Total makes strong move in the West of Shetland area
Paris (UPI) Jul 3, 2013 -
French energy company Total said Thursday it set up a solid foundation in the West of Shetland area with new development decisions.
Total, alongside its partners at state-controlled Danish energy company DONG, said it decided to start developing the Edradour gas field in the West of Shetland area and take on a 60 percent stake in the nearby Glenlivet discovery.
"Total is establis ...
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Investment outlook good for Turkish sea port, Ceyhan
Ceyhan, Turkey (UPI) Jul 7, 2013 -
The Turkish sea port of Ceyhan has a bright future as a regional hub for Caspian and Iraqi oil, a Turkish business representative said Monday.
Ceyhan is the terminal point for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline from the giant Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field in the Caspian Sea and the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline from northern Iraq.
Seref Can, president of the Ceyhan Chamber of Commer ...
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Harper: Collective efforts showing results one year after Lac-Megantic wreck
Ottawa (UPI) Jul 7, 2013 -
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said all Canadians have coordinated their efforts to respond to last year's deadly derailment in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.
Sunday marked the first anniversary of the derailment of a train carrying crude oil from the Bakken reserve area in North Dakota through the Quebec city. The disaster left more than 40 people dead.
Harper issued a statement ...
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Iran's oil tanker company declares win with sanctions ruling
Tehran (UPI) Jul 7, 2013 -
The company transporting Iranian crude oil to export markets should return to the European stage following an EU court decision last week, its director said.
Ali Akbar Safaei, managing director of the National Iranian Tanker Co., said his company should make a strong recovery following a ruling from the European courts last week.
"NITC could regain its status in the European mark ...
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Libyan oil export terminals ready to reopen
Tripoli, Libya (UPI) Jul 7, 2013 -
More than half of Libya's oil export potential may be back online after rebel forces handed over control of two key ports, the Libyan National Oil Co. said.
Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, two oil ports that account for as much as half of Libya's full export potential of 1.3 million barrels per day, were handed over to government control last week. Mohammad el-Harari, a spokesman for the state- ...
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EU energy commissioner reviews future of shale natural gas
Berlin (UPI) Jul 7, 2013 -
Shale could eventually meet about 10 percent of the energy demand among European nations, European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said.
Oettinger said companies with reservations about hydrualic fracturing, the controversial drilling practice dubbed fracking, should keep all options on the table.
"I estimate that Europe has the potential to secure about a tenth of our need ...
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Maersk taking $1.7 billion loss on Brazilian energy buy
Copenhagen, Denmark (UPI) Jul 8, 2013 -
Maersk Oil said Tuesday it was giving up on plans in Brazil after taking a $1.7 billion impairment on its assets there.
The company in July 2011 bought stakes in three Brazilian reserve areas from SK Energy for $2.4 billion. Maersk said it now views the assets as under-performing based on appraisal drilling results and increased development costs.
The company said it decided to m ...
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Greenpeace blocks Chevron's Romanian shale gas site
Pungesti, Romania (AFP) July 07, 2014 -
Around 20 Greenpeace activists blocked access to a shale gas exploration site in Romania on Monday, in a third attempt to scupper the drilling operations of US energy group Chevron.
Protesters locked hands and sat in front of the entrance to a drilling position in the northeastern village of Pungesti.
They prevented a lorry from entering and displayed banners reading "No to fracking". ...
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Iraq risks ebbing from gasoline market, prices falling, AAA says
Washington (UPI) Jul 8, 2013 -
Gasoline prices continue to be inflated because of conflict in Iraq but the market seems adjusted and pain at the pump is easing, motor club AAA said.
The start of a Sunni-led insurgency in Iraq last month pushed the national average price to $3.70, though prices spiked closer to $4.00 in some retail markets.
"Market watchers are keeping a close eye on the situation, but the risk ...
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June banner month for U.S. natural gas production, Platts forecasters say
Houston (UPI) Jul 8, 2013 -
June was a banner month for U.S. natural gas production from the Lower 48 states, a forecasting unit of Platts reported.
June natural gas production was up 0.3 percent from May to a total 68.1 billion cubic feet per day, the highest monthly production average on record. Data from Bentek Energy, the forecasting unit of Platts, show June's average was 5.4 percent higher year-on-year and a ...
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Algeria envisions joint energy efforts with Tanzania
Algiers, Algeria (UPI) Jul 8, 2013 -
Algeria and Tanzania are in the advanced stage of talks regarding three separate energy projects, Algerian Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi said.
Yousfi met in Algiers with his Tanzanian counterpart to discuss bilateral energy issues.
"Three projects, which had been under discussion between the two countries, are now in an advanced stage and will be carried out in the coming months, ...
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Energy sector reform in Ukraine needed for more aid, EU says
Brussels (UPI) Jul 8, 2013 -
Energy sector reform in Ukraine is a condition for further financial support from the European Union, commissioner Stefan Fule said Tuesday from Brussels.
Neighborhood Commissioner Fule convened a donor's conference for Ukraine in Brussels. Ukraine's economy is in trouble, though it recently signed free-trade and association agreements with the European Union.
The European Commis ...
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Federal and tribal energy sales on a steady decline, U.S. says
Washington (UPI) Jul 8, 2013 -
A drop in offshore natural gas production is behind the decline in sales of fossil fuels derived from federal and tribal lands, the U.S. Energy Department said.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration, the department's statistical arm, said Monday sales of fossil fuels from federal and tribal lands in fiscal year 2013 were 7 percent below the previous year's sales.
"One of the ...
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Chevron leaves Lithuanian shale venture behind
Vilnius, Lithuania (UPI) Jul 9, 2013 -
U.S. supermajor Chevron announced it has shut down its offices in Lithuania and sold off half of its interests in the country.
"Chevron closed its office in Vilnius, Lithuania," a statement posted Tuesday on its website said. "The company has divested its 50 percent equity interest in [joint venture] LL Investicijos."
In a separate statement, Swedish energy company Tethys Oil sai ...
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Iran expecting Russian investments in gas sector
Tehran (UPI) Jul 9, 2013 -
Iran's deputy minister for gas affairs said Wednesday he was expecting Russia to start investing in the Iranian natural gas industry.
Deputy Minister for Gas Affairs Hamid-Reza Araqi said Russian companies may be interested in building natural gas pipelines in Iran.
Both sides, he said, "are determined to boost their cooperation" in the gas industry.
Iranian and Russian of ...
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Industrial groups call on Kerry to consent to Keystone XL
Washington (UPI) Jul 9, 2013 -
Keystone XL has been studied longer than any other project of its kind and it's time to start construction, advocates told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
More than 40 industrial groups, ranging from the American Petroleum Institute to the Steel Manufacturers Association, sent a letter to Kerry in support of Keystone XL.
Pipeline company TransCanada submitted its application ...
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Industry says it's premature to declare Libyan oil victory
Houston (UPI) Jul 9, 2013 -
Energy industry watchers said Wednesday optimism over the rebound of Libyan oil production should be tempered.
Forecasts of the potential in Libya's oil sector have waxed and waned since the end of civil war in 2011. The country has yet to pass its pre-war peak of 1.4 million barrels per day and early 2014 output had plummeted to well below 500,000 bpd.
The National Oil Co. said ...
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Gazprom subsidiary Centrgaz will build pipeline through Serbia
Belgrade, Serbia (UPI) Jul 9, 2013 -
Russian natural gas company Gazprom announced a Serbian subsidiary will be tasked with building the South Stream natural gas pipeline in the country.
"Centrgaz will focus on design, procurement, construction and installation activities, personnel training and commissioning of South Stream in Serbia," Gazprom said in a statement. "The contract stipulates involving Serbian subcontractors ...
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U.S. on pace to break 40-year oil production record
Washington (UPI) Jul 9, 2013 -
Expectations about total U.S. crude oil production for next year are the highest they've been in more than 40 years, the U.S. Energy Department said.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, said in its short-term market report, published Tuesday, total U.S. crude oil production averaged 7.4 million barrels per day last year and should le ...
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Planet Mercury a result of early hit-and-run collisions
Tempe AZ (SPX) Jul 09, 2014 -
Planet Mercury's unusual metal-rich composition has been a longstanding puzzle in planetary science. According to a study published online in Nature Geoscience July 6, Mercury and other unusually metal-rich objects in the solar system may be relics left behind by collisions in the early solar system that built the other planets.
The origin of planet Mercury has been a difficult question in ...
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From Pencil Marks To Quantum Computers
Waterloo, Canada (SPX) Jul 09, 2014 -
Pick up a pencil. Make a mark on a piece of paper. Congratulations: you are doing cutting-edge condensed matter physics. You might even be making the first mark on the road to quantum computers, according to new Perimeter research. Introducing graphene. One of the hottest materials in condensed matter research today is graphene.
Graphene had an unlikely start: it began with researchers mes ...
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Stanford engineers envision an electronic switch just 3 atoms thick
Stanford CA (SPX) Jul 09, 2014 -
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate. Those instructions were once printed on punch cards that fed data to mainframe computers. Today's smart phones process more data, but they still weren't built for being shoved into back pockets.
In the quest to build gadgets that can survive such abuse, engineers have been testing electronic systems based on a new materials that are both flexible and switc ...
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Privately funded solar spacecraft to launch in 2016
Washington (AFP) July 10, 2014 -
A tiny spacecraft designed to sail by the power of the sun is scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX rocket in 2016, a leading US space enthusiast said Wednesday.
The Planetary Society's LightSail, an unmanned satellite-like craft known as a solar sail, aims to reach orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in two years, said the group's leader Bill Nye.
The foot-long (30-centimeter) spacecr ...
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Researchers observe tunable quantum behavior in bilayer graphene
New York NY (SPX) Jul 09, 2014 -
Columbia researchers have observed the fractional quantum Hall effect in bilayer graphene and shown that this exotic state of matter can be tuned by an electric field.
The fractional quantum Hall effect, which can occur when electrons confined to thin sheets are exposed to large magnetic fields, is a striking example of collective behavior where thousands of individual electrons behave as ...
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Toward a new way to keep electronics from overheating
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 09, 2014 -
Computer technology has transformed the way we live, but as consumers expect ever more from their devices at faster speeds, personal computers as well as larger electronic systems can overheat. This can cause them to slow down, or worse, completely shut down. Now researchers are reporting in the ACS journal Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research that liquids containing nanoparticles could ...
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