Energy

After a period of rapid expansion, Saxon Energy Services is developing a management framework to support its growing global footprint. Supply chain director Shaun Anderson talks about implementing the Saxon Management System, lean and six sigma, and a new Oracle ERP platform.

Crude oil output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) climbed by 90,000 barrels per day in August.

Output rose to 31.54 million b/d as increases from Angola, Iraq, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) outstripped decreases from Algeria and Iran, according to a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts today.

This follows July production of 31.45 million b/d and leaves OPEC overproducing its 30 million b/d ceiling by 1.54 million b/d.

E.ON Climate & Renewables (EC&R) is expanding its solar operations in the United States and relocating its global solar headquarters to San Francisco, California.

"We are very pleased with how quickly our US based development activities have grown in the recent past and recognize the US as being a very attractive and robust market for EC&R." said Christophe Jurczak, executive vice president, EC&R North America Solar.

Ireland’s DCC has agreed to acquire from Statoil Fuel & Retail the trade, fixed assets, stock and goodwill of its industrial LPG business in Sweden and Norway.

As part of the transaction, DCC will enter into long-term LPG supply contracts with Statoil, the international energy company.

During the first half of 2012, the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved US$800 million in loans to encourage private investment in Morocco’s growing wind and solar markets.

The bank’s support of Morocco’s plan to develop a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant at Ouarzazate and its Integrated Wind/Hydro and Rural Electrification Program is helping the country realise its goal of increasing its installed renewable energy capacity to 42 per cent by 2020.

Enovos Luxembourg and its project partners Pholpa and NPG Energy have celebrated the opening ceremony for the Biopower Tongeren biogas plant in the province of Limburg, Belgium.

In the presence of the minister of Economy and Innovation Ingrid Lieten, the mayor of Tongeren Patrick Dewael, and the CEO of Enovos Luxembourg Jean Lucius, the plant’s engines were started and will run on average 8,200 hours per year.

The biogas plant is the first of its kind in the Benelux. It uses a pre-fermentation tank that enables a higher biogas production.

Five marine energy developers are to benefit from £7.9 million in funding to develop the testing of new wave and tidal prototypes in Scottish waters.

The second round of WATERS (Wave & Tidal Energy: Research, Development & Demonstration Support) funding is to enable Scottish developers and supply chain firms to capture an increased share of the growing international marine energy market, which could be worth up to £4 billion to Scotland’s economy by 2020.

Private power producers are set to increase Kenya’s electricity generation capacity by 285 megawatts to spur economic growth and improve competitiveness, the World Bank has announced.

Various agreements for the first project, Thika Power, were signed yesterday by Kenya’s government, Kenya Power, Citibank, and the World Bank. The project will add 87 megawatts of capacity and the electricity produced will be purchased and distributed by Kenya Power.

Alongside the severe energy crises currently being experienced by most African countries comes a huge opportunity to direct investments into clean, efficient, renewable energy for the growth of a green economy in Africa.

BP has agreed to sell its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution business in the UK to DCC, a sales, marketing, distribution and business support services group.

BP’s LPG distribution business supplies a wide range of industrial, commercial and domestic customers with an annual volume of approximately 87,000 tonnes of bulk and cylinder LPG. It has 116 staff and operates from a network of 13 locations throughout the UK with a fleet of 62 delivery vehicles.