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Life-insurance premium growth exceeds expectations
Thai life-insurance premium during the first two months of 2013 rose 19.49 per cent year on year to Bt68.08 billion, versus the 17-per-cent growth estimated by the Thai Life Assurance Association.
Bt33.33 billion of the total was achieved in January, said the association.
The growth is due to the further development of products and sales channels by insurance firms to better serve customers.
Chevron and partners extend condensate sales agreement with PTT
Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production and its partners, Mitsui Oil Exploration and PTT Exploration and Production, recently signed an extension of the companies’ condensate sales agreement with PTT.
The extended agreement is effective from 2013 to 2022.
The agreement had been originally signed by Chevron and the partners in 1998 to supply condensate to PTT. Since then, condensate has become a valuable feedstock for Thailand’s refineries and petrochemical industry.
The contract extension demonstrates Chevron’s long-term commitment to delivering indigenous energy to meet the needs of the country, the company said in a statement.
Exim Thailand provides $9m financing to Mermaid Maritime
Export-Import Bank of Thailand has provided merchant-marine financing worth US$9 million (Bt261 million) to Mermaid Maritime for the inspection, repair and maintenance services of the company’s Thai-flagged offshore drilling vessel, in line with the government’s policy to promote maritime business development.
Bank president Kanit Sukonthaman and Chalermchai Mahagitsiri, CEO and executive vice chairman of Mermaid Maritime, co-signed the credit-facility agreement on April 5.
The loan objective is to finance Mermaid Maritime’s Special Periodic Survey (SPS) to enhance the efficiency of a tender drilling rig, MTR2, to meet future service demands.
Mermaid Maritime is a subsidiary of Thoresen Thai Agencies.
Realising Mermaid Maritime’s potential, Exim Thailand has arranged the loan facility to help advance the development of the company’s subsea engineering and tender rig drilling business for the offshore oil and gas industry.
Mermaid Maritime’s client base includes leading international oil and petroleum companies such as Chevron.
There are only 47 tender rigs around the world, mostly operating in Southeast Asian seas.
Purchase of NGV buses approved
The Cabinet yesterday approved the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority’s procurement of 3,183 natural-gas-fuelled public buses worth Bt13.162 billion to replace diesel-powered ones.
Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt said the procurement would enable the BMTA to save Bt2.616 billion per year. The Finance Ministry will provide a loan to the authority, which will be included in the government's 2014 public-debt management. The BMTA can repay the loan over 10 years at an interest rate of 4 per cent per annum. The procurement will be completed within 18 months via e-auction.
Existing BMTA buses serve 1.7 million passengers per day, which is expected to rise to 2.5 million after the procurement of gas-powered buses. Also yesterday, the Cabinet yesterday approved borrowing by the Provincial Electricity Authority of Bt5.64 billion to refinance yen-nominated loans it borrowed from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, as part of the state agency's restructuring of foreign loans.
PTTEP rated
Moody's Investors Service has revised to “stable” from “negative” the outlook on the “Baa1” issuer rating of PTT Exploration and Production, and the outlook on all debt ratings guaranteed by PTTEP.
Moody's also affirmed the ratings of PTTEP after the company improved its financial flexibility through a successful US$3-billion (Bt87-billion) rights issuance late last year to finance the acquisition of Cove Energy and for future capital expenditures.
Power peaks
Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal revealed that the country's electricity use yesterday peaked at about 25,300 megawatts at 2.30pm, lower than the 25,700MW anticipated by the ministry. However, it was higher than on April 5, when the peak was 24,955MW, as many factories restarted operations yesterday. Today’s peak is expected to reach about 25,700MW.
Thana Puttarangsi, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand's deputy governor for transmission systems, said PTT had informed it that Myanmar had already completed 46 per cent of the repair work for the Yanada gas field, faster than the previous plan targeting 44 per cent by now.
If this rate is maintained, Myanmar will complete the work and resume the release of gas at midnight this Saturday. The next day at 7am, the three power plants in Ratchaburi would switch back from bunker oil to natural gas, while the halted power plants at Pranakorn Nua and Pranakorn Tai would resume normal operations on 5 am next Monday.
