What the Election Brought to Energy Stocks
If Obama's re-election had a strong effect on any energy sector, it was coal stocks: the Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL) was down 8.5% over the same period. The market seems to be saying that the Republican-controlled House will be able to block any significant legislation which might favor clean energy, but Obama's re-election will allow the EPA to continue its efforts to tighten emissions regulations in power generation. Such regulations force power plants to bear more of the costs of the pollution they produce, and make burning dirty fuels like coal less attractive.
For the year, my clean energy model portfolio leads PBW by 26% but lags the broad market by 8%. The unhedged portfolio is up 4.8% for the year, while the hedged portfolio is down 2.3%, having lost money on the hedge as the broad market rose. For comparison, PBW is down 21.9% and IWM is up 12.5%.
If Obama's re-election had a strong effect on any energy sector, it was coal stocks: the Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL) was down 8.5% over the same period. The market seems to be saying that the Republican-controlled House will be able to block any significant legislation which might favor clean energy, but Obama's re-election will allow the EPA to continue its efforts to tighten emissions regulations in power generation. Such regulations force power plants to bear more of the costs of the pollution they produce, and make burning dirty fuels like coal less attractive.
For the year, my clean energy model portfolio leads PBW by 26% but lags the broad market by 8%. The unhedged portfolio is up 4.8% for the year, while the hedged portfolio is down 2.3%, having lost money on the hedge as the broad market rose. For comparison, PBW is down 21.9% and IWM is up 12.5%.
Shale gas in South Africa
Fracking the Karoo
Oct 18th 2012, 10:12 by J.D. | JOHANNESBURG
THE Karoo, “the land of great thirst”, covers much of the 800 miles between Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital, and Cape Town, on the country’s southern tip. The semi-desert area (pictured) is known for its arid beauty and aching poverty. But deep beneath its sheep- and ostrich-dotted expanses could lie untold wealth—in the form of natural gas.
America’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) suspects South Africa might boast shale-gas reserves of around 485 trillion cubic feet. The gas would only be accessible by hydraulic fracturing–“fracking”–pumping water and chemicals into rock at high pressure. In April 2011, in response to opposition from environmental groups and the local community, South Africa’s government slapped a moratorium on fracking.
But last month Collins Chabane, a minister in the president’s office, announced that the cabinet was lifting the ban. A study by a technical task team appointed last year had eased their concerns, said Mr Chabane, and clearly showed that exploration was safe. The report–of which so far only a summary has been released–concluded that keeping the moratorium in place or too stringently regulating exploration would be costly to South Africa. Three foreign companies–Royal Dutch Shell, Falcon Oil & Gas and Sunset Energy–have been granted licences to explore for gas.
If the EIA estimates are accurate, the shale gas fields in the Karoo would be the fifth largest in the world. A report published earlier this year by Econometrix, a South African think tank, argued that fracking would bring what the area so urgently needs: jobs and development. It would be transformational, gushed the study, which was sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell. If only a tenth of the estimated gas can be extracted, thousands of jobs could be created. The gas extracted could provide South Africa with 400 years’ worth of energy. For a country that regularly endures power cuts, that would mean a brighter future. The government reckons that if 30 trillion cubic feet of gas is produced, the sales value would be almost a trillion rand.
But many are still sceptical. No one knows how much gas is extractable. The numbers of potential jobs may be overly optimistic. Environmental campaigners say fracking will devastate the area. They fear that it could damage aquifers in the Karoo, destroying its ecosystem and threatening agriculture in the area.
The government insists that if it becomes apparent that exploration is harming the Karoo, they will shut it down. The report presented to the cabinet says careful regulation of the disposal of the noxious water produced during fracking would be crucial. But some fear that the lure of energy independence and the prospect of creating jobs in a country where unemployment is currently running at 25% will prove too tempting—no matter how much damage is done in the process.
Enerji on the home stretch at Carnarvon Power Station
(MENAFN - ProactiveInvestors - Australia) Enerji (ASX: ERJ) is nearing completion of the construction of its waste heat to power Opcon Powerbox system at Horizon Power's Carnarvon Power Station.
The roof of the noise reducing canopy, required to keep Enerji's waste to power system (WHPS) within Department of Environment and Conservation limits, has been completed following the arrival of the roof sheeting last week.
This noise reducing canopy is required due to the WHPS being located in a town site and is not expected to be used at mine sites.
Pressure testing of the hot water piping is completed and all necessary rectification will be completed within a week.
Some of the cooling water piping has arrived onsite and some sections have been installed. The remaining pipes will be onsite by the end of this week.
With the cable trays completed, the running of the control systems cables between the Opcon Powerbox and the heat recovery units is now complete and awaiting loop testing and termination, also over the next week.
A small amount of short distance control cabling remains to be completed along with the high voltage cables that will connect the Opcon Powerbox to the power station.
The latter is expected to begin next week.
Opcon engineers are on standby to commence commissioning, and will travel to Carnarvon when the high voltage connection is made to the power station that will provide power to the hot and cold water pumps.
These in turn will then be able to supply the required heating and cooling to the Opcon Powerbox.
Along with the cooling water piping, other tasks to be completed are final installations of the electrical cabling, electronic control system and the remaining lagging.
Waste heat technology
The waste heat recovery system captures heat wasted as a by-product of industrial power generation. Electricity is then generated using the Opcon Powerbox without fuel or creating emissions.
The addition of an Opcon Powerbox will provide up to 700 kilowatts of fuel and emissions free power, generating up to 6,000 megawatt hours per annum.
Enerji's waste heat technologies could help Australian mining companies offset rising production costs and deliver around A12.3 million in savings per decade, according to the company.
Improved power supply strategies could save miners up to 750,000 per unit in the first year, with projected savings of more than 12 million over 10 years.
Enerji's core Opcon Powerbox technology, which uses waste heat for energy instead of diesel fuel on remote mine sites and power stations, has shown it can achieve gross cost savings of almost 1.75 million " or the price of 1.6 million litres of diesel fuel per annum.
This Swedish designed technology does not alter the net output of a power station, but reduces fossil fuel usage by up to 12%.
http://www.menafn.com/menafn/1093571080/Enerji-on-home-stretch-at-Carnarvon-Power-Station
(MENAFN - ProactiveInvestors - Australia) Enerji (ASX: ERJ) is nearing completion of the construction of its waste heat to power Opcon Powerbox system at Horizon Power's Carnarvon Power Station.
The roof of the noise reducing canopy, required to keep Enerji's waste to power system (WHPS) within Department of Environment and Conservation limits, has been completed following the arrival of the roof sheeting last week.
This noise reducing canopy is required due to the WHPS being located in a town site and is not expected to be used at mine sites.
Pressure testing of the hot water piping is completed and all necessary rectification will be completed within a week.
Some of the cooling water piping has arrived onsite and some sections have been installed. The remaining pipes will be onsite by the end of this week.
With the cable trays completed, the running of the control systems cables between the Opcon Powerbox and the heat recovery units is now complete and awaiting loop testing and termination, also over the next week.
A small amount of short distance control cabling remains to be completed along with the high voltage cables that will connect the Opcon Powerbox to the power station.
The latter is expected to begin next week.
Opcon engineers are on standby to commence commissioning, and will travel to Carnarvon when the high voltage connection is made to the power station that will provide power to the hot and cold water pumps.
These in turn will then be able to supply the required heating and cooling to the Opcon Powerbox.
Along with the cooling water piping, other tasks to be completed are final installations of the electrical cabling, electronic control system and the remaining lagging.
Waste heat technology
The waste heat recovery system captures heat wasted as a by-product of industrial power generation. Electricity is then generated using the Opcon Powerbox without fuel or creating emissions.
The addition of an Opcon Powerbox will provide up to 700 kilowatts of fuel and emissions free power, generating up to 6,000 megawatt hours per annum.
Enerji's waste heat technologies could help Australian mining companies offset rising production costs and deliver around A12.3 million in savings per decade, according to the company.
Improved power supply strategies could save miners up to 750,000 per unit in the first year, with projected savings of more than 12 million over 10 years.
Enerji's core Opcon Powerbox technology, which uses waste heat for energy instead of diesel fuel on remote mine sites and power stations, has shown it can achieve gross cost savings of almost 1.75 million " or the price of 1.6 million litres of diesel fuel per annum.
This Swedish designed technology does not alter the net output of a power station, but reduces fossil fuel usage by up to 12%.
http://www.menafn.com/menafn/1093571080/Enerji-on-home-stretch-at-Carnarvon-Power-Station
Borusan EnBW Enerji plans to build 50 MW wind farm in Turkey
Yeni Safak – Turkish - German partnered Borusan EnBW Enerji has broken ground for the Balabanli Wind Power Plant in Turkey’s northwestern province of Tekirdag. The plant’s 22 turbines will generate 50 megawatts of power once it joins the energy-hungry country’s national grid by 2013.
The ceremony marking the commencement of the construction took place in Istanbul with the attendance of the executives of Borusan and EnBW, and Turkey’s Minister of Energy, Taner Yildiz.
“Turkey is a country of opportunities. Our growth strategy in Turkey depends not only on wind but also on hydro power and other renewable sources,” said EnBW CEO Frank Mastiaux at the event, underlining Turkey’s growing demand for energy.
Minister Yildiz for his part said that rather than using public funds to invest in power generation, Turkey has chosen to involve the private sector in meeting country’s energy demand. The country’s growing economy is in need of USD 5 billion of investments each year on the generation side alone. By the centennial of the republic in 2023, the country plans to have a 20,000 MW installed capacity generated by wind power plants.
http://www.balkans.com/open-news.php?uniquenumber=160084
Yeni Safak – Turkish - German partnered Borusan EnBW Enerji has broken ground for the Balabanli Wind Power Plant in Turkey’s northwestern province of Tekirdag. The plant’s 22 turbines will generate 50 megawatts of power once it joins the energy-hungry country’s national grid by 2013.
The ceremony marking the commencement of the construction took place in Istanbul with the attendance of the executives of Borusan and EnBW, and Turkey’s Minister of Energy, Taner Yildiz.
“Turkey is a country of opportunities. Our growth strategy in Turkey depends not only on wind but also on hydro power and other renewable sources,” said EnBW CEO Frank Mastiaux at the event, underlining Turkey’s growing demand for energy.
Minister Yildiz for his part said that rather than using public funds to invest in power generation, Turkey has chosen to involve the private sector in meeting country’s energy demand. The country’s growing economy is in need of USD 5 billion of investments each year on the generation side alone. By the centennial of the republic in 2023, the country plans to have a 20,000 MW installed capacity generated by wind power plants.
http://www.balkans.com/open-news.php?uniquenumber=160084
Solar Energy
Through the centuries, scientists have found innovative ways to harness the power of the sun — from magnifying glasses to steam engines. Converting more solar power into electricity is high on the political agenda in many countries, amid the push to find domestic energy sources that are less polluting than fossil fuels.
Solar is growing quickly in the United States.
Assisted by technological innovation and years of government subsidies, the cost of solar power — and wind power — has fallen sharply, so much so that the two industries say that they can sometimes deliver cleaner electricity at prices competitive with power made from fossil fuels.
At the same time, solar and wind power companies are telling Congress that they cannot be truly competitive and keep creating jobs without a few more years of government support.
The growth of solar power was helped by a federal stimulus package that extended a tax credit and provided other investment incentives for the industry. A one-year extension of the 1603 tax-grant program is expected to create an additional 37,000 solar industry jobs in 2012, according to a report by EuPD Research.
But the lobbying by the wind and solar industries comes at a time when there is little enthusiasm for alternative-energy subsidies in Washington.
Overall concerns about the deficit are making lawmakers more skeptical about any new tax breaks for business in general. And taxpayer losses of more than half a billion dollars on Solyndra, a bankrupt maker of solar modules that defaulted on a federal loan, has tarnished the image of renewable power in particular. Solyndra was financed under a now-expired program, part of the 2009 stimulus package, that provided government loan guarantees for clean-energy projects, some of which administration officials expected to be risky.
But solar and wind companies argue that the tax breaks they are seeking are different. The tax credits can be taken only by businesses that are already up and running, so taxpayers are less likely to be stuck subsidizing a failing company, proponents say.
Without the new breaks, industry executives warn, they will be forced to scale back production and eliminate jobs in a still-weak economy.
Glut of Solar Panels is a New Test for China
China in recent years established global dominance in renewable energy, its solar panel and wind turbine factories forcing many foreign rivals out of business and its policy makers hailed by environmentalists around the world as visionaries.
But now China’s strategy is in disarray. Though worldwide demand for solar panels and wind turbines has grown rapidly over the last five years, China’s manufacturing capacity has soared even faster, creating enormous oversupply and a ferocious price war.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/solar-energy/index.html
Through the centuries, scientists have found innovative ways to harness the power of the sun — from magnifying glasses to steam engines. Converting more solar power into electricity is high on the political agenda in many countries, amid the push to find domestic energy sources that are less polluting than fossil fuels.
Solar is growing quickly in the United States.
Assisted by technological innovation and years of government subsidies, the cost of solar power — and wind power — has fallen sharply, so much so that the two industries say that they can sometimes deliver cleaner electricity at prices competitive with power made from fossil fuels.
At the same time, solar and wind power companies are telling Congress that they cannot be truly competitive and keep creating jobs without a few more years of government support.
The growth of solar power was helped by a federal stimulus package that extended a tax credit and provided other investment incentives for the industry. A one-year extension of the 1603 tax-grant program is expected to create an additional 37,000 solar industry jobs in 2012, according to a report by EuPD Research.
But the lobbying by the wind and solar industries comes at a time when there is little enthusiasm for alternative-energy subsidies in Washington.
Overall concerns about the deficit are making lawmakers more skeptical about any new tax breaks for business in general. And taxpayer losses of more than half a billion dollars on Solyndra, a bankrupt maker of solar modules that defaulted on a federal loan, has tarnished the image of renewable power in particular. Solyndra was financed under a now-expired program, part of the 2009 stimulus package, that provided government loan guarantees for clean-energy projects, some of which administration officials expected to be risky.
But solar and wind companies argue that the tax breaks they are seeking are different. The tax credits can be taken only by businesses that are already up and running, so taxpayers are less likely to be stuck subsidizing a failing company, proponents say.
Without the new breaks, industry executives warn, they will be forced to scale back production and eliminate jobs in a still-weak economy.
Glut of Solar Panels is a New Test for China
China in recent years established global dominance in renewable energy, its solar panel and wind turbine factories forcing many foreign rivals out of business and its policy makers hailed by environmentalists around the world as visionaries.
But now China’s strategy is in disarray. Though worldwide demand for solar panels and wind turbines has grown rapidly over the last five years, China’s manufacturing capacity has soared even faster, creating enormous oversupply and a ferocious price war.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/solar-energy/index.html
_G20 leaders endorse IEA report on deployment of clean energy and energy efficiency technologies 10 November 2011
While positive progress has been made with clean energy technologies, the world is still largely dependent on fossil fuels to satisfy growth in global energy demand
The leaders of the G20 group of industrialised nations, who met at a summit in Cannes on 3-4 November, endorsed a new IEA report entitled G20 Clean Energy, and Energy Efficiency Deployment and Policy Progress.
The report, which was prepared by the IEA in collaboration with the G20 Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Working Group, provides an overview of clean energy and energy efficiency technology deployment and summarises support policies in place across G20 countries.
“We welcome the assessment of the countries’ current situation regarding the deployment of these [clean energy and energy efficiency] technologies as well as the on-going exercise of sharing best practices, as a basis for better policy making,” the leaders stated in the Cannes Summit Final Declaration.
The report found that:
· deployment of clean energy technologies around the world is progressing rapidly
· implementation of energy efficiency policies is improving
· renewable energy technologies have seen significant growth rates in recent years (From 2005to 2010, wind power grew at an average rate of 27% per year, and solar photovoltaic at an average rate of 56%) and
· governments are beginning to set goals to support the development of advanced vehicle markets. 'Advanced vehicles' refers to electric (which are battery powered), plug-in hybrid (which uses two sources of power – most commonly gasoline and electric) and fuel cell models (which convert hydrogen into electricity)
Yet despite the positive progress, the report also stated that the world is still largely dependent on fossil fuels to satisfy growth in global energy demand, the report observed. In the past decade, coal has met nearly 50% of new electricity demand globally and oil currently accounts for 94% of energy supply in the transport sector.
The report noted that “improving end-use efficiency, enhancing the efficiency of fossil fuel based power generation, and supporting the widespread deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) will, therefore, also be crucial aspects of the transition to a cleaner energy future.”
The Deputy Executive Director of the IEA, Ambassador Richard Jones, emphasised the importance of G20 efforts. “The IEA welcomes this important collaboration with the G20. Enhanced deployment of clean energy technologies and of energy efficiency improvements offers energy security and environmental benefits,” he said.
“It will also enable cost savings over the medium and long term – an aspect that is particularly relevant at a time of economic uncertainty. We believe that enhanced policy assessment and analysis, building on this initial report, will enable governments to take more cost effective and efficient policy decisions.”
http://www.iea.org/index_info.asp?id=2182
Photo: © GraphicObsession.
The leaders of the G20 group of industrialised nations, who met at a summit in Cannes on 3-4 November, endorsed a new IEA report entitled G20 Clean Energy, and Energy Efficiency Deployment and Policy Progress.
The report, which was prepared by the IEA in collaboration with the G20 Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Working Group, provides an overview of clean energy and energy efficiency technology deployment and summarises support policies in place across G20 countries.
“We welcome the assessment of the countries’ current situation regarding the deployment of these [clean energy and energy efficiency] technologies as well as the on-going exercise of sharing best practices, as a basis for better policy making,” the leaders stated in the Cannes Summit Final Declaration.
The report found that:
· deployment of clean energy technologies around the world is progressing rapidly
· implementation of energy efficiency policies is improving
· renewable energy technologies have seen significant growth rates in recent years (From 2005to 2010, wind power grew at an average rate of 27% per year, and solar photovoltaic at an average rate of 56%) and
· governments are beginning to set goals to support the development of advanced vehicle markets. 'Advanced vehicles' refers to electric (which are battery powered), plug-in hybrid (which uses two sources of power – most commonly gasoline and electric) and fuel cell models (which convert hydrogen into electricity)
Yet despite the positive progress, the report also stated that the world is still largely dependent on fossil fuels to satisfy growth in global energy demand, the report observed. In the past decade, coal has met nearly 50% of new electricity demand globally and oil currently accounts for 94% of energy supply in the transport sector.
The report noted that “improving end-use efficiency, enhancing the efficiency of fossil fuel based power generation, and supporting the widespread deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) will, therefore, also be crucial aspects of the transition to a cleaner energy future.”
The Deputy Executive Director of the IEA, Ambassador Richard Jones, emphasised the importance of G20 efforts. “The IEA welcomes this important collaboration with the G20. Enhanced deployment of clean energy technologies and of energy efficiency improvements offers energy security and environmental benefits,” he said.
“It will also enable cost savings over the medium and long term – an aspect that is particularly relevant at a time of economic uncertainty. We believe that enhanced policy assessment and analysis, building on this initial report, will enable governments to take more cost effective and efficient policy decisions.”
http://www.iea.org/index_info.asp?id=2182
Photo: © GraphicObsession.
BP: Emerging Economies to Lead Energy Growth to 2030 and Renewables to Out-Grow Oil
Report. World energy growth over the next twenty years is expected to be dominated by emerging economies such as China, India, Russia and Brazil while improvements in energy efficiency measures are set to accelerate, according to BP's latest projection of energy trends, the BP Energy Outlook 2030.BP's 'base case' - or most likely projection - points to primary energy use growing by nearly 40% over the next twenty years, with 93% of the growth coming from non-OECD (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. Non-OECD countries are seen to rapidly increase their share of overall energy demand from just over half currently to two-thirds.
Over the same period, energy intensity, a key measure of energy use per unit of economic output, is set to improve globally led by rapid efficiency gains in the same non-OECD economies, under these projections.
According to the BP Energy Outlook, diversification of energy sources increases and non-fossil fuels (nuclear, hydro and renewables) are together expected to be the biggest source of growth for the first time. Between 2010 to 2030 the contribution to energy growth of renewables (solar, wind, geothermal and biofuels) is seen to increase from 5% to 18%.
Natural gas is projected to be the fastest growing fossil fuel, and coal and oil are likely to lose market share as all fossil fuels experience lower growth rates. Fossil fuels' contribution to primary energy growth is projected to fall from 83% to 64%. OECD oil demand peaked in 2005 and in 2030 is projected to be roughly back at its level in 1990. Biofuels will account for 9% of global transport fuels.
The BP Energy Outlook 2030 is the first of BP's forward-looking analyses to be published, after 60 years of producing definitive historical data in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
In launching the BP Energy Outlook 2030, Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley said: "The issues covered in this document are huge ones - the effort to provide energy to fuel the global economy, sustainably, in an era of unprecedented growth. I believe one of our responsibilities is to share the information we have, to inform the debate on energy, and now on climate change."
"What producers, governments and consumers all want is secure, affordable and sustainable energy. But on a global scale, this remains an aspiration. And to meet that aspiration over the next two decades, we need smart, market-oriented policies to deliver the energy we need in a manageable way - without inhibiting economic development or jeopardising the improvements in living standards now being experienced by billions of people worldwide."
"I need to emphasize that the BP Energy Outlook 2030 base case is a projection, not a proposition. It is our dispassionate view of what we believe is most likely to happen on the basis of the evidence. For example, we are not as optimistic as others about progress in reducing carbon emissions. But that doesn't mean we oppose such progress. As you probably know, BP has a 15-year record of calling for more action from governments, including the wide application of a carbon price. Our base case assumes that countries continue to make some progress on addressing climate change, based on the current and expected level of political commitment. But overall, for me personally, it is a wake-up call."
Highlights
BP's 'base case' projections are that world primary energy demand growth averages 1.7% per year from 2010 to 2030 although growth decelerates slightly beyond 2020. Non-OECD energy consumption will be 68% higher by 2030 averaging 2.6% per year growth, and accounts for 93% of global energy growth. In contrast, OECD growth averages 0.3% per year to 2030; and from 2020 OECD energy consumption per capita is on a declining trend of -0.2% per year.
Transport growth is seen to slow because of a decline in the OECD. The region's total demand for oil and other liquids peaked in 2005 and will be back at roughly the level of 1990 by 2030. Toward the end of the period, coal demand in China will no longer be rising and China is projected to become the world's largest oil consumer.
OPEC's share of global oil production is set to increase to 46%, a position not seen since 1977. At the same time, oil - and gas - import dependency in the US is likely to fall to levels not seen since the 1990s, because of improved fuel efficiency and the increased share of biofuels. Global consumption growth is also impacted by higher oil prices in recent years and a gradual reduction of subsidies in oil-importing countries.
The fuel mix changes over time, reflecting long asset lifetimes. Oil, excluding bio-fuels, will grow relatively slowly at 0.6% per year; natural gas is the fastest growing fossil fuel with more than three times the projected growth rate of oil at 2.1% per year. Coal will increase by 1.2% per year and by 2030 it is likely to provide virtually as much energy as oil excluding biofuels. The strong carbon policy drive in OECD countries risks being more than offset by growth in emerging economies.
Wind, solar, bio-fuels and other renewables continue to grow strongly, increasing their share in primary energy from less than 2% now to more than 6% projected by 2030. Biofuels will provide 9% of transport fuels and nuclear and hydropower will grow steadily and gain market share in total energy consumption.
"The slowing of growth in total energy in transport is related to higher oil prices and improving fuel economy, vehicle saturation in mature economies, and expected increases in taxation and subsidy reduction in developing economies," said Rühl. "In percentage terms, oil demand is reduced the most in the power sector (-30%) because this is the easiest oil to displace with gas or renewables and is the sector most likely to employ carbon pricing."
Energy intensity
Since 1900 the world's population has more than quadrupled, real income (as measured by Gross Domestic Product) has grown by a factor of 25, and primary energy consumption by a factor of 23. "The modern energy economy has been shaped by the trends of industrialisation, urbanisation, motorisation and rising income levels," said Rühl.
Energy per unit of income as measured by GDP continues to fall, and at an accelerating rate. "This is true in our outlook to 2030 not only for the global average, but for almost all of the key countries and regions. The combination of energy efficiency gains and a long-term structural shift towards less energy intensive activities as economies develop underpins this trend," said Rühl.
Non-OECD growth
Global liquids demand is forecast to reach 102.4 million barrels per day (mmbpd) in 2030. The net growth of 16.5 mmbpd over the next 20 years comes exclusively from the emerging economies of the non-OECD. "Non-OECD Asia will account for nearly two-thirds of non-OECD consumption growth over the next 20 years and more than three-quarters of the net global increase, rising by nearly 13 million barrels a day," said Rühl.
"The largest increments of new supply will come from OPEC - conventional crude in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, as well as OPEC natural gas liquids (NGLs) which are not subject to OPEC quotas."
Non-OPEC liquids are likely to rise modestly, driven by a large increase in biofuels, along with smaller increments from Canadian oil sands, deepwater Brazil, and the FSU which offset continued declines in mature provinces.
Fuel substitution
According to the Energy Outlook's projections, oil continues to suffer a long run decline in market share, while gas steadily gains share. Coal's recent gains in market share, on the back of rapid industrialisation in China and India in particular, are reversed by 2030, with all three fossil fuels converging on market shares around 27%. The diversifying fuel mix can be seen most clearly in terms of shares of growth. Over the period 1990-2010 fossil fuels contributed 83% of the growth in energy; over the next twenty years fossil fuels are likely to contribute 64% of the growth. Renewables (excluding hydro) and biofuels together account for 18% of the growth in energy to 2030.
"The diversifying fuel mix is being driven largely by developments in the power sector. Energy used to generate power remains the fastest growing sector, accounting for 53% of the growth in primary energy consumption 1990-2010 and projected to account for 57% of the growth to 2030. In terms of end use, industry drives the growth of final energy consumption. The role of transport is weakening; over the past 20 years transport sector energy demand grew at about the same rate as total energy demand, but over the next 20 years it grows much less rapidly than total energy," said Rühl.
"OECD oil demand declines are concentrated primarily outside the transport sector, where it is relatively easier to displace oil by gas and renewables; post-2015, OECD transport demand is also expected to fall as technology and policy drive improved engine efficiency."
Growth in biofuels
Biofuels production is expected to reach 6.7 mmbpd by 2030 from 1.8 mmbpd in 2010 and will contribute 125% of net non-OPEC supply growth over the next 20 years. Continued policy support, high oil prices, and continued technological innovations all contribute to the rapid expansion.
The US and Brazil will continue to dominate biofuel production with 76% of total output in 2010 but falling to 68% in 2030 as output from Asia-Pacific begins to rise.
"The global fuel mix continues to diversify - but for the first time, non-fossil fuels will be major sources of supply growth," said Rühl.
Environmental policy
The Energy Outlook 2030 assumes continued policy action to address concerns about both climate change and energy security, based on the current trend of political commitment. BP has developed an alternative 'policy case' to explore the implications of a significant increase in the level of political commitment which translates into a tightening of policy.
"The key focus of the policy case is to reduce dependence on carbon intensive fuels. This can be achieved through a wide range of policy instruments, including various ways of putting a price on carbon," said Rühl.
In BP's policy case "global emissions peak just after 2020, but will still be 20% above 2005 levels. The emissions path is still expected to be well above the International Energy Agency's 450 Scenario1, indicating how much more effort will be required after 2030 to put the world onto a 'safe' path," said Rühl.
The cut in emissions in the policy case would be achieved through a combination of more rapid efficiency gains, fuel switching - from gas to coal and from fossil fuels to nuclear, hydro and renewables - and the introduction of carbon capture and storage (CCS) for both coal and gas power plants.
Note to readers:
* The BP Energy Outlook 2030 is available online at www.bp.com/EnergyOutlook2030.
Cautionary statement
This presentation contains forward-looking statements, particularly those regarding global economic growth, population growth, energy consumption, policy support for renewable energies and sources of energy supply. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events, and depend on circumstances, that will or may occur in the future. Actual results may differ depending on a variety of factors, including product supply, demand and pricing; political stability; general economic conditions; legal and regulatory developments; availability of new technologies; natural disasters and adverse weather conditions; wars and acts of terrorism or sabotage; and other factors discussed elsewhere in this presentation.
1 The IEA has developed a back-cast scenario to illustrate what would be necessary to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at 450 parts per million by 2100, which is believed to offer a reasonable chance of limiting the rise in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius. www.iea.org
Posted by Ordons News Team, write to [email protected]
19 January 2011http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=333009965&gid=136624&&item=40785345&articleURL=http://www.ordons.com/reports-a-analisis/reports/9484-bp-emerging-economies-to-lead-energy-growth-to-2030-and-renewables-to-out-grow-oil.html&urlhash=0-yn&goback=.gde_136624_member_40785345
Over the same period, energy intensity, a key measure of energy use per unit of economic output, is set to improve globally led by rapid efficiency gains in the same non-OECD economies, under these projections.
According to the BP Energy Outlook, diversification of energy sources increases and non-fossil fuels (nuclear, hydro and renewables) are together expected to be the biggest source of growth for the first time. Between 2010 to 2030 the contribution to energy growth of renewables (solar, wind, geothermal and biofuels) is seen to increase from 5% to 18%.
Natural gas is projected to be the fastest growing fossil fuel, and coal and oil are likely to lose market share as all fossil fuels experience lower growth rates. Fossil fuels' contribution to primary energy growth is projected to fall from 83% to 64%. OECD oil demand peaked in 2005 and in 2030 is projected to be roughly back at its level in 1990. Biofuels will account for 9% of global transport fuels.
The BP Energy Outlook 2030 is the first of BP's forward-looking analyses to be published, after 60 years of producing definitive historical data in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
In launching the BP Energy Outlook 2030, Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley said: "The issues covered in this document are huge ones - the effort to provide energy to fuel the global economy, sustainably, in an era of unprecedented growth. I believe one of our responsibilities is to share the information we have, to inform the debate on energy, and now on climate change."
"What producers, governments and consumers all want is secure, affordable and sustainable energy. But on a global scale, this remains an aspiration. And to meet that aspiration over the next two decades, we need smart, market-oriented policies to deliver the energy we need in a manageable way - without inhibiting economic development or jeopardising the improvements in living standards now being experienced by billions of people worldwide."
"I need to emphasize that the BP Energy Outlook 2030 base case is a projection, not a proposition. It is our dispassionate view of what we believe is most likely to happen on the basis of the evidence. For example, we are not as optimistic as others about progress in reducing carbon emissions. But that doesn't mean we oppose such progress. As you probably know, BP has a 15-year record of calling for more action from governments, including the wide application of a carbon price. Our base case assumes that countries continue to make some progress on addressing climate change, based on the current and expected level of political commitment. But overall, for me personally, it is a wake-up call."
Highlights
BP's 'base case' projections are that world primary energy demand growth averages 1.7% per year from 2010 to 2030 although growth decelerates slightly beyond 2020. Non-OECD energy consumption will be 68% higher by 2030 averaging 2.6% per year growth, and accounts for 93% of global energy growth. In contrast, OECD growth averages 0.3% per year to 2030; and from 2020 OECD energy consumption per capita is on a declining trend of -0.2% per year.
Transport growth is seen to slow because of a decline in the OECD. The region's total demand for oil and other liquids peaked in 2005 and will be back at roughly the level of 1990 by 2030. Toward the end of the period, coal demand in China will no longer be rising and China is projected to become the world's largest oil consumer.
OPEC's share of global oil production is set to increase to 46%, a position not seen since 1977. At the same time, oil - and gas - import dependency in the US is likely to fall to levels not seen since the 1990s, because of improved fuel efficiency and the increased share of biofuels. Global consumption growth is also impacted by higher oil prices in recent years and a gradual reduction of subsidies in oil-importing countries.
The fuel mix changes over time, reflecting long asset lifetimes. Oil, excluding bio-fuels, will grow relatively slowly at 0.6% per year; natural gas is the fastest growing fossil fuel with more than three times the projected growth rate of oil at 2.1% per year. Coal will increase by 1.2% per year and by 2030 it is likely to provide virtually as much energy as oil excluding biofuels. The strong carbon policy drive in OECD countries risks being more than offset by growth in emerging economies.
Wind, solar, bio-fuels and other renewables continue to grow strongly, increasing their share in primary energy from less than 2% now to more than 6% projected by 2030. Biofuels will provide 9% of transport fuels and nuclear and hydropower will grow steadily and gain market share in total energy consumption.
"The slowing of growth in total energy in transport is related to higher oil prices and improving fuel economy, vehicle saturation in mature economies, and expected increases in taxation and subsidy reduction in developing economies," said Rühl. "In percentage terms, oil demand is reduced the most in the power sector (-30%) because this is the easiest oil to displace with gas or renewables and is the sector most likely to employ carbon pricing."
Energy intensity
Since 1900 the world's population has more than quadrupled, real income (as measured by Gross Domestic Product) has grown by a factor of 25, and primary energy consumption by a factor of 23. "The modern energy economy has been shaped by the trends of industrialisation, urbanisation, motorisation and rising income levels," said Rühl.
Energy per unit of income as measured by GDP continues to fall, and at an accelerating rate. "This is true in our outlook to 2030 not only for the global average, but for almost all of the key countries and regions. The combination of energy efficiency gains and a long-term structural shift towards less energy intensive activities as economies develop underpins this trend," said Rühl.
Non-OECD growth
Global liquids demand is forecast to reach 102.4 million barrels per day (mmbpd) in 2030. The net growth of 16.5 mmbpd over the next 20 years comes exclusively from the emerging economies of the non-OECD. "Non-OECD Asia will account for nearly two-thirds of non-OECD consumption growth over the next 20 years and more than three-quarters of the net global increase, rising by nearly 13 million barrels a day," said Rühl.
"The largest increments of new supply will come from OPEC - conventional crude in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, as well as OPEC natural gas liquids (NGLs) which are not subject to OPEC quotas."
Non-OPEC liquids are likely to rise modestly, driven by a large increase in biofuels, along with smaller increments from Canadian oil sands, deepwater Brazil, and the FSU which offset continued declines in mature provinces.
Fuel substitution
According to the Energy Outlook's projections, oil continues to suffer a long run decline in market share, while gas steadily gains share. Coal's recent gains in market share, on the back of rapid industrialisation in China and India in particular, are reversed by 2030, with all three fossil fuels converging on market shares around 27%. The diversifying fuel mix can be seen most clearly in terms of shares of growth. Over the period 1990-2010 fossil fuels contributed 83% of the growth in energy; over the next twenty years fossil fuels are likely to contribute 64% of the growth. Renewables (excluding hydro) and biofuels together account for 18% of the growth in energy to 2030.
"The diversifying fuel mix is being driven largely by developments in the power sector. Energy used to generate power remains the fastest growing sector, accounting for 53% of the growth in primary energy consumption 1990-2010 and projected to account for 57% of the growth to 2030. In terms of end use, industry drives the growth of final energy consumption. The role of transport is weakening; over the past 20 years transport sector energy demand grew at about the same rate as total energy demand, but over the next 20 years it grows much less rapidly than total energy," said Rühl.
"OECD oil demand declines are concentrated primarily outside the transport sector, where it is relatively easier to displace oil by gas and renewables; post-2015, OECD transport demand is also expected to fall as technology and policy drive improved engine efficiency."
Growth in biofuels
Biofuels production is expected to reach 6.7 mmbpd by 2030 from 1.8 mmbpd in 2010 and will contribute 125% of net non-OPEC supply growth over the next 20 years. Continued policy support, high oil prices, and continued technological innovations all contribute to the rapid expansion.
The US and Brazil will continue to dominate biofuel production with 76% of total output in 2010 but falling to 68% in 2030 as output from Asia-Pacific begins to rise.
"The global fuel mix continues to diversify - but for the first time, non-fossil fuels will be major sources of supply growth," said Rühl.
Environmental policy
The Energy Outlook 2030 assumes continued policy action to address concerns about both climate change and energy security, based on the current trend of political commitment. BP has developed an alternative 'policy case' to explore the implications of a significant increase in the level of political commitment which translates into a tightening of policy.
"The key focus of the policy case is to reduce dependence on carbon intensive fuels. This can be achieved through a wide range of policy instruments, including various ways of putting a price on carbon," said Rühl.
In BP's policy case "global emissions peak just after 2020, but will still be 20% above 2005 levels. The emissions path is still expected to be well above the International Energy Agency's 450 Scenario1, indicating how much more effort will be required after 2030 to put the world onto a 'safe' path," said Rühl.
The cut in emissions in the policy case would be achieved through a combination of more rapid efficiency gains, fuel switching - from gas to coal and from fossil fuels to nuclear, hydro and renewables - and the introduction of carbon capture and storage (CCS) for both coal and gas power plants.
Note to readers:
* The BP Energy Outlook 2030 is available online at www.bp.com/EnergyOutlook2030.
Cautionary statement
This presentation contains forward-looking statements, particularly those regarding global economic growth, population growth, energy consumption, policy support for renewable energies and sources of energy supply. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events, and depend on circumstances, that will or may occur in the future. Actual results may differ depending on a variety of factors, including product supply, demand and pricing; political stability; general economic conditions; legal and regulatory developments; availability of new technologies; natural disasters and adverse weather conditions; wars and acts of terrorism or sabotage; and other factors discussed elsewhere in this presentation.
1 The IEA has developed a back-cast scenario to illustrate what would be necessary to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at 450 parts per million by 2100, which is believed to offer a reasonable chance of limiting the rise in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius. www.iea.org
Posted by Ordons News Team, write to [email protected]
19 January 2011http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=333009965&gid=136624&&item=40785345&articleURL=http://www.ordons.com/reports-a-analisis/reports/9484-bp-emerging-economies-to-lead-energy-growth-to-2030-and-renewables-to-out-grow-oil.html&urlhash=0-yn&goback=.gde_136624_member_40785345
Give me green, and jobs, but not green jobs
LAST week, I had an extended Twitter debate, which is not easy to do, with environmental writer David Roberts of the green site Grist (full disclosure: I have contributed to Grist in the past). The trigger for the debate was this piece, by Richard Schmalensee and Robert Stavins, on the relative merits of a cap-and-trade policy versus a renewable energy standard (RES). With the former, a cap is set on carbon emissions, the right to emit a certain amount of carbon under the cap is auctioned off or otherwise allocated, and those rights can then be traded on the open market. With the latter, power companies are simply required to generate a certain percentage of their energy output from renewable sources. There may also be a market component to the RES policy; firms can trade green energy credits, much as they'd trade carbon credits under a cap-and-trade plan.
The systems may sound similar, but as Mssrs Schmalensee and Stavins point out they have different impacts:
[R]enewable or clean electricity standards are a very expensive way to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions -- much more expensive than cap-and-trade. These standards would only affect electricity, thereby omitting about 60 percent of U.S. CO2 emissions. And even then, the standards would provide limited incentives to substitute away from coal, the most carbon-intensive way to generate electricity. Even more problematic, renewable/clean electricity standards would provide absolutely no incentives to reduce CO2 emissions from heating buildings, running industrial processes, or transporting people and goods. And unlike cap-and-trade, which would also affect oil consumption, the electricity standards would make no contribution to energy security. Only a very tiny fraction of U.S. oil consumption is used to generate electricity.
RES is, in their words, "less effective, more costly, but politically preferred" to cap-and-trade. Mr Roberts made clear that he did not agree with the framing of the piece. In his view, cap-and-trade and RES aren't substitutes; they're complements. This didn't make much sense to me, so I asked him to elaborate. Over the course of multiple tweets, Mr Roberts suggested that the two policies support different but related goals. Cap-and-trade is there to reduce emissions, while RES is there to "encourage industries [important] to [the] 21st century", to help generate "a robust set of clean energy industries".
This, as Mr Roberts freely admits, it straightforward industrial policy—choosing an industry to favour and adopting policies to favour it. I think this is a terrible idea on its own merits, carbon impacts aside. Ed Glaeser helps explain why, citing the example of a Massachusetts solar cell manufacturer that recently closed up shop to move to China, where the government incentives were sweeter:
Evergreen Solar’s move to China was supported by a $33 million loan from the Chinese government, and it has suggested that the Chinese production was cheaper because “solar manufacturers in China have received considerable government and financial support.”
But surely China’s skilled, low-wage labor force is a far more important source of its low costs. Japan’s success in the 1980s was also attributed to its activist industrial policy, but subsequent research found that government subsidies backed losers more often than winners.
Joshua Lerner’s superb book “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (Princeton University Press, 2009) reviews public efforts to support start-ups and entrepreneurship worldwide and reminds us that “for each effective government intervention, there have been dozens, even hundreds, of failures, where public expenditures bore no fruit.”
Labour-intensive industries will always be at a disadvantage in America relative to China, because American labour is expensive. America tends to excel in physical and human capital-intensive kinds of production. Critics of this view might respond that those aspects of production are characterised by clustering. There are increasing returns to scale, and if Chinese efforts to attract production facilities pay off then R&D clusters may follow, leaving Americans with no good jobs at all.
To this, I'd respond with several points. First, it does no good to be the first mover on a lousy investment, and it's impossible to know what the good investments are ex ante. Second, this doesn't actually seem to happen; governments around the world have been recruiting technology companies for decades, and yet Silicon Valley is still an unrivalled centre of technological innovation. And third, it strikes me as extremely unwise to inject yet another zero sum aspect into the climate change game. Americans have contributed a hugely disproportionate share of the carbon emissions now warming the planet, and the costs will fall mostly on others. Now Americans want the government to aggressively pursue green industry, the better to deny economic opportunity to the very same developing economies that will fare the worst from climate change? Does that seem at all wise or just? And if the argument is that China will nonetheless benefit from America's lead on green tech, then why doesn't that argument cut the other way, as well?
Indeed, that's one point that Mr Glaeser emphasises—the cheaper green technologies are, the better. The perceived expense of substituting away from dirty technologies is one huge obstacle to emission reduction plans in America and elsewhere. So to the extent that green industrial policy increases the expense of green substitutes, it makes the job of slowing warming harder. Now the cheapest way to produce green technologies is for all governments to offer the same optimal research subsidies and let the firms choose where to locate on their own. More expensive is a world in which one country provides a larger than optimal subsidy in order to develop that first-mover advantage. Costlier still is a world in which two governments compete to throw money at a firm, simply in order to influence its location rather than its decision to produce. And especially costly is a world in which governments do all that for a technology that ultimately ends up going nowhere.
This is potentially a big deal. Research trajectories are subject to path dependence—an established line of research attracts more resources than a fledgling area. A governmental decision to favour a specific technology that disappoints is therefore doubly harmful; it attracts resources to projects that shouldn't get them, and it deprives other, more promising, projects of those resources. Every research dollar that goes to corn ethanol increases the expense of developing cost-effective alternative technologies (alternatives that might actually lead to reduced emissions). There's a strong case for green research subsidies, but green industrial policy is as likely to frustrate emissions reduction efforts as it is to complement them.
That still leaves those millions of unemployed Americans. But their status is fundamentally a question for macroeconomic policymakers. It would be a mistake to try and address joblessness through climate policy. Environmental policymakers are trying to reduce emissions at least cost to the economy, while macroeconomic policymakers are trying to reduce unemployment at least cost to the economy and given current environmental policy. It's hard to see how an explicit industrial policy, green or any other colour, emerges from the simultaneous solution of those equations.
Jan 18th 2011
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/01/climate_policy_0
The systems may sound similar, but as Mssrs Schmalensee and Stavins point out they have different impacts:
[R]enewable or clean electricity standards are a very expensive way to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions -- much more expensive than cap-and-trade. These standards would only affect electricity, thereby omitting about 60 percent of U.S. CO2 emissions. And even then, the standards would provide limited incentives to substitute away from coal, the most carbon-intensive way to generate electricity. Even more problematic, renewable/clean electricity standards would provide absolutely no incentives to reduce CO2 emissions from heating buildings, running industrial processes, or transporting people and goods. And unlike cap-and-trade, which would also affect oil consumption, the electricity standards would make no contribution to energy security. Only a very tiny fraction of U.S. oil consumption is used to generate electricity.
RES is, in their words, "less effective, more costly, but politically preferred" to cap-and-trade. Mr Roberts made clear that he did not agree with the framing of the piece. In his view, cap-and-trade and RES aren't substitutes; they're complements. This didn't make much sense to me, so I asked him to elaborate. Over the course of multiple tweets, Mr Roberts suggested that the two policies support different but related goals. Cap-and-trade is there to reduce emissions, while RES is there to "encourage industries [important] to [the] 21st century", to help generate "a robust set of clean energy industries".
This, as Mr Roberts freely admits, it straightforward industrial policy—choosing an industry to favour and adopting policies to favour it. I think this is a terrible idea on its own merits, carbon impacts aside. Ed Glaeser helps explain why, citing the example of a Massachusetts solar cell manufacturer that recently closed up shop to move to China, where the government incentives were sweeter:
Evergreen Solar’s move to China was supported by a $33 million loan from the Chinese government, and it has suggested that the Chinese production was cheaper because “solar manufacturers in China have received considerable government and financial support.”
But surely China’s skilled, low-wage labor force is a far more important source of its low costs. Japan’s success in the 1980s was also attributed to its activist industrial policy, but subsequent research found that government subsidies backed losers more often than winners.
Joshua Lerner’s superb book “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (Princeton University Press, 2009) reviews public efforts to support start-ups and entrepreneurship worldwide and reminds us that “for each effective government intervention, there have been dozens, even hundreds, of failures, where public expenditures bore no fruit.”
Labour-intensive industries will always be at a disadvantage in America relative to China, because American labour is expensive. America tends to excel in physical and human capital-intensive kinds of production. Critics of this view might respond that those aspects of production are characterised by clustering. There are increasing returns to scale, and if Chinese efforts to attract production facilities pay off then R&D clusters may follow, leaving Americans with no good jobs at all.
To this, I'd respond with several points. First, it does no good to be the first mover on a lousy investment, and it's impossible to know what the good investments are ex ante. Second, this doesn't actually seem to happen; governments around the world have been recruiting technology companies for decades, and yet Silicon Valley is still an unrivalled centre of technological innovation. And third, it strikes me as extremely unwise to inject yet another zero sum aspect into the climate change game. Americans have contributed a hugely disproportionate share of the carbon emissions now warming the planet, and the costs will fall mostly on others. Now Americans want the government to aggressively pursue green industry, the better to deny economic opportunity to the very same developing economies that will fare the worst from climate change? Does that seem at all wise or just? And if the argument is that China will nonetheless benefit from America's lead on green tech, then why doesn't that argument cut the other way, as well?
Indeed, that's one point that Mr Glaeser emphasises—the cheaper green technologies are, the better. The perceived expense of substituting away from dirty technologies is one huge obstacle to emission reduction plans in America and elsewhere. So to the extent that green industrial policy increases the expense of green substitutes, it makes the job of slowing warming harder. Now the cheapest way to produce green technologies is for all governments to offer the same optimal research subsidies and let the firms choose where to locate on their own. More expensive is a world in which one country provides a larger than optimal subsidy in order to develop that first-mover advantage. Costlier still is a world in which two governments compete to throw money at a firm, simply in order to influence its location rather than its decision to produce. And especially costly is a world in which governments do all that for a technology that ultimately ends up going nowhere.
This is potentially a big deal. Research trajectories are subject to path dependence—an established line of research attracts more resources than a fledgling area. A governmental decision to favour a specific technology that disappoints is therefore doubly harmful; it attracts resources to projects that shouldn't get them, and it deprives other, more promising, projects of those resources. Every research dollar that goes to corn ethanol increases the expense of developing cost-effective alternative technologies (alternatives that might actually lead to reduced emissions). There's a strong case for green research subsidies, but green industrial policy is as likely to frustrate emissions reduction efforts as it is to complement them.
That still leaves those millions of unemployed Americans. But their status is fundamentally a question for macroeconomic policymakers. It would be a mistake to try and address joblessness through climate policy. Environmental policymakers are trying to reduce emissions at least cost to the economy, while macroeconomic policymakers are trying to reduce unemployment at least cost to the economy and given current environmental policy. It's hard to see how an explicit industrial policy, green or any other colour, emerges from the simultaneous solution of those equations.
Jan 18th 2011
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/01/climate_policy_0
Scientists Find Connection Between Climate Change and Fall Of Roman Empire
New studies have revealed that a prolonged period of wet weather spurred the spread of the Bubonic plague in medieval times, Discovery News reported.A 300-year spell of unpredictable weather coincided with the decline of the Roman Empire.
Climate change wasn't necessarily the cause of these and other major historical events, researchers say. But the study, which pieced together a year-by-year history of temperature and precipitation in Western Europe, dating back 2,500 years, offers the most detailed picture yet of how climate and society have been intertwined for millennia.
With a look to the past, the work may help society better prepare for climate change in the future by informing public policy decisions about water management and other resources.
"We need to have a better understanding about the ancient climate system and its variability to understand the modern situation," said Ulf Buntgen, a paleoclimatologist at the Swiss Federal Research Institute in Zurich. "It does not provide any predictions. But it helps us take it as something to be considered."
Buntgen and colleagues collaborated with archaeologists to amass a database of more than 9,000 pieces of wood dating back 2,500 years. Samples came from both live trees and remains of buildings and other wooden artifacts, all from France and Germany. By measuring the width of annual growth rings in the wood, the researchers were able to determine temperature and precipitation levels on a year-by-year basis.
To get annual temperatures, they measured rings in high-altitude conifer trees, which grow faster in warmer summers and slower in colder years. To gauge precipitation, they looked at tree ring widths in lower-elevation oaks, which grow faster in years with higher levels of rainfall. Other techniques allowed them to figure out exactly which year each ring represented.
Overall, analyses showed that the degree of climate change occurring now is unprecedented in the last 2,500 years, Buntgen and colleagues reported on January 13 in the journal Science. Because the data correlated weather patterns with exact years, the researchers were also able to zero in on specific moments in history.
Again and again, the data suggest, climate has impacted culture in dramatic ways. Unusually extreme and frequent shifts in weather patterns between 250 and 550, for example, coincided with a period of exceptional upheaval in Europe's political and economic situations.
As weather patterns stabilized again between about 700 and 1000, on the other hand, societies began to thrive and grow in the countryside of northwest Europe. Around the same time, Norse colonies sprang up in Iceland and Greenland.
Climate also seems to have played a role in the epidemic of Black Death, which killed about half the population of Central Europe by 1347. For decades leading up to the outbreak, the new study found, wetter summers and a major cold snap corresponded with the onset of a Little Ice Age. Those conditions may have contributed to widespread famine and overall poor health, predisposing people to catch the plague.
Another particularly cold dip in the early 17th century corresponded with the Thirty Years' War, a time when many people abandoned Europe and migrated to America.
"It's not that there was a war because it was cold," Buntgen said. "But the conditions were not helpful. Society was already affected a lot by this political turmoil, and they got additional suffering from cold summer temperatures."
Together, the findings offer new and extraordinary precise lines of evidence for understanding the history of human societies, said David Stahle, a geoscientist at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
"When they say 536 AD, which is an exceptional year because of what was likely a massive volcanic eruption, they don't mean 535 AD or maybe 534 AD," he said. "They mean 536 AD without a doubt. It's nailed."
Tert.am
TUESDAY, 18 JANUARY 2011
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/45352-scientists-find-connection-between-climate-change-and-fall-of-roman-empire
Climate change wasn't necessarily the cause of these and other major historical events, researchers say. But the study, which pieced together a year-by-year history of temperature and precipitation in Western Europe, dating back 2,500 years, offers the most detailed picture yet of how climate and society have been intertwined for millennia.
With a look to the past, the work may help society better prepare for climate change in the future by informing public policy decisions about water management and other resources.
"We need to have a better understanding about the ancient climate system and its variability to understand the modern situation," said Ulf Buntgen, a paleoclimatologist at the Swiss Federal Research Institute in Zurich. "It does not provide any predictions. But it helps us take it as something to be considered."
Buntgen and colleagues collaborated with archaeologists to amass a database of more than 9,000 pieces of wood dating back 2,500 years. Samples came from both live trees and remains of buildings and other wooden artifacts, all from France and Germany. By measuring the width of annual growth rings in the wood, the researchers were able to determine temperature and precipitation levels on a year-by-year basis.
To get annual temperatures, they measured rings in high-altitude conifer trees, which grow faster in warmer summers and slower in colder years. To gauge precipitation, they looked at tree ring widths in lower-elevation oaks, which grow faster in years with higher levels of rainfall. Other techniques allowed them to figure out exactly which year each ring represented.
Overall, analyses showed that the degree of climate change occurring now is unprecedented in the last 2,500 years, Buntgen and colleagues reported on January 13 in the journal Science. Because the data correlated weather patterns with exact years, the researchers were also able to zero in on specific moments in history.
Again and again, the data suggest, climate has impacted culture in dramatic ways. Unusually extreme and frequent shifts in weather patterns between 250 and 550, for example, coincided with a period of exceptional upheaval in Europe's political and economic situations.
As weather patterns stabilized again between about 700 and 1000, on the other hand, societies began to thrive and grow in the countryside of northwest Europe. Around the same time, Norse colonies sprang up in Iceland and Greenland.
Climate also seems to have played a role in the epidemic of Black Death, which killed about half the population of Central Europe by 1347. For decades leading up to the outbreak, the new study found, wetter summers and a major cold snap corresponded with the onset of a Little Ice Age. Those conditions may have contributed to widespread famine and overall poor health, predisposing people to catch the plague.
Another particularly cold dip in the early 17th century corresponded with the Thirty Years' War, a time when many people abandoned Europe and migrated to America.
"It's not that there was a war because it was cold," Buntgen said. "But the conditions were not helpful. Society was already affected a lot by this political turmoil, and they got additional suffering from cold summer temperatures."
Together, the findings offer new and extraordinary precise lines of evidence for understanding the history of human societies, said David Stahle, a geoscientist at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
"When they say 536 AD, which is an exceptional year because of what was likely a massive volcanic eruption, they don't mean 535 AD or maybe 534 AD," he said. "They mean 536 AD without a doubt. It's nailed."
Tert.am
TUESDAY, 18 JANUARY 2011
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/45352-scientists-find-connection-between-climate-change-and-fall-of-roman-empire
Analysis: Russia opens Arctic to BP to remain top oil nation
By Dmitry Zhdannikov
LONDON | Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:32am EST
(Reuters) - Russia's move to open up its prized Arctic reserves to oil major BP (BP.L) is driven by the Kremlin's desire to avoid a fall in production and remain the world's leading oil nation.
Analysts and bankers told Reuters that the deal, in which BP agreed to a multi-billion-dollar share swap with state major Rosneft (ROSN.MM), is a boost to Russia's investment climate, though any stocks rally would be capped by political and oil tax regimes uncertainties.
The deal gives BP a direct line to powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and access to new reserves as it emerges from its Gulf of Mexico spill disaster. But it also locks BP into a partnership with any Kremlin regime for the decades to come.
"For Russia to maintain production at or above 10 million barrels per day, the investments required are huge. Decline rates in West Siberia are very steep and projects in East Siberia are fairly limited," said Amrita Sen, a commodity analyst at Barclays.
The deal, under which BP and Rosneft will explore for offshore oil in the Kara Sea, is a departure from Kremlin policies which had made offshore fields unavailable for foreigners.
"The lessons on how to prevent an environmental catastrophe similar to the tragic Macondo spill are as important for the Russians as BP's offshore drilling technology," said Kirill Pyshkin, who manages over 1.1 billion euros in the Aviva Investors Global Equity Income and Global High Yield Equity funds, including BP shares.
"As for BP, this opportunity to explore the Russian Arctic previously off limits to foreign firms is a clear win," added Pyshkin. Ecologists say an Arctic spill would be far harder to clean up than the Gulf of Mexico spill.
YUKOS AND TNK-BP
Both Pyshkin and Andrew Moorfield, head of the oil and gas division at banking group Lloyds, agree expertise in offshore deepwater drilling is important for Russia, the world's top oil producer ahead of Saudi Arabia, as new discoveries of large, conventional and easy oil are rare.
"The challenge for BP is to transform this well manufactured opportunity into future reserves growth and cash flow, whilst managing any political and environmental tension and technical risks," said Moorfield.
The challenges and risks are huge.
In 2008, BP chief Bob Dudley saw risks soaring himself when he had to flee Russia amid a row with the billionaire partners in BP's TNK-BP venture, where he was the CEO at the time.
On Friday, Dudley got a blessing for the Rosneft deal from Putin and his deputy and Russian oil tsar, Igor Sechin. But in 2003, when BP and TNK formed the venture, Putin also gave it his personal blessing, which didn't help Dudley in 2008.
Russia's image abroad is at its low after the latest sentencing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, owner of YUKOS, whose assets make up the bulk of today's Rosneft.
Some U.S. politician have already branded BP "Bolshoi Petroleum" and a U.S. congressman has called for greater scrutiny of the deal, citing security concerns as BP is one of the key suppliers of the U.S. military.
Shareholders of defunct YUKOS are seeking $98 billion from Russia in a European Court of Human Rights suit.
"BP shareholders should be concerned that once again the company has invested in a deal with Rosneft in assets over which there is a significant question as to security of Rosneft's ownership," said YUKOS spokeswoman Claire Davidson.
About a quarter of BP's reserves and output come from TNK-BP and it is unclear how it can co-exist with the Rosneft venture.
With oil prices near $100 a barrel, Russian resource nationalism could be on the rise after a few quiet years.
"Not many majors in the world would allow a Russian state proxy to hold a big stake in it like BP did. For the Kremlin it is a very important symbolic move," said an investment banker who asked not to be named.
He said TNK and Rosneft could peacefully co-exist. But speculation about a buyout of billionaires from TNK-BP by BP or Rosneft to form a true oil titan would inevitably increase, as was the case when gas group Gazprom (GAZP.MM) studied the idea in 2008.
The banker also said oil tax uncertainty would continue to deter some major investors from Russian oil stocks, a view not shared by all observers.
"When BP made their 2003 investment it helped kick off a rally, as people realized Russia was undervalued. So this is a very big event for Russia," an equity sales trader at a Western investment bank in Moscow said on condition of anonymity.
(Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by David Holmes)
http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=330148319&gid=1808658&&item=40536231&articleURL=http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70F1K220110117%3Frpc%3D59&urlhash=fn-N&goback=.gde_1808658_member_40536231
LONDON | Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:32am EST
(Reuters) - Russia's move to open up its prized Arctic reserves to oil major BP (BP.L) is driven by the Kremlin's desire to avoid a fall in production and remain the world's leading oil nation.
Analysts and bankers told Reuters that the deal, in which BP agreed to a multi-billion-dollar share swap with state major Rosneft (ROSN.MM), is a boost to Russia's investment climate, though any stocks rally would be capped by political and oil tax regimes uncertainties.
The deal gives BP a direct line to powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and access to new reserves as it emerges from its Gulf of Mexico spill disaster. But it also locks BP into a partnership with any Kremlin regime for the decades to come.
"For Russia to maintain production at or above 10 million barrels per day, the investments required are huge. Decline rates in West Siberia are very steep and projects in East Siberia are fairly limited," said Amrita Sen, a commodity analyst at Barclays.
The deal, under which BP and Rosneft will explore for offshore oil in the Kara Sea, is a departure from Kremlin policies which had made offshore fields unavailable for foreigners.
"The lessons on how to prevent an environmental catastrophe similar to the tragic Macondo spill are as important for the Russians as BP's offshore drilling technology," said Kirill Pyshkin, who manages over 1.1 billion euros in the Aviva Investors Global Equity Income and Global High Yield Equity funds, including BP shares.
"As for BP, this opportunity to explore the Russian Arctic previously off limits to foreign firms is a clear win," added Pyshkin. Ecologists say an Arctic spill would be far harder to clean up than the Gulf of Mexico spill.
YUKOS AND TNK-BP
Both Pyshkin and Andrew Moorfield, head of the oil and gas division at banking group Lloyds, agree expertise in offshore deepwater drilling is important for Russia, the world's top oil producer ahead of Saudi Arabia, as new discoveries of large, conventional and easy oil are rare.
"The challenge for BP is to transform this well manufactured opportunity into future reserves growth and cash flow, whilst managing any political and environmental tension and technical risks," said Moorfield.
The challenges and risks are huge.
In 2008, BP chief Bob Dudley saw risks soaring himself when he had to flee Russia amid a row with the billionaire partners in BP's TNK-BP venture, where he was the CEO at the time.
On Friday, Dudley got a blessing for the Rosneft deal from Putin and his deputy and Russian oil tsar, Igor Sechin. But in 2003, when BP and TNK formed the venture, Putin also gave it his personal blessing, which didn't help Dudley in 2008.
Russia's image abroad is at its low after the latest sentencing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, owner of YUKOS, whose assets make up the bulk of today's Rosneft.
Some U.S. politician have already branded BP "Bolshoi Petroleum" and a U.S. congressman has called for greater scrutiny of the deal, citing security concerns as BP is one of the key suppliers of the U.S. military.
Shareholders of defunct YUKOS are seeking $98 billion from Russia in a European Court of Human Rights suit.
"BP shareholders should be concerned that once again the company has invested in a deal with Rosneft in assets over which there is a significant question as to security of Rosneft's ownership," said YUKOS spokeswoman Claire Davidson.
About a quarter of BP's reserves and output come from TNK-BP and it is unclear how it can co-exist with the Rosneft venture.
With oil prices near $100 a barrel, Russian resource nationalism could be on the rise after a few quiet years.
"Not many majors in the world would allow a Russian state proxy to hold a big stake in it like BP did. For the Kremlin it is a very important symbolic move," said an investment banker who asked not to be named.
He said TNK and Rosneft could peacefully co-exist. But speculation about a buyout of billionaires from TNK-BP by BP or Rosneft to form a true oil titan would inevitably increase, as was the case when gas group Gazprom (GAZP.MM) studied the idea in 2008.
The banker also said oil tax uncertainty would continue to deter some major investors from Russian oil stocks, a view not shared by all observers.
"When BP made their 2003 investment it helped kick off a rally, as people realized Russia was undervalued. So this is a very big event for Russia," an equity sales trader at a Western investment bank in Moscow said on condition of anonymity.
(Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by David Holmes)
http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=330148319&gid=1808658&&item=40536231&articleURL=http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70F1K220110117%3Frpc%3D59&urlhash=fn-N&goback=.gde_1808658_member_40536231
How to move to 100 percent renewables by 2030
By Andrew Restuccia - 01/17/11 01:11 PM ET
What would it take to switch the country’s entire energy infrastructure to renewables like wind and solar by 2030?
According to National Geographic, about 4 million massive wind turbines, 90,000 solar plants and a four-fold increase in production of a rare earth metal that is a major component of key renewable energy technologies.
The magazine outlined the findings of new research on the question of transitioning to an all-renewable energy economy by 2030 as part of itsenergy policy series.
Mark Delucchi and Mark Jacobson, professors at the University of California-Davis and Stanford University, have developed a roadmap of sorts for moving away from coal and oil.
The roadmap is largely theoretical; lawmakers are struggling to pass legislation that would require 20 percent of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources, and efforts to pass a broad climate bill have collapsed. But the team’s research has provided one of the first pictures of exactly what it might take to rely fully on renewable energy.
Despite the hurdles, they say it’s possible. "Technically you can do it. It really depends on will power,” Jacobson told National Geographic.
But "will power," as Jacobson put it, may prove tricky to find this year. The report comes as Congress is struggling to address a variety of important energy issues and the renewable industry says it is struggling to grow without consistent policies.
At the same time, U.S. lawmakers are growing increasingly worried about the role China is playing in clean-energy technology. The issue is expected to be amajor topic of discussion during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the White House this week.
17 January 2011http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=330639500&gid=3577&&item=40574732&articleURL=http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/138291-how-to-move-to-100-percent-renewables-by-2030%3Fsms_ss%3Dlinkedin%26at_xt%3D4d3495b1057bf2ae%252C0&urlhash=rZBA&goback=.gde_3577_member_40574732
What would it take to switch the country’s entire energy infrastructure to renewables like wind and solar by 2030?
According to National Geographic, about 4 million massive wind turbines, 90,000 solar plants and a four-fold increase in production of a rare earth metal that is a major component of key renewable energy technologies.
The magazine outlined the findings of new research on the question of transitioning to an all-renewable energy economy by 2030 as part of itsenergy policy series.
Mark Delucchi and Mark Jacobson, professors at the University of California-Davis and Stanford University, have developed a roadmap of sorts for moving away from coal and oil.
The roadmap is largely theoretical; lawmakers are struggling to pass legislation that would require 20 percent of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources, and efforts to pass a broad climate bill have collapsed. But the team’s research has provided one of the first pictures of exactly what it might take to rely fully on renewable energy.
Despite the hurdles, they say it’s possible. "Technically you can do it. It really depends on will power,” Jacobson told National Geographic.
But "will power," as Jacobson put it, may prove tricky to find this year. The report comes as Congress is struggling to address a variety of important energy issues and the renewable industry says it is struggling to grow without consistent policies.
At the same time, U.S. lawmakers are growing increasingly worried about the role China is playing in clean-energy technology. The issue is expected to be amajor topic of discussion during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the White House this week.
17 January 2011http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=330639500&gid=3577&&item=40574732&articleURL=http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/138291-how-to-move-to-100-percent-renewables-by-2030%3Fsms_ss%3Dlinkedin%26at_xt%3D4d3495b1057bf2ae%252C0&urlhash=rZBA&goback=.gde_3577_member_40574732
How the BP Commission Dropped the Ball
What failures of the BP board of directors and its senior management led to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico?
Although the recent report of the National Commission on the catastrophe (http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/) purports to provide "thorough analysis and impartial judgment" on the "causes" of the explosion and "the lessons learned," one can read the 306 page report and the supporting staff papers and find barely a word — much less an assessment — about the board and senior management's role in the multiple failures of prevention, response and recovery.
Although the National Commission report emphasizes the importance of corporate safety culture and safety management "from the highest levels on down" as a necessary complement to regulatory reform, it never looks at the overall global organization of BP and never evaluates what board and business leaders did and did not do in furtherance of those goals.
Instead, the Commission's focus in the report is on the immediate causes of the explosion and on the individual and collective failures of BP (owner), Transocean (rig operator) and Haliburton (construction services) to assess and mitigate immediate risks — and to have effective crisis response plans. (It was not able to assess the failure of Cameron's blow-out preventer.) From analysis of close-to-the-accident problems — why hydrocarbons penetrated the well; why people failed to see that; and why actions weren't taken to prevent the explosion — the report reaches sweeping conclusions: instead of a safety culture in the companies there was a "culture of complacency" that never subjected to risk assessments key design and operational decisions which led to less cost and to less time — and to the explosion.
Fine. But that conclusory language isn't very illuminating. We need a much broader and deeper understanding of the role of board and senior management in a large, complex corporation. BP and other companies in the oil and gas industry (as well as any corporation with potentially catastrophic operations) need to understand these larger governance and risk management lessons in meaningful detail in order to address complicated risk across far-flung global firms more effectively. Time is of the essence because many of the public policy recommendations of the National Commission may get hung up in the new Congress, or because the reorganized Department of Interior oversight (even without legislation) is still plagued by lack of funds and expertise.
The Commission needed to ask larger questions in detail about BP governance, assessing board and senior management actions against at least three benchmarks:
Ironically, BP's new CEO acknowledged the need for just such a broad analysis. When he succeeded Tony Hayward, in September 2010, Bob Dudley said: "There are lessons for us relating to the way we operate, the way we organize our company and the way we manage risk."
But, if BP has done a more comprehensive analysis of the leadership and organizational problems which led to the Gulf explosion than it revealed in its narrow September 2010 accident report, it has not made the details public. Moreover, such an analysis might have been conducted under attorney-client privilege because, even though the National Commission ignored the role of the BP board of directors and senior leaders, the plaintiffs bar has not. Derivative suits have been brought against BP directors and officers alleging violation of fiduciary duties, in among other things, failing to correct prior safety problems identified in other accidents, and in failing to carry out a settlement mandating governance changes in a prior derivative suit relating to a BP spill in Alaska. If those suits survive procedural hurdles, they may well be settled before extensive discovery and publicity about the workings of the BP board of directors and senior business leaders.
Thus, the National Commission has let the best opportunity to understand the broader governance and risk management issues behind the Gulf explosion slip away. Despite the pendancy of the derivative suits, the Commission could have asked hard questions because many of its other lines of inquiry and factual findings implicate BP liability in other suits or regulatory proceedings (such as whether it was grossly negligent, thus multiplying potential fines).
In the foreword to the report, the National Commission said that findings on the immediate causes of the explosion sounded "recurring themes of missed warning signals, failure to share information, and a general lack of appreciation of the risks involved...these findings highlight the importance of organizational culture and a consistent commitment to safety by industry, from the highest management levels on down." Given the Commission's recognition of how important was the role of the board and senior management in the systemic failures of prevention, response, and recovery, its silence on that issue is baffling and leaves a major hole in the report on the core question of how boards and business leaders should manage catastrophic risk in complex global corporations.
Ben W. Heineman, Jr., GE's former Senior Vice President for Law and Public Affairs, is senior fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on the Legal Profession and Program on Corporate Governance and senior fellow at the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is author of the book, High Performance with High Integrity (Harvard Business Press 2008).
January 17, 2011
Harvard Business Review
http://ht.ly/3FKt9
Although the recent report of the National Commission on the catastrophe (http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/) purports to provide "thorough analysis and impartial judgment" on the "causes" of the explosion and "the lessons learned," one can read the 306 page report and the supporting staff papers and find barely a word — much less an assessment — about the board and senior management's role in the multiple failures of prevention, response and recovery.
Although the National Commission report emphasizes the importance of corporate safety culture and safety management "from the highest levels on down" as a necessary complement to regulatory reform, it never looks at the overall global organization of BP and never evaluates what board and business leaders did and did not do in furtherance of those goals.
Instead, the Commission's focus in the report is on the immediate causes of the explosion and on the individual and collective failures of BP (owner), Transocean (rig operator) and Haliburton (construction services) to assess and mitigate immediate risks — and to have effective crisis response plans. (It was not able to assess the failure of Cameron's blow-out preventer.) From analysis of close-to-the-accident problems — why hydrocarbons penetrated the well; why people failed to see that; and why actions weren't taken to prevent the explosion — the report reaches sweeping conclusions: instead of a safety culture in the companies there was a "culture of complacency" that never subjected to risk assessments key design and operational decisions which led to less cost and to less time — and to the explosion.
Fine. But that conclusory language isn't very illuminating. We need a much broader and deeper understanding of the role of board and senior management in a large, complex corporation. BP and other companies in the oil and gas industry (as well as any corporation with potentially catastrophic operations) need to understand these larger governance and risk management lessons in meaningful detail in order to address complicated risk across far-flung global firms more effectively. Time is of the essence because many of the public policy recommendations of the National Commission may get hung up in the new Congress, or because the reorganized Department of Interior oversight (even without legislation) is still plagued by lack of funds and expertise.
The Commission needed to ask larger questions in detail about BP governance, assessing board and senior management actions against at least three benchmarks:
- The Commission could have looked at the BP failings documented by three different inquiries after the catastrophic explosion in March, 2005 at the Texas City refinery: an internal review, aChemical Safety Board study and the analysis of an independent commission headed by former Secretary of State Jim Baker. Among the BP failings identified were: lack of leadership consistency; lack of uniform safety culture; lack of consistent risk assessment; inadequate risk abatement; lack of effective early warning systems; lack of effective education and training; lack of employee voice when problems arose; inadequate dissemination of lessons learned; and inadequate senior management oversight. There is little question that both the BP board and the CEO (Tony Hayward) paid some attention to these issues, but it is critical to know why and how that attention failed to prevent the Deepwater explosion or prepare for the aftermath. Was there a plethora of paper and a dearth of reality? If so, why? What was their concept of forging a safety culture, and why did it fail?
- The Commission could have looked at the recommendations of BP's own accident report issued in September 2010. Although buried at the back of the document, they were a searing indictment of BP prior to the explosion. The recommendations called for: better, clearer standards for a range of safety-critical operations; for significantly improved education and training; for better audit processes on closing out deficiencies highlighted in safety reviews; for imposing much greater oversight on contractor's current practices; and for mandating that contractors create safety processes which BP could audit. The National Commission could have explored why the board and senior management had not created systems for identifying and implementing these obvious and fundamental steps which the BP report, by implication, says might well have prevented the accident.
- The Commission could have compared BP's leadership, systems, processes and culture to another oil company, Exxon Mobile, whose practices it singles out for praise. After its mind was "concentrated" by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, the company instituted an Operations Integrity Management System in 1992 which has been evolving ever since. As the Commission noted, this system, which applies to contractors as well as Exxon Mobile itself, "covers all aspects of safety, including management leadership and accountability, design, construction and maintenance of facilities; emergency preparedness; management of change; assessment of performance; and...thorough inquiries into accidents and incidents." (Exxon Mobile was not listed by the Commission as involved in any of the 79 Gulf of Mexico incidents of well dysfunction and uncontrolled flow of hydrocarbons reported between 1996 and 2009.)
Ironically, BP's new CEO acknowledged the need for just such a broad analysis. When he succeeded Tony Hayward, in September 2010, Bob Dudley said: "There are lessons for us relating to the way we operate, the way we organize our company and the way we manage risk."
But, if BP has done a more comprehensive analysis of the leadership and organizational problems which led to the Gulf explosion than it revealed in its narrow September 2010 accident report, it has not made the details public. Moreover, such an analysis might have been conducted under attorney-client privilege because, even though the National Commission ignored the role of the BP board of directors and senior leaders, the plaintiffs bar has not. Derivative suits have been brought against BP directors and officers alleging violation of fiduciary duties, in among other things, failing to correct prior safety problems identified in other accidents, and in failing to carry out a settlement mandating governance changes in a prior derivative suit relating to a BP spill in Alaska. If those suits survive procedural hurdles, they may well be settled before extensive discovery and publicity about the workings of the BP board of directors and senior business leaders.
Thus, the National Commission has let the best opportunity to understand the broader governance and risk management issues behind the Gulf explosion slip away. Despite the pendancy of the derivative suits, the Commission could have asked hard questions because many of its other lines of inquiry and factual findings implicate BP liability in other suits or regulatory proceedings (such as whether it was grossly negligent, thus multiplying potential fines).
In the foreword to the report, the National Commission said that findings on the immediate causes of the explosion sounded "recurring themes of missed warning signals, failure to share information, and a general lack of appreciation of the risks involved...these findings highlight the importance of organizational culture and a consistent commitment to safety by industry, from the highest management levels on down." Given the Commission's recognition of how important was the role of the board and senior management in the systemic failures of prevention, response, and recovery, its silence on that issue is baffling and leaves a major hole in the report on the core question of how boards and business leaders should manage catastrophic risk in complex global corporations.
Ben W. Heineman, Jr., GE's former Senior Vice President for Law and Public Affairs, is senior fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on the Legal Profession and Program on Corporate Governance and senior fellow at the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is author of the book, High Performance with High Integrity (Harvard Business Press 2008).
January 17, 2011
Harvard Business Review
http://ht.ly/3FKt9
Demonstration test of housing that produces more energy than it consumes
Tokyo, January 14 - In Japan’s Gifu Prefecture, a demonstration test is underway of next-generation housing whose energy production is greater than its energy consumption.
To generate electrical power, the two-story house is installed with a photovoltaic power generation system and small wind power generator. It is also equipped with storage cells, energy-saving home electronics goods, and light-emitting diode (LED) lighting fixtures. Continuing until March 2012, the test will ascertain the actual effects of these features.
The testing is being conducted through cooperation between Gifu Prefectural Government and companies manufacturing and selling building materials and housing facilities. The house’s production of energy is expected to be greater than its energy consumption; trial calculations put its yearly consumption of primary energy at 58.6 gigajoules and its yearly production of energy at 101.8 gigajoules.
The house was installed with storage cells to prevent, as far as possible, a reverse flow of the power produced at the house into distribution lines. Future installation of many houses with photovoltaic systems and wind power generators is anticipated to have adverse effects such as a rise in voltage in the power system due to reverse flow. As a result, in the testing, it was decided to give precedence to storage of the power generated in the cells, and to sell it to power companies only when a surplus arises.
Gifu Prefecture has many mountainous and rural districts, and about 500 communities are at risk of isolation in the event of major earthquakes or other disasters. People who live in next-generation housing could have a supply of energy needed in daily life for a while, even if power, gas and other infrastructural lines are cut. As such, the testing is said to hold great significance for disaster prevention.
14 January 2011
http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=330008256&gid=3577&&item=40605353&articleURL=http://www.eco-business.com/news/2011/jan/14/demonstration-test-housing-produces-more-energy-it/&urlhash=MCBx&goback=.gde_3577_member_40605353
To generate electrical power, the two-story house is installed with a photovoltaic power generation system and small wind power generator. It is also equipped with storage cells, energy-saving home electronics goods, and light-emitting diode (LED) lighting fixtures. Continuing until March 2012, the test will ascertain the actual effects of these features.
The testing is being conducted through cooperation between Gifu Prefectural Government and companies manufacturing and selling building materials and housing facilities. The house’s production of energy is expected to be greater than its energy consumption; trial calculations put its yearly consumption of primary energy at 58.6 gigajoules and its yearly production of energy at 101.8 gigajoules.
The house was installed with storage cells to prevent, as far as possible, a reverse flow of the power produced at the house into distribution lines. Future installation of many houses with photovoltaic systems and wind power generators is anticipated to have adverse effects such as a rise in voltage in the power system due to reverse flow. As a result, in the testing, it was decided to give precedence to storage of the power generated in the cells, and to sell it to power companies only when a surplus arises.
Gifu Prefecture has many mountainous and rural districts, and about 500 communities are at risk of isolation in the event of major earthquakes or other disasters. People who live in next-generation housing could have a supply of energy needed in daily life for a while, even if power, gas and other infrastructural lines are cut. As such, the testing is said to hold great significance for disaster prevention.
14 January 2011
http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=330008256&gid=3577&&item=40605353&articleURL=http://www.eco-business.com/news/2011/jan/14/demonstration-test-housing-produces-more-energy-it/&urlhash=MCBx&goback=.gde_3577_member_40605353
A surplus, but for oil and China
EARLIER this week we learned that China's trade surplus fell sharply in November, to just $13.1 billion. A look at the latest American data would indicate that trade between the two big economies didn't have that much to do with the tumbling Chinese surplus. America's trade deficit fell just a tiny bit in the month of November, from $38.4 billion to $38.3 billion. Both exports and imports rose a bit, but exports rose more, and a slight increase in America's goods deficit was offset by a bigger rise in the services surplus.
That goods deficit now stands at $51 billion, and it overwhelmingly represents two factors. The first is trade with China. America's deficit in goods trade with China rose slightly in November, as growth in imports from China barely outpaced growth in exports to China (which hit another all-time high). Of the $51 billion monthly deficit, about $26 billion of that is attributable to China. Another big chunk, about $20 billion, represents America's petroleum deficit.
Economists had expected the deficit to increase in November, and the surprising decline in the trade gap will likely lead to further upward revisions to growth in the fourth quarter of 2010. But a big question looms: will improvements in the trade deficit continue? It seems likely that the China portion of the deficit will fall in the months ahead. China remains under pressure to let the yuan appreciate, and Chinese inflation continues to outstrip that in America (November core producer prices rose just 0.2% in November, and 1.4% over the year prior). These development should slowly erode the Chinese surplus.
But what about oil? America remains heavily dependent on the stuff, and with global recovery comes rising prices, which feed through to rising imports. Buttonwood musestoday:
This combination of still-subdued activity and high raw material prices illustrates a wider truth; that America is no longer the price-setter for these products. Now it is Asia. One of the side-benefits of past US slowdowns was that commodity prices would fall, acting as a tax cut for consumers. But now consumer budgets are being squeezed at a time when unemployment is still high and wage rises are hard to come by. At least the US still produces commodities; Europe is in an even worse position, as this week's column will argue.
Anyway it is one more thing for westerners to get used to as power shifts to the developing world. One can have boomtime prices without boomtime conditions.
America's economy limped forward in 2010, but global growth last year was above the average for the previous decade. And that helped sustain a steady rise in commodity prices. As American recovery continues, that will only add further stress to supplies. One of the main variables shaping American economic performance this year will be the interaction between the economy and rising oil prices.
Let me make one additional point. The president's deficit commission recommended that Congress act to raise America's petrol tax, which is among the rich world's lowest and hasn't been increased since 1993. One drawback to doing so would be the negative impact on already weak growth. But of course, rising petroleum prices will have a similarly negative impact. The difference in the impact of the two is that an increased petrol tax will help close America's fiscal deficit and will place downward pressure on the total value of American petroleum imports, both of which will move America's economy toward a better balance of trade with the rest of the world. It may be time for America's government to acknowledge that rising energy prices will inevitably put a constraint on America's recovery, and that that constraint can either be harnessed in the service of broader economic adjustments or allowed to worsen the economy's imbalances.
Jan 13th 2011
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/01/trade_and_recovery
That goods deficit now stands at $51 billion, and it overwhelmingly represents two factors. The first is trade with China. America's deficit in goods trade with China rose slightly in November, as growth in imports from China barely outpaced growth in exports to China (which hit another all-time high). Of the $51 billion monthly deficit, about $26 billion of that is attributable to China. Another big chunk, about $20 billion, represents America's petroleum deficit.
Economists had expected the deficit to increase in November, and the surprising decline in the trade gap will likely lead to further upward revisions to growth in the fourth quarter of 2010. But a big question looms: will improvements in the trade deficit continue? It seems likely that the China portion of the deficit will fall in the months ahead. China remains under pressure to let the yuan appreciate, and Chinese inflation continues to outstrip that in America (November core producer prices rose just 0.2% in November, and 1.4% over the year prior). These development should slowly erode the Chinese surplus.
But what about oil? America remains heavily dependent on the stuff, and with global recovery comes rising prices, which feed through to rising imports. Buttonwood musestoday:
This combination of still-subdued activity and high raw material prices illustrates a wider truth; that America is no longer the price-setter for these products. Now it is Asia. One of the side-benefits of past US slowdowns was that commodity prices would fall, acting as a tax cut for consumers. But now consumer budgets are being squeezed at a time when unemployment is still high and wage rises are hard to come by. At least the US still produces commodities; Europe is in an even worse position, as this week's column will argue.
Anyway it is one more thing for westerners to get used to as power shifts to the developing world. One can have boomtime prices without boomtime conditions.
America's economy limped forward in 2010, but global growth last year was above the average for the previous decade. And that helped sustain a steady rise in commodity prices. As American recovery continues, that will only add further stress to supplies. One of the main variables shaping American economic performance this year will be the interaction between the economy and rising oil prices.
Let me make one additional point. The president's deficit commission recommended that Congress act to raise America's petrol tax, which is among the rich world's lowest and hasn't been increased since 1993. One drawback to doing so would be the negative impact on already weak growth. But of course, rising petroleum prices will have a similarly negative impact. The difference in the impact of the two is that an increased petrol tax will help close America's fiscal deficit and will place downward pressure on the total value of American petroleum imports, both of which will move America's economy toward a better balance of trade with the rest of the world. It may be time for America's government to acknowledge that rising energy prices will inevitably put a constraint on America's recovery, and that that constraint can either be harnessed in the service of broader economic adjustments or allowed to worsen the economy's imbalances.
Jan 13th 2011
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/01/trade_and_recovery
Russian Spies In USA Hired By Oil Sector
One of the 10 Russian spies expelled from the United States last summer has landed a top job in Moscow by becoming an aide at the national oil pipeline monopoly, a report said on Wednesday, Sunday Times reported.
Natalia Pereverzeva, who lived in the United States under the name of Patricia Mills, has been hired by the secretive oil monopoly Transneft and worked as an aide to its president on foreign economic affairs since December, the Kommersant daily said, citing sources close to the company.
A spokesman for Transneft declined immediate comment when reached by AFP.
After their expulsion from the United States, Pereverzeva along with her husband Mikhail Kutzik, who went under the alias of Michael Zottoli, and other fellow spies received a heroes’ welcome in Russia.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally met the group, singing patriotic Soviet-era songs with the spies and promising them an “interesting, bright” future.
Soon after two of the spies -- the red-headed “femme fatale” Anna Chapman and Andrei Bezrukov who lived in the United States under the name of Donald Howard Heathfield -- landed jobs in Moscow.
The 28-year-old Chapman was hired as a representative of a little-known asset management firm called FondServiceBank and came into explosive prominence by stripping off for a men’s magazine and winning a key role in a pro-Kremlin youth group.
Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft tersely said it hired a man named Andrei Bezrukov as an advisor.
Kommersant business daily said Transneft hired Pereverzeva at its own initiative, citing a state official as saying that other spies may also receive posts at state companies.
“They were doing their job perfectly well, we have to be proud of them, and they fully deserve their appointments,” Kommersant quoted an aide to Igor Sechin, Putin’s powerful deputy in charge of energy, as saying.
Critics charge that Transneft and Rosneft are among Russia’s least transparent companies.
WEDNESDAY, 12 JANUARY 2011
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/44844-russian-spies-in-usa-hired-by-oil-sector
Natalia Pereverzeva, who lived in the United States under the name of Patricia Mills, has been hired by the secretive oil monopoly Transneft and worked as an aide to its president on foreign economic affairs since December, the Kommersant daily said, citing sources close to the company.
A spokesman for Transneft declined immediate comment when reached by AFP.
After their expulsion from the United States, Pereverzeva along with her husband Mikhail Kutzik, who went under the alias of Michael Zottoli, and other fellow spies received a heroes’ welcome in Russia.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally met the group, singing patriotic Soviet-era songs with the spies and promising them an “interesting, bright” future.
Soon after two of the spies -- the red-headed “femme fatale” Anna Chapman and Andrei Bezrukov who lived in the United States under the name of Donald Howard Heathfield -- landed jobs in Moscow.
The 28-year-old Chapman was hired as a representative of a little-known asset management firm called FondServiceBank and came into explosive prominence by stripping off for a men’s magazine and winning a key role in a pro-Kremlin youth group.
Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft tersely said it hired a man named Andrei Bezrukov as an advisor.
Kommersant business daily said Transneft hired Pereverzeva at its own initiative, citing a state official as saying that other spies may also receive posts at state companies.
“They were doing their job perfectly well, we have to be proud of them, and they fully deserve their appointments,” Kommersant quoted an aide to Igor Sechin, Putin’s powerful deputy in charge of energy, as saying.
Critics charge that Transneft and Rosneft are among Russia’s least transparent companies.
WEDNESDAY, 12 JANUARY 2011
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/44844-russian-spies-in-usa-hired-by-oil-sector
Turkey's Energy Minister Defines Iran As One of Main Natural Gas Suppliers of Turkey
Turkey's energy minister defined on Saturday Iran as one of the main natural gas suppliers of Turkey. Energy & Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said he had fruitful talks on natural gas with executives of Iran, one of the main natural gas suppliers of Turkey.
Yildiz said Turkish and Iranian technical teams would continue to deal with the issue and present a report in two weeks.
On his one-day visit to the Iranian capital of Tehran, Yildiz met Minister of Petroleum Masud Mir-Kazemi; Agha Muhammadi, the economic assistant to the First Vice President; and Minister of Energy Majid Namju.
Yildiz also had talks with First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, and Acting Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.Minister Yildiz returned to Turkey in the evening.
AA
SUNDAY, 09 JANUARY 2011
http://www.turkishny.com/english-news/5-english-news/44627-turkeys-energy-minister-defines-iran-as-one-of-main-natural-gas-suppliers-of-turkey
Yildiz said Turkish and Iranian technical teams would continue to deal with the issue and present a report in two weeks.
On his one-day visit to the Iranian capital of Tehran, Yildiz met Minister of Petroleum Masud Mir-Kazemi; Agha Muhammadi, the economic assistant to the First Vice President; and Minister of Energy Majid Namju.
Yildiz also had talks with First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, and Acting Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.Minister Yildiz returned to Turkey in the evening.
AA
SUNDAY, 09 JANUARY 2011
http://www.turkishny.com/english-news/5-english-news/44627-turkeys-energy-minister-defines-iran-as-one-of-main-natural-gas-suppliers-of-turkey
Russia Applauds US Vote To Back Nuclear Arms Treaty
Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has welcomed US ratification of a landmark treaty to cut nuclear arsenals and says he hopes Russia's parliament will ratify it too.
The US Congress approved the New Start treaty on Wednesday, when reluctant Republicans were won over.
The Speaker of Russia's State Duma (lower house), Boris Gryzlov, said MPs might approve the pact on Friday.
Under the deal, Russia and the US will cut deployed nuclear warheads by 30%.
President Medvedev hopes that the Duma and the upper house, the Federation Council, "will be ready to consider and ratify that document", a Kremlin spokeswoman said.
US President Barack Obama and Mr Medvedev had "agreed to synchronise the ratification process", Natalya Timakova added.
THURSDAY, 23 DECEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/43317-russia-applauds-us-vote-to-back-nuclear-arms-treaty
The US Congress approved the New Start treaty on Wednesday, when reluctant Republicans were won over.
The Speaker of Russia's State Duma (lower house), Boris Gryzlov, said MPs might approve the pact on Friday.
Under the deal, Russia and the US will cut deployed nuclear warheads by 30%.
President Medvedev hopes that the Duma and the upper house, the Federation Council, "will be ready to consider and ratify that document", a Kremlin spokeswoman said.
US President Barack Obama and Mr Medvedev had "agreed to synchronise the ratification process", Natalya Timakova added.
THURSDAY, 23 DECEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/43317-russia-applauds-us-vote-to-back-nuclear-arms-treaty
Senate Approves Nuclear Arms Pact
By the CNN Wire Staff Washington (CNN) -- The Senate voted Wednesday to approve the new nuclear arms control treaty with Russia -- a major foreign policy victory for the Obama administration near the end of the lame-duck session of Congress.
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, was cleared by a 71-26 vote. Several Republicans joined a unified Democratic caucus in support of the accord.
Under Senate rules, the treaty required support from a two-thirds majority of voting senators for final approval.
"This is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades," President Barack Obama said after the vote. It "will enhance our leadership to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and seek the peace of a world without them."
Bipartisan passage of the measure "sends a powerful signal to the world that Republicans and Democrats stand together on behalf of our security."
If ratified, the treaty would resume inspections of each country's nuclear arsenal while limiting both the United States and Russia to 1,550 warheads and 700 launchers. It still needs to be approved by the Russian parliament.
Obama signed the treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April. The accord is considered a critical component of nuclear non-proliferation efforts and the administration's attempt to "reset" Washington's relationship with Moscow.
WEDNESDAY, 22 DECEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/43292-senate-approves-nuclear-arms-pact
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, was cleared by a 71-26 vote. Several Republicans joined a unified Democratic caucus in support of the accord.
Under Senate rules, the treaty required support from a two-thirds majority of voting senators for final approval.
"This is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades," President Barack Obama said after the vote. It "will enhance our leadership to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and seek the peace of a world without them."
Bipartisan passage of the measure "sends a powerful signal to the world that Republicans and Democrats stand together on behalf of our security."
If ratified, the treaty would resume inspections of each country's nuclear arsenal while limiting both the United States and Russia to 1,550 warheads and 700 launchers. It still needs to be approved by the Russian parliament.
Obama signed the treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April. The accord is considered a critical component of nuclear non-proliferation efforts and the administration's attempt to "reset" Washington's relationship with Moscow.
WEDNESDAY, 22 DECEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/43292-senate-approves-nuclear-arms-pact
South Korea suspects North has more uranium sites
SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) - South Korea said on Tuesday it suspects the North has been secretly enriching uranium at more locations besides its main nuclear site -- which could mean it has more material for building nuclear bombs.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said he could not confirm a media report that Pyongyang had three to four plants to enrich uranium but he suspected there were facilities in the North in addition to the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
"It is a report based on what is still intelligence and let me just say that we have been following this issue for some time," he told a press briefing.
The prospect of more plants capable of producing materials that could be used in a nuclear weapons program raises the risk that North Korea expands its nuclear plans as it seeks to wrest concessions and aid from restarting disarmament talks.
Last month, North Korea shelled an island close to a disputed maritime boundary with the South, killing four people and prompting the United States to send an aircraft carrier to join military drills with South Korea in a show of strength.
"Our policies have failed," said Hajime Izumi of Shizuoka Prefectural University in Japan. "The situation has caught fire and we are watching it burn."
U.S. nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker, who visited Yongbyon last month, had already raised concerns that the North had alternative sites for uranium enrichment.
While China has urged South Korea, the United States, Russia and Japan to restart "six-party" talks with the North on nuclear disarmament, South Korea's allies have refused until Pyongyang gives a firm commitment on nuclear disarmament.
CHINA URGES CALM AND RESTRAINT
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters that the senior Chinese envoy to North Korea, Dai Bingguo, had agreed in talks in Pyongyang that nuclear negotiations needed to resume.
"Both agreed that all sides should exercise calm and restraint, and maintain a responsible attitude to prevent tensions from escalating, playing a positive role in preserving the peace and stability of the peninsula," Jiang said.
Hecker was given a tour of the Yongbyon complex on his visit there in November and saw more than 1,000 centrifuges in a building that officials in Seoul and Washington were aware was a uranium enrichment facility.
Hecker was said to have been "stunned" by how modern and updated the centrifuges looked, unlike the clearly ageing nature of the rest of the North's nuclear facilities.
Uranium enrichment could give the North a second source of fissile material for weapons on top of its plutonium production program at the Soviet-era nuclear program at Yongbyon, which was frozen under a now-defunct international disarmament deal.
The report of additional uranium enrichment facilities came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov chided North Korea over its nuclear program and condemned an artillery attack on a South Korean island that killed four people last month.
North Korean news agency KCNA again Tuesday accused Seoul of having "misled public opinion" over the shelling of the island, saying that it was the result of a "provocation" that aimed "to kick off the military clash."
Most analysts do not expect North Korea to launch a new round of attacks any time soon, although the shelling of the island was the first time since the Korean War that it had targeted a civilian area.
Earlier this year, the South said the North had torpedoed one of its naval vessels, the Cheonan, killing 46 sailors, something that Pyongyang denies.
Although tensions have subsided, South Korea Monday launched a new series of live-firing drills at sea, although these are far away from the so-called Northern Limit Line, the maritime boundary between the countries.
(Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota in Tokyo and Chris Buckley in Beijing; editing by Andrew Marshall)
By Jack Kim and Chris Buckley
Dec 14, 2010
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6BD0CK20101214?sp=true
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said he could not confirm a media report that Pyongyang had three to four plants to enrich uranium but he suspected there were facilities in the North in addition to the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
"It is a report based on what is still intelligence and let me just say that we have been following this issue for some time," he told a press briefing.
The prospect of more plants capable of producing materials that could be used in a nuclear weapons program raises the risk that North Korea expands its nuclear plans as it seeks to wrest concessions and aid from restarting disarmament talks.
Last month, North Korea shelled an island close to a disputed maritime boundary with the South, killing four people and prompting the United States to send an aircraft carrier to join military drills with South Korea in a show of strength.
"Our policies have failed," said Hajime Izumi of Shizuoka Prefectural University in Japan. "The situation has caught fire and we are watching it burn."
U.S. nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker, who visited Yongbyon last month, had already raised concerns that the North had alternative sites for uranium enrichment.
While China has urged South Korea, the United States, Russia and Japan to restart "six-party" talks with the North on nuclear disarmament, South Korea's allies have refused until Pyongyang gives a firm commitment on nuclear disarmament.
CHINA URGES CALM AND RESTRAINT
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters that the senior Chinese envoy to North Korea, Dai Bingguo, had agreed in talks in Pyongyang that nuclear negotiations needed to resume.
"Both agreed that all sides should exercise calm and restraint, and maintain a responsible attitude to prevent tensions from escalating, playing a positive role in preserving the peace and stability of the peninsula," Jiang said.
Hecker was given a tour of the Yongbyon complex on his visit there in November and saw more than 1,000 centrifuges in a building that officials in Seoul and Washington were aware was a uranium enrichment facility.
Hecker was said to have been "stunned" by how modern and updated the centrifuges looked, unlike the clearly ageing nature of the rest of the North's nuclear facilities.
Uranium enrichment could give the North a second source of fissile material for weapons on top of its plutonium production program at the Soviet-era nuclear program at Yongbyon, which was frozen under a now-defunct international disarmament deal.
The report of additional uranium enrichment facilities came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov chided North Korea over its nuclear program and condemned an artillery attack on a South Korean island that killed four people last month.
North Korean news agency KCNA again Tuesday accused Seoul of having "misled public opinion" over the shelling of the island, saying that it was the result of a "provocation" that aimed "to kick off the military clash."
Most analysts do not expect North Korea to launch a new round of attacks any time soon, although the shelling of the island was the first time since the Korean War that it had targeted a civilian area.
Earlier this year, the South said the North had torpedoed one of its naval vessels, the Cheonan, killing 46 sailors, something that Pyongyang denies.
Although tensions have subsided, South Korea Monday launched a new series of live-firing drills at sea, although these are far away from the so-called Northern Limit Line, the maritime boundary between the countries.
(Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota in Tokyo and Chris Buckley in Beijing; editing by Andrew Marshall)
By Jack Kim and Chris Buckley
Dec 14, 2010
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6BD0CK20101214?sp=true
Secretary Clinton Welcomes Cancun Agreements
The 16th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-16) took place in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29 through December 10, 2010. Today, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton released this statement:
"Over the last year, the United States has worked with our international partners to build on the progress achieved at the climate change conference in Copenhagen. We have pressed for substantive steps that would advance the vision of the Copenhagen Accord. This month we joined the nations of the world in Cancun for a new round of talks aimed at mobilizing common action to meet the shared global challenge of climate change.
"Today, I am pleased to announce that we secured the Cancun Agreements, a set of balanced international decisions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which represent meaningful progress in our global response to climate change.
"This outcome advances each of the core elements of the Copenhagen Accord: They anchor the Accord's mitigation pledges; build on a system of transparency, with substantial detail and content of International Consultations and Analysis which will provide confidence that a country's pledges are being carried out; launch a new Green Climate Fund; create a framework to reduce deforestation in developing countries; establish a technology mechanism; and setup a framework and committee to will promote international cooperation and action on adaptation.
"The Cancun Agreements represent a balanced and significant step forward. In the days and months ahead, the United States will work with our friends and partners to keep the world focused on this urgent challenge and to continue building on this progress."
DECEMBER 11, 2010
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/secretary_clinton_welcomes_cancun_agreements
Forests of the will
Correspondent's diary, day two: a deal that makes slowing deforestation easier is a prize worth fighting for at Cancún
AS THE last day of the Cancún climate talks dawns, there is some cautious hope in the air. With a much better atmosphere than Copenhagen, and some hard but productive negotiating sessions, there’s a sense that, while hurdles remain, there is a real chance of leaving with a result. And the result most on people’s minds, from the president of Mexico on down, is a deal on forests.
Within the negotiations the possibility of creating a new “Climate fund” is also seen as both a fairly big step forward and one that might actually be achieved. And different nations have all sorts of different specific requirements, the balancing of which will doubtless take the meeting well past its official closing time of six o’clock this evening. But as far as the world outside is concerned a deal to reduce deforestation and associated ills, known as REDD+, stands the best chance of generating headlines and happiness, as long as the proceedings do not break down decisively over some other issue. “What would stop it?” asks Brazil’s environment minister Izabella Teixeira rhetorically. “I hope, nothing.”
A REDD deal would be a good thing both for the world and the UN climate process, which sorely needs an achievement. Deforestation, which continues at the rate of a football field a second, according to almost everyone who speaks on the subject, is a huge source of greenhouse gases. Plausible reductions in emissions from avoiding deforestation are far larger than the sort of reductions which can easily be made by slowing the industrial production of carbon dioxide in the short run. And reducing deforestation removes a threat to the livelihoods and cultures of indigenous people, as well as preserving a lot of doubtless delightful wildlife. A deal which helped secure and accelerate recent advances on the issue would be worth some trumpeting.
But deals are only the beginning. Norway, which thanks to its moral seriousness, dedicated diplomacy and stacks of petrokroner has been playing something of a blinder on forest conservation in recent years, has entered a number of bilateral agreements whereby it pays for forest conservation in a REDD-like manner. One of the beneficiaries of this spending is Guyana, which has committed to forgo a certain amount of deforestation. But as Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s president, complained quite heatedly when sharing a stage with Norway’s prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, at a side event at Cancun, despite having signed up for the first tranche of the forest-abnegation a year ago, Guyana still hasn’t seen any of the promised money.
The complaint wasn’t aimed at Mr Stoltenberg, with whom, Mr Jagdeo is keen to stress, he enjoys a very good relationship. Norway paid the money in question to the World Bank a year ago for onwards transmission. His irritation wasn’t even really aimed, Mr Jagdeo later said, at Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, who was sitting in the front row of the audience, though it seems that much of the delay he objects to is due to passing the money through the careful checks and oversights of the World Bank system. The president wanted to communicate his frustration to the audience in general, which contained a lot of business people, politicians, policy makers and non-government types.
What Mr Jagdeo wanted to stress was that for a recipient country REDD is not a simple matter of getting some cash and some invitations to speak to the great and the good. It involves spending political capital to get all sorts of interest groups on board. And anything that goes wrong and diminishes the charms of the project—such as the money to buy a host of promised solar panels for people's roofs, which he says will be one of Guyana's first investments—hurts the process.
Mr Stoltenberg, like many in the north, has developed a great devotion to “results-based” development assistance, in which the donors see what they are getting. Mr Jagdeo wants some results based responses from the Bank. Both politicians know results are needed to keep the good work up, though they themselves may see little direct reward from their success: Mr Stoltenberg said that Norway’s extremely high levels of development assistance (more than 1% of GDP) are not domestically popular, and that both main opposition parties would cut them; Mr Jagdeo, term limited, is meant to have left the presidency by this time next year.
Their message was that even when it seems simple, with all the money coming from a willing donor, halting deforestation is still a taxing political process. With its complex blend of emissions targets, counterfactual scenarios against which to measure them, attention to the livelihoods of those affected, conflation with other environmental goals, need for international financial flows and negotiated requirements for the monitoring and verification of the good that is done, the REDD process is, in a way, a microcosm of all the broader problems facing climate diplomacy.
Getting a REDD deal in Cancun should help the fight against deforestation in many places, as long as the deal is sensibly and sensitively fleshed out over the coming months and years. Some areas are as yet vague, and others, including perhaps the details of how things should be financed, may be vagued up yet further in order to get through the conference’s final plenary session. This is probably to the good; easier to get the details right, including important ones on the vexed question of how to stop demand for wood from simply being displaced from protected places to unprotected ones, away from the pressure of deadlined negotiations.
But though such a deal would be good, it would be a recipe for action, not action itself. And everything will grind to a halt pretty quickly if the subsequent action doesn’t yield real results. For many observers of climate negotiation, political will is needed at the beginning of the process, invoked simplistically as something which might take negotiations from where they are to where people want them to be. Mr Jagdeo sees things differently. For him political will comes before negotiations. And it fades if not fed with results.
Dec 10th 2010, 12:31 by The Economist online | CANCUN
http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2010/12/correspondents_diary_0
AS THE last day of the Cancún climate talks dawns, there is some cautious hope in the air. With a much better atmosphere than Copenhagen, and some hard but productive negotiating sessions, there’s a sense that, while hurdles remain, there is a real chance of leaving with a result. And the result most on people’s minds, from the president of Mexico on down, is a deal on forests.
Within the negotiations the possibility of creating a new “Climate fund” is also seen as both a fairly big step forward and one that might actually be achieved. And different nations have all sorts of different specific requirements, the balancing of which will doubtless take the meeting well past its official closing time of six o’clock this evening. But as far as the world outside is concerned a deal to reduce deforestation and associated ills, known as REDD+, stands the best chance of generating headlines and happiness, as long as the proceedings do not break down decisively over some other issue. “What would stop it?” asks Brazil’s environment minister Izabella Teixeira rhetorically. “I hope, nothing.”
A REDD deal would be a good thing both for the world and the UN climate process, which sorely needs an achievement. Deforestation, which continues at the rate of a football field a second, according to almost everyone who speaks on the subject, is a huge source of greenhouse gases. Plausible reductions in emissions from avoiding deforestation are far larger than the sort of reductions which can easily be made by slowing the industrial production of carbon dioxide in the short run. And reducing deforestation removes a threat to the livelihoods and cultures of indigenous people, as well as preserving a lot of doubtless delightful wildlife. A deal which helped secure and accelerate recent advances on the issue would be worth some trumpeting.
But deals are only the beginning. Norway, which thanks to its moral seriousness, dedicated diplomacy and stacks of petrokroner has been playing something of a blinder on forest conservation in recent years, has entered a number of bilateral agreements whereby it pays for forest conservation in a REDD-like manner. One of the beneficiaries of this spending is Guyana, which has committed to forgo a certain amount of deforestation. But as Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s president, complained quite heatedly when sharing a stage with Norway’s prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, at a side event at Cancun, despite having signed up for the first tranche of the forest-abnegation a year ago, Guyana still hasn’t seen any of the promised money.
The complaint wasn’t aimed at Mr Stoltenberg, with whom, Mr Jagdeo is keen to stress, he enjoys a very good relationship. Norway paid the money in question to the World Bank a year ago for onwards transmission. His irritation wasn’t even really aimed, Mr Jagdeo later said, at Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, who was sitting in the front row of the audience, though it seems that much of the delay he objects to is due to passing the money through the careful checks and oversights of the World Bank system. The president wanted to communicate his frustration to the audience in general, which contained a lot of business people, politicians, policy makers and non-government types.
What Mr Jagdeo wanted to stress was that for a recipient country REDD is not a simple matter of getting some cash and some invitations to speak to the great and the good. It involves spending political capital to get all sorts of interest groups on board. And anything that goes wrong and diminishes the charms of the project—such as the money to buy a host of promised solar panels for people's roofs, which he says will be one of Guyana's first investments—hurts the process.
Mr Stoltenberg, like many in the north, has developed a great devotion to “results-based” development assistance, in which the donors see what they are getting. Mr Jagdeo wants some results based responses from the Bank. Both politicians know results are needed to keep the good work up, though they themselves may see little direct reward from their success: Mr Stoltenberg said that Norway’s extremely high levels of development assistance (more than 1% of GDP) are not domestically popular, and that both main opposition parties would cut them; Mr Jagdeo, term limited, is meant to have left the presidency by this time next year.
Their message was that even when it seems simple, with all the money coming from a willing donor, halting deforestation is still a taxing political process. With its complex blend of emissions targets, counterfactual scenarios against which to measure them, attention to the livelihoods of those affected, conflation with other environmental goals, need for international financial flows and negotiated requirements for the monitoring and verification of the good that is done, the REDD process is, in a way, a microcosm of all the broader problems facing climate diplomacy.
Getting a REDD deal in Cancun should help the fight against deforestation in many places, as long as the deal is sensibly and sensitively fleshed out over the coming months and years. Some areas are as yet vague, and others, including perhaps the details of how things should be financed, may be vagued up yet further in order to get through the conference’s final plenary session. This is probably to the good; easier to get the details right, including important ones on the vexed question of how to stop demand for wood from simply being displaced from protected places to unprotected ones, away from the pressure of deadlined negotiations.
But though such a deal would be good, it would be a recipe for action, not action itself. And everything will grind to a halt pretty quickly if the subsequent action doesn’t yield real results. For many observers of climate negotiation, political will is needed at the beginning of the process, invoked simplistically as something which might take negotiations from where they are to where people want them to be. Mr Jagdeo sees things differently. For him political will comes before negotiations. And it fades if not fed with results.
Dec 10th 2010, 12:31 by The Economist online | CANCUN
http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2010/12/correspondents_diary_0
Thinking small
Mini nuclear reactors
Nuclear power: Combining several small reactors based on simple, proven designs could be a better approach than building big ones
WHEN the two big nuclear reactors under construction at Flamanville in France and Olkiluoto in Finland come on stream, each will boast enough electricity-generating capacity to light up a city of 1.5m. But despite the best efforts of EDF and Areva, which are building the reactors, both are behind schedule and, at over $5 billion apiece, well over budget. With results like these, it is little wonder that the vaunted “nuclear renaissance” has failed to materialise. In fact, the number of operating reactors is in decline, spurring the nuclear-power industry to look for new approaches. Rather than relying on huge, traditional reactors costing billions, it is turning to small, inexpensive ones, many of which are based on proven designs from nuclear submarines or warships.
A global race is under way to develop small-reactor designs, says Paul Genoa of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry body in Washington, DC. He estimates that more than 20 countries have expressed serious interest in buying mini-reactors.
At least eight different approaches are being developed, mainly in America and Asia, by an army of 3,000 nuclear engineers, according to Ron Moleschi of SNC-Lavalin Nuclear, an engineering firm based in Montreal. Regulatory and licensing procedures are lengthy, so little will be built until around 2017, he says. But after that the industry is expected to take off. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates that by 2030 at least 40 (and possibly more than 90) small reactors will be in operation. It reckons that more than half of the countries that will build nuclear plants in coming years will plump for these smaller, simpler designs.
Russia is an early adopter. Rosatom, the state nuclear-energy giant, is building a floating, towable power station in a St Petersburg shipyard. The Akademik Lomonosov, due to set sail in 2012 for waters near Russia’s far-east town of Vilyuchinsk, will be followed by at least four other floating nuclear plants for the country’s Arctic regions. Such power stations are less prone to earthquakes and avoid the difficulties of erecting nuclear facilities on frozen land, which can melt, jeopardising foundations, says Vladimir Kuznetsov of the IAEA. And at a mere $550m a pop they cost a fraction of what a traditional reactor does (though they also provide less power).
Nuclear deliveries
Rosatom hopes its plants will appeal to energy-hungry coastal or river cities all over the world. By manufacturing in Russia, the firm sidesteps some of the regulatory controls a client country would impose on a plant built and installed on its own soil. Another selling point is Russia’s willingness to bring home the nuclear waste. Demand for floating plants may also help Russia broaden, or at least retain, its nuclear expertise, which has suffered as engineers have gone abroad or retired.
“Engineers of small reactors stress their similarity to proven, existing designs such as those found in nuclear-powered ships and submarines.”Similar concerns are driving efforts to develop small reactors elsewhere. No new nuclear plant has come on stream in America since 1996. The industry was dealt a blow in October, when Constellation Energy, a utility, dropped a joint plan with EDF to build a large nuclear plant in Maryland. In spite of strong political support and a reported $7.5 billion in government loan guarantees, Constellation balked at the initial capital outlay. Steven Chu, America’s energy secretary, sees miniaturisation as a way to revive the country’s once-mighty nuclear industry.
One advantage of small reactors is their modularity. Extra units can be added to a plant over the years, incrementally boosting output as capital becomes available and electricity demand rises. NuScale, of Corvallis, Oregon, offers “scalable” nuclear plants with reactors delivered by truck. A plant with 12 reactors, each with its own electricity-generating turbine, would cost about $2.2 billion and produce roughly a third as much power as a big facility. Since large plants can cost roughly three times as much, the cost of electricity would be about the same. Moreover, a modular facility would generate revenue as soon as the first reactor is fired up, after a few years of construction. A big reactor traditionally takes a decade to erect.
Hyperion Power Generation, a firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is building components for what it calls a “nuclear battery”. The refrigerator-sized Hyperion Power Module (HPM) reactor will shift much of the building from field to factory, where a controlled environment reduces costs. Also, fewer workers and families must be moved, at great expense, to distant building sites. HPMs would be delivered by truck with enough uranium to run for about ten years. They would be constructed in batches with interchangeable parts and cost about $100m each. And they need little human oversight to operate. “Forget huge—let’s make a hand-held version of a power plant,” says John Deal, the firm’s boss. Five companies, located in America, Britain, Canada, China and India, have put down deposits for an HPM.
Engineers of small reactors stress their similarity to proven, existing designs such as those found in nuclear-powered ships and submarines, or, in Rosatom’s case, icebreakers. And some small-reactor designs have an important advantage over bigger reactors. Because less heat is generated, small water-cooled reactors can use simpler designs relying not on pumps, but on natural convection. And eliminating moving parts should make the new small reactors both safer and cheaper. For instance, Hyperion’s HPM dispenses with elaborate valve systems by using a molten metal as a coolant because, unlike water, it doesn’t need to be kept under pressure to absorb large amounts of heat.
Christofer Mowry, who heads civilian power at Babcock & Wilcox, a maker of nuclear-propulsion systems for the US Navy, says the company’s small reactor offers another source of savings. Because it can use existing power-transmission lines without overloading them, the mPower can act as a “drop-in replacement” for ageing coal furnaces without the need for costly refurbishment. The Tennessee Valley Authority, America’s biggest public utility, hopes to put two of the firm’s reactors into an old coal plant. Five other American utilities are also considering replacing coal furnaces with nuclear reactors, according to Philip Moor of the American Nuclear Society, an industry group. He estimates that in America alone perhaps 100 old coal plants could be converted to nuclear within a decade—a trice by the industry’s standards.
Not all nuclear nations have entered the fray. France has studied micro-reactors’ potential in spaceship propulsion, but for generating power on Earth, big reactors are best, says Christophe Béhar, in charge of nuclear energy at the country’s Atomic Energy Commission. New markets for large plants are opening up as developing countries strengthen their grids to cope with the huge amounts of power they produce. China is building two small helium-cooled reactors, but the electricity they produce will never be as cheap as that from big reactors, according to Mr Béhar. Just in case, the Chinese have also commissioned French firms to build two large nuclear plants.
In Japan, too, utilities’ interest in small reactors appears scant for now. Tatsujiro Suzuki, the vice-chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in Tokyo, hopes it will grow. Today’s broad trend to loosen government controls on electricity prices may do the trick. Utilities are more willing to make massive investments if they can accurately predict future income. As prices are allowed to fluctuate more widely, shorter-term investments for smaller reactors will become more attractive. At least one Japanese engineering giant sees promise in the market for such devices. Toshiba says its 4S (“super-safe, small and simple”) reactor is capable of running for three decades without refuelling.
Small comfort
Sceptics fear that these small, cheap reactors will not be enough to revive the nuclear industry. Mycle Schneider, a nuclear-energy expert at École des Mines, an engineering school in France, who is also an adviser to Germany’s environment ministry, says licensing and building small plants will take far too long to be profitable. As the costs of solar, wind and biogas power continue to fall, investors will increasingly favour household energy-producing kit and transmission technologies that let consumers sell excess production to neighbours and utilities, he says. South Africa’s decision in September to abort construction of a small reactor, even though about $1.3 billion had been spent, illustrates the sort of financial risk the sector faces.
Others fret that lots of small reactors, rather than a few big ones, will be more vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Hyperion’s Mr Deal insists that neither a rocket-propelled grenade nor a tank round could smash a small reactor. Small reactors can be shielded by a heavy layer of concrete and buried, in effect making them safer than big ones, whose protective concrete domes can only be so thick, lest they collapse under their own weight.
What if a rogue government tries to take advantage of an affordable reactor to acquire nuclear expertise or materials for weapons work? Henry Sokolski, a former Pentagon official who heads the Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre, a think-tank near Washington, DC, says that Western intelligence agencies have overestimated their ability to monitor the spread of nuclear equipment and know-how. If new enrichment facilities are built to supply a slew of small nuclear reactors, materials and expertise useful in bomb-making may spread as a result.
TerraPower, an American firm backed by Bill Gates, thinks it has the solution. It is working with Toshiba to design a small reactor based on a “travelling wave” design. Once kick-started with a tiny amount of enriched uranium, it would run for decades on non-enriched, depleted uranium, a widely available material. This will be possible because the nuclear reaction, eating its way through the core at the rate of about one centimetre a year, would gradually convert the depleted uranium into fissionable plutonium—in effect “breeding” high-grade fuel and then consuming it.
Mr. Gates points out that nuclear power has historically been dogged by five worries: safety, proliferation, waste, cost and fuel availability. “This thing is a miracle that solves all five,” he says. John Gilleland, TerraPower’s boss, says that a single enrichment plant would then suffice to produce all the enriched uranium needed to spark up the world’s mini-reactors.
The prospects for mini-reactors, like those for large reactors, depend on a combination of technical, commercial and regulatory factors. The stars do not seem to be aligning for large reactors. But they are no longer the only game in town.
Dec 9th 2010
http://www.economist.com/node/17647651?story_id=17647651&fsrc=scn/tw/te/rss/pe
WHEN the two big nuclear reactors under construction at Flamanville in France and Olkiluoto in Finland come on stream, each will boast enough electricity-generating capacity to light up a city of 1.5m. But despite the best efforts of EDF and Areva, which are building the reactors, both are behind schedule and, at over $5 billion apiece, well over budget. With results like these, it is little wonder that the vaunted “nuclear renaissance” has failed to materialise. In fact, the number of operating reactors is in decline, spurring the nuclear-power industry to look for new approaches. Rather than relying on huge, traditional reactors costing billions, it is turning to small, inexpensive ones, many of which are based on proven designs from nuclear submarines or warships.
A global race is under way to develop small-reactor designs, says Paul Genoa of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry body in Washington, DC. He estimates that more than 20 countries have expressed serious interest in buying mini-reactors.
At least eight different approaches are being developed, mainly in America and Asia, by an army of 3,000 nuclear engineers, according to Ron Moleschi of SNC-Lavalin Nuclear, an engineering firm based in Montreal. Regulatory and licensing procedures are lengthy, so little will be built until around 2017, he says. But after that the industry is expected to take off. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates that by 2030 at least 40 (and possibly more than 90) small reactors will be in operation. It reckons that more than half of the countries that will build nuclear plants in coming years will plump for these smaller, simpler designs.
Russia is an early adopter. Rosatom, the state nuclear-energy giant, is building a floating, towable power station in a St Petersburg shipyard. The Akademik Lomonosov, due to set sail in 2012 for waters near Russia’s far-east town of Vilyuchinsk, will be followed by at least four other floating nuclear plants for the country’s Arctic regions. Such power stations are less prone to earthquakes and avoid the difficulties of erecting nuclear facilities on frozen land, which can melt, jeopardising foundations, says Vladimir Kuznetsov of the IAEA. And at a mere $550m a pop they cost a fraction of what a traditional reactor does (though they also provide less power).
Nuclear deliveries
Rosatom hopes its plants will appeal to energy-hungry coastal or river cities all over the world. By manufacturing in Russia, the firm sidesteps some of the regulatory controls a client country would impose on a plant built and installed on its own soil. Another selling point is Russia’s willingness to bring home the nuclear waste. Demand for floating plants may also help Russia broaden, or at least retain, its nuclear expertise, which has suffered as engineers have gone abroad or retired.
“Engineers of small reactors stress their similarity to proven, existing designs such as those found in nuclear-powered ships and submarines.”Similar concerns are driving efforts to develop small reactors elsewhere. No new nuclear plant has come on stream in America since 1996. The industry was dealt a blow in October, when Constellation Energy, a utility, dropped a joint plan with EDF to build a large nuclear plant in Maryland. In spite of strong political support and a reported $7.5 billion in government loan guarantees, Constellation balked at the initial capital outlay. Steven Chu, America’s energy secretary, sees miniaturisation as a way to revive the country’s once-mighty nuclear industry.
One advantage of small reactors is their modularity. Extra units can be added to a plant over the years, incrementally boosting output as capital becomes available and electricity demand rises. NuScale, of Corvallis, Oregon, offers “scalable” nuclear plants with reactors delivered by truck. A plant with 12 reactors, each with its own electricity-generating turbine, would cost about $2.2 billion and produce roughly a third as much power as a big facility. Since large plants can cost roughly three times as much, the cost of electricity would be about the same. Moreover, a modular facility would generate revenue as soon as the first reactor is fired up, after a few years of construction. A big reactor traditionally takes a decade to erect.
Hyperion Power Generation, a firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is building components for what it calls a “nuclear battery”. The refrigerator-sized Hyperion Power Module (HPM) reactor will shift much of the building from field to factory, where a controlled environment reduces costs. Also, fewer workers and families must be moved, at great expense, to distant building sites. HPMs would be delivered by truck with enough uranium to run for about ten years. They would be constructed in batches with interchangeable parts and cost about $100m each. And they need little human oversight to operate. “Forget huge—let’s make a hand-held version of a power plant,” says John Deal, the firm’s boss. Five companies, located in America, Britain, Canada, China and India, have put down deposits for an HPM.
Engineers of small reactors stress their similarity to proven, existing designs such as those found in nuclear-powered ships and submarines, or, in Rosatom’s case, icebreakers. And some small-reactor designs have an important advantage over bigger reactors. Because less heat is generated, small water-cooled reactors can use simpler designs relying not on pumps, but on natural convection. And eliminating moving parts should make the new small reactors both safer and cheaper. For instance, Hyperion’s HPM dispenses with elaborate valve systems by using a molten metal as a coolant because, unlike water, it doesn’t need to be kept under pressure to absorb large amounts of heat.
Christofer Mowry, who heads civilian power at Babcock & Wilcox, a maker of nuclear-propulsion systems for the US Navy, says the company’s small reactor offers another source of savings. Because it can use existing power-transmission lines without overloading them, the mPower can act as a “drop-in replacement” for ageing coal furnaces without the need for costly refurbishment. The Tennessee Valley Authority, America’s biggest public utility, hopes to put two of the firm’s reactors into an old coal plant. Five other American utilities are also considering replacing coal furnaces with nuclear reactors, according to Philip Moor of the American Nuclear Society, an industry group. He estimates that in America alone perhaps 100 old coal plants could be converted to nuclear within a decade—a trice by the industry’s standards.
Not all nuclear nations have entered the fray. France has studied micro-reactors’ potential in spaceship propulsion, but for generating power on Earth, big reactors are best, says Christophe Béhar, in charge of nuclear energy at the country’s Atomic Energy Commission. New markets for large plants are opening up as developing countries strengthen their grids to cope with the huge amounts of power they produce. China is building two small helium-cooled reactors, but the electricity they produce will never be as cheap as that from big reactors, according to Mr Béhar. Just in case, the Chinese have also commissioned French firms to build two large nuclear plants.
In Japan, too, utilities’ interest in small reactors appears scant for now. Tatsujiro Suzuki, the vice-chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in Tokyo, hopes it will grow. Today’s broad trend to loosen government controls on electricity prices may do the trick. Utilities are more willing to make massive investments if they can accurately predict future income. As prices are allowed to fluctuate more widely, shorter-term investments for smaller reactors will become more attractive. At least one Japanese engineering giant sees promise in the market for such devices. Toshiba says its 4S (“super-safe, small and simple”) reactor is capable of running for three decades without refuelling.
Small comfort
Sceptics fear that these small, cheap reactors will not be enough to revive the nuclear industry. Mycle Schneider, a nuclear-energy expert at École des Mines, an engineering school in France, who is also an adviser to Germany’s environment ministry, says licensing and building small plants will take far too long to be profitable. As the costs of solar, wind and biogas power continue to fall, investors will increasingly favour household energy-producing kit and transmission technologies that let consumers sell excess production to neighbours and utilities, he says. South Africa’s decision in September to abort construction of a small reactor, even though about $1.3 billion had been spent, illustrates the sort of financial risk the sector faces.
Others fret that lots of small reactors, rather than a few big ones, will be more vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Hyperion’s Mr Deal insists that neither a rocket-propelled grenade nor a tank round could smash a small reactor. Small reactors can be shielded by a heavy layer of concrete and buried, in effect making them safer than big ones, whose protective concrete domes can only be so thick, lest they collapse under their own weight.
What if a rogue government tries to take advantage of an affordable reactor to acquire nuclear expertise or materials for weapons work? Henry Sokolski, a former Pentagon official who heads the Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre, a think-tank near Washington, DC, says that Western intelligence agencies have overestimated their ability to monitor the spread of nuclear equipment and know-how. If new enrichment facilities are built to supply a slew of small nuclear reactors, materials and expertise useful in bomb-making may spread as a result.
TerraPower, an American firm backed by Bill Gates, thinks it has the solution. It is working with Toshiba to design a small reactor based on a “travelling wave” design. Once kick-started with a tiny amount of enriched uranium, it would run for decades on non-enriched, depleted uranium, a widely available material. This will be possible because the nuclear reaction, eating its way through the core at the rate of about one centimetre a year, would gradually convert the depleted uranium into fissionable plutonium—in effect “breeding” high-grade fuel and then consuming it.
Mr. Gates points out that nuclear power has historically been dogged by five worries: safety, proliferation, waste, cost and fuel availability. “This thing is a miracle that solves all five,” he says. John Gilleland, TerraPower’s boss, says that a single enrichment plant would then suffice to produce all the enriched uranium needed to spark up the world’s mini-reactors.
The prospects for mini-reactors, like those for large reactors, depend on a combination of technical, commercial and regulatory factors. The stars do not seem to be aligning for large reactors. But they are no longer the only game in town.
Dec 9th 2010
http://www.economist.com/node/17647651?story_id=17647651&fsrc=scn/tw/te/rss/pe
Clean and green, for a price
Britain can have clean energy or cheap energy, but not both
DESPITE its reputation for wind and rain, Britain is not used to cold weather. Unseasonal snow over the past couple of weeks has blocked roads, shut airports, closed schools and brought the army out to help clear Edinburgh’s streets. Energy-watchers, meanwhile, have been fretting about the spike in energy consumption caused by the chill. On December 6th prices rose to a two-year high as Britain recorded one of its highest-ever levels of electricity demand.
Such figures are in the news because Britain is facing an energy crunch. All but one of its nuclear stations, and about half of its coal power plants, will shut by 2023 and must be replaced. Left to its own devices, the market would replace them with natural gas, but the government has committed itself to eye-wateringly tough climate-change targets, aiming to reduce emissions of planet-heating gases by 2050 relative to their 1990 levels by 80%. To that end, ministers hope to encourage a mix of nuclear reactors and wind-, wave- and solar-powered electricity.
Two developments, one last month and one to come next week, suggest how hard it is going to be to achieve that aim. On November 26th Ofgem, the energy regulator, announced an inquiry into competition in the energy sector after profits in the industry jumped by around 40%. Several big suppliers, including Scottish and Southern Energy and British Gas, have imposed price rises of up to 9%. Previous inquiries have found no evidence of collusion. But high energy bills remain politically poisonous: at a time of street protests over university fees and an embarrassing series of WikiLeaks, David Cameron, the prime minister, was asked about energy bills at his once-a-week question session in Parliament this week.
Next week, perhaps on December 16th, the government will publish proposals for reforming the energy market, in an attempt to secure the £200 billion ($316 billion) of investment in new generating capacity that Ofgem thinks is needed to keep the lights on while hitting carbon-reduction targets (see chart). Ministers talk of a renaissance of nuclear power, involving the construction of up to eight new reactors over the coming decade, coupled with a huge expansion in renewable energy. According to a European target that Britain has signed up to, renewables will account for 15% of total energy consumption by 2020, up from 3% today.
So far at least, it isn’t happening. Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, admitted recently that Britain ranks 25th out of the EU’s 27 member countries in the amount of energy generated from renewable sources (only Malta and Luxembourg do worse). And although several sites in Britain have been earmarked for new nuclear reactors, construction—or, indeed, licensing of reactor designs—has yet to start.
The issue, say the power firms, is one of risk. Neither nuclear nor renewable energy is competitive with gas or coal unless there is some form of government support. Nuclear plants in particular have low running costs but enormous capital costs: investors must make a 20- or 30-year bet that power prices will remain high enough to pay off the cost of building the plant. Both the previous Labour government and its coalition successor have insisted that nuclear power will not receive public subsidy. Utility bosses, meanwhile, are making it very clear that Britain is not the only place where they can invest their cash.
Ministers have not been short of advice, and the theme underlying most of it is that, with the government desperate to secure investment, the no-subsidy pledge will have to be torn up. On December 7th the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which polices Britain’s 2050 commitment, published a report saying explicitly that there needed to be much greater state involvement and control. It recommended that the government award decades-long, more or less fixed-price contracts to firms to make sure that nuclear plants and wind farms get built. For a country that pioneered liberalised energy markets in the 1990s, that is quite a reverse.
As The Economist went to press, the government was hinting that it would seek to impose a floor price for carbon and European-style “feed-in tariffs”, designed to increase the cost of fossil-fuelled electricity and ensure that nuclear and renewable electricity is profitable. Other possible plans include rewarding firms for maintaining stand-by capacity to supply power to the grid in an emergency, and preventing the construction of new coal stations that do not have some way of capturing and storing their planet-heating emissions.
The trouble is that all this will mean higher bills. Britain now pays around £1 billion a year in subsidies for renewable energy, which adds some £80 to a typical household’s annual bill. Projections from uSwitch, a price-comparison website, suggest that propping up nuclear and renewable energy could cost every household more than £500 a year by 2020.
Paradoxically, the very size of the required subsidies may make firms reluctant to invest, says Peter Atherton, a utilities analyst at Citigroup, a big bank, out of fear that the government may not honour the commitments if voters start to complain. “After all, the build time of a wind farm or a nuclear plant is longer than the lifetime of a parliament,” he points out. He cites experience in Europe, where generous German and Spanish subsidies for renewable energy were hastily clipped once it became apparent how popular (and therefore costly) they were.
Mr Atherton reckons that the long-term, high-price contracts recommended by the CCC might persuade firms to pony up, since these commitments would be hard to wriggle out of. That may secure the needed investment, but it would mark the end of Britain’s love affair with liberalised energy markets—and would make the cost of clean energy uncomfortably explicit.
Dec 9th 2010
http://www.economist.com/node/17679633?story_id=17679633&fsrc=scn/tw/te/rss/pe
Such figures are in the news because Britain is facing an energy crunch. All but one of its nuclear stations, and about half of its coal power plants, will shut by 2023 and must be replaced. Left to its own devices, the market would replace them with natural gas, but the government has committed itself to eye-wateringly tough climate-change targets, aiming to reduce emissions of planet-heating gases by 2050 relative to their 1990 levels by 80%. To that end, ministers hope to encourage a mix of nuclear reactors and wind-, wave- and solar-powered electricity.
Two developments, one last month and one to come next week, suggest how hard it is going to be to achieve that aim. On November 26th Ofgem, the energy regulator, announced an inquiry into competition in the energy sector after profits in the industry jumped by around 40%. Several big suppliers, including Scottish and Southern Energy and British Gas, have imposed price rises of up to 9%. Previous inquiries have found no evidence of collusion. But high energy bills remain politically poisonous: at a time of street protests over university fees and an embarrassing series of WikiLeaks, David Cameron, the prime minister, was asked about energy bills at his once-a-week question session in Parliament this week.
Next week, perhaps on December 16th, the government will publish proposals for reforming the energy market, in an attempt to secure the £200 billion ($316 billion) of investment in new generating capacity that Ofgem thinks is needed to keep the lights on while hitting carbon-reduction targets (see chart). Ministers talk of a renaissance of nuclear power, involving the construction of up to eight new reactors over the coming decade, coupled with a huge expansion in renewable energy. According to a European target that Britain has signed up to, renewables will account for 15% of total energy consumption by 2020, up from 3% today.
So far at least, it isn’t happening. Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, admitted recently that Britain ranks 25th out of the EU’s 27 member countries in the amount of energy generated from renewable sources (only Malta and Luxembourg do worse). And although several sites in Britain have been earmarked for new nuclear reactors, construction—or, indeed, licensing of reactor designs—has yet to start.
The issue, say the power firms, is one of risk. Neither nuclear nor renewable energy is competitive with gas or coal unless there is some form of government support. Nuclear plants in particular have low running costs but enormous capital costs: investors must make a 20- or 30-year bet that power prices will remain high enough to pay off the cost of building the plant. Both the previous Labour government and its coalition successor have insisted that nuclear power will not receive public subsidy. Utility bosses, meanwhile, are making it very clear that Britain is not the only place where they can invest their cash.
Ministers have not been short of advice, and the theme underlying most of it is that, with the government desperate to secure investment, the no-subsidy pledge will have to be torn up. On December 7th the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which polices Britain’s 2050 commitment, published a report saying explicitly that there needed to be much greater state involvement and control. It recommended that the government award decades-long, more or less fixed-price contracts to firms to make sure that nuclear plants and wind farms get built. For a country that pioneered liberalised energy markets in the 1990s, that is quite a reverse.
As The Economist went to press, the government was hinting that it would seek to impose a floor price for carbon and European-style “feed-in tariffs”, designed to increase the cost of fossil-fuelled electricity and ensure that nuclear and renewable electricity is profitable. Other possible plans include rewarding firms for maintaining stand-by capacity to supply power to the grid in an emergency, and preventing the construction of new coal stations that do not have some way of capturing and storing their planet-heating emissions.
The trouble is that all this will mean higher bills. Britain now pays around £1 billion a year in subsidies for renewable energy, which adds some £80 to a typical household’s annual bill. Projections from uSwitch, a price-comparison website, suggest that propping up nuclear and renewable energy could cost every household more than £500 a year by 2020.
Paradoxically, the very size of the required subsidies may make firms reluctant to invest, says Peter Atherton, a utilities analyst at Citigroup, a big bank, out of fear that the government may not honour the commitments if voters start to complain. “After all, the build time of a wind farm or a nuclear plant is longer than the lifetime of a parliament,” he points out. He cites experience in Europe, where generous German and Spanish subsidies for renewable energy were hastily clipped once it became apparent how popular (and therefore costly) they were.
Mr Atherton reckons that the long-term, high-price contracts recommended by the CCC might persuade firms to pony up, since these commitments would be hard to wriggle out of. That may secure the needed investment, but it would mark the end of Britain’s love affair with liberalised energy markets—and would make the cost of clean energy uncomfortably explicit.
Dec 9th 2010
http://www.economist.com/node/17679633?story_id=17679633&fsrc=scn/tw/te/rss/pe
Monster power
GENEVA — Tense talks between Iran, the United States and other world powers ended Tuesday with an agreement to hold another meeting toward the end of January in Istanbul.
“Our expectations for this meeting were low, and I can’t say that they’ve been exceeded,” said a senior American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He characterized the tenor of the discussions, in which Iran was pressed on its nuclear program, as “difficult and candid.”
Still, the official said, the simple fact that Iran agreed to meet in the first place, and to a future meeting as well, was positive, coming after more than a year of domestic friction over Iran’s disputed presidential election and the imposition of a fourth round of United Nations economic sanctions that was followed by additional independent measures from the United States and other nations.
Iran had maintained that its nuclear program was not open for discussion, but officials who attended the talks said that, despite Iranian denials, most of the day and a half of meetings focused on the deep concerns of many of Iran’s neighbors and much of the West that the country was trying to build a bomb. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is merely to generate power and create medical isotopes.
A senior European official said that the talks evidenced a level of mistrust between Iran and the other powers that could be compared only to the situation with North Korea, and that it was important to continue to offer serious negotiations in combination with the possibility of harsher measures, including further sanctions.
But the Iranian side ended the meetings on a note of defiance. The head of its delegation, Saeed Jalili, said at a news conference that the only agenda for the Istanbul meeting was “to have talks for cooperation to find common ground” and insisted that international requests for Iran to halt its enrichment of uranium would not be discussed.
“I am announcing openly and clearly that Iran will not discuss a uranium enrichment halt in the next meeting in Istanbul with major powers,” Mr. Jalili said, portraying Iran as being at the height of its power, economically and regionally, despite the buildup of international sanctions. He spoke at a podium flanked by a black-bordered portrait of an Iranian nuclear scientist, Majid Shahriari, who was killed Nov. 29 in Tehran when a bomb attached to his car exploded, an attack the Iranians have blamed on the West and Israel.
Officials said that during the talks, Mr. Jalili gave an impassioned critique of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog, and quoted “highly selectively” from its reports on Iran.
But his negotiating partners repeated their demand that Iran cooperate fully with the agency, whose last report said that Iran was not doing so. Besides Iran, the nations represented here at the talks, led byCatherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, were the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. They are known as the “P5 plus 1” — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany.
While repetitive, the American official said, the talks “were part of a clear dual-track strategy” of negotiations backed up by sanctions and the possibility of military force, and were important to display to the Iranians “our seriousness on both tracks and to keep P5 plus 1 unity” so that Iran could not divide one nation from another. In Dubai on Tuesday, six gulf Arab leaders appealed to Iran to “respond positively” to talks about its nuclear program and to be “a good neighbor” in the region. In a statement, the Gulf Cooperation Council said it “welcomes international efforts, including those made by the P5+1, to peacefully resolve Iran’s nuclear crisis and hopes it will respond positively to these efforts.”
The last talks with Iran, more than a year ago, yielded a tentative agreement for uranium enrichment for medical use outside the country, a deal that rapidly fell apart. The accomplishment here, the American official said, was to “restart” the nuclear talks and “begin a systematic process of confidence-building through practical steps.” Iran needs “to show that it is serious,” but the process of talking “cannot be open-ended,” he said, acknowledging that Iran historically has tried to buy time and divide its critics.
The senior European official echoed that assessment, saying: “There was no breakthrough, no great leap forward. As for progress, we made a restart, we re-engaged. But if we take this forward, we need to find some substance to move forward on.”
Possible confidence-building measures, the Western officials said, could include a revision of the October 2009 deal to remove a major portion of Iran’s enriched uranium so it could be turned into nuclear fuel rods abroad.
By STEVEN ERLANGER Published: December 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/world/europe/08iran.html?_r=1&ref=world
“Our expectations for this meeting were low, and I can’t say that they’ve been exceeded,” said a senior American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He characterized the tenor of the discussions, in which Iran was pressed on its nuclear program, as “difficult and candid.”
Still, the official said, the simple fact that Iran agreed to meet in the first place, and to a future meeting as well, was positive, coming after more than a year of domestic friction over Iran’s disputed presidential election and the imposition of a fourth round of United Nations economic sanctions that was followed by additional independent measures from the United States and other nations.
Iran had maintained that its nuclear program was not open for discussion, but officials who attended the talks said that, despite Iranian denials, most of the day and a half of meetings focused on the deep concerns of many of Iran’s neighbors and much of the West that the country was trying to build a bomb. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is merely to generate power and create medical isotopes.
A senior European official said that the talks evidenced a level of mistrust between Iran and the other powers that could be compared only to the situation with North Korea, and that it was important to continue to offer serious negotiations in combination with the possibility of harsher measures, including further sanctions.
But the Iranian side ended the meetings on a note of defiance. The head of its delegation, Saeed Jalili, said at a news conference that the only agenda for the Istanbul meeting was “to have talks for cooperation to find common ground” and insisted that international requests for Iran to halt its enrichment of uranium would not be discussed.
“I am announcing openly and clearly that Iran will not discuss a uranium enrichment halt in the next meeting in Istanbul with major powers,” Mr. Jalili said, portraying Iran as being at the height of its power, economically and regionally, despite the buildup of international sanctions. He spoke at a podium flanked by a black-bordered portrait of an Iranian nuclear scientist, Majid Shahriari, who was killed Nov. 29 in Tehran when a bomb attached to his car exploded, an attack the Iranians have blamed on the West and Israel.
Officials said that during the talks, Mr. Jalili gave an impassioned critique of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog, and quoted “highly selectively” from its reports on Iran.
But his negotiating partners repeated their demand that Iran cooperate fully with the agency, whose last report said that Iran was not doing so. Besides Iran, the nations represented here at the talks, led byCatherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, were the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. They are known as the “P5 plus 1” — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany.
While repetitive, the American official said, the talks “were part of a clear dual-track strategy” of negotiations backed up by sanctions and the possibility of military force, and were important to display to the Iranians “our seriousness on both tracks and to keep P5 plus 1 unity” so that Iran could not divide one nation from another. In Dubai on Tuesday, six gulf Arab leaders appealed to Iran to “respond positively” to talks about its nuclear program and to be “a good neighbor” in the region. In a statement, the Gulf Cooperation Council said it “welcomes international efforts, including those made by the P5+1, to peacefully resolve Iran’s nuclear crisis and hopes it will respond positively to these efforts.”
The last talks with Iran, more than a year ago, yielded a tentative agreement for uranium enrichment for medical use outside the country, a deal that rapidly fell apart. The accomplishment here, the American official said, was to “restart” the nuclear talks and “begin a systematic process of confidence-building through practical steps.” Iran needs “to show that it is serious,” but the process of talking “cannot be open-ended,” he said, acknowledging that Iran historically has tried to buy time and divide its critics.
The senior European official echoed that assessment, saying: “There was no breakthrough, no great leap forward. As for progress, we made a restart, we re-engaged. But if we take this forward, we need to find some substance to move forward on.”
Possible confidence-building measures, the Western officials said, could include a revision of the October 2009 deal to remove a major portion of Iran’s enriched uranium so it could be turned into nuclear fuel rods abroad.
By STEVEN ERLANGER Published: December 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/world/europe/08iran.html?_r=1&ref=world
More Nuclear Talks With Iran Are Set
Still, the official said, the simple fact that Iran agreed to meet in the first place, and to a future meeting as well, was positive, coming after more than a year of domestic friction over Iran’s disputed presidential election and the imposition of a fourth round of
Iran had maintained that its nuclear program was not open for discussion, but officials who attended the talks said that, despite Iranian denials, most of the day and a half of meetings focused on the deep concerns of many of Iran’s neighbors and much of the West that the country was trying to build a bomb. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is merely to generate power and create medical isotopes.
A senior European official said that the talks evidenced a level of mistrust between Iran and the other powers that could be compared only to the situation with North Korea, and that it was important to continue to offer serious negotiations in combination with the possibility of harsher measures, including further sanctions.
But the Iranian side ended the meetings on a note of defiance. The head of its delegation, Saeed Jalili, said at a news conference that the only agenda for the Istanbul meeting was “to have talks for cooperation to find common ground” and insisted that international requests for Iran to halt its enrichment of uranium would not be discussed.
“I am announcing openly and clearly that Iran will not discus
He spoke at a podium flanked by a black-bordered portrait of an Iranian nuclear scientist, Majid Shahriari, who was killed Nov. 29 in Tehran when a bomb attached to his car exploded, an attack the Iranians have blamed on the West and Israel.
Officials said that during the talks, Mr. Jalili gave an impassioned critique of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog, and quoted “highly selectively” from its reports on Iran.But his negotiating partners repeated their demand that Iran cooperate fully with the agency, whose last report said that Iran was not doing so.
Besides Iran, the nations represented here at the talks, led by Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, were the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. They are known as the “P5 plus 1” — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany.
While repetitive, the American official said, the talks “were part of a clear dual-track strategy” of negotiations backed up by sanctions and the possibility of military force, and were important to display to the Iranians “our seriousness on both tracks and to keep P5 plus 1 unity” so that Iran could not divide one nation from another.
In Dubai on Tuesday, six gulf Arab leaders appealed to Iran to “respond positively” to talks about its nuclear program and to be “a good neighbor” in the region. In a statement, the Gulf Cooperation Council said it “welcomes international efforts, including those made by the P5+1, to peacefully resolve Iran’s nuclear crisis and hopes it will respond positively to these efforts.”The last talks with Iran, more than a year ago, yielded a tentative agreement for uranium enrichment for medical use outside the country, a deal that rapidly fell apart. The accomplishment here, the American official said, was to “restart” the nuclear talks and “begin a systematic process of confidence-building through practical steps.”
Iran needs “to show that it is serious,” but the process of talking “cannot be open-ended,” he said, acknowledging that Iran historically has tried to buy time and divide its critics.The senior European official echoed that assessment, saying: “There was no breakthrough, no great leap forward. As for progress, we made a restart, we re-engaged. But if we take this forward, we need to find some substance to move forward on.”
Possible confidence-building measures, the Western officials said, could include a revision of the October 2009 deal to remove a major portion of Iran’s enriched uranium so it could be turned into nuclear fuel rods abroad.
Swedish FM Carl Bildt: Iran sanctions won't work, negotiations could take years
MANAMA, Bahrain — International sanctions are not likely to convince Tehran to abandon its nuclear program and Monday’s talks in Geneva between Iran and the P5+1 countries are only the first step in a process that could take years to succeed, according to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
Bildt, who is considered one of Europe’s leading voices on foreign policy, is no friend of Iran. He’s a vocal critic of Iran’s human rights record and has worked hard to free Europeans held in Iranian prisons. But he gave a speech on Sunday at the 2010 IISS Manama Security Dialogue that included criticism of the sanctions regime the United States and Europe have worked to put in place. He also happened to sit next to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki at the Dec. 3gala dinner at which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke.
The Cable sat down with Bildt on Sunday for an exclusive interview about Iran, the nuclear negotiations, and his dinner date with the Iranian leader.
Bildt disagreed with Clinton’s view, expressed in our exclusive interview with her two days before, that the international sanctions regime had brought Iran back to the table and was thus having an effect on the Iranian leadership’s decision making.
“They were at the table one year ago, they were at the table six months ago, and they are at the table again. And I think it’s at the table where the solution can be found. I fail to see any solution that is not at the table,” Bildt said.
“The sanctions are part of the scene but they are not the solution,” he told The Cable. “There are some people that seem to believe sanctions are going to sort out the problem itself, as if you have sufficiently hard sanctions, the Iranians are suddenly going to fold and say, ‘We agree with everything that you’ve said.’ That’s a pipe dream.”
Sanctions might have some effect over the long term, but that could take a very long time, he said.
“You’re talking about a 10, 15, 20 year process,” Bildt said. “The thing that can change things in the near term is the talks.”
But even the nuclear negotiations that begin on Monday in Geneva will need several follow-up sessions before progress is can be made, said Bildt.
“I think we’re talking about a fairly lengthy process. We have a gulf of mistrust between the Iranians and the Americans that is profound. One side is locked into 1979 and one side is locked into 1953,” Bildt said, referring to the dates of Islamic Revolution and the U.S. sponsored coup that overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh. “It will have to be a step by step approach, where you start by some smaller steps before you’re ready to take some bigger steps.”
Luckily, the West has some more time to negotiate with Iran, Bildt added, because he believes that their nuclear progress is going much slower than anyone anticipated.
And what about his dinner with Mottaki? Bildt said he told Mottaki that Clinton’s speech, which focused on Iran’s right to civilian nuclear development and avoided harsh criticisms, was a huge change in tone from the American side made in the hope of improving relations.
Bildt said that Mottaki agreed, but that the Iranian diplomat doubted it would make much of a difference in the end.
“I said to Mottaki, ‘this is significant,’” Bildt related, referring to Clinton’s direct outreach to the Iranian delegation.
“'Yes, yes,’ he said, ‘it is,’” Bildt quoted Mottaki as telling him. “But there many people in Tehran who don’t believe it,” Mottaki added.
By Josh Rogin Monday, December 6, 2010
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/12/06/swedish_fm_carl_bildt_iran_sanctions_won_t_work_negotiations_could_take_years
Bildt, who is considered one of Europe’s leading voices on foreign policy, is no friend of Iran. He’s a vocal critic of Iran’s human rights record and has worked hard to free Europeans held in Iranian prisons. But he gave a speech on Sunday at the 2010 IISS Manama Security Dialogue that included criticism of the sanctions regime the United States and Europe have worked to put in place. He also happened to sit next to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki at the Dec. 3gala dinner at which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke.
The Cable sat down with Bildt on Sunday for an exclusive interview about Iran, the nuclear negotiations, and his dinner date with the Iranian leader.
Bildt disagreed with Clinton’s view, expressed in our exclusive interview with her two days before, that the international sanctions regime had brought Iran back to the table and was thus having an effect on the Iranian leadership’s decision making.
“They were at the table one year ago, they were at the table six months ago, and they are at the table again. And I think it’s at the table where the solution can be found. I fail to see any solution that is not at the table,” Bildt said.
“The sanctions are part of the scene but they are not the solution,” he told The Cable. “There are some people that seem to believe sanctions are going to sort out the problem itself, as if you have sufficiently hard sanctions, the Iranians are suddenly going to fold and say, ‘We agree with everything that you’ve said.’ That’s a pipe dream.”
Sanctions might have some effect over the long term, but that could take a very long time, he said.
“You’re talking about a 10, 15, 20 year process,” Bildt said. “The thing that can change things in the near term is the talks.”
But even the nuclear negotiations that begin on Monday in Geneva will need several follow-up sessions before progress is can be made, said Bildt.
“I think we’re talking about a fairly lengthy process. We have a gulf of mistrust between the Iranians and the Americans that is profound. One side is locked into 1979 and one side is locked into 1953,” Bildt said, referring to the dates of Islamic Revolution and the U.S. sponsored coup that overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh. “It will have to be a step by step approach, where you start by some smaller steps before you’re ready to take some bigger steps.”
Luckily, the West has some more time to negotiate with Iran, Bildt added, because he believes that their nuclear progress is going much slower than anyone anticipated.
And what about his dinner with Mottaki? Bildt said he told Mottaki that Clinton’s speech, which focused on Iran’s right to civilian nuclear development and avoided harsh criticisms, was a huge change in tone from the American side made in the hope of improving relations.
Bildt said that Mottaki agreed, but that the Iranian diplomat doubted it would make much of a difference in the end.
“I said to Mottaki, ‘this is significant,’” Bildt related, referring to Clinton’s direct outreach to the Iranian delegation.
“'Yes, yes,’ he said, ‘it is,’” Bildt quoted Mottaki as telling him. “But there many people in Tehran who don’t believe it,” Mottaki added.
By Josh Rogin Monday, December 6, 2010
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/12/06/swedish_fm_carl_bildt_iran_sanctions_won_t_work_negotiations_could_take_years
Branson Says Oil Might Hit $200 a Barrel Without New Policies
Oil prices may soar to $200 a barrel if the world doesn’t move more rapidly to a clean-energy economy, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., said in an interview.
“It’s certainly conceivable unless we can start to conserve energy quickly and come up with alternative fuels,” Branson said yesterday in Cancun, Mexico, where countries are meeting to negotiate a new accord to combat climate change.
Branson predicts an “unbelievably painful” economic slump if governments don’t do more to encourage renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels such as oil. In the U.S., where efforts to cap carbon-dioxide emissions failed in the Senate earlier this year, unemployment could reach record highs, the British billionaire said.
“We are going to have the mother of all recessions if we don’t sort out our energy policy fast,” Branson said earlier yesterday at the World Climate Summit in Cancun. “We think we’ve got it bad today. In five years time unemployment could go to 15 percent without any difficulty at all in America.”
Branson, 60, spoke alongside U.S. billionaire Ted Turner, founder of Cable News Network. Branson and Turner, 72, also will speak tomorrow at the two-day conference focused on how businesses can help combat climate change.
By Kim Chipman, Dec 5, 2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-05/branson-says-oil-may-hit-200-a-barrel-without-new-clean-energy-policies.html
“It’s certainly conceivable unless we can start to conserve energy quickly and come up with alternative fuels,” Branson said yesterday in Cancun, Mexico, where countries are meeting to negotiate a new accord to combat climate change.
Branson predicts an “unbelievably painful” economic slump if governments don’t do more to encourage renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels such as oil. In the U.S., where efforts to cap carbon-dioxide emissions failed in the Senate earlier this year, unemployment could reach record highs, the British billionaire said.
“We are going to have the mother of all recessions if we don’t sort out our energy policy fast,” Branson said earlier yesterday at the World Climate Summit in Cancun. “We think we’ve got it bad today. In five years time unemployment could go to 15 percent without any difficulty at all in America.”
Branson, 60, spoke alongside U.S. billionaire Ted Turner, founder of Cable News Network. Branson and Turner, 72, also will speak tomorrow at the two-day conference focused on how businesses can help combat climate change.
By Kim Chipman, Dec 5, 2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-05/branson-says-oil-may-hit-200-a-barrel-without-new-clean-energy-policies.html
Climate Change Conference in Cancun
The United Nations Climate Change Conference that gets under way here on Monday may not result in much in terms of emission reduction agreements. The main focus could be on forestry issues and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) plus where significant progress could be made.
Principal climate change scientist at the CIFOR Louis Verchot said that among the key issues likely to be addressed was whether to include REDD plus as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
SUNDAY, 28 NOVEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/41251-climate-change-conference-begins-today-in-cancun
Principal climate change scientist at the CIFOR Louis Verchot said that among the key issues likely to be addressed was whether to include REDD plus as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
SUNDAY, 28 NOVEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/41251-climate-change-conference-begins-today-in-cancun
Council of Europe-Interview with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Chairman of Ministers
Interview with Ahmet Davutoğlu, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers
For the Transcript - Unofficial translation see http://www.coe.int/t/dc/av/podcasts_60.asp
26 NOVEMBER 2010
For the Transcript - Unofficial translation see http://www.coe.int/t/dc/av/podcasts_60.asp
26 NOVEMBER 2010
Lord Prescott To Chair Conference On Nuclear Energy And Climate Change
Lord Prescott, the United Kingdom's former deputy Prime Minister, will chair a discussion on the nulcear impact on climate change in Strasbourg later today.
The two day conference on nuclear energy and its influence on climate change, the economy and society is organised by the Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs.
It features exchanges of views between parliamentarians, experts and NGO representatives.
25 NOVEMBER 2010
http://humanrightseurope.blogspot.com/2010/11/lord-prescott-to-chair-conference-on.html
Nuclear energy and its impact on the economy, safety and climate
Strasbourg, 17.11.2010 - Nuclear energy and its impact on climate change, the economy and society will be the focus of a conference organised by the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg (Palais de l’Europe, Avenue de l’Europe, Room 1) on 25 and 26 November 2010.
Exchanges of views between the hundred or so parliamentarians, experts and non-governmental organisation representatives taking part in the conference will provide material for the preparation of a future report on the subject.
The themes chosen for the five working sessions will cover the nuclear situation in Europe and the rest of the world, its impact on the economy and climate change, education and training in the nuclear field and safety and waste management.
The conference will be opened on Thursday 25 November at 2 pm by Aleksei Lotman (Estonia, UEL), Chair of the PACE Environment Committe, and Herbert Reul Chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of the European Parliament.
Draft Program:
http://www.assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2010/28092010_conferencesurlenergienucleaire_E.pdf
The two day conference on nuclear energy and its influence on climate change, the economy and society is organised by the Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs.
It features exchanges of views between parliamentarians, experts and NGO representatives.
25 NOVEMBER 2010
http://humanrightseurope.blogspot.com/2010/11/lord-prescott-to-chair-conference-on.html
Nuclear energy and its impact on the economy, safety and climate
Strasbourg, 17.11.2010 - Nuclear energy and its impact on climate change, the economy and society will be the focus of a conference organised by the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg (Palais de l’Europe, Avenue de l’Europe, Room 1) on 25 and 26 November 2010.
Exchanges of views between the hundred or so parliamentarians, experts and non-governmental organisation representatives taking part in the conference will provide material for the preparation of a future report on the subject.
The themes chosen for the five working sessions will cover the nuclear situation in Europe and the rest of the world, its impact on the economy and climate change, education and training in the nuclear field and safety and waste management.
The conference will be opened on Thursday 25 November at 2 pm by Aleksei Lotman (Estonia, UEL), Chair of the PACE Environment Committe, and Herbert Reul Chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of the European Parliament.
Draft Program:
Aleksei Lotman: Human Rights Part Of Discussions On Europe’s Energy Future
“The right to a healthy environment is a human right,” said Aleksei Lotman earlier today, at the start of a Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly conference on nuclear energy.
At the start of two days of discussions, the Environment Committee chairman underlined the need to strike a balance between human rights and Europe’s future energy needs.
“In principle the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs has considered the nuclear energy as a possible way to reduce our climate impact because of smaller emission of greenhouse gases compared to the fossil fuel based energy,” he declared.
“However we have always stressed the need for the highest possible caution in the management of radioactive materials. We have stressed that presently there is no universally agreed safe way of the long-term disposal of radioactive waste. We have also stressed that even if we disregard the above-listed risks, the nuclear energy cannot be considered sustainable in the long term simply because uranium fuel is not renewable.”
“In today’s international context, it is important that effective solutions be found to three inter-related tasks: energy security, economic development and environmental protection, including reduction of the green-house-gas emissions. We have tough choices to make and we do need to consider all feasible choices.”
Full Speech
Ladies and gentlemen,
Please allow me to welcome you here in Strasbourg, on the premises of the Council of Europe, the pan-European Organisation of democracy human rights.
I am happy to notice in this room the presence of several authorities in the fields of nuclear energy and environment. I am convinced that the discussions during our conference will therefore help to develop the parliamentary work in the field of energy in all 47 parliaments of the Council of Europe member states.
Some might question the link between the Council of Europe and nuclear energy. What has nuclear energy in common with democracy and human rights? The answer is obvious: the right to a healthy environment is a human right, as has been stressed by the Parliamentary Assembly more than once. And all issues linked to the environment – including, of course, topics concerning energy – are therefore part of our field of activity.
It is not for the first time that the Assembly deals with the topic of nuclear energy. It has produced many reports in the past and has adopted a number of texts, based on the work of the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs. The most recent adopted texts are:
- Resolution 1435 (2005) on Energy systems and the environment (Rapporteur: Mr Etherington),
- Resolution 1588 (2007) on Radioactive waste and protection of the environment (Rapporteur: Mr Meale),
- Resolution 1679 (2009) on Nuclear energy and sustainable development (Rapporteur: Mr Etherington, based on the work of Mr Grachev, former member of the Committee, present among us today).
In principle the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs has considered the nuclear energy as a possible way to reduce our climate impact because of smaller emission of greenhouse gases compared to the fossil fuel based energy. However we have always stressed the need for the highest possible caution in the management of radioactive materials. We have stressed that presently there is no universally agreed safe way of the long-term disposal of radioactive waste. We have also stressed that even if we disregard the above-listed risks, the nuclear energy cannot be considered sustainable in the long term simply because uranium fuel is not renewable.
It also needs to be stressed, and indeed we have done so, that development of renewable energy and energy saving are not only safer but also more cost-efficient alternative to the fossil-fuels than the nuclear energy. It is especially clear with energy saving: investing in “negawatts” is the cheapest way to reduce our ecological footprint.
In today’s international context, it is important that effective solutions be found to three inter-related tasks: energy security, economic development and environmental protection, including reduction of the green-house-gas emissions. We have tough choices to make and we do need to consider all feasible choices. Therefore I am happy - in spite of my personal skeptical attitude towards nuclear energy - to open this conference.
The goal of our Conference of today is to provide input for a future report from the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs, on the place of nuclear energy in the spectrum of the energy policy choices for the years to come in Europe. I hope our conference will be able to come up with the balanced view of the subject.
25 NOVEMBER 2010
http://humanrightseurope.blogspot.com/2010/11/aleksei-lotman-human-rights-part-of.html
At the start of two days of discussions, the Environment Committee chairman underlined the need to strike a balance between human rights and Europe’s future energy needs.
“In principle the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs has considered the nuclear energy as a possible way to reduce our climate impact because of smaller emission of greenhouse gases compared to the fossil fuel based energy,” he declared.
“However we have always stressed the need for the highest possible caution in the management of radioactive materials. We have stressed that presently there is no universally agreed safe way of the long-term disposal of radioactive waste. We have also stressed that even if we disregard the above-listed risks, the nuclear energy cannot be considered sustainable in the long term simply because uranium fuel is not renewable.”
“In today’s international context, it is important that effective solutions be found to three inter-related tasks: energy security, economic development and environmental protection, including reduction of the green-house-gas emissions. We have tough choices to make and we do need to consider all feasible choices.”
Full Speech
Ladies and gentlemen,
Please allow me to welcome you here in Strasbourg, on the premises of the Council of Europe, the pan-European Organisation of democracy human rights.
I am happy to notice in this room the presence of several authorities in the fields of nuclear energy and environment. I am convinced that the discussions during our conference will therefore help to develop the parliamentary work in the field of energy in all 47 parliaments of the Council of Europe member states.
Some might question the link between the Council of Europe and nuclear energy. What has nuclear energy in common with democracy and human rights? The answer is obvious: the right to a healthy environment is a human right, as has been stressed by the Parliamentary Assembly more than once. And all issues linked to the environment – including, of course, topics concerning energy – are therefore part of our field of activity.
It is not for the first time that the Assembly deals with the topic of nuclear energy. It has produced many reports in the past and has adopted a number of texts, based on the work of the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs. The most recent adopted texts are:
- Resolution 1435 (2005) on Energy systems and the environment (Rapporteur: Mr Etherington),
- Resolution 1588 (2007) on Radioactive waste and protection of the environment (Rapporteur: Mr Meale),
- Resolution 1679 (2009) on Nuclear energy and sustainable development (Rapporteur: Mr Etherington, based on the work of Mr Grachev, former member of the Committee, present among us today).
In principle the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs has considered the nuclear energy as a possible way to reduce our climate impact because of smaller emission of greenhouse gases compared to the fossil fuel based energy. However we have always stressed the need for the highest possible caution in the management of radioactive materials. We have stressed that presently there is no universally agreed safe way of the long-term disposal of radioactive waste. We have also stressed that even if we disregard the above-listed risks, the nuclear energy cannot be considered sustainable in the long term simply because uranium fuel is not renewable.
It also needs to be stressed, and indeed we have done so, that development of renewable energy and energy saving are not only safer but also more cost-efficient alternative to the fossil-fuels than the nuclear energy. It is especially clear with energy saving: investing in “negawatts” is the cheapest way to reduce our ecological footprint.
In today’s international context, it is important that effective solutions be found to three inter-related tasks: energy security, economic development and environmental protection, including reduction of the green-house-gas emissions. We have tough choices to make and we do need to consider all feasible choices. Therefore I am happy - in spite of my personal skeptical attitude towards nuclear energy - to open this conference.
The goal of our Conference of today is to provide input for a future report from the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs, on the place of nuclear energy in the spectrum of the energy policy choices for the years to come in Europe. I hope our conference will be able to come up with the balanced view of the subject.
25 NOVEMBER 2010
http://humanrightseurope.blogspot.com/2010/11/aleksei-lotman-human-rights-part-of.html
Nuclear Energy Conference-NEC (Council of Europe-CoE). Is Europe's future nuclear? What will be the environmental impact?
EU & USA are engines of nuclear development - need for electricity. Existing generation units must be replaced within next 100 yrs.
Dr Rao - Suadi Arabia population of 30M to double by 2030. Demand for water and energy to increase three fold.
Dr Rao - more countries considering nuclear power option. 20 countries to add nuclear power by 2030.
Dr Rao - Russia now world's most prolific constructers of nuclear plants.
Dr Rao- France focussing on replacing units and transitioning to fast reactors.
Dr Rao- Fast reactors are more expensive than 'live water' reactors but considered "reasonable" compared to other options.
Dr Rao-Countries now mostly interested in larger reactors. Fast readtors being built at commercial sizes.
Dr Paul Genoa from Washington's nuclear energy institute now speaking.
Dr Paul Genoa-"Nuclear is a low carbon energy source. Avoids more noxious polllutants than other counterparts."
The speakers so far-making the case for a nuclear Europe / West - demand for energy, low environmental impact, sturdiness of plants.
Dr Paul Genoa- "Radiation exposure to workers low as plants' performance is high." Now tackling nuclear waste issue.
Dr Paul Genoa - "Nuclear can play beneficial role in response to climate change."
Dr Paul Genoa - Long term, US will need "massive amounts" of low-carbon energy. Impact on plant construction & license renewal.
Europe has highest number of nuclear reactors worldwide. France has 58 & Germany 17. No nuclear in Denmark, Ireland or Austria.
Europe has 143 plants. Sweden moved from phase out to phase in. China's energy needs to triple. Asia moving fast towards nuclear.
1.4 billion people in world have no access to electricity.
EU rep Faross - Aim to provide safe, secure, sustainable energy at affordable & competitive prices. Nuclear is "doing "quite well."
EU 2020 Energy Strategy - "has to integrate nuclear" says EU representative Faross.
Europe had 1st nuclear energy plant in 1956 but still has no nuclear waste disposal unit.
EU wants members states to provide details on exactly what they are doing with nuclear waste.
Lord Prescott -"inevitable" that nuclear will be part of energy mix. Says politicians delay decision-making on nuclear issues.
Lord Prescott - nuclear is a threat to environment if it is not managed properly. Waste management is "major issue."
Caglayan: Turkey to Invest Over 100 Bln Usd In Energy In Next Decade
Turkish State Minister for foreign trade Zafer Caglayan said that Turkey would invest more than 100 billion USD in energy in the next decade.
One of the reasons Japanese officials visited Turkey was the energy sector, added Caglayan who spoke at the 18th joint meeting of Turkish-Japanese Business Council in Istanbul on Thursday.
Noting that Turkey attached importance to renewable energy, Caglayan said that energy diversity was also important, and added that a law on renewable energy would be adopted soon.
THURSDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/english-news/5-english-news/41015-caglayan-turkey-to-invest-over-100-bln-usd-in-energy-in-next-decade
One of the reasons Japanese officials visited Turkey was the energy sector, added Caglayan who spoke at the 18th joint meeting of Turkish-Japanese Business Council in Istanbul on Thursday.
Noting that Turkey attached importance to renewable energy, Caglayan said that energy diversity was also important, and added that a law on renewable energy would be adopted soon.
THURSDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2010
North Korea Threatens New Attacks On South, Rejects Talks
North Korea on Thursday threatened new attacks against the South and rejected a proposal by the United Nations Command to hold talks, media reports said.
The threats followed a North Korean artillery bombardment of a South Korean island near the two countries' maritime border on Tuesday that left two soldiers and two civilians dead and injured another 18 people, DPA reported.
"The (North) Korean People's Army will deal without hesitation the second and third strong physical retaliatory blow," a North Korean military delegation said, the Yonhap News Agency reported citing official North Korean media.
North Koreans blamed the South and its ally the United States for the clash that set Yeonpyeong island on fire and forced many residents to flee.
THURSDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/english-news/5-english-news/41001-north-korea-threatens-new-attacks-on-south-rejects-talks
The threats followed a North Korean artillery bombardment of a South Korean island near the two countries' maritime border on Tuesday that left two soldiers and two civilians dead and injured another 18 people, DPA reported.
"The (North) Korean People's Army will deal without hesitation the second and third strong physical retaliatory blow," a North Korean military delegation said, the Yonhap News Agency reported citing official North Korean media.
North Koreans blamed the South and its ally the United States for the clash that set Yeonpyeong island on fire and forced many residents to flee.
THURSDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2010
Chinese Premier Opposes "Military Provocation" On Korean Peninsula
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said his government opposes "any military provocation" on the Korean Peninsula and urged all sides to exercise "maximum restraint," state media reported Thursday.
"China has all along devoted itself to maintaining the Peninsula's peace and stability, and opposes military provocation in any form," Wen was quoted as saying during talks in Moscow with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, DPA reported.
"Under the current serious and complex circumstances, all concerned parties should exert maximum restraint and the international community should make more efforts conducive to easing the tension," he said.
Wen's remarks were the first reported comments by a Chinese leader since a North Korean artillery bombardment of a South Korean island that left two soldiers and two civilians dead and injured another 18 people Tuesday.
The official Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying the resumption of six-nation talks was an "essential way to secure stability and denuclearization on the Peninsula."
The agency said Medvedev told Wen that Russia supported an early return to the stalled six-party talks, which involve North Korea, the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia and are aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.
THURSDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/english-news/5-english-news/41002-chinese-premier-opposes-qmilitary-provocationq-on-korean-peninsula
"China has all along devoted itself to maintaining the Peninsula's peace and stability, and opposes military provocation in any form," Wen was quoted as saying during talks in Moscow with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, DPA reported.
"Under the current serious and complex circumstances, all concerned parties should exert maximum restraint and the international community should make more efforts conducive to easing the tension," he said.
Wen's remarks were the first reported comments by a Chinese leader since a North Korean artillery bombardment of a South Korean island that left two soldiers and two civilians dead and injured another 18 people Tuesday.
The official Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying the resumption of six-nation talks was an "essential way to secure stability and denuclearization on the Peninsula."
The agency said Medvedev told Wen that Russia supported an early return to the stalled six-party talks, which involve North Korea, the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia and are aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.
THURSDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/english-news/5-english-news/41002-chinese-premier-opposes-qmilitary-provocationq-on-korean-peninsula
TURKEY GETS 39 BIDDERS FOR AUCTION OF THREE POWER GRIDS
Turkey has drawn 39 bidders for the sale of three power grids, including the network on the Asian side of Istanbul.
Bidders registered for the Istanbul grid sale include Enerjisa Enerji Üretim, the joint venture between Hacı Ömer Sabanci Holding and Austria’s Verbund, and Mmeka Makina, which placed the $2.99 billion winning bid for the other half of Istanbul’s network on Aug. 9, the asset-sales agency in Ankara said in an e-mailed statement Thursday.
The sale is the latest round of auctions of 20 electricity distribution networks to boost investment in the industry and to meet a target of 10.4 billion Turkish Liras in asset sales this year. Turkey wants to draw non-government investment into the power industry to meet rising demand.
Istanbul Anadolu Yakası Elektrik Dağıtım serves the eastern half of Istanbul. Also on sale are two Mediterranean networks: Akdeniz Elektrik Dağıtım, which covers the area around Antalya, and Toroslar Elektrik Dağıtım, which provides power in and around Adana. Akdeniz drew 15 bids and Toros 13.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-gets-39-bidders-for-auction-of-three-power-grids-2010-11-25
Bidders registered for the Istanbul grid sale include Enerjisa Enerji Üretim, the joint venture between Hacı Ömer Sabanci Holding and Austria’s Verbund, and Mmeka Makina, which placed the $2.99 billion winning bid for the other half of Istanbul’s network on Aug. 9, the asset-sales agency in Ankara said in an e-mailed statement Thursday.
The sale is the latest round of auctions of 20 electricity distribution networks to boost investment in the industry and to meet a target of 10.4 billion Turkish Liras in asset sales this year. Turkey wants to draw non-government investment into the power industry to meet rising demand.
Istanbul Anadolu Yakası Elektrik Dağıtım serves the eastern half of Istanbul. Also on sale are two Mediterranean networks: Akdeniz Elektrik Dağıtım, which covers the area around Antalya, and Toroslar Elektrik Dağıtım, which provides power in and around Adana. Akdeniz drew 15 bids and Toros 13.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-gets-39-bidders-for-auction-of-three-power-grids-2010-11-25
China, Russia quit dollar
By Su Qiang and Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
WEDNESDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/40963-china-russia-quit-dollar
WEDNESDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/usa-news/87-american-english-news/40963-china-russia-quit-dollar
Talks Begin With Japan For Nuclear Power Plant In Turkey
Turkish Energy & Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said that talks began with Japan regarding the nuclear power plant which would be constructed in Turkey.
Holding a press conference in Istanbul on Wednesday, Yildiz spoke positively about the course of talks with Japan on a second nuclear power plant planned to be constructed in Turkey's Black Sea province of Sinop.Earlier this month, talks between Turkey and South Korea regarding the construction of nuclear power plant had failed. Also, under a separate agreement, Russia will build Turkey's first nuclear plant on the country's southern coast.
WEDNESDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/english-news/5-english-news/40927-talks-begin-with-japan-for-nuclear-power-plant-in-turkey
Holding a press conference in Istanbul on Wednesday, Yildiz spoke positively about the course of talks with Japan on a second nuclear power plant planned to be constructed in Turkey's Black Sea province of Sinop.Earlier this month, talks between Turkey and South Korea regarding the construction of nuclear power plant had failed. Also, under a separate agreement, Russia will build Turkey's first nuclear plant on the country's southern coast.
WEDNESDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2010
http://www.turkishny.com/english-news/5-english-news/40927-talks-begin-with-japan-for-nuclear-power-plant-in-turkey
Oil Falls First Time in Three Days on Concern Economic Growth Falter
Oil declined from a two-year high in New York on speculation China will raise interest rates, damping growth in the world’s biggest energy consumer.
Crude fell for the first time in three days and was set for a weekly drop. Equities slid on signs China is preparing to increase the cost of borrowing to curb inflation and the dollar traded near a six-week high against the euro as Group of 20 leaders hold an emergency meeting amid concern that Europe’s debt crisis is worsening.
“For the time being $90 is going to be a very strong resistance level; above that, it’s too expensive,” said Andy Sommer, a senior analyst at EGL AG in Dietikon, Switzerland. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about Chinese monetary policy. If they tighten further, that has implications for the oil market.”
Crude for December delivery fell as much as $2.30, or 2.6 percent, to $85.51 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $86.08 at 1:15 p.m. London time. Yesterday, the contract rose to $88.63, the highest price since Oct. 9, 2008. Brent crude for December settlement fell as much as $2.16, or 2.4 percent, to $86.65 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. The contract expires Nov. 15. The more actively traded January futures fell $1.59 to $87.51.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index retreated 1.4 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell as much as 1.8 percent and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slid 1.5 percent. China’s inflation rate rose to the fastest in two years last month, fueling speculation an interest-rate increase is imminent.
“People are betting on the Chinese rates and the discussions in the G-20 meeting are responsible for the current heavy selloff,” said Tetsu Emori, a commodity fund manager at Astmax Co. in Tokyo.
IEA Demand Outlook
Oil supplies from outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will be higher than previously estimated next year on stronger output from North America and China, the International Energy Agency said.
Non-OPEC producers will provide 53.4 million barrels a day in 2011, or 250,000 barrels a day more than the agency’s estimate a month ago. Worldwide crude consumption will increase by 1.2 million barrels a day, or 1.4 percent, in 2011 to 88.5 million barrels a day, the IEA said in a report today.
Oil has lost 1 percent this week, paring this year’s gain to about 8 percent. Prices rallied 78 percent in 2009.
Price Forecasts
Futures may rise next week after an Energy Department report on Nov. 10 showed U.S. crude and fuel inventories tumbled, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Sixteen of 37 analysts and traders, or 43 percent, forecast crude will climb through Nov. 19. Twelve respondents, or 32 percent, predicted prices will decline and nine estimated there would be little change. Last week, 59 percent said oil would increase.
OPEC’s compliance with record supply cuts was little changed last month as production increases in six of its member countries offset declines in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the IEA’s report.
The 11 members bound by quotas produced 26.72 million barrels a day last month, implying compliance of 55 percent, the Paris-based IEA said today in its monthly report. That’s down from a revised 56 percent for September. Supply from all 12 OPEC nations, including Iraq, fell by 40,000 barrels a day in October to average 29.15 million barrels daily, it said.
OPEC said in its monthly report yesterday that compliance with production targets fell last month as countries including Nigeria and Angola pumped more oil.
To contact the reporters on this story: Grant Smith in London at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss on [email protected]
12.11.2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-11/oil-steady-near-two-year-high-after-equities-fall-china-refining-surges.html
Crude fell for the first time in three days and was set for a weekly drop. Equities slid on signs China is preparing to increase the cost of borrowing to curb inflation and the dollar traded near a six-week high against the euro as Group of 20 leaders hold an emergency meeting amid concern that Europe’s debt crisis is worsening.
“For the time being $90 is going to be a very strong resistance level; above that, it’s too expensive,” said Andy Sommer, a senior analyst at EGL AG in Dietikon, Switzerland. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about Chinese monetary policy. If they tighten further, that has implications for the oil market.”
Crude for December delivery fell as much as $2.30, or 2.6 percent, to $85.51 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $86.08 at 1:15 p.m. London time. Yesterday, the contract rose to $88.63, the highest price since Oct. 9, 2008. Brent crude for December settlement fell as much as $2.16, or 2.4 percent, to $86.65 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. The contract expires Nov. 15. The more actively traded January futures fell $1.59 to $87.51.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index retreated 1.4 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell as much as 1.8 percent and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slid 1.5 percent. China’s inflation rate rose to the fastest in two years last month, fueling speculation an interest-rate increase is imminent.
“People are betting on the Chinese rates and the discussions in the G-20 meeting are responsible for the current heavy selloff,” said Tetsu Emori, a commodity fund manager at Astmax Co. in Tokyo.
IEA Demand Outlook
Oil supplies from outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will be higher than previously estimated next year on stronger output from North America and China, the International Energy Agency said.
Non-OPEC producers will provide 53.4 million barrels a day in 2011, or 250,000 barrels a day more than the agency’s estimate a month ago. Worldwide crude consumption will increase by 1.2 million barrels a day, or 1.4 percent, in 2011 to 88.5 million barrels a day, the IEA said in a report today.
Oil has lost 1 percent this week, paring this year’s gain to about 8 percent. Prices rallied 78 percent in 2009.
Price Forecasts
Futures may rise next week after an Energy Department report on Nov. 10 showed U.S. crude and fuel inventories tumbled, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Sixteen of 37 analysts and traders, or 43 percent, forecast crude will climb through Nov. 19. Twelve respondents, or 32 percent, predicted prices will decline and nine estimated there would be little change. Last week, 59 percent said oil would increase.
OPEC’s compliance with record supply cuts was little changed last month as production increases in six of its member countries offset declines in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the IEA’s report.
The 11 members bound by quotas produced 26.72 million barrels a day last month, implying compliance of 55 percent, the Paris-based IEA said today in its monthly report. That’s down from a revised 56 percent for September. Supply from all 12 OPEC nations, including Iraq, fell by 40,000 barrels a day in October to average 29.15 million barrels daily, it said.
OPEC said in its monthly report yesterday that compliance with production targets fell last month as countries including Nigeria and Angola pumped more oil.
To contact the reporters on this story: Grant Smith in London at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss on [email protected]
12.11.2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-11/oil-steady-near-two-year-high-after-equities-fall-china-refining-surges.html
Obama: 'Hard-won consensus' at G-20
Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- The G-20 summit wrapped up Friday in South Korea, with leaders of the world's top economies acknowledging that "risks remain," as some countries enjoy strong growth and others muddle along.
U.S. President Barack Obama touted a "hard-won consensus" on steps to monitor world trade and economic recovery, aimed at balancing growth globally.
"Uncoordinated policy actions will only lead to worse outcomes for all," the leaders said in a joint declaration.
At the summit, they agreed to steps that include moving toward more market-determined exchange rate systems and refraining from the competitive devaluation of currencies.
It remains to be seen how such steps play out, as countries struggle with their own political and economic priorities, however. They're aimed at limiting economic volatility around the world.
Obama highlighted summit priorities such as economic growth, deficit reduction and the need for economies to better balance imports and exports.
Obama's trip is part of a 10-day Asia tour that is aimed at strengthening the United States' trade and military ties with a region that has thrived economically.
During the summit, American and South Korean negotiators failed to reach an agreement on a new trade pact, creating new delays and obstacles for an accord that the White House has said could translate to an additional $10 billion in U.S. exports and 70,000 American jobs.
A long-running dispute over U.S. access to Korea's auto and beef markets was largely responsible for the failure, according to the White House.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has agreed to send a team to Washington to continue work on the trade pact.
Among the hurdles negotiators are trying to overcome: Korean conglomerates known as chaebols, which have kept a firm grasp on the union-strong country's marketplace, drawing complaints from foreign companies that have tried to do business there.
After the G-20, Obama was to head to Japan late Friday afternoon. He is to attend the APEC summit, which will be held in Yokohama on Saturday and Sunday.
Twenty-one countries form the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, which focuses on economic coordination in the Asia Pacific region.
Grappling with a troubled U.S. economy, the Obama administration has highlighted the strengthening of economic and military ties during the president's Asia tour. Obama started his trip with a three-day stay in India, before heading to Indonesia and then to South Korea.
In India, Obama unveiled about $10 billion in contracts for U.S. exports to India. It is Asia's third-largest economy and one of the world's few growth markets.
In Indonesia, the president focused on the two countries' shared principles of unity and tolerance when he delivered a highly anticipated speech at the University of Indonesia. His visit was long-awaited Indonesia, where he spent four years as a child.
In South Korea, Obama met with a roster of world leaders such as Chinese President Hu Jintao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They represent economies that export much more than they consume.
Obama also paid tribute to American troops while he was in South Korea. He praised South Korean troops and Americans who fought during the 1950-53 Korean War.
In Japan, he'll attend the APEC summit, attend a leaders retreat and visit the Great Buddha of Kamakura.
The president will head back to the United States on Sunday.
12.11.2010
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/12/south.korea.g.20/index.html?hpt=P1
U.S. President Barack Obama touted a "hard-won consensus" on steps to monitor world trade and economic recovery, aimed at balancing growth globally.
"Uncoordinated policy actions will only lead to worse outcomes for all," the leaders said in a joint declaration.
At the summit, they agreed to steps that include moving toward more market-determined exchange rate systems and refraining from the competitive devaluation of currencies.
It remains to be seen how such steps play out, as countries struggle with their own political and economic priorities, however. They're aimed at limiting economic volatility around the world.
Obama highlighted summit priorities such as economic growth, deficit reduction and the need for economies to better balance imports and exports.
Obama's trip is part of a 10-day Asia tour that is aimed at strengthening the United States' trade and military ties with a region that has thrived economically.
During the summit, American and South Korean negotiators failed to reach an agreement on a new trade pact, creating new delays and obstacles for an accord that the White House has said could translate to an additional $10 billion in U.S. exports and 70,000 American jobs.
A long-running dispute over U.S. access to Korea's auto and beef markets was largely responsible for the failure, according to the White House.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has agreed to send a team to Washington to continue work on the trade pact.
Among the hurdles negotiators are trying to overcome: Korean conglomerates known as chaebols, which have kept a firm grasp on the union-strong country's marketplace, drawing complaints from foreign companies that have tried to do business there.
After the G-20, Obama was to head to Japan late Friday afternoon. He is to attend the APEC summit, which will be held in Yokohama on Saturday and Sunday.
Twenty-one countries form the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, which focuses on economic coordination in the Asia Pacific region.
Grappling with a troubled U.S. economy, the Obama administration has highlighted the strengthening of economic and military ties during the president's Asia tour. Obama started his trip with a three-day stay in India, before heading to Indonesia and then to South Korea.
In India, Obama unveiled about $10 billion in contracts for U.S. exports to India. It is Asia's third-largest economy and one of the world's few growth markets.
In Indonesia, the president focused on the two countries' shared principles of unity and tolerance when he delivered a highly anticipated speech at the University of Indonesia. His visit was long-awaited Indonesia, where he spent four years as a child.
In South Korea, Obama met with a roster of world leaders such as Chinese President Hu Jintao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They represent economies that export much more than they consume.
Obama also paid tribute to American troops while he was in South Korea. He praised South Korean troops and Americans who fought during the 1950-53 Korean War.
In Japan, he'll attend the APEC summit, attend a leaders retreat and visit the Great Buddha of Kamakura.
The president will head back to the United States on Sunday.
12.11.2010
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/12/south.korea.g.20/index.html?hpt=P1
Finland's nuclear waste bunker built to last 100,000 years
(CNN) -- It's one of the great questions of our age: What to do with nuclear waste?
It's challenging, not just because radioactive material is highly toxic, but because really engaging with the problem forces us to confront unimaginable timescales.
But in Finland they believe they have found a solution, with the world's first permanent nuclear-waste repository -- "Onkalo" -- a huge system of underground tunnels that is being hewn out of solid rock and must last at least 100,000 years.
"It is our law that we have to dispose of our nuclear waste within Finland's borders," Timo Seppala, from Posiva, the company constructing the site, told CNN.
"It was also important that we found a solution that would require no surveillance or management by future generations."
The site is situated at Olkiluoto, approximately 185 miles northwest of Helsinki.
Work on the concept behind the facility commenced in 1970s and the repository is expected to be backfilled and decommissioned in the 2100s. None of the 40 people working on the facility today will live to see it completed.
The bunker is based around a spiraling track that will eventually be three miles long, and reach a depth of 500 meters.
"We are at final disposal depth now, about 420 meters," said Seppala.
The waste will be secured through a system of "multiple barriers," the first being the Finnish bedrock itself, the rest engineered from steel and concrete, with the waste fuel rods stored in corrosion-resistant copper canisters with five centimeter-thick walls.
These canisters will then be deposited in a bed of bentonite clay that, because it swells when it absorbs water, will both create a buffer against any geological movement and prevent liquid pooling, which could corrode the copper.
What does it say about our civilization when we build something that will last to a time when all we know is gone and forgotten?"
--Michael Madsen, director, "Into Eternity"
"There are no countries who are as far ahead as we are in this area," said Seppala. "We are going to be the ones who set the standard for final disposal."
The final cost is expected to be €3 billion ($4.1 billion). But since the 1970s the Finnish government has been collecting a clean-up fund from the generating companies via a levy on the price of nuclear power, which is already over €1.7 billion and will be used to fund the final disposal.
Onkalo is the subject of "Into Eternity," a new documentary by Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen, which explores some of the philosophical questions raised by the facility.
"What interested me was how those involved [with Onkalo] responded to the idea of 100,000 years," Madsen told CNN. "That time span is new to humanity.
"What does it say about our civilization when we build something that will last to a time when all we know is gone and forgotten?"
"Into Eternity" is very different to most "eco documentaries," taking as it does a detached view of proceedings, offering viewers fictional myths about how the site may be remembered, alongside interviews with engineers and scientists.
"I had to get beyond talking about it as a technological problem," said Madsen.
"In many ways I think that these engineers are tasked with a much greater problem than they can actually solve.
"You can perhaps build this facility in titanium-reinforced concrete, but that's not the real issue.
"How are we going to stop people getting in there at a point at which all knowledge will have been lost?"
What debate there is centers around whether it is better that Onkalo is remembered -- and all is done to ensure the memory of the danger buried there is passed on, right down to constructing hieroglyphic monoliths to speak pictorially to a time when all current languages are long dead.
Or whether it is better sealed and forgotten.
The fear is that for whatever reason, future generations will start digging, unaware of what is inside.
However, Seppala believes Madsen makes too much of the risk.
He said he enjoyed "Into Eternity" as a piece of art, but he felt it overplayed the consequences of anyone entering Onkalo in the future.
"The film gives the impression that opening Onkalo would be like opening a Pandora's box," he said. "But in reality a few people would be exposed to radiation; it would not be a global catastrophe."
However, Madsen believes there is still uncertainty.
"In the United States they say that the same high-level waste being buried at Onkalo has to be kept safe for a million years," he said.
"It's an open question: How long should we keep this stuff safe? When we start talking in these timescales we just don't know."
12.11.2010
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/11/12/finland.nuclear.waste/index.html?hpt=C2
It's challenging, not just because radioactive material is highly toxic, but because really engaging with the problem forces us to confront unimaginable timescales.
But in Finland they believe they have found a solution, with the world's first permanent nuclear-waste repository -- "Onkalo" -- a huge system of underground tunnels that is being hewn out of solid rock and must last at least 100,000 years.
"It is our law that we have to dispose of our nuclear waste within Finland's borders," Timo Seppala, from Posiva, the company constructing the site, told CNN.
"It was also important that we found a solution that would require no surveillance or management by future generations."
The site is situated at Olkiluoto, approximately 185 miles northwest of Helsinki.
Work on the concept behind the facility commenced in 1970s and the repository is expected to be backfilled and decommissioned in the 2100s. None of the 40 people working on the facility today will live to see it completed.
The bunker is based around a spiraling track that will eventually be three miles long, and reach a depth of 500 meters.
"We are at final disposal depth now, about 420 meters," said Seppala.
The waste will be secured through a system of "multiple barriers," the first being the Finnish bedrock itself, the rest engineered from steel and concrete, with the waste fuel rods stored in corrosion-resistant copper canisters with five centimeter-thick walls.
These canisters will then be deposited in a bed of bentonite clay that, because it swells when it absorbs water, will both create a buffer against any geological movement and prevent liquid pooling, which could corrode the copper.
What does it say about our civilization when we build something that will last to a time when all we know is gone and forgotten?"
--Michael Madsen, director, "Into Eternity"
"There are no countries who are as far ahead as we are in this area," said Seppala. "We are going to be the ones who set the standard for final disposal."
The final cost is expected to be €3 billion ($4.1 billion). But since the 1970s the Finnish government has been collecting a clean-up fund from the generating companies via a levy on the price of nuclear power, which is already over €1.7 billion and will be used to fund the final disposal.
Onkalo is the subject of "Into Eternity," a new documentary by Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen, which explores some of the philosophical questions raised by the facility.
"What interested me was how those involved [with Onkalo] responded to the idea of 100,000 years," Madsen told CNN. "That time span is new to humanity.
"What does it say about our civilization when we build something that will last to a time when all we know is gone and forgotten?"
"Into Eternity" is very different to most "eco documentaries," taking as it does a detached view of proceedings, offering viewers fictional myths about how the site may be remembered, alongside interviews with engineers and scientists.
"I had to get beyond talking about it as a technological problem," said Madsen.
"In many ways I think that these engineers are tasked with a much greater problem than they can actually solve.
"You can perhaps build this facility in titanium-reinforced concrete, but that's not the real issue.
"How are we going to stop people getting in there at a point at which all knowledge will have been lost?"
What debate there is centers around whether it is better that Onkalo is remembered -- and all is done to ensure the memory of the danger buried there is passed on, right down to constructing hieroglyphic monoliths to speak pictorially to a time when all current languages are long dead.
Or whether it is better sealed and forgotten.
The fear is that for whatever reason, future generations will start digging, unaware of what is inside.
However, Seppala believes Madsen makes too much of the risk.
He said he enjoyed "Into Eternity" as a piece of art, but he felt it overplayed the consequences of anyone entering Onkalo in the future.
"The film gives the impression that opening Onkalo would be like opening a Pandora's box," he said. "But in reality a few people would be exposed to radiation; it would not be a global catastrophe."
However, Madsen believes there is still uncertainty.
"In the United States they say that the same high-level waste being buried at Onkalo has to be kept safe for a million years," he said.
"It's an open question: How long should we keep this stuff safe? When we start talking in these timescales we just don't know."
12.11.2010
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/11/12/finland.nuclear.waste/index.html?hpt=C2
Fuel Squeeze in China Boosts Refineries at $100 Oil Looms
China’s drive to curb energy use is exacerbating a shortage of diesel, sending refining profits to the highest level in almost two years and raising the likelihood oil will trade at $100 a barrel in coming months.
The return from processing Dubai crude into diesel, or gasoil, climbed above $14 a barrel in Singapore today to the highest level since January 2008, after service stations ran dry in China’s eastern and southern coastal provinces, according to prices from PVM Oil Associates, a London-based brokerage. The margin from turning Brent into gasoil in Europe rose 15 percent since Nov. 5, prices on the ICE Futures Europe exchange show.
China is limiting power supplies to meet Premier Wen Jiabao’s goal of cutting energy use under a five-year plan that ends next month. That’s prompting factories to resort to using their own diesel-powered generators, driving up demand for the fuel and forcing refiners such as PetroChina Co., Asia’s biggest company, to process more crude. Refining rose to a record in October, Chinese government data showed yesterday.
“We expect this to have a bullish impact on not only the regional diesel market, but it may converge with other factors to create a perfect storm in driving up the oil price,” said Paul Ting, president of Paul Ting Energy Vision LLC, an energy research company in New Jersey.
Oil for December delivery rose to a two-year high yesterday, trading at $88.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $86.06 a barrel at 6:05 a.m. in New York today, bringing its gain this year to 8.5 percent.
Record Refining
“With international oil prices likely to rally above $100 a barrel in the coming months, expect fuel shortages to exacerbate ahead,” said Gordon Kwan, head of regional energy research at Mirae Asset Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong.
China processed 37 million metric tons of oil, or 8.8 million barrels a day, last month, China Mainland Marketing Research Co., which compiles data for the National Bureau of Statistics, said from Beijing. The previous all-time high was 8.6 million barrels. The nation will account for more than a third of global oil demand growth next year, according to the International Energy Agency.
The dearth of fuel is raising the likelihood that Chinese diesel imports will exceed exports for the first time since 2008, when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games. Net exports were 220,000 tons in September, down from 290,000 tons in August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Imports rose fivefold to 5.6 million tons in 2008 as the country built stockpiles.
Tightening Market
“Exporters are hoping that the diesel shortage emerging here may make China a net diesel importer again,” said Victor Shum, Singapore-based senior principal at Purvin & Gertz Inc., a U.S. energy consultant. “If the diesel shortage continues, and I expect it to continue at least through the end of this year, then this is going to help tighten the regional gasoil-diesel market.”
The profit from processing Dubai crude into gasoil, the so- called crack spread, climbed to $14.49 a barrel today in Singapore, the highest level since Jan. 15, 2009, according to PVM Oil. It has averaged $11.16 this year. The European spread was at $12.79 a barrel today, compared with last week’s close of $11.19, ICE Futures Europe exchange data show. It has averaged $10.42 this year.
Investors should take advantage of rising demand to buy January gasoil futures, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The contract rose to $768.25 a ton on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange yesterday, the highest level since May 4. It traded at $749.00 a ton today.
‘Structural Shift’
“The diesel shortage is acute, and we expect pressure on supplies to last until China’s five-year plan is over at the end of the year,” David Greely, head of energy research at Goldman Sachs in New York, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “There is a global structural shift occurring, in that demand growth is being led by diesel rather than gasoline. China will become a significant diesel exporter once the shortage ends.”
Rising diesel prices in Asia are eroding the profit from shipping cargoes to Europe for winter heating. More than 300,000 tons were delivered to Europe from South Korea and Japan in September as traders took advantage of price differences. The discount of Singapore prices to Europe’s was $12 yesterday, down from $23.73 on Sept. 30, according to PVM data.
Even before the efficiency drive cut power supply, China’s diesel demand growth in the first nine months of the year was a “gangbuster” 13 percent, Ting of Paul Ting Energy said. It was “always teetering on being diesel neutral,” he said.
While the five-year plan to cap consumption expires in December, truckers in the country are still likely to face lines at pump stations next year, according to Mirae Asset’s Kwan. More than 2,000 retail stations closed after running out of diesel fuel, the official Xinhua News agency said Nov. 7.
“The best long-term solution is to deregulate fuel prices, but I doubt this will happen any time soon,” Kwan said. “As long as China distorts demand and supply by regulating domestic fuel prices, diesel shortages will still happen intermittently.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Yee Kai Pin in Singapore at [email protected]; Ann Koh in Singapore at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jane Lee in Kuala Lumpur at [email protected]
12.11.2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-12/china-diesel-squeeze-boosts-refineries-as-100-oil-looms-energy-markets.html
The return from processing Dubai crude into diesel, or gasoil, climbed above $14 a barrel in Singapore today to the highest level since January 2008, after service stations ran dry in China’s eastern and southern coastal provinces, according to prices from PVM Oil Associates, a London-based brokerage. The margin from turning Brent into gasoil in Europe rose 15 percent since Nov. 5, prices on the ICE Futures Europe exchange show.
China is limiting power supplies to meet Premier Wen Jiabao’s goal of cutting energy use under a five-year plan that ends next month. That’s prompting factories to resort to using their own diesel-powered generators, driving up demand for the fuel and forcing refiners such as PetroChina Co., Asia’s biggest company, to process more crude. Refining rose to a record in October, Chinese government data showed yesterday.
“We expect this to have a bullish impact on not only the regional diesel market, but it may converge with other factors to create a perfect storm in driving up the oil price,” said Paul Ting, president of Paul Ting Energy Vision LLC, an energy research company in New Jersey.
Oil for December delivery rose to a two-year high yesterday, trading at $88.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $86.06 a barrel at 6:05 a.m. in New York today, bringing its gain this year to 8.5 percent.
Record Refining
“With international oil prices likely to rally above $100 a barrel in the coming months, expect fuel shortages to exacerbate ahead,” said Gordon Kwan, head of regional energy research at Mirae Asset Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong.
China processed 37 million metric tons of oil, or 8.8 million barrels a day, last month, China Mainland Marketing Research Co., which compiles data for the National Bureau of Statistics, said from Beijing. The previous all-time high was 8.6 million barrels. The nation will account for more than a third of global oil demand growth next year, according to the International Energy Agency.
The dearth of fuel is raising the likelihood that Chinese diesel imports will exceed exports for the first time since 2008, when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games. Net exports were 220,000 tons in September, down from 290,000 tons in August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Imports rose fivefold to 5.6 million tons in 2008 as the country built stockpiles.
Tightening Market
“Exporters are hoping that the diesel shortage emerging here may make China a net diesel importer again,” said Victor Shum, Singapore-based senior principal at Purvin & Gertz Inc., a U.S. energy consultant. “If the diesel shortage continues, and I expect it to continue at least through the end of this year, then this is going to help tighten the regional gasoil-diesel market.”
The profit from processing Dubai crude into gasoil, the so- called crack spread, climbed to $14.49 a barrel today in Singapore, the highest level since Jan. 15, 2009, according to PVM Oil. It has averaged $11.16 this year. The European spread was at $12.79 a barrel today, compared with last week’s close of $11.19, ICE Futures Europe exchange data show. It has averaged $10.42 this year.
Investors should take advantage of rising demand to buy January gasoil futures, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The contract rose to $768.25 a ton on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange yesterday, the highest level since May 4. It traded at $749.00 a ton today.
‘Structural Shift’
“The diesel shortage is acute, and we expect pressure on supplies to last until China’s five-year plan is over at the end of the year,” David Greely, head of energy research at Goldman Sachs in New York, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “There is a global structural shift occurring, in that demand growth is being led by diesel rather than gasoline. China will become a significant diesel exporter once the shortage ends.”
Rising diesel prices in Asia are eroding the profit from shipping cargoes to Europe for winter heating. More than 300,000 tons were delivered to Europe from South Korea and Japan in September as traders took advantage of price differences. The discount of Singapore prices to Europe’s was $12 yesterday, down from $23.73 on Sept. 30, according to PVM data.
Even before the efficiency drive cut power supply, China’s diesel demand growth in the first nine months of the year was a “gangbuster” 13 percent, Ting of Paul Ting Energy said. It was “always teetering on being diesel neutral,” he said.
While the five-year plan to cap consumption expires in December, truckers in the country are still likely to face lines at pump stations next year, according to Mirae Asset’s Kwan. More than 2,000 retail stations closed after running out of diesel fuel, the official Xinhua News agency said Nov. 7.
“The best long-term solution is to deregulate fuel prices, but I doubt this will happen any time soon,” Kwan said. “As long as China distorts demand and supply by regulating domestic fuel prices, diesel shortages will still happen intermittently.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Yee Kai Pin in Singapore at [email protected]; Ann Koh in Singapore at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jane Lee in Kuala Lumpur at [email protected]
12.11.2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-12/china-diesel-squeeze-boosts-refineries-as-100-oil-looms-energy-markets.html
SOUTH KOREA SAYS PRICE IS BIGGEST IN TURKEY NUCLEAR TALKS
South Korea said price is the biggest issue in its talks on building a nuclear power plant in northern Turkey.
“We’re in final discussions,” Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Kyung Hwan said in a parliamentary session Thursday when asked whether the two nations can reach an agreement on Saturday.
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said Monday that there’s a disagreement over what country should take control of the project, with both wanting the other to hold a majority.
Both countries have aimed to sign a government level agreement on Saturday when Turkish President Abdullah Gül visits Seoul to meet President Lee Myung Bak.
South Korea, whose state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. beat General Electric Co. and Areva SA to win an order for reactors in the U.A.E. last year, may also face competition.
Turkey received an offer from Japan to build a nuclear plant in the country, CNBC-e television said on Oct. 7, citing Yıldız.
The offer is an “aggressive one,” Yıldız said, according to the Istanbul-based news channel.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=s.-korea-says-price-is-biggest-issue-in-turkey-nuclear-talks-2010-11-11
“We’re in final discussions,” Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Kyung Hwan said in a parliamentary session Thursday when asked whether the two nations can reach an agreement on Saturday.
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said Monday that there’s a disagreement over what country should take control of the project, with both wanting the other to hold a majority.
Both countries have aimed to sign a government level agreement on Saturday when Turkish President Abdullah Gül visits Seoul to meet President Lee Myung Bak.
South Korea, whose state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. beat General Electric Co. and Areva SA to win an order for reactors in the U.A.E. last year, may also face competition.
Turkey received an offer from Japan to build a nuclear plant in the country, CNBC-e television said on Oct. 7, citing Yıldız.
The offer is an “aggressive one,” Yıldız said, according to the Istanbul-based news channel.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=s.-korea-says-price-is-biggest-issue-in-turkey-nuclear-talks-2010-11-11
TURKISH-RUSSIAN NUCLEAR PLANT DEAL PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL GAZETTE
An agreement between Turkey and Russia to establish a nuclear energy plant in the Mediterranean town of Akkuyu was published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday.
According to the Official Gazette, the venture, to be located in the southern province of Mersin, must be completed in three months starting from the validity date of the contract.
The Official Gazette also said a project corporation will also be established in order to oversee the construction of the facility and that no less than 51 percent of this corporation will be owned by Russian interests.
According to the deal, the plant will be active for 60 years.
The plant will train and recruit Turkish workers “as long as conditions allow,” and “as many Turkish firms as possible” will be involved in the construction. The first unit of the power plant is expected to start production in 2018.
Both countries will cooperate on the design and construction of the plant, including its infrastructure, the purchase and sale of the electricity produced at the plant, the safe running of the plant, the transport of the spent nuclear fuel, personnel training and the establishment and running of the fuel production facilities.
All these functions will be achieved without placing a financial burden on Turkey, according to the terms of the agreement.
In the event of any dispute between the partners, such a matter will be settled by the Turkish Energy Ministry and the Russian Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation; following which, either side can apply for arbitration within six months.
The bill approving a May 12 agreement between Russia and Turkey on the nuclear power plant in Akkuyu was passed by Parliament on July 15.
Azerbaijani gas
Meahwhile, the Official Gazette published Wednesday a natural gas transportation contract between Turkey and Azerbaijan.
According to the Official Gazette, Turkish pipeline company Botaş will transfer 1.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the Azeri state-owned petroleum company Socar which will be sold to local consumers and companies including Petkim, Turkey’s biggest chemicals maker, until 2016. Petkim is owned by Turcas and Socar.
The price of the gas will be determined by a combination of factors, including the export prices of BP and Statoil-led provider Shah Deniz, local transferring tariff and Turkish taxes.
The agreement was signed on June 7 in Istanbul.
“This opens the door for the Shah Deniz consortium to start negotiations with customers and look at the different transportation solutions for gas to Europe,” Kjersti Morstoel, a Statoil spokeswoman, said.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkish-russian-nuclear-plant-deal-published-on-the-official-gazette-2010-10-06
According to the Official Gazette, the venture, to be located in the southern province of Mersin, must be completed in three months starting from the validity date of the contract.
The Official Gazette also said a project corporation will also be established in order to oversee the construction of the facility and that no less than 51 percent of this corporation will be owned by Russian interests.
According to the deal, the plant will be active for 60 years.
The plant will train and recruit Turkish workers “as long as conditions allow,” and “as many Turkish firms as possible” will be involved in the construction. The first unit of the power plant is expected to start production in 2018.
Both countries will cooperate on the design and construction of the plant, including its infrastructure, the purchase and sale of the electricity produced at the plant, the safe running of the plant, the transport of the spent nuclear fuel, personnel training and the establishment and running of the fuel production facilities.
All these functions will be achieved without placing a financial burden on Turkey, according to the terms of the agreement.
In the event of any dispute between the partners, such a matter will be settled by the Turkish Energy Ministry and the Russian Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation; following which, either side can apply for arbitration within six months.
The bill approving a May 12 agreement between Russia and Turkey on the nuclear power plant in Akkuyu was passed by Parliament on July 15.
Azerbaijani gas
Meahwhile, the Official Gazette published Wednesday a natural gas transportation contract between Turkey and Azerbaijan.
According to the Official Gazette, Turkish pipeline company Botaş will transfer 1.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the Azeri state-owned petroleum company Socar which will be sold to local consumers and companies including Petkim, Turkey’s biggest chemicals maker, until 2016. Petkim is owned by Turcas and Socar.
The price of the gas will be determined by a combination of factors, including the export prices of BP and Statoil-led provider Shah Deniz, local transferring tariff and Turkish taxes.
The agreement was signed on June 7 in Istanbul.
“This opens the door for the Shah Deniz consortium to start negotiations with customers and look at the different transportation solutions for gas to Europe,” Kjersti Morstoel, a Statoil spokeswoman, said.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkish-russian-nuclear-plant-deal-published-on-the-official-gazette-2010-10-06
US , CHINA MOVE CLOSER ON KEY CLİMATE ISSUE
Climate talks in Cancun, the first since the Copenhagen summit last December, appear to show signs of progress as the US and China narrow differences on a key element: how to monitor greenhouse gas emissions. Analysts say an understanding on measuring emissions would be an important step.
Prospects for a limited deal at the latest climate talks appeared to brighten with the U.S. and China narrowing differences on a key element: how to monitor greenhouse gas emissions.
But other issues that go to the heart of a new global warming treaty - long-term commitments for cutting emissions - proved stubbornly unmoving, and out of reach for any resolution during the annual two-week conference.
Nonetheless, analysts said an understanding on measuring emissions would be an important step that could help break the long-standing deadlock on reducing pollutants that scientists say have caused global temperatures to steadily rise over recent decades.
The World Meteorological Organization is due to present data Thursday on worldwide temperatures this year, and scientists say they expect 2010 to turn out to match the hottest years on record.
The Cancun meeting is the first since the Copenhagen summit last December, which defied early hopes for a broad treaty prescribing emissions reductions and instead ended with a brief statement of principles that fell short of the unanimous approval required.
After a series of acrimonious meetings since then, the tone at the 193-nation Cancun conference appeared markedly improved, especially between the U.S. and China. Over the past year they had repeatedly exchanged accusations of reneging on commitments and undermining the talks.
The ultimate objective of the talks is a treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which required 37 countries and the European Union to cut emissions by 5 percent by 2012. The United States rejected the accord, partly because it made no demands on rapidly developing countries like China and India.
This week Japan said it was not interested in negotiating an extension of the Kyoto targets, arguing it was pointless unless the world's largest polluters also accepted binding targets. The fate of the Kyoto Protocol, or the shape of any agreement that succeeds it, is one of the most divisive issues in the negotiations, and no one expected it to be settled at the Mexican conclave.
However, an agreement on measurement, reporting and verification of emissions - MRV in negotiating parlance - would be a morale booster for negotiators, although the details remain to be worked out. The much disputed issue involves how nations account for their actions to limit emissions and to what extent they will allow other countries to review their books.
It also is only one of several elements that negotiators want to adopt as a package in Cancun that has something for everyone. China's chief negotiator, Su Wei, said the differences with the U.S. over MRV "are not that huge. In general, both countries would like to promote the process" and emerge from Cancun with a deal.
The veteran diplomat said China had put in place a rigorous system for measuring and assessing its carbon emissions and had no objection if other countries examined its reports. "We have no problem with MRV," he said. Previously, China said only some of its actions would be open to international scrutiny.
Earlier this week, U.S. negotiator Jonathan Pershing said the U.S. and China had "spent a lot of energy in the past month working on those issues where we disagree and trying to resolve them. My sense is we have made progress." He did not specify those issues.
Kathrin Gutman, who follows the talks for the World Wildlife Fund, said an agreement on verification would be an important piece of a deal that could "unlock the larger discussion" on emissions reductions.
She said the two sides had refused to formally discuss the subject as recently as the last preparatory meeting a month ago, which was held in the Chinese city of Tianjin. The shift apparently derived from compromise proposals by India and Singapore.
Barbara Finamore, the China expert for Natural Resources Defense Council, said the Chinese attitude at Cancun reflected "a sea change" in approach. "China made a strategic decision to be as positive, open and forthcoming as they can," she said in an interview.
02.12.2010
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=us-china-move-closer-on-key-climate-issue-2010-12-02
Prospects for a limited deal at the latest climate talks appeared to brighten with the U.S. and China narrowing differences on a key element: how to monitor greenhouse gas emissions.
But other issues that go to the heart of a new global warming treaty - long-term commitments for cutting emissions - proved stubbornly unmoving, and out of reach for any resolution during the annual two-week conference.
Nonetheless, analysts said an understanding on measuring emissions would be an important step that could help break the long-standing deadlock on reducing pollutants that scientists say have caused global temperatures to steadily rise over recent decades.
The World Meteorological Organization is due to present data Thursday on worldwide temperatures this year, and scientists say they expect 2010 to turn out to match the hottest years on record.
The Cancun meeting is the first since the Copenhagen summit last December, which defied early hopes for a broad treaty prescribing emissions reductions and instead ended with a brief statement of principles that fell short of the unanimous approval required.
After a series of acrimonious meetings since then, the tone at the 193-nation Cancun conference appeared markedly improved, especially between the U.S. and China. Over the past year they had repeatedly exchanged accusations of reneging on commitments and undermining the talks.
The ultimate objective of the talks is a treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which required 37 countries and the European Union to cut emissions by 5 percent by 2012. The United States rejected the accord, partly because it made no demands on rapidly developing countries like China and India.
This week Japan said it was not interested in negotiating an extension of the Kyoto targets, arguing it was pointless unless the world's largest polluters also accepted binding targets. The fate of the Kyoto Protocol, or the shape of any agreement that succeeds it, is one of the most divisive issues in the negotiations, and no one expected it to be settled at the Mexican conclave.
However, an agreement on measurement, reporting and verification of emissions - MRV in negotiating parlance - would be a morale booster for negotiators, although the details remain to be worked out. The much disputed issue involves how nations account for their actions to limit emissions and to what extent they will allow other countries to review their books.
It also is only one of several elements that negotiators want to adopt as a package in Cancun that has something for everyone. China's chief negotiator, Su Wei, said the differences with the U.S. over MRV "are not that huge. In general, both countries would like to promote the process" and emerge from Cancun with a deal.
The veteran diplomat said China had put in place a rigorous system for measuring and assessing its carbon emissions and had no objection if other countries examined its reports. "We have no problem with MRV," he said. Previously, China said only some of its actions would be open to international scrutiny.
Earlier this week, U.S. negotiator Jonathan Pershing said the U.S. and China had "spent a lot of energy in the past month working on those issues where we disagree and trying to resolve them. My sense is we have made progress." He did not specify those issues.
Kathrin Gutman, who follows the talks for the World Wildlife Fund, said an agreement on verification would be an important piece of a deal that could "unlock the larger discussion" on emissions reductions.
She said the two sides had refused to formally discuss the subject as recently as the last preparatory meeting a month ago, which was held in the Chinese city of Tianjin. The shift apparently derived from compromise proposals by India and Singapore.
Barbara Finamore, the China expert for Natural Resources Defense Council, said the Chinese attitude at Cancun reflected "a sea change" in approach. "China made a strategic decision to be as positive, open and forthcoming as they can," she said in an interview.
02.12.2010
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=us-china-move-closer-on-key-climate-issue-2010-12-02
THE GLOBAL ENERGY CHALLENGES AND TURKEY : PRIVATE SECTOR PERSPECTIVE
With a rapidly growing economy, Turkey has become one of the fastest growing energy markets in the world and has the second highest energy consumption growth after China. According to available official figures, the primary energy consumption of Turkey will rise to 222 million tons of oil equivalent, or TOE, in 2020, from around 92 million TOE in 2006.
On the other hand, Turkey is highly dependent on external energy resources. In parallel to the increase in energy demand, Turkey’s energy dependence rate rose from 51 percent in 1990 to 72 percent in 2008. High energy import cost which was approximately $50 billion in 2008 worsened the current account balance of Turkey. Besides the current account deficit issue, the escalation of energy import has increased Turkey’s energy insecurity and geopolitical risks.
In the highly competitive global market place, energy cost is an important competitiveness factor. The high price attached to energy is one of the major obstacles also in Turkey’s competitive power. Therefore, we need to redefine energy policies and reshape our energy vision based on global realities and the needs of the Turkish economy, with an aim of becoming more competitive in the global market place.
As a representative of the Turkish business community, I would like to share my views on the dynamics of global energy, the position of Turkey in the context of energy challenges that the global economy is facing, and Turkey’s EU membership process.
Our energy vision for a more competitive Turkey is based on three pillars: first, minimizing energy dependence; second, preparing for a low carbon age; and third, enhancing the position of Turkey in global energy diplomacy.
It is widely assumed that global competition for energy resources will redefine the interplay between economics and politics in coming decades. Therefore, energy security is one of the top priorities for every country around the world. Each country is looking for ways and means of ensuring secure, clean and affordable energy.
Priority to reduce dependence
Since Turkish import of oil and gas is concentrated on a few countries, diversification of the source and routes of energy import should be our top priority to minimize energy dependence. For this priority, the geographic position of Turkey and its proximity to the energy sources is its biggest asset. In addition to diversification, Turkey needs to focus on local sources in power generation while increasing its share of renewable sources and exploit unconventional sources.
On the other hand, Turkey has been very late to integrate nuclear energy into its energy mix. Integration of nuclear energy into Turkey’s electricity production, with an open and transparent tender process from diversified sources while taking into account environmental concerns, will serve to minimize the energy dependence of the country.
Turkey needs $120 billion of energy investment until 2020. The government has the responsibility to stimulate energy investment and attract global capital to the Turkish energy market through the liberalization of the market, and to create an environment conducive to business and investment.
Climate challenge and green house gas emissions are the biggest challenges that humankind faces today. These can only be mitigated through global cooperation and innovation. After the global economic crisis, low carbon green recovery is placed on the agenda of G-20 summits. Without any delay the international community has to agree on creative, sustainable business strategies to mitigate climate change. As a member of G-20, OECD, an accession country to the EU, and a responsible actor in global politics, Turkey has to prepare itself for the coming low-carbon age.
For this strategic goal, Turkey recently signed the Kyoto Protocols and is in a process of preparation for the post-Kyoto period. In this regard, increasing energy efficiency should be the key policy priority. The energy intensity of Turkish industry is higher than any modern standard. For instance, energy intensity of Turkish industry is two times higher than the OECD average and four times higher than Japan’s average. Turkish industry has to increase energy efficiency in production and increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix in line with the EU regulations and standards.
Vast potential in renewable energy
The huge potential of Turkey in renewable energy has not yet been utilized. This sector poses vast investment potential for local and global investors. Investors should note that the Turkish government has the strategic target of increasing the share of renewable resources in the country’s energy mix to 30 percent by 2023. The government should improve the investment climate to attract more investment from global sources through improving regulatory conditions, liberalizing the market, opening the sector to competition, as well as making amendments in the Turkish commercial code in line with the global demands and corporate governance principles.
Turkey has a very special status in its region and in the global economy. Located at the crossroads of Europe, Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, Turkey embraces both Eastern and Western elements. This means, a population of around one billion, and a total GDP of around $12 trillion which is equal to one third of the world’s GDP. In addition to this, Turkey is located in a region that holds 72 percent of the world's proven gas reserves and 78 percent of proven oil reserves. Countries to the west of Turkey consume 50 percent of world’s oil and natural gas while countries to the east produce 70 percent of world’s oil and natural gas. Turkey is located at the crossroads of energy in the middle of five seas. This position makes Turkey an indispensable energy corridor between the two regions of energy production and consumption.
Today, 200 million tons of oil per year is transported through the Bosphorus Straits and the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. Once the ongoing international energy projects are completed, around 7 percent of global oil supply will transit through Turkey. Turkey has the potential to supply 80 billion cubic meters, or BCM, of natural gas to Europe annually, making it the fourth main artery in the energy supply of the EU.
While transnational energy projects are competing with each other, it is hard to decrease the energy dependence of EU and diversify its energy transit routes and sources without the contribution of Turkey. Turkey, with the involvement of the private sector, needs to design an ambitious and well coordinated energy diplomacy to strengthen its position in global energy negotiations.
The perspective of the business community in energy diplomacy is that dealing with energy policies with a commercial mentality is in the best interest of producers, consumers, and political authorities. In other words, market forces, feasibility and profitability of the projects should lead the decisions in the energy market.
In meeting the energy challenge, the international community has to change its current perspective of a zero sum game. Logic based on collaboration and innovation and emphasis on “positive-sum game” is needed. Global society can only meet its great energy challenge through collaboration and innovation, and with the participation of market forces.
To conclude, I would like to express that Turkey, with its dynamic private sector, is a source of stability in the regions on which the global economy is dependent for the energy sources. Turkey is a great asset for its allies, especially for the EU, in securing energy supply and minimizing energy dependence. In addition to this, with its strong growth potential, young population, rapid urbanization and industrialization, Turkey is a profitable investment destination in the energy sector for global capital. The position of Turkey in the global energy market and its investment potential are two points that our allies and global investors should note in crafting their policies and strategies toward Turkey.
*Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu is the head of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, or TOBB, Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey, or DEİK, and deputy president of EUROCHAMBERS. The original version of this article appeared in the Summer 2010 issue of Turkish Policy Quarterly.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=the-global-energy-challenges-and-turkey-private-sector-perspective-2010-11-30
On the other hand, Turkey is highly dependent on external energy resources. In parallel to the increase in energy demand, Turkey’s energy dependence rate rose from 51 percent in 1990 to 72 percent in 2008. High energy import cost which was approximately $50 billion in 2008 worsened the current account balance of Turkey. Besides the current account deficit issue, the escalation of energy import has increased Turkey’s energy insecurity and geopolitical risks.
In the highly competitive global market place, energy cost is an important competitiveness factor. The high price attached to energy is one of the major obstacles also in Turkey’s competitive power. Therefore, we need to redefine energy policies and reshape our energy vision based on global realities and the needs of the Turkish economy, with an aim of becoming more competitive in the global market place.
As a representative of the Turkish business community, I would like to share my views on the dynamics of global energy, the position of Turkey in the context of energy challenges that the global economy is facing, and Turkey’s EU membership process.
Our energy vision for a more competitive Turkey is based on three pillars: first, minimizing energy dependence; second, preparing for a low carbon age; and third, enhancing the position of Turkey in global energy diplomacy.
It is widely assumed that global competition for energy resources will redefine the interplay between economics and politics in coming decades. Therefore, energy security is one of the top priorities for every country around the world. Each country is looking for ways and means of ensuring secure, clean and affordable energy.
Priority to reduce dependence
Since Turkish import of oil and gas is concentrated on a few countries, diversification of the source and routes of energy import should be our top priority to minimize energy dependence. For this priority, the geographic position of Turkey and its proximity to the energy sources is its biggest asset. In addition to diversification, Turkey needs to focus on local sources in power generation while increasing its share of renewable sources and exploit unconventional sources.
On the other hand, Turkey has been very late to integrate nuclear energy into its energy mix. Integration of nuclear energy into Turkey’s electricity production, with an open and transparent tender process from diversified sources while taking into account environmental concerns, will serve to minimize the energy dependence of the country.
Turkey needs $120 billion of energy investment until 2020. The government has the responsibility to stimulate energy investment and attract global capital to the Turkish energy market through the liberalization of the market, and to create an environment conducive to business and investment.
Climate challenge and green house gas emissions are the biggest challenges that humankind faces today. These can only be mitigated through global cooperation and innovation. After the global economic crisis, low carbon green recovery is placed on the agenda of G-20 summits. Without any delay the international community has to agree on creative, sustainable business strategies to mitigate climate change. As a member of G-20, OECD, an accession country to the EU, and a responsible actor in global politics, Turkey has to prepare itself for the coming low-carbon age.
For this strategic goal, Turkey recently signed the Kyoto Protocols and is in a process of preparation for the post-Kyoto period. In this regard, increasing energy efficiency should be the key policy priority. The energy intensity of Turkish industry is higher than any modern standard. For instance, energy intensity of Turkish industry is two times higher than the OECD average and four times higher than Japan’s average. Turkish industry has to increase energy efficiency in production and increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix in line with the EU regulations and standards.
Vast potential in renewable energy
The huge potential of Turkey in renewable energy has not yet been utilized. This sector poses vast investment potential for local and global investors. Investors should note that the Turkish government has the strategic target of increasing the share of renewable resources in the country’s energy mix to 30 percent by 2023. The government should improve the investment climate to attract more investment from global sources through improving regulatory conditions, liberalizing the market, opening the sector to competition, as well as making amendments in the Turkish commercial code in line with the global demands and corporate governance principles.
Turkey has a very special status in its region and in the global economy. Located at the crossroads of Europe, Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, Turkey embraces both Eastern and Western elements. This means, a population of around one billion, and a total GDP of around $12 trillion which is equal to one third of the world’s GDP. In addition to this, Turkey is located in a region that holds 72 percent of the world's proven gas reserves and 78 percent of proven oil reserves. Countries to the west of Turkey consume 50 percent of world’s oil and natural gas while countries to the east produce 70 percent of world’s oil and natural gas. Turkey is located at the crossroads of energy in the middle of five seas. This position makes Turkey an indispensable energy corridor between the two regions of energy production and consumption.
Today, 200 million tons of oil per year is transported through the Bosphorus Straits and the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. Once the ongoing international energy projects are completed, around 7 percent of global oil supply will transit through Turkey. Turkey has the potential to supply 80 billion cubic meters, or BCM, of natural gas to Europe annually, making it the fourth main artery in the energy supply of the EU.
While transnational energy projects are competing with each other, it is hard to decrease the energy dependence of EU and diversify its energy transit routes and sources without the contribution of Turkey. Turkey, with the involvement of the private sector, needs to design an ambitious and well coordinated energy diplomacy to strengthen its position in global energy negotiations.
The perspective of the business community in energy diplomacy is that dealing with energy policies with a commercial mentality is in the best interest of producers, consumers, and political authorities. In other words, market forces, feasibility and profitability of the projects should lead the decisions in the energy market.
In meeting the energy challenge, the international community has to change its current perspective of a zero sum game. Logic based on collaboration and innovation and emphasis on “positive-sum game” is needed. Global society can only meet its great energy challenge through collaboration and innovation, and with the participation of market forces.
To conclude, I would like to express that Turkey, with its dynamic private sector, is a source of stability in the regions on which the global economy is dependent for the energy sources. Turkey is a great asset for its allies, especially for the EU, in securing energy supply and minimizing energy dependence. In addition to this, with its strong growth potential, young population, rapid urbanization and industrialization, Turkey is a profitable investment destination in the energy sector for global capital. The position of Turkey in the global energy market and its investment potential are two points that our allies and global investors should note in crafting their policies and strategies toward Turkey.
*Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu is the head of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, or TOBB, Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey, or DEİK, and deputy president of EUROCHAMBERS. The original version of this article appeared in the Summer 2010 issue of Turkish Policy Quarterly.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=the-global-energy-challenges-and-turkey-private-sector-perspective-2010-11-30
Turkey plans Cyprus gas drill tit for tat
Turkey and Turkish Cyprus have completed preparations for a retaliatory
agreement for their own oil and gas exploration efforts, a diplomatic source
says. Greece immediately condemned the move
Turkey has warned that it will sign a continental shelf delimitation accord
with Turkish Cyprus if Greek Cyprus proceeds with plans to start offshore
drilling for oil and gas next month.
Such an agreement would designate areas in the eastern Mediterranean Sea
where Turkey and northern Cyprus could launch their own oil and gas exploration
projects.
Meanwhile, Greece on Thursday said Turkey should drop threats to Cyprus over
the latter’s gas exploration plans. “Turkey is trying to escalate the tone...
this is dangerous and it needs to stop,” foreign ministry spokesman Grigoris
Delavekouras said.
“We hope that Turkey will behave soberly and will refrain from further
raising tension...there needs to be stability in our area because we are in a
very sensitive period,” Delavekouras said.
Turkish officials met Thursday with a Turkish Cypriot delegation to discuss
the dispute with Greek Cyprus, which has been escalating in the background
behind a crisis with Israel that has already prompted a Turkish decision to step
up military presence in the East Mediterranean. “As a result of the meeting, it
has been agreed that [Northern Cyprus] will conclude a continental shelf
delimitation agreement if the Greek Cypriot administration proceeds with
offshore drilling activities in the south of the island,” a Foreign Ministry
statement said.
“We are determined to protect the rights of the Turkish Cypriots. They are
not going to be spectators if the Greek Cypriots start to drill,” a senior
Turkish diplomat told the Hürriyet Daily News.
‘Contract is ready’
All preparations for the delimitation agreement between Turkey and Turkish
Cyprus have been completed and it will be signed “immediately” if Greek Cyprus
starts exploration work, he said. A Turkish delegation, led by the Energy
Ministry’s undersecretary, will go to northern Cyprus on Friday for further
consultations on the issue. The delegation will include representatives from the
General Directorate of Petroleum Affairs, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation and
the Foreign Ministry. Turkey has repeatedly urged Greek Cyprus to suspend oil
and gas exploration plans, arguing that such unilateral action would preclude
Turkish Cypriot rights to the island’s natural resources. Contribution from AFP
stories were used in this report.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-plans-cyprus-gas-drill-tit-for-tat-2011-09-15
agreement for their own oil and gas exploration efforts, a diplomatic source
says. Greece immediately condemned the move
Turkey has warned that it will sign a continental shelf delimitation accord
with Turkish Cyprus if Greek Cyprus proceeds with plans to start offshore
drilling for oil and gas next month.
Such an agreement would designate areas in the eastern Mediterranean Sea
where Turkey and northern Cyprus could launch their own oil and gas exploration
projects.
Meanwhile, Greece on Thursday said Turkey should drop threats to Cyprus over
the latter’s gas exploration plans. “Turkey is trying to escalate the tone...
this is dangerous and it needs to stop,” foreign ministry spokesman Grigoris
Delavekouras said.
“We hope that Turkey will behave soberly and will refrain from further
raising tension...there needs to be stability in our area because we are in a
very sensitive period,” Delavekouras said.
Turkish officials met Thursday with a Turkish Cypriot delegation to discuss
the dispute with Greek Cyprus, which has been escalating in the background
behind a crisis with Israel that has already prompted a Turkish decision to step
up military presence in the East Mediterranean. “As a result of the meeting, it
has been agreed that [Northern Cyprus] will conclude a continental shelf
delimitation agreement if the Greek Cypriot administration proceeds with
offshore drilling activities in the south of the island,” a Foreign Ministry
statement said.
“We are determined to protect the rights of the Turkish Cypriots. They are
not going to be spectators if the Greek Cypriots start to drill,” a senior
Turkish diplomat told the Hürriyet Daily News.
‘Contract is ready’
All preparations for the delimitation agreement between Turkey and Turkish
Cyprus have been completed and it will be signed “immediately” if Greek Cyprus
starts exploration work, he said. A Turkish delegation, led by the Energy
Ministry’s undersecretary, will go to northern Cyprus on Friday for further
consultations on the issue. The delegation will include representatives from the
General Directorate of Petroleum Affairs, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation and
the Foreign Ministry. Turkey has repeatedly urged Greek Cyprus to suspend oil
and gas exploration plans, arguing that such unilateral action would preclude
Turkish Cypriot rights to the island’s natural resources. Contribution from AFP
stories were used in this report.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-plans-cyprus-gas-drill-tit-for-tat-2011-09-15
Turkey, Egypt to drill in Mediterranean: Minister
Turkey intends to cooperate with Egypt in searching for natural gas in the Mediterranean, given the latter’s experience in deep-water drilling, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız says on an official visit to Egypt .
Egypt and Turkey may partner up to explore for oil and gas in the eastern
Mediterranean Sea, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said during an official
visit to Cairo on Wednesday.
“Egypt and Turkey can work together on the fields of oil and [natural] gas,
we evaluated this issue and need some more time [for further steps]. We can
search together in the Mediterranean,” said Yıldız, not giving details on the
project while speaking to journalists. The minister also emphasized Egypt’s
experience in deep-water drilling.
The minister, who is currently in Egypt accompanying Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said he had met with Egypt’s ministers for oil and
electricity during his visit, which he said had been “extremely fruitful.” He
also said Turkey signed two memoranda with Egypt on energy cooperation. “One of
them is about joint projects in third countries, the other regards
electricity.”
Turkey is working on a master plan for electricity-interconnection in the
southern and eastern Mediterranean countries including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan,
Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Algeria, said Yıldız. “Thus, an
interconnecting system will be available for the southern Mediterranean region,
as it is for the north,” he added.
“We import natural gas from five countries and oil from 11. Egypt can be the
sixth country that exports natural gas to Turkey,” the minister said, adding
that Egypt produces about twice the amount of energy Turkey consumes.
Moreover, Yıldız also said he expected the 1,200-kilometer Arab Natural Gas
Pipeline to be completed by the end of this year, adding that the pipeline would
have two routes. One pipeline flows from Azerbaijan to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan
via Turkey and the second from Egypt to Turkey, he added.
Turkey will also demand for six wells in Libya to be enlarged and for
deadlines to be extended, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
CAIRO - Anatolia News Agency
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-egypt-to-drill-in-mediterranean-minister-2011-09-14
Egypt and Turkey may partner up to explore for oil and gas in the eastern
Mediterranean Sea, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said during an official
visit to Cairo on Wednesday.
“Egypt and Turkey can work together on the fields of oil and [natural] gas,
we evaluated this issue and need some more time [for further steps]. We can
search together in the Mediterranean,” said Yıldız, not giving details on the
project while speaking to journalists. The minister also emphasized Egypt’s
experience in deep-water drilling.
The minister, who is currently in Egypt accompanying Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said he had met with Egypt’s ministers for oil and
electricity during his visit, which he said had been “extremely fruitful.” He
also said Turkey signed two memoranda with Egypt on energy cooperation. “One of
them is about joint projects in third countries, the other regards
electricity.”
Turkey is working on a master plan for electricity-interconnection in the
southern and eastern Mediterranean countries including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan,
Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Algeria, said Yıldız. “Thus, an
interconnecting system will be available for the southern Mediterranean region,
as it is for the north,” he added.
“We import natural gas from five countries and oil from 11. Egypt can be the
sixth country that exports natural gas to Turkey,” the minister said, adding
that Egypt produces about twice the amount of energy Turkey consumes.
Moreover, Yıldız also said he expected the 1,200-kilometer Arab Natural Gas
Pipeline to be completed by the end of this year, adding that the pipeline would
have two routes. One pipeline flows from Azerbaijan to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan
via Turkey and the second from Egypt to Turkey, he added.
Turkey will also demand for six wells in Libya to be enlarged and for
deadlines to be extended, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
CAIRO - Anatolia News Agency
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-egypt-to-drill-in-mediterranean-minister-2011-09-14
China expands lead in Afghanistan energy auctions
China National Petroleum Corp., or CNPC, offered the highest royalty and a
refinery to win Afghanistan’s first oilfield auction last month, using a
strategy that helped Chinese companies gain access to African resources.
CNPC will pay 15 percent royalty on oil from three blocks in northern
Afghanistan and 30 percent corporate tax and also build a refinery, Abdul Jalil
Jumriany, policy director at the mines ministry in Kabul, said. Australia’s
Buccaneer Energy proposed 10 percent royalty and was second.
The deal, to be completed in a month, will boost China’s position as its
neighbor’s biggest foreign investor after a state company won the right in 2007
to mine the biggest copper deposit in Afghanistan by pledging to build a coal
mine, power plant, smelter and railroad. In Africa, producer of 12 percent of
the world’s crude, Chinese companies promised billions of dollars in aid,
investment and loans for energy supplies.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s cabinet late last month approved the mines
ministry’s decision to allow CNPC to drill for oil in three blocks of the Amu
Darya basin, a geological zone that extends into Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan.
While CNPC’s oil deal, for blocks that hold an estimated 80 million barrels,
is relatively small, its win may give the company an advantage in chasing bigger
Afghan reserves. The Afghan-Tajik Basin, a geological zone in the northeast, is
estimated to hold 1.9 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and natural-gas
liquids along with gas deposits equivalent to 1.5 billion barrels of oil, based
on U.S. Geological Survey data.
The government will hold its next oilfield auction in the area in
February.
A refinery is crucial for Afghanistan, which imports almost all its fuels and
has seen supplies halted by border closures with Iran and Pakistan. In January,
Iran blocked as many as 1,900 fuel tanker trucks at its border for a month,
forcing a spike in transport and food prices across Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s only working refinery, opened last year on its northern border
with Uzbekistan, has a capacity to produce 500 tons (3,650 barrels) of fuels a
day, according to its owner, the Kam Group. The nation uses 46,000 barrels of
petroleum products each day, Jumriany said.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
KABUL / NEW DELHI - Bloomberg
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=china-expands-lead-in-afghanistan-energy-auctions-2011-09-13
refinery to win Afghanistan’s first oilfield auction last month, using a
strategy that helped Chinese companies gain access to African resources.
CNPC will pay 15 percent royalty on oil from three blocks in northern
Afghanistan and 30 percent corporate tax and also build a refinery, Abdul Jalil
Jumriany, policy director at the mines ministry in Kabul, said. Australia’s
Buccaneer Energy proposed 10 percent royalty and was second.
The deal, to be completed in a month, will boost China’s position as its
neighbor’s biggest foreign investor after a state company won the right in 2007
to mine the biggest copper deposit in Afghanistan by pledging to build a coal
mine, power plant, smelter and railroad. In Africa, producer of 12 percent of
the world’s crude, Chinese companies promised billions of dollars in aid,
investment and loans for energy supplies.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s cabinet late last month approved the mines
ministry’s decision to allow CNPC to drill for oil in three blocks of the Amu
Darya basin, a geological zone that extends into Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan.
While CNPC’s oil deal, for blocks that hold an estimated 80 million barrels,
is relatively small, its win may give the company an advantage in chasing bigger
Afghan reserves. The Afghan-Tajik Basin, a geological zone in the northeast, is
estimated to hold 1.9 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and natural-gas
liquids along with gas deposits equivalent to 1.5 billion barrels of oil, based
on U.S. Geological Survey data.
The government will hold its next oilfield auction in the area in
February.
A refinery is crucial for Afghanistan, which imports almost all its fuels and
has seen supplies halted by border closures with Iran and Pakistan. In January,
Iran blocked as many as 1,900 fuel tanker trucks at its border for a month,
forcing a spike in transport and food prices across Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s only working refinery, opened last year on its northern border
with Uzbekistan, has a capacity to produce 500 tons (3,650 barrels) of fuels a
day, according to its owner, the Kam Group. The nation uses 46,000 barrels of
petroleum products each day, Jumriany said.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
KABUL / NEW DELHI - Bloomberg
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=china-expands-lead-in-afghanistan-energy-auctions-2011-09-13
West still suspicious on Iran’s nuclear program
Western powers said on Wednesday there was growing evidence suggesting Iran
was working to develop a nuclear missile and a recent “charm offensive” by
Tehran failed to address those fears. The statement comes after Iran has told
the EU’s foreign policy chief it is ready to hold fresh nuclear talks, but won’t
back down on its “rights” in its nuclear row with the West.
Statements by Britain, Germany, France and the United States at a board
meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog made clear they were not impressed with an
Iranian effort to show increased openness about its disputed atomic activities.
“Iran continues to casually dismiss the international community’s concerns,”
Glyn Davies, the U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said.
The letter from Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili to EU foreign
policy chief Catherine Ashton, dated Sept. 6 seemed unlikely to be welcomed by
Western powers as signaling a substantive step forward. Talks could resume “as
soon as you are ready,” the letter, in English, said. “The Islamic Republic of
Iran believes that a just negotiation and talk is the only way to remove
existing misunderstandings in all areas.” Jalili spoke of the “necessity of
achieving a comprehensive, long-term and negotiated solution for both sides”.
But he also said any “measures that would lead to the deprivation” of the rights
of states, “including the noble nation of Iran, is unacceptable”.
Iran’s judiciary meanwhile said on Wednesday that no decision has been taken
on releasing two US hikers convicted of spying, a day after President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad insisted the duo would be released soon.
“While denying ... release of two Americans accused of espionage, the public
relations of the judiciary announces that the request of the lawyer to post bail
and free them is being studied by the case’s judge,” a statement posted on the
judiciary website said. Ahmadinejad furthermore said on Wednesday he was
preparing to attend next week’s annual UN General Assembly meeting in New York,
the presidential website reported.
Compiled from Reuters, AFP and AP stories by the Daily News staff.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
VIENNA / TEHRAN
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=west-still-suspicious-on-iran8217s-nuclear-program-2011-09-14
IAEA BACK NUCLEAR PLAN WITH DISPUTES
The U.N. nuclear agency’s 151 member states endorsed an action plan on Thursday to help strengthen global nuclear safety in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima accident, despite criticism from some that it does not go far enough.
The annual General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, in Vienna approved by consensus the plan prepared by the office of IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano.
The board’s debate, however, underlined divisions between states that seek stronger international commitments and others that want safety to remain an issue strictly for national authorities. One group of nations – including Germany, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada and Denmark – has voiced disappointment about the final version of the IAEA’s safety action plan for not including stronger measures.
The United States, India, China and Pakistan were among countries stressing the responsibility of national authorities, making clear they opposed any moves toward mandatory outside safety inspections of their nuclear installations.
Iran, which has been always at the center of nuclear discussions, has offered to stop producing low-enriched uranium, provided the West gives it the nuclear material, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview published in Thursday’s New York Times.
“If they give us the 20 percent enriched uranium this very week, we will cease domestic enrichment of uranium of up to 20 percent this very week. We only want the 20 percent enrichment for our domestic consumption,” Ahmadinejad said. “If they give it to us according to international law, according to IAEA laws, without preconditions, we will cease domestic enrichment,” he said, referring to the IAEA, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog. He reiterated his stance that Tehran is only pursuing a nuclear program for domestic purposes.
Compiled from AFP and Reuters by the Daily News staff
VIENNA / WASHINGTON / SEPTEMBER 22 , 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=iaea-back-nuclear-plan-with-disputes-2011-09-22
The annual General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, in Vienna approved by consensus the plan prepared by the office of IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano.
The board’s debate, however, underlined divisions between states that seek stronger international commitments and others that want safety to remain an issue strictly for national authorities. One group of nations – including Germany, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada and Denmark – has voiced disappointment about the final version of the IAEA’s safety action plan for not including stronger measures.
The United States, India, China and Pakistan were among countries stressing the responsibility of national authorities, making clear they opposed any moves toward mandatory outside safety inspections of their nuclear installations.
Iran, which has been always at the center of nuclear discussions, has offered to stop producing low-enriched uranium, provided the West gives it the nuclear material, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview published in Thursday’s New York Times.
“If they give us the 20 percent enriched uranium this very week, we will cease domestic enrichment of uranium of up to 20 percent this very week. We only want the 20 percent enrichment for our domestic consumption,” Ahmadinejad said. “If they give it to us according to international law, according to IAEA laws, without preconditions, we will cease domestic enrichment,” he said, referring to the IAEA, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog. He reiterated his stance that Tehran is only pursuing a nuclear program for domestic purposes.
Compiled from AFP and Reuters by the Daily News staff
VIENNA / WASHINGTON / SEPTEMBER 22 , 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=iaea-back-nuclear-plan-with-disputes-2011-09-22
TURKEY SEEKS SIMULTANEOUS DRILLING HALT
The ‘Yavuz’ frigate will protect Turkey’s seismic research ship in the Mediterranean. Turkish Naval Forces photo Turkish Cypriot President Derviş Eroğlu on Saturday submitted a four-item proposal to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to resolve the spat with Greek Cyprus over drilling in the eastern Mediterranean.
The proposal starts with a bid for both sides to simultaneously suspend oil and gas exploration, a move that seemed to show Turkey’s reluctance to start drilling work in Mediterranean.
In the first item of the new proposal submitted to Ban, Eroğlu made an offer to the Greek side to “suspend the oil and natural gas exploration simultaneously until a comprehensive solution is found to the Cyprus problem.”
If this is not going to happen, Eroğlu offered to “set up an ad-hoc committee shaped by representatives of both peoples” on the divided island. “We shall give some authority to the committee, such as [authority over] explorations, agreements and licenses dependent on written approval of both sides, and we will negotiate the ratio of sharing the riches that will be found,” Eroğlu said.
Thirdly, the Turkish Cypriot leader proposed, “We shall use the income to finance the comprehensive talks,” adding lastly that “the adoption of the plan shall not harm the positions of either side.”
Eroğlu said Ban was pleased with the proposal, in which he repeated Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s earlier call for the two sides to simultaneously renounce the energy explorations. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkey supported the new proposal that was presented to the U.N. chief.
“If the two parties renounce natural gas exploration, we will accept it,” Erdoğan told Ban late Thursday on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York, asking the U.N. chief to intervene with the Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia and urge them to stop their offshore explorations.
Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Hüseyin Özgürgün said Sunday that required coordinates had been set and drilling for oil would soon begin in northern Cyprus. If the Greek Cypriot administration sees Turkish Cypriots as a minority on the island and carries out exploration work unilaterally, Turkish Cypriots can begin exploration in the north of the island, Özgürgün said.
Richard Stone, a leader of Jewish communities in the United States, meanwhile told the daily newspaper Kathimerini on Sunday that Turkey’s actions to prevent the gas and oil drilling efforts of Greek Cyprus and Israel in the East Mediterranean is “a reason for war.” He said Washington is closely monitoring the recent developments on the issue.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
NICOSIA / ATHENS – Anatolia News Agency
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-seeks-simultaneous-drilling-halt-2011-09-25
CHINA COULD OPEN UP TO ARCTIC WITH ICELAND DEAL
A Chinese tycoon’s plans to acquire a vast piece of land in Iceland have raised eyebrows in the country, as some say the reason behind Huang Nubo’s interest could be energy resources lying under the Arctic seabed
A Chinese businessman’s plans to buy a swathe of Iceland for a resort have sparked local scepticism, amid speculation it is a bid by Beijing to get its hands on Arctic riches.
The melting Arctic ice cap means lucrative oil and gas deposits under the seabed could soon become accessible, and shorter shipping routes between Asia and Europe will open up.
Observers suggest those prospects may be the real reason behind property tycoon Huang Nubo’s plans to buy 300 square-kilometres (200 square-miles) of Icelandic wildnerness. Huang says he wants to build a luxury resort with a hotel, golf course and sports facilities, and Europe’s biggest nature reserve.
The purchase could give China a foothold in the region - enabling it to establish contacts and gather information - before the Arctic treasure chest opens up.
“It is likely that the Chinese government will find every way to enhance cooperation at multiple levels ... to lay the groundwork for future involvement in the construction and operation of infrastructural hubs” in the Arctic, Embla Eir Oddsdottir, project manager at The Stefansson Arctic Institute in Iceland, told Agence France-Presse. “The possibility of shipping and transport across the Arctic is very important for China.”
With the icecap melting in summertime, the route between the Atlantic and the Pacific will shorten the sailing distance between Shanghai and Europe by about 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles).
“In talks with Icelandic authorities, (the Chinese) have made a point of saying it was very plausible” that China would use Iceland as a trans-Arctic shipping port, the chairman of the Icelandic parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Arni Thor Sigurdsson, told AFP.
Marc Lanteigne, a senior lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and an expert on China’s rise as a strategic and economic power, said there were “very strong and very opaque links between large Chinese businesses and the country’s government.”
China could especially be eying the up to 160 billion barrels of oil believed to be in the Arctic. “China is now importing more than 50 percent of its crude oil consumed, and like other large economies is worried about the safety of petroleum imports from the Middle East and is seeking alternative sources,” Lanteigne said.
Presence in the Arctic
He noted that Beijing had been active in the oil trade in Central Asia, the Caspian region and sub-Saharan Africa in recent years.
“It is therefore very likely that China would want to increase its presence in the Arctic out of concern for being left out of oil exploration there.”
Sigurdsson said China had “no direct claim to natural resources” in the region, but could “become a participant ... by cooperating with states or companies searching for resources.”
Observers said there was no concrete indication Beijing would use Huang’s land purchase to hunt for Arctic riches. Yet his plans have raised eyebrows in Reykjavik, where Interior Minister Oegmundur Jonasson has said he would scrutinize the application carefully.
Huang has offered to buy the partially state-held land, known as Grimsstadir a Fjoellum, for $10 million and wants to invest a total of $100 million (70 million euros). The businessman has said he is attracted by Iceland’s wilderness and pledged to respect the local environment.
Sunday, September 25, 2011 / Haukur Holm REYKJAVIK- Agence France-Presse
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=china-could-open-up-to-arctic-with-iceland-deal-2011-09-25
A Chinese businessman’s plans to buy a swathe of Iceland for a resort have sparked local scepticism, amid speculation it is a bid by Beijing to get its hands on Arctic riches.
The melting Arctic ice cap means lucrative oil and gas deposits under the seabed could soon become accessible, and shorter shipping routes between Asia and Europe will open up.
Observers suggest those prospects may be the real reason behind property tycoon Huang Nubo’s plans to buy 300 square-kilometres (200 square-miles) of Icelandic wildnerness. Huang says he wants to build a luxury resort with a hotel, golf course and sports facilities, and Europe’s biggest nature reserve.
The purchase could give China a foothold in the region - enabling it to establish contacts and gather information - before the Arctic treasure chest opens up.
“It is likely that the Chinese government will find every way to enhance cooperation at multiple levels ... to lay the groundwork for future involvement in the construction and operation of infrastructural hubs” in the Arctic, Embla Eir Oddsdottir, project manager at The Stefansson Arctic Institute in Iceland, told Agence France-Presse. “The possibility of shipping and transport across the Arctic is very important for China.”
With the icecap melting in summertime, the route between the Atlantic and the Pacific will shorten the sailing distance between Shanghai and Europe by about 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles).
“In talks with Icelandic authorities, (the Chinese) have made a point of saying it was very plausible” that China would use Iceland as a trans-Arctic shipping port, the chairman of the Icelandic parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Arni Thor Sigurdsson, told AFP.
Marc Lanteigne, a senior lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and an expert on China’s rise as a strategic and economic power, said there were “very strong and very opaque links between large Chinese businesses and the country’s government.”
China could especially be eying the up to 160 billion barrels of oil believed to be in the Arctic. “China is now importing more than 50 percent of its crude oil consumed, and like other large economies is worried about the safety of petroleum imports from the Middle East and is seeking alternative sources,” Lanteigne said.
Presence in the Arctic
He noted that Beijing had been active in the oil trade in Central Asia, the Caspian region and sub-Saharan Africa in recent years.
“It is therefore very likely that China would want to increase its presence in the Arctic out of concern for being left out of oil exploration there.”
Sigurdsson said China had “no direct claim to natural resources” in the region, but could “become a participant ... by cooperating with states or companies searching for resources.”
Observers said there was no concrete indication Beijing would use Huang’s land purchase to hunt for Arctic riches. Yet his plans have raised eyebrows in Reykjavik, where Interior Minister Oegmundur Jonasson has said he would scrutinize the application carefully.
Huang has offered to buy the partially state-held land, known as Grimsstadir a Fjoellum, for $10 million and wants to invest a total of $100 million (70 million euros). The businessman has said he is attracted by Iceland’s wilderness and pledged to respect the local environment.
Sunday, September 25, 2011 / Haukur Holm REYKJAVIK- Agence France-Presse
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=china-could-open-up-to-arctic-with-iceland-deal-2011-09-25
RENEWABLES CONFERENCE STARTS OCT
The International 100% Renewable Energy Conferences and Exhibitions, or IRENEC, will be held in Istanbul between Oct. 6 and 8, according to organizers.
IRENEC aims to bring actors together to discuss aspects of energy policies and generate solutions on countries’ transition from traditional to renewable energy resources, they said.
The conference also seeks to promote the difficult transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources and to contribute to the adoption of renewable energy sources without resorting to nuclear energy or carbon-capture technology, organizers said on the conference’s official website.
The conference – a first of its kind – will be organized by the European Association for Renewable Energy, or EUROSOLAR’s, Turkey division.
All subjects related to the efficient use of energy and renewable energies will be covered in panel discussions with planners, decision makers, administrators, managers, researchers, producers, economists, financers, architects, engineers, trainers, students and volunteers.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=renewables-conference-starts-in-oct-2011-09-25
IRENEC aims to bring actors together to discuss aspects of energy policies and generate solutions on countries’ transition from traditional to renewable energy resources, they said.
The conference also seeks to promote the difficult transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources and to contribute to the adoption of renewable energy sources without resorting to nuclear energy or carbon-capture technology, organizers said on the conference’s official website.
The conference – a first of its kind – will be organized by the European Association for Renewable Energy, or EUROSOLAR’s, Turkey division.
All subjects related to the efficient use of energy and renewable energies will be covered in panel discussions with planners, decision makers, administrators, managers, researchers, producers, economists, financers, architects, engineers, trainers, students and volunteers.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=renewables-conference-starts-in-oct-2011-09-25
TURKEY CANCELS GAS DEAL WITH RUSSİA, CONSUMER PRICES HIKE
A significant increase in natural gas prices in Turkey comes on the day that the country terminates a pipe deal with Russia. The line was carrying gas to over-populated Istanbul
The state-owned Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation, or BOTAŞ, has canceled a natural gas supply deal with Russia’s Gazprom after failing to agree on discounts.
Turkey buys nearly 16 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia every year via the Blue Stream pipeline, a contract for which was set to expire 23 years later.
A smaller contract between the parties is for 8 billion cubic meters.
The cancelation, however, means Turkey loses supply for some 15 percent of its gas needs.
The West Line was providing gas for Istanbul, the country’s biggest city.
The dispute ended the contract for 6 billion cubic meters of gas yearly, Gazprom’s press service confirmed Sunday, without elaborating.
Price increase
Again on Saturday, Botaş announced it would raise residential natural-gas prices by 12.3 percent to 14.3 percent, citing increases on international markets and the declining value of the Turkish Lira. The new pricing started taking effect the same day. Fees for industrial clients will go up 13.7 percent to 14.3 percent, the company also said.
The cancellation doesn’t mean natural gas purchases from Russia will stop, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız told reporters at Parliament in Ankara on Saturday.
Firms from Turkey’s private sector will probably sign new contracts with Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas producer and Russia’s exporter of fuel, within three months to continue the gas flows, the minister said according to the Anatolia News Agency.
“Russia is the most important country for our natural gas imports. Our annual natural gas import from three channels in Russia is nearly 30 billion cubic meters,” Yıldız told the agency.
“Our annual natural gas consumption is nearly 37 billion cubic meters. On the other hand, Turkey is able to import 45 billion cubic meters of natural gas under its agreements,” he said.
The West Line, which passes through Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria, was already problematic because of the disputes between the supplier and Ukraine.
Turkey imported 18 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia last year, about 60 percent of its total domestic gas consumption.
Yıldız said the decision to break the contract did not mean that Russian gas supplies would end or cause any problems between Ankara and Moscow, whose “strategic relationship cannot be affected by a few contracts.”
The state-owned Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation, or BOTAŞ, has canceled a natural gas supply deal with Russia’s Gazprom after failing to agree on discounts.
Turkey buys nearly 16 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia every year via the Blue Stream pipeline, a contract for which was set to expire 23 years later.
A smaller contract between the parties is for 8 billion cubic meters.
The cancelation, however, means Turkey loses supply for some 15 percent of its gas needs.
The West Line was providing gas for Istanbul, the country’s biggest city.
The dispute ended the contract for 6 billion cubic meters of gas yearly, Gazprom’s press service confirmed Sunday, without elaborating.
Price increase
Again on Saturday, Botaş announced it would raise residential natural-gas prices by 12.3 percent to 14.3 percent, citing increases on international markets and the declining value of the Turkish Lira. The new pricing started taking effect the same day. Fees for industrial clients will go up 13.7 percent to 14.3 percent, the company also said.
The cancellation doesn’t mean natural gas purchases from Russia will stop, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız told reporters at Parliament in Ankara on Saturday.
Firms from Turkey’s private sector will probably sign new contracts with Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas producer and Russia’s exporter of fuel, within three months to continue the gas flows, the minister said according to the Anatolia News Agency.
“Russia is the most important country for our natural gas imports. Our annual natural gas import from three channels in Russia is nearly 30 billion cubic meters,” Yıldız told the agency.
“Our annual natural gas consumption is nearly 37 billion cubic meters. On the other hand, Turkey is able to import 45 billion cubic meters of natural gas under its agreements,” he said.
The West Line, which passes through Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria, was already problematic because of the disputes between the supplier and Ukraine.
Turkey imported 18 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia last year, about 60 percent of its total domestic gas consumption.
Yıldız said the decision to break the contract did not mean that Russian gas supplies would end or cause any problems between Ankara and Moscow, whose “strategic relationship cannot be affected by a few contracts.”
NABUCCO MAKES AZERI GAS MOVE
The Nabucco pipeline consortium submitted its bid on Saturday to export sought-after Azeri gas, claiming that it is the most viable solution for bringing energy supplies to Europe from the Caucasus region.
However, Nabucco’s smaller rivals remained silent before the deadline to submit their technical and commercial proposals to Baku.
Nabbuco’s offer came only a few days after a fourth competitor emerged to buy and sell natural gas for the Azerbaijani soil.
British Petroleum may offer Baku to build a 1,300-kilometer alternative pipeline, according to a Financial Times report last week.
“The scheme is a new entrant in the highly charged competition to build a supply route to the Caspian basin,” the paper said.
The BP plan is to carry gas through Turkey and then to the Romanian-Hungarian border.
Along with Nabucco, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline and the Interconnector-Turkey- Greece-Italy, or ITGI, schemes were also expected to sumbit their offers to the Azerbaijan’s state-run Socar on Saturday, but no official announcements had been made by the time the Hürriyet Daily News went to print Sunday evening.
Azerbaijan is expected to decide which project to prioritize before the end of 2011.
Nabucco confident
“We are convinced that Nabucco offers the best way to transport gas from Azerbaijan and other countries,” Nabucco Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek said in a statement.
“Nabucco is Europe’s flagship project for the Southern Corridor. It is cost-effective and competitive,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
He said Nabucco’s intergovernmental agreement and project support deals ensured backing for the pipeline.
Some analysts argue that Nabucco’s aim of transporting up to 31 billion cubic metres of gas a year is too ambitious and point to delays in the project timetable as a sign that it will not get off the ground.
Nabucco is backed by OMV, Germany’s RWE , Hungary’s MOL , Turkey’s Botas, BEH of Bulgaria and Romania’s Transgaz. The consortium said Friday that Germany’s Bayerngas also intends to join.
The European Union supports Nabucco as a means of reducing the continent’s reliance on Russian energy.
Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II gas field, which is being developed by BP, Statoil and Socar, is estimated to contain 1.2 trillion cubic metres of gas, which European companies hope can supply them for decades
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=-2011-10-02
However, Nabucco’s smaller rivals remained silent before the deadline to submit their technical and commercial proposals to Baku.
Nabbuco’s offer came only a few days after a fourth competitor emerged to buy and sell natural gas for the Azerbaijani soil.
British Petroleum may offer Baku to build a 1,300-kilometer alternative pipeline, according to a Financial Times report last week.
“The scheme is a new entrant in the highly charged competition to build a supply route to the Caspian basin,” the paper said.
The BP plan is to carry gas through Turkey and then to the Romanian-Hungarian border.
Along with Nabucco, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline and the Interconnector-Turkey- Greece-Italy, or ITGI, schemes were also expected to sumbit their offers to the Azerbaijan’s state-run Socar on Saturday, but no official announcements had been made by the time the Hürriyet Daily News went to print Sunday evening.
Azerbaijan is expected to decide which project to prioritize before the end of 2011.
Nabucco confident
“We are convinced that Nabucco offers the best way to transport gas from Azerbaijan and other countries,” Nabucco Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek said in a statement.
“Nabucco is Europe’s flagship project for the Southern Corridor. It is cost-effective and competitive,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
He said Nabucco’s intergovernmental agreement and project support deals ensured backing for the pipeline.
Some analysts argue that Nabucco’s aim of transporting up to 31 billion cubic metres of gas a year is too ambitious and point to delays in the project timetable as a sign that it will not get off the ground.
Nabucco is backed by OMV, Germany’s RWE , Hungary’s MOL , Turkey’s Botas, BEH of Bulgaria and Romania’s Transgaz. The consortium said Friday that Germany’s Bayerngas also intends to join.
The European Union supports Nabucco as a means of reducing the continent’s reliance on Russian energy.
Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II gas field, which is being developed by BP, Statoil and Socar, is estimated to contain 1.2 trillion cubic metres of gas, which European companies hope can supply them for decades
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=-2011-10-02
NEW GAS DEAL MIGHT WARM UP CAUCASUS POLITICS FURTHER
Those interested in a new natural gas field with an incredible 50 billion to 100 billion cubic meters of reserves in the Azeri quarters of the Caspian Sea are to submit their offers by the end of today, Oct. 3, to the Shah Deniz-2 Consortium.
The Nabucco Consortium submitted theirs yesterday. The Nabucco project had aimed to bring Caspian gas to Central Europe to break the dependency on Russian gas and meet the continuous rise of demand there.
Things did not go as planned for the shareholders. At first the United States-led embargo on Iran made it practically impossible for them to build a pipeline passing from the Iranian territory to reach Turkey and then further west. Secondly, in order not to lose its upstream advantage, Russia had a deal with Turkmenistan to buy all of its existing reserves.
That was not a good time for Nabucco executives; there was a pipeline project with no gas to fill it. Yet an agreement was signed in 2004 between Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria companies with equal shares. The Americans were encouraging them by saying that the invasion of Iraq started, which in 2003 was going to end with success soon, and they could use rich gas fields there to bring Nabucco back to life.
In the meantime a pipeline crossing the Black Sea under water was constructed and started pumping Russian gas to the Turkish port of Samsun in 2005. It is called the Blue Stream project and together with the Western Route (passing through Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria) that was a second tie to increase Turkish electricity production to Russian gas.
Vladimir Putin, Russian president, then told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan that they could actually built the Southern Corridor through Turkey to meet the European needs and even fill Nabucco; a great irony, since the idea of Nabucco was an alternative to Russian offerings.
Then something more interesting happened. After retiring from being chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schroder started to work for Gazprom and in the Northern Corridor project to pump more Russian gas to Europe. (Nobody could rely on the possibilities in Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya then.)
Now Nabucco is seeking its future in Azeri gas. If they can convince the Shah Deniz Consortium (BP and Norway’s Statoil having more than half of the shares and with a small Russian Lukoil presence), then Nabucco can live.
Nevertheless, it is important for Azerbaijan to find another route to sell its natural gas to outer markets with a route not passing through Russia; an improvement started with the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline carrying Caspian oil to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. As Shah Deniz will enrich and empower Azerbaijan and bring the country closer to the western system, it will put Armenia, its rival in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, under more pressure.
Speaking of rising political tensions and pressure, a day after Erdoğan’s meeting with Schroder on Sept. 29, 2011, that is last week, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız announced that the Western Route agreement with Russia was terminated. That will not affect the Turkish-Russian trade or political relations, but leave Ukraine alone in its gas fights with Russia and put Kiev under pressure for sure.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=new-gas-deal-might-warm-up-caucasus-politics-further-2011-10-02
The Nabucco Consortium submitted theirs yesterday. The Nabucco project had aimed to bring Caspian gas to Central Europe to break the dependency on Russian gas and meet the continuous rise of demand there.
Things did not go as planned for the shareholders. At first the United States-led embargo on Iran made it practically impossible for them to build a pipeline passing from the Iranian territory to reach Turkey and then further west. Secondly, in order not to lose its upstream advantage, Russia had a deal with Turkmenistan to buy all of its existing reserves.
That was not a good time for Nabucco executives; there was a pipeline project with no gas to fill it. Yet an agreement was signed in 2004 between Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria companies with equal shares. The Americans were encouraging them by saying that the invasion of Iraq started, which in 2003 was going to end with success soon, and they could use rich gas fields there to bring Nabucco back to life.
In the meantime a pipeline crossing the Black Sea under water was constructed and started pumping Russian gas to the Turkish port of Samsun in 2005. It is called the Blue Stream project and together with the Western Route (passing through Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria) that was a second tie to increase Turkish electricity production to Russian gas.
Vladimir Putin, Russian president, then told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan that they could actually built the Southern Corridor through Turkey to meet the European needs and even fill Nabucco; a great irony, since the idea of Nabucco was an alternative to Russian offerings.
Then something more interesting happened. After retiring from being chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schroder started to work for Gazprom and in the Northern Corridor project to pump more Russian gas to Europe. (Nobody could rely on the possibilities in Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya then.)
Now Nabucco is seeking its future in Azeri gas. If they can convince the Shah Deniz Consortium (BP and Norway’s Statoil having more than half of the shares and with a small Russian Lukoil presence), then Nabucco can live.
Nevertheless, it is important for Azerbaijan to find another route to sell its natural gas to outer markets with a route not passing through Russia; an improvement started with the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline carrying Caspian oil to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. As Shah Deniz will enrich and empower Azerbaijan and bring the country closer to the western system, it will put Armenia, its rival in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, under more pressure.
Speaking of rising political tensions and pressure, a day after Erdoğan’s meeting with Schroder on Sept. 29, 2011, that is last week, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız announced that the Western Route agreement with Russia was terminated. That will not affect the Turkish-Russian trade or political relations, but leave Ukraine alone in its gas fights with Russia and put Kiev under pressure for sure.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=new-gas-deal-might-warm-up-caucasus-politics-further-2011-10-02
PRESS STATEMENT ON THE CONTINENTAL SHELF DELIMITATION AGREEMENT SIGNED BETWEEN TURKEY AND THE TRNC
In the Ministry’s press release, dated 15 September 2011, we have stated that upon the invitation of Turkey, a technical meeting was held at the Ministry with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. As a result of that meeting, it was agreed that Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus would conclude a continental shelf delimitation agreement should the Greek Cypriot Administration proceed with offshore drilling activities in the south of the Island.
Since the Greek Cypriot Administration has started the drilling activity on September 19, as already announced, a continental shelf delimitation agreement has been signed today (September 21) by Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus H.E. Derviş Eroğlu while they are attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The agreement delineates a part of Turkey’s and the TRNC’s continental shelves in the Eastern Mediterranean with a line constructed by 27 coordinates determined on the basis of international law and equitable principles.
The agreement takes into account the legitimate, equal and inherent rights of the Turkish Cypriots like those of the Greek Cypriots over the whole continental shelf of the Island.
It is also clearly stated in the agreement that Turkey and Turkish Republic of Cyprus will continue their efforts towards a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus.
As it was shared by public before on various occasions, the next step is the issuance of the licenses for the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas reserves around the Island to the Turkish Petroleum Corporation by the Government of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. In fact, necessary consultation and coordination to this end are being carried out by the relevant authorities of the both countries.
Turkey will continue to give its full support to the intensive and sincere efforts of the Turkish Cypriot side, which is resolved to reach a comprehensive settlement agreement in Cyprus until the end of the year in line with the expectation of the UN Secretary-General.
The Greek Cypriot side should put forward a similar political will for peace and reconciliation by stopping their drilling activities instead of wasting their energy on creating tensions, to the detriment of the solution process. It will thus be possible to reach a lasting settlement which will also help the Eastern Mediterranean to become an area of peace, stability and cooperation, while ensuring that the natural resources of Cyprus be equitably shared by the two peoples who are co-owners of the Island.
21 September 2011
http://www.mfa.gov.tr/no_-216_-21-september-2011_-press-statement-on-the-continental-shelf-delimitation-agreement-signed-between-turkey-and-the-trnc.en.mfa
Since the Greek Cypriot Administration has started the drilling activity on September 19, as already announced, a continental shelf delimitation agreement has been signed today (September 21) by Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus H.E. Derviş Eroğlu while they are attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The agreement delineates a part of Turkey’s and the TRNC’s continental shelves in the Eastern Mediterranean with a line constructed by 27 coordinates determined on the basis of international law and equitable principles.
The agreement takes into account the legitimate, equal and inherent rights of the Turkish Cypriots like those of the Greek Cypriots over the whole continental shelf of the Island.
It is also clearly stated in the agreement that Turkey and Turkish Republic of Cyprus will continue their efforts towards a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus.
As it was shared by public before on various occasions, the next step is the issuance of the licenses for the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas reserves around the Island to the Turkish Petroleum Corporation by the Government of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. In fact, necessary consultation and coordination to this end are being carried out by the relevant authorities of the both countries.
Turkey will continue to give its full support to the intensive and sincere efforts of the Turkish Cypriot side, which is resolved to reach a comprehensive settlement agreement in Cyprus until the end of the year in line with the expectation of the UN Secretary-General.
The Greek Cypriot side should put forward a similar political will for peace and reconciliation by stopping their drilling activities instead of wasting their energy on creating tensions, to the detriment of the solution process. It will thus be possible to reach a lasting settlement which will also help the Eastern Mediterranean to become an area of peace, stability and cooperation, while ensuring that the natural resources of Cyprus be equitably shared by the two peoples who are co-owners of the Island.
21 September 2011
http://www.mfa.gov.tr/no_-216_-21-september-2011_-press-statement-on-the-continental-shelf-delimitation-agreement-signed-between-turkey-and-the-trnc.en.mfa
DRILLING IN BLACK SEA MY SHİFT TO EAST MED
Turkish oil and gas research in the Mediterranean will continue even if a seismic survey in Cypriot waters launched in retaliation to a disputed Greek Cypriot drilling operation fails to produce results, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said.
Turkey might even consider shifting the focus of its exploration efforts from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, Yıldız told reporters late yesterday on a return flight from South Africa where he accompanied Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Yıldız rejected suggestions that Turkey might go ahead with drilling in waters off Cyprus out of political concerns even if the Piri Reis ship, which began seismic surveys in the region last month, failed to find any areas worth drilling. “We cannot waste even a penny of the nation’s money,” he said. “But there are [other] areas in the Mediterranean where we can do drilling. We will not leave the Mediterranean.” Turkey has no plans to purchase a drillship before any oil reserves are discovered, Yıldız said, because such a vessel would cost between $600 million and $1.5 billion.
Turkey has said Greek Cypriot drilling in the eastern Mediterranean amid the persisting division of the island violates the rights of the Turkish Cypriots, who should be entitled to an equal share of the island’s natural resources. The Cyprus problem is expected to be high on the agenda when Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu meets with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Britain today.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
ANKARA- Hürriyet Daily News
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=8216drilling-in-black-sea-may-shift-to-east-med8217-2011-10-06
Turkey might even consider shifting the focus of its exploration efforts from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, Yıldız told reporters late yesterday on a return flight from South Africa where he accompanied Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Yıldız rejected suggestions that Turkey might go ahead with drilling in waters off Cyprus out of political concerns even if the Piri Reis ship, which began seismic surveys in the region last month, failed to find any areas worth drilling. “We cannot waste even a penny of the nation’s money,” he said. “But there are [other] areas in the Mediterranean where we can do drilling. We will not leave the Mediterranean.” Turkey has no plans to purchase a drillship before any oil reserves are discovered, Yıldız said, because such a vessel would cost between $600 million and $1.5 billion.
Turkey has said Greek Cypriot drilling in the eastern Mediterranean amid the persisting division of the island violates the rights of the Turkish Cypriots, who should be entitled to an equal share of the island’s natural resources. The Cyprus problem is expected to be high on the agenda when Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu meets with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Britain today.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
ANKARA- Hürriyet Daily News
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=8216drilling-in-black-sea-may-shift-to-east-med8217-2011-10-06
TURKISH VILLAGE OPTS FOR WİND ENERGY
A Turkish village in the northwestern province of Bursa has begun producing its own electricity after the state power company ended service due to the village’s unpaid electricity bill.
Akbıyık village in Yenişehir found an alternative way of generating its own electricity after the Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAŞ) cut the electricity of the villagers who could not pay their bills, which totaled 33,000 Turkish Liras, 1.5 years ago, Doğan news agency (DHA) reported Sunday. The villagers, after conducting research about alternative sources of energy, proposed a windmill project to the Bursa Provincial Administration nearly a year ago. After the project was approved for nearly 160,000 liras, the village started to produce approximately 50 kilowatt-hours of electricity and was able to pump water to homes.
Kemal Demirel, secretary general of the provincial administration, said windmills in Turkey were run by private companies, but this particular windmill belonged to the villagers, according to DHA. The project was completely funded by the administration.
“They have no electricity expense at the moment,” said Demirel, adding that the same project would be implemented in other Bursa villages in the future.
“We already paid our debt to TEDAŞ, and now without needing any other company, we are generating our electricity freely,” said Mustafa Çiçek, the village’s headman.
Hydrogen island in the west
Meanwhile, the International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (ICHET), a United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) project, launched one of its global pilot projects on the Aegean island of Bozcaada, with the plant beginning generation yesterday. The pilot plant has photovoltaic panels of 20 kwh and a 30 kwh windmill to provide electricity to 20 houses on the island.
“Generating energy from hydrogen will be a model for many other cities to find alternative and clean energy models,” ICHET-UNIDO Turkey General Director Mustafa Hatipoğlu said at the opening ceremony held in Bozcaada.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
BURSA / BOZCAADA - Hürriyet Daily News
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkish-village-opts-for-wind-energy-2011-10-09
Akbıyık village in Yenişehir found an alternative way of generating its own electricity after the Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAŞ) cut the electricity of the villagers who could not pay their bills, which totaled 33,000 Turkish Liras, 1.5 years ago, Doğan news agency (DHA) reported Sunday. The villagers, after conducting research about alternative sources of energy, proposed a windmill project to the Bursa Provincial Administration nearly a year ago. After the project was approved for nearly 160,000 liras, the village started to produce approximately 50 kilowatt-hours of electricity and was able to pump water to homes.
Kemal Demirel, secretary general of the provincial administration, said windmills in Turkey were run by private companies, but this particular windmill belonged to the villagers, according to DHA. The project was completely funded by the administration.
“They have no electricity expense at the moment,” said Demirel, adding that the same project would be implemented in other Bursa villages in the future.
“We already paid our debt to TEDAŞ, and now without needing any other company, we are generating our electricity freely,” said Mustafa Çiçek, the village’s headman.
Hydrogen island in the west
Meanwhile, the International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (ICHET), a United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) project, launched one of its global pilot projects on the Aegean island of Bozcaada, with the plant beginning generation yesterday. The pilot plant has photovoltaic panels of 20 kwh and a 30 kwh windmill to provide electricity to 20 houses on the island.
“Generating energy from hydrogen will be a model for many other cities to find alternative and clean energy models,” ICHET-UNIDO Turkey General Director Mustafa Hatipoğlu said at the opening ceremony held in Bozcaada.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
BURSA / BOZCAADA - Hürriyet Daily News
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkish-village-opts-for-wind-energy-2011-10-09
PUTIN READY FOR ' STRATEGIC VISIT ' TO NEIGHBOR CHINA
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will travel to China, the world’s largest energy consumer, tomorrow to cement long-standing ties where he may use the trip to show the West as emphasis on China.
Vladimir Putin visits China tomorrow in his first foreign trip since revealing plans to reclaim Russia’s presidency, addressing a challenging relationship with a giant neighbor whose growth is both an opportunity and a potential threat for Moscow.
For Putin, whose main focus has been domestic in nearly four years as prime minister, the trip sets in motion a return to forefront of Russian foreign policy ahead of a March election in which he is expected to win a six-year term as president.
The powerful prime minister last week talked up ties with China at an investor conference, his first major public address since the Sept. 24 announcement. “We have a huge common border with China. We have lived together for thousands of years,” he said. “Today our bilateral ties are perhaps at their highest level in history aside from a very brief Soviet postwar period.” The leaders will oversee the signing of a series of agreements, a Putin spokesman said, declining further details.
Beneath talk of strategic relations and shared stances on world affairs, wrangling over a gas pact worth a potential $1 trillion points up the tough issues he will confront in dealing with Russia’s far more populous, faster growing neighbor.
China, facing its own leadership transition next year, may try to gauge Putin’s plans for what could be 12 years at the helm of a country whose natural resources and nuclear arms make it a factor in Beijing’s economic and geopolitical strategies. “The significance of this trip exceeds that of a normal prime minister-level visit,” said Zhao Huasheng, director at the Center for Russia and Central Asia Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University.
Putin will bring an army of executives including the CEOs of state-controlled energy firms Gazprom and Rosneft and aluminum producer UC RUSAL , all eager to exchange their wares for Chinese cash. His meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will feature warm affirmations of friendship and solidarity on big global issues between two countries that often move in lockstep to counter the United States and Europe.
China as a 'foil' against the West
Their double veto last week of a European-drafted, U.S.-backed U.N. Security Council resolution to condemn Syria’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters was a warning against Western meddling in their own countries and others worldwide. Putin may use the trip to show the West an emphasis on China as Russia’s geopolitical partner and a customer for its energy.
He did just that in a televised meeting with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller on Oct. 3, pointedly ordering him to prepare proposals on expansion into Asian markets, seen as a way to diversify Russian energy exports away from stagnant Europe.
President Dmitry Medvedev has not been cool to China since Putin steered him into the Kremlin after his own 2000-2008 presidency, but his emphasis has been on presenting a friendlier face to the West and improving ties with the United States. Putin’s meeting with Miller followed European Commission raids on offices of Gazprom subsidiaries in Europe that underscored persistent tensions over the continent’s heavy reliance on Russian gas, which EU members want to reduce. But China’s friendly political ties with Russia, and their partnership in the loose BRIC grouping that also includes India and Brazil, do not make Beijing less of a tough customer when it comes to energy deals.
While Putin may use China as a foil against the West, the pragmatic former KGB officer is well aware of such concerns. As he prepares for what could be two six-year terms as president, “the risks from China’s growth will be watched more closely than the opportunities”, said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.
At an investor conference on Thursday, Putin used a joke to play down the challenge posed by China’s faster growth after TPG Capital co-founder David Bonderman outlined China’s path to becoming the world’s largest economy. “He got me worried. He said that the United States is so far the world’s biggest economy but China will undoubtedly take over. So we now need to keep our foreign currency reserves in yuan while the Chinese will keep them in dollars,” Putin said. “That will be an interesting Russian doll.”
Sunday, October 9, 2011
MOSCOW
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=putin-ready-for-8216strategic-visit8217-to-neighbor-china-2011-10-09
Vladimir Putin visits China tomorrow in his first foreign trip since revealing plans to reclaim Russia’s presidency, addressing a challenging relationship with a giant neighbor whose growth is both an opportunity and a potential threat for Moscow.
For Putin, whose main focus has been domestic in nearly four years as prime minister, the trip sets in motion a return to forefront of Russian foreign policy ahead of a March election in which he is expected to win a six-year term as president.
The powerful prime minister last week talked up ties with China at an investor conference, his first major public address since the Sept. 24 announcement. “We have a huge common border with China. We have lived together for thousands of years,” he said. “Today our bilateral ties are perhaps at their highest level in history aside from a very brief Soviet postwar period.” The leaders will oversee the signing of a series of agreements, a Putin spokesman said, declining further details.
Beneath talk of strategic relations and shared stances on world affairs, wrangling over a gas pact worth a potential $1 trillion points up the tough issues he will confront in dealing with Russia’s far more populous, faster growing neighbor.
China, facing its own leadership transition next year, may try to gauge Putin’s plans for what could be 12 years at the helm of a country whose natural resources and nuclear arms make it a factor in Beijing’s economic and geopolitical strategies. “The significance of this trip exceeds that of a normal prime minister-level visit,” said Zhao Huasheng, director at the Center for Russia and Central Asia Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University.
Putin will bring an army of executives including the CEOs of state-controlled energy firms Gazprom and Rosneft and aluminum producer UC RUSAL , all eager to exchange their wares for Chinese cash. His meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will feature warm affirmations of friendship and solidarity on big global issues between two countries that often move in lockstep to counter the United States and Europe.
China as a 'foil' against the West
Their double veto last week of a European-drafted, U.S.-backed U.N. Security Council resolution to condemn Syria’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters was a warning against Western meddling in their own countries and others worldwide. Putin may use the trip to show the West an emphasis on China as Russia’s geopolitical partner and a customer for its energy.
He did just that in a televised meeting with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller on Oct. 3, pointedly ordering him to prepare proposals on expansion into Asian markets, seen as a way to diversify Russian energy exports away from stagnant Europe.
President Dmitry Medvedev has not been cool to China since Putin steered him into the Kremlin after his own 2000-2008 presidency, but his emphasis has been on presenting a friendlier face to the West and improving ties with the United States. Putin’s meeting with Miller followed European Commission raids on offices of Gazprom subsidiaries in Europe that underscored persistent tensions over the continent’s heavy reliance on Russian gas, which EU members want to reduce. But China’s friendly political ties with Russia, and their partnership in the loose BRIC grouping that also includes India and Brazil, do not make Beijing less of a tough customer when it comes to energy deals.
While Putin may use China as a foil against the West, the pragmatic former KGB officer is well aware of such concerns. As he prepares for what could be two six-year terms as president, “the risks from China’s growth will be watched more closely than the opportunities”, said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.
At an investor conference on Thursday, Putin used a joke to play down the challenge posed by China’s faster growth after TPG Capital co-founder David Bonderman outlined China’s path to becoming the world’s largest economy. “He got me worried. He said that the United States is so far the world’s biggest economy but China will undoubtedly take over. So we now need to keep our foreign currency reserves in yuan while the Chinese will keep them in dollars,” Putin said. “That will be an interesting Russian doll.”
Sunday, October 9, 2011
MOSCOW
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=putin-ready-for-8216strategic-visit8217-to-neighbor-china-2011-10-09
EUROPEANIZE TALKS IN CYPRUS, IF UN PLAN FAILS
Liberals of the European Parliament say they will ‘Europeanize’ the Cyprus problem if the U.N.-led talks fail, adding that this is what seems to happen by the end of the year
The European Union should assume a stronger role in resolving the Cyprus conflict, liberal members of the European Parliament said, stressing that the current U.N.-sponsored peace process was heading toward failure.
“We want to see a solution and if the U.N. process does not yield success by the end of the year, we would suggest a new approach with a much stronger role for the EU that would allow us also to exert pressure inside the EU on both sides,” Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, vice chairman of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) told reporters at a press conference yesterday.
ALDE had meetings with high-ranking Turkish officials including President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek, as well as with all parties represented in Parliament and EU Minister Egemen Bağış.
Lambsdorff said that if the Cyprus negotiations failed under the auspices of the United Nations, they would “Europeanize” the Cyprus problem “to have a stronger role for the EU in this regard.”
“It’s hard to understand why the situation on an island with one-fourth as many inhabitants as Ankara determines the faith of 75 million Turks and 450 million Europeans,” he said.
In the past Turkish officials rejected EU suggestions for Europe to have a stronger role in Cyprus dispute, he said. “That is the traditional position. In one of our conversations, there was clear indication that if the U.N. sponsored talks failed, then we need a completely new approach.”
The leader of ALDE in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, said they believed there were more valid reasons for Turkey’s EU membership today compared to 2004. “This is due to Turkey’s growing economic potential and its crucial strategic position in the region,” Verhofstadt said. They proposed as a group that certain chapters are reopened for negotiations with Turkey, in particular energy chapters, he added.
“European Parliament has to work with positive agenda for 2012 in the relationship between Turkey and the EU,” he said.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=8216europeanize-talks-in--cyprus-if-un-plan-fails8217-2011-10-11
The European Union should assume a stronger role in resolving the Cyprus conflict, liberal members of the European Parliament said, stressing that the current U.N.-sponsored peace process was heading toward failure.
“We want to see a solution and if the U.N. process does not yield success by the end of the year, we would suggest a new approach with a much stronger role for the EU that would allow us also to exert pressure inside the EU on both sides,” Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, vice chairman of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) told reporters at a press conference yesterday.
ALDE had meetings with high-ranking Turkish officials including President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek, as well as with all parties represented in Parliament and EU Minister Egemen Bağış.
Lambsdorff said that if the Cyprus negotiations failed under the auspices of the United Nations, they would “Europeanize” the Cyprus problem “to have a stronger role for the EU in this regard.”
“It’s hard to understand why the situation on an island with one-fourth as many inhabitants as Ankara determines the faith of 75 million Turks and 450 million Europeans,” he said.
In the past Turkish officials rejected EU suggestions for Europe to have a stronger role in Cyprus dispute, he said. “That is the traditional position. In one of our conversations, there was clear indication that if the U.N. sponsored talks failed, then we need a completely new approach.”
The leader of ALDE in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, said they believed there were more valid reasons for Turkey’s EU membership today compared to 2004. “This is due to Turkey’s growing economic potential and its crucial strategic position in the region,” Verhofstadt said. They proposed as a group that certain chapters are reopened for negotiations with Turkey, in particular energy chapters, he added.
“European Parliament has to work with positive agenda for 2012 in the relationship between Turkey and the EU,” he said.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=8216europeanize-talks-in--cyprus-if-un-plan-fails8217-2011-10-11
PUTIN SEEKS CLOSER TIES WITH CHINA DESPITE SIMMERING TENSIONS
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin starts his two-day visit to China, aiming to boost economic ties and take steps in solving simmering tensions related to energy pricing and China’s copying of Russian military hardware. The two sides are expected to sign deals worth $7 billion as energy is expected to be a top agenda
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Chinese leaders opened two days of meetings yesterday aimed at boosting relations amid strains over the military sales and energy deals that once underpinned ties.
Putin held talks with Premier Wen Jiabao immediately after a welcome ceremony yesterday afternoon. A series of agreements were to be signed following the meeting, and Putin was to meet President Hu Jintao today.
Despite warming ties, the two countries have struggled to increase trade and agree on sales of Russian gas to fuel China’s booming economy. Moscow is also unhappy with China’s illegal copying of Russian fighter jets and other military hardware and recently announced the arrest of a Chinese man accused of seeking to buy military secrets.
Return to eastward era
Putin’s two-day visit follows his announcement that he plans to swap jobs next year with President Dmitry Medvedev, returning him to the top position he held for eight years. Many observers say that transition could see Russia turn eastward after years of warming ties with the West under Medvedev.
One area of cooperation where China and Russia appear closer is international issues. Last week, both vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria for its crackdown on pro-reform protesters.
Russia and China are also seen as key to how the Group of 20 responds to renewed fears the global economy is headed toward a new recession.
Bilaterally, the two have worked to overcome mutual distrust from the Cold War and have increased bilateral trade volume to $35.9 billion in the first half of the year, up 39.6 percent from the same period last year, according to official Chinese figures.
But despite rounds of tough negotiations, they have failed to finalize a massive natural gas deal, mainly because of pricing disagreements. Russia is eager to link gas prices to oil prices as it does in Europe, but China says that is too expensive.
Russian and Chinese officials say deals worth $7 billion are to be signed during the visit in fields ranging from mining to biotechnology and space exploration.
Cross-border investments
The sides are looking for even more cross-border investment, and on the eve of Putin’s visit, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan called for more financial cooperation and accelerated construction of cross-border highways, railways, bridges, power grids, telecommunications links, and oil and gas pipelines.
But hanging over the visit is last week’s announcement in Moscow that Russia’s intelligence service had detained an alleged Chinese spy who tried to obtain designs of an advanced missile system as part of Beijing’s efforts to update its weaponry.
The Chinese national, who worked as an interpreter for visiting Chinese officials, attempted to buy documentation for the S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile system, the Federal Security Service said in a statement. He faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted. The truck-mounted S-300 is capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile warheads at ranges of more than 90 miles (144 kilometers) and at altitudes of about 90,000 feet (27,432 meters).
In recent years, Russia banned the sale of the S-300 systems to Iran and Syria following international pressure. China has bought an export version of the system considered less capable than that used by Russia’s armed forces.
Friction has also arisen from China’s illegal copying of Russian military hardware, especially the Su-27 jet fighter and its aircraft carrier variant, the Su-33. Such copying has contributed to a virtual collapse in Chinese arms sales from Russia, further exacerbating the trade imbalance between the sides and fueling a growing competition for export markets among developing nations.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
BEIJING - The Associated Press
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=putin-seeks-closer-ties-with-china-despite-simmering-tensions-2011-10-11
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Chinese leaders opened two days of meetings yesterday aimed at boosting relations amid strains over the military sales and energy deals that once underpinned ties.
Putin held talks with Premier Wen Jiabao immediately after a welcome ceremony yesterday afternoon. A series of agreements were to be signed following the meeting, and Putin was to meet President Hu Jintao today.
Despite warming ties, the two countries have struggled to increase trade and agree on sales of Russian gas to fuel China’s booming economy. Moscow is also unhappy with China’s illegal copying of Russian fighter jets and other military hardware and recently announced the arrest of a Chinese man accused of seeking to buy military secrets.
Return to eastward era
Putin’s two-day visit follows his announcement that he plans to swap jobs next year with President Dmitry Medvedev, returning him to the top position he held for eight years. Many observers say that transition could see Russia turn eastward after years of warming ties with the West under Medvedev.
One area of cooperation where China and Russia appear closer is international issues. Last week, both vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria for its crackdown on pro-reform protesters.
Russia and China are also seen as key to how the Group of 20 responds to renewed fears the global economy is headed toward a new recession.
Bilaterally, the two have worked to overcome mutual distrust from the Cold War and have increased bilateral trade volume to $35.9 billion in the first half of the year, up 39.6 percent from the same period last year, according to official Chinese figures.
But despite rounds of tough negotiations, they have failed to finalize a massive natural gas deal, mainly because of pricing disagreements. Russia is eager to link gas prices to oil prices as it does in Europe, but China says that is too expensive.
Russian and Chinese officials say deals worth $7 billion are to be signed during the visit in fields ranging from mining to biotechnology and space exploration.
Cross-border investments
The sides are looking for even more cross-border investment, and on the eve of Putin’s visit, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan called for more financial cooperation and accelerated construction of cross-border highways, railways, bridges, power grids, telecommunications links, and oil and gas pipelines.
But hanging over the visit is last week’s announcement in Moscow that Russia’s intelligence service had detained an alleged Chinese spy who tried to obtain designs of an advanced missile system as part of Beijing’s efforts to update its weaponry.
The Chinese national, who worked as an interpreter for visiting Chinese officials, attempted to buy documentation for the S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile system, the Federal Security Service said in a statement. He faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted. The truck-mounted S-300 is capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile warheads at ranges of more than 90 miles (144 kilometers) and at altitudes of about 90,000 feet (27,432 meters).
In recent years, Russia banned the sale of the S-300 systems to Iran and Syria following international pressure. China has bought an export version of the system considered less capable than that used by Russia’s armed forces.
Friction has also arisen from China’s illegal copying of Russian military hardware, especially the Su-27 jet fighter and its aircraft carrier variant, the Su-33. Such copying has contributed to a virtual collapse in Chinese arms sales from Russia, further exacerbating the trade imbalance between the sides and fueling a growing competition for export markets among developing nations.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
BEIJING - The Associated Press
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=putin-seeks-closer-ties-with-china-despite-simmering-tensions-2011-10-11
Turkey's Piri Reis vessel is OK, says official
While Turkey denies claims that the engine of the Piri Reis, a vessel searching for energy in the eastern Med, has broken down, Greek Cyprus is preparing for a second hydrocarbon licensing round in its exclusive economic zone
A Turkish vessel continued a renewed round of gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean yesterday, a Turkish official said, denying media reports that said the vessel’s engine broke Oct. 12. The news came on the same day that Greek Cyprus announced plans for a secondround of hydrocarbon licenses to prospect for gas off it hores.
The Turkish research boat Piri Reis spent the night conducting research in an
eastern Mediterranean area earlier determined by the Turkish Petroleum
Corporation (TPAO), Turkish official Seda Okay said, denying claims that the
search had been curtailed due to engine failure. Okay said the vessel stayed at
the Famagusta port of the island overnight Oct. 12 because of poor weather
conditions.
Meanwhile, Greek Cyprus is stepping up procedures for a second hydrocarbon
licensing round in its exclusive economic zone, Commerce, Industry and Tourism
Minister Praxoula Antoniadou said, adding that decisions on the issue were
expected before the end of 2011, Cyprus news agency reported yesterday.
Commenting on press reports that the ministerial committee dealing with the
issue of hydrocarbon exploration decided to expedite the second hydrocarbon
licensing round in offshore blocks, Antoniadou said: “What is certain is that
the next steps with regard to the exploitation of possible hydrocarbon reserves
are being discussed at a high political level as well as at the level of the
ministerial committee. What is currently under discussion is how to expedite
procedures so we can proceed with the second licensing round soon.”
The Piri Reis is conducting geophysical research and has collected seismic
data on behalf of Turkish Cyprus. “We have collected data from a 1,000-kilometer
area so far,” the Piri Reis’ captain, Çağdaş Konuşur, said on the phone Oct.
12.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Northern Cyprus President
Derviş Eroğlu signed an agreement in New York on the delineation of the
continental shelf between the two countries in the eastern Mediterranean. The
deal gives Turkey the green light to search for oil and natural gas inside
Turkish Cypriot waters.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkeys-piri-reis-vessel-is-ok-says-official-2011-10-13
A Turkish vessel continued a renewed round of gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean yesterday, a Turkish official said, denying media reports that said the vessel’s engine broke Oct. 12. The news came on the same day that Greek Cyprus announced plans for a secondround of hydrocarbon licenses to prospect for gas off it hores.
The Turkish research boat Piri Reis spent the night conducting research in an
eastern Mediterranean area earlier determined by the Turkish Petroleum
Corporation (TPAO), Turkish official Seda Okay said, denying claims that the
search had been curtailed due to engine failure. Okay said the vessel stayed at
the Famagusta port of the island overnight Oct. 12 because of poor weather
conditions.
Meanwhile, Greek Cyprus is stepping up procedures for a second hydrocarbon
licensing round in its exclusive economic zone, Commerce, Industry and Tourism
Minister Praxoula Antoniadou said, adding that decisions on the issue were
expected before the end of 2011, Cyprus news agency reported yesterday.
Commenting on press reports that the ministerial committee dealing with the
issue of hydrocarbon exploration decided to expedite the second hydrocarbon
licensing round in offshore blocks, Antoniadou said: “What is certain is that
the next steps with regard to the exploitation of possible hydrocarbon reserves
are being discussed at a high political level as well as at the level of the
ministerial committee. What is currently under discussion is how to expedite
procedures so we can proceed with the second licensing round soon.”
The Piri Reis is conducting geophysical research and has collected seismic
data on behalf of Turkish Cyprus. “We have collected data from a 1,000-kilometer
area so far,” the Piri Reis’ captain, Çağdaş Konuşur, said on the phone Oct.
12.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Northern Cyprus President
Derviş Eroğlu signed an agreement in New York on the delineation of the
continental shelf between the two countries in the eastern Mediterranean. The
deal gives Turkey the green light to search for oil and natural gas inside
Turkish Cypriot waters.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkeys-piri-reis-vessel-is-ok-says-official-2011-10-13
TURKMENISTAN REJECTS RUSSIA'S PIPELINE CRITICS
Energy-rich Turkmenistan lashed out at its former master Russia yesterday for
its criticism of negotiations with the European Union to deliver natural gas
directly to Europe.
“A normal, civilized process of collaboration between sovereign and equal
parties on the energy market is taking place,” the Central Asian nation’s
foreign ministry said in a statement.
“This, however, causes an inappropriate response from certain officials and
mass media in Russia,” it said.
Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, has criticized the 27-nation
bloc for launching talks with ex-Soviet Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on a
Trans-Caspian Pipeline to supply gas through a pipeline running under the
Caspian Sea.
Moscow has said that such a project would harm the Caspian Sea environment
and cannot be started until a lingering dispute over the world’s largest inland
body of water is resolved by its littoral states.
Turkmenistan rejected this criticism.
Turkmenistan said it is “a sovereign right” of any Caspian Sea nation to
construct a pipeline on the seabed it considers its own territory without any
“special permission.”
Ashgabat also said it rejected the idea of viewing the project in political
terms, saying the negotiations were guided only by economic interests.
EU states purchase about a quarter of their gas from Russia and have been
seeking various ways to curb that dependence -- a policy also supported by the
United States amid fears of the Kremlin using energy as a political weapon.
Turkmenistan has recently been courted by both Russia and the EU for stable
supplies that could be important in the viability of any major gas
pipeline.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
ASHGHABAT - Agence France-Presse
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkmenistan-rejects-russia8217s-pipeline-critics-2011-10-19
its criticism of negotiations with the European Union to deliver natural gas
directly to Europe.
“A normal, civilized process of collaboration between sovereign and equal
parties on the energy market is taking place,” the Central Asian nation’s
foreign ministry said in a statement.
“This, however, causes an inappropriate response from certain officials and
mass media in Russia,” it said.
Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, has criticized the 27-nation
bloc for launching talks with ex-Soviet Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on a
Trans-Caspian Pipeline to supply gas through a pipeline running under the
Caspian Sea.
Moscow has said that such a project would harm the Caspian Sea environment
and cannot be started until a lingering dispute over the world’s largest inland
body of water is resolved by its littoral states.
Turkmenistan rejected this criticism.
Turkmenistan said it is “a sovereign right” of any Caspian Sea nation to
construct a pipeline on the seabed it considers its own territory without any
“special permission.”
Ashgabat also said it rejected the idea of viewing the project in political
terms, saying the negotiations were guided only by economic interests.
EU states purchase about a quarter of their gas from Russia and have been
seeking various ways to curb that dependence -- a policy also supported by the
United States amid fears of the Kremlin using energy as a political weapon.
Turkmenistan has recently been courted by both Russia and the EU for stable
supplies that could be important in the viability of any major gas
pipeline.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
ASHGHABAT - Agence France-Presse
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkmenistan-rejects-russia8217s-pipeline-critics-2011-10-19
FORMER SOVIET NATIONS SIGN FREE TRADE PACT LED BY PUTIN
Eight former Soviet republics in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
signed a trade agreement Oct. 18 that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said
would strengthen bonds in the loose regional grouping.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not identify the goods that will be
freed of export and import duties, but said the agreement will lower prices for
those goods, creating better conditions for businesses among the nations and
“making our economies more competitive.” Putin also insisted that the trade deal
does not clash with the commitments that Russia needs to undertake in order to
join the World Trade Organization, an international trade body that Russia has
been trying to get into for nearly two decades, Reuters reported.
“This is a fundamental document that will serve as a basis for relations for
a long time,” Putin said of the Free Trade Zone pact, signed after a meeting of
prime ministers from the 11-nation CIS. But three members -- energy-rich
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- did not sign the new agreement,
underscoring the persistent rifts in a grouping sometimes criticized by its own
members as little more than a talking shop.
Putin said the pact, due to take effect in January, would replace a 1994
deal that some CIS members never ratified.
He said it would boost trade among them -- which he said had increased by 48
percent in the first half of 2011 over the same period in 2010, to $134 billion
-- without causing conflicts in trade with other nations. The pact was signed by
Russia, Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Belarus. Three more ex-Soviet nations Uzbekistan and oil and gas-rich Azerbaijan
and Turkmenistan did not sign the agreement but said they would consider doing
so before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Oct. 18 the controversial
jailing of Ukraine’s opposition leader was Kiev’s “internal affair” as the
Kremlin courted Ukraine smarting from a rift with the EU. “This is an internal
affair of Ukraine,” Medvedev said after economic talks with Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych in the industrial city in Ukraine.
Putin held consultations Oct. 18 with his Ukrainian counterpart following a
stunning refusal by Brussels to meet with Yanukovych following the jailing of
his opponent. Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said yesterday that it was
only “a matter of days” before Moscow and Kiev resolved their disagreement over
energy prices -- one of the main sticking points in their current
ties.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
ST PETESBURG, Russia
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=former-soviet-nations-sign-free-trade-pact-led-by-putin-2011-10-19
signed a trade agreement Oct. 18 that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said
would strengthen bonds in the loose regional grouping.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not identify the goods that will be
freed of export and import duties, but said the agreement will lower prices for
those goods, creating better conditions for businesses among the nations and
“making our economies more competitive.” Putin also insisted that the trade deal
does not clash with the commitments that Russia needs to undertake in order to
join the World Trade Organization, an international trade body that Russia has
been trying to get into for nearly two decades, Reuters reported.
“This is a fundamental document that will serve as a basis for relations for
a long time,” Putin said of the Free Trade Zone pact, signed after a meeting of
prime ministers from the 11-nation CIS. But three members -- energy-rich
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- did not sign the new agreement,
underscoring the persistent rifts in a grouping sometimes criticized by its own
members as little more than a talking shop.
Putin said the pact, due to take effect in January, would replace a 1994
deal that some CIS members never ratified.
He said it would boost trade among them -- which he said had increased by 48
percent in the first half of 2011 over the same period in 2010, to $134 billion
-- without causing conflicts in trade with other nations. The pact was signed by
Russia, Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Belarus. Three more ex-Soviet nations Uzbekistan and oil and gas-rich Azerbaijan
and Turkmenistan did not sign the agreement but said they would consider doing
so before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Oct. 18 the controversial
jailing of Ukraine’s opposition leader was Kiev’s “internal affair” as the
Kremlin courted Ukraine smarting from a rift with the EU. “This is an internal
affair of Ukraine,” Medvedev said after economic talks with Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych in the industrial city in Ukraine.
Putin held consultations Oct. 18 with his Ukrainian counterpart following a
stunning refusal by Brussels to meet with Yanukovych following the jailing of
his opponent. Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said yesterday that it was
only “a matter of days” before Moscow and Kiev resolved their disagreement over
energy prices -- one of the main sticking points in their current
ties.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
ST PETESBURG, Russia
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=former-soviet-nations-sign-free-trade-pact-led-by-putin-2011-10-19
PROTECT YOUR PIPELINES , BODY SAYS
Turkey should work hard at increasing security measures in its southeastern
region to boost oil and gas supplies from Iraq in the near future – a move
backed by the United States to lessen the country’s energy connections with Iran
– according to the top executive of a leading energy industry association.
“Turkey should lessen its energy dependency on both Russia and especially
Iran,” Sorbet Karbuz, director of the Hydrocarbons Division at the Mediterranean
Energy Observatory (OME), a France-based association, said at the 27th Standing
Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (COMCEC) in Istanbul.
According to Karbuz, the U.S. government also supports the idea of lessening
Turkey’s energy dependency on Iran.
“The U.S. clearly backs Turkey in this since the aim of the U.S. wants to
isolate Iran in the region despite the rich energy sources,” he said, adding
that China may remain the only country importing gas and oil from Iran.
“The world’s most virgin oil and natural gas fields are in Libya and Iraq,
and Turkey should make the best out of its neighbor’s sources through its energy
firms,” said Karbuz, who is ranked among the world’s leading energy experts in
oil and gas market, geopolitics, energy modeling and scenario building.
According to Karbuz, Turkey must first tackle the issue of energy security in
its southeastern province in order to transfer the oil and gas to the
international markets.
“Frequent bomb attacks on the Kirkük-Yumurtalık pipeline puts Turkey’s bid in
becoming an energy transfer point between Iraq and the international markets in
danger,” said Karbuz, noting that the country should do its best to sustain
security in the region. “Otherwise the rich resources of oil and gas in Iraqi
fields might be transferred through the Persian Gulf.”
Despite the agreement signed by Turkey and Iran in 2009 to transfer up to 35
billion cubic meters of Iran’s natural gas to Europe through Turkey, Karbuz said
the plans may change in the region due to U.S. interference in energy
politics.
“Since the U.S. aims to isolate Iran in the region, Iraq appears to be the
best alternative in the region for both supplying European demand and fulfilling
Turkey’s role as an energy transfer point,” Karbuz said.
Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji said Turkey has asked Iran to increase
its natural gas exports, according to a Tehran Times report on Oct. 14. Iran’s
current gas exports to Turkey stands at 24 million cubic meters per day on
average, the report said.
Iran and Turkey have held negotiations in the past to increase gas exports to
Turkey, Oji said, adding that Iran had a capacity to export an average of 36-40
million cubic meters of natural gas per day to Turkey. Turkey currently has gas
purchase deals with Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan, as well as liquefied natural
gas deals with Nigeria and Algeria.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
GÖKHAN KURTARAN
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=protect-your-pipelines-body-says-2011-10-20
region to boost oil and gas supplies from Iraq in the near future – a move
backed by the United States to lessen the country’s energy connections with Iran
– according to the top executive of a leading energy industry association.
“Turkey should lessen its energy dependency on both Russia and especially
Iran,” Sorbet Karbuz, director of the Hydrocarbons Division at the Mediterranean
Energy Observatory (OME), a France-based association, said at the 27th Standing
Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (COMCEC) in Istanbul.
According to Karbuz, the U.S. government also supports the idea of lessening
Turkey’s energy dependency on Iran.
“The U.S. clearly backs Turkey in this since the aim of the U.S. wants to
isolate Iran in the region despite the rich energy sources,” he said, adding
that China may remain the only country importing gas and oil from Iran.
“The world’s most virgin oil and natural gas fields are in Libya and Iraq,
and Turkey should make the best out of its neighbor’s sources through its energy
firms,” said Karbuz, who is ranked among the world’s leading energy experts in
oil and gas market, geopolitics, energy modeling and scenario building.
According to Karbuz, Turkey must first tackle the issue of energy security in
its southeastern province in order to transfer the oil and gas to the
international markets.
“Frequent bomb attacks on the Kirkük-Yumurtalık pipeline puts Turkey’s bid in
becoming an energy transfer point between Iraq and the international markets in
danger,” said Karbuz, noting that the country should do its best to sustain
security in the region. “Otherwise the rich resources of oil and gas in Iraqi
fields might be transferred through the Persian Gulf.”
Despite the agreement signed by Turkey and Iran in 2009 to transfer up to 35
billion cubic meters of Iran’s natural gas to Europe through Turkey, Karbuz said
the plans may change in the region due to U.S. interference in energy
politics.
“Since the U.S. aims to isolate Iran in the region, Iraq appears to be the
best alternative in the region for both supplying European demand and fulfilling
Turkey’s role as an energy transfer point,” Karbuz said.
Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji said Turkey has asked Iran to increase
its natural gas exports, according to a Tehran Times report on Oct. 14. Iran’s
current gas exports to Turkey stands at 24 million cubic meters per day on
average, the report said.
Iran and Turkey have held negotiations in the past to increase gas exports to
Turkey, Oji said, adding that Iran had a capacity to export an average of 36-40
million cubic meters of natural gas per day to Turkey. Turkey currently has gas
purchase deals with Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan, as well as liquefied natural
gas deals with Nigeria and Algeria.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
GÖKHAN KURTARAN
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=protect-your-pipelines-body-says-2011-10-20
GREEK CYPRUS TO SET A FUND FOR GAS RICHES
Greek Cyprus has yet to confirm the existence of natural gas off its shores
but is already contemplating setting up a sovereign wealth fund to manage the
riches it hopes will come its way, according to officials.
Gas has the potential to transform the eastern Mediterranean island, but
assuming the first results from exploratory drilling due in December are
positive, it will be a long time before the eurozone’s third-smallest economy is
able to export gas, Energy Minister Praxoula Antoniadou said, Reuters reported
yesterday.
“We are talking about the medium and long term – a very minimum of three
years before anything can materialize with reference to supplying the local
market, and many more years before we could be exporting,” she said in an
interview on the sidelines of an economic conference. Texas-based Noble Energy
started drilling last month in a bloc abutting a prospect controlled by Israel
that has been dubbed the largest natural gas find of the last decade.
If Noble finds gas, two more appraisal wells will be sunk. How many
hydrocarbons are in the reserves will be clear within six to eight months,
officials said.
Greek Cyprus’ prospecting has angered Turkey, which says the status of
divided Cyprus must be resolved first before any exploration.
Cyprus is finalizing plans to launch a second offshore licensing round for
oil and gas before the end of the year, and Antoniadou said a “significant”
number of companies had purchased preliminary geophysical data that point to
extensive deposits ranging from 4 trillion to 10 trillion cubic feet. She
declined to go into detail about which companies had expressed interest, citing
commercial confidentiality.
Meanwhile, speaking after an Oct. 19 meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader
Derviş Eroğlu, Greek Cyprus President Demetris Christofias said he could not
send a hopeful message regarding talks to solve the Cyprus problem, Cyprus news
agency reported yesterday. The two leaders will meet today for the last time
before their meeting in New York with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The two sides reviewed the positions of the two sides on core issues during
the Oct. 19 meeting, Christofias said, noting that differences remained
regarding executive powers.
“In the property chapter, there are significant differences, as in the EU
chapter. We are very close on issues concerning legislative power,” he
said.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=cyprus-to-set-up-a-fund-for-gas-riches-2011-10-20
but is already contemplating setting up a sovereign wealth fund to manage the
riches it hopes will come its way, according to officials.
Gas has the potential to transform the eastern Mediterranean island, but
assuming the first results from exploratory drilling due in December are
positive, it will be a long time before the eurozone’s third-smallest economy is
able to export gas, Energy Minister Praxoula Antoniadou said, Reuters reported
yesterday.
“We are talking about the medium and long term – a very minimum of three
years before anything can materialize with reference to supplying the local
market, and many more years before we could be exporting,” she said in an
interview on the sidelines of an economic conference. Texas-based Noble Energy
started drilling last month in a bloc abutting a prospect controlled by Israel
that has been dubbed the largest natural gas find of the last decade.
If Noble finds gas, two more appraisal wells will be sunk. How many
hydrocarbons are in the reserves will be clear within six to eight months,
officials said.
Greek Cyprus’ prospecting has angered Turkey, which says the status of
divided Cyprus must be resolved first before any exploration.
Cyprus is finalizing plans to launch a second offshore licensing round for
oil and gas before the end of the year, and Antoniadou said a “significant”
number of companies had purchased preliminary geophysical data that point to
extensive deposits ranging from 4 trillion to 10 trillion cubic feet. She
declined to go into detail about which companies had expressed interest, citing
commercial confidentiality.
Meanwhile, speaking after an Oct. 19 meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader
Derviş Eroğlu, Greek Cyprus President Demetris Christofias said he could not
send a hopeful message regarding talks to solve the Cyprus problem, Cyprus news
agency reported yesterday. The two leaders will meet today for the last time
before their meeting in New York with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The two sides reviewed the positions of the two sides on core issues during
the Oct. 19 meeting, Christofias said, noting that differences remained
regarding executive powers.
“In the property chapter, there are significant differences, as in the EU
chapter. We are very close on issues concerning legislative power,” he
said.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=cyprus-to-set-up-a-fund-for-gas-riches-2011-10-20
WORLD BANK PLAN PROMISING
The World Bank’s Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) will generate a
considerable amount of investment for Turkey, the top executive of the bank’s
Turkish office said Oct. 21.
“The Turkish government and World Bank have had talks in participating in
CPS,” Ulrich Zachau, the World Bank Turkey director, told Reuters in Ankara.
The strategy program would focus on investments in climate change, urban
developments, education and health and employment, he said, adding that Turkey’s
current account deficit had reached 9.5 percent of gross domestic product.
He also said the sharp rise was caused largely by skyrocketing oil prices and
energy imports into the country.
“The loss of value in the Turkish Lira will make imports more expensive in
general for Turkey,” he said, adding that this would eventually slow down
economic growth in Turkey.
“We are expecting a serious slowdown in Turkish economy,” said Zachau,
estimating that the country’s growth would be around 7 percent by the end of the
year.
GDP growth will be nearly 4 percent less in 2012, he said, adding that the
Turkish Central Bank had done “a successful job in making excellent
adjustments.”
October 21, 2011
ANKARA - Reuters
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=world-bank-plan-promising-2011-10-21
considerable amount of investment for Turkey, the top executive of the bank’s
Turkish office said Oct. 21.
“The Turkish government and World Bank have had talks in participating in
CPS,” Ulrich Zachau, the World Bank Turkey director, told Reuters in Ankara.
The strategy program would focus on investments in climate change, urban
developments, education and health and employment, he said, adding that Turkey’s
current account deficit had reached 9.5 percent of gross domestic product.
He also said the sharp rise was caused largely by skyrocketing oil prices and
energy imports into the country.
“The loss of value in the Turkish Lira will make imports more expensive in
general for Turkey,” he said, adding that this would eventually slow down
economic growth in Turkey.
“We are expecting a serious slowdown in Turkish economy,” said Zachau,
estimating that the country’s growth would be around 7 percent by the end of the
year.
GDP growth will be nearly 4 percent less in 2012, he said, adding that the
Turkish Central Bank had done “a successful job in making excellent
adjustments.”
October 21, 2011
ANKARA - Reuters
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=world-bank-plan-promising-2011-10-21
JAPANESE WINS SOLAR RACE
A team from Japan won a world solar car race through Australia’s outback on
Thursday, after battling more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles) of remote highways,
dodging kangaroos and other wildlife and avoiding a bushfire.
Race officials said the team from Tokai University, near Tokyo, finished the
race from the northern city of Darwin to the southern city of Adelaide at about
noon on Thursday.
The teams set off on Sunday.
The Nuon Solar Car Team from the Netherlands came second, while a U.S. team
from the University of Michigan finished third.
Nuon’s driver Javier Sint Jago said he had to avoid a bushfire, wallabies,
cattle, sheep and lizards on his marathon drive, although the biggest challenge
was to fight the strong winds which buffeted his 140 kg (300 lb) vehicle.
“It was pretty rough. The side winds were 50 to 60 km an hour (30-40 mph),
and can easily push you off the side,” he said.
“It was just so much concentration.”
Thirty-seven cars from 21 countries started off in Darwin, heading south and
using only the power generated by the sun in the 11th running of the annual
race.
High-tech solar cars use public highways on the trek, with teams camping out
by the road overnight as their cars run out of power after dark.
Along the way, they dodge other traffic, as well as kangaroos, camels and
other wildlife wandering the outback deserts.
This year’s race was made more dangerous by bushfires in the remote Northern
Territory, which forced some cars to stop racing on Tuesday and camp out at a
police roadblock as the fires crossed the highway, 300 km north of the central
town of Alice Springs.
One car from the Philippines burst into flames early in the race when its
battery exploded. No team members were injured, the fire was extinguished and
the car resumed the race with a replacement battery pack.
The race is a favorite for university teams and researchers looking for new
green sources of energy to fuel cars.
Friday, October 21, 2011
CANBERRA - Reuters
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=japanese-wins-solar-race-2011-10-21
Thursday, after battling more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles) of remote highways,
dodging kangaroos and other wildlife and avoiding a bushfire.
Race officials said the team from Tokai University, near Tokyo, finished the
race from the northern city of Darwin to the southern city of Adelaide at about
noon on Thursday.
The teams set off on Sunday.
The Nuon Solar Car Team from the Netherlands came second, while a U.S. team
from the University of Michigan finished third.
Nuon’s driver Javier Sint Jago said he had to avoid a bushfire, wallabies,
cattle, sheep and lizards on his marathon drive, although the biggest challenge
was to fight the strong winds which buffeted his 140 kg (300 lb) vehicle.
“It was pretty rough. The side winds were 50 to 60 km an hour (30-40 mph),
and can easily push you off the side,” he said.
“It was just so much concentration.”
Thirty-seven cars from 21 countries started off in Darwin, heading south and
using only the power generated by the sun in the 11th running of the annual
race.
High-tech solar cars use public highways on the trek, with teams camping out
by the road overnight as their cars run out of power after dark.
Along the way, they dodge other traffic, as well as kangaroos, camels and
other wildlife wandering the outback deserts.
This year’s race was made more dangerous by bushfires in the remote Northern
Territory, which forced some cars to stop racing on Tuesday and camp out at a
police roadblock as the fires crossed the highway, 300 km north of the central
town of Alice Springs.
One car from the Philippines burst into flames early in the race when its
battery exploded. No team members were injured, the fire was extinguished and
the car resumed the race with a replacement battery pack.
The race is a favorite for university teams and researchers looking for new
green sources of energy to fuel cars.
Friday, October 21, 2011
CANBERRA - Reuters
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=japanese-wins-solar-race-2011-10-21
TURKEY TO SEND ANOTHER SHIP FOR GAS SEARCH OFF CYPRUS
Turkey will send another vessel for gas and oil exploration off Cyprus
tomorrow, the energy minister said today amid escalating tension over
prospecting off the divided island.
It will set sail from Turkey's southern Antalya port for the Mediterranean
Monday morning, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız told the Anatolia news agency.
The ship will prospect for gas and oil in a 1,100 square-kilometer area and
stay for 40 days in the Mediterranean, he added.
Regional tensions have risen since the Greek Cypriot government, recognized
internationally but not by Turkey, struck a deal with U.S. energy firm Noble,
which has already started exploratory drilling for gas off the southern coast of
Cyprus.
In retaliation, Turkey sent a ship, Piri Reis, to the region in September
after signing an accord with Turkish Cyprus, which only Ankara recognizes, for
gas exploration.
Piri Reis will also continue gas exploration activities, the minister
said.
He also announced that Turkey had another ship prospecting gas and oil in the
Mediterranean after an agreement with an international company, which he said
has not been publicized so far.
"So, as of tomorrow we will have three vessels in the Mediterranean," said
Yıldız.
The gas exploration "will continue in the north and south and even in the
western parts of the island," he added.
Turkey says the Greek Cypriot government has no right to conduct offshore
energy exploration while UN-backed talks on reunifying the island are
ongoing.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-to-send-another-ship-for-gas-search-off-cyprus-2011-10-23
Click here to edit.
ELECTRICITY FRAUD COST 2 BLN
Electricity distribution firms brought lawsuits against 45,500 Turkish people
during the period between Jan.1 and Oct. 13 for the illegal use of electricity,
according to figures provided by the Turkish Energy Minister, Hürriyet reported
yesterday.
The Energy Ministry has inspected nearly 40 million people’s electricity use
since 2003 and recovered 2 billion Turkish Liras from people who were using
electricity illegally, said Taner Yıldız, Turkey’s Energy Minister speaking at
an Istanbul press meeting. “From these investigations we have recovered nearly 2
billion liras,” said Yıldız, adding that electricity distribution firms should
also take the necessary measures to prevent the illegal use of the
electricity.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=8216electricity-fraud-cost-2-bln8217-2011-10-23
during the period between Jan.1 and Oct. 13 for the illegal use of electricity,
according to figures provided by the Turkish Energy Minister, Hürriyet reported
yesterday.
The Energy Ministry has inspected nearly 40 million people’s electricity use
since 2003 and recovered 2 billion Turkish Liras from people who were using
electricity illegally, said Taner Yıldız, Turkey’s Energy Minister speaking at
an Istanbul press meeting. “From these investigations we have recovered nearly 2
billion liras,” said Yıldız, adding that electricity distribution firms should
also take the necessary measures to prevent the illegal use of the
electricity.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=8216electricity-fraud-cost-2-bln8217-2011-10-23
GLOBAL CHALLENGES AND THE UN
The global economic crisis continues to shake governments, families and
businesses around the world impacting in particular the poor. Unemployment is
rising everywhere. Social inequalities grow wider with vulnerable groups
constantly driven to the margin. Many live in fear of their future in rich and
poor countries alike.
Famine in the Horn of Africa threatens more than 13 million individuals,
including a generation of children.
Diseases devastate the health of people and economies all around the
world.
Youth across the world lack the opportunities they deserve. Their anxiety and
alienation lead to protest and at times violent demonstrations.
Rising food prices worldwide threaten the most vulnerable people who already
live in very fragile conditions.
Natural disasters that threaten security and development of humanity have
almost become a part of daily life in many regions of the world.
If this were not enough, discrimination, disempowerment and violation of
human rights continue to pose formidable challenge to humanity.
During these hard times, the most vulnerable and marginalized of the global
population ask a simple question: “What will become of us? What can the United
Nations do for us?”
Everybody must ask that question to himself or herself. What can we do? How
can we help people find greater peace, prosperity and justice in a world of
crises?
In fact the answer is not as hard as many may think. What is required is
political will and commitment coupled with inclusive collective action involving
all segments and sections of the society at the national, regional and global
levels.
Sustainable development is the first way forward for a solution. Saving our
planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth are part of the
same endeavor. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity,
energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment.
Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.
We must invest in people, particularly in education and women’s and
children’s health. Development is not sustainable unless it is equitable and
serves all people. We must act before conflicts erupt by deploying political
mediation missions rather than troops. In other words, preventive diplomacy, a
UN specialty, should be nurtured and supported. We must work for the rule of law
and stand against impunity to prevent violations of human rights.
We must work for better disaster-risk reduction and preparedness to avoid
further damage from natural disasters.
The UN remains the world’s first emergency responder. It is essential that we
continue to build on our most innovative and effective tool for humanitarian
relief. Today, famine in Somalia continues to spread. Humanitarian aid should
also be followed by investment in long term projects to reduce the impact of
future, similar climate conditions. The international community should act more
vigorously to help save the children of the Horn of Africa.
Turkey displays an exemplary role in Somalia by both generating aid and
positioning itself for investment in long term projects to reduce the impact of
future natural disasters.
Growing awareness that relieving the world’s most vulnerable people of the
unnecessary hardship of poverty, hunger and disease is not just a moral
obligation, it is also a wise investment in our shared future. This idea should
find more followers.
Women represent more than half of the world’s population and much of the
world’s unrealized potential. The U.N. has also become an example by action. The
U.N. has many women leaders in its ranks.
The international community should also focus on the new generation. Young
people are more than our future, they are our current partners in combating
diseases and poverty. They are also our present, both in numbers and how they
drive political and social change.
The international community knows that no one country or group of countries
can address all of these issues alone. To deliver for those in need, the
international community must enhance cooperation, broaden its base and extend
its reach. Global problems require global solutions.
Yes, the challenges are big and growing, but there is no time for pessimism.
We have to act now and act collectively.
At its 66th anniversary, the United Nations is still the leading global
organization that has the knowledge and expertise to help the international
community. The world has the resources, expertise, experience and technology to
overcome all of these problems.
The international community knows what works and what does not. It is the
time to demonstrate leadership and political will for change.
For more than six decades, the United Nations continues to be the only global
forum creating a credible platform that can bring world leaders together and
generate the required political will. The seven billion now living on the planet
earth look to the international community, especially to the world’s
leaders.
They need solutions. They demand leadership. They want the international
community to act. Let us respond to this call and join hands with the U.N., the
U.N. which is for you, to address these challenges, embark on innovative
solutions and create a better world, a world of peace, prosperity and social
justice, both for the present and the generations to come.
*Shahid Najam is a U.N. resident coordinator.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=global-challenges-and-the-un-2011-10-23
businesses around the world impacting in particular the poor. Unemployment is
rising everywhere. Social inequalities grow wider with vulnerable groups
constantly driven to the margin. Many live in fear of their future in rich and
poor countries alike.
Famine in the Horn of Africa threatens more than 13 million individuals,
including a generation of children.
Diseases devastate the health of people and economies all around the
world.
Youth across the world lack the opportunities they deserve. Their anxiety and
alienation lead to protest and at times violent demonstrations.
Rising food prices worldwide threaten the most vulnerable people who already
live in very fragile conditions.
Natural disasters that threaten security and development of humanity have
almost become a part of daily life in many regions of the world.
If this were not enough, discrimination, disempowerment and violation of
human rights continue to pose formidable challenge to humanity.
During these hard times, the most vulnerable and marginalized of the global
population ask a simple question: “What will become of us? What can the United
Nations do for us?”
Everybody must ask that question to himself or herself. What can we do? How
can we help people find greater peace, prosperity and justice in a world of
crises?
In fact the answer is not as hard as many may think. What is required is
political will and commitment coupled with inclusive collective action involving
all segments and sections of the society at the national, regional and global
levels.
Sustainable development is the first way forward for a solution. Saving our
planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth are part of the
same endeavor. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity,
energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment.
Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.
We must invest in people, particularly in education and women’s and
children’s health. Development is not sustainable unless it is equitable and
serves all people. We must act before conflicts erupt by deploying political
mediation missions rather than troops. In other words, preventive diplomacy, a
UN specialty, should be nurtured and supported. We must work for the rule of law
and stand against impunity to prevent violations of human rights.
We must work for better disaster-risk reduction and preparedness to avoid
further damage from natural disasters.
The UN remains the world’s first emergency responder. It is essential that we
continue to build on our most innovative and effective tool for humanitarian
relief. Today, famine in Somalia continues to spread. Humanitarian aid should
also be followed by investment in long term projects to reduce the impact of
future, similar climate conditions. The international community should act more
vigorously to help save the children of the Horn of Africa.
Turkey displays an exemplary role in Somalia by both generating aid and
positioning itself for investment in long term projects to reduce the impact of
future natural disasters.
Growing awareness that relieving the world’s most vulnerable people of the
unnecessary hardship of poverty, hunger and disease is not just a moral
obligation, it is also a wise investment in our shared future. This idea should
find more followers.
Women represent more than half of the world’s population and much of the
world’s unrealized potential. The U.N. has also become an example by action. The
U.N. has many women leaders in its ranks.
The international community should also focus on the new generation. Young
people are more than our future, they are our current partners in combating
diseases and poverty. They are also our present, both in numbers and how they
drive political and social change.
The international community knows that no one country or group of countries
can address all of these issues alone. To deliver for those in need, the
international community must enhance cooperation, broaden its base and extend
its reach. Global problems require global solutions.
Yes, the challenges are big and growing, but there is no time for pessimism.
We have to act now and act collectively.
At its 66th anniversary, the United Nations is still the leading global
organization that has the knowledge and expertise to help the international
community. The world has the resources, expertise, experience and technology to
overcome all of these problems.
The international community knows what works and what does not. It is the
time to demonstrate leadership and political will for change.
For more than six decades, the United Nations continues to be the only global
forum creating a credible platform that can bring world leaders together and
generate the required political will. The seven billion now living on the planet
earth look to the international community, especially to the world’s
leaders.
They need solutions. They demand leadership. They want the international
community to act. Let us respond to this call and join hands with the U.N., the
U.N. which is for you, to address these challenges, embark on innovative
solutions and create a better world, a world of peace, prosperity and social
justice, both for the present and the generations to come.
*Shahid Najam is a U.N. resident coordinator.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=global-challenges-and-the-un-2011-10-23
ANKARA SENDS ADDITIONAL SHIP TO EXPLORE FOR GAS
Turkey will send another vessel for gas and oil exploration off Cyprus today,
the energy minister said yesterday amid escalating tension over prospecting off
the coast of the divided island.
The ship will set sail from Turkey’s southern Antalya port to carry out 3-D
seismic research this morning, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız told the Anatolia
news agency yesterday. The ship will prospect for gas and oil in a
1,100-square-kilometer area and stay for 40 days in the Mediterranean, Yıldız
said, adding that Turkey’s “Piri Reis” ship had conducted 2-D research over a
2,100-square-kilometer area and would continue its research.
Regional tensions have heightened since the Greek Cyprus government struck a
deal with U.S. energy firm Noble, which has already started exploratory drilling
for gas off the southern coast of Cyprus. In retaliation, Turkey sent Piri Reis
to the region in September after signing an accord with the Turkish Cypriot
government. The deal provides for oil and natural gas exploration in Turkish
Cypriot waters. On Sept. 22, Turkish Cyprus Council of Ministers gave an
exploration license to TPAO, Turkish Petroleum Corp., to explore for oil and
natural gas in the sea around the island.
Eroğlu met U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Sept. 24 and
proposed to suspend oil and natural gas exploration until a comprehensive
solution was found to the Cyprus question. Eroğlu alternatively proposed that if
the Greek Cypriot administration insisted on oil exploration, then a committee
should be set up by the two sides on the island to distribute wealth from
exploration. However, the Greek Cypriot side did not give a positive
response.
Piri Reis will also continue its gas exploration activities, the minister
said. Turkey has another ship prospecting for gas and oil in the Mediterranean
after an agreement with an international company, which has not been made public
yet, Yıldız said. “So, as of tomorrow we will have three vessels in the
Mediterranean.”
The gas exploration “will continue off the north and south and even off the
western parts of the island,” he added. Turkey says the Greek Cypriot government
has no right to conduct offshore energy exploration while U.N.-backed talks on
reunifying the island are ongoing. Turkey has threatened to freeze its ties with
the EU if next year Greek Cyprus takes the rotating presidency of the bloc as
scheduled before a solution is reached on the island’s future.
Compiled from AFP and AA stories by the Daily News staff.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=ankara-sends-additional-ship-to-explore-for-gas-2011-10-23
the energy minister said yesterday amid escalating tension over prospecting off
the coast of the divided island.
The ship will set sail from Turkey’s southern Antalya port to carry out 3-D
seismic research this morning, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız told the Anatolia
news agency yesterday. The ship will prospect for gas and oil in a
1,100-square-kilometer area and stay for 40 days in the Mediterranean, Yıldız
said, adding that Turkey’s “Piri Reis” ship had conducted 2-D research over a
2,100-square-kilometer area and would continue its research.
Regional tensions have heightened since the Greek Cyprus government struck a
deal with U.S. energy firm Noble, which has already started exploratory drilling
for gas off the southern coast of Cyprus. In retaliation, Turkey sent Piri Reis
to the region in September after signing an accord with the Turkish Cypriot
government. The deal provides for oil and natural gas exploration in Turkish
Cypriot waters. On Sept. 22, Turkish Cyprus Council of Ministers gave an
exploration license to TPAO, Turkish Petroleum Corp., to explore for oil and
natural gas in the sea around the island.
Eroğlu met U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Sept. 24 and
proposed to suspend oil and natural gas exploration until a comprehensive
solution was found to the Cyprus question. Eroğlu alternatively proposed that if
the Greek Cypriot administration insisted on oil exploration, then a committee
should be set up by the two sides on the island to distribute wealth from
exploration. However, the Greek Cypriot side did not give a positive
response.
Piri Reis will also continue its gas exploration activities, the minister
said. Turkey has another ship prospecting for gas and oil in the Mediterranean
after an agreement with an international company, which has not been made public
yet, Yıldız said. “So, as of tomorrow we will have three vessels in the
Mediterranean.”
The gas exploration “will continue off the north and south and even off the
western parts of the island,” he added. Turkey says the Greek Cypriot government
has no right to conduct offshore energy exploration while U.N.-backed talks on
reunifying the island are ongoing. Turkey has threatened to freeze its ties with
the EU if next year Greek Cyprus takes the rotating presidency of the bloc as
scheduled before a solution is reached on the island’s future.
Compiled from AFP and AA stories by the Daily News staff.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=ankara-sends-additional-ship-to-explore-for-gas-2011-10-23
NEW TURKISH , AZERI DEAL BOOSTS NABUCCO HOPES
Turkey signed an agreement with Azerbaijan yesterday to supply natural gas to
the much-discussed Nabucco pipeline project, which will transport Caspian gas
across Turkey to Eastern European.
The Şahdeniz II agreement was signed between the energy ministers of both
countries in İzmir with the participation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
and Azeri President İlham Aliyev during their first High Level Strategic
Cooperation Council meeting.
“The details of the agreement will be revised by our energy ministers,”
Erdoğan told reporters at the press conference but said he was expecting the
completion of the pipeline’s construction between Turkey and Azerbaijan next
year. Turkey will buy 6 billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan and will
help with the transfer of another 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to
Europe via the Nabucco pipeline, according to information obtained by the
Hürriyet Daily News.
The EU-backed Nabucco project is designed to curb Europe’s dependency on
Russian resources by acquiring gas from other countries’ resources in the
Caspian region and the Middle East, particularly Azerbaijan. The signing of the
agreement is an important development for the realization of Nabucco, whose
contractors failed to tender the 6,500 kilometers pipeline crossing Turkish,
Bulgarian, Romanian, Hungarian and Austrian territories.
The first council meeting between Turkey and Azerbaijan focused on economic
issues, but the two regional allies also signed agreements on communications,
encouraging investments, police force education and family and social
policy.
The agreement would make Azerbaijan one of the most important gas suppliers
to the European continent, Aliyev said while hailing bilateral cooperation with
Turkey.
Ahead of the council meeting, Erdoğan delivered a speech at the
groundbreaking ceremony of the Aegean Refinery in Aliağa and said Turkey and
Azerbaijan shared the same views on the Cyprus and Nagorno-Karabakh issues, the
same ideals on bringing peace to the Caucasus and the same approach to
terrorism.
Turkey will “fight shoulder to shoulder with Azerbaijan until the occupation
of Karabakh comes to an end,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at the
opening ceremony of an oil refinery in İzmir.
“The occupation of Karabakh saddens Turkish nationals as it does Azerbaijani
brothers,” he said, adding that he believed “Azerbaijani brothers” shared the
sorrow of Turks whenever a Turkish youngster was killed in terror attacks.
“No country should forget that one day, they will also become the target of
the terrorists they are tolerating or turning a blind eye to,” Erdoğan said,
urging regional countries to fight against the threat.
Turkey was always grateful to Azerbaijan for its support to Turkey in
counter-terrorism, he said, adding that Turkey was grateful to Azerbaijan for
extending a helping hand in the first hours following Oct. 23’s devastating
earthquake in the eastern province of Van.
Erdoğan thanked Aliyev for the rescue teams, which rescued three people.
“Turkey is a great state and can solve all of its problems. Our extending a
helping hand after the earthquake in Van was an act that came right from our
heart,” Aliyev said.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=new-turkish-azeri-deal-boosts-nabucco-hopes-2011-10-25
the much-discussed Nabucco pipeline project, which will transport Caspian gas
across Turkey to Eastern European.
The Şahdeniz II agreement was signed between the energy ministers of both
countries in İzmir with the participation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
and Azeri President İlham Aliyev during their first High Level Strategic
Cooperation Council meeting.
“The details of the agreement will be revised by our energy ministers,”
Erdoğan told reporters at the press conference but said he was expecting the
completion of the pipeline’s construction between Turkey and Azerbaijan next
year. Turkey will buy 6 billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan and will
help with the transfer of another 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to
Europe via the Nabucco pipeline, according to information obtained by the
Hürriyet Daily News.
The EU-backed Nabucco project is designed to curb Europe’s dependency on
Russian resources by acquiring gas from other countries’ resources in the
Caspian region and the Middle East, particularly Azerbaijan. The signing of the
agreement is an important development for the realization of Nabucco, whose
contractors failed to tender the 6,500 kilometers pipeline crossing Turkish,
Bulgarian, Romanian, Hungarian and Austrian territories.
The first council meeting between Turkey and Azerbaijan focused on economic
issues, but the two regional allies also signed agreements on communications,
encouraging investments, police force education and family and social
policy.
The agreement would make Azerbaijan one of the most important gas suppliers
to the European continent, Aliyev said while hailing bilateral cooperation with
Turkey.
Ahead of the council meeting, Erdoğan delivered a speech at the
groundbreaking ceremony of the Aegean Refinery in Aliağa and said Turkey and
Azerbaijan shared the same views on the Cyprus and Nagorno-Karabakh issues, the
same ideals on bringing peace to the Caucasus and the same approach to
terrorism.
Turkey will “fight shoulder to shoulder with Azerbaijan until the occupation
of Karabakh comes to an end,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at the
opening ceremony of an oil refinery in İzmir.
“The occupation of Karabakh saddens Turkish nationals as it does Azerbaijani
brothers,” he said, adding that he believed “Azerbaijani brothers” shared the
sorrow of Turks whenever a Turkish youngster was killed in terror attacks.
“No country should forget that one day, they will also become the target of
the terrorists they are tolerating or turning a blind eye to,” Erdoğan said,
urging regional countries to fight against the threat.
Turkey was always grateful to Azerbaijan for its support to Turkey in
counter-terrorism, he said, adding that Turkey was grateful to Azerbaijan for
extending a helping hand in the first hours following Oct. 23’s devastating
earthquake in the eastern province of Van.
Erdoğan thanked Aliyev for the rescue teams, which rescued three people.
“Turkey is a great state and can solve all of its problems. Our extending a
helping hand after the earthquake in Van was an act that came right from our
heart,” Aliyev said.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=new-turkish-azeri-deal-boosts-nabucco-hopes-2011-10-25
ELBARADEI SEES NUCLEAR EXPANSION
Former UN nuclear monitor and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei expects growth
in nuclear energy - particularly in emerging economies - despite the Fukushima
disaster caused by Japan’s March tsunami.
“There will be, in the short term, a slowdown in some countries. But others
like France, India or China (won’t see) an impact on their (nuclear) programs,”
he told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
The growth will be driven by mounting demand for energy in fast-growing
economies, ElBaradei said, citing a U.S. government report predicting 87 percent
growth in electricity generation by 2035.
“You can see that a lot of the large emerging economies are looking seriously
at already expanding their use of nuclear energy,” he told the Journal. “For
example, China and India are expanding by five to eight times their use of
nuclear energy by 2020 or 2022. Brazil is expanding its nuclear power program.
South Africa is looking seriously to do so.”
The former International Atomic Energy Agency chief said, however, that
greater steps should be taken to insure the safety of nuclear facilities,
including “mandatory peer review ... both civilian and military.”
The March 11 earthquake triggered a tsunami that tore into Japan’s northeast
coast, leaving 20,000 people dead or missing and causing meltdowns and
explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The release of
radiation forced the evacuation of tens of thousands in the world’s worst
nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=elbaradei-sees-nuclear-expansion-2011-10-25
in nuclear energy - particularly in emerging economies - despite the Fukushima
disaster caused by Japan’s March tsunami.
“There will be, in the short term, a slowdown in some countries. But others
like France, India or China (won’t see) an impact on their (nuclear) programs,”
he told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
The growth will be driven by mounting demand for energy in fast-growing
economies, ElBaradei said, citing a U.S. government report predicting 87 percent
growth in electricity generation by 2035.
“You can see that a lot of the large emerging economies are looking seriously
at already expanding their use of nuclear energy,” he told the Journal. “For
example, China and India are expanding by five to eight times their use of
nuclear energy by 2020 or 2022. Brazil is expanding its nuclear power program.
South Africa is looking seriously to do so.”
The former International Atomic Energy Agency chief said, however, that
greater steps should be taken to insure the safety of nuclear facilities,
including “mandatory peer review ... both civilian and military.”
The March 11 earthquake triggered a tsunami that tore into Japan’s northeast
coast, leaving 20,000 people dead or missing and causing meltdowns and
explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The release of
radiation forced the evacuation of tens of thousands in the world’s worst
nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=elbaradei-sees-nuclear-expansion-2011-10-25
ANKARA , BAKU PUT $5 BLN IN REFINERY
The first step for Turkey’s largest private sector investment is taken between Turkish energy company Turcas Petrol and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan as they invest $5 billion into a joint venture in İzmir.
Turkish energy company Turcas Petrol (Turcas) and the State Oil Company of
Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) have poured nearly $5 billion into a refinery at
their PETKİM Petrokimya Holding joint venture in İzmir, making it Turkey’s
largest private sector investment.
The refinery is scheduled to begin operating in 2015 with a capacity to
process 10 million metric tons of crude oil. The deal is the result of the
strong cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan said during the refinery’s groundbreaking ceremony.
The construction process will create 10,000 temporary jobs, while 1,000
permanent jobs will be created following the opening of the Aliağa Petrochemical
Peninsula, Erdoğan said. “We have previously connected Baku oil to the world
through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline,” the prime minister said. Azerbaijani
natural gas is also transported to the eastern province of Erzurum via the
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline. Erdoğan also said a Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
railway would also be completed soon to connect the people of the three
countries. The privatization of PETKİM reinforced the economic relations between
Turkey and Azerbaijan by creating an economic partnership stemming from
Turkish-Azeri friendship, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, adding that
the deal followed the logic of the “one nation, two states” mantra shared by
Turkey and Azerbaijan.
A cluster model between SOCAR and Turcas
“Our power is our alliance,” Aliyev said, adding that the volume of the
natural gas would be increased from Baku to Erzurum. As part of the investment,
SOCAR and Turcas will follow a cluster model. There will be a refinery with
feedstock reliability, a crude oil processing capacity of 10 million tons, a
container terminal with a minimum capacity of 1 million twenty-foot equivalent
units (TEU), an integrated port and a logistic area by the end of 2015. As part
of the deal, Turcas and SOCAR established a joint venture company called SOCAR
& Turcas Energy (STEAŞ), 25 percent of which will be controlled by
Turcas.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=ankara-baku-puts-5-bln-in-refinery-2011-10-25
Turkish energy company Turcas Petrol (Turcas) and the State Oil Company of
Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) have poured nearly $5 billion into a refinery at
their PETKİM Petrokimya Holding joint venture in İzmir, making it Turkey’s
largest private sector investment.
The refinery is scheduled to begin operating in 2015 with a capacity to
process 10 million metric tons of crude oil. The deal is the result of the
strong cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan said during the refinery’s groundbreaking ceremony.
The construction process will create 10,000 temporary jobs, while 1,000
permanent jobs will be created following the opening of the Aliağa Petrochemical
Peninsula, Erdoğan said. “We have previously connected Baku oil to the world
through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline,” the prime minister said. Azerbaijani
natural gas is also transported to the eastern province of Erzurum via the
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline. Erdoğan also said a Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
railway would also be completed soon to connect the people of the three
countries. The privatization of PETKİM reinforced the economic relations between
Turkey and Azerbaijan by creating an economic partnership stemming from
Turkish-Azeri friendship, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, adding that
the deal followed the logic of the “one nation, two states” mantra shared by
Turkey and Azerbaijan.
A cluster model between SOCAR and Turcas
“Our power is our alliance,” Aliyev said, adding that the volume of the
natural gas would be increased from Baku to Erzurum. As part of the investment,
SOCAR and Turcas will follow a cluster model. There will be a refinery with
feedstock reliability, a crude oil processing capacity of 10 million tons, a
container terminal with a minimum capacity of 1 million twenty-foot equivalent
units (TEU), an integrated port and a logistic area by the end of 2015. As part
of the deal, Turcas and SOCAR established a joint venture company called SOCAR
& Turcas Energy (STEAŞ), 25 percent of which will be controlled by
Turcas.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=ankara-baku-puts-5-bln-in-refinery-2011-10-25