Europe

Premier Oil is to acquire EnCore Oil for approximately £221 million, the two companies have announced.

London, UK-based Premier said the acquisition is in line with its strategy of acquiring high quality assets. The deal will increase its interest in UK Licence PL1430, including the Catcher field, by 15 per cent, taking its overall interest to 50 per cent. It will also provide Premier with operatorship of the Catcher area.

Catcher is one of the largest discoveries in the UK North Sea in recent years.

Dubai-based port operator DP World has announced that London Gateway, the UK’s newest port, is due to open in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The port will have an initial capacity of 1.6 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent container units), and is expected to boost the UK’s economy by an estimated £3.2 billion per annum.

Canadian engineering, construction and infrastructure group SNC-Lavalin has acquired Interfleet Technology, an international rail technology consultancy group headquartered in Derby, United Kingdom.

Interfleet specializes in rolling stock, railway systems and strategic railway management.

Turkey is something of an unknown and misunderstood place; but as Alan Swaby learns, there is at least one mining entrepreneur who has complete faith in its future.

Considering the amount of exploration that’s taken place in some of the most obscure corners of the world, it’s something of a surprise that Turkey’s mineral resources are so underdeveloped. At least it is to Alan Clegg, founder and CEO of Red Crescent Resources (RCR)—although he’s not complaining too much, as it leaves the field wide open for RCR at the moment.

Platinum producer Lonmin has agreed to sell a controlling stake in its Limpopo Baobab mining division to black empowerment group Shanduka.

Lonmin said the deal will enable it to work with Shanduka to develop Limpopo on a manageable scale, as well as furthering Shanduka’s strategy of operating mining assets in chosen commodities.

London-based engineering and project management company AMEC has been awarded the front-end engineering and design contract for development of the Cygnus field in the southern North Sea.

The £50 million contract, which was awarded by GDF SUEZ E&P UK, is a front-end engineering & design (FEED) contract, which includes the option to proceed into detailed design and procurement services.

Westinghouse Electric Company has been awarded a contract for the supply of 12 replacement steam generators for EDF's French nuclear fleet.

Westinghouse will provide engineering design, analysis, and fabrication for its technologically advanced steam generator and will deliver the steam generators to EDF in collaboration with several industrial partners, including Valinox Nucleaire in France for the manufacture of steam generator tubes, Mangiarotti S.p.A. in Italy for the steam generator assembly, and other European forging companies.

The Port of Felixstowe, the UK's largest container port, opened a new deep water shipping terminal today.

The new terminal consists of two berths – Berths 8 & 9 – and is the first stage of a £1 billion plus inward investment programme in Hutchison’s UK ports.

Currently the Port of Felixstowe deals with over 40 per cent of the UK’s container cargo, with around £60 billion of imports and exports passing through the port each year. The expansion could add a further £20 billion to this figure.

US battery manufacturer EnerSys announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to launch a joint venture in Germany to produce large format lithium-ion battery cells.

EnerSys will have a majority interest in the joint venture in cooperation with GAIA Akkumulatorenwerke GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lithium Technology Corporation (LTC).

US-based high-tech component manufacturer Atmel is to acquire ADD Semiconductor, a privately held company based in Zaragoza, Spain that develops power line communication solutions.

Atmel Corporation is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, capacitive touch solutions, advanced logic, mixed-signal, non-volatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components.