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July 6 (Reuters) – Norwegian oil and gas group Statoil (STL.OL) said on Tuesday production at its Troll field in the North Sea was normal.
“There is nothing to report today. It’s normal,” a spokeswoman said.
Gas flows into Britain from Norway’s Langeled gas pipeline fell to 17 million cubic metres (mcm) a day at 0653 GMT on Tuesday, down from around 58 mcm/day overnight, according to National Grid data.
(Reporting by Oslo newsroom)
July 6 (Reuters) – There were no limitations in Gassco’s network for transporting gas from Norway on Tuesday, the pipeline operator said.
“There are no problems in our transportation system,” a spokeswoman said.
Gas flows into Britain from Norway’s Langeled gas pipeline fell to 17 million cubic metres (mcm) a day at 0653 GMT on Tuesday, down from around 58 mcm/day overnight, according to National Grid data.
(Reporting by Oslo newsroom)
July 6 (Reuters) – Gas flows into Britain from Norway’s Langeled gas pipeline fell to 16 million cubic metres (mcm) a day at 0522 GMT on Tuesday, down from around 58 mcm/day overnight, according to National Grid data.
(Reporting by Oslo newsroom)
LONDON, June 7 (Reuters) – BP (BP.L) said it had partly shut its British Teesside gas terminal for maintenance over the weekend, but a spokesman declined to comment on Monday on the length of the maintenance period or how flows would be affected.
Gas flows from BP’s Teesside terminal into the British grid dropped to zero on Sunday from around 8 million cubic metres per day (mcm/d) and remained at zero at midday on Monday, National Grid data showed.
BP’s Andrew offshore gas field, which feeds into the CATS pipeline leading to the Teesside terminal, continued producing, the spokesman said. “We have the ability to store Andrew gas in the pipeline for several days if necessary,” he added.
The company is undertaking maintenance now because another pipeline that Teesside feeds is closed.
“We’re taking advantage of a North Sea pipeline that’s shut down for maintenance. We’re taking the opportunity to do some maintenance on the liquid side of the terminal,” the BP spokesman said.
BP’s Teesside terminal, which receives gas via the CATS pipeline, has a capacity of 34 mcm/d, according to the CATS website.
(Reporting by Karolin Schaps, editing by Jane Baird)
Islamabad, Jun.4 (ANI): Pakistan and Iran have finalised all formalities regarding the gas pipeline, and the ground work on the project would start soon following a survey, Pakistan Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Syed Naveed Qamar Shah has said.
Responding to a question in the National Assembly regarding the progress made on the much publicised pipeline project, Shah said once completed, Pakistan would receive 750 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from Iran, The Daily Times reports.
Shah also informed the house that the project would be of great help to address the massive power shortage in the country, as 5,000 megawatts of electricity is likely to be produced utilising the gas from the pipeline, which has been termed the ‘peace pipeline.’
Out of the total 7.6 billion dollars which would be incurred on the project, Pakistan expects to spend 1.65 billion dollars.
Earlier, the said pipeline was to be extended to India also, but it backed out of the project, as Pakistan refused to forego its demand for a hefty gas transit fee.
The IPI project was conceived in 1995 and after almost 13 years India finally decided to quit the project in 2008. (ANI)
Pakistan and Iran have finalised a deal for the construction of a much-delayed pipeline to pump Iranian natural gas to the energy-starved South Asian country, the Pakistan petroleum ministry said.
The $7.6 billion project is crucial for Pakistan to avert a growing energy crisis already causing severe electricity shortages in the country of about 170 million.
Pakistani and Iranian petroleum officials signed the agreement on Friday evening in Islamabad, the ministry said.
“The project is now ready to enter into its implementation phase,” the ministry said in a statement.
Pakistan said the first gas is scheduled to flow by the end of 2014 and expects its total cost on the project to be $1.65 billion, funded through private and state capital.
Under the deal, Pakistan will import from Iran 750 million cubic feet of gas daily for 25 years. The amount could be increased to 1 billion cubic feet a day and the deal could be extended five years if needed, the ministry said.
The ministry said the imported gas would help generate about 5,000 MW of power.
The pipeline would connect Iran’s South Fars gas field with Pakistan’s southern Baluchistan and Sindh provinces.
Iran has the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia. But sanctions by the West, political problems and construction delays have slowed its development as an exporter.
“U.S. OPPOSITION”
Dubbed the “peace pipeline” by the two countries, the project has been planned since the 1990s and originally would have extended from Pakistan to its old rival, India.
However, India has been reluctant to join the project given its long-running distrust of Pakistan, with which it has fought three wars since independence in 1947.
Under a previous deal between Iran and Pakistan, Islamabad holds the right to charge a transit fee if the pipeline is eventually extended to India.
The United States has tried to discourage India and Pakistan from any deal with Iran because of Tehran’s suspected ambitions to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies any such ambitions.
India has invested in civilian nuclear reactors to help fulfil its increasing energy demand. It also signed a landmark civilian nuclear deal with the United States in 2008.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan has long called for a similar deal with the United States, but Washington has been unwilling to make an agreement with its ally, which is battling an al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgency.
(Editing by Chris Allbritton and Paul Tait)
Police are urging members of the public to be wary of get rich quick schemes, after 52 people allegedly lost more than $2 million in an investment scheme.
Two men have been charged with fraud after allegedly assuming false identities on the Gold Coast in south-east Queensland.
Police allege the company promised investors high returns for little effort from investments in sporting events, gold, and a gas pipeline.
One of the men is due in court today in Brisbane and the other is due in court in mid-May.
PARIS, March 1 (Reuters) – France’s GDF Suez (GSZ.PA) will sign a deal with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM) at 1800 GMT on taking a 9 percent stake in the Nord Stream gas pipeline, an industrial source said on Monday.
GDF Suez will get 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year from 2015 from the pipeline as part of the deal, said the source, who asked not to be named.
GDF Suez has been in talks for over a year to take a stake in the pipeline being built by Gazprom and German utility E.ON (EONGn.DE), which will carry 55 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas annually from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea from 2012.
“GDF Suez will be in the project before construction starts on the pipeline in April,” the source said.
GDF Suez bought a 4.5 percent stake in Nord Stream from E.ON and a 4.5 percent stake from Wintershall (BASF.DE).
(Reporting by Muriel Boselli; Writing by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Marie Maitre)
Islamabad, Sep 1 (ANI): Iran will start laying the pipeline for gas supply in Pakistan next year, sources have said.
The decision was made on Monday, the first day of three-day talks between officials of the two countries.
The sources said the design of the gas pipelines was discussed in detail on the first day of the meeting.
The project would require 784 kilometres of pipeline, which would cost 1.25 billion dollars, they said.
The Daily Times quoted sources as saying that both sides would also deliberate on issues relating to the project’s operational plan in their next meeting.
Pakistan would start receiving gas supply from Iran in 2013. (ANI)
Washington, July 8 (ANI): The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has announced the discovery of a new monkey in a remote region of the Amazon in Brazil.
The monkey is related to saddleback tamarins, which include several species of monkeys known for their distinctively marked backs.
The newly described distinct subspecies was first seen by scientists on a 2007 expedition into the state of Amazonas in northwestern Brazil.
Researchers have dubbed the monkey ‘Mura’s saddleback tamarin’, named after the Mura Indians, the ethnic group of Amerindians of the Purus and Madeira river basins where the monkey occurs.
Historically, this tribe was spread through the largest territory of any of the Amazonian Indigenous peoples, extending from the Peruvian frontier today (Rio Yavari) east to the Rio Trombetas.
The monkey is mostly gray and dark brown in color, with a distinctly mottled “saddle.”
It weighs 213 grams and is 240 millimeters (9 inches tall) with a 320 millimeter (12.6 inch) tail.
We hope that the discovery will draw attention to conservation in this very fragile but biodiverse region,” said Dr. Avecita Chicchon, Director of WCS’s Latin America Programs.
According to the study’s authors, the monkey is threatened by several planned development projects in the region, particularly a major highway cutting through the Amazon that is currently being paved.
Conservationists fear the highway could fuel wider deforestation in the Amazon over the next two decades.
Other threats to the region include a proposed gas pipeline and two hydroelectric dams currently in the beginning stages of construction.
“This newly described monkey shows that even today there are still major wildlife discoveries to be made,” said the study’s lead author, Fabio Rohe of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
“This discovery should serve as a wake-up call that there is still so much to learn from the world’s wild places, yet humans continue to threaten these areas with destruction,” he added. (ANI)
Gandhinagar, June 30 (IANS) The Gujarat government is planning to build a 1,460-km pipeline for the transportation of gas from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast to other parts of the country.
The state government has submitted a proposal in this regard to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), a senior official in the department of energy here said.
The proposed pipeline, from Mallavaram in Andhra Pradesh and to Bhilwara in Rajasthan, will transport gas from the fields of Gujarat State Petroleum Corp Ltd (GSPCL).
The pipeline will pass through major cities like Warangal, Amaravati, Nagpur, Bhopal, Indore, Udaipur and Godhra in Gujarat, the official said.
GSPCL, which won the KG exploration block in 2003 through a competitive bidding, has so far drilled 15 wells, out of which 11 wells are discovery wells.
Three wells have shown no gas flow and one is yet to be tested, the official said.
Karachi, June 27 (ANI): At least four persons, including a woman, were killed and 26 others injured when a powerful blast rocked a firecracker factory, which was being run in a residential building, here.
The blast which took place in the Gharibabad area of the city was so powerful that it destroyed the factory building completely besides damaging several adjacent buildings.
All the injured persons, including seven children and eight women have been admitted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
Television footages showed rescue workers pulling out injured persons amidst the rubble of the building.
According to the sources, a gas pipeline passing through the area also exploded after the blast which made the matter worse.
Chaos prevailed in the area after the blast, and the police had to resort to baton charge to disperse the crowd so that the relief and rescue teams carry on their work without any hindrance. (ANI)
Brussels – The European Union should open talks with Turkey this year on how to bring its energy sector into line with EU laws as part of the country’s accession process, the man who is set to take over the bloc’s rotating presidency in July said Tuesday.
But opposition from some EU member states means that it may not be possible to do so, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told journalists in Brussels.
“I would hope” to open negotiations on energy issues, “but I’m not sure if this is possible … It would be wise for everyone (in the EU) to engage Turkey in these energy discussions, but I need broader support to be able open these chapters,” Reinfeldt said.
Turkey has been negotiating towards EU membership since 2005, but progress has been stalled by the row over the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus and by the reluctance of key EU members such as France and Germany to accept the idea of Turkish accession.
So far, Turkey has opened talks on less than a third of the 35 subjects – the so-called “chapters” – on which it will have to bring its laws into line with EU legislation.
But following January’s row over gas sales between Russia and Ukraine, which hit supplies to the EU, the bloc is desperate to reduce its reliance on imports from Russia by building new pipelines to the Middle East and Caspian Sea through Turkey.
That has raised the pressure on the bloc to open energy talks with Turkey sooner, rather than later.
Key among the various projects is the so-called “Nabucco” gas pipeline from Azerbaijan via Turkey to Austria. At a summit dedicated to energy transit in Prague on May 8, Turkey and the EU agreed to finalize inter-governmental on the pipeline by the end of June.
While Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul approved that agreement, he also called on the EU to open the energy chapter as soon as possible.(dpa)
Nicosia, May 29 (ANI): Iran and Pakistan on Thursday signed in Tehran a deal for the supply of eight billion cubic meters of natural gas annually under an agreed price formula which has not been disclosed.
Representatives of the two countries also signed an initial agreement for the construction of the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline, which is expected to cost more than 7.5 billion dollars and has been dubbed “The Peace Pipeline.”
It is expected that gas deliveries will start in three to four years.
According to the Fars News Agency, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari agreed to the 2,100 km-long pipeline that would transfer Iranian gas to Pakistan.
Terhran says both Iran and Pakistan would welcome India if it decided to join the project The IPI pipeline will be supplied from the South Pars Gasfield. The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 22 bcm of natural gas per annum, which is expected to be raised later to 55 bcm . (ANI)
Amsterdam – The Netherlands is seeking observer status on the 14-member Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), the source of 70 per cent of the world’s gas reserves, officials said Monday.
Economic Affairs Minister Maria van der Hoeven would file a request to that effect during a visit to Qatar on June 15, her spokesperson told the daily Het Financieele Dagblad.
GECF members include Russia, Iran and Algeria.
Theoretically, the GECF could function as a cartel and determine production quota and prices. If this were to become the case, however, the Netherlands would leave the forum, van der Hoeven said.
The Netherlands, which has one of Europe’s most advanced gas pipeline networks due to its own natural gas resources, aspires to become one of Europe’s main natural gas suppliers and distributors.
The country is currently building a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) station in Rotterdam harbour from where gas could be distributed throughout Europe.
In recent months, the Netherlands has increasingly sought the cooperation of Algeria and Qatar for the purchase of gas for the new station.
Western Europe’s largest natural gas field is located in the northeastern Dutch province of Groningen. The 900-square-kilometre field was discovered in 1959.(dpa)
Karachi, May 19 (ANI): Advisor to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain has said that Islamabad and Tehran will sign the agreement for the supply of gas under Iran Pakistan Gas Pipeline by the end of this month or next month.
He said that Iran has nearly built the site for the supply of gas to at Pak-Iran border. Currently we are working on the details of the project. For example, in which country we will go for the arbitration in case of dispute, he added.
Dr Asim said that the efforts to get natural gas under Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan gas pipeline were also in progress.
At the same time, the government was exploring possibilities for utilizing Thar coal reserves for gasification and power generation, The News quoted him, as saying.
Responding to the demand from speakers at the exhibition about the power shortage, he said that government was exploring every possible way to increase power generation.
However, he urged the masses to remain patient because it will take some time to enhance power generation in the country. The gap between the demand and supply of power will be overcome in next two to three years, he noted. (ANI)
Islamabad, Mar.20 (ANI): Iran has accused Pakistan of allowing its soil to be used against it.
Addressing a press conference here, Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Mashall-ah Shakeri asked Islamabad to curb the activities of Jund Ullah which is involved in carrying out anti-Iran activities from Pakistani soil.
“We have evidence about activities of this organisation against Iran. We want to resolve the issue amicably but at the same we have concern about activities of Jund Ullah against Iran,” The Nation qouted Shakeri, as saying.
While commenting on the kidnapping of the Iranian envoy, he said it is the responsibility of Pakistan to assure the safety of its guest.
Shakeri also stressed on the need of increasing trade ties between both the countries.
“We want Pakistani business and traders to transport their products in different countries via Iran,” he added.
Shakeri expressed hope that the long pending work of the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline would resume soon, and all the three nations would work together in this context.
Commenting on the prolong cold-war between the US and Iran, he said: “Time has come that ice should melt between US and Iran, and it depends upon US.” (ANI)