Well-functioning Energy Market Key to Europe
There is a pressing need to change Europe's energy policy framework to make it more predictable and market oriented. This was a key message conveyed by Statoil natural gas senior vice president Rune Bjørnson at a conference in Brussels earlier this week “The good news is that it can be done. The ongoing process in Europe of establishing an energy and climate policy framework post-2020 is a golden opportunity to achieve this,” said Bjørnson. “Our position is clear—we support a single CO2 target with at least 40% emission cuts in 2030, driven by a
SPE to Launch Europe Petro League at Offshore Europe Expo
Around 40 oil and gas students from across Europe are preparing to come together at the inaugural Europe Petro League this month, a new competition launched by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Aberdeen Section. The ten teams which have made it through to the final, including a team from Aberdeen University, will compete during the daylong event being held during Offshore Europe at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre. The competition, organised by volunteers from SPE Aberdeen’s Young Professionals (YP) committee is free to attend and is open to anyone, including those
SPE Aberdeen Lauch European Student Competition
Around 50 students from across Europe are to take part in the inaugural Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Europe Petro League, which is to be hosted by the Aberdeen Section during 'Offshore Europe'. This competition is the first of its kind in Europe and will bring together those studying oil and gas related university courses to compete for a prize of £2000. Teams of four will battle it out over six rounds which includes analysing case studies and fast paced oil and gas question and answer rounds. Entries for the qualifying first round are open now, which requires teams to submit
GDF Suez to Boost Focus on Marine Energy
French utility GDF Suez aims to double its power generation capacity from renewable energy in Europe between 2015 and 2025 and will focus in particular on marine energies, the company said on Tuesday. GDF Suez, with Spain's Iberdrola and Italy's Enel , is one of the industry leaders in renewable energy investment and has made Europe's energy transition the key plank of its European investment strategy. In 2009 it had aimed to boost its renewables capacity by 50 percent by 2015 - a target it says it will achieve - but now it wants to accelerate its renewables investment drive.
SPE Brings Student Competition to Europe
Approximately 50 students from across Europe are to take part in the inaugural Society of Petroleum Engineers Europe Petro League, which will be hosted by the Aberdeen Section during Offshore Europe. This competition is the first of its kind in Europe and will bring together those studying oil and gas related university courses to compete for a prize of £2,000. Teams of four will battle it out over six rounds which include analyzing case studies and fast paced oil and gas question and answer rounds. Entries for the qualifying first round are open now, which requires teams to submit an
New Program Funds Open Sea Testing for Ocean Energy
The €11 million FORESEA project brings together Europe’s leading ocean energy test facilities to help demonstration of tidal, wave and offshore wind energy technologies in real-sea conditions. Led by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), the FORESEA (Funding Ocean Renewable Energy through Strategic European Action) project will provide funding from the Interreg NWE (North-West Europe) program, part of the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) to support ocean energy technology developers to access Europe’s world-leading ocean energy test facilities, including EMEC
Unique Group Expands Life Support Division
Subsea, offshore and life support service provider Unique Group plans to offer its hyperbaric oxygen treatment chambers and life support equipment to medical centers, hospitals and refineries across Europe. Unique Group regularly supplies the industry with hyperbaric chambers, servicing and support across Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia. The company now intends to manufacture and support medical hyperbaric treatment facilities across Europe from its base in Rotterdam and has started to assemble a team of engineers to be able to produce these chambers, providing bespoke facilities
Climate Change Could Cost Europe $260 Billion
loss of 1.8% of its current GDP. Several weather-related extremes could roughly double their average frequency. As a consequence, heat-related deaths could reach about 200 000, the cost of river flood damages could exceed $13.6 billion (€10 billion) and 8,000 km2 of forest could burn in southern Europe. The number of people affected by droughts could increase by a factor of seven and coastal damage, due to sea-level rise, could more than triple. These economic assessments are based on scenarios where the climate expected by the end of the century (2080s) occurs in the current population and economic
Gazprom: More Sanctions Could Hit Business
Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom said on Tuesday further Western sanctions over Ukraine could potentially disrupt its gas exports to Europe and hit its business and shares. Gazprom, headed by Alexei Miller, a longstanding ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and its managers have not been hit by U.S. or European Union sanctions over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis. But the company, which meets 30 percent of Europe's demand for gas, said in its financial report that a pricing row with Kiev could potentially lead to a disruption of its gas exports to Europe through
5,400km Subsea Cable to Connect America, Europe
AquaComms Begins Build of New America-Europe Connect Subsea Cable System, AEConnect Aqua Comms Limited, a provider of scalable, subsea capacity-based network solutions, announced that it has brought its contract into force (CIF) with TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology which has begun manufacturing on the America Europe Connect (AEConnect) subsea cable system. AEConnect is scheduled to be ready for service in December 2015, as the latest transatlantic subsea fiber optic cable system connecting North America to Europe
RTsys Deploys Acoustic Buoys in Europe
by German authorities. Users on offshore wind farms therefore have a tool to manage construction work, enabling them to make quick and reliable decisions. Three years after the initial tests were carried out, RTsys acoustic buoys are now used on many offshore wind farms throughout North West Europe. Within the context of renewable marine energy development, the reliability of its products and real-time monitoring has been very successful
AAE-1 Cable System Comes into Force
The AAE-1 Consortium, owners of the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 submarine cable spanning approximately 25,000 km connecting Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe; and TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, today announced that the contract for the majority of segments of the AAE-1 system has come into force. AAE-1 will link Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe with low latency, high capacity transmission. Each trunk fiber-pair in AAE-1 segments supplied by TE SubCom has a cross-sectional capacity of minimum 80 x 100Gbps and
EIB Antes €165 Mln for Amsterdam Sea Lock
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to provide EUR 165 million (187.5m) to support the construction of a new sea lock at IJmuiden, the principal access to the Dutch Port of Amsterdam. The current Noordersluis lock was built in 1929 and the new larger lock will ensure that the next generation of bulk carriers, container ships and cruise ships can continue to access the Port of Amsterdam and the North Sea Canal, and is expected to reduce waiting time for ships. The new sea lock will be 500 meters long, 70 meters wide and 18 meters deep, and able to operate in all tides. The IJmuiden sea
Atlantis Resources Joins Ocean Energy Europe Board of Directors
Tim Cornelius, CEO of global tidal developer Atlantis Resources has taken a seat on the Board of Directors of Ocean Energy Europe – the industry group for ocean renewable energy – by becoming a Lead Sponsor of the organization. Following its acquisition of pioneering tidal company Marine Current Turbines earlier this year, Atlantis Resources now owns one of the largest and most diverse portfolios in the business, with a project pipeline of 600MW. This portfolio includes the 398MW MeyGen project, the world’s largest planned tidal stream array which is currently under constructi
Interoute Opens New Diverse Fibre Route in Southern Italy
Interoute, owner operator of Europe’s largest cloud service platform, has added a third route to access its pan European fibre network, from two of its submarine cable landing stations in Southern Italy. The new 1,300 km stretch of fibre is part of Interoute’s 7,000 km Italian network, which helps make up its 67,000km pan European platform. The new route will provide diverse, high capacity connectivity from Interoute’s landing stations in Mazara del Vallo (Sicily) and Bari (Puglia), for submarine cables looking to connect to Europe. In recent years cables from Greece, Malta
Future Priorities for EU Maritime Transport Policy
At an informal Maritime Ministerial Meeting of the EU Member States, which took place on Wednesday, May 7, 2014 in Athens, the Athens Declaration has been adopted. The Member States in the presence of Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport Sim Kallas and IMO Secretary General Koji Sekimizu discussed and agreed upon a set of policy priorities for the maritime transport sector which is at the core of the declaration. EU Member States and EEA Countries will give prominence to European maritime industries and aim to support the growth and sustainability of European
European Consortium Targets Sustainable Seabed Mining
The European Commission is helping to take seabed mining to the next level by funding a four-year project entitled: “Breakthrough Solutions for Mineral Extraction and Processing in Extreme Environments – Blue Mining”. The overall aims of this project are to develop new cost-effective solutions for environmentally friendly mining and processing in difficult conditions and extreme environments, and to further unlock the large potential of raw materials in Europe. The development of sustainable seabed mining solutions is important in Europe for several reasons. Firstly, it will
GE Interested in German Offshore Wind, Eastern Europe
General Electric, fresh from taking on the offshore wind business of rival Alstom, is positioning itself in Germany's expanding offshore wind sector and looking at eastern Europe. "German offshore wind has become very important for us," Carlos Haertel, chief executive for GE Germany & Austria, told Reuters in an interview. "Onshore wind in eastern Europe and the Balkan countries is currently interesting, especially in Poland and Romania," he said. GE, the world's third-biggest wind turbine manufacturer by market share after Denmark's Vestas and
