NYK agrees to rise in fuel price from Nippon Oil

TOKYO, March 10 (Reuters) - Nippon Yusen K.K. (NYK) (9101.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz),
Japan's biggest ocean shipping firm, said it had agreed to pay
Nippon Oil Corp. (5001.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) a 1.7 percent higher price for a key
ship fuel for February, compared with the previous month.

The two firms have agreed on a retroactive bunker fuel price
of $533.50 a tonne for 180 centistoke high-sulphur fuel oil for
February, the highest since November's record high of $550.20,
Nippon Yusen said in a statement on Monday. The price was 54
percent higher than a year earlier.

The February price for marine diesel oil (MDO) was set at a
record high $802.00 a tonne, topping the previous record of $788
in January.

The price serves as a benchmark for bunker fuel supply
contracts between other Japanese refiners and Nippon Yusen.

The two firms negotiate the price each month after shipments,
based on spot prices for fuel oil and crude oil.

Details of the agreed prices of 180 centistoke high-sulphur
fuel oil and marine diesel oil (MDO) per tonne and the changes on
a month-on-month and year-on-year basis are as follows:

FEB JAN FEB 2007
Fuel oil: $533.50 $524.50 346.80
MDO: $802.00 $788.00 556.00
(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Rodney Joyce)