How will we meet the world's changing needs for energy? The global energy industry faces challenges from growing demand in developing economies, alternative sources of supply, climate change, regulation and energy security.
BANANAS are a staple crop of Rwanda, in Africa. The fruit is eaten raw, fried and baked - it even produces banana beer and wine.
A NEW type of air-fuelled battery could give up to 10 times the energy storage of designs currently available.
Wings that redirect air to waggle sideways could cut airline fuel bills by 20%, according to research funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Airbus in the UK.
FOOTSIE-LISTED Hallin Marine has teamed with GeoLab to win the vessel and ROV contract for the Pearl GTL project under development by Shell and Qatar Petroleum.
THE Helix Energy Solutions floating production unit, Helix Producer I (HPI), has arrived in the US Gulf of Mexico following major modifications at a shipyard in Greece to continue preparations for installation in the company's Phoenix deepwater field in Green Canyon blocks 236 and 237 in Q1 2010.
ROLLS-ROYCE has secured a £38million contract to supply a newly developed anchor-handling system that will enable floating production units to be secured to the seabed in extreme conditions offshore Brazil, where a string of large discoveries awaits development.
An innovative new subsea water-injection treatment system is due to undergo full-scale pilot plant trials on the seabed early this month.
There are currently more than 2.5million people with diabetes in the UK, and more than half-a-million additional sufferers who are unaware they have the condition.
SERICA should complete drilling its Bandon probe west of Ireland over the next two or three weeks with the reasonable likelihood that a gas discovery on trend with Shell's Corrib 1trillion cu ft asset will be made.
When compared with 2008, the pace of activity in the UKCS remains subdued, with only eight mobile rigs currently active on exploration and appraisal drilling - the same as last month - of which two are drilling sidetracks.
PETROBRAS has made an oil find in offshore Brazil acreage dropped by Shell.
SMART energy is the focus of a Society of Petroleum Engineers conference in Aberdeen on June 9-10. It is the result of feedback from the SPE community in Britain.
STATOILHYDRO has made a fresh discovery with an exploration well drilled about 35km east of the Gudrun field and some 30km south of the Grane field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
BRAZILIAN state operator Petrobras expects to spend about $300million on exploring its Turkish Black Sea concessions over the next two years, according to the company's international director, Jorge Zelada.
GRENLAND Group of Norway has signed a $7.7million contract with a unit of China Offshore Services Limited (COSL) for project-related work on a semi-submersible rig under construction at the Yantai Raffles yard in China.
INTERNATIONAL security and risk-mitigation provider AKE has launched the next generation of its secure online country information website, Global Intake.
PRIDE International has admitted to Chevron that its semi-submersible, Pride Venezuela, has an unacceptable level of corrosion. This has precipitated cancellation of a contract for use of the rig by Chevron off Angola.
NORWEGIAN group Aker Solutions has been awarded two key contracts, in partnership with Saipem, from Agip KCO, operator of the Kashagan field, on behalf of the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC).
DONG Energy is inviting companies to acquire up to 20% of its UK Atlantic Margin Licence P1195.
SAUDI Aramco's EXPEC Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC) claims to have found a better and cheaper way to control hydraulic fracturing in open-hole horizontal wells to improve reservoir contact and enhance production.
SEVAN Marine and Premier Oil have signed up to a firm contract for the continued provision and operation of the floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), Sevan Voyageur, on the Shelley field in the Central North Sea (blocks 22/2b and 22/3a).
ABERDEEN'S Robert Gordon University and Stavanger University are forming a collaborative partnership covering education and research across a number of disciplines, but which will especially capitalise on their strong positions in energy-related activities - most of all North Sea oil&gas.
Norwegian company Electromagnetic Geoservices (EMGS) is restructuring and cutting its workforce in the hope of riding out the recession successfully.
Alliancing, gainsharing and partnering were all buzzwords in the North Sea oil&gas industry of the mid-1990s. There is some talk of the return of these agreements, given the economic challenges faced by the industry in 2009.
