June 27 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) will continue its deep-water drilling programme to meet rising global demand, despite safety concerns following the worst oil spill in U.S. history, its chief executive said on Sunday. “Given the rise in the population and rise in developing world of energy needs, we will have to develop those resources in deep waters as well, so my expectation is that we will go forward with it, but it will need some changes,” Peter Voser, said during the Fortune Global Forum in Cape Town. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf)
SeaBird Exploration Ltd.: SeaBird – 2D Awarded Contracts and general update
June 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment
15 June, 2010. Cyprus:
SeaBird Exploration Plc (‘SeaBird’ or ‘SBX’) is pleased to provide an update on awarded
contracts and some general operational update of its business activities as set out
below;
Osprey Explorer has been awarded a firm contract for 7,000 kilometres in East Africa
with LOA’s for a further 10,000 kilometres conditional upon final contract terms and
execution.
Three of our 2D vessels are now engaged on contracts through to November 2010. This
refers to, Northern Explorer, Osprey Explorer, and Aquila Explorer. Munin Explorer is
contracted to mid September 2010, while Harrier Explorer is continuing on a long term
charter to PGS to August 2011. The Geo Mariner, our 3D shallow water vessel, is employed
through August 2010, with good prospects of continued work in West Africa.
Hawk Explorer is presently working in Gulf of Mexico as source vessel for CGG Veritas.
This engagement is not expected to be extended beyond end of June due to the impact of
the recent oil spill, and SeaBird is pursuing several alternatives for this vessel in
West Africa and elsewhere.
The OBN operation in North Sea with Hugin Explorer and Kondor Explorer is progressing as
planned with 625 of 750 total Nodes deployed and to date 30% of the shooting program
completed. Pending weather conditions the survey is expected to be completed early
August 2010. SeaBird is actively pursuing alternative engagements and expects that
follow-up employment can be secured.
SeaBird believes strongly in a future increasing demand by oil companies to monitor the
reservoir development for deep water fields during the production phase through high
quality repeat (4D/4C) seismic data acquisition. In deep water, congested seabed and
surface areas the OBN technology is the preferred and in some cases the only alternative
to obtain the seismic data quality required for optimizing on production and life of
field. SeaBird is the lead provider of this challenging and operationally sensitive
technology. Based on the expected strong increase in demand and the successful
performance of Hugin Explorer and Kondor Explorer combined with the high quality data
delivered on the last three surveys since last summer, SeaBird is progressing its
preparation for the investment in the second OBN operation through pre-engineering
studies of vessel and equipment adaption as well as node technology upgrades.
For further queries contact:
Tim Isden
CEO SeaBird Exploration
Phone: + 971 504 539075
Kai Solberg-Hansen
CFO SeaBird Exploration
Phone: + 47 920 51455
SeaBird Exploration Plc (Cyprus) `SeaBird` is a global provider of marine 2D and 3D
seismic data, solutions for seabed acquisition of 4C/4D multimode seismic, and
associated products and services to the oil and gas industry. SeaBird specializes in
high quality operations within the high end of the source vessel and 2D market, in the
shallow water 2D/3D market and in 4C/4D multimode seismic by nodal seabed acquisition.
Main focus for the company is proprietary seismic surveys (contract seismic). SeaBird
does not have a multi-client data library. Main success criteria for the company are an
unrelenting focus on Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Quality (HSSEQ), combined
with efficient collection of high quality seismic data. SeaBird is listed on the Oslo
Stock Exchange (Ticker: SBX) and currently has nine vessels in its global operational
fleet.
All statements in this press release other than statements of historical fact are
forward-looking statements and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and
assumptions that are difficult to predict, and are based upon assumptions as to future
events that may not prove accurate. These factors include SeaBird`s reliance on a
cyclical industry and the utilization of the company’s vessels. Actual results may
differ substantially from those expected or projected in the forward-looking
statements.
This information is subject of the disclosure requirements acc. to ยง5-12 vphl (Norwegian
Securities Trading Act)
HUG#1423895
S-E waters in proposed federal marine park
March 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Sections of the New South Wales Far South Coast are tipped to become part of a federally protected marine park.
The Federal Environment Protection Minister, Peter Garrett, says the government is considering declaring a 2.4 million sq km stretch of ocean from Cape York to Bermagui a marine park.
It includes a large expanse of deep water ocean extending almost 200km out to sea from Batemans Bay and Narooma.
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Chee Chee Leung says the declaration would recognise the unique characteristics of the Far South Coast.
“The people of the Batemans area should be really proud that their area has been acknowleged in these areas for further assessment.
“It recognises that there are special and unique features about this region.
“This includes things like the continental shelf and slopes, and the water there has different depths which creates lots of biological diversity.”
For more, go to the South East News blog at http://bit.ly/dgL1SN
Illegal dumping costing ratepayers
March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The Town of Port Hedland has expressed disappointment over the amount of illegal dumping of waste in bushland in the community.
Plastic bags, general household rubbish, old car batteries, newspapers and other waste have been found in an area known as Deep Water.
Mayor Kelly Howlett says the resources needed to clean up the mess is costing ratepayers.
“It is a shame, and the same with senseless vandalism of playgrounds and park equipment that if these things get destroyed, illegal dumping happens, the money ends up getting spent in those areas instead of being spent in perhaps creating new areas or perhaps adding new benefits to the town,” councillor Howlett said.
Offenders face fines of up to $1,000.
Orang-utans can swim
March 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment
London, March 20 (ANI): The assumptions that orang-utans prefer to remain at bay from water seem to have fallen flat after a group was snapped getting wet for various reasons.
Conservationists were stunned when a group of orphaned orang-utans that had been relocated to Kaja Island in Borneo splashed themselves with one pair even having sex in water.
“My guess is that the male chose the location because there was less chance of him being interrupted by other, more dominant males,” New Scientist quoted Anne Russon of York University in Toronto, Canada, as saying.
Russon continued: “Orang-utans are famous for their fear of water. They have high body densities and can”t help but sink.”
Russon added: “One day we saw an adolescent orang-utan called Sif wade into deep water, hunker down and then lunge forward making simple paddling movements with her arms and legs. It was kind of like a bad dog paddle.”
The study has been published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology. (ANI)
Shark ‘tweens’ and teenagers tend to stay near their coastal birthplace
August 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Washington, August 25 (ANI): A long-term field and DNA study by scientists has shown that that young lemon sharks, the equivalent of human ‘tweens’ and teenagers, born at the Bimini islands, Bahamas, tend to stay near their coastal birthplace for many years.
The study was carried out by scientists from the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University (SBU), University of Miami, Field Museum of Chicago and others.
While shark research and conservation typically focuses on baby sharks confined to shallow habitats, or ocean-roaming adults, less is known about these intermediate-aged animals, which are the breeders of tomorrow and are roughly similar in development to human ‘tweens’ and teenagers.
Tropical island-nations that sacrifice their nursery habitats to coastal development are therefore likely to lose not only babies but also much older sharks from their local areas, with potentially dire effects on the surrounding ecosystem.
“It takes some sharks more than a decade to reach reproductive age, so we set out to better understand the phase of their development from when they are a couple of years old until they are on the verge of sexual maturity,” said lead author Dr. Demian Chapman, shark scientist with the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University (SBU) in New York, and an assistant professor at SBU.
During the course of the Bimini study, from 1995 to 2007, over 1,700 immature lemon sharks were caught, tagged and released.
The implanted tags, plus subsequent recaptures and DNA analysis, showed that more than half of the 3- to 7-year-old sharks caught off Bimini were born locally and had lingered near their birthplace for years.
“We were very surprised to see that many lemon sharks lingered for years around the island where they were born – often more than half of their development to adulthood,” he added.
Fear of deep water ?and the bigger predators that live there? combined with abundant prey in the mangroves around Bimini probably keeps these island-born sharks in safer waters near home for several years after their birth.
“This means that using marine reserves and other local conservation measures may help protect sharks born around tropical islands for much longer than we thought,” Dr. Chapman explained.
He suspects that future research could show that these stay-at-home behavior patterns are common among many shark species that live and breed around tropical islands.
“If island communities develop all of their shark nursery habitats, like mangroves, or overfish baby sharks in local waters, then they will subsequently lose a big chunk of the older sharks as well,” he said. (ANI)
New ‘snorkel’ rice plant could feed millions
August 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment
London, August 20 (ANI): Scientists have come up with a new rice plant that grows “snorkels” when exposed to floods.
According to a paper published in the journal Nature, the super plant could help boost the production of the staple food in Asia and Africa, where up to 40 per cent of crops are subject to flash floods or deep water.
Japanese experts found the “snorkel” genes in flood-tolerant rice that help prevent it from drowning, reports The BBC.
Scientist Motoyaki Ashikari, Nagoya University in Japan, indicated, “the impact is huge”.
He said: “People cannot plant any crops in the rainy season, because the crops drown and die in the floods.”
The plant, that elongates rapidly in response to being submerged, can grow up to 25cm per day on the arrival of floods. (ANI)
Ozone depletion reduces CO2 uptake of Southern Ocean
August 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Washington, August 9 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have determined that depletion in the ozone layer is reducing the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake of the Southern Ocean.
Most current models predict that the strength of the Southern Ocean CO2 sink should increase as atmospheric CO2 rises, but observations show that this has not been the case.
To help resolve this discrepancy, scientists Andrew Lenton and Nicolas Metzl, along with other researchers, considered the effects of stratospheric ozone depletion, which most previous studies had not included.
They compare coupled carbon-climate models with and without ozone depletion and find that including ozone depletion produced a significant reduction in Southern Ocean carbon uptake, in good agreement with observed trends.
The simulations show that ozone depletion, combined with increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration, drives stronger winds above the Southern Ocean.
These stronger winds bring more carbon-rich deep water to the surface, which reduces the ocean’s ability to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The researchers also found that ozone depletion increases ocean acidification. They suggest that future climate models should take stratospheric ozone into account. (ANI)
Mumbai News – Mumbai Rainfall – Mumbai Rains – Mumbai Weather – Mumbai Forecast – Mumbai Weather Forecast – Heavy rainfall disrupts normal life in Mumbai
July 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Mumbai News – Mumbai Rainfall – Mumbai Rains – Mumbai Weather – Mumbai Forecast – Mumbai Weather Forecast – Heavy rainfall disrupts normal life in Mumbai
Heavy monsoon disrupts life of Mumbai, all you see is flooded streets with pedestrians walking through knee-deep water facing lots of difficulty in commuting.
Many commuters were stranded on the flooded streets as their vehicles broke down. Traffic Jam is also a major problem.
Some educational institutes in the city declared holiday, in afternoon on account of heavy railfall since morning.
According to the municipal officers of the city, about 1 billion rupees are spent each year on bracing the city for the monsoon downpours. Yet rains continue to disrupt normal life.
People in low lying areas, and special those living near sea shore like parle, santa cruz, area start searcing for High and Low tides in Mumbai
Heavy rainfall disrupts normal life in Mumbai
July 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Mumbai, July 4 (ANI): Heavy monsoon downpour flooded streets and disrupted life in Mumbai on Saturday, as pedestrians waded through filthy knee-deep water facing lots of difficulty in commuting.
Many commuters were stranded on the flooded streets as their vehicles broke down.It has been raining heavily since the morning. And you can see there is a lot of traffic jam on the bridge. We live nearby so we just need to shop for some stuff but it has been hectic because of traffic and you can see right down there is a manhole open. But BMC is doing its job. Let’s hope it gets over soon,” said Achint Gopalan, a local resident.
Meanwhile, some educational institutes in the city declared holiday in the wake of heavy downpour.
For past many years monsoon rains have been playing havoc in the state bringing about chaos in the entire region.
According to the municipal officers of the city, about 1 billion rupees are spent each year on bracing the city for the monsoon downpours. Yet rains continue to disrupt normal life. (ANI)
Mysterious South American glaciers grow as others shrink
June 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Washington, June 23 (ANI): In times when most glaciers in the world are shrinking due to global warming, two mysterious South American glaciers are displaying strange behavior in the sense that they are growing.
“Most of the 50 massive glaciers draped over the spine of the Patagonian Andes are shrinking in response to a global warming,” said Andres Rivera, a glaciologist at the Center for Scientific Studies in Valdivia, Chile.
But, according to a report in National Geographic News, the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina and Pio XI glacier in Chile are taking on ice, instead of shedding it.
“What is happening is not well understood,” Rivera said.
Theories center on the geography and topography of the glaciers; the depth and temperature of the waters where the glaciers end; and how quickly, or slowly, they react to changes in the climate.
Yet overall, “if you account for the gains and losses of all of Patagonia’s glaciers, they are (still) losing huge amounts of ice,” Rivera pointed out.
“One hypothesis for the 3-mile-wide (5 kilometer-wide) Perito Moreno’s advance is the glacier’s apparent insensitivity to changes in what glaciologists call the equilibrium line on glaciers,” Rivera said.
As a result, the amount of ice lost or gained is minimal.
It could also be that Perito Moreno simply hasn’t got all that much to lose.
Lago Argentino, the lake where Perito Moreno ends, is shallower than the bodies of water at the ends of most glaciers.
Most glaciers calve, or release ice, in deep water, but not Perito Moreno, where the calving rates are higher than on other Patagonian glaciers.
That means less of the glacier is in the melting zone below the equilibrium line.
As heavy snowfall above the equilibrium line pushes the glacier downhill, the glacier breaks up when it hits the lake, Rivera explained.
“Such impacts kept the glacier from growing longer when the climate was cooler, and thus more likely to expand,” he said.
As for the Pio XI glacier in Chile, some scientists have attempted to explain its advance as a glacial surge, a periodic and sudden expansion of a glacier that is little understood but is thought to be unrelated to external forces. (ANI)
Rare element osmium rises on a global scale
April 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Washington, April 22 (ANI): Researchers at Dartmouth University, US, have determined that the presence of the rare element osmium is on the rise globally.
They trace this increase to the consumption of refined platinum, the primary ingredient in catalytic converters, the equipment commonly installed in cars to reduce smog.
A volatile form of osmium is generated during platinum refinement and also during the normal operation of cars, and it gets dispersed globally through the atmosphere.
While osmium is found naturally, the researchers were surprised to discover that most of the osmium in rain and snow, and in the surface waters of rivers and oceans, is produced during the refining of platinum.
“It’s interesting, maybe ironic, that we stopped adding lead to gasoline in the 70s so that catalytic converters could be introduced to remove smog from car exhaust,” said Dartmouth Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Mukul Sharma.
“Now we learn that using platinum in the converters is responsible for an increase in osmium,” he added.
Fortunately, unlike lead, the concentration of osmium in water is extremely small and may not adversely affect biology,” he explained.
The research team measured osmium in precipitation in North America, Europe, Asia, and Antarctica, and in both surface water and deep water from the North Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Antarctic (or Southern) Oceans.
Human-made osmium also comes from chromium smelters, hospital incinerators, and the normal operation of cars, but it’s primarily the industrial extraction and refining of platinum that produces the bulk of the osmium found in rain and snow.
According to Sharma, about 95 percent of the world’s platinum comes from South Africa and Russia where it is roasted at extremely high temperatures during the extraction and refinement process.
The process removes sulfur present in the ore as sulfur dioxide and, at the same time, releases osmium, which is abundant in the ore.
“It’s surprising that we are seeing this measurable increase in osmium on a global scale, and we can virtually blame it on one thing: our insatiable demand for platinum-based catalytic converters,” said Sharma. (ANI)
Petroleum ministry launches new exploration licensing policy
April 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
New Delhi, Apr 9 (ANI): Petroleum Secretary R. S. Pandey on Thursday launched the eighth round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), and said the offer would remain open for four months till August 10, 2009.
The Ministry has also thrown open 70 new blocks for bids to the Indian and foreign companies for exploration of oil and natural gas.
“Out of 70 blocks, 24 are in deep water, 24 in shallow water and 18 on land. 10 blocks under Coal Bed Methane were also opened for bidding,” Pandey told reporters here.
Pandey stated that if the response would be good then 40 to 50 more blocks might be opened for bidding in the later part of the year.
The Petroleum Secretary said the bidding would lead to 42 billion dollars of gas in the next 11 years.
“The oil exploration in the biggest find in Barmer District of Rajasthan will start soon and it will be enough to meet 25 percent of oil needs of the country in next 18 months,” he added. (ANI)
India opens auction of 70 areas for oil, natural gas exploration
April 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
New Delhi – The Indian government Thursday launched its biggest ever auction of oil exploration blocks even as global energy producers are cutting investments due to the economic slowdown.
The government was offering 70 areas for exploration of oil and natural gas, RS Pandey, the secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry, said at a press briefing in the Indian capital.
The areas include 24 deep-water blocks and 28 shallow-water blocks off India’s western and eastern shores and 18 land blocks.
The auction will be held in two phases and bids for the 70 fields offered in the first phase will close on August 10, Pandey said.
The Indian government has awarded 212 oil and gas blocks so far to oil exploration and producing companies under its New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) introduced in 1999.
Pandey said at least 10 billion dollars had been invested in oil exploration in India since the NLEP was first launched.
India’s Reliance Industries Limited started producing gas from an offshore field earlier in April. The government is hoping this will encourage global energy companies to bid for the new fields on offer.
India, one of the world’s fastest growing economies, imports nearly 70 per cent of its oil and gas. The investment on domestic exploration and production is aimed at reducing import costs. dpa