Author: omc_admin

4-Louise Composite: AP / Guardian DesignFor more than 20 years, Louise Sime has worked at the British Antarctic Survey specialising in polar climate dynamics. She uses ice cores to reconstruct past conditions and predict future changes. She now leads several international Earth modelling projects.Why are the Arctic and Antarctic regions important for the rest of the world?They are one of the pillars of global climate stability, a giant store of frozen water, an essential “biotic pump” that helps to store carbon, and an albedo shield that reflects much of the sun’s light and heat back out to space.Louise Sime says…

Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) and its joint venture partners have signed a product sharing contract (PSC) for Block 15-1 on the southern continental shelf of Vietnam. When completed, the project will supply 125 billion standard cubic feet (Bcf) per day of natural gas to the domestic market, Petrovietnam said in a news release. Under the PSC, Petrovietnam subsidiary Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Corporation (PVEP) holds 59 percent in the asset, Perenco holds 19.8 percent, Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) holds 11.4 percent, SK Group holds 7.2 percent, and Geopetrol holds 2.6 percent. The project will be…

The Singapore Business Federation (SBF), Singapore’s key business association representing over 32,000 companies, announced the release of a statement today, asking regulators to delay climate-related disclosure requirements for smaller companies, set to begin from this year, by one to two years, to give businesses more time to prepare. The statement follows the announcement early last year by the government of Singapore that it will implement mandatory climate-related reporting requirements for listed and large non-listed companies. Alongside the government’s announcement, markets regulator SGX RegCo released requirements for SGX-listed issuers to begin filing annual climate-related disclosures aligned with the standards issued by…

Israeli authorities have allowed the Chevron Corp.-operated Leviathan natural gas and condensate field to restart production, after ordering a pause about two weeks ago amid Israel’s exchange of attacks with Iran. The Leviathan consortium had invoked a force majeure after the Energy and Infrastructures Ministry, acting on a “security recommendation”, asked that production at the field be temporarily halted, according to NewMed Energy LP, one of the consortium partners. NewMed Energy has now said that order had been lifted. It said it intends to seek state compensation for losses. “According to the Partnership’s [NewMed Energy] initial estimate, based, inter alia,…

An ongoing slide in lithium prices even as demand for the battery metal continues to climb is a frustrating “paradox” not likely to be resolved before at least 2030, the world’s largest producers told a major industry conference this week. Once a niche metal used primarily in greases, ceramics and pharmaceuticals, lithium’s use in electric vehicles, large-scale battery storage and other electronic applications has grown rapidly, with demand up 24% last year and likely to grow 12% annually for the next decade, according to data from consultancy Fastmarkets. Oversupply from China, however, has dragged prices down more than 90% in…

TotalEnergies has acquired a 25 per cent stake in Block 53 offshore Suriname from Spanish company Moeve, it said on Friday without giving financial details.The block is adjacent to the $10.5 billion Gran Morgu development, on which Total took a final investment decision in October and which is estimated to hold more than 700 million barrels of recoverable resources. The South American country has yet to produce hydrocarbons, but has ambitions to emulate neighbouring Guyana, where a consortium led by Exxon Mobil has discovered more than 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas.Total said Block 53 contains an oil…

The solid-state battery specialist and Volkswagen partner QuantumScape has integrated a new separator manufacturing process into the basic production process of its battery cells. The company hopes that this will lead to “important improvements in separator quality and process stability”. In a statement for investors, US solid-state battery developer QuantumScape announced that it has now implemented its “Cobra” process for the production of ceramic separators. The separators are a key component of QuantumScape’s planned lithium-metal battery cells with solid electrolyte. The new manufacturing process is said to be faster, more energy-efficient and less space-consuming. The company claims that Cobra offers…

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 5.8 million barrels from the week ending June 13 to the week ending June 20, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. This report, which was released on June 25 and included data for the week ending June 20, showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 415.1 million barrels on June 20, 420.9 million barrels on June 13, and 460.7 million barrels on June 21, 2024. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 402.5…

The Swedish cell manufacturer Northvolt was long regarded as the hope of the European battery industry, but has been in insolvency proceedings since March and is currently having to cease production. There are now three potential buyers and an initial takeover bid, although this is still non-binding. As insolvency administrator Michael Kubu said on Swedish radio on Tuesday, “We now have an indicative offer on the table and hope for more indicative. We expect to receive another indicative offer during the day.” It is a foreign investor who now wants to buy the entire bankruptcy estate. However, Kubu did not…

Taiwan’s contract manufacturer moves to secure its second e-mobility partnership in Japan, as Mitsubishi Fuso eyes entry into the electric bus market with Foxconn-developed models. Foxconn is on the verge of securing a supply deal with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation for all-electric buses, the Japanese portal Nikkei reports. If confirmed, this would mark the entry of Mitsubishi Fuso into the battery-electric bus segment with two Foxconn-developed models: the Model T and the Model U microbus. The latter was first presented in October last year, while the Model T already launched in 2021. The vehicles would be rebranded and…