from the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Toyota sold 130,802 vehicles in July, compared to the 169,224 in the same month last year.

The Japanese automaker sold 27,016 of its Camry car, 22.9% down from 35,058 in July 2010.

Corolla sales dropped 35.7% to 17,577, while sales of the Prius hybrid, which is made only in Japan, tumbled 43.9% to 7,907.

Sales of the Sienna minivan rose 2.3 percent to 10,620.

Toyota Motor has a potential upside of 12.7% based on a current price of $81.96 and an average consensus analyst price target of $92.4.

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GM July Sales Rise 8%

- GM July Sales Rise 8%



Aug 2, 2011

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) says its U.S. sales climbed almost 8% last month, led by fuel-efficient vehicles such as the Chevrolet Cruze car.

But GM's increase may not be the standard. Analysts foretell that sales of new cars and light trucks in the U.S. rose slightly from a year earlier as few deals and economic worries kept car shoppers home.

Vice President of Sales Don Johnson reports that unemployment, low consumer confidence and uncertainty over the federal debt ceiling scared some buyers off.

GM sold 214,915 vehicles in July, including almost 25,000 Cruzes. That could potentially make it America's top-selling car for the second straight month.

Sales of the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain small crossovers rose nearly 80%.

General Motors has a potential upside of 56.8% based on a current price of $27.71 and an average consensus analyst price target of $43.45.

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Red Emperor to Begin Drilling Georgia Well in Early July

- Red Emperor to Begin Drilling Georgia Well in Early July

Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Red Emperor Resources NL

Red Emperor provided the following update on activities in Georgia with respect to the drilling of its first exploration well.

The exploration drilling rig and associated equipment that will be used for the Company's two well exploration program arrived at the port of Poti in Georgia recently and is now on site being erected with a scheduled spudding date of early July. A total of 40-50 personnel will be conducting the drilling program on a 24 hour basis.

This Mukhiani well is targeting the Vani 3 prospect which has a best estimate of oil in place in excess of +115mbbls (with 23MMbls attributable to Red Emperor's 20% interest). This prospect was also the subject of the geochemical helium survey completed by Actual Geology earlier this year with the results identifying a positive presence of helium anomalies across the prospect that indicate the presence of a working hydrocarbon system.

The Mukhiani well is targeting a depth of approximately 3,500m and is expected to reach target depth within 45-55 days, and is the first of a two well highly prospective exploration drilling program to be completed by the Company this year.

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Norway Sets Barents Sea Seismic Acquisition for July

- Norway Sets Barents Sea Seismic Acquisition for July

Thursday, June 09, 2011
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate

It has now been determined that there will be seismic acquisition in the eastern part of the Barents Sea from July 7. The necessary formalities surrounding the Treaty on Maritime Delimitation and Cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean between Norway and Russia are now in place. The activity can start 30 days following this.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate will be responsible for the seismic acquisition on behalf of Norwegian authorities, and the PGS vessel Harrier Explorer will carry out the acquisition.

Harrier Explorer is now on its way to Jan Mayen to start seismic acquisition there. The vessel will acquire seismic in this area, starting June 10 and lasting three to four weeks, before setting course for the eastern part of the Barents Sea. The voyage from Jan Mayen to the eastern part of the Barents Sea will likely take four to five days.

An agreement has been entered into with PGS regarding hiring the vessel for three months with an option of an extension for approx. one month. This entails that the acquisition activity in the Barents Sea East will take place for two to three months.

The data acquisition will take place with the aid of PGS' Geostreamer technology. This is a new technology for 2D seismic acquisition, characterized in part by the fact that the streamer, which in this case is eight kilometers long, is towed somewhat deeper in the water than is the case in conventional seismic acquisition. This means that the streamer can withstand higher waves, thus making the acquisition activity less dependent on weather and consequently more efficient.

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Petrobangla to Invite Int'l Gas Block Bids in July

- Petrobangla to Invite Int'l Gas Block Bids in July

Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Asia Pulse Pte Ltd.

Bangladesh's state-owned oil and gas firm Petrobangla may get the final nod sometime next in June and begin international bidding for the country's gas blocks in July, Energy Ministry officials have said.

According to the officials, the preparation is progressing at an accelerated pace targeting the middle of the year to invite international oil companies (IOCs) in the Bidding Round 2011.

This will be the fourth international bidding after the last caretaker government had invited the third round bidding in 2008.

Energy Ministry officials said the nagging gas crisis has prompted the government to go for hurried international bidding.

An official said the Petrobangla has already prepared a map for the whole bidding area covering both the offshore and onshore areas of the country.

As per the bidding plan, the country's total area has been divided into 68 gas blocks but the bidding will be held for only 31 blocks - 23 onshore areas and eight offshore areas. During the third round bidding, the country's total area was divided into 57 gas blocks.

An Energy Ministry official said the bidding will be kept confined only within the onshore and shallow-water block areas where no dispute exists.

He said the blocks located in deep sea areas have been left out of the bidding as some of them have disputes of overlapping with neighbors.

The disputed areas now await a settlement in the UNCLOS, a UN agency responsible to deal with the maritime boundary dispute for settlement.

Petrobangla officials said they have already sent an initial plan to the Energy Division for scrutiny and necessary observation.

"Upon receiving the Energy Division's observations, we will prepare the final draft for the bidding and also other relevant documentations, including some promotional packages for the interested investors," a top official of Petrobangla told UNB.

"Petrobangla will then place the bidding plan to an inter-ministerial meeting to be convened by the Energy Ministry," he said. "When we receive the nod from that meeting, we would go for the bidding."

The official felt that the remaining process will take about a month and the bidding will finally be floated in July.

He said in the coming round of bidding, there will be some changes in the context of global scenario of hydrocarbon and petroleum business.

(C) 2011 Asia Pulse Pte Ltd.

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Shell to Start Drilling at Iraq Majnoon Oil Field in July

Shell to Start Drilling at Iraq Majnoon Oil Field in July

Thursday, March 31, 2011
by  Hassan Hafidh

Shell along with its partners, Malaysia's Petronas and the Iraqi state Missan Oil Co., will start drilling the first new well in the super-giant Majnoon oil field in July, a company executive said Thursday.

"Shell is targeting July 2011 to spud the first well," Ole Myklestad, managing director of Shell in Iraq told reporters in Basra.

Between 15 and 20 wells will be drilled in Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq and some 27 others will be refurbished to bring output to 175,000 barrels a day by the end of next year from the current 60,000 barrels a day, Myklestad said. The new wells and the refurbish work is part of an early production plan.

The well drilling is part of a contract Shell and its partners signed with U.S. service giant Halliburton and the state-run Iraqi Drilling Co. last year.

The executive also said that Shell has opened a new office in Basra to manage its projects in Iraq. The office is to make sure that "we have the human resources and all the supports required by an international company in Basra."

Myklestad said that there are some 300 Iraqis working on the Majnoon project and they are from the state-run South Oil Co. Some 50 Shell expatriate personnel are also working on the project, he said.

Shell and Petronas won the right to develop Majnoon oil field, located in Basra governorate in southern Iraq, at an auction held in Baghdad December 2009. Shells owns 45% of the venture and Petronas 30%, with Iraq's Missan Oil Co. the remaining 25%.

Shell also will start constructing a 75 kilometer pipeline to connect Majnoon with the crude oil depots in Faw, as a stop before shipping the crude into vessels in the Gulf. Myklestad said that Shell and its partner would provide the finance for building the pipeline.

The Anglo-Dutch giant is also planning to commence a seismic survey but after clearing mines left from the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.

"We want to get results of a seismic survey in the next two years," he said.