Economic Briefs

Ethiopian rebels warn Petronas on exploration * NAIROBI – Ethiopia’s Ogaden rebels warned Malaysia’s Petronas yesterday that they would not tolerate oil exploration in their remote eastern region, saying it would link the company to war crimes by the Ethiopian military.
The Malaysian state-owned company is one of more than a dozen international explorers hunting for oil and gas deposits in different parts of the huge Horn of Africa country.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels said that everyone should know that Ogaden was a war zone and the government had no right to sign contracts there. – Nampa-Reuters

Toyota orders 11-day output halt

* TOKYO – Toyota Motor Corp is to halt production at its Japanese plants for 11 days in February and March as a sharp slide in US sales has left dealers’ lots full of unsold cars.
A 37 per cent slump in December sales in Toyota’s biggest market was its sharpest fall in more than a quarter of a century and worse than declines at struggling US rivals General Motors and Ford Motor. – Nampa-Reuters

Iran makes deepest oil supply cut

* SINGAPORE – Iran will cut oil supplies to at least two of its Asian customers by 14 per cent this month, sources with the lifters said yesterday, the most visible sign yet of Opec’s number two producer implementing deep output curbs.
The cuts to two small buyers, Iran’s first reduction in supplies to its core Asian customers in at least three years, will add to growing evidence that OPEC members are adhering to the group’s biggest ever production cut, although it remained unclear how broadly Tehran’s limits would be applied.
– Nampa-Reuters

Lamy sole candidate for WTO

* GENEVA – The World Trade Organisation said Monday that its current director-general, Pascal Lamy, would be unopposed in his bid to renew his mandate when it expires in August this year.
None of the organisation’s 153 member states put forward another candidate by the deadline of December 31 2008.
Lamy, who took the helm of the global trade watchdog in September 2005, announced last November that he would aim to take on a second term in office when his current four-year mandate expires in August.
The WTO’s members are due to elect the next chief at a meeting of the trade watchdog’s ruling General Council next month. – Nampa-AFP