Energy

Australia’s Woodside Petroleum has begun producing LNG from its Pluto LNG Project near Karratha in Western Australia, the company announced today.

Woodside will soon be loading its first cargo aboard the Woodside Donaldson LNG tanker for shipment.

The project processes gas from the Pluto gas field, located in the Carnarvon Basin about 190 kilometres north-west of Karratha.

Vancouver-based Methanex, the world’s largest supplier of methanol to major international markets, is to relocate one of its plants from Chile to Louisiana in the United States.

Methanex has four plants at its Cabo Negro complex in southern Chile, but they are operating significantly below capacity, mainly due to curtailments of natural gas supply from Argentina.

Royal Dutch Shell reported results for Q1 2012 today, with profits up through a combination of improvements in performance and volumes, as well as strong oil prices.

Shell’s first quarter 2012 earnings were $7.7 billion compared with $6.9 billion in the same quarter a year ago – an increase of 11 percent.

“We are making good progress against our targets to deliver a more competitive performance,” said chief executive officer Peter Voser.

Schneider Electric is in the business of improving energy efficiency; but rather than just telling others what to do, Jeff Daniels has discovered that Schneider has also shown the world what to do.

At times, South Africa’s electricity suppliers can no longer meet demand; so until supply once again catches up, the emphasis is on reducing demand, as Jeff Daniels learns.

Shell has agreed to buy East Africa-focused Cove Energy in a deal worth £1.12 billion, it has been announced.

London-listed Cove will be acquired by the energy giant’s Shell Bidco subsidiary.

The acquisition marks Shell's entry into Kenya and Mozambique, with potential for new LNG from recent gas discoveries offshore Mozambique. Shell already has interests in Tanzania.

GE, the largest industrial company in the United States, reported its eighth consecutive quarter of operating earnings growth in Q1 2012.

While total revenue fell 8 percent to $35.2 billion compared with the same quarter of 2011, this year’s figures do not include revenues from NBC Universal, in which a majority stake has been sold to Comcast.

Norwegian EPC specialist Kvaerner has been awarded an engineering, procurement, construction and management contract for the Shell-operated Ormen Lange/Nyhamna onshore facilities on the west coast of Norway.

The contract, worth NOK 6 billion (excluding options), is a framework agreement for a duration of six years, with options for an additional two-plus-two years.

Ireland’s Providence Resources has confirmed it has received the final payment of US$6 million for the sale of its Nigerian interest, OML 113.

The payment marks the end of Providence’s asset portfolio restructuring, allowing it to focus on its core areas of offshore Ireland and onshore United Kingdom.

Providence divested its Nigerian subsidiary, which holds its interest in OML 113 offshore Nigeria, to Jacka for a total consideration of $16 million, $10 million of which was paid in December 2011, with the balance of $6 million to be paid in April 2012.

Lithium Exploration Group has begun the initial testing of its ultrasonic generator in Pennsylvania, United States.

The testing begins today and will run for ten days. The purpose of the test is to operate all of the componentry together, bring the generator to optimal speed and pressure to harness the cavitation and produce steam, and identify the optimal settings for all of the stages of the unit.