Japan to drop humpback whale hunt

Japan has suspended its first humpback whale hunt in seas off Antarctica since the 1960s, backing down in an escalating international battle over the expansion of its hunt.

Japan dropped the planned taking of 50 humpbacks, which have been off-limits to commercial hunting since 1966 at the behest of the United States, the chair of the International Whaling Commission, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura. The government has decided to suspend hunts of humpback whales while talks to normalize IWC are taking place. Japan dispatched its whaling fleet last month to the southern Pacific in the first major hunt of humpback whales since the 1960s, generating widespread criticism. Japanese whaling officials said Friday they had not harpooned any humpbacks yet.

Read More

Shell to begin water injection at Ursa/Princess in 2008

Shell personnel have commenced the Ursa/Princess facilities commissioning process to prepare for the initiation of water injection, projected sometime next year.

The Ursa/Princess waterflood project, located in the Mars-Ursa Basin of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, will improve reservoir performance at the deepwater Ursa and Princess fields. The waterflood topsides injection system will inject filtered and treated water via two separate flowlines to three subsea sites. One will go to an existing well site northwest of Ursa, one to an existing well site southeast of Ursa and one to a new well site northeast of Ursa. Producing wells will include three Princess subsea wells and as many as six Ursa tension leg platform (TLP) wells. J. Ray McDermott's Amelia, La., fabrication yard cut first steel on the modules in October 2006. The modules were completed and ready for offshore installation one year later.
Read More

BHP lets Falcon go to Fugro

BHP Billiton has agreed to sell its Falcon airborne geophysical technology to Dutch company Fugro.

BHP said it would retain exclusive use and priority access to the technology for minerals exploration until March 2010. Execution of the sale agreement will be completed by March 2008. The Falcon technology, jointly developed by BHP Billiton and Lockheed Martin, is deployed on aircraft operated by Fugro Airborne Surveys. It has been used for petroleum-related work in Australia, Papua New Guinea and other parts of the world too. BHP have a long and productive relationship with Fugro Airborne Surveys and through this agreement they will continue to use Falcon technology through a world class geophysical service provider, focusing efforts on discovery of new mineral deposits.

Read More

Langsa write-off for Modec

Japanese floating production giant Modec is expecting to book a loss of 2.5 billion yen ($22 million) by writing off its investment in Indonesia's offshore Langsa oilfield.

The Tokyo-based company said Langsa is the only project in the world in which Modec holds the concession. Stable production of oil continues at between 1000 barrels per day and 2000 bpd. To cover for the write-off loss, Modec plans to sell some of the securities it holds, and expects to book a net gain of 700 million yen ($6 million) on both a consolidated and non-consolidated basis. Modec will focus on floating production systems, which shows solid growth, and will continue to expand its businesses as a global leader in this field. The Langsa field has a chequered past, and is currently operated by a joint venture between Indonesia's Medco and Japan's Mitsui, who lease a small floating production vessel from Modec.

Read More

China striving to become global shipbuilding giant

On September 8, 2007, "New Asia", the first 8530TEU ultra large container ship independently designed and manufactured by China, was delivered in Shanghai.

This indicates that China has made great breakthrough on the road of independent design and construction of high-tech ships. The ultra large container ship made in China will show more prominent features of large size and series-oriented. 8530TEU ultra large container ship is on the mainstream of the international container ship type with the characteristic of high technology content, high value-added economy and high construction difficulty. "New Asia" is the first one of the five vessels in same type independently designed and manufactured by Shanghai HuDong-ZhongHua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd for China Shipping (Group) Company. According to statistics made by Ship Industry Management Office of Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, in the first three quarters of this year, China's ship industry maintained a growing momentum, the production and operation developed fast, and the economic benefit was improved obviously.

Read More

Caspian gas pipeline deal signed

Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have signed a landmark deal to build a gas pipeline cementing Moscow’s control over Central Asia energy resources.

The deal provides for the construction of a pipeline along the Caspian Sea to carry 20 billion cubic metres of gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to Russia. The pact dashes the hopes of the United States and the European Union to build an alternative pipeline across the Caspian to bypass Russia. The intergovernmental accord, which follows a preliminary agreement reached in May, was signed in Moscow in the presence of the Presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan, Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbayev. Describing the agreement as an “extremely important” one Mr. Putin said it “will make a new, important contribution of our nations to strengthening the energy security in Europe Asia and beyond.”

Read More

Gas is the new oil for GCC countries

Gulf countries have pumped billions of dollars to develop their gas sector and are set to keep up spending within long-term plans to expand revenues and meet domestic and external demand.

Qatar, which controls the world's largest gas resources after Russia and Iran, is spearheading such projects to become the dominant liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter when it will pump in excess of 77 million tonnes within five years. The gas projects, a turnaround in the region's policy that had long neglected that sector, have already started to pay off in terms of additional revenue, attracting foreign capital and meeting local and foreign demand. Three members of the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) - Qatar, the UAE and Oman - have become major gas exporters and their gas sales have largely boosted their revenues and gross domestic product.
Read More