The court "dismissed the complaints, which means the privatization law of PTT will not be revoked," Chief Judge Charan Hathagam said as he read out the verdict of the five-member panel.

But in the course of a two-hour reading of its verdict on the suit against the largest company on the Bangkok bourse, the Supreme Administrative Court said the pipelines and the land on which they were built were national assets.

"The court orders defendants to return the assets to the Ministry of Finance before the establishment of a regulator for the energy business, now pending," Charan said.

Analysts said the loss of PTT's pipelines, worth about 10 billion baht ($300 million), would dent PTT earnings as the business accounted for 10-15 percent of the group's profits.

"What used to be a profit for PTT will become a cost. Obviously, this is going to weigh on its earnings and share valuations," Kasikorn Securities head of research Kavee Chukijkasem said.

China Likely to be Net Coal Importer in 2008

China is likely to be a net coal importer next year and see domestic coal prices rise by approximately 10%, a senior official with the China Development Research Center of Coal Industry said at a forum held in Beijing.

Guo Yuntao, the center's director, made the forecast at Coal Tech Asia 2007, based on the ongoing growth being seen in domestic coal demand and prices.

The forecast is in line with research contained within an International Energy Agency report published last month entitled “World Energy Outlook 2007 - China and India Insights”.

The report said while 90% of China's coal resources are located in the country's north, coal demand is growing most significantly in southern coastal regions. When coupled with limited transportation capacity and rising prices, it is becoming increasingly cost effective for southern coastal coal consumers to import coal from overseas.

The report predicted that by 2010, China could be importing 50 million tonnes more coal than it exports, and that by 2030, some 35% of domestic coal demand will be met by imports. The report also said that thermal power stations are set to continue to be the country's major coal consumers over the next 20 years.

However, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), surnamed Geng, said that China's coal imports and exports will remain balanced in the long term, and that China will only be a net coal importer in the short term.

Indian State Firms to Hunt Overseas Coal Assets

State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) has joined hands with four other public-sector undertakings-- Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), NTPC Ltd and National Mineral Development Corp (NMDC) -- to look for and acquire coal mines abroad.

The NTPC, SAIL and IRNL are among the country's biggest coal consumers.

"The government has approved formation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with the five public sector undertakings - CIL, NTPC, SAIL, RINL and NDMC - as constituents for acquiring coal mines abroad to ensure security of supply of coking coal and high-quality thermal coal to meet their demand," Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao told the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian parliament.

"The approved initial authorized capital of the SPV has been fixed at Rs.100 billion. The SPV has an initial equity capital of Rs.35 billion. Towards that, SAIL and CIL have contributed Rs.10 billion each as an initial equity capital, while the other three PSUs have contributed Rs.5 billion each," the minister added.

The CIL through its subsidiary Coal Videsh has also been exploring opportunities for acquisition of coal properties in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Canada and Australia, the minister said.

China's Draft Energy Law to up Reserves

China has released a draft of a long-awaited energy law that calls for the country to keep larger reserves of oil, uranium and other key resources and to set up a new government department.

But the draft law makes scant mention of measures needed to counter soaring emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global climate change.

Beijing has no separate energy ministry of its own, and the lack of unified policies for the industry is viewed as one factor behind recent fuel shortages, price gouging and other problems.

The new law is intended to help the country better develop the strategically vital energy sector. The government will collect opinions on the draft until February 1 and later is expected to present it to the National People's Congress for approval.

SAARC Energy Center Meet Held

A meeting of the SAARC Energy Center was held in Islamabad recently. Leading energy experts representing Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka attended the meeting, chaired by Bangladesh being current chairman of the SAARC Energy Center.

The meeting discussed the modalities and outcome of energy trade study being undertaken under the auspicious of the Asian Development Bank, which is aimed at addressing opportunities and challenges in the trade of energy commodities and services within the SAARC region for the mutual benefit of the member countries.

It was observed that inter-connections of electricity grid of regional countries was the ultimate objective emanating from this study which would help overcome energy deficit in different areas of the region through lead management and increased power availability.

The governing board analyzed the success stories as well as the failure in the implementation of transfer of energy technologies, identified areas, which needed to be addressed by learning from each other’s experience.

The improvements in efficiency of energy technologies were recommended to be the preferred solutions for enhancing availability of energy to urban as well as rural population.