Author: omc_admin

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The death toll from severe floods that inundated parts of South Africa’s rural Eastern Cape province two weeks ago has risen to 101, with a 12-month-old baby the youngest fatality, authorities said Thursday. Two children are still missing.Heavy rain on June 9 and 10 caused by a cold front resulted in floods that swept away victims and their houses, trapped others in their homes, damaged roads and other infrastructure and cut electricity supplies.Zolile Williams, an Eastern Cape provincial government official, provided the updated death toll at a press briefing Thursday and said search operations continued for the…

NEW DELHI (AP) — Three people died and at least a dozen are feared missing after being swept away in a flash flood triggered by torrential rains in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, local authorities said on Thursday.A rescue operation has been launched to trace the missing, said Dinesh Sharma, a local government spokesperson in Kangra. The town is about 18 kilometres (11 miles) from Dharamshala, a popular tourist destination known for its Tibetan culture and as the home of Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama. Sudhir Sharma, a lawmaker from Dharamshala, said in a social media post that…

In a release sent to Rigzone this week, industry body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) said the UK government’s new industrial strategy is welcome “but must harness the UK’s whole energy mix, from oil and gas to wind, hydrogen, and carbon capture technology, and their interlinked supply chains, as a secure and affordable bedrock for long-term industrial success”. OEUK highlighted in the release that the strategy sets out a ten-year plan for Britain’s industrial sectors. The industry body also pointed out that the strategy includes a Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan and focuses on eight “priority sectors where the UK is…

 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) With more than a dozen advanced reactor designs progressing toward deployment, the lack of a domestic commercial HALEU supply is widely seen as the most pressing obstacle to scaling the next generation of nuclear energy in the United States. HALEU enables more compact and efficient reactor designs and the US Department of Energy (DOE) projects a need for up to 40 metric tons annually by the early 2030s. Presently, there is no sustained domestic production capable of meeting this demand. Reliance on foreign sources poses U.S. energy security risks, as only ~700kgs have been produced domestically…

President Donald Trump said the US would hold a meeting with Iran next week but cast doubt on the need for a diplomatic agreement on the country’s nuclear program, citing the damage that American bombing had done to key sites. “We’re going to talk to them next week,” Trump said Wednesday at a press conference during the NATO summit at The Hague, without giving more details on the timing. “We may sign an agreement. I don’t know, to me, I don’t think it’s that necessary.” He reiterated that US strikes on the Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow facilities had “obliterated” them,…

The UK’s schools, care homes and offices are not equipped for the effects of global heating and face lengthy heatwaves even in optimistic scenarios, according to a groundbreaking report that calls for climate resilience to be declared a national emergency.The report by the UK Green Building Council also predicts that towns including Peterborough and Fairbourne will be uninhabitable by the end of the century because of flooding.Produced over two years, the roadmap sets out a blueprint for action and warns that without the adaptation of millions of buildings, there will be increased injury, health impacts, deaths and untold economic damage.Five…

New oil and gas pipeline projects in Canada need changes in legislation, pipeline major Enbridge has said, noting shortened approval times would be much appreciated.The company was commenting on a bill proposed by Mark Carney’s government that envisages just that: faster environmental and other reviews to accelerate the time from pitch to construction. Dubbed Bill C-5, the piece of proposed legislation aims to speed up the buildout of infrastructure—including oil and gas pipelines.“We will be there to build what is needed for our shippers, for Alberta and for Canada – that’s our job, our mission as a company – but…

India, the No.3 oil importer and consumer of petroleum products, aims to increase the blending of ethanol into gasoline to 20per cent by 2025/26. India is allocating record rice volumes for ethanol production as it struggles with unprecedented inventories that are likely to swell further with the arrival of the new season crop, a reversal from earlier shortages that led to export curbs. Turning more rice to ethanol is helping to reduce rice stocks in the world’s biggest producer and exporter of the grain and keeping India’s ambitious ethanol blending programme on track despite a drop in supplies of traditional…

The Forum Energy Technologies (FET) Subsea product line has secured a contract to provide two work class remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to CCC (Underwater Engineering) S.A.L (CCC (UE)), the UAE-based offshore construction organization.  “CCC (UE) has long been a user of FET ROVs and we are pleased that we are able to further consolidate our relationship with this contract, our first directly with the company,” said Kevin Taylor, Vice President – Operations, Subsea Technologies. “These particular subsea assets are robust and built to operate in the harshest of subsea environments. Their reliability is renowned around the world and…

Spanish utility Iberdrola S.A. has picked as new chief executive officer Pedro Azagra, who has been with the company for 25 years. Azagra has until now held the position of CEO of the company’s U.S. unit, Avangrid. Now he replaces Armando Martínez at the helm. Azagra first joined Iberdrola as Executive Director of Development with responsibility for the company’s international expansion, the company said. He earned a degree in Law and Business Administration from the Instituto Católico de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ICADE) at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, where he has been a professor of Corporate…