Vienna  - The price for oil produced

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Expo

Paris

Stockholm - Swedish state-owned energy group Vattenfall on Thursday posted a drop in operating profits for the fourth quarter of 2008, and a slight decrease of its full-year electricity production.

Operating profit before tax and interest was 6.5 billion kronor (796 million dollars), down 2.8 per cent year-on-year.

Fourth-quarter turnover increased by 22 per cent to 46 billion kronor while a lower Swedish tax charge contributed to the 10 per cent net profit increase to 4 billion kronor, Vattenfall said.

Vienna  - The price for oil produced by the Organizatio

Hanoi  - Engineers have discovered two new cracks in the body of a 130-metre-high dam under construction in the province of Son La, Vietnamese media reported Wednesday.

The newspaper Thanh Nien (Youth) reported the cracks were in addition to another one discovered in September 2008. The largest is 31.5 metres long and 1 millimetre wide, and runs 6 metres deep into the body of the dam.

The paper reported Nguyen Kim Toi, director of the construction project, said the cracks could be due to shrinkage following temperature changes when the concrete encountered rain.