IN BRIEF (Page 4)

Electricity sales up

China Southern Power Grid Co plans to sell 506.8 billion kWh of electricity in 2009, up 5 percent year-on- year.

The company, which manages power supply in five provinces and autonomous regions in south China, said power demand in the region would recover gradually in the second half due to the government's economic stimulus plan.

The company also plans to invest 88 billion yuan in 2009 to upgrade its power systems, an increase of 83 percent from a year earlier.

CNOOC 2008 sales rise

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), the country's third largest oil and gas producer, said full year sales revenue rose 22.4 percent from a year ago to 98.3 billion yuan in 2008.

By the end of 2008, the company's total assets had amounted to 428.5 billion yuan, up 267 percent from five years earlier.

The company's listed arm CNOOC Ltd said earlier that it plans to lift its 2009 crude and gas production by 16 percent to 18 percent, as some significant projects are expected to come online this year.

Sinopec output rises

Asia's largest refiner Sinopec Group said that it produced 41.8 million tons of crude oil in 2008, up 1.8 percent from a year earlier.

The Beijing-based company produced 8.26 billion cu m of natural gas last year, an increase of 3.3 percent from 2007.

Sinopec said it added 298 million tons of proven geological oil reserves in 2008, with recoverable reserves of 45.5 million tons.

The company's discoveries of proven natural gas deposits totaled 53.9 billion cu m and recoverable reserves were 30.8 billion cu m.

Power subsidies

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) will give as much as 10 billion yuan subsidies to the five leading power generating companies and the two grid companies to cover their losses caused by last year's snowstorms, the Sichuan earthquake, soaring coal costs and capped power tariffs, reported China Business Journal, citing an unnamed source with State Grid Corp of China.

The five power producers are China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corp, China Guodian Corp, China Huadian Corp and China Power Investment Corp, and the two grid companies are State Grid and China Southern Power Grid Co.

Datang output boost

Datang International Power Generation Co Ltd said it generated 126.69 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity in 2008, up 7.12 percent, due to increased capacity.

Power sales to grid companies rose 6.97 percent to 119.11 billion kWh, according to a statement filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The company's State-owned parent China Datang Corp said it booked a net loss of 6.35 billion yuan in 2008 due to surging coal costs, although operating revenue rose 17.19 percent to 101.6 billion yuan.

The parent company added that total power output in 2008 rose 15.82 percent to 352.96 billion kWh, while generation capacity stood at 82.42 million kw at the end of 2008.

Huaneng to post a loss

Huaneng Power International said it expects to post a loss for 2008 due to a drastic rise in thermal-coal prices.

It said increased power tariffs were unable to offset the rise in fuel costs. The company posted a net profit of 6.16 billion yuan in 2007 under international accounting standards.

(China Daily 02/09/2009 page4)