We Shakeup To Makeup

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had undertaken three personnel shakeups, between 2015 and 2017, and the most recent being a restructuring of the corporation vis-à-vis redeployment of staff, and possible reasons such as the growing challenges it has to surmount to remain competitive in the global oil and gas business as well as the corporation being forced to find creative solutions to its operational challenges may not be unconnected with these decisions. Read more here: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2017/09/03/128724/

Bouncing Back After Harvey’s Blow

A week after Hurricane Harvey knocked out nearly one quarter of the U.S. refining capacity and sent gasoline prices to two-year highs as well as shortage of the product, a number of key Texas refineries that includes Exxon Mobil Corp and Philips 66 worked to reopen or resume normal operations on yesterday. Read more here: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-storm-harvey-energy/texas-refineries-begin-restart-after-hit-from-harvey-idUSKCN1BD0B9

The Swap

A Chinese investment company is ready to barter with the government of Iran by the Arab country build a railroad, express train track between Tehran and Tabriz (northwest Iran) with the length of 700 kilometers, in return for Iranian crude oil. Read more here: https://www.azernews.az/region/118430.html

Total Lessons Learnt

The total solar eclipse experienced recently in the United States has been considered a valuable lesson in how to manage electricity grids when a crucial generation source goes temporarily offline. Solar plants lost around half of their ability to generate electricity during the two and a half hours of the eclipse, dipping and rising almost three times faster than the average rate at which power stations can ramp their output up and down. The shortfall was covered largely by gas-fired power plants, and extra hydro capacity. Read more here: http://thetandd.com/business/what-blackout-solar-grids-pass-eclipse-test/article_c2d4ec5b-996f-58a5-bca5-1248076a988d.html

The Smart Move

EU member states have committed to curbing greenhouse gases by 40 per cent compared to 1990 emissions levels, and recognising that in the near future natural gas is expected to become the fuel of choice, energy companies have increased their portfolio of natural gas assets, chiefly being the Royal Dutch Shell which in 2015 acquired BG for $50bn to become the world’s largest company LNG supplier. It is along these lines that an Analyst, Dr Constantinos Hadjistassou, assistant professor in the oil & gas engineering programme at the University of Nicosia, has weighed in on how Cyprus can benefit from this development and proceed to brand its gas. Read more here: http://cyprus-mail.com/2017/09/03/cyprus-benefit-climate-change-fight/