The US Energy Information Administration said annual domestic carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels rose by 1% in 1999, reaching 1,511 million tonnes of carbon, according to preliminary estimates. Although the 1% growth rate was slightly below the average annual growth rate of 1.2% observed during 1990-99, said EIA, it was higher than the 1998 growth rate of 0.1%. EIA's final numbers for 1999 should be available in October. The administration said carbon dioxide emissions "are a good early indicator of the level of, and rate of change in, total US greenhouse gas emissions."
Formosa Petrochemical Corp., a subsidiary of the Formosa Plastics Group, has launched its retail gasoline sales business with the inauguration of its first full-service station in Taiwan. FPC expects to have 30 service stations in operation by the end of this year and plans eventually to operate a nationwide chain of more than 500 outlets. As of the end of April, state firm Chinese Petroleum Corp. operated 733 service stations, 603 of which were company-owned and 130 of which were operated on a franchise basis. Another 1,341 stations are operated by several dozen private companies.
PDVSA Bitor, a unit of state oil corporation Petroleos de Venezuela SA, has dispatched a second shipment of about 212,332 tonnes of Venezuela�s trademark boiler fuel Orimulsion to China, PDVSA announced Friday. The shipment was delivered from the Jose Industrial complex Orimulsion terminal in Anzoategui state on July 1 and was the second shipment of the product to China this year, said Bitor official Jos�uis Gil. The first shipment, involving 182,300 tonnes, was delivered last February.
