Drilling & production

The much maligned tobacco plant could get a new lease of life being used to produce biofuels.

A contract made between GDF Suez and Pakistan’s Petroleum Ministry has become mired in scandal after it was revealed a lower bid was ignored.

India and America clear another hurdle to implementing the civil nuclear co-operation bill, and agree procedures for reprocessing spent fuel.

Siemens will build a huge wind turbine production facility and create hundreds of jobs in a new government sponsored scheme.

China has signed a deal with Shell to exploit its domestic shale gas reserves, which, if successful could turn Chinese energy policy on its head.

China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) has signed an agreement with BG Group of Australia for the purchase of 3.6 million tpy of LNG for the next 20 years.

According to a recent study, China now leads the world as the highest investor in green technology.

As part of its investment into clean coal energy, Peabody Energy has invested US$ 15 million in Calera Corp., owner of technology that converts CO2 into green building materials.

A brief round up of refinery and oilsands news from Canada and North America.

Qatar has agreed to supply an additional 4 million tpa of LNG to India by 2014.

Bill Gates’ firm Terra Firma is in talks with Toshiba to develop the next generation of mini nuclear power plant.

Weatherford International Ltd has announced its participation in a collaborative project to develop a fibre optics based in-well distributed acoustic flowmeter based on the revolutionary iDAS™ technology, developed by Silixa.

The Indonesian government is looking for South Korean investors to back three new floating LNG terminals.

Woodside Energy Ltd has selected Mustang to provide the independent assessment and verification of readiness for one of the world’s heaviest open water floatover installations, the North Rankin B (NRB) platform topsides, to be located on the North West Shelf of Australia.

Australia’s Arrow Energy has accepted an improved takeover bid from Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina worth a reported AU$ 3.44 billion (US$ 3.14 billion). The takeover is subject to approval by Arrow shareholders and Australian authorities.