BizChina

Encana Corp. said Wednesday it entered a 5.4 billion-Canadian-dollar (US$5.43 billion) deal with PetroChina Co. to develop hard-to-reach natural-gas reserves, further deepening the energy ties between Canada and China.

The agreement comes as Canadian oil and gas producers are seeking customers outside North America, which is currently awash in both fuels. In particular, they are targeting Asia, where energy prices are higher and demand is growing quickly.

Calgary-based Encana, one of North America's largest gas producers, said it and PetroChina will split the costs and profits from developing so-called shale and deep gas wells in a 635,000-acre area stretched across northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta. The area, called Cutbank Ridge, has proven reserves of about 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and current production of 255 million cubic feet a day.

Encana and PetroChina signed a memorandum of understanding last summer to jointly develop shale gas properties. Encana executives have said they are actively seeking partnerships with foreign investors to help fund the development of a huge inventory of shale gas in western Canada.

Two more Carrefour stores were found to have overcharged customers, after 11 of the French retailer's stores in China were fined 500,000 yuan ($76,000) each in a government campaign to crack down on price manipulation during the Spring Festival holiday.

Guangzhou-based New Express Daily reported on Sunday that during a Spring Festival inspection, the Guangzhou price bureau found that Carrefour's Xinshi and Tianheyuancun stores were selling goods for more than the tag prices.

"An investigation is under way but the illegal pricing practices have been confirmed," Wu Linbo, deputy director of the Guangzhou price bureau, was quoted by the newspaper as saying. According to the newspaper, the local government will soon publicize the penalty it decides upon.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on Jan 26 that 11 Carrefour stores and three Wal-Mart stores were found to be overcharging customers and urged local authorities to act.

Holiday Inn Express is upgrading its image by announcing its new Chinese name to further boost its presence and competitiveness in the country's mid-scale market as the territory of economy hotels is mostly dominated by domestic brands.

With its English name unchanged, the hotel chain's new Chinese name - Zhi Xuan Jia Ri, which translates to English as "Smart Choice" - takes out the Chinese words Kuai Jie, which means "Express", in a move to differentiate the brand from the low-budget hotels in the country.

"The name of Kuai Jie or 'Express' has been adopted as a category by many economy hotels," said Nick Barton, vice-president of sales and marketing of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) in China, on what motivated the name change in mid-January. "Our new brand is a more accurate reflection of the fact that we compete with local four- or five-star hotels, or the mid-scale hotel market."

With 29 facilities in operation and nearly 30 in the pipeline, Holiday Inn Express' room rates generally range from 400 yuan ($61) to 500 yuan - a price considered to be within the mid-scale market.

China's tourism authorities announced on Tuesday that tourism boomed in the country during the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday with over 70 percent of trips made within the Chinese mainland.

"According to data from bureaus of major domestic tourist destinations, during the first five days people made scores of times more trips than before," said an official with the National Holiday Tourism Office.

For example, on the first day of the lunar year, which fell on February 3, Shanghai Century Park received 13,500 visitors, which is about 30 times that of the first day of the holiday last year.

Meanwhile, outbound trips increased sharply. A total of 67,500 people left Beijing for overseas trips during the holiday, which is an increase of 59.6 percent from the same period last year.

From February 2 to 9, 350 flights departed from China and arrived in Thailand, 130 of which were chartered flights to Phuket Island, Samet Island and Samui Island.