Huaneng Power International, Inc. ("HPI" or the "Company") (NYSE: HNP; HKEx: 902; SSE: 600011) today announced its power generation for the first three quarters of 2012.

According to the Company's preliminary statistics, as of 30 September 2012, the Company's total power generation within China on consolidated basis amounted to 223.662 billion kWh, representing a decrease of 5.40% over the same period last year; accumulated electricity sold amounted to 210.916 billion kWh, representing a decrease of 5.33% over the same period last year.

The decrease in power generation of the Company was mainly attributable to the following reasons:

Affected by the slower economic growth nationwide and the weak demand for electricity, the power generation across the country grew by only approximately 3%. The growth of power generation in the areas where the Company's power plants are located increased by 0.74% on consolidated basis, and the power generation by coal-fired generating plants decreased by over 3.5% on consolidated basis over the same period last year.

The average capacity growth rate of the Company for the first three quarters of 2012 was 2.4 percentage points lower than that in the locations where the Company's power plants are situated, which affected the Company's share in the power generation market.

During the period from May to September 2012, there had been a rich supply of water to hydropower plants in the provinces and municipalities of Hunan, Jiangxi, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu and Yunnan, leading to a very high loading rate of hydropower units. In particular, there had been a sharp increase in the hydropower generation provided to Guangdong from Three Gorges, Yunnan and Guizhou. The rise of hydropower generation narrowed the demand for coal-fired power generation in the provinces where hydropower is generated or provided, and significantly affected the Company's generation output.

The long-term suspension of the coal mines in the surrounding areas of Yunnan Diandong due to safety accidents in the first quarter of this year resulted in tense supply of coal to the Company's two power plants in Diandong, and affected electricity production of the Company.In the first major move by a Chinese state company into European oil storage, Sinopec is buying half of tank firm Vesta Terminals through a joint venture with Swiss-based trader Mercuria Energy.

Sinopec Kantons Holdings, a unit of state-owned Sinopec, will pay 128.6 million euros ($166.76 million) for a 50 percent stake in Vesta Terminals, the Chinese company told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in a statement on Monday.

Based on the details in the stock exchange statement, which shows net debt of 82.8 million euros, the deal gives Vesta Terminals an enterprise value of 340 million euros.

The deal will give Sinopec Kantons access to Vesta Terminals' 10 million barrels of oil products storage in Tallinn in Estonia, the Dutch port of Vlissingen and Antwerp in Belgium, Mercuria said in a statement sent to Reuters.

"It is the first major move by a Chinese state-owned enterprise into the European oil storage market," Paul Chivers, Mercuria's Group Head of Corporate Development, told Reuters.

"We believe this deal offers us the best potential for future expansion," Chivers said by telephone from Beijing where the deal was signed on Monday.

Chinese oil companies are increasingly active in Western markets, expanding into crude and oil products trading and buying strategic infrastructure.

"Chinese companies are expanding everywhere," said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultancy Energy Aspects in London, adding Sinopec's move fitted a strategic aim of acquiring a variety of key assets in major energy markets.

"They are picking up all sorts of assets: oilfields, terminals, refining," she said.

"STRATEGIC CORNERSTONE"

Sinopec subsidiary Unipec is already a dominant player in the West African crude oil market and Petrochina , the listed arm of China's biggest oil producer, state-controlled China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), is also expanding quickly in Europe.

Petrochina is ramping up oil trading via a joint venture with Ineos Group Ltd, which owns refineries in Britain and France.

But this is the first significant move by a Chinese state company into the lucrative oil storage business in the region.

Vesta Terminals stores a range of oil products, including fuel oil, middle distillates such as gasoil, as well as naphtha, mainly used as a petrochemical feedstock, and biofuels.

Mercuria, with headquarters in Geneva, is one of the world's top five energy trading houses and has this year expanded its Chinese operations with new commodities trading units in base metals, iron ore and coal.

"China is a strategic cornerstone of Mercuria," Chivers said. "We are delighted we can seal this deal with a major player. It will give us a significant platform in the future."

Chivers said Mercuria expected Vesta Terminals to expand operations in future, but declined to give specific details.

"We expect more expansion. We believe this deal offers us the best potential for future expansion," he said.

"Partnerships and joint ventures make most sense to develop these types of businesses: they are very capital intensive, require significant resources globally and substantial access to finance," Chivers said.

Sinopec Kantons said its financial adviser for the deal was Nomura Holdings. Mercuria was advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.