My System Journal

LNG Trade Due for Changes with New Production, Technology

November 16, 2007 – 6:10 pm
GPR has heard that a pending flood of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the U.S. has been in the works for years, but it has yet to materialize due to delays at the regas end of the chain here and higher netbacks elsewhere.Ian Salmon, principal at Featherwood Capital, explained at the Red River conference last week how some changes might be in the works as more LNG trains come online in producing countries, and shipping and transfer technology become more efficient. Featherwood Capital is an investment banker that has been involved in numerous LNG projects, both upstream and downstream. Five major producers now operate in the Atlantic basin: Nigeria, Trinidad & Tobago, Norway, Egypt and Algeria, which has volumes available from expiring contracts. New production is likely to begin hitting the market from Qatar, Egypt and Equatorial Guinea by the end of the year. Currently, more than 9 billion cfd of ...

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Arctic technology

November 16, 2007 – 6:09 pm
This month's technology focus centers on the industry push into arctic exploration and production opportunities. Like deepwater, arctic regions of the world are believed to hold enormous potential oil and gas reserves. And like deepwater, operating under arctic conditions brings its own set of technological challenges. As you will see, this month's issue of Offshore examines some of the solutions developed for arctic exploration. You'll want to look at all of them because tomorrow's headlines may well come from these frozen locations.Despite the challenges, operators are investing in arctic areas where resource estimates range into the hundreds of billion boe, says Leta K. Smith of IHS, who authored a special arctic overview this month. The arctic is a busy place again, but there has been a shift in the locus of activity, says Smith. Before 1980, Canada's Mackenzie Delta dominated, with 50% of the exploration wells drilled. Exploration drilling shifted to Russia, ...

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Siemens Sees Technology Upgrades Aiding Gasification Projects

November 16, 2007 – 6:05 pm
San Francisco - Ever since Siemens acquired the former Future Energy gasification technology from Sustec 15 months ago, it has been undertaking investigations on how to improve gasification for future applications."We need a 15-20% cost reduction to get the 'third wave' of IGCC [integrated gasification combined cycle] going," Siemens IGCC business development manager Harry Morehead told the Gasification Technologies Council 2007 conference here.Unfortunately, energy-project engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) costs are "skyrocketing," which has put a damper on several proposed IGCC projects, he noted.Meantime, development of "reference plants" (now underway) will help to trim the cost differential between IGCC and conventional pulverized-coal plants, he showed. But government incentives and stakeholder risk-sharing also are needed to push IGCC forward in the near-term, he added.What's more, carbon capture & storage (CCS) "has become a given for IGCC - a significant challenge," he said, since governments have yet to define a legal framework ...

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When Technology Overwhelms

November 16, 2007 – 6:02 pm
Recently I was involved in two hearings concerning repair information availability in the states of New Jersey and Massachusetts. Unlike many who comment on this topic, I am going to let you know where I sit, before I tell you where I stand.I firmly believe - because I practice it every day - that if you use the information that is available, you'll be successful repairing cars. I also believe that if more people in our industry took the time to strike compromises and learn from one another, the entire industry would be better served.Typical of these types of hearings, there were many presenters, many problems - some perceived, some real. Bottom line: Perception is reality if you cannot fix a car. Because I was presenting against legislation, I was not presenting problems. So don't take anything I am about to say as being in support of adding more laws ...

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Semantic Technologies Meet SOA

November 16, 2007 – 6:01 pm
Metatomix's middleware applies business rules, reasoning to data Do semantic technologies have a place in software-oriented architecture (SOA), and more important, can they break organizations' reliance on expensive data warehouses? Metatomix believes they can.Sept. 10 saw the release of version 5.0 of Metatornix's semantic middleware platform. The platform applies business process rules, and semantic reasoning from industry domain ontologies to information that it collects, enabling customers to integrate data and to uncover and define relationships."[Semantic technology] eases the way to describe and work with information," said chief technology officer Colin Britton. A metadata-based approach offers users a network-centric view of information stored in various silos of data, he explained.Metatomix 5.0 uses the SPARQL RDF query language to perform federated queries across multiple databases and data formats, and now offers support for a number of data types, including relational, filebased and memory-resident, said Britton. Support has also been added for Oracle llg's ...

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Cellulosic Technology Key to Reducing GHGs, Petroleum Dependency: ADM Tech Chief

November 16, 2007 – 5:38 pm
Washington, D.C. - Forecasts are for global food demand to double by 2050, while conventional energy sources and worldwide refining capacity fail to keep pace with world demand. Biomass is the key to satisfying the need for both, the chief technology officer of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) told Hart's World Refining & Fuels Conference here last week. Food and fuel production are synergistic for the company, Michael Pacheco explained in a keynote speech to around 100 people. Technological improvements will be needed to convert 1.3 billion tons of biomass that the U.S. could produce to the heating value equivalent of 3.5 billion barrels of crude. Specifically, ADM is paying particular attention to boosting cropland productivity, developing better feedstocks, creating new and improved products and decoupling biofuels from food, arable land and fresh water.Pacheco indicated how some technology gains might occur by describing how cellulosic ethanol production will evolve from corn-based ethanol. ...

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