Author: Graham Foster

In the 1990 movie The Hunt for Red October, a Soviet naval captain performed by Sean Connery pilots a submarine powered by a “magnetohydrodynamic drive” that’s undetectable to army sonar. 1 / 4 of a century later, UK start-up Tokamak Energy is supporting a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency programme to make silent marine propulsion a actuality. The collaboration with Darpa is one in every of a number of methods the nuclear fusion firm is searching for to monetise a decade of labor on excessive temperature superconductor magnets, which it argues can remodel sectors from public transport to medical…

Stay knowledgeable with free updatesThe world’s greatest oilfield companies firm is increasing in Russia following the exit of its fundamental western rivals since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.SLB, the Houston-based firm previously identified as Schlumberger, has signed new contracts and recruited lots of of employees in the nation even after its two largest US rivals, Baker Hughes and Halliburton, each offered their Russian companies to native managers in 2022.Peter Voser, chair of Swiss-based ABB, which additionally left in 2022, mentioned: “We accept that some others will maybe not follow that and hence, they may have a competitive advantage. But I…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeThe UK’s energy regulator has cleared Drax, the nation’s largest energy station, of accusations that it’s environmentally unsustainable, even because it discovered holes within the firm’s provide chain knowledge. After a 16-month investigation, Ofgem stated Drax didn’t have enough knowledge on the sustainability of the wooden it imported to burn in its biomass models in 2021-22, and ordered a full impartial audit of its provide chain for final yr. Drax can pay £25mn into Ofgem’s Voluntary Contributions Fund to atone for the breach. “Drax has accepted that it had weak procedures, controls and governance which…

Ohio senator JD Vance took centre stage final evening at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin, the place he accepted the nomination as Donald Trump’s presidential operating mate. The VP decide is an effective present of playing cards of how energy coverage would possibly look in one other Trump administration. Vance has embraced oil and gas manufacturing, dismissed local weather change and attacked the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s landmark local weather legislation, which Trump has vowed to terminate if elected president. But Vance additionally exemplifies the irony of Republican assaults on the energy transition. Ohio is among the top two…

Stay knowledgeable with free updatesThe UK state-owned operator of Europe’s largest nuclear waste dump failed to sort out cyber safety weaknesses regardless of repeated interventions from regulators, a court heard. Sellafield Ltd, which runs the Sellafield nuclear waste site in Cumbria, north-west England, allowed “significant vulnerabilities” to persist in its IT methods, prosecutors told Westminster magistrates court in London.  “We are not dealing with what could be described as ‘technical’ breaches of the regulations,” mentioned Nigel Lawrence KC, prosecuting for the UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).Sellafield holds the world’s largest stockpile of plutonium, a byproduct of nuclear energy manufacturing, and…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest without costShell is planning to cut a fifth of its workforce in two oil and gas exploration divisions, as a cost-cutting drive by chief government Wael Sawan reaches its core upstream enterprise. Around 20 per cent of jobs will go in units chargeable for Shell’s exploration technique and for creating its oil and gas finds, in accordance to an individual aware of the plans. “These are the technical professionals who originate and mature oil and gas opportunities,” the particular person mentioned, pointing to Shell’s geologists, geophysicists, and oil and gas properly designers. The particular person added that some of…

Stay knowledgeable with free updatesThe US liquefied pure gas industry faces mounting challenges as authorized clashes with activists and contractors mix with a federal allowing freeze to gradual the enlargement of the world’s greatest exporter.Two multibillion-dollar terminals under development on the Texas Gulf Coast backed by supermajors ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies suffered recent setbacks this month, that are anticipated to result in delays. This has added to uncertainty over future provide progress created by the Joe Biden administration’s pause on new export permits and underlined the complexity of getting LNG megaprojects off the bottom.“LNG plants are energy infrastructure — and building…

Docked within the Cromarty Firth close to Inverness in north-east Scotland, Ping Petroleum’s vessel for extracting and storing as much as 270,000 barrels of oil is an imposing presence in a port stuffed with elements set to energy the UK financial system. Some 60 metres in diameter and about 45 metres tall, the Excalibur is a floating ship deployed close to platforms to obtain, retailer and course of oil earlier than transferring it into tankers. Ping purchased the vessel in mid-2022 as energy costs surged after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and anticipated utilizing it for as much as 15…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest at no costExxonMobil has stated world oil demand will stay nearly unchanged by 2050 and warned that any transfer to curtail funding in fossil fuels would set off a brand new energy value shock. In a forecast launched on Monday, the US supermajor stated oil demand would keep above 100mn barrels a day over the following 25 years — a forecast that assumes an energy transition will fail to curb the world’s thirst for fossil fuels.Exxon warned of a brand new world oil shock if corporations did not preserve investing to match that demand, saying crude…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest at no costThe president-elect of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday selected academic Víctor Rodríguez to run Petróleos Mexicanos, the nation’s closely indebted state oil firm that’s more and more dragging on public funds.Rodríguez, an energy economics specialist shut to the longer term president, will tackle one of the crucial difficult roles within the new administration, operating the corporate with a debt pile of about $100bn.Production at Petróleos Mexicanos, often known as Pemex, has been falling for twenty years and just lately hit a document low of about 1.47mn barrels of crude oil per day. It recorded…