Europe

National Grid and ScottishPower Transmission have awarded a contract for construction of the first ever subsea electricity link between Scotland and England & Wales.

The £1 billion contract has been awarded to Germany’s Siemens and Italian cable manufacturer Prysmian.

The major grid upgrade will increase the capacity of electricity flowing between England and Scotland by more than 2,000 megawatts, allowing new renewable energy projects to be developed in Scotland that could power three million homes.

A revitalized General Motors Co. today announced profits of $7.6 billion for the year ending 31 December 2011 after a strong performance in the US, but its European and South American operations are still losing money.

This figure represents a 62 percent increase over 2010 profits of $4.7 billion, despite a loss of $700 million across its Vauxhall/Opel plants in the UK and Germany—although this was an improvement over the 2010 loss of $1.3 billion in Europe.

The Scottish government has announced that Scotland’s first near shore commercial wave power array has been approved by energy minister Fergus Ewing.

Two new Oyster wave energy converters are to be added to an existing device at the European Marine Energy Centre at Billia Croo, Orkney, to allow operators Aquamarine Power to test the devices as an array.

Each machine has a capacity of 800 KW, bringing the total capacity of the array to 2.4MW.

Netherlands-based NEM has secured an order from Saudi Arabia’s Arabian Bemco Contracting Co. for generators at the PP10 Combined Cycle Power Plant project.

The order is for 40 unfored dual pressure heat recovery steam generators with integral deaerators. The generators are designed with vertical gas flow natural circulation.

African Minerals has received notification from China’s Shandong Iron and Steel Group that the relevant approval has now been received regarding its proposed $1.5 billion investment in African Minerals’ Tonkolili iron ore project.

The approval came from the China National Development and Reform Committee (NDRC), and African Minerals is expecting the remaining government approvals to follow shortly. The closure date for the transaction has now been extended until the end of March 2012.

Engine maker Rolls-Royce has posted record annual profits of £1.16 billion for the year to the end of December 2011.

It is the first time the company has reported annual profits in excess of £1 billion. The results were boosted by the company’s acquisition of German engine maker Tognum and the £950 million sale of its stake in International Aero Engines.

Rolls-Royce provides power systems and services for use on land, at sea and in the air, for the civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine and energy and nuclear sectors.

AIM-listed oil and gas exploration and development company Europa Oil & Gas has announced a significant improvement in UK production and revenues generated during the six month period ending 31 January 2012.

The company has a combination of producing and exploration assets in Europe, including three producing assets in the UK, all located onshore in the East Midlands. It has a 100 per cent working interest in the West Firsby and Crosby Warren fields and a 65 per cent working interest in the Whisby 4 well.

Morrison Utility Services is behind much that UK citizens take for granted: its core business is the provision, replacement, repair and maintenance of utility network infrastructure; and water supply is one of its specialisations.

Commodities trader Glencore and mining giant Xstrata have confirmed they will merge to create a major natural resources group with a combined equity market value of $90 billion.

The companies said that to combine was the logical next step in a changing industry environment.

The combined entity will have production growth of 11 per cent on a compound annual basis to 2015, with positions in the next major regions for mining investment, including the African copper-belt, Kazakhstan and South America.

Tullow Oil has signed two new production sharing agreements (PSAs) with the government of Uganda, paving the way for completion of its asset sale to France’s Total and China’s CNOOC.

The new PSAs cover the EA-1 and Kanywataba licences in the Lake Albert Rift Basin. Tullow has also been awarded the production licence for the Kingfisher field, which is estimated to hold around 300 million barrels of oil.