AirNZ pullout from Singapore a boon for SIA

business-times.asia1.com.sg :

Air New Zealand's loss could be Singapore Airlines's gain. The Kiwi carrier's surprise decision to pull out of Singapore from October could hand SIA some $40-60 million in passenger and cargo business, industry insiders say. With SIA the sole direct carrier between Singapore and New Zealand, it will be the preferred choice for cargo and passengers.

SIA operates 24 direct flights to Auckland and 14 direct flights to Christchurch every week. And with AirNZ out of the picture, SIA has a virtual stranglehold on traffic between Singapore and New Zealand's two biggest cities. In contrast to AirNZ's experience, SIA's New Zealand-Singapore route has proved to be profitable because it provides direct multiple daily connections to various European capitals. But SIA may not be alone on the route for long. Emirates is already exploring the possibility of starting direct flights from Singapore to Auckland.

Shell 2Q2006 profit rises 36% to $6.3 billion, but production falls

news.yahoo.com :

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell beat forecasts with a 36% rise in second-quarter profits, boosting its shares, as high oil prices more than compensated for disappointing production news. The world's third largest fully publicly traded oil company by market value said in a statement that its second-quarter current cost of supply (CCS) net profit, which strips out changes in inventory values, rose 36% to $6.3 billion.

Lower than expected production of oil and gas took some shine off the results. Shell's production of oil and gas fell almost 8% to average 3.253 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the second quarter, compared with an average forecast of 3.315 million boepd. Shell cut its 2006 output target, saying its production would be around 3.4 million boepd rather than the 3.5-3.6 million boepd earlier envisaged if outages related to civil strife in Nigeria continue.

California is cooking

peakoil.com -> cnn.com :

The high-pressure system over California has brought 100-degree (43 degC) weather, the potential of more deaths and another strain on utilities. State and local authorities reported at least 56 possible heat-related deaths since the mercury first spiked upward.

There were blackouts throughout the state, as record demand and high temperatures caused transformers to explode. The state's power consumption peaked Tuesday afternoon at 49,762 megawatts, shy of the record 50,270 megawatts set Monday. The total number of California residents who have lost electricity at some point during the heat wave topped 1.5 million.

California wasn't the only state dealing with the strain of the heat. The St. Louis, Missouri, area was expected to have electricity restored Wednesday to all customers, thousands of whom have been without power for a week. In the Queens borough of New York City, a blackout that left about 100,000 people without electricity during some of the hottest days of the year ended early Wednesday.

HP to buy Mercury Interactive for $4.5 billion

news.yahoo.com :

Hewlett-Packard Co. agreed to buy Mercury Interactive Corp. for about $4.5 billion in stock, or $52 per share, in a bid to expand the computer maker's business software operations. The purchase of the former star Israeli technology company puts HP in closer competition with other major systems management software providers, including IBM's Tivoli, CA Inc.'s UniCenter and BMC Software.

The move by HP is part of its strategy to develop what it has called "the data center of the future" and Mercury will aid in that effort, analysts said. It's also the biggest acquisition by HP since its controversial $19 billion purchase of Compaq in May 2002.

(2006-07-29 00:35:24 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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