London, UK-based Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) has announced plans to acquire the shares of Kazak thermal coal producer Shubarkol Komir that it does not already own.

ENRC, which currently owns 25 per cent of Shubarkol, said that its directors have unanimously approved to exercise rights to acquire the 2,638,103 outstanding shares for up to $600 million, plus assumed debt of $50 million.

Canada’s Daylight Energy is to be acquired by Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation (SIPC) for approximately C$2.2 billion.

Daylight is a growing intermediate oil and liquids rich natural gas producing company with a high quality suite of resource play assets in Western Canada.

Dubai-based Dragon Oil has announced the signing of a deal through which it will earn a 55 per cent interest in the Bargou Exploration Permit offshore Tunisia.

The farm-in agreement, which has been signed with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Perth, Australia-based Cooper Energy, will also give Dragon Oil operatorship of the permit in any development phase.

The Bargou Exploration Permit is located in the Gulf of Hammamet in the Mediterranean Sea, covering an area of 4,616 square kilometres with predominantly offshore exploration prospects.

DuPont has announced the start-up of its $500 million Cooper River Kevlar facility near Charleston, South Carolina in the United States.

The new facility is expected to add an initial 25 percent increase in overall global production capacity for Kevlar, with a 40 percent increase expected after continued technology developments over the next two years.

Sumir Karayi, CEO of IT efficiency specialist 1E, discusses the ways in which businesses can reach a greater level of IT efficiency.

Alan Braithwaite, chairman of LCP Consulting and visiting professor at Cranfield, outlines what challenges he foresees within operations management for the coming decade.

Many businesses are confused by the diverse offerings of cloud computing. However, for next generation EDI, the ‘managed cloud’ is a simple notion, as Steve Rees explains.

Cloud computing is a remarkable phenomenon, with analysts at IDC predicting public cloud computing services to be a $73 billion market by 2015. However, many CIOs are still puzzled by the term and may not yet be familiar with how appropriate ‘the cloud’ is for certain business IT functions. Concerns over security, too, remain an issue for some.

Most businesses know that intellectual property (IP) is important; but many are not really sure how to make the most of it. Yet a comprehensive IP strategy affects just about every aspect of a company’s day-to-day business, says Jackie Maguire, CEO of Coller IP.

When it comes to tackling IP, there are three key issues to consider. Firstly, understanding what you have and the value of it. Secondly, protecting it. And finally, looking at how to enhance and exploit it.

Ivanhoe Mines, Rio Tinto and the government of Mongolia have reached an agreement on the stakeholding of the Oyu Tolgoi project in the Asian country.

The government was seeking to raise its stake in the mine, which is expected to go into production during the third quarter of next year, from 34 per cent to 50 per cent.

The government has now agreed for its stake to remain at 34 per cent.

Tributes are pouring in from all over the world after the death of iconic Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs yesterday at the age of 56.