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From: reallyveryradical <reallyveryradical@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:15 AM
Subject: Cool Wars Does Life Imitate Art
To: World_Politics <world_politics@googlegroups.com>
Cool Wars Does Life Imitate Art
The Cool War (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cool War is a science fiction novel by Frederick Pohl
Like many of Pohl's novels, this opens in a world reduced by a crisis,
in this case the loss of fossil fuels….
The Rev. H. Hornswell "Horny" Hake becomes embroiled in "the Cool
War", in which each country tries to sabotage the economies of its
rivals, even if politically they are allies…. the War has produced a
group of people who profit by its continuation and can suppress
technologies that might solve humanity's problems. In particular a new
form of solar energy collection relies on bio-engineered "sunflowers"
which, while technically plants, have extremely reflective petals and
can be trained to focus light from a wide area on a furnace or power
generator. The Team is determined to destroy the technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cool_War_(novel)
'The Cool War compliments another book by Frederik Pohl, The
Merchant's War, and both depict versions of the future with weak
governments help less to contain forces of exploitation. This one
anticipates how future wars will be undertaken through attacks that
cannot be traced back to their source. The lack of accountability
prevents retaliation on any tit-for-tat basis, but soon enough
everyone adopts that method and is undermining the stability and
economy of every other power.
Although none of the events depicted in The Cool War have happened
yet, author Frederik Pohl nicely anticipates our excalation of
terrorism, and he gives a wry fantasy about what the Mideast may do
with all their money when the oil starts to run out.
In the years since The Cool War was written, it has shown prescience,
and it is valuable as a cautionary tale."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394293835/top100
The Merchants' War (1984 novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Merchants' War is a 1984 novel by Frederick Pohl of a near future
commercial dystopian interplanetary society. The novel was a sequel to
The Space Merchants, and was originally co-published with it as VENUS,
INC. In the story, the colony on Venus has managed to stabilize itself
to a point. However, agents from the trans-national corporations on
Earth attempt to undermine the stability of the colony. The story
follows the trail of two advertisement company employees from the
colony back to Earth, as they struggle with addiction and the truth of
the situation back on Earth. As with the prequel, the characters are
not what they seem, and the main character's loyalty changes
drasticallyThe Merchants' War
THE MERCHANTS' WAR (1984) is the hilarious sequal to the classic THE
SPACE MERCHANTS (1952). While THE SPACE MERCHANTS is the better known
of these two books, THE MERCHANTS' WAR stands up better to the passing
of years, as most of the bold predictions in THE SPACE MERCHANTS don't
hold up well over time.
The story takes up about 30 years after where THE SPACE MERCHANTS left
off, with the "Conservationists" having gotten a foothold on
colonizing Venus, and with Earth even more over-populated (40Bln
people), and more over-commercialized.
Well, what really impressed me about THE MERCHANTS' WAR was the
situations that the befuddled main character Tennison Tarb gets
himself into... at first, I thought that "Tenny" was just another
unlikeable main character - for example, when he and his girlfriend
are out exploring the old Russina Venera landing site on Venus,
"Tenny" gets bored, and lets air out of his oxygen tanks, so that the
two must head back inside... but later, the situations that continue
to happen to Tenny start to get you laughing at him... Tenny reminds
me of this Program Manager at my work, and I could imagine these
things happening to him, and I just started to laugh at loud, and on a
number of occasions.
One of the things that happens to Tenny, is that he quickly becomes
driven to buy and be addicted to "Mokie-Coke"... I don't want to spoil
it for anybody - so I'll just tell you, you've got the find and read
this book"
http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-War-Frederik-Pohl/dp/0312902409
The Space Merchants
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Space Merchants is a science fiction novel, written by Frederik
Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth in 1952. Originally published in Galaxy
Science Fiction magazine as a serial entitled Gravy Planet, the novel
was first published as a single volume in 1953, and has sold heavily
since. It deals satirically with a hyper-developed consumerism, seen
through the eyes of an advertising executive. It was followed some
years later by a sequel, The Merchants' War.
n a vastly overpopulated world, businesses have taken the place of
governments and now hold all political power. States exist merely to
ensure the survival of huge trans-national corporations. Advertising
has become hugely aggressive and by far the best-paid profession.
Through advertising, the public is constantly deluded into thinking
that the quality of life is improved by all the products placed on the
market. However, the most basic elements are incredibly scarce,
including water and fuel. The planet Venus has just been visited and
judged fit for human settlement, despite its inhospitable surface and
climate; the colonists would have to endure a harsh climate for many
generations until the planet could be terraformed.
The protagonist, Mitch Courtenay, is a star-class copywriter in the
Fowler Schocken advertising agency who has been assigned the ad
campaign which would attract colonists to Venus. But a lot more is
happening than he knows about. It soon becomes a tale of mystery and
intrigue, in which many of the characters are not what they seem, and
Mitch's loyalties and opinions change drastically over the course of
the narrative.
Dr Anthony Hayward CCMI (born 1957) is the Chief Executive of oil and
energy company BP Group, taking over from John Browne, Baron Browne of
Madingley on 1 May 2007. Hayward gained a first class geology degree
from Aston University in Birmingham[1] followed by a PhD from
Edinburgh University.[2] Joining BP in 1982, with his first job as a
rig geologist in Aberdeen,[3] he quickly rose through the ranks in a
series of technical and commercial roles in BP Exploration in London,
Aberdeen, France, China and Glasgow. Hayward first came to Lord
Browne's attention during a leadership conference in 1990 in Phoenix,
Arizona. As a result he was made Browne's executive assistant.[4] In
1992, Hayward moved to Colombia as exploration manager and became
president of BP's operations in Venezuela in 1995. In August 1997 he
returned to London as a director of BP Exploration. He became group
vice president of BP Amoco Exploration and Production as well as a
member of the BP group's Upstream executive committee in 1999.
Hayward was appointed BP group treasurer in September 2000 where his
responsibilities included global treasury operations, foreign exchange
dealing, corporate finance, project finance and mergers and
acquisitions. Hayward became an executive vice president in April
2002, and Chief Executive of exploration and production in January
2003.
In 2009, Hayward was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science
from Edinburgh University.
Replacement of Lord Browne
In light of safety and resultant production issues in Alaska and the
report in to the explosion at the Texas City refinery, Peter
Sutherland, BP's non-executive chairman, accelerated the process for
replacing Lord Browne, bringing the timetable forward from end-2008
(when Browne would be 60, and nominally forced to retire under BP's
rules), to July 2007. Hayward, having been termed CEO designate by
both internal and media commentators, came to the fore amid the
competition[5], including Robert Dudley, chief executive of TNK-BP,
the company's Russian joint venture, and John Manzoni, head of
refining and marketing[6][7].
On 12 January 2007 it was announced that Hayward would replace Lord
Browne as BP Chief Executive[10]. In preparation for Hayward's take up
as Group CEO, on 2 February Andy Inglis was appointed managing
director of the BP Group, and succeeds Hayward as chief executive of
BP's Exploration & Production (E&P) business[11].
Hayward was appointed to the Chief Executive position with immediate
effect on 1 May 2007, after Lord Browne resigned following the lifting
of a legal injunction preventing Associated Newspapers from publishing
details about his private life.[12][13]
BP pays Hayward an annual salary of £998,000 and in 2008 his bonus was
£1,496,000.
Hayward was a member of the Citibank advisory board, from 2000 to
2003[16]. Hayward is presently senior independent non-executive
director of Corus Group, Corus is a subsidiary of Tata Steel, part of
India's Tata Group, one of the worlds largest steel producer's, with
headquarters in London, England.
The Company was formed from the merger of Koninklijke Hoogovens N.V.
with British Steel Plc on 6 October 1999. It was once a constituent of
the FTSE 100 Index, but was taken over by Tata in 2007.
appointed in April 2002, and a non-executive director of Tata Steel.
Hayward is a committee member of Audit, Nominations and Health, Safety
and Environment[17]. Hayward was appointed a Companion of the
Chartered Management Institute in September 2005[18].
Edmund John Philip Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, FRS FREng (born
20 February 1948) is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and
was group Chief Executive of BP until his resignation on 1 May 2007.
Since 2001, he has been a crossbench member of the House of Lords.
Browne was born in Hamburg, Germany, to a British Army officer father
and a Hungarian Auschwitz survivor mother. His father also worked in
civilian life for Anglo-Persian Oil, which later became British
Petroleum. He was educated at the King's School, Ely and St John's
College, Cambridge, where he earned a First Class Bachelor's degree in
Physics.
He holds a degree in Physics from Cambridge University and an MS in
Business from Stanford University , California . He has also been
awarded Honorary Doctorates from Heriot Watt University (D.Eng) and
Robert Gordon University (D.Tech), Dundee University (LLD), Warwick
University (D.Sc), Hull University (D.Sc), Cranfield University
(D.Sc), Sheffield Hallam University (Hon. D Univ), University of
Buckingham (D.Sc), University of Belfast (Hon DSc 0 Eng) and the
University of Surrey (Hon D. Univ), Imperial College, London (Hon
D.Sc), (Leuven University, Belgium (D.Sc), Thunderbird (LLD),
University of Notre Dame (LLD), Colorado School of Mines (D.Eng), D
Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, Arizona State
University (DHLitt). He is an Honorary Fellow of St John's College,
Cambridge and a Senior Member of St Antony's College, Oxford.
He is a Fellow and President of The Royal Academy of Engineering, a
Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials,
Minerals and Mining, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a Fellow of
the Institute of Petroleum, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts &
Sciences, a Companion of the Institute of Management, an Honorary
Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, an Honorary Fellow of
the Geological Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of
Chemistry. At the suggestion of his father, Browne joined BP as an
apprentice in 1966 while still at university and remained with the
corporation throughout his career.
Between 1969 and 1983, he held a variety of exploration and production
posts in Anchorage, Alaska [1] , New York, San Francisco, London and
Canada.
In 1984 he became Group Treasurer and Chief Executive of BP Finance
International.
In April 1986, he took up the position of Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer of The Standard Oil Company in Cleveland,
Ohio. In 1987, following the BP/Standard merger, in addition to his
position as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of BP
America, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Standard Oil
Production Company.
In 1989, he became Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BP
Exploration based in London . In September 1991, he joined the Board
of The British Petroleum Company plc. as a Managing Director. He was
appointed Group Chief Executive on 10 June 1995. Following the merger
of BP and Amoco, he became Group Chief Executive of the combined group
on 31 December 1998 until 1 May 2007.
A chapter length study of Browne's career and his leadership style,
including views on life, business and leadership, is included in Steve
Tappin's book The Secrets of CEOs.[2]
He was one of the most highly paid executives in the UK with a
remuneration package of approximately £5.7 million in 2004.
Green issues promoted by Browne
From 1997, Browne sought to recreate BP as a "green" energy company.
The company linked itself in its corporate communications with green
issues by the overt link of its BP initials with the phrase "Beyond
Petroleum". Browne stated that the right to self determination is
crucial for people everywhere, and that he sees his company's mission
as to find ways to meet current needs without excessive harm to the
environment, while developing future, more sustainable sources of
energy. He promised that BP would cut its production of CO2 by 10% by
2010, although it is as yet unclear whether BP will meet this in the
wake of his departure.
Resignation
It was announced on 25 July 2006 that Browne would stand down as chief
executive of BP in December 2008, 10 months after his 60th birthday.
There had been press speculation that he had wished to continue beyond
this date, but he made it clear that he did not wish to do so.
He is Managing Director and Managing Partner ( Europe ) of Riverstone
Holdings LLC.
He became President of the Royal Academy of Engineering in July 2006.
He took over from Frances Cairncross as President of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science in September 2006, and was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006. In 1998, he was
knighted[14] by Queen Elizabeth II and in 2001 named by the House of
Lords Appointments Commission[15] as one of the "people's peers"
taking the title Baron Browne of Madingley, of Cambridge in the County
of Cambridgeshire,[16][17] and becoming a crossbencher in the House of
Lords. In 2000 he was the recipient of the FIRST Responsible
Capitalism Award [18].
He was appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery on 1 August 2007 and
Chair of the Trustees in January 2009 [19].
In November 2009 it was announced that Lord Browne will chair a
government committee into university tuition fees due to report in
2010.[20]. In December 2009 this committee revised the estimate of the
graduate premium, the increase in lifetime salary of a degree compared
to 2 A levels, down to £100,000 (before debt) [21].
Lord Browne lists 17th- and 18th-century illustrated Italian books,
pre-Columbian art, contemporary Art, music, opera and the theatre
among his interests.
The Long Term Outlook: The Challenges for Business
Speaker: Lord Browne
Speech date: 28 October 2004
Venue: Weizmann Institute, Israel
Title: Group Chief Executive
Thank you for that very kind introduction. It is a pleasure and a
privilege to be here. It's almost exactly five years now since I went
to speak at the Weizmann Institute and I can still remember every
minute of that visit very vividly. I wouldn't say it was the most
comfortable trip because my mother and I were seeing Israel for the
first time and that made us think about members of our family, and
their history, and all the things which happened to them. But the
visit was inspiring because despite all the problems, it was possible
to see the strength of the commitment of Israel , symbolised by the
Weizmann Institute, to knowledge and science. The fact that this
commitment has been sustained over the last half century, through many
troubling times, is a mark both of the vision of those who founded the
state of Israel and the Institute, and the continued optimism of those
who work there – an optimism which is both rare and precious.
Education - in particular as represented by universities and research
institutes – is about investment in the future: in human capital and
in the belief that knowledge can improve the human condition. That is
true everywhere in the world but I think it is especially true in
countries which are still shaping their destiny.
So it is a privilege to be here, and to be able to acknowledge all
those who have done so much to sustain and build the Weizmann
Institute. You have asked me to talk this morning about the future –
from a business perspective. I think the fundamental challenge –
reaching well beyond business - is about how we can all sustain the
sense of human progress. To demonstrate that tomorrow can be better
than today – not through a naïve expression of optimism but through
the systematic resolution of challenges and the determined application
of knowledge to transcend barriers and trade offs. I'm going to talk
about energy, not just because that is my special subject, but also
because energy is at heart of so much else. Energy is the foundation
of human activity. It provides heat, light, food, mobility, health,
the capacity to develop and accumulate knowledge, as well as the
ability to live in comfort and to enjoy the pleasures of life. A world
without energy would be cold and dark and ignorant. I see the
provision of energy as a precondition of progress. So when people
start to say there is an energy crisis and start to worry about the
price and the security of supply it is important to go to the facts
and to focus on the reality. There is no energy crisis at the moment.
There is no shortage of oil or gas. There is, however, a legitimate
concern about the security of supply because demand has grown so
strongly over the last year that the amount of spare capacity has
shrunk. By spare capacity I mean the gap between what is actually
produced and what could be produced immediately and without
difficulty.
The amount of spare capacity at the moment is one third of the normal
level and is less in absolute terms than the amounts produced in a
number of countries, where continuity of supply has been threatened by
disruption – including Iraq , Nigeria and Venezuela . That is the
reason for the recent rise in prices. Not a shortage – but the fear of
shortage. We believe that fear can be mitigated over the next few
years because more capacity is coming on-stream around the world, from
Russia and Angola and the Caspian and because there are some signs
that the recent growth in demand, particularly in China , has been
exceptional and will not be sustained. That is a view, not a
prediction, and of course prices could stay high if there is continued
instability in any of the major producing areas. The concern about
energy security is not just a short term issue. There are two longer
term concerns. First, there is concern that the environmental issues,
including the impact of human activity and increasing energy
consumption on the earth's climate, have not been resolved. The
emissions of the so-called greenhouse gases are increasing. The
concentration of carbon in the atmosphere is now at around 370 ppm.
That level of concentration has increased rapidly over the last few
decades and is advancing steadily towards the figure of 500 to 550 ppm
which many of the world's leading scientists have concluded is the
level of sustainability. That is the level beyond which they fear that
global warming could begin to have serious effects on our ecosystems.
The second concern is that the steady growth in demand for energy in
general, and for oil in particular, won't be matched by available
supplies.
On the best available independent figures, energy demand worldwide
will rise by up to one-third over the next decade, and most of that
demand growth will be supplied by oil and gas. Some countries will use
more coal, but that simply reinforces the environmental concerns. Some
will use nuclear, but that raises multiple problems of safety, costs,
proliferation and waste disposal. One day, alternative and renewable
fuels will have a major role but that day may still be a long way off.
The forecasts suggest that in a decade's time they will provide little
more than 3 per cent of world demand. The world will therefore rely on
oil and gas. Oil is a traded commodity. Oil-producing areas such as
the North Sea and Alaska will be producing only small amounts by then
and the four major economic players in the world – the US , Europe,
China and Japan - will all be significant oil importers. Across the
world almost 70 per cent of daily demand will be imported. And those
imports will come from a very limited number of suppliers. The
countries of the Persian Gulf along with West Africa and Russia will
be providing up to 80 per cent of traded oil, and, therefore, more
than half of total world demand. On this forecast, which comes from an
independent and authoritative source - the International Energy Agency
- more than 15 million barrels of oil per day will need to come from
Saudi Arabia – and that is assuming that all the other suppliers
including Iran and Iraq are producing and exporting significant
volumes. Those are the reasons why there is a sense of insecurity and
anxiety around the issue of energy. What is the role of business in
managing these challenges and sustaining human progress? I think there
are four elements, each of which will contribute to the continued
security of energy supply. In each case business can only do its job
if we work hand in hand with science. The two go together in
sustaining progress.
First, we have to maximise the diversity of supply through investment
in different places and through the application of technology to keep
costs down. That is why BP is investing in Russia and Angola , and the
Caspian and Indonesia . These investments will help to reduce the risk
of undue reliance on the Persian Gulf . And it is why we are investing
in the technology which allows us to produce from very deep water –
from depths of up 10,000 ft in the Gulf of Mexico and off West
Africa . Secondly, we have to mitigate the impact of climate change to
avoid long run environmental damage. That means using technology to
improve efficiency, working with the car manufacturers, for instance,
to improve the mileage per gallon of new vehicles. It means using
science to develop new clean products free of lead, sulphur or
benzene. And it means exploring new ways of capturing and storing the
carbon which would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere. Each of
those elements is important. There is no single solution to the
challenge of climate change and there isn't likely to be. But there
are a series of strands each of which could help mitigate a part of
the problem. Thirdly, we have to pursue the long term research which
will produce the alternative and renewable fuels of the future – such
as photovoltaics and solar power. Some of the alternatives are
beginning to look promising, but none yet are fully commercial at the
scale which would make a difference to the world's energy balance. We
have to work to reduce costs and then to bring those nascent
technologies to the market.
And fourthly, we have to use our global reach to spread the
application of knowledge. BP works in a hundred different countries
around the world. If we make a breakthrough in any one of our areas of
activity we can take that breakthrough and apply it on a global basis
very quickly. That is what we've done with clean fuels and with the
technology which allows us to eliminate the flaring of surplus natural
gas. That capacity to spread knowledge is one of the great benefits of
globalisation. In all these cases, science and business have to work
together. Science advances knowledge, as exemplified by the work of
the Weizmann Institute. And business applies that knowledge. The roles
are complimentary and mutually dependent. Without the advance of
science we could make no progress. Without business, scientific
advances would remain in the laboratory – unused and largely unknown.
The global energy scene is complex and clouded. It would be easy to
conclude that the current situation is unsustainable. Perhaps at any
one moment in time the forward projection of current trends always
looks unsustainable. I am sure that was true half a century ago when
the Weizmann Institute was established. But there always is change,
and change comes through science and its application by business. The
two together are essential to the continual renewal of human progress.
They both are universal. Both business and science now work on a
genuinely international basis. They both are symbols of human
potential and aspiration. They both look forward not back. And it is
on that basis, without in any way diminishing the challenges we all
face, that I'm an optimist about the future. When we went to Israel we
were told about the spirit and the drive of those who had taken the
enormous step of creating a new country.
That spirit was summed up for me in a line written by Chaim Weizmann
himself – a line which I think is very moving even for those of us who
are not religious by nature. Dr Weizmann wrote:
" God will look down benignly on his Children who after a long
wandering have come home to serve Him with a psalm on their lips and a
spade in their hands, reviving their old country and making a centre
of human civilization."
Thank you very much.
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=98&contentId=7001714
Israel is seeking gas supplies from Russia 's OAO Gazprom and a BP PLC
Azeri field, a top Israeli official said this week.
In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Hezi Kugler, a director
general at Israel 's ministry of national infrastructures, said
Gazprom and Israel are conducting a pre-feasability study to estimate
the size of gas supplies it could provide to the country.
He said the amounts involved will be several billion cubic meters per
year but likely less than 10 billion.
Kugler said talks are also continuing to get gas from Azerbaijan and
that Israel 's national infrastructures minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
was in the former Soviet Union country this week. He said supplies
could come from BP PLC (BP)-operated Shah Deniz project, where a
second development phase is currently planned.
Kugler said he has not held talks with the U.K. oil giant yet but "we
would be happy to speak to them." He said that during a recent visit
to Shah Deniz he "was very impressed by the way BP operates" what he
called "a first-class oil and gas project."
In addition, Israel is in talks with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan , he
said. All gas from the former Soviet Union would flow to Israel
through a Turkish pipeline, he said.
But Kugler also said a tender process to select technical advisors for
a liquefied-natural-gas terminal had just started and international
companies and financial investors had already inquired about the
project.
Israel Billionaire Tshuva Strikes Gas, Fueling Energy Expansion
By David Wainer and Calev Ben-David
April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Isaac Tshuva uses sugar packets on a table in
the lounge of his Leonardo City Tower Hotel in Tel Aviv to mark the
spots of three natural-gas fields off Israel that he said will fuel
global growth of his energy business.
The Israeli billionaire, owner of New York's Plaza Hotel, said his
Delek Group Ltd. and partners including Houston-based Noble Energy
Inc. are now homing in on more deposits after last year announcing a
record find in waters off Haifa , Bloomberg Businessweek reports in
its April 26 edition.
"The amounts we've found are going to provide much of Israel 's energy
needs for the next two decades," said Tshuva, 61, who grew up in a one-
bedroom apartment in Netanya with 10 family members after immigrating
from Libya in 1948.
Tshuva is expanding his business and this year offered to buy BP Plc's
gasoline stations in France , adding to outlets in the U.S. , Israel
and Europe . The discovery has also helped as he tries to keep alive a
$5 billion project to put a Plaza Hotel on the Las Vegas strip, which
stalled as the U.S. real estate market slumped in the recession.
The find was "game-changing," said Arie Tal, chief strategist at
Alumot-Sprint Investment House Ltd., which holds Delek shares among
about 1.5 billion shekels ($382 million) of assets. "It transformed
Delek, a company that was possibly facing a tough time refinancing its
debt, to a company that now holds an asset that will generate billions
of dollars."
Tamar Gas
Delek-controlled companies and partners led by Noble Energy in January
2009 announced a find at the Tamar prospect that may hold 7.7 trillion
cubic feet of gas (218 billion cubic meters), according to a survey by
Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc. That's more than twice the annual
output of Norway , the world's second-largest gas exporter. The
partners have secured about $11 billion in domestic gas commitments
and expect output by 2012.
The Levant Basin, where Tamar is located and which stretches the
length of Israel and Lebanon, may hold 227 trillion cubic feet of gas,
the U.S. Geological Survey said in a report released April 8, its
first review of the region.
"The natural-gas find is very significant for the Israeli economy,"
said Amit Mor, head of investor and consultant Eco Energy Ltd. "At
least half of electric generation will be supplied from natural gas in
the coming years."
Expansion Abroad
It may also drive Delek's push abroad. The company expects to complete
a purchase of 416 filling stations from BP in France soon, adding to
its 1,600 service stations in eight U.S. states under such brands as
Mapco and Texaco-branded stations in Belgium , the Netherlands and
Luxembourg .
Asaf Bartfeld, Delek's 58-year-old chief executive officer, said in an
interview that it's the right time to expand its gasoline stations
because companies are selling at lower prices.
Delek posted a profit of 864 million shekels last year, after a loss
of 1.8 billion in 2008. Earnings at its fuel operations in Israel ,
Europe and the U.S. rose, its insurance business returned to profit
and it booked capital gains.
While his energy business weathered the slump, Tshuva last year spun
off Delek Real Estate Ltd. after it lost 1.6 billion shekels in 2008
in part after adding debt to purchase RoadChef Motorways Holdings
Ltd., one of the U.K. 's largest operators of roadside service
stations. Delek's shares fell 86 percent in 2008 and its bonds plunged
to about half their par value.
"The man has good intuitions," said Ronen Elgali, head of research at
Sphera Fund, a Tel Aviv-based hedge fund with $360 million. "He's had
some poor real estate investments but has excelled in other areas. You
can't win them all."
Gas-Price Decline
Gas markets are also vulnerable after prices sank because of rising
supplies. The International Energy Agency has forecast an "acute glut"
over the next five years. U.S. gas prices have dropped 28 percent this
year after record output of 26.3 trillion cubic feet in 2009. Prices
also fell in 2009 and 2008.
The father of five, whose friends include President Shimon Peres, came
to Israel after the nation's independence in 1948 and started working
in construction and agriculture at the age of 12. After three years in
the army, he began as a contractor for the Defense Ministry and helped
erect the Bar Lev Line fortification along the Suez canal after Israel
captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt in the 1967 war.
He began to amass wealth as a developer of low-income neighborhoods
across Israel , benefiting from a construction boom in the 1970s. In
1998, he joined the country's business elite after wresting control of
Delek from the Recanati family's IDB Holding Corp. He was an outsider
in Israel 's business community because of his origins and lack of
higher education.
Delek Acquisition
"That was a big jump for him as the company at the time belonged to
Israel 's giants," said Moshe Tery, former chairman of the Israel
Securities Authority, who helped manage Tshuva's investments before
the Delek purchase. "Of course, eyebrows were raised due to his
unusual background."
A spokesman for the Recanati family, who asked not to be identified,
declined to comment.
Tshuva, whom employees describe as a devout believer in the Jewish
faith, was 463rd on Forbes's annual list of billionaires published
last month with a fortune of $2.1 billion.
In 2000, he sent Miki Naftali, who had helped develop residential
projects and a hotel in the southern town of Eilat , to New York to
head El-Ad Group Ltd., the privately held real estate company named
after his only son. El-Ad developed more than a dozen high-end
residential ventures in New York over the next five years. In 2004,
Naftali, spurred on by Tshuva, made a losing bid on the former
Mayflower Hotel on Central Park West.
'Pimping the Plaza'
"I was very disappointed," Naftali, El-Ad's CEO, said in an interview.
"We were very keen at the time to find a development opportunity
overlooking Central Park ."
The idea to buy the Plaza came as he walked by the hotel after losing
out on the Mayflower. A meeting was arranged with Singapore 's Kwek
Leng Beng, whose Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc owned half. In what
was to be a 30-minute meeting in Singapore , Naftali said Tshuva
instructed him by telephone to keep the price down but to not let the
"deal fall through."
El-Ad bought the hotel for $675 million and spent $450 million on
renovations and to convert much of it into apartments, a project led
by Tshuva's daughter Gal Nauer. The New York Post tabloid accused El-
Ad of "pimping out the Plaza" and "selling the soul of the
institution."
El-Ad, which runs the hotel business and retail area, sold 181
residential units for about $1.4 billion, Naftali said.
Vegas Trouble
Companies controlled by Tshuva and Israeli tycoon Nochi Danker then
paid $1.25 billion for the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas , which they
razed to make way for a Plaza development. The plan was put on hold in
2008 as the financial crisis deepened. The partners wrote down the
property by $250 million in the fourth quarter, valuing it at $1
billion to $1.1 billion.
While El-Ad was bogged down in Las Vegas , Delek's shares rose more
than six-fold since the gas find, giving it a value of about 9.5
billion shekels. Tshuva owns about 64 percent of Delek, according to
stock exchange data.
Delek controls about 31 percent of Tamar through Delek Drilling LP and
Avner Oil & Gas Ltd. Noble has 36 percent and Isramco Negev 2 Ltd. 29
percent.
Noble and Delek are waiting for seismic survey results in the
surrounding area, which may hold reserves larger than Tamar, said
Yaron Zer, an analyst at Clal Finance Brokerage Ltd.
Delek companies are part-owners of 26 licenses and leases off Israel
amid a push to increase gas use in the country, which gets more than
half its energy from oil and coal, according to the Finance Ministry.
Dead Sea Revival
"A new find would have to be as large as Tamar to be commercially
viable as Israel is going to be oversupplied," said Israel Brokerage &
Investments Ltd. analyst Guil Bashan.
In a conference room next to Tshuva's office, Delek's Bartfeld laughed
about how employees celebrated with champagne in plastic cups after
striking gas, in line with Tshuva's frugal image. He drives to work in
a beat-up Cadillac and said he doesn't wear a watch so as not to
forget when his parents couldn't afford one for his Bar Mitzvah.
His plans aren't so unassuming. Tshuva wants to help develop the
"Valley of Peace," a 170-kilometer (106-mile) canal from the Red Sea
to the Dead Sea to keep the depleted salt lake from drying up. The
project may help improve the economy on both sides of the Israel-
Jordanian border, Tshuva said.
"I have many dreams and plans," he said. "Regretfully, even 100 years
will not suffice in order to properly realize even a 10th of them."
To contact the reporters on this story: David Wainer in Tel Aviv at
dwainer1@bloomberg.net; Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at
cbendavid@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 21, 2010 19:01 EDT
BP seeks more Israeli cleantech investment
BP exec Justin Adams: Cleantech funds are beginning to do interesting
things in Israel .
Merav Ankori22/06/2008 The investment in thermosolar solutions
manufacturer Luz II Ltd. by BP plc (NYSE; LSE: BP) has whetted the
appetite of British energy giant for more Israeli companies. "We want
to invest in clean energy and in joint ventures with venture capital
funds," BP director of long term technology Justin Adams told "Globes"
in an excusive interview.
Adams made his first visit to Israel . He is a symbol of the potential
that BP sees in the country. He says, "It's premature to talk about
concrete plans to invest in Israeli companies because we've only just
begun to take a serious look at them. We also want to collaborate with
Israeli venture capital funds. We're at the preliminary stage of
examining the Israeli market, both in terms of technology to invest
and, of course, in terms of collaborations. Cleantech funds are
beginning to do interesting things in Israel , and I intend to return
to continue examining the industry."
http://archive.globes.co.il/searchgl/BP%20seeks%20more%20Israeli%20cleantech%20investment_h_hd_2L34mDp0tCrmnC30mCpKpEJKpBcXqRMm0.html
Cleantech Investing in Israel
News and commentary on Israel 's growing clean technology industr
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Solaredge partners with BP Solar to test solar efficiency products
SolarEdge is joining forces with BP Solar to test new products
designed to help solar modules operate more efficiently in harvesting
the sun's rays, the companies said today in a press release.
BP Solar, a unit of oil giant BP Plc, will integrate into its solar
modules SolarEdge's electronics that are designed to reduce the losses
in solar arrays. Those losses can cut their power output by as much as
20 percent.
In support of this activity, BP Solar and SolarEdge have been awarded
a research grant by the Israeli and US governments as part of the BIRD
Foundation (Bi-national Industrial Research and Development), which
contributes to joint development.
Solar panels typically turn between 10 to 15 percent of the sun's
light into electricity, but that output can be reduced by partial
shading of the arrays and other glitches in the electronic equipment
that transports power between the panels.
SolarEdge, based in Herzliya , Israel , produces equipment that can
help eliminate inefficiencies in the solar module arrays.
The company's products also make the solar systems safer, according to
Chief Executive Officer Guy Sella, and can be used to provide data to
customers on cells or modules that are damaged and not producing power
at their capacity.
SolarEdge currently has three products, including a chipset called the
PowerBox that manufacturers can embed into their solar modules to
boost power output, but can also be added on as a retrofit. There's
also an inverter and web-based monitoring software for identifying
maintenance needs and energy loss, and preventing theft.
In an interview with Earth2Tech, Sella said SolarEdge is on track to
reach "general availability" between late July and September of this
year. The company is in the final stages of negotiations with two
manufacturers and expects to complete those by the end of June. By
July, SolarEdge plans to establish a subsidiary in Germany , and by
September or October Sella expects to have a presence in the U.S. , on
the West Coast.
According to a report in Reuters, SolarEdge expects to have orders for
equipment that generate more than 12 megawatts of electricity by the
end of 2009, and as much as 80 MW in 2010. The company expects to be
cash-flow positive in the fourth quarter of 2010, and could launch an
initial public offering of shares in the second half of 2011, Sella
said.
In December 2008, SolarEdge completed a $23 million Series B financing
round. Vertex Venture Capital led the round and was joined by the
company's existing investors, Genesis Partners, Walden International,
and Opus Capital.
Sella told Earth2Tech that for the last three to four months SolarEdge
has been in talks with an investor who may add $3 million to $5
million to the Series B round. He said they would be a "very big
strategic partner" if the deal comes through.
SolarEdge has raised nearly $35 million in venture capital funding
since its inception in 2006.
Earlier this week, SolarEdge announced the appointment of Zvi Lando as
its VP of Global Sales.
Lando joins SolarEdge from Applied Materials where he served as vice
president, general manager of the Baccini Cell Systems (BCS) Solar
Business Group, the global leader in screen printing equipment for the
solar industry.
Related Posts:
GE invests in SolarEdge, joining $23m Series B funding round
SolarEdge raises $23m in venture capital
SolarEdge exits stealth mode and plans Series B financing
SolarEdge raises $11.8 million
Posted by Jonathan Shapira at 12:40 PM
Labels: BP Solar, Genesis Partners, Opus Capital, solar, SolarEdge,
Vertex VC, Walden International
Jonathan Shapira
United States
I am an associate in the Business Law Department of Goodwin Procter
LLP, a leading U.S. law firm. The views expressed on this website are
my own, and not necessarily the views of Goodwin Procter. You can
contact me at jonathan@boston-israel.org
http://cleantech-israel.blogspot.com/2009/05/solaredge-partners-with-bp-solar-to.html
BP Solar and SolarEdge Partner to Develop Power Harvesting
SystemRelease date: 27 May 2009
Leading Global Companies Rigorously Test Holistic Solution for
Worldwide Distribution
Frederick, MD and Herzliya, Israel—May 27, 2009—BP Solar and SolarEdge
today announced a joint agreement to explore commercialization of a PV
module-integrated power harvesting system embedded directly into BP
Solar modules. The combined solution will maximize energy generation
throughout the life of the solar power system while dramatically
reducing complexities and costs. Standard power system architectures
and designs may lead to losses of up to 20 percent or more per solar
field in some installations due to module and array mismatch and
partial shading. Some system architectures also lack full monitoring,
have suboptimal roof utilization and generally are weak in fire and
maintenance safety, and ineffective in module theft prevention
measures.
To achieve optimal energy yield while reducing these installation and
maintenance challenges and costs, BP Solar is working to integrate
SolarEdge's and other active electronics directly into their modules.
The combined technologies are currently undergoing rigorous thermal
cycle testing to emulate 25 years of volatile solar field conditions.
"We are impressed with the initial performance and reliability tests
of SolarEdge's solution," said Eric Daniels, Chief Technology Officer
of BP Solar. "We believe the SolarEdge technology, when combined with
BP Solar's patented IntegraBus™ module power strip, can significantly
enhance the energy output of residential and commercial scale
systems."
"BP Solar has contributed enormously to the advancement of the solar
industry," said Guy Sella, Chairman, CEO and Founder of SolarEdge. "By
addressing the problems that the industry has overlooked or considered
unavoidable, we can greatly improve solar economics through increasing
energy output while reducing system costs."
In support of this activity, BP Solar and SolarEdge have been awarded
a research grant by the Israeli and US governments as part of the BIRD
(Bi-national Industrial Research and Development) foundation, which
contributes to joint development. Through the "BIRD Energy"
initiative, the BP Solar-SolarEdge project has been recognized for its
achievements in improving the effectiveness and economics of solar
technology.
About BP Solar
BP Solar is a global company with about 2000 employees. BP Solar
designs, manufactures and markets products which use the sun's energy
to generate electricity for use in the residential, commercial and
industrial sectors. With over 35 years of experience and installations
in most countries, BP Solar is one of the world's leading solar
companies and annually invests millions in photovoltaic research and
development.
About SolarEdge
SolarEdge is a provider of smart, holistic PV power harvesting and
monitoring solutions for maximum energy and cost efficiency. The
company works with industry-leading partners to embed its active
electronic solution directly into PV modules. Unlike centralized
architectures that can't optimize the power of each module, only
SolarEdge performs MPPT per module while communicating across existing
power lines for granular visibility and control. As a result, our
systemic holistic approach provides more power from any given
installation, eliminates design constraints, provides complete
visibility, solves all safety issues and provides anti-theft without
increasing power harvesting costs.
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7053360
The Cool War (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cool War is a science fiction novel by Frederick Pohl
Like many of Pohl's novels, this opens in a world reduced by a crisis,
in this case the loss of fossil fuels….
The Rev. H. Hornswell "Horny" Hake becomes embroiled in "the Cool
War", in which each country tries to sabotage the economies of its
rivals, even if politically they are allies…. the War has produced a
group of people who profit by its continuation and can suppress
technologies that might solve humanity's problems. In particular a new
form of solar energy collection relies on bio-engineered "sunflowers"
which, while technically plants, have extremely reflective petals and
can be trained to focus light from a wide area on a furnace or power
generator. The Team is determined to destroy the technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cool_War_(novel)
'The Cool War compliments another book by Frederik Pohl, The
Merchant's War, and both depict versions of the future with weak
governments help less to contain forces of exploitation. This one
anticipates how future wars will be undertaken through attacks that
cannot be traced back to their source. The lack of accountability
prevents retaliation on any tit-for-tat basis, but soon enough
everyone adopts that method and is undermining the stability and
economy of every other power.
Although none of the events depicted in The Cool War have happened
yet, author Frederik Pohl nicely anticipates our excalation of
terrorism, and he gives a wry fantasy about what the Mideast may do
with all their money when the oil starts to run out.
In the years since The Cool War was written, it has shown prescience,
and it is valuable as a cautionary tale."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394293835/top100
The Merchants' War (1984 novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Merchants' War is a 1984 novel by Frederick Pohl of a near future
commercial dystopian interplanetary society. The novel was a sequel to
The Space Merchants, and was originally co-published with it as VENUS,
INC. In the story, the colony on Venus has managed to stabilize itself
to a point. However, agents from the trans-national corporations on
Earth attempt to undermine the stability of the colony. The story
follows the trail of two advertisement company employees from the
colony back to Earth, as they struggle with addiction and the truth of
the situation back on Earth. As with the prequel, the characters are
not what they seem, and the main character's loyalty changes
drasticallyThe Merchants' War
THE MERCHANTS' WAR (1984) is the hilarious sequal to the classic THE
SPACE MERCHANTS (1952). While THE SPACE MERCHANTS is the better known
of these two books, THE MERCHANTS' WAR stands up better to the passing
of years, as most of the bold predictions in THE SPACE MERCHANTS don't
hold up well over time.
The story takes up about 30 years after where THE SPACE MERCHANTS left
off, with the "Conservationists" having gotten a foothold on
colonizing Venus, and with Earth even more over-populated (40Bln
people), and more over-commercialized.
Well, what really impressed me about THE MERCHANTS' WAR was the
situations that the befuddled main character Tennison Tarb gets
himself into... at first, I thought that "Tenny" was just another
unlikeable main character - for example, when he and his girlfriend
are out exploring the old Russina Venera landing site on Venus,
"Tenny" gets bored, and lets air out of his oxygen tanks, so that the
two must head back inside... but later, the situations that continue
to happen to Tenny start to get you laughing at him... Tenny reminds
me of this Program Manager at my work, and I could imagine these
things happening to him, and I just started to laugh at loud, and on a
number of occasions.
One of the things that happens to Tenny, is that he quickly becomes
driven to buy and be addicted to "Mokie-Coke"... I don't want to spoil
it for anybody - so I'll just tell you, you've got the find and read
this book"
http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-War-Frederik-Pohl/dp/0312902409
The Space Merchants
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Space Merchants is a science fiction novel, written by Frederik
Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth in 1952. Originally published in Galaxy
Science Fiction magazine as a serial entitled Gravy Planet, the novel
was first published as a single volume in 1953, and has sold heavily
since. It deals satirically with a hyper-developed consumerism, seen
through the eyes of an advertising executive. It was followed some
years later by a sequel, The Merchants' War.
n a vastly overpopulated world, businesses have taken the place of
governments and now hold all political power. States exist merely to
ensure the survival of huge trans-national corporations. Advertising
has become hugely aggressive and by far the best-paid profession.
Through advertising, the public is constantly deluded into thinking
that the quality of life is improved by all the products placed on the
market. However, the most basic elements are incredibly scarce,
including water and fuel. The planet Venus has just been visited and
judged fit for human settlement, despite its inhospitable surface and
climate; the colonists would have to endure a harsh climate for many
generations until the planet could be terraformed.
The protagonist, Mitch Courtenay, is a star-class copywriter in the
Fowler Schocken advertising agency who has been assigned the ad
campaign which would attract colonists to Venus. But a lot more is
happening than he knows about. It soon becomes a tale of mystery and
intrigue, in which many of the characters are not what they seem, and
Mitch's loyalties and opinions change drastically over the course of
the narrative.
Shell profits rise 60%, helped by oil price
Sarah Arnott, The Independent, 29 Apr 2010
View original article
Royal Dutch Shell's profits rose by 60 per cent to $4.8bn (￡3.2bn) in
the first quarter due to increased production and sharp oil price
rises.
The oil major's revenue also rose ― by 48 per cent to $88bn ― in a
first-quarter performance that outstripped analysts' expectations.
Financial results from its rival, BP, earlier in the week also beat
forecasts. Shell's strong showing was driven by the exploration and
production business, which saw profits double to $4.4bn compared with
the same quarter of the previous year. Not only did the group manage a
6 per cent increase in oil and gas production levels, which hit 3.59
million barrels per day thanks to the ramping up of projects in Russia
and Brazil, but profits also saw a lift from an average oil price of
$76 in the quarter, compared with just $41 in the same period a year
ago...
http://www.odac-info.org/newsletter/2010/04/30
ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco Start Up Massive Refining and Petrochemical
Complex in China
13 Nov 09
ExxonMobil, together with partners Sinopec, Saudi Aramco, and the
Fujian government have celebrated the full operation of China 's first
integrated refining and petrochemical complex with foreign
participation in Fujian
province.
The Fujian refinery suggests that ExxonMobil may have an edge over
international rivals, as BP and Shell's efforts to invest in China 's
refining and petrochemical sector are still at the preliminary
stages.
http://www.ihsglobalinsight.com/SDA/SDADetail17885.htm
BP oil rig disaster a terror attack...... or government sabotage?
People are beginning to wonder
April 30, 6:15 PMPhoenix Religion & Society Examiner align=absmiddle
v:shapes="_x0000_i1026">Sonny Craig
Was the BP oil rig disaster a terrorist attack?
A week after the explosion of a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico ,
questions are now being raised as to the nature of the accident.
Congress is opening an investigation into the disaster, even as
experts from multiple tasking agencies from government security and
environmental agencies to the military, to Big Oil, attempt to conquer
the daunting task of capping the leak. 200,000 gallons of oil a day
are spilling into the Gulf, and wreaking an ecological hazard that
threatens to dwarf the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska in 1989 which
dumped 10.8 million gallons into the ocean environment. The costs of
clean-up of the Valdez spill are disputed, and the initial court
judgments of $5 billion in punitive damages were later appealed and
rescinded. Exxon collected payments from insurance companies making
any financial responsibility for causing the spill a joke amongst
trial lawyers throughout the country. Trial lawyers made over $1
billion dollars from the Valdez spill.
Websites are now popping up across the country claiming conspiracy of
every type, from Obama did it, to environmental terrorism, to Al
Qaeda.
The disaster threatens to become the largest man-made ecological
threat to the world's oceans in history, and emergency responders are
working night and day to cap the leak. Natural oil leaks pump 62
million gallons of oil into the oceans every year, so they have some
time before this leak surpasses what Mother Nature does by itself, but
the localized damage will nevertheless affect the Gulf Coast economy
for years to come, and will certainly derail any hopes of off-shore
drilling help ing the American economy or help ing America kick its
dependency on foreign oil.
Now, isn't that convenient for all those seeking harm to American
interests?
The spill is likely to cause Phoenix oil and gas prices to rise going
into summer to significant levels, as was seen in previous years after
Hurricane Katrina and refinery fires affected prices across the
country.
http://www.examiner.com/x-45964-Phoenix-Religion--Society-Examiner~y2010m4d30-BP-oil-rig-disaster-a-terror-attack-or-government-sabotage-People-are-beginning-to-wonder
Feb 24, 2010 By ■ R. C. Camphause Act of sabotage creates large
oil spill in Italian rivers
Police in Italy found that the large oil spill in the Lambro river,
now heading for the river Po , was an act of sabotage. While the
search for a suspect continues, authorities are trying to contain the
damage.
The spill was detected Tuesday morning around 4 a.m. after someone
broke into an abandoned deposit owned by ex-refinery Lombardi Petroli
near Monza . According to France 24, the saboteur opened the faucets,
yet according to the website Life in Italy, investigators found that
someone had punctured the oil tank on purpose.
A large amount of oil is now on its way to Italy 's main river Po ,
because the Lambro is one of its tributaries. Despite the idyllic
image that tourism sites still paint of the Lambro river, it has
already been heavily contaminated since at least 1996, as a study by
the Water Research Institute has shown.
The French agency reports this
Hundreds of birds, have already died because of the spill.
Legambiente, Italy's largest environmental organization called the
spill "an ecological disaster without precedent for the Lambro
ecosystem."
Life in Italy , however, has much more to say about the disastrous
impact the oil spill will have:
In an attempt to contain the damage, environmental protection
authorities raised flood gates along the river and said they would
attempt to pump as much of the oil out as possible.
While no stranger to pollution, the Po River - as well as its
tributaries - are used by thousands of farmers to water their crops.
The wetlands of the Po Delta are also a wildlife preserve and home to
over a 1,000 plant species and 300 different types of birds.
Business Week quotes an Italian paper when it cites the number of
600,000 liter, while France 24 speaks of at least 1,000 cubic metres
(35,315 cubic feet), yet probably much more.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/288019
NOT BEING ASKED IN THE STORY BELOW ITSELF, ALTHOUGH SOMEONE SURELY
SHOULD ASK: "Were any or all of these incidents sabotage or were all
of them merely accidental?"
If any or all of these incidents were sabotage who had the motive and
the means to create such sabotage and what motive could there have
been for such sabotage?
"BP runs oil production on the North Slope for itself and a handful of
other companies. It operates two offshore drilling operations from man-
made islands in the Beaufort Sea . And it has approval this year to
drill a record-setting eight miles into the Arctic Ocean to tap a new
reservoir.
But its accidents and scandals ranged from a refinery explosion that
killed 15 people in Texas City in 2005 to a 212,000-gallon oil spill
in Alaska "
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011791796_bpalaska06m.html?syndication=rss
Previous BP Accidents
May 6, 2010
The Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion and fire that killed 11 men and
triggered a massive oil leak is not the first time BP has had to
contend with a horrible accident or spill.
In the past five years, two high-profile accidents have occurred at BP
facilities ― one at a Texas refinery, another at a pipeline in Alaska
's Prudhoe Bay .
In 2005, at a refinery in Texas City , Texas , 15 BP employees died
and 170 were injured after a unit that manufactured jet fuel
exploded.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126564739
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blast Rips Texas City
As reported in the Houston Chronicle,
March 24, 2005
By Kevin Moran, Dina Cappiello, Steve Mcvicker, Zeke Minaya, Rosanna
Ruiz, Chunhua Zen Zheng, Ruth Rendon, Melanie Markley, Lynn J. Cook,
Eric Hanson, Robert Crowe, Roma Khanna, Staff
Texas City - At least 14 are killed/casualties with more than 100
injured, the toll could climb. It's the BP refinery's second fatal
occurrence in a year. Shocked residents in a state of disbelief
A fiery explosion at one of the nation's largest oil refineries killed
at least 14 people Wednesday and injured more than 100 others in the
deadliest industrial accident in the Houston area in nearly 15
years.
"There are still some people not accounted for," BP plant manager Don
Parus said Wednesday night. The blast was the second fatal accident to
occur at the sprawling 1,200-acre BP complex off Texas 146 in the last
year. The cause has not been determined. There was no initial
indication of dangerous levels of pollution from the blaze.
Late Wednesday night, BP officials were still working at the site with
members of the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office, searching
for additional possible victims. Some of the injured were being
treated at University of Texas Medical Branch . Other victims were
sent to Mainland Medical Center in Texas City , Ben Taub General
Hospital in Houston and Clear Lake Regional Medical Center .
Dixie Walker was waiting outside Mainland Medical Center for news of
his nephew Steven Walker, a contract worker for BP. He said that the
blast blew off his nephew's uniform. "He was sitting there in his
boots and underwear when the rescue team found him," said Walker,
himself a retired BP maintenance supervisor.
The fire began at 1:20 p.m. in the isomerization unit, which produces
components used to raise the octane content of gasoline, said Hugh
Depland, BP's general manager for public affairs.
Nearby homes shaken. The blast shattered windows, shook nearby
buildings and homes and released plumes of black smoke that could be
seen from Galveston to Clear Lake . Crews worked to extinguish the
blaze as rescuers sifted the rubble and ambulances carried victims
from the site. The fire was extinguished at 3:22 p.m., Parus said.
Depland said while the unit affected was shut down, the rest of the
refinery was running normally. "The area which had the explosion and
fire is shut in, but the vast majority of the facility is up and
running," Depland said.
Fearing the possibility of sabotage, the FBI dispatched personnel to
the refinery…"
Public Health
Information Services Phone: 409.938.2211
Fax: 409.938.2316
1207 Oak St,
PO Box 939
La Marque , TX 77568
http://www.gchd.org/press/2005/03BPFire.htm
Oil, Gasoline Surge After Attack on Shell Pipeline in Nigeria By Mark
Shenk
June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil climbed above $70 a barrel and
gasoline rose after militants attacked a Royal Dutch Shell Plc
pipeline supplying an export terminal in Nigeria , Africa 's largest
producer.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said it
attacked a pipeline supplying Shell's Bonny terminal. Exxon Mobil
Corp. shut a fluid catalytic cracker at the Baytown , Texas , refinery
yesterday, a union official said. Valero Energy Corp. and Marathon Oil
Corp. said their Texas City , Texas , refineries experienced power
disruptions yesterday.
"The buyers are back in control of the market," said Tom Bentz, a
senior energy analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. in New
York . "The Nigerian attacks triggered the move higher. There've been
a couple refinery issues, such as the power outage at Valero's Texas
City plant, that have also been supportive."
Crude oil for August delivery rose $1.56, or 2.3 percent, to $70.23 a
barrel at 2:59 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest
settlement since June 18. Futures, up 57 percent this year, have
declined 4.1 percent from a seven-month high of $73.23 reached on June
11.
Gasoline for July delivery increased 5.58 cents, or 3 percent, to end
the session at $1.8983 a gallon in New York . It was the biggest gain
since June 4.
The Exxon refinery catalytic cracker, a gasoline-making unit, was shut
late yesterday after the loss of a cooling tower, the union official
said. Other units related to the cooling tower are operating at
reduced rates, he said.
Release of Gases
An equipment failure caused the shutdown and a release of hydrogen
sulfide at the Baytown facility, Dave Bary, a spokesman for the
Environmental Protection Agency, said today.
Baytown , the largest refinery in the U.S. , can process 563,000
barrels of oil a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.
Valero's refinery, located along the Houston Ship Channel, can process
210,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
The Marathon plant can process about 81,500 barrels a day.
Oil prices have been supported and supply curbed since December 2005
because of militant activity in the Niger River delta, Nigeria 's main
oil-producing region. MEND has stepped up a sabotage campaign in the
area since a military offensive began last month.
Fighters from the Nigerian group damaged the Bille-Krakrama pipeline
overnight, cutting supplies from Shell's Cawthorne 1, 2 and 3 oil-
pumping stations, MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in an e-mail. A Shell
spokeswoman confirmed an attack on a manifold on the pipeline and
couldn't say whether production was halted by the incident.
Refinery Shut
Nigeria 's state-owned oil company said it shut its 125,000- barrel-a-
day Warri crude refinery after attacks cut the Chanomi Creek pipeline.
Two more refineries in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt are on "a
planned slowdown" to allow for maintenance, Levi Ajuonuma, spokesman
for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., or NNPC, said today.
"The Nigerian situation is likely to get a lot worse before there's an
improvement," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy &
Economic Research, in Winchester , Massachusetts . "There's a security
premium in the oil market, but it's less than a few years ago because
we have more supply available to replace any missing barrels."
Oil also advanced as U.S. equities increased for a third day and the
U.S. dollar declined against the euro. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
gained 1.9 percent to 918.45. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2
percent to 8,465.07.
A falling dollar makes raw materials such as oil and gold an
attractive alternative investment. The U.S. currency weakened 0.5
percent to $1.3993 per euro, from $1.393 yesterday.
U.S. Inventories
U.S. oil inventories fell by 3.87 million barrels to 353.9 million
barrels last week, the lowest since March, the Energy Department said
yesterday. Stockpiles, which have fallen in six of the past seven
weeks, are up 17 percent from a year earlier.
Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma , where New York-traded West Texas
Intermediate crude is delivered, fell 733,000 barrels to 28.2 million
last week, the lowest since the week end Dec. 26.
"The big drop in supplies at Cushing will definitely be felt on
Nymex," said Rick Mueller, a director of oil markets at Energy
Security Analysis Inc. in Wakefield , Massachusetts .
Gasoline supplies rose 3.87 million barrels to 208.9 million last
week, the Department of Energy said. Refineries operated at the
highest rates this year and fuel demand fell 5.5 percent, the biggest
drop since January.
'Impressive Run-Up'
"There's been an impressive run-up in prices this year," said Paul
Crovo, a Philadelphia-based oil analyst with PNC Capital Advisors. "At
some point in the second half of 2009 or in early 2010 we should see
demand pick up. At that point the market will tighten and prices
should move higher."
Brent crude oil for August settlement increased $1.45, or 2.1 percent,
to end the session at $69.78 a barrel on London 's ICE Futures Europe
exchange.
Crude oil volume in electronic trading on the Nymex was 411,646
contracts as of 3:06 p.m. in New York . Volume totaled 382,404
contracts yesterday, the lowest since May 22, and 23 percent less than
the average over the past three months. Open interest was 1.12 million
contracts.
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at
mshenk1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 25, 2009 16:07 EDT http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=adXArzBwlV.8
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), usually
known simply as Shell Nigeria: A joint venture operated by Shell
accounts for fifty percent of Nigerian's total oil production (899,000
bbl/d (142,900 m3/d) in 1997) from more than eighty oil fields. The
joint venture is composed of NNPC (55%), Shell (30%), TotalFinaElf
(10%) and Agip (5%) and operates largely onshore on dry land or in the
mangrove swamp in the Niger Delta. "The company has more than 100
producing oil fields, and a network of more than 6,000 kilometres of
pipelines, flowing through 87 flowstations. SPDC operates 2 coastal
oil export terminals". The Shell joint venture produces about 50
percent of Nigeria 's total crude. Shell Nigeria owns concessions on
four companies, they are: Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC),
Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO), Shell
Nigeria Gas (SNG), Shell Nigeria Oil Products (SNOP), as well as
holding a major stake in Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG). Shell
formerly operated alongside British Petroleum as Shell-BP, but BP has
since sold all of its Nigerian concessions. Most of Shell's operations
in Nigeria are conducted through the Shell Petroleum Development
Company (SPDC).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Nigeria
"BP's History of Oil Spills and Accidents: Same Strategy, Different
Day An Alaskan pipeline burst, a fatal refinery explosion and now a
210,000-gallon-a-day oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico . And there's BP,
right smack dab in the middle of all three."
http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10004340/bps-history-of-oil-spills-and-accidents-same-strategy-different-day/
Saudi Aramco seeks solution to crude problem
From The Times
November 4, 2009
Saudi Aramco is worried about the price of oil, so worried that it has
turned its back on a long-established benchmark — West Texas
Intermediate (WTI) — used to price crude oil sold in the United
States .
But it is not worried about the price so much as how it gets it.
Aramco is switching from WTI, the benchmark blend of crude that is
traded in the NYMEX futures exchange as US Light Sweet Crude, to ASCI,
a price index of Gulf of Mexico crudes published by Argus.
Sellers always want more and Aramco is no exception. The Saudis are
fed up with WTI because its price is highly volatile and the spec
bears little relation to the heavy, sulphurous crude oil that they
sell.
The Argus index is based on a weighted average of actual prices paid
for three crudes pumped out of the Gulf of Mexico — Mars, Poseidon and
Southern Green Canyon. These are "sour", or high-sulphur, crudes, more
like Aramco's Arab Light, so the Argus price index makes a better
match. Moreover, WTI has been behaving in a silly way; sour crudes
should sell at a discount to light crudes because the latter are
cheaper to refine. but WTI has been all over the place in recent
years. In February, WTI was in such a slump that the sour, heavier
ASCI crudes were selling at an $8 per barrel premium to WTI. Only a
month later, WTI had soared and ASCI had fallen to a $6 per barrel
discount.
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Aramco found itself unable to price its crude properly. The Saudis
don't trade oil but historically sell it at fixed discounts to WTI,
set in advance. With WTI bouncing around, the Saudis could not price
their oil competitively against rival sour crudes. Customers were
annoyed; by the time that cargoes arrived from Arabia , WTI's
oscillations could make Saudi crude dirt cheap or horribly dear.
Aramco's solution is to ditch the North American benchmark.
This is an earthquake, small on the Richter scale, perhaps just a
tremor, but nonetheless a movement in tectonic plates that signals
much bigger deeper changes ahead in the energy market.
The switch reflects two technical concerns and a wider and deeper
concern about market fragmentation. WTI has a specific problem: the
delivery point of the crude is inland at Cushing , Oklahoma . WTI
cannot be exported, so gluts cannot be cleared and bottlenecks lead to
droughts. It's a totally inadequate proxy for energy prices in North
America — the lion's share of US crude is supplied from wells in the
Gulf of Mexico and from Canada — but WTI remains the benchmark for the
most widely traded oil futures contract: US Light Sweet Crude.
The second technical point is that most of the world's crude is not
light, or sweet. As the North Sea and onshore American wells deplete,
the crude we burn is getting heavier and more sulphurous.
If you pump 50 litres of diesel into your petrol tank, your day will
be ruined and you will end up with an expensive problem. So much is
obvious. Fuels differ in specification, price and application — but
the same is even more true of crude oil.
Most of the world's refineries were designed to take lighter, sweeter
crudes, which are now in short supply. According to BP, as much as two
thirds of the world's crude oil supply is now sour. New refineries
with expensive desulpherisation units and hydrocrackers are chasing
the "sour" discount, hoping to make more profit margin buying cheaper,
heavier crude oil. A refinery such as Shell's Stanlow plant in
Cheshire is designed to process expensive North Sea crude; it is no
wonder that Shell wants to sell its last British fuel plant.
The final question is whether WTI and Brent are any longer meaningful
benchmarks and proxies for the price of oil. Energy markets are moving
east and south, North Sea crude is being displaced by Russian crude.
If you believe in perfect markets, it matters little that a global
price indicator for energy is buffeted by the level of storage tanks
located in an obscure town in Oklahoma . The price is the price — WTI
futures are the most liquid traded energy price and markets thrive not
on rationality but on liquidity.
Still, there is no doubt that the underlying oil market is
fragmenting, in geography as well in chemistry. The only growth in the
oil markets is in Asia , but while American refiners hedge their crude
prices in an effort to squeeze every last penny of margin, Asian
refiners don't yet hedge their exposure.
They take the price offered by Saudi Aramco, an organisation that
still refuses to auction its crude. The Saudis, pillars of the Opec
cartel, blame speculators for oil market volatility but they are doing
nothing to create more transparency, preferring to hitch their wagon
to the bucking bronco in the NYMEX exchange, while complaining about
the bumpy ride.
Having made its protest with ASCI, Aramco needs to go further and
sponsor a new crude market facing east. Dubai Mercantile Exchange is
assiduously courting the Saudis, hoping that Aramco will sponsor its
sour crude contract. The Saudis don't like to be the first movers, but
they are stirring.
carl.mortished@thetimes.co.uk
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6901552.ece
After the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War, for example, the Arabian
American Oil Company (ARAMCO) set up a fund to present the Arab
perspective on the conflict. In May 1970, ARAMCO representatives
warned Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Sisco that American
military sales to Israel would harm U.S.-Arab relations and jeopardize
American oil supplies.
Driven by oil revenues, the Arab lobby's leverage in affecting
American policy was demonstrated in early 1973 when Mobil published a
pro-Arab advertorial in The New York Times. In July of that year, the
chairman of Standard Oil of California (now called Chevron)
distributed a letter asking the company's 40,000 employees and 262,000
stockholders to pressure their elected representatives to support "the
aspirations of the Arab people." In a similar spirit, the chairman of
Texaco urged the U.S. to reassess its Middle East policy.
When another Arab-Israeli war broke out in October 1973, the chairmen
of the ARAMCO partners issued a memorandum warning the White House
against increasing its military aid to Israel . Shortly thereafter,
the OPEC oil embargo (enacted in retribution for Western support of
Israel ) ushered in an era where the Arab lobby became much more
prominent and visible than ever before. "The day of the Arab-American
is here," declared National Association of Arab Americans founder
Richard Shadyac. "The reason is oil." Prior to October 1973, the price
of oil had stood at $2.60 per barrel; within three months, the price
quadrupled to about $12 per barrel.
In 1977 President Jimmy Carter noted, in his diary, that the Arab
lobby had pressured him mightily while he was involved in the peace
negotiations between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime
Minister Menachem Begin. "They [Arab Americans] have given all the
staff, [national security adviser] Brzezinski, [Secretary of State]
Warren Christopher, and others, a hard time," wrote Carter (who would
later become a constant visitor to the Arab world and a strong critic
of Israel ).
Among the more notable individual members of the Arab lobby in recent
decades was the late Clark Clifford (died October 1998), whom The New
York Times described as a key adviser to Democratic U.S. presidents
beginning with Harry Truman, and as an influential paid lobbyist for
Arab sources. Another key figure in the Arab lobby has been Fred
Dutton, former Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs and special
assistant to President John F. Kennedy. On July 19, 2005, The Hill, a
newspaper about the U.S. Congress, reported that Dutton (a lobbyist
for Saudi Arabia ) had worked assiduously to persuade Congress to
approve two major arms sales to that nation.
Axis Information and Analysis (AIA), which specializes in information
about Asia and Eastern Europe, rated Prince Bandar Bin Sultan -- a
Saudi ambassador to the U.S. from 1983 to 2005 -- as the single most
influential foreigner in America . With links to high-ranking
officials in the State Department, Pentagon, and CIA, Sultan was a key
participant in many clandestine negotiations pertaining to U.S.
interests in the Middle East . According to AIA, in 1990-91 it was
Sultan who pushed President George H.W. Bush to launch the military
campaign to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait . Moreover, his father --
Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz al Saud -- was a leading figure in the ruling
Saudi dynasty. As such, he help ed determine the extent of his
nation's military cooperation with the U.S. in the Persian Gulf .
During a January 1998 U.S. Congressional Delegation briefing in
Damascus , Congressman Nick Rahall (D – West Virginia), who is of
Lebanese descent, said:
"Our [Arab] lobby in the United States is growing in its influence and
its participation in political campaigns across the spectrum. Our trip
[was] sponsored by the Arab American Institute -- one of those most
effective lobbying groups of the Arab groups in Washington -- and a
relatively new group, the National Arab American Businessmen's
Association. [Through] these groups … we are increasing our influence,
and we are increasing our participation."
Some members of the Arab lobby in America are heavily financed with
money from the Arab world. Before his death in 2005, for instance,
Saudi Arabia 's King Fahd made several multi-million-dollar donations
to the Carter Center, whose founder, former U.S. President Jimmy
Carter, has cultivated a longstanding reputation as a pro-Arab
detractor of Israel . Also as of 2005, the king's nephew, Prince
Alwaleed Bin Talal, had given at least $5 million to the same
institution. In 2001 the United Arab Emirates (UAE) gave the Carter
Center $500,000. The previous year, ten of Osama bin Laden's brothers
had jointly pledged to give the Center $1 million, as Sultan Qaboos
bin Said of Oman had done in 1998. The Saudi Fund for Development has
been another major contributor to the Carter Center , as has the
Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. And Morocco 's Prince
Moulay Hicham Ben Abdallah has collaborated with the Carter Center on
various initiatives.
The Arab lobby does not speak for all Arab Americans. According to the
Arab American Institute, there are approximately 3.5 million people of
Arab heritage in the U.S. today, about half of them concentrated in
five states -- California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, and New
York. Nearly 40 percent of these Arab Americans are Lebanese, mostly
Christians, who tend to be unsympathetic to the Arab lobby's anti-
Israel perspectives. By contrast, only about 70,000 Palestinian
Americans reside in the United States -- a small percentage of the
Arab American population. But because of their high level of political
activism, their views and concerns have received hugely
disproportionate attention from political leaders and the media alike.
Because Arab Americans do not constitute a numerically large voting
bloc, the Arab lobby has focused considerable effort on cultivating
sympathy from the general public as a means of influencing U.S.
policy. To further maximize its influence, this lobby has also formed
alliances with many anti-war, civil rights, civil liberties, and
"social justice" organizations of the political left.
This section of Discover The Networks profiles not only those pro-Arab
organizations (both in the U.S. and abroad) that lobby to affect
specific legislation, but also groups that engage in what might be
defined, more precisely, as advocacy on behalf of Arab interests
anywhere in the world. Through their press releases, official
statements, publications, and direct actions, these organizations seek
to shape public opinion as a means of influencing voter decisions and
thereby indirectly affecting legislation passed by elected
representatives.
According to terrorism expert Steven Emerson:
"Assessing the influence and breadth of the Arab/Muslim lobby would be
a difficult thing to do, since the metrics for assessing such things
are not easily available. The lobby's real strength is felt on the
local level, where its members receive community awards, participate
in human relations councils, change the local educational curricula,
persuade school districts to give them holidays off, and get local
police and statewide officials to attend their events. Nationally,
their influence is felt at the State Department in terms of their
being invited to briefings, sponsored on road trips abroad, etc. The
one recent time where they actually exacted an influence on President
Bush was in persuading him to drop the use of the term 'Islamo-
fascism.'"
While the Arab lobby has a few friends in Congress today, its effect
is felt mainly as a result of its joint efforts with organizations
like the American Civil Liberties Union to dilute anti-terrorism
measures. The lobby, says Emerson, "is mainly in the process of
building up a grassroots network around the United States , with the
anticipation that, abetted by growing demographics, it will be in a
position of political influence in the future."
Group Profiles
Individual Profiles
IN DEPTH
· Defining and Identifying the Arab Lobby
BOOKS
Holy War on the Home Front: The Secret Islamic Terror Network in the
United States
By Harvey Kushner and Bart Davis
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
By Steven Emerson
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/guideDesc.asp?catId=178&type=group
BP Claims Iraq Oil could Rival Saudi Arabia
By Robin Pagnamenta
Posted on Jan. 28, 2010
From British Times
Iraqi oil production could rival that of Saudi Arabia by 2020,
according to the chief executive of BP.
Tony Hayward told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos
that within a decade Iraqi oil production could quadruple to 10
million barrels a day from 2.5 million barrels at present.
"The resources there are relatively easy to bring onstream and there
is no reason to believe that Iraq can't be producing 10 million
barrels per day by 2020 or so."
In 2008, Saudi Arabia was producing about 10 million barrels a day but
has reduced that output.
BP is engaged in a partnership with CNPC, of China , to co-develop the
Rumaila oilfield near Basra , one of the biggest in the world.
Mr Hayward said that BP planned to boost production from Rumaila from
1 million to 3 million barrels a day.
However, he cautioned that there were significant obstacles to
overcome in the development of the Iraqi oil industry, which was
shattered by years of war and sanctions.
He said: "The realities of the challenges of execution on the ground
and the need to build capability on the ground mean things will happen
a little slower than all of us are perhaps planning for today.
"If all of us who are participating there are reasonably successful in
delivering on the commitments we have made, it is quite likely we will
see Iraq increase its production to perhaps around 10 million barrels
per day within about ten years."
Iraq sits on at least 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the
world's third-largest behind Saudi Arabia and Canada .
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/wef/article7005973.ece
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From: reallyveryradical <reallyveryradical@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:15 AM
Subject: Cool Wars Does Life Imitate Art
To: World_Politics <world_politics@googlegroups.com>
Cool Wars Does Life Imitate Art
The Cool War (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cool War is a science fiction novel by Frederick Pohl
Like many of Pohl's novels, this opens in a world reduced by a crisis,
in this case the loss of fossil fuels….
The Rev. H. Hornswell "Horny" Hake becomes embroiled in "the Cool
War", in which each country tries to sabotage the economies of its
rivals, even if politically they are allies…. the War has produced a
group of people who profit by its continuation and can suppress
technologies that might solve humanity's problems. In particular a new
form of solar energy collection relies on bio-engineered "sunflowers"
which, while technically plants, have extremely reflective petals and
can be trained to focus light from a wide area on a furnace or power
generator. The Team is determined to destroy the technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cool_War_(novel)
'The Cool War compliments another book by Frederik Pohl, The
Merchant's War, and both depict versions of the future with weak
governments help less to contain forces of exploitation. This one
anticipates how future wars will be undertaken through attacks that
cannot be traced back to their source. The lack of accountability
prevents retaliation on any tit-for-tat basis, but soon enough
everyone adopts that method and is undermining the stability and
economy of every other power.
Although none of the events depicted in The Cool War have happened
yet, author Frederik Pohl nicely anticipates our excalation of
terrorism, and he gives a wry fantasy about what the Mideast may do
with all their money when the oil starts to run out.
In the years since The Cool War was written, it has shown prescience,
and it is valuable as a cautionary tale."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394293835/top100
The Merchants' War (1984 novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Merchants' War is a 1984 novel by Frederick Pohl of a near future
commercial dystopian interplanetary society. The novel was a sequel to
The Space Merchants, and was originally co-published with it as VENUS,
INC. In the story, the colony on Venus has managed to stabilize itself
to a point. However, agents from the trans-national corporations on
Earth attempt to undermine the stability of the colony. The story
follows the trail of two advertisement company employees from the
colony back to Earth, as they struggle with addiction and the truth of
the situation back on Earth. As with the prequel, the characters are
not what they seem, and the main character's loyalty changes
drasticallyThe Merchants' War
THE MERCHANTS' WAR (1984) is the hilarious sequal to the classic THE
SPACE MERCHANTS (1952). While THE SPACE MERCHANTS is the better known
of these two books, THE MERCHANTS' WAR stands up better to the passing
of years, as most of the bold predictions in THE SPACE MERCHANTS don't
hold up well over time.
The story takes up about 30 years after where THE SPACE MERCHANTS left
off, with the "Conservationists" having gotten a foothold on
colonizing Venus, and with Earth even more over-populated (40Bln
people), and more over-commercialized.
Well, what really impressed me about THE MERCHANTS' WAR was the
situations that the befuddled main character Tennison Tarb gets
himself into... at first, I thought that "Tenny" was just another
unlikeable main character - for example, when he and his girlfriend
are out exploring the old Russina Venera landing site on Venus,
"Tenny" gets bored, and lets air out of his oxygen tanks, so that the
two must head back inside... but later, the situations that continue
to happen to Tenny start to get you laughing at him... Tenny reminds
me of this Program Manager at my work, and I could imagine these
things happening to him, and I just started to laugh at loud, and on a
number of occasions.
One of the things that happens to Tenny, is that he quickly becomes
driven to buy and be addicted to "Mokie-Coke"... I don't want to spoil
it for anybody - so I'll just tell you, you've got the find and read
this book"
http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-War-Frederik-Pohl/dp/0312902409
The Space Merchants
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Space Merchants is a science fiction novel, written by Frederik
Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth in 1952. Originally published in Galaxy
Science Fiction magazine as a serial entitled Gravy Planet, the novel
was first published as a single volume in 1953, and has sold heavily
since. It deals satirically with a hyper-developed consumerism, seen
through the eyes of an advertising executive. It was followed some
years later by a sequel, The Merchants' War.
n a vastly overpopulated world, businesses have taken the place of
governments and now hold all political power. States exist merely to
ensure the survival of huge trans-national corporations. Advertising
has become hugely aggressive and by far the best-paid profession.
Through advertising, the public is constantly deluded into thinking
that the quality of life is improved by all the products placed on the
market. However, the most basic elements are incredibly scarce,
including water and fuel. The planet Venus has just been visited and
judged fit for human settlement, despite its inhospitable surface and
climate; the colonists would have to endure a harsh climate for many
generations until the planet could be terraformed.
The protagonist, Mitch Courtenay, is a star-class copywriter in the
Fowler Schocken advertising agency who has been assigned the ad
campaign which would attract colonists to Venus. But a lot more is
happening than he knows about. It soon becomes a tale of mystery and
intrigue, in which many of the characters are not what they seem, and
Mitch's loyalties and opinions change drastically over the course of
the narrative.
Dr Anthony Hayward CCMI (born 1957) is the Chief Executive of oil and
energy company BP Group, taking over from John Browne, Baron Browne of
Madingley on 1 May 2007. Hayward gained a first class geology degree
from Aston University in Birmingham[1] followed by a PhD from
Edinburgh University.[2] Joining BP in 1982, with his first job as a
rig geologist in Aberdeen,[3] he quickly rose through the ranks in a
series of technical and commercial roles in BP Exploration in London,
Aberdeen, France, China and Glasgow. Hayward first came to Lord
Browne's attention during a leadership conference in 1990 in Phoenix,
Arizona. As a result he was made Browne's executive assistant.[4] In
1992, Hayward moved to Colombia as exploration manager and became
president of BP's operations in Venezuela in 1995. In August 1997 he
returned to London as a director of BP Exploration. He became group
vice president of BP Amoco Exploration and Production as well as a
member of the BP group's Upstream executive committee in 1999.
Hayward was appointed BP group treasurer in September 2000 where his
responsibilities included global treasury operations, foreign exchange
dealing, corporate finance, project finance and mergers and
acquisitions. Hayward became an executive vice president in April
2002, and Chief Executive of exploration and production in January
2003.
In 2009, Hayward was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science
from Edinburgh University.
Replacement of Lord Browne
In light of safety and resultant production issues in Alaska and the
report in to the explosion at the Texas City refinery, Peter
Sutherland, BP's non-executive chairman, accelerated the process for
replacing Lord Browne, bringing the timetable forward from end-2008
(when Browne would be 60, and nominally forced to retire under BP's
rules), to July 2007. Hayward, having been termed CEO designate by
both internal and media commentators, came to the fore amid the
competition[5], including Robert Dudley, chief executive of TNK-BP,
the company's Russian joint venture, and John Manzoni, head of
refining and marketing[6][7].
On 12 January 2007 it was announced that Hayward would replace Lord
Browne as BP Chief Executive[10]. In preparation for Hayward's take up
as Group CEO, on 2 February Andy Inglis was appointed managing
director of the BP Group, and succeeds Hayward as chief executive of
BP's Exploration & Production (E&P) business[11].
Hayward was appointed to the Chief Executive position with immediate
effect on 1 May 2007, after Lord Browne resigned following the lifting
of a legal injunction preventing Associated Newspapers from publishing
details about his private life.[12][13]
BP pays Hayward an annual salary of £998,000 and in 2008 his bonus was
£1,496,000.
Hayward was a member of the Citibank advisory board, from 2000 to
2003[16]. Hayward is presently senior independent non-executive
director of Corus Group, Corus is a subsidiary of Tata Steel, part of
India's Tata Group, one of the worlds largest steel producer's, with
headquarters in London, England.
The Company was formed from the merger of Koninklijke Hoogovens N.V.
with British Steel Plc on 6 October 1999. It was once a constituent of
the FTSE 100 Index, but was taken over by Tata in 2007.
appointed in April 2002, and a non-executive director of Tata Steel.
Hayward is a committee member of Audit, Nominations and Health, Safety
and Environment[17]. Hayward was appointed a Companion of the
Chartered Management Institute in September 2005[18].
Edmund John Philip Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, FRS FREng (born
20 February 1948) is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and
was group Chief Executive of BP until his resignation on 1 May 2007.
Since 2001, he has been a crossbench member of the House of Lords.
Browne was born in Hamburg, Germany, to a British Army officer father
and a Hungarian Auschwitz survivor mother. His father also worked in
civilian life for Anglo-Persian Oil, which later became British
Petroleum. He was educated at the King's School, Ely and St John's
College, Cambridge, where he earned a First Class Bachelor's degree in
Physics.
He holds a degree in Physics from Cambridge University and an MS in
Business from Stanford University , California . He has also been
awarded Honorary Doctorates from Heriot Watt University (D.Eng) and
Robert Gordon University (D.Tech), Dundee University (LLD), Warwick
University (D.Sc), Hull University (D.Sc), Cranfield University
(D.Sc), Sheffield Hallam University (Hon. D Univ), University of
Buckingham (D.Sc), University of Belfast (Hon DSc 0 Eng) and the
University of Surrey (Hon D. Univ), Imperial College, London (Hon
D.Sc), (Leuven University, Belgium (D.Sc), Thunderbird (LLD),
University of Notre Dame (LLD), Colorado School of Mines (D.Eng), D
Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, Arizona State
University (DHLitt). He is an Honorary Fellow of St John's College,
Cambridge and a Senior Member of St Antony's College, Oxford.
He is a Fellow and President of The Royal Academy of Engineering, a
Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials,
Minerals and Mining, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a Fellow of
the Institute of Petroleum, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts &
Sciences, a Companion of the Institute of Management, an Honorary
Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, an Honorary Fellow of
the Geological Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of
Chemistry. At the suggestion of his father, Browne joined BP as an
apprentice in 1966 while still at university and remained with the
corporation throughout his career.
Between 1969 and 1983, he held a variety of exploration and production
posts in Anchorage, Alaska [1] , New York, San Francisco, London and
Canada.
In 1984 he became Group Treasurer and Chief Executive of BP Finance
International.
In April 1986, he took up the position of Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer of The Standard Oil Company in Cleveland,
Ohio. In 1987, following the BP/Standard merger, in addition to his
position as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of BP
America, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Standard Oil
Production Company.
In 1989, he became Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BP
Exploration based in London . In September 1991, he joined the Board
of The British Petroleum Company plc. as a Managing Director. He was
appointed Group Chief Executive on 10 June 1995. Following the merger
of BP and Amoco, he became Group Chief Executive of the combined group
on 31 December 1998 until 1 May 2007.
A chapter length study of Browne's career and his leadership style,
including views on life, business and leadership, is included in Steve
Tappin's book The Secrets of CEOs.[2]
He was one of the most highly paid executives in the UK with a
remuneration package of approximately £5.7 million in 2004.
Green issues promoted by Browne
From 1997, Browne sought to recreate BP as a "green" energy company.
The company linked itself in its corporate communications with green
issues by the overt link of its BP initials with the phrase "Beyond
Petroleum". Browne stated that the right to self determination is
crucial for people everywhere, and that he sees his company's mission
as to find ways to meet current needs without excessive harm to the
environment, while developing future, more sustainable sources of
energy. He promised that BP would cut its production of CO2 by 10% by
2010, although it is as yet unclear whether BP will meet this in the
wake of his departure.
Resignation
It was announced on 25 July 2006 that Browne would stand down as chief
executive of BP in December 2008, 10 months after his 60th birthday.
There had been press speculation that he had wished to continue beyond
this date, but he made it clear that he did not wish to do so.
He is Managing Director and Managing Partner ( Europe ) of Riverstone
Holdings LLC.
He became President of the Royal Academy of Engineering in July 2006.
He took over from Frances Cairncross as President of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science in September 2006, and was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006. In 1998, he was
knighted[14] by Queen Elizabeth II and in 2001 named by the House of
Lords Appointments Commission[15] as one of the "people's peers"
taking the title Baron Browne of Madingley, of Cambridge in the County
of Cambridgeshire,[16][17] and becoming a crossbencher in the House of
Lords. In 2000 he was the recipient of the FIRST Responsible
Capitalism Award [18].
He was appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery on 1 August 2007 and
Chair of the Trustees in January 2009 [19].
In November 2009 it was announced that Lord Browne will chair a
government committee into university tuition fees due to report in
2010.[20]. In December 2009 this committee revised the estimate of the
graduate premium, the increase in lifetime salary of a degree compared
to 2 A levels, down to £100,000 (before debt) [21].
Lord Browne lists 17th- and 18th-century illustrated Italian books,
pre-Columbian art, contemporary Art, music, opera and the theatre
among his interests.
The Long Term Outlook: The Challenges for Business
Speaker: Lord Browne
Speech date: 28 October 2004
Venue: Weizmann Institute, Israel
Title: Group Chief Executive
Thank you for that very kind introduction. It is a pleasure and a
privilege to be here. It's almost exactly five years now since I went
to speak at the Weizmann Institute and I can still remember every
minute of that visit very vividly. I wouldn't say it was the most
comfortable trip because my mother and I were seeing Israel for the
first time and that made us think about members of our family, and
their history, and all the things which happened to them. But the
visit was inspiring because despite all the problems, it was possible
to see the strength of the commitment of Israel , symbolised by the
Weizmann Institute, to knowledge and science. The fact that this
commitment has been sustained over the last half century, through many
troubling times, is a mark both of the vision of those who founded the
state of Israel and the Institute, and the continued optimism of those
who work there – an optimism which is both rare and precious.
Education - in particular as represented by universities and research
institutes – is about investment in the future: in human capital and
in the belief that knowledge can improve the human condition. That is
true everywhere in the world but I think it is especially true in
countries which are still shaping their destiny.
So it is a privilege to be here, and to be able to acknowledge all
those who have done so much to sustain and build the Weizmann
Institute. You have asked me to talk this morning about the future –
from a business perspective. I think the fundamental challenge –
reaching well beyond business - is about how we can all sustain the
sense of human progress. To demonstrate that tomorrow can be better
than today – not through a naïve expression of optimism but through
the systematic resolution of challenges and the determined application
of knowledge to transcend barriers and trade offs. I'm going to talk
about energy, not just because that is my special subject, but also
because energy is at heart of so much else. Energy is the foundation
of human activity. It provides heat, light, food, mobility, health,
the capacity to develop and accumulate knowledge, as well as the
ability to live in comfort and to enjoy the pleasures of life. A world
without energy would be cold and dark and ignorant. I see the
provision of energy as a precondition of progress. So when people
start to say there is an energy crisis and start to worry about the
price and the security of supply it is important to go to the facts
and to focus on the reality. There is no energy crisis at the moment.
There is no shortage of oil or gas. There is, however, a legitimate
concern about the security of supply because demand has grown so
strongly over the last year that the amount of spare capacity has
shrunk. By spare capacity I mean the gap between what is actually
produced and what could be produced immediately and without
difficulty.
The amount of spare capacity at the moment is one third of the normal
level and is less in absolute terms than the amounts produced in a
number of countries, where continuity of supply has been threatened by
disruption – including Iraq , Nigeria and Venezuela . That is the
reason for the recent rise in prices. Not a shortage – but the fear of
shortage. We believe that fear can be mitigated over the next few
years because more capacity is coming on-stream around the world, from
Russia and Angola and the Caspian and because there are some signs
that the recent growth in demand, particularly in China , has been
exceptional and will not be sustained. That is a view, not a
prediction, and of course prices could stay high if there is continued
instability in any of the major producing areas. The concern about
energy security is not just a short term issue. There are two longer
term concerns. First, there is concern that the environmental issues,
including the impact of human activity and increasing energy
consumption on the earth's climate, have not been resolved. The
emissions of the so-called greenhouse gases are increasing. The
concentration of carbon in the atmosphere is now at around 370 ppm.
That level of concentration has increased rapidly over the last few
decades and is advancing steadily towards the figure of 500 to 550 ppm
which many of the world's leading scientists have concluded is the
level of sustainability. That is the level beyond which they fear that
global warming could begin to have serious effects on our ecosystems.
The second concern is that the steady growth in demand for energy in
general, and for oil in particular, won't be matched by available
supplies.
On the best available independent figures, energy demand worldwide
will rise by up to one-third over the next decade, and most of that
demand growth will be supplied by oil and gas. Some countries will use
more coal, but that simply reinforces the environmental concerns. Some
will use nuclear, but that raises multiple problems of safety, costs,
proliferation and waste disposal. One day, alternative and renewable
fuels will have a major role but that day may still be a long way off.
The forecasts suggest that in a decade's time they will provide little
more than 3 per cent of world demand. The world will therefore rely on
oil and gas. Oil is a traded commodity. Oil-producing areas such as
the North Sea and Alaska will be producing only small amounts by then
and the four major economic players in the world – the US , Europe,
China and Japan - will all be significant oil importers. Across the
world almost 70 per cent of daily demand will be imported. And those
imports will come from a very limited number of suppliers. The
countries of the Persian Gulf along with West Africa and Russia will
be providing up to 80 per cent of traded oil, and, therefore, more
than half of total world demand. On this forecast, which comes from an
independent and authoritative source - the International Energy Agency
- more than 15 million barrels of oil per day will need to come from
Saudi Arabia – and that is assuming that all the other suppliers
including Iran and Iraq are producing and exporting significant
volumes. Those are the reasons why there is a sense of insecurity and
anxiety around the issue of energy. What is the role of business in
managing these challenges and sustaining human progress? I think there
are four elements, each of which will contribute to the continued
security of energy supply. In each case business can only do its job
if we work hand in hand with science. The two go together in
sustaining progress.
First, we have to maximise the diversity of supply through investment
in different places and through the application of technology to keep
costs down. That is why BP is investing in Russia and Angola , and the
Caspian and Indonesia . These investments will help to reduce the risk
of undue reliance on the Persian Gulf . And it is why we are investing
in the technology which allows us to produce from very deep water –
from depths of up 10,000 ft in the Gulf of Mexico and off West
Africa . Secondly, we have to mitigate the impact of climate change to
avoid long run environmental damage. That means using technology to
improve efficiency, working with the car manufacturers, for instance,
to improve the mileage per gallon of new vehicles. It means using
science to develop new clean products free of lead, sulphur or
benzene. And it means exploring new ways of capturing and storing the
carbon which would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere. Each of
those elements is important. There is no single solution to the
challenge of climate change and there isn't likely to be. But there
are a series of strands each of which could help mitigate a part of
the problem. Thirdly, we have to pursue the long term research which
will produce the alternative and renewable fuels of the future – such
as photovoltaics and solar power. Some of the alternatives are
beginning to look promising, but none yet are fully commercial at the
scale which would make a difference to the world's energy balance. We
have to work to reduce costs and then to bring those nascent
technologies to the market.
And fourthly, we have to use our global reach to spread the
application of knowledge. BP works in a hundred different countries
around the world. If we make a breakthrough in any one of our areas of
activity we can take that breakthrough and apply it on a global basis
very quickly. That is what we've done with clean fuels and with the
technology which allows us to eliminate the flaring of surplus natural
gas. That capacity to spread knowledge is one of the great benefits of
globalisation. In all these cases, science and business have to work
together. Science advances knowledge, as exemplified by the work of
the Weizmann Institute. And business applies that knowledge. The roles
are complimentary and mutually dependent. Without the advance of
science we could make no progress. Without business, scientific
advances would remain in the laboratory – unused and largely unknown.
The global energy scene is complex and clouded. It would be easy to
conclude that the current situation is unsustainable. Perhaps at any
one moment in time the forward projection of current trends always
looks unsustainable. I am sure that was true half a century ago when
the Weizmann Institute was established. But there always is change,
and change comes through science and its application by business. The
two together are essential to the continual renewal of human progress.
They both are universal. Both business and science now work on a
genuinely international basis. They both are symbols of human
potential and aspiration. They both look forward not back. And it is
on that basis, without in any way diminishing the challenges we all
face, that I'm an optimist about the future. When we went to Israel we
were told about the spirit and the drive of those who had taken the
enormous step of creating a new country.
That spirit was summed up for me in a line written by Chaim Weizmann
himself – a line which I think is very moving even for those of us who
are not religious by nature. Dr Weizmann wrote:
" God will look down benignly on his Children who after a long
wandering have come home to serve Him with a psalm on their lips and a
spade in their hands, reviving their old country and making a centre
of human civilization."
Thank you very much.
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=98&contentId=7001714
Israel is seeking gas supplies from Russia 's OAO Gazprom and a BP PLC
Azeri field, a top Israeli official said this week.
In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Hezi Kugler, a director
general at Israel 's ministry of national infrastructures, said
Gazprom and Israel are conducting a pre-feasability study to estimate
the size of gas supplies it could provide to the country.
He said the amounts involved will be several billion cubic meters per
year but likely less than 10 billion.
Kugler said talks are also continuing to get gas from Azerbaijan and
that Israel 's national infrastructures minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
was in the former Soviet Union country this week. He said supplies
could come from BP PLC (BP)-operated Shah Deniz project, where a
second development phase is currently planned.
Kugler said he has not held talks with the U.K. oil giant yet but "we
would be happy to speak to them." He said that during a recent visit
to Shah Deniz he "was very impressed by the way BP operates" what he
called "a first-class oil and gas project."
In addition, Israel is in talks with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan , he
said. All gas from the former Soviet Union would flow to Israel
through a Turkish pipeline, he said.
But Kugler also said a tender process to select technical advisors for
a liquefied-natural-gas terminal had just started and international
companies and financial investors had already inquired about the
project.
Israel Billionaire Tshuva Strikes Gas, Fueling Energy Expansion
By David Wainer and Calev Ben-David
April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Isaac Tshuva uses sugar packets on a table in
the lounge of his Leonardo City Tower Hotel in Tel Aviv to mark the
spots of three natural-gas fields off Israel that he said will fuel
global growth of his energy business.
The Israeli billionaire, owner of New York's Plaza Hotel, said his
Delek Group Ltd. and partners including Houston-based Noble Energy
Inc. are now homing in on more deposits after last year announcing a
record find in waters off Haifa , Bloomberg Businessweek reports in
its April 26 edition.
"The amounts we've found are going to provide much of Israel 's energy
needs for the next two decades," said Tshuva, 61, who grew up in a one-
bedroom apartment in Netanya with 10 family members after immigrating
from Libya in 1948.
Tshuva is expanding his business and this year offered to buy BP Plc's
gasoline stations in France , adding to outlets in the U.S. , Israel
and Europe . The discovery has also helped as he tries to keep alive a
$5 billion project to put a Plaza Hotel on the Las Vegas strip, which
stalled as the U.S. real estate market slumped in the recession.
The find was "game-changing," said Arie Tal, chief strategist at
Alumot-Sprint Investment House Ltd., which holds Delek shares among
about 1.5 billion shekels ($382 million) of assets. "It transformed
Delek, a company that was possibly facing a tough time refinancing its
debt, to a company that now holds an asset that will generate billions
of dollars."
Tamar Gas
Delek-controlled companies and partners led by Noble Energy in January
2009 announced a find at the Tamar prospect that may hold 7.7 trillion
cubic feet of gas (218 billion cubic meters), according to a survey by
Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc. That's more than twice the annual
output of Norway , the world's second-largest gas exporter. The
partners have secured about $11 billion in domestic gas commitments
and expect output by 2012.
The Levant Basin, where Tamar is located and which stretches the
length of Israel and Lebanon, may hold 227 trillion cubic feet of gas,
the U.S. Geological Survey said in a report released April 8, its
first review of the region.
"The natural-gas find is very significant for the Israeli economy,"
said Amit Mor, head of investor and consultant Eco Energy Ltd. "At
least half of electric generation will be supplied from natural gas in
the coming years."
Expansion Abroad
It may also drive Delek's push abroad. The company expects to complete
a purchase of 416 filling stations from BP in France soon, adding to
its 1,600 service stations in eight U.S. states under such brands as
Mapco and Texaco-branded stations in Belgium , the Netherlands and
Luxembourg .
Asaf Bartfeld, Delek's 58-year-old chief executive officer, said in an
interview that it's the right time to expand its gasoline stations
because companies are selling at lower prices.
Delek posted a profit of 864 million shekels last year, after a loss
of 1.8 billion in 2008. Earnings at its fuel operations in Israel ,
Europe and the U.S. rose, its insurance business returned to profit
and it booked capital gains.
While his energy business weathered the slump, Tshuva last year spun
off Delek Real Estate Ltd. after it lost 1.6 billion shekels in 2008
in part after adding debt to purchase RoadChef Motorways Holdings
Ltd., one of the U.K. 's largest operators of roadside service
stations. Delek's shares fell 86 percent in 2008 and its bonds plunged
to about half their par value.
"The man has good intuitions," said Ronen Elgali, head of research at
Sphera Fund, a Tel Aviv-based hedge fund with $360 million. "He's had
some poor real estate investments but has excelled in other areas. You
can't win them all."
Gas-Price Decline
Gas markets are also vulnerable after prices sank because of rising
supplies. The International Energy Agency has forecast an "acute glut"
over the next five years. U.S. gas prices have dropped 28 percent this
year after record output of 26.3 trillion cubic feet in 2009. Prices
also fell in 2009 and 2008.
The father of five, whose friends include President Shimon Peres, came
to Israel after the nation's independence in 1948 and started working
in construction and agriculture at the age of 12. After three years in
the army, he began as a contractor for the Defense Ministry and helped
erect the Bar Lev Line fortification along the Suez canal after Israel
captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt in the 1967 war.
He began to amass wealth as a developer of low-income neighborhoods
across Israel , benefiting from a construction boom in the 1970s. In
1998, he joined the country's business elite after wresting control of
Delek from the Recanati family's IDB Holding Corp. He was an outsider
in Israel 's business community because of his origins and lack of
higher education.
Delek Acquisition
"That was a big jump for him as the company at the time belonged to
Israel 's giants," said Moshe Tery, former chairman of the Israel
Securities Authority, who helped manage Tshuva's investments before
the Delek purchase. "Of course, eyebrows were raised due to his
unusual background."
A spokesman for the Recanati family, who asked not to be identified,
declined to comment.
Tshuva, whom employees describe as a devout believer in the Jewish
faith, was 463rd on Forbes's annual list of billionaires published
last month with a fortune of $2.1 billion.
In 2000, he sent Miki Naftali, who had helped develop residential
projects and a hotel in the southern town of Eilat , to New York to
head El-Ad Group Ltd., the privately held real estate company named
after his only son. El-Ad developed more than a dozen high-end
residential ventures in New York over the next five years. In 2004,
Naftali, spurred on by Tshuva, made a losing bid on the former
Mayflower Hotel on Central Park West.
'Pimping the Plaza'
"I was very disappointed," Naftali, El-Ad's CEO, said in an interview.
"We were very keen at the time to find a development opportunity
overlooking Central Park ."
The idea to buy the Plaza came as he walked by the hotel after losing
out on the Mayflower. A meeting was arranged with Singapore 's Kwek
Leng Beng, whose Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc owned half. In what
was to be a 30-minute meeting in Singapore , Naftali said Tshuva
instructed him by telephone to keep the price down but to not let the
"deal fall through."
El-Ad bought the hotel for $675 million and spent $450 million on
renovations and to convert much of it into apartments, a project led
by Tshuva's daughter Gal Nauer. The New York Post tabloid accused El-
Ad of "pimping out the Plaza" and "selling the soul of the
institution."
El-Ad, which runs the hotel business and retail area, sold 181
residential units for about $1.4 billion, Naftali said.
Vegas Trouble
Companies controlled by Tshuva and Israeli tycoon Nochi Danker then
paid $1.25 billion for the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas , which they
razed to make way for a Plaza development. The plan was put on hold in
2008 as the financial crisis deepened. The partners wrote down the
property by $250 million in the fourth quarter, valuing it at $1
billion to $1.1 billion.
While El-Ad was bogged down in Las Vegas , Delek's shares rose more
than six-fold since the gas find, giving it a value of about 9.5
billion shekels. Tshuva owns about 64 percent of Delek, according to
stock exchange data.
Delek controls about 31 percent of Tamar through Delek Drilling LP and
Avner Oil & Gas Ltd. Noble has 36 percent and Isramco Negev 2 Ltd. 29
percent.
Noble and Delek are waiting for seismic survey results in the
surrounding area, which may hold reserves larger than Tamar, said
Yaron Zer, an analyst at Clal Finance Brokerage Ltd.
Delek companies are part-owners of 26 licenses and leases off Israel
amid a push to increase gas use in the country, which gets more than
half its energy from oil and coal, according to the Finance Ministry.
Dead Sea Revival
"A new find would have to be as large as Tamar to be commercially
viable as Israel is going to be oversupplied," said Israel Brokerage &
Investments Ltd. analyst Guil Bashan.
In a conference room next to Tshuva's office, Delek's Bartfeld laughed
about how employees celebrated with champagne in plastic cups after
striking gas, in line with Tshuva's frugal image. He drives to work in
a beat-up Cadillac and said he doesn't wear a watch so as not to
forget when his parents couldn't afford one for his Bar Mitzvah.
His plans aren't so unassuming. Tshuva wants to help develop the
"Valley of Peace," a 170-kilometer (106-mile) canal from the Red Sea
to the Dead Sea to keep the depleted salt lake from drying up. The
project may help improve the economy on both sides of the Israel-
Jordanian border, Tshuva said.
"I have many dreams and plans," he said. "Regretfully, even 100 years
will not suffice in order to properly realize even a 10th of them."
To contact the reporters on this story: David Wainer in Tel Aviv at
dwainer1@bloomberg.net; Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at
cbendavid@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 21, 2010 19:01 EDT
BP seeks more Israeli cleantech investment
BP exec Justin Adams: Cleantech funds are beginning to do interesting
things in Israel .
Merav Ankori22/06/2008 The investment in thermosolar solutions
manufacturer Luz II Ltd. by BP plc (NYSE; LSE: BP) has whetted the
appetite of British energy giant for more Israeli companies. "We want
to invest in clean energy and in joint ventures with venture capital
funds," BP director of long term technology Justin Adams told "Globes"
in an excusive interview.
Adams made his first visit to Israel . He is a symbol of the potential
that BP sees in the country. He says, "It's premature to talk about
concrete plans to invest in Israeli companies because we've only just
begun to take a serious look at them. We also want to collaborate with
Israeli venture capital funds. We're at the preliminary stage of
examining the Israeli market, both in terms of technology to invest
and, of course, in terms of collaborations. Cleantech funds are
beginning to do interesting things in Israel , and I intend to return
to continue examining the industry."
http://archive.globes.co.il/searchgl/BP%20seeks%20more%20Israeli%20cleantech%20investment_h_hd_2L34mDp0tCrmnC30mCpKpEJKpBcXqRMm0.html
Cleantech Investing in Israel
News and commentary on Israel 's growing clean technology industr
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Solaredge partners with BP Solar to test solar efficiency products
SolarEdge is joining forces with BP Solar to test new products
designed to help solar modules operate more efficiently in harvesting
the sun's rays, the companies said today in a press release.
BP Solar, a unit of oil giant BP Plc, will integrate into its solar
modules SolarEdge's electronics that are designed to reduce the losses
in solar arrays. Those losses can cut their power output by as much as
20 percent.
In support of this activity, BP Solar and SolarEdge have been awarded
a research grant by the Israeli and US governments as part of the BIRD
Foundation (Bi-national Industrial Research and Development), which
contributes to joint development.
Solar panels typically turn between 10 to 15 percent of the sun's
light into electricity, but that output can be reduced by partial
shading of the arrays and other glitches in the electronic equipment
that transports power between the panels.
SolarEdge, based in Herzliya , Israel , produces equipment that can
help eliminate inefficiencies in the solar module arrays.
The company's products also make the solar systems safer, according to
Chief Executive Officer Guy Sella, and can be used to provide data to
customers on cells or modules that are damaged and not producing power
at their capacity.
SolarEdge currently has three products, including a chipset called the
PowerBox that manufacturers can embed into their solar modules to
boost power output, but can also be added on as a retrofit. There's
also an inverter and web-based monitoring software for identifying
maintenance needs and energy loss, and preventing theft.
In an interview with Earth2Tech, Sella said SolarEdge is on track to
reach "general availability" between late July and September of this
year. The company is in the final stages of negotiations with two
manufacturers and expects to complete those by the end of June. By
July, SolarEdge plans to establish a subsidiary in Germany , and by
September or October Sella expects to have a presence in the U.S. , on
the West Coast.
According to a report in Reuters, SolarEdge expects to have orders for
equipment that generate more than 12 megawatts of electricity by the
end of 2009, and as much as 80 MW in 2010. The company expects to be
cash-flow positive in the fourth quarter of 2010, and could launch an
initial public offering of shares in the second half of 2011, Sella
said.
In December 2008, SolarEdge completed a $23 million Series B financing
round. Vertex Venture Capital led the round and was joined by the
company's existing investors, Genesis Partners, Walden International,
and Opus Capital.
Sella told Earth2Tech that for the last three to four months SolarEdge
has been in talks with an investor who may add $3 million to $5
million to the Series B round. He said they would be a "very big
strategic partner" if the deal comes through.
SolarEdge has raised nearly $35 million in venture capital funding
since its inception in 2006.
Earlier this week, SolarEdge announced the appointment of Zvi Lando as
its VP of Global Sales.
Lando joins SolarEdge from Applied Materials where he served as vice
president, general manager of the Baccini Cell Systems (BCS) Solar
Business Group, the global leader in screen printing equipment for the
solar industry.
Related Posts:
GE invests in SolarEdge, joining $23m Series B funding round
SolarEdge raises $23m in venture capital
SolarEdge exits stealth mode and plans Series B financing
SolarEdge raises $11.8 million
Posted by Jonathan Shapira at 12:40 PM
Labels: BP Solar, Genesis Partners, Opus Capital, solar, SolarEdge,
Vertex VC, Walden International
Jonathan Shapira
United States
I am an associate in the Business Law Department of Goodwin Procter
LLP, a leading U.S. law firm. The views expressed on this website are
my own, and not necessarily the views of Goodwin Procter. You can
contact me at jonathan@boston-israel.org
http://cleantech-israel.blogspot.com/2009/05/solaredge-partners-with-bp-solar-to.html
BP Solar and SolarEdge Partner to Develop Power Harvesting
SystemRelease date: 27 May 2009
Leading Global Companies Rigorously Test Holistic Solution for
Worldwide Distribution
Frederick, MD and Herzliya, Israel—May 27, 2009—BP Solar and SolarEdge
today announced a joint agreement to explore commercialization of a PV
module-integrated power harvesting system embedded directly into BP
Solar modules. The combined solution will maximize energy generation
throughout the life of the solar power system while dramatically
reducing complexities and costs. Standard power system architectures
and designs may lead to losses of up to 20 percent or more per solar
field in some installations due to module and array mismatch and
partial shading. Some system architectures also lack full monitoring,
have suboptimal roof utilization and generally are weak in fire and
maintenance safety, and ineffective in module theft prevention
measures.
To achieve optimal energy yield while reducing these installation and
maintenance challenges and costs, BP Solar is working to integrate
SolarEdge's and other active electronics directly into their modules.
The combined technologies are currently undergoing rigorous thermal
cycle testing to emulate 25 years of volatile solar field conditions.
"We are impressed with the initial performance and reliability tests
of SolarEdge's solution," said Eric Daniels, Chief Technology Officer
of BP Solar. "We believe the SolarEdge technology, when combined with
BP Solar's patented IntegraBus™ module power strip, can significantly
enhance the energy output of residential and commercial scale
systems."
"BP Solar has contributed enormously to the advancement of the solar
industry," said Guy Sella, Chairman, CEO and Founder of SolarEdge. "By
addressing the problems that the industry has overlooked or considered
unavoidable, we can greatly improve solar economics through increasing
energy output while reducing system costs."
In support of this activity, BP Solar and SolarEdge have been awarded
a research grant by the Israeli and US governments as part of the BIRD
(Bi-national Industrial Research and Development) foundation, which
contributes to joint development. Through the "BIRD Energy"
initiative, the BP Solar-SolarEdge project has been recognized for its
achievements in improving the effectiveness and economics of solar
technology.
About BP Solar
BP Solar is a global company with about 2000 employees. BP Solar
designs, manufactures and markets products which use the sun's energy
to generate electricity for use in the residential, commercial and
industrial sectors. With over 35 years of experience and installations
in most countries, BP Solar is one of the world's leading solar
companies and annually invests millions in photovoltaic research and
development.
About SolarEdge
SolarEdge is a provider of smart, holistic PV power harvesting and
monitoring solutions for maximum energy and cost efficiency. The
company works with industry-leading partners to embed its active
electronic solution directly into PV modules. Unlike centralized
architectures that can't optimize the power of each module, only
SolarEdge performs MPPT per module while communicating across existing
power lines for granular visibility and control. As a result, our
systemic holistic approach provides more power from any given
installation, eliminates design constraints, provides complete
visibility, solves all safety issues and provides anti-theft without
increasing power harvesting costs.
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7053360
The Cool War (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cool War is a science fiction novel by Frederick Pohl
Like many of Pohl's novels, this opens in a world reduced by a crisis,
in this case the loss of fossil fuels….
The Rev. H. Hornswell "Horny" Hake becomes embroiled in "the Cool
War", in which each country tries to sabotage the economies of its
rivals, even if politically they are allies…. the War has produced a
group of people who profit by its continuation and can suppress
technologies that might solve humanity's problems. In particular a new
form of solar energy collection relies on bio-engineered "sunflowers"
which, while technically plants, have extremely reflective petals and
can be trained to focus light from a wide area on a furnace or power
generator. The Team is determined to destroy the technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cool_War_(novel)
'The Cool War compliments another book by Frederik Pohl, The
Merchant's War, and both depict versions of the future with weak
governments help less to contain forces of exploitation. This one
anticipates how future wars will be undertaken through attacks that
cannot be traced back to their source. The lack of accountability
prevents retaliation on any tit-for-tat basis, but soon enough
everyone adopts that method and is undermining the stability and
economy of every other power.
Although none of the events depicted in The Cool War have happened
yet, author Frederik Pohl nicely anticipates our excalation of
terrorism, and he gives a wry fantasy about what the Mideast may do
with all their money when the oil starts to run out.
In the years since The Cool War was written, it has shown prescience,
and it is valuable as a cautionary tale."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394293835/top100
The Merchants' War (1984 novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Merchants' War is a 1984 novel by Frederick Pohl of a near future
commercial dystopian interplanetary society. The novel was a sequel to
The Space Merchants, and was originally co-published with it as VENUS,
INC. In the story, the colony on Venus has managed to stabilize itself
to a point. However, agents from the trans-national corporations on
Earth attempt to undermine the stability of the colony. The story
follows the trail of two advertisement company employees from the
colony back to Earth, as they struggle with addiction and the truth of
the situation back on Earth. As with the prequel, the characters are
not what they seem, and the main character's loyalty changes
drasticallyThe Merchants' War
THE MERCHANTS' WAR (1984) is the hilarious sequal to the classic THE
SPACE MERCHANTS (1952). While THE SPACE MERCHANTS is the better known
of these two books, THE MERCHANTS' WAR stands up better to the passing
of years, as most of the bold predictions in THE SPACE MERCHANTS don't
hold up well over time.
The story takes up about 30 years after where THE SPACE MERCHANTS left
off, with the "Conservationists" having gotten a foothold on
colonizing Venus, and with Earth even more over-populated (40Bln
people), and more over-commercialized.
Well, what really impressed me about THE MERCHANTS' WAR was the
situations that the befuddled main character Tennison Tarb gets
himself into... at first, I thought that "Tenny" was just another
unlikeable main character - for example, when he and his girlfriend
are out exploring the old Russina Venera landing site on Venus,
"Tenny" gets bored, and lets air out of his oxygen tanks, so that the
two must head back inside... but later, the situations that continue
to happen to Tenny start to get you laughing at him... Tenny reminds
me of this Program Manager at my work, and I could imagine these
things happening to him, and I just started to laugh at loud, and on a
number of occasions.
One of the things that happens to Tenny, is that he quickly becomes
driven to buy and be addicted to "Mokie-Coke"... I don't want to spoil
it for anybody - so I'll just tell you, you've got the find and read
this book"
http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-War-Frederik-Pohl/dp/0312902409
The Space Merchants
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Space Merchants is a science fiction novel, written by Frederik
Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth in 1952. Originally published in Galaxy
Science Fiction magazine as a serial entitled Gravy Planet, the novel
was first published as a single volume in 1953, and has sold heavily
since. It deals satirically with a hyper-developed consumerism, seen
through the eyes of an advertising executive. It was followed some
years later by a sequel, The Merchants' War.
n a vastly overpopulated world, businesses have taken the place of
governments and now hold all political power. States exist merely to
ensure the survival of huge trans-national corporations. Advertising
has become hugely aggressive and by far the best-paid profession.
Through advertising, the public is constantly deluded into thinking
that the quality of life is improved by all the products placed on the
market. However, the most basic elements are incredibly scarce,
including water and fuel. The planet Venus has just been visited and
judged fit for human settlement, despite its inhospitable surface and
climate; the colonists would have to endure a harsh climate for many
generations until the planet could be terraformed.
The protagonist, Mitch Courtenay, is a star-class copywriter in the
Fowler Schocken advertising agency who has been assigned the ad
campaign which would attract colonists to Venus. But a lot more is
happening than he knows about. It soon becomes a tale of mystery and
intrigue, in which many of the characters are not what they seem, and
Mitch's loyalties and opinions change drastically over the course of
the narrative.
Shell profits rise 60%, helped by oil price
Sarah Arnott, The Independent, 29 Apr 2010
View original article
Royal Dutch Shell's profits rose by 60 per cent to $4.8bn (￡3.2bn) in
the first quarter due to increased production and sharp oil price
rises.
The oil major's revenue also rose ― by 48 per cent to $88bn ― in a
first-quarter performance that outstripped analysts' expectations.
Financial results from its rival, BP, earlier in the week also beat
forecasts. Shell's strong showing was driven by the exploration and
production business, which saw profits double to $4.4bn compared with
the same quarter of the previous year. Not only did the group manage a
6 per cent increase in oil and gas production levels, which hit 3.59
million barrels per day thanks to the ramping up of projects in Russia
and Brazil, but profits also saw a lift from an average oil price of
$76 in the quarter, compared with just $41 in the same period a year
ago...
http://www.odac-info.org/newsletter/2010/04/30
ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco Start Up Massive Refining and Petrochemical
Complex in China
13 Nov 09
ExxonMobil, together with partners Sinopec, Saudi Aramco, and the
Fujian government have celebrated the full operation of China 's first
integrated refining and petrochemical complex with foreign
participation in Fujian
province.
The Fujian refinery suggests that ExxonMobil may have an edge over
international rivals, as BP and Shell's efforts to invest in China 's
refining and petrochemical sector are still at the preliminary
stages.
http://www.ihsglobalinsight.com/SDA/SDADetail17885.htm
BP oil rig disaster a terror attack...... or government sabotage?
People are beginning to wonder
April 30, 6:15 PMPhoenix Religion & Society Examiner align=absmiddle
v:shapes="_x0000_i1026">Sonny Craig
Was the BP oil rig disaster a terrorist attack?
A week after the explosion of a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico ,
questions are now being raised as to the nature of the accident.
Congress is opening an investigation into the disaster, even as
experts from multiple tasking agencies from government security and
environmental agencies to the military, to Big Oil, attempt to conquer
the daunting task of capping the leak. 200,000 gallons of oil a day
are spilling into the Gulf, and wreaking an ecological hazard that
threatens to dwarf the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska in 1989 which
dumped 10.8 million gallons into the ocean environment. The costs of
clean-up of the Valdez spill are disputed, and the initial court
judgments of $5 billion in punitive damages were later appealed and
rescinded. Exxon collected payments from insurance companies making
any financial responsibility for causing the spill a joke amongst
trial lawyers throughout the country. Trial lawyers made over $1
billion dollars from the Valdez spill.
Websites are now popping up across the country claiming conspiracy of
every type, from Obama did it, to environmental terrorism, to Al
Qaeda.
The disaster threatens to become the largest man-made ecological
threat to the world's oceans in history, and emergency responders are
working night and day to cap the leak. Natural oil leaks pump 62
million gallons of oil into the oceans every year, so they have some
time before this leak surpasses what Mother Nature does by itself, but
the localized damage will nevertheless affect the Gulf Coast economy
for years to come, and will certainly derail any hopes of off-shore
drilling help ing the American economy or help ing America kick its
dependency on foreign oil.
Now, isn't that convenient for all those seeking harm to American
interests?
The spill is likely to cause Phoenix oil and gas prices to rise going
into summer to significant levels, as was seen in previous years after
Hurricane Katrina and refinery fires affected prices across the
country.
http://www.examiner.com/x-45964-Phoenix-Religion--Society-Examiner~y2010m4d30-BP-oil-rig-disaster-a-terror-attack-or-government-sabotage-People-are-beginning-to-wonder
Feb 24, 2010 By ■ R. C. Camphause Act of sabotage creates large
oil spill in Italian rivers
Police in Italy found that the large oil spill in the Lambro river,
now heading for the river Po , was an act of sabotage. While the
search for a suspect continues, authorities are trying to contain the
damage.
The spill was detected Tuesday morning around 4 a.m. after someone
broke into an abandoned deposit owned by ex-refinery Lombardi Petroli
near Monza . According to France 24, the saboteur opened the faucets,
yet according to the website Life in Italy, investigators found that
someone had punctured the oil tank on purpose.
A large amount of oil is now on its way to Italy 's main river Po ,
because the Lambro is one of its tributaries. Despite the idyllic
image that tourism sites still paint of the Lambro river, it has
already been heavily contaminated since at least 1996, as a study by
the Water Research Institute has shown.
The French agency reports this
Hundreds of birds, have already died because of the spill.
Legambiente, Italy's largest environmental organization called the
spill "an ecological disaster without precedent for the Lambro
ecosystem."
Life in Italy , however, has much more to say about the disastrous
impact the oil spill will have:
In an attempt to contain the damage, environmental protection
authorities raised flood gates along the river and said they would
attempt to pump as much of the oil out as possible.
While no stranger to pollution, the Po River - as well as its
tributaries - are used by thousands of farmers to water their crops.
The wetlands of the Po Delta are also a wildlife preserve and home to
over a 1,000 plant species and 300 different types of birds.
Business Week quotes an Italian paper when it cites the number of
600,000 liter, while France 24 speaks of at least 1,000 cubic metres
(35,315 cubic feet), yet probably much more.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/288019
NOT BEING ASKED IN THE STORY BELOW ITSELF, ALTHOUGH SOMEONE SURELY
SHOULD ASK: "Were any or all of these incidents sabotage or were all
of them merely accidental?"
If any or all of these incidents were sabotage who had the motive and
the means to create such sabotage and what motive could there have
been for such sabotage?
"BP runs oil production on the North Slope for itself and a handful of
other companies. It operates two offshore drilling operations from man-
made islands in the Beaufort Sea . And it has approval this year to
drill a record-setting eight miles into the Arctic Ocean to tap a new
reservoir.
But its accidents and scandals ranged from a refinery explosion that
killed 15 people in Texas City in 2005 to a 212,000-gallon oil spill
in Alaska "
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011791796_bpalaska06m.html?syndication=rss
Previous BP Accidents
May 6, 2010
The Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion and fire that killed 11 men and
triggered a massive oil leak is not the first time BP has had to
contend with a horrible accident or spill.
In the past five years, two high-profile accidents have occurred at BP
facilities ― one at a Texas refinery, another at a pipeline in Alaska
's Prudhoe Bay .
In 2005, at a refinery in Texas City , Texas , 15 BP employees died
and 170 were injured after a unit that manufactured jet fuel
exploded.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126564739
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blast Rips Texas City
As reported in the Houston Chronicle,
March 24, 2005
By Kevin Moran, Dina Cappiello, Steve Mcvicker, Zeke Minaya, Rosanna
Ruiz, Chunhua Zen Zheng, Ruth Rendon, Melanie Markley, Lynn J. Cook,
Eric Hanson, Robert Crowe, Roma Khanna, Staff
Texas City - At least 14 are killed/casualties with more than 100
injured, the toll could climb. It's the BP refinery's second fatal
occurrence in a year. Shocked residents in a state of disbelief
A fiery explosion at one of the nation's largest oil refineries killed
at least 14 people Wednesday and injured more than 100 others in the
deadliest industrial accident in the Houston area in nearly 15
years.
"There are still some people not accounted for," BP plant manager Don
Parus said Wednesday night. The blast was the second fatal accident to
occur at the sprawling 1,200-acre BP complex off Texas 146 in the last
year. The cause has not been determined. There was no initial
indication of dangerous levels of pollution from the blaze.
Late Wednesday night, BP officials were still working at the site with
members of the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office, searching
for additional possible victims. Some of the injured were being
treated at University of Texas Medical Branch . Other victims were
sent to Mainland Medical Center in Texas City , Ben Taub General
Hospital in Houston and Clear Lake Regional Medical Center .
Dixie Walker was waiting outside Mainland Medical Center for news of
his nephew Steven Walker, a contract worker for BP. He said that the
blast blew off his nephew's uniform. "He was sitting there in his
boots and underwear when the rescue team found him," said Walker,
himself a retired BP maintenance supervisor.
The fire began at 1:20 p.m. in the isomerization unit, which produces
components used to raise the octane content of gasoline, said Hugh
Depland, BP's general manager for public affairs.
Nearby homes shaken. The blast shattered windows, shook nearby
buildings and homes and released plumes of black smoke that could be
seen from Galveston to Clear Lake . Crews worked to extinguish the
blaze as rescuers sifted the rubble and ambulances carried victims
from the site. The fire was extinguished at 3:22 p.m., Parus said.
Depland said while the unit affected was shut down, the rest of the
refinery was running normally. "The area which had the explosion and
fire is shut in, but the vast majority of the facility is up and
running," Depland said.
Fearing the possibility of sabotage, the FBI dispatched personnel to
the refinery…"
Public Health
Information Services Phone: 409.938.2211
Fax: 409.938.2316
1207 Oak St,
PO Box 939
La Marque , TX 77568
http://www.gchd.org/press/2005/03BPFire.htm
Oil, Gasoline Surge After Attack on Shell Pipeline in Nigeria By Mark
Shenk
June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil climbed above $70 a barrel and
gasoline rose after militants attacked a Royal Dutch Shell Plc
pipeline supplying an export terminal in Nigeria , Africa 's largest
producer.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said it
attacked a pipeline supplying Shell's Bonny terminal. Exxon Mobil
Corp. shut a fluid catalytic cracker at the Baytown , Texas , refinery
yesterday, a union official said. Valero Energy Corp. and Marathon Oil
Corp. said their Texas City , Texas , refineries experienced power
disruptions yesterday.
"The buyers are back in control of the market," said Tom Bentz, a
senior energy analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. in New
York . "The Nigerian attacks triggered the move higher. There've been
a couple refinery issues, such as the power outage at Valero's Texas
City plant, that have also been supportive."
Crude oil for August delivery rose $1.56, or 2.3 percent, to $70.23 a
barrel at 2:59 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest
settlement since June 18. Futures, up 57 percent this year, have
declined 4.1 percent from a seven-month high of $73.23 reached on June
11.
Gasoline for July delivery increased 5.58 cents, or 3 percent, to end
the session at $1.8983 a gallon in New York . It was the biggest gain
since June 4.
The Exxon refinery catalytic cracker, a gasoline-making unit, was shut
late yesterday after the loss of a cooling tower, the union official
said. Other units related to the cooling tower are operating at
reduced rates, he said.
Release of Gases
An equipment failure caused the shutdown and a release of hydrogen
sulfide at the Baytown facility, Dave Bary, a spokesman for the
Environmental Protection Agency, said today.
Baytown , the largest refinery in the U.S. , can process 563,000
barrels of oil a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.
Valero's refinery, located along the Houston Ship Channel, can process
210,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
The Marathon plant can process about 81,500 barrels a day.
Oil prices have been supported and supply curbed since December 2005
because of militant activity in the Niger River delta, Nigeria 's main
oil-producing region. MEND has stepped up a sabotage campaign in the
area since a military offensive began last month.
Fighters from the Nigerian group damaged the Bille-Krakrama pipeline
overnight, cutting supplies from Shell's Cawthorne 1, 2 and 3 oil-
pumping stations, MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in an e-mail. A Shell
spokeswoman confirmed an attack on a manifold on the pipeline and
couldn't say whether production was halted by the incident.
Refinery Shut
Nigeria 's state-owned oil company said it shut its 125,000- barrel-a-
day Warri crude refinery after attacks cut the Chanomi Creek pipeline.
Two more refineries in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt are on "a
planned slowdown" to allow for maintenance, Levi Ajuonuma, spokesman
for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., or NNPC, said today.
"The Nigerian situation is likely to get a lot worse before there's an
improvement," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy &
Economic Research, in Winchester , Massachusetts . "There's a security
premium in the oil market, but it's less than a few years ago because
we have more supply available to replace any missing barrels."
Oil also advanced as U.S. equities increased for a third day and the
U.S. dollar declined against the euro. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
gained 1.9 percent to 918.45. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2
percent to 8,465.07.
A falling dollar makes raw materials such as oil and gold an
attractive alternative investment. The U.S. currency weakened 0.5
percent to $1.3993 per euro, from $1.393 yesterday.
U.S. Inventories
U.S. oil inventories fell by 3.87 million barrels to 353.9 million
barrels last week, the lowest since March, the Energy Department said
yesterday. Stockpiles, which have fallen in six of the past seven
weeks, are up 17 percent from a year earlier.
Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma , where New York-traded West Texas
Intermediate crude is delivered, fell 733,000 barrels to 28.2 million
last week, the lowest since the week end Dec. 26.
"The big drop in supplies at Cushing will definitely be felt on
Nymex," said Rick Mueller, a director of oil markets at Energy
Security Analysis Inc. in Wakefield , Massachusetts .
Gasoline supplies rose 3.87 million barrels to 208.9 million last
week, the Department of Energy said. Refineries operated at the
highest rates this year and fuel demand fell 5.5 percent, the biggest
drop since January.
'Impressive Run-Up'
"There's been an impressive run-up in prices this year," said Paul
Crovo, a Philadelphia-based oil analyst with PNC Capital Advisors. "At
some point in the second half of 2009 or in early 2010 we should see
demand pick up. At that point the market will tighten and prices
should move higher."
Brent crude oil for August settlement increased $1.45, or 2.1 percent,
to end the session at $69.78 a barrel on London 's ICE Futures Europe
exchange.
Crude oil volume in electronic trading on the Nymex was 411,646
contracts as of 3:06 p.m. in New York . Volume totaled 382,404
contracts yesterday, the lowest since May 22, and 23 percent less than
the average over the past three months. Open interest was 1.12 million
contracts.
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at
mshenk1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 25, 2009 16:07 EDT http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=adXArzBwlV.8
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), usually
known simply as Shell Nigeria: A joint venture operated by Shell
accounts for fifty percent of Nigerian's total oil production (899,000
bbl/d (142,900 m3/d) in 1997) from more than eighty oil fields. The
joint venture is composed of NNPC (55%), Shell (30%), TotalFinaElf
(10%) and Agip (5%) and operates largely onshore on dry land or in the
mangrove swamp in the Niger Delta. "The company has more than 100
producing oil fields, and a network of more than 6,000 kilometres of
pipelines, flowing through 87 flowstations. SPDC operates 2 coastal
oil export terminals". The Shell joint venture produces about 50
percent of Nigeria 's total crude. Shell Nigeria owns concessions on
four companies, they are: Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC),
Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO), Shell
Nigeria Gas (SNG), Shell Nigeria Oil Products (SNOP), as well as
holding a major stake in Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG). Shell
formerly operated alongside British Petroleum as Shell-BP, but BP has
since sold all of its Nigerian concessions. Most of Shell's operations
in Nigeria are conducted through the Shell Petroleum Development
Company (SPDC).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Nigeria
"BP's History of Oil Spills and Accidents: Same Strategy, Different
Day An Alaskan pipeline burst, a fatal refinery explosion and now a
210,000-gallon-a-day oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico . And there's BP,
right smack dab in the middle of all three."
http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10004340/bps-history-of-oil-spills-and-accidents-same-strategy-different-day/
Saudi Aramco seeks solution to crude problem
From The Times
November 4, 2009
Saudi Aramco is worried about the price of oil, so worried that it has
turned its back on a long-established benchmark — West Texas
Intermediate (WTI) — used to price crude oil sold in the United
States .
But it is not worried about the price so much as how it gets it.
Aramco is switching from WTI, the benchmark blend of crude that is
traded in the NYMEX futures exchange as US Light Sweet Crude, to ASCI,
a price index of Gulf of Mexico crudes published by Argus.
Sellers always want more and Aramco is no exception. The Saudis are
fed up with WTI because its price is highly volatile and the spec
bears little relation to the heavy, sulphurous crude oil that they
sell.
The Argus index is based on a weighted average of actual prices paid
for three crudes pumped out of the Gulf of Mexico — Mars, Poseidon and
Southern Green Canyon. These are "sour", or high-sulphur, crudes, more
like Aramco's Arab Light, so the Argus price index makes a better
match. Moreover, WTI has been behaving in a silly way; sour crudes
should sell at a discount to light crudes because the latter are
cheaper to refine. but WTI has been all over the place in recent
years. In February, WTI was in such a slump that the sour, heavier
ASCI crudes were selling at an $8 per barrel premium to WTI. Only a
month later, WTI had soared and ASCI had fallen to a $6 per barrel
discount.
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Aramco found itself unable to price its crude properly. The Saudis
don't trade oil but historically sell it at fixed discounts to WTI,
set in advance. With WTI bouncing around, the Saudis could not price
their oil competitively against rival sour crudes. Customers were
annoyed; by the time that cargoes arrived from Arabia , WTI's
oscillations could make Saudi crude dirt cheap or horribly dear.
Aramco's solution is to ditch the North American benchmark.
This is an earthquake, small on the Richter scale, perhaps just a
tremor, but nonetheless a movement in tectonic plates that signals
much bigger deeper changes ahead in the energy market.
The switch reflects two technical concerns and a wider and deeper
concern about market fragmentation. WTI has a specific problem: the
delivery point of the crude is inland at Cushing , Oklahoma . WTI
cannot be exported, so gluts cannot be cleared and bottlenecks lead to
droughts. It's a totally inadequate proxy for energy prices in North
America — the lion's share of US crude is supplied from wells in the
Gulf of Mexico and from Canada — but WTI remains the benchmark for the
most widely traded oil futures contract: US Light Sweet Crude.
The second technical point is that most of the world's crude is not
light, or sweet. As the North Sea and onshore American wells deplete,
the crude we burn is getting heavier and more sulphurous.
If you pump 50 litres of diesel into your petrol tank, your day will
be ruined and you will end up with an expensive problem. So much is
obvious. Fuels differ in specification, price and application — but
the same is even more true of crude oil.
Most of the world's refineries were designed to take lighter, sweeter
crudes, which are now in short supply. According to BP, as much as two
thirds of the world's crude oil supply is now sour. New refineries
with expensive desulpherisation units and hydrocrackers are chasing
the "sour" discount, hoping to make more profit margin buying cheaper,
heavier crude oil. A refinery such as Shell's Stanlow plant in
Cheshire is designed to process expensive North Sea crude; it is no
wonder that Shell wants to sell its last British fuel plant.
The final question is whether WTI and Brent are any longer meaningful
benchmarks and proxies for the price of oil. Energy markets are moving
east and south, North Sea crude is being displaced by Russian crude.
If you believe in perfect markets, it matters little that a global
price indicator for energy is buffeted by the level of storage tanks
located in an obscure town in Oklahoma . The price is the price — WTI
futures are the most liquid traded energy price and markets thrive not
on rationality but on liquidity.
Still, there is no doubt that the underlying oil market is
fragmenting, in geography as well in chemistry. The only growth in the
oil markets is in Asia , but while American refiners hedge their crude
prices in an effort to squeeze every last penny of margin, Asian
refiners don't yet hedge their exposure.
They take the price offered by Saudi Aramco, an organisation that
still refuses to auction its crude. The Saudis, pillars of the Opec
cartel, blame speculators for oil market volatility but they are doing
nothing to create more transparency, preferring to hitch their wagon
to the bucking bronco in the NYMEX exchange, while complaining about
the bumpy ride.
Having made its protest with ASCI, Aramco needs to go further and
sponsor a new crude market facing east. Dubai Mercantile Exchange is
assiduously courting the Saudis, hoping that Aramco will sponsor its
sour crude contract. The Saudis don't like to be the first movers, but
they are stirring.
carl.mortished@thetimes.co.uk
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6901552.ece
After the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War, for example, the Arabian
American Oil Company (ARAMCO) set up a fund to present the Arab
perspective on the conflict. In May 1970, ARAMCO representatives
warned Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Sisco that American
military sales to Israel would harm U.S.-Arab relations and jeopardize
American oil supplies.
Driven by oil revenues, the Arab lobby's leverage in affecting
American policy was demonstrated in early 1973 when Mobil published a
pro-Arab advertorial in The New York Times. In July of that year, the
chairman of Standard Oil of California (now called Chevron)
distributed a letter asking the company's 40,000 employees and 262,000
stockholders to pressure their elected representatives to support "the
aspirations of the Arab people." In a similar spirit, the chairman of
Texaco urged the U.S. to reassess its Middle East policy.
When another Arab-Israeli war broke out in October 1973, the chairmen
of the ARAMCO partners issued a memorandum warning the White House
against increasing its military aid to Israel . Shortly thereafter,
the OPEC oil embargo (enacted in retribution for Western support of
Israel ) ushered in an era where the Arab lobby became much more
prominent and visible than ever before. "The day of the Arab-American
is here," declared National Association of Arab Americans founder
Richard Shadyac. "The reason is oil." Prior to October 1973, the price
of oil had stood at $2.60 per barrel; within three months, the price
quadrupled to about $12 per barrel.
In 1977 President Jimmy Carter noted, in his diary, that the Arab
lobby had pressured him mightily while he was involved in the peace
negotiations between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime
Minister Menachem Begin. "They [Arab Americans] have given all the
staff, [national security adviser] Brzezinski, [Secretary of State]
Warren Christopher, and others, a hard time," wrote Carter (who would
later become a constant visitor to the Arab world and a strong critic
of Israel ).
Among the more notable individual members of the Arab lobby in recent
decades was the late Clark Clifford (died October 1998), whom The New
York Times described as a key adviser to Democratic U.S. presidents
beginning with Harry Truman, and as an influential paid lobbyist for
Arab sources. Another key figure in the Arab lobby has been Fred
Dutton, former Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs and special
assistant to President John F. Kennedy. On July 19, 2005, The Hill, a
newspaper about the U.S. Congress, reported that Dutton (a lobbyist
for Saudi Arabia ) had worked assiduously to persuade Congress to
approve two major arms sales to that nation.
Axis Information and Analysis (AIA), which specializes in information
about Asia and Eastern Europe, rated Prince Bandar Bin Sultan -- a
Saudi ambassador to the U.S. from 1983 to 2005 -- as the single most
influential foreigner in America . With links to high-ranking
officials in the State Department, Pentagon, and CIA, Sultan was a key
participant in many clandestine negotiations pertaining to U.S.
interests in the Middle East . According to AIA, in 1990-91 it was
Sultan who pushed President George H.W. Bush to launch the military
campaign to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait . Moreover, his father --
Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz al Saud -- was a leading figure in the ruling
Saudi dynasty. As such, he help ed determine the extent of his
nation's military cooperation with the U.S. in the Persian Gulf .
During a January 1998 U.S. Congressional Delegation briefing in
Damascus , Congressman Nick Rahall (D – West Virginia), who is of
Lebanese descent, said:
"Our [Arab] lobby in the United States is growing in its influence and
its participation in political campaigns across the spectrum. Our trip
[was] sponsored by the Arab American Institute -- one of those most
effective lobbying groups of the Arab groups in Washington -- and a
relatively new group, the National Arab American Businessmen's
Association. [Through] these groups … we are increasing our influence,
and we are increasing our participation."
Some members of the Arab lobby in America are heavily financed with
money from the Arab world. Before his death in 2005, for instance,
Saudi Arabia 's King Fahd made several multi-million-dollar donations
to the Carter Center, whose founder, former U.S. President Jimmy
Carter, has cultivated a longstanding reputation as a pro-Arab
detractor of Israel . Also as of 2005, the king's nephew, Prince
Alwaleed Bin Talal, had given at least $5 million to the same
institution. In 2001 the United Arab Emirates (UAE) gave the Carter
Center $500,000. The previous year, ten of Osama bin Laden's brothers
had jointly pledged to give the Center $1 million, as Sultan Qaboos
bin Said of Oman had done in 1998. The Saudi Fund for Development has
been another major contributor to the Carter Center , as has the
Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. And Morocco 's Prince
Moulay Hicham Ben Abdallah has collaborated with the Carter Center on
various initiatives.
The Arab lobby does not speak for all Arab Americans. According to the
Arab American Institute, there are approximately 3.5 million people of
Arab heritage in the U.S. today, about half of them concentrated in
five states -- California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, and New
York. Nearly 40 percent of these Arab Americans are Lebanese, mostly
Christians, who tend to be unsympathetic to the Arab lobby's anti-
Israel perspectives. By contrast, only about 70,000 Palestinian
Americans reside in the United States -- a small percentage of the
Arab American population. But because of their high level of political
activism, their views and concerns have received hugely
disproportionate attention from political leaders and the media alike.
Because Arab Americans do not constitute a numerically large voting
bloc, the Arab lobby has focused considerable effort on cultivating
sympathy from the general public as a means of influencing U.S.
policy. To further maximize its influence, this lobby has also formed
alliances with many anti-war, civil rights, civil liberties, and
"social justice" organizations of the political left.
This section of Discover The Networks profiles not only those pro-Arab
organizations (both in the U.S. and abroad) that lobby to affect
specific legislation, but also groups that engage in what might be
defined, more precisely, as advocacy on behalf of Arab interests
anywhere in the world. Through their press releases, official
statements, publications, and direct actions, these organizations seek
to shape public opinion as a means of influencing voter decisions and
thereby indirectly affecting legislation passed by elected
representatives.
According to terrorism expert Steven Emerson:
"Assessing the influence and breadth of the Arab/Muslim lobby would be
a difficult thing to do, since the metrics for assessing such things
are not easily available. The lobby's real strength is felt on the
local level, where its members receive community awards, participate
in human relations councils, change the local educational curricula,
persuade school districts to give them holidays off, and get local
police and statewide officials to attend their events. Nationally,
their influence is felt at the State Department in terms of their
being invited to briefings, sponsored on road trips abroad, etc. The
one recent time where they actually exacted an influence on President
Bush was in persuading him to drop the use of the term 'Islamo-
fascism.'"
While the Arab lobby has a few friends in Congress today, its effect
is felt mainly as a result of its joint efforts with organizations
like the American Civil Liberties Union to dilute anti-terrorism
measures. The lobby, says Emerson, "is mainly in the process of
building up a grassroots network around the United States , with the
anticipation that, abetted by growing demographics, it will be in a
position of political influence in the future."
Group Profiles
Individual Profiles
IN DEPTH
· Defining and Identifying the Arab Lobby
BOOKS
Holy War on the Home Front: The Secret Islamic Terror Network in the
United States
By Harvey Kushner and Bart Davis
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
By Steven Emerson
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/guideDesc.asp?catId=178&type=group
BP Claims Iraq Oil could Rival Saudi Arabia
By Robin Pagnamenta
Posted on Jan. 28, 2010
From British Times
Iraqi oil production could rival that of Saudi Arabia by 2020,
according to the chief executive of BP.
Tony Hayward told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos
that within a decade Iraqi oil production could quadruple to 10
million barrels a day from 2.5 million barrels at present.
"The resources there are relatively easy to bring onstream and there
is no reason to believe that Iraq can't be producing 10 million
barrels per day by 2020 or so."
In 2008, Saudi Arabia was producing about 10 million barrels a day but
has reduced that output.
BP is engaged in a partnership with CNPC, of China , to co-develop the
Rumaila oilfield near Basra , one of the biggest in the world.
Mr Hayward said that BP planned to boost production from Rumaila from
1 million to 3 million barrels a day.
However, he cautioned that there were significant obstacles to
overcome in the development of the Iraqi oil industry, which was
shattered by years of war and sanctions.
He said: "The realities of the challenges of execution on the ground
and the need to build capability on the ground mean things will happen
a little slower than all of us are perhaps planning for today.
"If all of us who are participating there are reasonably successful in
delivering on the commitments we have made, it is quite likely we will
see Iraq increase its production to perhaps around 10 million barrels
per day within about ten years."
Iraq sits on at least 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the
world's third-largest behind Saudi Arabia and Canada .
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/wef/article7005973.ece
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