VENEZUELA'S PLATAFORMA DELTANA BOOSTS CHEVRON'S LNG PLANS.
Chevron Corporation's (NYSE:CVX) Venezuela affiliate has announced a significant natural gas discovery at the offshore Macuira 1X exploration well, advancing the company's plans to evaluate Venezuela's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. The Macuira 1X well encountered six gas intervals with total gross thickness of 456 feet...

RG GLOABAL IMPLEMENTS LOI PACT WITH CATALYX FLUIDS.
RG Global Lifestyles, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: RGBL), Irvine, Calif.,has implemented the terms of the LOI agreement it signed with Catalyx Fluid Solutions, Inc. (CFS) located in Anaheim, California, wherein CFS will grant a definitive license to RG Global's subsidiary AQUAIR, Inc. to use and sublicense CFS's proprietary technology in...

Filipino company to explore for oil in Cagayan Valley Basin.
Byline: MYRNA M. VELASCO A Filipino-owned firm Aragorn Power and Energy Corporation (APEC) has inked Service Contract No. 48 with the Department of Energy (DoE) for oil and gas exploration in the Cagayan Valley Basin. The energy department said this is the first wholly-owned Filipino...

PAF deploys 2 helicopters to secure Malampaya.
Byline: ANJO PEREZ and LOUIE PEREZ VILLAMOR AIR FORCE BASE, Pasay City The Philippine Air Force (PAF) yesterday dispatched two fully armed S76 helicopters to Palawan to provide air security for the Malampaya natural gas project. Malamapaya is the countrys largest source of natural gas...

EO 556 freezes oil/gas investments.
Byline: MYRNA M. VELASCO Until policy directions are cleared up, anticipated inflow of investments for oil and gas exploration ventures would be at standstill because of the confusing Executive Order 556. When asked for implications, Energy Undersecretary Guillermo Balce noted that they cannot proceed with...

EL PASO SELLS INTEREST IN KOREAN POWER PLANT FOR $276 MILLION.
El Paso Corporation (NYSE:EP) has entered into an agreement to sell its 50-percent interest in Korean Independent Energy Corporation (KIECO) for approximately $276 million to Korea Power Investments Co., Limited. KIECO owns a 1,800-megawatt combined-cycle LNG-fired power generation facility in the Republic of Korea that provides peak...

Bonds of disloyalty.
Code Cicada, by Warren Reed; HarperCollins, 2004, $19.95. IT'S RARE to encounter politically sophisticated works of fiction with a thriller bent that are set in Australia and the Asia-Pacific. So it's a real pleasure to come across the new novel by Warren Reed, Code Cicada--set in the...

BMB MUNAI BEGINS DRILLING IN AKSAZ FIELD.
BMB Munai, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: BMBM), has commenced drilling to increase the depth of the existing Aksaz 4 well located in the company's ADE block in the Mangistau Usturt High of the Mangyshlak Basin in western Kazakhstan. Alexandre Roshchin, production manager of the company's subsidiary Emir...

PNOC-EC calls off Malampaya sale.
Byline: MYRNA M. VELASCO Due to what is seemingly unattractive price offer put forward by interested party LG International Corporation (LGI), the Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) is temporarily abandoning plans to sell the 4.9 percent share of its equity in the Malampaya deep water gas-to-power...

LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.
Byline: The Register-Guard What about that first cell? Being neither observable nor repeatable, history is not directly a subject for science. However, forensic science can deal with history indirectly by evaluating the likelihood of particular theories about the past in the light of present observations....