Shanghai port to crack 30m teu this year

Port operator China Merchants Holdings (International) Co Ltd (CMHI) expects that the throughput of Shanghai International Port will reach 30 million teu for this year despite a slowdown in the first four months.

Shanghai International Port, in which CMHI has about 26 percent stake, reported a slowdown in throughput growth in January-April. The year-on-year growth dropped to 11.4 percent from last year's 20.4 percent. The snowstorm early this year and the US economy slowdown are the main reasons dragging the growth of the port, Fu Yuning, chairman of CMHI said. In March, CMHI bought a 5.4 percent stake in Ningbo Port Company. Fu said the listing of the company is actively moving forward despite the stock markets volatility this year. He hopes the company can be listed this year, but whether A-share or H-share listing would come first depends on the market situation, he said.

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China shows interest in Iran gas pipeline

China will explore the possibility of joining the $7-billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.

However, Beijing is not yet ready to make a commitment on the issue despite invitations by both Pakistan and Iran to join the project. "China is in urgent need of more energy. Of course we will be interested. But it depends on a lot of things. As far as I know, this is just a proposal. So whether it becomes a reality we do not know or even if it is feasible or it is workable, we do not know," He Yafei, assistant minister of foreign affairs, told. The statement comes within days of Indian foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir holding talks on the issue in Islamabad. The issue was also discussed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Pakistani leaders in Islamabad. Ahmadinejad expressed confidence that the project will go ahead despite strong opposition to it from the US. One of the challenges in widening the scope of the project to include China is the huge difference in the land levels on the Pakistan-China border as the Chinese side is at high level. "Pakistan is very much in favour of the pipeline between the Gulf and China through Pakistan," he said while speaking at the elite Tsinghua University.

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Turkish shipyard fatalities put industry under fire

Booming worldwide demand for cargo ships of every kind has greatly benefited Turkey as an "emerging shipbuilding country" in recent years.

It has infused the country with significant amounts of foreign cash and providing an abundance of employment opportunities to local markets. However, this has come at a cost as labor unions become increasingly uneasy over occupational hazards and safety issues that have led to accidents and deaths, problems that threaten the lucrative shipbuilding industry, the world's fourth largest after Japan, South Korea and China. The tragic deaths of two workers at a Tuzla shipyard last week prompted unions and civil society organizations to call on the government to take swift action in regulating the industry. All political parties seem to have a unified position on the issue as well. Parliament's Human Rights Investigation Commission has established a subcommittee to examine the topic and investigate accidents involving fatalities. The government has introduced new safety regulations in line with European Union standards and started to implement safety inspections. New regulations adopted by the International Maritime Association (IMO) have also pushed the industry to build more vessels with greater tonnage. The industry provides a sizable contribution to the Turkish economy, totaling over $2.5 billion in foreign currency, offers employment opportunities to 30,000 people directly and over 70,000 people through parts and related sectors. Industry estimates project a 300,000-strong labor force in total by 2013. The number of shipyards is increasing rapidly in Turkey. The Tuzla shipyards are home to 44 shipbuilders and currently account for 80 percent of export and 70 percent of the sector's employment. With 265 new ship orders, Turkey is fourth in the global shipbuilding market.
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Algeria and Libya seal PSA

A consortium led by Algeria's state energy giant Sonatrach is primed to explore a permit area in Libya after signing a production sharing agreement with Libya's National Oil Corporation.

The deal, signed in Libya by NOC and Sonatrach International Petroleum Exploration and Production (Sipex), Oil India and the Indian Oil Corporation, provides for exploration and production sharing at block 95/96 in the Ghadames basin near the Algerian-Libyan border, Sonatrach said. Sipex, the operator, is an offshoot of Sonatrach. The block was awarded to the outfit in December last year as part of Libya's first gas-focused licensing round. Libya wants to become a major gas producer and aims to increase production to 3 billion cubic feet per day by 2010, with a potential for 3.8 bcfd by 2015, compared with 2.7 bcfd now. Compared with other hydrocarbon provinces, Libya is under-developed because of years of international sanctions. Demand for its gas has been boosted as Europe seeks to curb its dependence on Russia and because gas produces relatively few of the carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

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Nautilus Minerals to mine high-grade mineral deposits on the sea floor

Nautilus Minerals has announced that Teck Cominco has commenced the second phase of its 2008 US$12 million offshore exploration program, with the departure of the vessel ‘DEA Surveyor' from Singapore.

This 150-day program will involve geochemical surveying and sampling, and Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) based sampling over Nautilus tenements in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the exclusive economic zone of Tonga. Part of this program will involve following up on targets defined by surveys completed by the ‘Sepura' in PNG earlier this month. "We have an aggressive offshore exploration program that we are implementing in 2008," said VP Exploration for Teck Cominco, Fred Daley. "This program involves four vessels deploying geophysical and geochemical instruments; and in the case of the ‘DEA Surveyor', an ROV that will have the capability to take rock samples." Nautilus Minerals is following the lead by the petroleum industry to tap vast offshore resources and is planning to mine high-grade seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) deposits of copper, zinc gold and silver. Mine planning is well underway for the world's first seafloor copper gold mine in 1,500 metres of water at the Solwara 1 project in Bismarck Sea in PNG, 50km north of Rabaul Township. The company holds more than 365,000km² of tenement licences and exploration applications in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, the Solomon Islands and New Zealand along the western Pacific Ocean's Rim of Fire. In March 2005, Nautilus, in joint venture with Placer Dome, undertook new exploration at Solwara 1 aboard the ‘Genesis' with side scan sonar and dredge sampling.
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