EU approves STX control of Norway's Aker Yards

South Korea's STX Shipbuilding won permission from the European Commission to take a controlling interest in Norway's Aker Yards in an $800 million acquisition.

STX bought a 39.2 percent stake in Aker Yards in October, making it the biggest shareholder. "After an in-depth investigation, launched in December 2007, the Commission concluded that effective competition on the shipbuilding markets would not be significantly impeded as a result of the proposed transaction," the Commission, executive arm of the European Union, said in a statement. Aker Yards builds cruise ships, ferries, merchant vessels and offshore vessels. It is one of the three main players on the global market for the construction of cruise ships, together with Fincantieri of Italy and Meyer Werft of Germany. STX builds various types of cargo vessels, such as container ships and gas tankers, the Commission said. Until now, it has not built cruise ships or ferries. The Commission said its in-depth investigation had focused on concerns that the proposed merger might in particular, remove STX as a potential new market entrant into a concentrated cruise ship manufacturing market. But "the Commission found that by itself STX was still far from close to becoming an effective competitive constraint on the existing cruise ship construction market", it said. Daewoo and Samsung are understood to be in advanced discussions with MSC Cruises and Royal Caribbean respectively to enter the cruise market, the last shipbuilding sector that the Europeans have not relinquished control to Asia yet.
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Al-Baraka wins Egypt ribbon

United Arab Emirates-based private player Dana Gas said its Al-Baraka well in southern Egypt had won a prize for “Best New Concept” from the Egyptian Petroleum Exploration Society.

The prize, for the well on the Komombo concession on the western bank of the Nile, was given at the society’s recent awards ceremony, Dana said. First oil from the well flowed in December last year, four months after the initial discovery. The company said in a statement that the award recognized its important discoveries in southern Egypt, which it said had boosted development of the area’s resources. “Southern Egypt is incredibly important to the country’s oil and gas industry,” said Hany Elsharkawi, Dana’s Egypt country director. “Dana Gas’s achievement in the area as the first to discover oil in commercial quantities in southern Egypt paves the way for discovery of more reserves,” he said. Dana, headquartered in the emirate of Sharjah, produced 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Egypt at the end of last year, it said, including flows from new discoveries in the Nile Delta. The company plans to drill 19 wells in Egypt in 2008, including 15 exploration wells and four development wells.
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Australia: Fellowship to boost marine ecosystem research

Australian research into how marine ecosystems are affected by a combination of environmental change, human activity and management decisions, received a boost recently with the award of a Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO) CEO's Science Leader Fellowship to marine scientist, Dr Beth Fulton.

The Fellowship recognizes Dr. Fulton's exceptional leadership of marine ecosystem modelling research at CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research in Hobart. It follows Dr Fulton's award last year of the Science Minister's Prize for Life Scientist of the Year part of the Prime Minister's Prizes for her world leading work and its influence on managing the impacts of fishing and understanding climate change. Dr Fulton's Atlantis computer model, the only one to give equal attention to the biophysical components of marine ecosystems, and the impacts and economic benefits of human use was rated the "world's best" model for strategic evaluation of marine fisheries management issues by the United Nations Food and Agriculture organization last year. Together with colleagues, Dr Fulton also developed InVitro ecosystem modelling software that allows users to explore the impacts and management of the myriad pressures exerted on marine and coastal environments by major industries such as tourism, mining, fishing and shipping.

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