Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
French Merger Creates One of World’s Biggest Energy Companies
Anita Elash, Voice of America (VOA)
France has announced the creation of one of the world’s biggest energy companies. Analysts say the controversial merger between state-owned Gaz de France, and the private utility Suez will help calm concerns over Russia’s dominance of the energy market. Anita Elash reports for VOA from Paris.
Negotiations between GDF and Suez started 18 months ago, and have been difficult from the beginning. The two sides have been hung up because of legal and financial disputes, and public protest over the potential privatization of the state-owned utility.
But last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy starting putting pressure on both sides to reach a compromise.
The deal will create a new company, GDF Suez, with an estimated value of $123 billion. It will be the fourth-largest energy distributor in the wor
(3 September 2007)
Related BBC article.
Report: China planning expansion of oil refineries
Associated Press
China is planning a major expansion of its oil refineries to help reduce reliance on imports and keep up with demand, a state-run newspaper reported over the weekend.
Plans call for the country to have 31 refineries by 2015, each with a capacity to process 10 million tons of crude oil a year (220,000 barrels a day), the Economic Observer reported. At the end of last year China had only nine facilities with similar capacity.
Under a so-called “31-30” expansion, the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s main planning agency, also expects by 2015 to have 30 ethylene factories, each with an annual output of 1 million tons a year, the report said, citing unnamed officials.
(3 September 2007)
Companies scramble to hire engineers
John Porretto, Associated Press
So much for sweating out that first job after college. Like star athletes, engineering students Julie Arsenault and Emily Reasor are prized prospects for the energy industry, which is experiencing dizzying demand for engineers.
Bustling oilfield activity and retiring baby boomers, among other factors, have petroleum outfits large and small trying to hire thousands of engineers, and experts say the trend is expected to extend into the next decade as worldwide energy demand grows.
…Management consulting firm Oliver Wyman says roughly eight in 10 global oil and gas companies forecast a shortage of petroleum engineers through at least 2011. The American Petroleum Institute said U.S. energy companies will need at least another 5,000 engineers by decade’s end.
In Houston, home to scores of exploration, engineering and services companies, simply check the classified ads: Row upon row of job listings for engineers at ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp. and numerous others.
Petroleum engineers evaluate potential oil and gas reservoirs, work with geologists and other specialists to understand rock formations, determine drilling methods and then monitor drilling and recovery operations. One of their big tasks is to design methods that achieve maximum recovery of oil and gas.
(2 September 2007)
