Hanoi - Vietnam reduced retail gasoline prices 5.2 per cent Thursday after world crude oil prices fell below 120 dollars a barrel, a government official said.

The price was reduced from 19,000 dong (1.14 dollars) to 18,000 dong per litre, Deputy Trade and Industry Minister Nguyen Cam Tu said.

"The price of gasoline was reduced because of many factors, and the most important factor is the decline of world crude oil prices," Tu told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "We reduced the price for the sake of society."

Chinese solar prod

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has dropped below 110 euros per barrel, OPEC announced on Wednesday.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC-produced crude stood at 109.09 dollars Tuesday, 2.19 dollars lower than the 111.27 dollars recorded on the previous day.

The price drop came on the same day that the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported oil production by OPEC countries in July had increased by 145,000 barrels to 

Seoul - The German solar energy firm Conergy has signed a 29.8-million-dollar agreement to extend a South Korean solar energy plant which is already Asia's largest, the company said Wednesday.

The 19.6 megawatt capacity plant at Sinan in the south-west of the country became fully operational in June and will be expanded by 4.35mw by the end of the year.

When completed, the plant will cover an area of 720,000 square metres, equivalent to 96 football fields and produce 33,000mw hours of electricity, or enough to supply 
7,200 households.

Cairn India has roped in Manu Kapoor as its new Director Corporate Affairs and CSR, effective 11th August 2008.

Prior to this appointment, Manu was with Reliance Retail Ltd as Head – Corporate Communications & Affairs responsible for communications, stakeholder management and setting up a Pan India communications network for the organisation.