British oil exploration company Cairn Energy Plc is seeking approval in Bangladesh for drilling more wells in prospective areas in southeastern Chittagong Hill Tracts and in the Bay of Bengal, a Cairn official said on Sunday. Cairn has already found nearly 850 billion cubic feet of gas reserves at Sangu offshore field in block 16, the first by any company to strike a reserve in the Bay of Bengal. The company started supplying 60 million cubic feet of gas per day from the field in the middle of this year.

But Heaton said that Sangu could produce more than 160 million cubic feet of gas as was stipulated in the contract. Cairn Energy in a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell participated in the second licencing round for six blocks but was only offered block-5 in a partial result announced on July 26, more than a year after the country called the bidding. Bangladesh has made known the results of only five blocks out of 15 it offered for bidding.

Heaton saidhis company was disappointed by the delay which cost the participating companies their "valuable time."

Silver up on firm global advices

Silver prices zoomed up on the bullion market today on hectic buying by stockists and industrial units coupled with firm overseas advices and closed with significant gains. On the other hand, gold continued its upward march on persistent local buying amidst a spectacular rise in its prices in international market. Marketmen said higher Mumbai reports and a rising trend in Hong Kong markets influenced the trading trend. Gold climbed up by another $2.50 at $288.25 an ounce. In Delhi, silver shot up by another Rs 145 at Rs 7,575 per kilo and standard gold by Rs 35 at Rs 4,105 per ounce. Gold was rising on a combination of short covering and currency related buying. Investors and major funds had revived gold's role as a safe haven for investment amid ongoing financial turmoil in Russia and Asian countries. The gains brought gold about $17 up from its 19-year recordlow on August 28 of $271.50 an ounce. Marketmen said US dollar tumbled to below a four-month low of 132 yen was another reason which boosted the bullion market sentiment.

Oilseed import notification

A notification on oilseed imports under open general license (OGL) is expected to be issued before the week-end and rice bran is among the oil-bearing materials whose shipments into the country has been allowed, official sources said on Monday. The notification was to have been issued last week but there was a delay due to various reasons, the sources in commerce ministry said. Besides rice bran, government has decided to allow import of sunflower seeds and soyabean. In case importers chose to bring in soyabean it would have to be split subject to quarantine conditions. The onus on setting up splitting facility was on those who were importing the oilseed, the sources said. Once soyabean was split, it had to be used within a stipulated time to be notified by the directorate general of foreign trade,they said. Importers also had the option of importing hybrid soyabean for which splitting would not be necessary. Import of oilseeds, like sunflower and split soyabean, was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Prices (CCP) 10 days ago a part of government's efforts to ease rising edible prices in the country and formulate a long-term export-import policy for agricultural products.

Model to forecast leaf infection

In a major breakthrough in disease management, the Tea Research Institute of the United Planters' Association of Southern India (Upasi) has developed a computerised model to forecast `blister blight' infection in tea leaves. The model can predict the infection for a particular week based on the previous week's weather data, disease incidence and spore count, MH Ashraff, chairman of Upasi tea committee, announced in his opening remarks to the technical session on tea at the 35th scientific conference of Upasi in Coonoor on Monday. Saying that research on micropropagation, somaticembryogenesis and isolation of protoplasts were continuing on the biotechnology front, Ashraff said that a protocol had been standardised for the induction of somatic embryoids from immature cotyledons. A method had also been standardised for the preparation of synthetic seeds. The institute had received a new tea clone `BSB-1' which had achieved a yield of 6,000 kg per hectare in the fourth year of the second pruning cycle. With similar agroclimatic conditions and elevation, the institute was evaluating imported and indigenous motorised harvesting machines. The impact of motorised shearing on the physiology of tea plants was also being investigated, he said.

Nickel continues to rise

Nickel prices continued to rise on non-ferrous metal market on Monday on buying by local polishing units and closed with gains. Marketmen said fresh buying by polishing units and electroplating industry mainly pushed up the prices. Higher London Metal Exchange (LME) advices also boosted the trading sentiment followingreports that a major Canadian producer would cut output by 8,000 tonne by closing down one of its unit, they said. Other metals were hit by gloomy world economic picture with turmoil in Russia and no sign of recovery in Asia outweighing positive effects of the rise in the yen against us dollar, they added. Nickel gained Rs 2 at Rs 249-250 per kilo on brisk buying support.

Technique to raise black pepper

A novel technique of raising black pepper and maintaining it in the form of bush has been developed at the Indian Institute of Spice Research at Kozhikode in Kerala. Speaking at the technical session of spices at the 105th Upasi annual conference here on Monday, AK Sadanandan, project coordinator, All India Coordinated Research Project of Spices, said instead of allowing pepper vines to climb on support as usually done, they could be grown as a bush so that they could be accommodated well in homestead and terrace gardens. The past season fruiting branches (laterals) were made to root and used assaplings, he said. Adding that the resultant plant grew like a bush, flowered in the same year and continued to yield throughout the year. An easy method of rooting of the laterals for production of bush pepper had been perfected, Sadanandan said. Giving the technical details of growing, Sadanandan said that young healthy one year old laterals with dormant buds from high yielding vines of any pepper variety were selected with three to four nodes. The most ideal month for developing bush pepper plant was February-March and September-October, he added.