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PTT Exploration and Production recently awarded a supply and maintenance-services contract to General Electric for surface wellheads and Christmas trees at the Arthit and Bongkot concessions.

This is the first service contract with GE for offshore oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Thailand.

GE executives hope it will lead to wider participation in maintaining and servicing similar projects in Thailand in the future.

Ian Coull, regional-services leader for drilling and production systems, said: "This agreement provides us with an opportunity to leverage the experience we've gained running similar contracts regionally and across our global-services business to provide a consistently reliable level of service PTTEP can depend on."

SAT expects Q3 recovery

Auto-parts manufacturer Somboon Advance Technology (SAT) expects its revenue to recover in the third quarter, thanks to a six-year, Bt1.82-billion contract from Siam Kubota Industry.

The supply of parts to non-auto buyers is expected to generate 15 per cent of revenue in 2012, up from 4 per cent now, said SAT vice president Worapote Chutchaikulsiri.

SAT will spend Bt346 million this year on machinery to produce rotary blades for Siam Kubota and another Bt115 million to support research and development.

The company's first-quarter sales plunged 35 per cent from Bt5.81 billion in the same period last year. The gross profit margin could fall to 14-16 per cent this year, from 20 per cent last year.

AirAsia scraps Johor route

AirAsia will halt its route between Bangkok and Johor Bahru, Malaysia next month for the second time, reports Bernama News Agency.

In February 2008, the airline resumed the route with four flights a week, but now a low load factor is forcing it to scrap it again.

Bangkok-Langkawi and Bangkok-Kota Kinabalu services were discontinued in 2007, due to low passenger loads.

At present, AirAsia and its Thai AirAsia subsidiary operate seven flights daily between Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, as well as serving Krabi, Phuket and Chiang Mai on top of the Bangkok-Penang route.

Ad-agency awards

Thai advertising agency Access & Associates recently won a trophy and four merit awards at an international competition in Copenhagen.

The Titan Awards were handed out to 36 trophy winners and 126 merit-award winners among 420 entries from 50 agencies in 40 countries. The agencies are all members of the Transworld Advertising Agency Network.

Airline campaign

Delta Air Lines recently launched a new advertising campaign in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia, to enhance brand awareness following its merger with Northwest Airlines and promote two new flights between Japan and the US.

The ads introduce Delta as the world's largest airline and feature the slogan: "Only Birds Fly More Than We Do." - The Nation