Drilling & production

Murphy Oil will sell three oil refineries and focus on its upstream and retail businesses in the US.

Yemen’s foreign minister has reiterated his countries desire to renegotiate its long term LNG supply contract with Korea Gas Corp.

Korea Electric Power Co. has announced the acquisition of a 20% stake in PT Bayan Resources for US$ 515 million.

The remaining five bodies have been recovered from a flooded coal mine in China, raising the death toll to 13.

Aker Solutions has won a contract worth NOK 150 million (US$ 24.25 million) to supply the vessel mooring system for the Goliat FPSO, owned by Eni Norge.

The EU has clamped down on state subsidies to the European hard coal sector, ruling that loss making mines can only continue to receive government help if plans to close them are put in place.

TAS Energy has been awarded a US$ 30 million EPC contract for Phase I of the San Emidio project, owned by US Geothermal.

The Energy Event will be hosting its inaugural Awards Dinner in September to showcase a more positive side of the energy industry.

ConocoPhillips, Shell, Exxonmobil and Chevron are planning to build a rapid response system to any future well-blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico.

Leading Central European miner, New World Resources, has announced its pricing agreement for coking coal and coke sales for Q3. Both average prices for coking coal and coke will increase on Q2 prices.

Continental Coal Ltd and EDF Trading have signed an off-take and funding agreement for all export quality thermal coal produced from Continental’s Project X, Vaalbank and Vlakvarkfontein mines for a 20 year period.

What challenges are facing the energy industry and how can they solve these problems?

Siemens has been awarded the FEED contract to supply coal gasification and power block technology for the Texas Clean Energy Project, a polygeneration IGCC project that will use coal as its feedstock. The project, which will have a carbon capture rate of 90%, received US$ 350 million under the US Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Power Initiative – Round 3.

BP has entered into several agreements to sell upstream assets in the US, Canada and Egypt to Apache Corporation.

Offshore wind projects in Europe have shown impressive growth in the first half of 2010 in spite of the economic crisis, however many projects are still being held back by a shortfall in investment.