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Intertek opens new petroleum laboratory in Singapore

Intertek, the world's leading provider of testing and inspection services, has opened a new petroleum laboratory inside the Universal Terminal on Jurong Island. Universal Terminal is Asia's largest commercial oil storage facility and is co-owned by Singapore Oil Trading Firm, Hin Leong and PetroChina.

The new Intertek laboratory provides important quality testing and inspection services to customers of the large storage complex, complementing the extensive expertise and laboratory testing capabilities provided by the nearby Intertek Singapore Technical Centre laboratory.

Marc Hoffer, President for Intertek Oil, Chemical Agri in Asia Pacific, said, "Singapore is a key petroleum hub for the region. Our new facility at Universal Terminal is a strategic investment for Intertek, increasing support available to key petroleum clients and supporting their business needs across the region."

Occupying 8,000 sq feet, the new Intertek Universal Laboratory provides comprehensive laboratory testing services to support Universal Terminal Tenant needs as well as Intertek regional customers. Intertek is the only third-party independent laboratory in the terminal.

Intertek provides support services such as fuel quantity and quality inspection, petroleum testing, bunker fuel testing to ISO 8217, bunker fuel quantity surveying, In-line Automatic Sampling, along with fuel oil and gasoline blending. Additional services include fuel and logistical consultancy, marine services, and storage tank calibration.

The new laboratory operates on a 24/7 basis and operates with a new state-of-the-art information management system (LIMS). Singapore customers also benefit from Intertek's fast on-site sample-pick-up system, FastLab. It is expected that the new laboratory will be ISO 17025 accredited by 2008.

Intertek (LSE:ITRK) is a leading international provider of quality and safety services to a wide range of global and local industries. Partnership with Intertek brings increased value to customers' products and processes, ultimately supporting their success in the global market place.

Intertek has the experience, expertise, resources and global reach to support its customers through its extensive network of laboratories and offices and over 20,000 people in more than 100 countries around the world. For further information, visit www.intertek.com.

Intertek's Oil, Chemical Agri (OCA) division provides testing, inspection and other services to the world's petroleum, chemical, mineral and agricultural industries, including laboratory analysis, cargo inspection, consulting and related expertise. Intertek offers a wide range of RD, laboratory testing, inspection, consultancy, outsourcing and related activities to support clients on a global basis.

AFP

Oil steady as eyes possible OPEC hike, US economy

Oil was steady on Tuesday, after having settled lower for the third consecutive day on hints that OPEC could raise output when it meets next in February and amid continuing economic concerns.

U.S. light crude for January delivery which expires later on Tuesday, was up 7 cents at $90.70 a barrel by 0257 GMT.

London Brent crude was up 11 cents at $91.40.

The U.S. contract settled 64 cents lower at $90.63 on Monday, off an intraday low of $89.49, after Algeria's oil minister and incoming OPEC president Chakib Khelil said the cartel may increase output at a Feb. 1 meeting if the market needed more crude.

Khelil's comment came less than two weeks after OPEC met in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 5, and decided not to raise output.

There are signs that OPEC supply is already rising in December as a period of maintenance ends at oilfields in the United Arab Emirates.

Worries about supplies as the Northern Hemisphere headed into winter helped send U.S. crude to near $100 a barrel in late November, but worries of a possible glut should there be a recession in top energy market the United States have pulled prices back to $90.

"With demand growth losing steam in the west and fresh supply in the pipeline, oil trends may already have passed a tipping point, setting the stage for further drops to an average $79-$80/barrel for WTI in 2008," Antoine Halff, an energy research analyst with Fimat, said in a note released overnight.

Signs that the U.S. economy may be weakening are multiplying and prompting increasing warnings that a recession is around the corner.

U.S. home builder sentiment remained at a record low for a third consecutive month in December, weighed down by problems in the mortgage market and a huge supply of unsold houses, an industry group said on Monday.

Oil prices could rebound later this week if weekly stocks data shows a fall in crude and distillates stocks as forecast by analysts.

U.S. crude oil inventories likely fell for the fifth week in a row last week as fog hit import deliveries at the Houston Ship Channel, a preliminary Reuters poll of industry analysts showed on Monday.

Distillate stocks, that include heating oil and diesel, were forecast to have fallen for the second consecutive week, while gasoline supplies probably rose for the sixth straight week, the survey showed.

On average, crude stocks were expected to have fallen 1.4 million barrels while distillate stocks likely declined 600,000 barrels, analysts said.

SINGAPORE (Reuters)

Malaysia palm futures down but weather woes support

Malaysian crude palm oil futures fell 0.7 percent on Tuesday as investors cashed in on the previous session's strong gains amid weaknesses in crude and soyoil markets, traders said. But the prospect of recent rains and floods further affecting harvest and transport of the vegetable oil prevented losses from deepening.

Palm oil, used in products ranging from sun tan lotion and margarine to biofuel, is just 3.7 percent off a record high of 3,068 ringgit hit in November.

The benchmark March contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 21 ringgit to 2,954 ringgit ($883) a tonne by the end of the morning session.

"The market was overbought yesterday and the factor of crude and soyoil was a catalyst for profit-taking," said a senior dealer with a foreign commodities trading firm.

"However, the main issue is the wet weather, which is preventing palm oil from reaching the buyers and there will be a lot of unsatisfied orders and demand." Other traded months fell between 4 and 26 ringgit .

Overall trade halved to 2,129 lots of 25 tonnes each from around 5,000 lots that usually change hands by the midday break.

Floods in Malaysia's key palm growing regions are likely to reduce December crude palm oil output, the chairman of Malaysian Palm Oil Board said on Tuesday. "I think December production is going to be down.

At this stage it is difficult to say how much but the estimate for 2007 production is 15.5 to 15.7 million tonnes," Sabri Ahmad told Reuters. Floods in Malaysia have left more than 24,000 homeless and cut off roads in several states, including central Pahang state and Johor in the south, which are key palm oil producing areas.

Kuala Lumpur (Reuters)

China says roads reach 90 percent of population

Main roads and highways now reach more than 90 percent of China's 1.3 billion people and have brought enormous economic benefits well worth the estimated 900 billion yuan ($122 billion) cost, officials said on Tuesday.

By 2010, every village in China's remote and poor west, home to restless minority groups, would be reachable on a sealed road, said Dong Xuebo, head of the Communications Ministry's general planning departments.

These routes - which stretch from the Russian and Mongolian borders down to Tibet and the fringes of Southeast Asia - were also important for national defence, unity and stability, even if some, such as in the west of the country, were only sparsely used, he added.

"The main strategic reason for building trunk roads in the west is for socio-economic development, despite the few people," he told a news conference. "Building roads in the west gives far more economic benefit than those in the east, according to the latest World Bank report. "But they are also extremely strategically important, and guarantee national unity, stability and security," Dong said. "It's not simply about satisfying traffic demands."

China has embarked upon a breakneck programme of road building since it started opening to the outside world three decades ago and embarking on reforms which have made it the world's fourth largest economy and an export powerhouse.

It took a decade to build China's first 10,000 km (6,215 miles) of highways, and it now has 53,000 km, the second highest level in the world, said Dai Dongchang, the ministry's road department director.

"Many countries and international organisations have seen this success with a mixture of envy and admiration," he said.

Efforts are currently being concentrated on 800 kms of roads being built in difficult environments in the southwestern provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, added Weng Mengyong, Vice Minister of Communications.

The government would look at ways of reducing and "perfecting" the toll system many highways operate, Meng said, which dissuades many Chinese against using the new road network.

BEIJING (Reuters)

Indonesia, UNICEF ink US$125 mln deal on child projects - officials

Indonesia and the UN children's agency signed off on a new agreement Monday aimed at raising the living standards of children throughout the archipelago, UNICEF's Indonesia representative said. The 125 million dollar agreement will encompass a range of projects to tackle mother and child health and education in 2008, Gianfranco Rotigliano said.

A focus of next year's efforts would be promoting proper sanitation for children "which means advocacy and behaviour change for children to wash their hands and putting taps into schools," Rotigliano said.

The annual work plan is to also include construction of 130 new schools in Indonesia's Aceh province, the area worst hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, he said.UNICEF also secured Indonesian government agreement for HIV/AIDS prevention and education, particularly in the eastern Papua region, where the disease is most widespread, UNICEF spokeswoman Kendartanti Subroto said.

JAKARTA, (AFP)