Drilling & production

The UK government has announced that it will be looking to invest in a raft of different energy technologies to fill the UK’s energy needs including new nuclear power sites.

Alexander A. Ignatov, Ignatov & Co. Group, Russia, examines the major players competing in mine privatisation, following the Ukrainian Government’s planned reorganisation of the coal market

Fraser Bomford & Samantha Wolreich, AKE Ltd., examine the oil and gas exploration possibilities that Afghanistan has to offer.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has determined it is appropriate that deepwater oil and gas drilling resume, provided that operators certify compliance with all existing rules and requirements, and demonstrate the availability of adequate blowout containment resources.

The CEO of Chesapeake Energy Aubrey McClendon has said that the most significant natural gas and oil shale fields in the US have already been found, and that investors should not wait around for major new discoveries.

Fluor has been selected to develop a conceptual master plan for a potential 5 GW solar farm in South Africa.

According to reports, 1355 small coal mines were shutdown in the first three quarters of this year as part of efforts to restructure China’s mining industry.

CAMAC Energy has acquired Allied Energy Resources oil mining lease for the Oyo field offshore Nigeria.

Carbon Trust launches global challenge to improve access to offshore wind turbines and improve Round 3 economics.

The Mining Association of BC has congratulated the international rescue team, which freed the 33 miners stuck underground in Chile.

IFC Invests $75 million in Xinjiang Goldwin as part of the company’s initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

OKK Koksovny a.s. (OKK), Europe’s largest producer of foundry coke and subsidiary of New World Resources N.V. (NWR), a leading hard coal and coke producer, has commenced trial operations at its new coke battery at the Svoboda coking plant in Ostrava, the Czech Republic.

New Zealand coal miner, Solid Energy, will recommence exploration drilling in the Croyden coalfield, Southland, to increase its understanding of the lignite resources located there. The programme of drilling will provide information to help the miner make decisions about how to mine the lignite to meet the quantity and quality requirements for its various lignite conversion projects.

Golar LNG has been selected as the successful bidder to build the West Java FSRU project by Nusantara Regas.

US gas prices are increasing but in the long-term such high prices are unsustainable, as there is likely to be continued investment in exploiting new resources which will bring prices down and demand is likely to fall if the American economy does not pick up.