Ring! Rosa sees breakeven Q4 result: Dutch telecom software maker Ring! Rosa Products NV said on Friday it expected to achieve a breakeven operating result in the fourth quarter of this year. Ring! Rosa, which was floated on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in June, posted a net loss of 4.5 million guilders during the first six months of 1998, the firm said in a statement. There was no appropriate comparison for the same period last year, but the firm said during the full year 1997 the net loss was 6.04 million guilders. The first half of this year saw a sharp growth of turnover to 2.30 million guilders, more than during allof 1997 when sales were 2.13 million, it said. "The emphasis on sales will result in a continuation of sharp growth figures, resulting in a breakeven operating result (before amortisation and depreciation) for the fourth quarter 1998," Ring! Rosa said.

Qantas, Telstra in telecom deal: Telstra Corp will build a new telecommunications network for Qantas Airways Ltd aimed at improving customer services such as check-ins and reservations, the national carrier said on Friday. The new network is to be based on a high-speed" asynchronous transfer mode" and the six-year project would connect all Qantas operational and administrative offices around Australia. It would also give the carrier advanced telephone, computer, Internet and intranet networks. "This new technology will create additional capacity for the airline's day-to-day business," Qantas chief executive James Strong said in a statement. "The new telecommunications network will increase the size and stability of the airline's existing voice andcommunications systems," he said. Telstra chief executive Frank Blount said the telecommunications giant would design and manage the network for Qantas.

Exxon awarded $171 million in Mobil lawsuit: Exxon Corp. said Tuesday it was awarded $171 million by a U.S. Federal court in Texas in a patent lawsuit against Mobil Corp. over a so-called "smart catalyst" used to make plastics and rubber. In a statement, Exxon the world's second-largest oil company, said the U.S. District Court in Houston ruled U.S.-Based major Mobil infringed on its metallocene catalyst patent. As well as the $171 million damages awarded Exxon, the company said it expected Mobil will be enjoined from further infringement of the patent. Mobil officials were not available for comment. Exxon said the Texas ruling marked the second validation of the metallocene patent, the first being in Japan in February, where the patent was granted over the opposition of several major companies.

Taiwan buys 10,500T MTBE for September at $228/T:Taiwan's state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) [CHIP.CN] bought three 3,500-tonne methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) cargoes by tender at around $228 per tonne cost-and-freight (C-and-F), traders said on Wednesday. The tender, which closed August 7 and was valid for two days, sought the cargoes for September 3-20 delivery to Keelung and Kaohsiung. Traders said the award was made to two sellers, but no names were disclosed. In its last tender, CPC purchased one 3,500-tonne cargo for delivery between August 3-20 at $237 per tonne C-and-F.

Taiwan tenders to buy octane reformate: Taiwan's state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) has issued a tender to buy 95-octane unleaded reformate for delivery between October 1-15, a company official said last week. The tender seeks at least one 250,000-barrel cargo for delivery on a cost and freight (C-and-F) basis to Keelung, Kaohsiung, Shalung or Taichung. It closes on August 18 with offers valid for two days. In its last tender, for September 16-30delivery, CPC awarded two cargoes at $17.00 per barrel, traders said. CPC has also issued a tender to buy low sulphur fuel oil for delivery in the second half of September. The tender seeks one 38,000 tonne cargo each of 0.5 per cent sulphur fuel of up to 424 centistoke (cst) for delivery September 16-30 and of up to 638-cst for September 11-30 delivery, he said. The tender closes on August 17 and offers are valid for two days. In its last tender, CPC bought four cargoes at between $76-81 per tonne for delivery in August and September.

Japan July ethylene output up: Japan's ethylene output in July rose 4.6 per cent from a year earlier due largely to the fact only one plant was closed for maintenance compared with two in July last year, the trade ministry said last week. A ministry official said that ethylene production last month amounted to 607,900 tonnes. The rise halted the year-on-year slide in ethylene production reported for five consecutive months until June. "Fundamentals remain weak, but thetotal capacity of plants in operation during the period was much larger than July last year and this pushed up the production figure," the official said. Japan's production of ethylene, which had enjoyed steady growth over the past four years, has slowed this year due to the Financial crisis in Asia which has cut demand for ethylene-derived products. Ethylene is processed into a wide range of petrochemical products from car tyres to plastic bags.

Shell Singapore closes one CDU: Shell Singapore said last week that it was running only two of its three crude units at the 59,000 tonne-per-day (tpd) refinery to achieve the lower 73 per cent operating rate. "For the month of August 1998 we plan a crude run level of around 42,000-tpd to 43,000-tpd. This in effect means we will shut down one of our crude distillers for the duration," a Shell spokesman said in reply to a Reuters query. The spokesman said no specific crude unit has been targetted for shut down which gives Shell the flexibility to choose whichunits to run. The Shell refinery has three crude units, the bigger unit with a refining capacity of 200,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) and two smaller ones with 115,000-bpd each. Asian refiners have slashed output significantly in August due to plummeting margins which have sunk into the red to the tune of a loss of $1.50 per barrel refined at the basic stage.

Egyptian crude output up: Egyptian crude oil production rose to an average of 826,667 barrels per day (bpd) in July from 816,667 bpd in June, the state's Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) said last week. EGPC said natural gas sales went up slightly to 1.35 billion cubic feet a day from 1.28 billion cubic feet in June. The rise highlights the government's increasing dependence on gas for industrial and domestic use. Natural gas sales figures are slightly lower than production figures as producing firms use part of it to operate their facilities, an EGPC official said. Condensates output rose to 40,000 bpd in July from 38,000 bpd in June.Liquefied petroleum gas output rose to 31,333 bpd from 30,000 bpd in June.

India sells naphtha to Vitol: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sold one 25,000-tonne cargo of high aromatics naphtha (HAN) to Dutch trader Vitol at a $20.20 per tonne discount to Japanese spot quotes, traders said last week. The tender, which closed August 7 and carried a one-day validity, sold the cargo lifting August 21-23 on a free-on-board (fob) basis from the West coast port of Mumbai. In its last HAN tender, IOC sold one 26,000-tonne cargo lifting from Mumbai on August 5-7 to Malaysian state-owned oil trading company Petco at a $24.45 per tonne discount to Japanese spot quotes, traders said.

Oil spills into sea near Peru: An oil slick on Peru's southern coast threatened a seal reserve and bird sanctuary after a spill from a pipe that juts into the sea to load ships with crude, authorities said. Winds were dragging the 600-foot-long (200-meter-long) slick out to sea some nine miles (14 km) from the Paracas naturereserve, one of Peru's top tourist attractions near the southern town of Pisco. "We do not know if it can reach the Paracas reserve because the spill is moving toward open sea because of the current wind direction," said Luis Sandoval, spokesman for the Pisco local government.

China's Daqing shuts 1,000 wells: China's northeastern Daqing oil fields, the nation's largest producer, has closed more than 1,000 wells because of waterlogging caused by recent flooding and rains, a local official said last week. ``The wells had become waterlogged after 10 days of constant heavy rains," the official told Reuters by telephone. The official declined to say what impact the closures would have on output at Daqing in northeastern Heilongjiang province. "Toutai oilfield is inundated because it is located in a flood diversion zone for the Songhua River," he added, referring to the portion of Daqing field directly hit by floods. Most of the wells were not in the river flood zone, but were swamped by heavy rains thathad struck Heilongjiang and nearby Inner Mongolia, he said. More than 3,000 Daqing oilfield workers were sent to help reinforce dikes along the swollen Nenjiang River, he said.

FCL Energy finds new oil reserves: Fletcher Energy had recorded proven reserves of 278,000 barrels of oil and 40.8 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas for its Mangahewa-2 well in Taranaki, the company said in its weekly drilling and production testing report last week. In its final weekly report on the well before it goes into full production, FCL Energy said testing was now complete apart from a final build up. Over 13 months of testing to the end of July, the well produced a total of two billion bcf, at rates of up to 18 million standard cubic feet per day