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.

Vienna - The price for oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose to 43.85 dollars Monday, as the cartel's chairman indicated that production might be slashed further.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC-produced crude climbed 0.55 dollars Monday, the 12-member organization announced Tuesday.

Given current low prices, OPEC would consider cutting output at its next meeting in mid-March, OPEC Chairman Abdalla Salem El-Badri said Monday in London, according to media reports.

Nicosia, Feb 10: Ahmad al-Obaid, who is the head of the Kuwait Society for Safeguarding Public Funds, has said that the Society filed a suit against the Kuwait Petroleum Company(KPC) for misappropriation of public funds.

He was quoted by Al-Qabas newspaper as saying that millions of dinars had been embezzled at the petroleum training center.

Public sector equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has notified that it has received four contracts worth Rs 7,000 crore from various producers, to supply and set up electrical equipment for thermal power projects.

The contracts have been awarded to BHEL by India's power utility NTPC, NLC Tamil Nadu Power Ltd (NTPL) and Mahagenco.

Metallurgical coke maker Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd said on Monday that it will raise up to Rs 1,000 crore through institutional placement. An official quoted that the company would raise funds up to Rs 1,000 crore through the issue of non-convertible debentures (NCD) with warrants on qualified institutional placement basis.

However, the terms and conditions of the said NCD issuance would be decided by the board of directors and would be subject to the shareholders' approval.

Vienna  - The price for oil produced by the O