Milestone agreement on Business Practices signed by GE and Pertamina

October 31, 2011 | Main Editorial Team

FLORENCE, ITALY – GE Oil & Gas  and PT Pertamina, the national oil and gas company of Indonesia, have signed an agreement calling for the two companies to work together to cultivate their mutual interests in ethical and compliant business practices. It is unique in the type of cooperation between companies of this size in the global oil and gas industry.

The milestone agreement signed by Hari Karyuliarto, Pertamina chief compliance officer and Frederic Gaillot, GE Oil & Gas global compliance leader, contemplates best practice sharing, discussion of cross-company training opportunities and the adoption of voluntary standards on compliance and anti-corruption. Each company agrees to keep each other informed on regulatory developments and work together to increase transparency in the oil and gas industry and in particular in Indonesia.

“GE and Pertamina are entering this agreement to better understand each other’s business practices and goals, Esaid Gaillot. “Our commitment to compliance and ethical business practices is part of our GE brand and a vital asset for our company. GE has consistently been ranked among the world’s most ethical companies. E

General Electric has been named one of the 110 World’s Most Ethical Companies by The Ethisphere Institute. Three thousand companies from 36 different countries were evaluated based on performance indicators including exceptional citizenship, social responsibility, governance, innovation and leadership.

“We contacted GE to learn from its existing compliance program, and GE offered to formalize the relationship between the two companies, Esaid Mrs. Mardiani, compliance manager/corporate secretary of Pertamina. “This is a wonderful opportunity for both companies to build upon an already strong and transparent relationship. E

GE has been active in Indonesia since 1940. Today, GE’s investment in Indonesia has reached more than $1.2 billion, and the company has more than 700 employees to serve customers in this country.

Pertamina was incorporated in 1959. Its current workforce of more than 15,000 permanent employees is present in 7 countries, and last year sales reached US$49 billion.

From February until April of this year, 51 engineers and other professionals graduated from the first Indonesia intake of GE’s Oil & Gas University Program, an initiative that provides leadership, compliance and technology training for oil and gas professionals. The course was specifically designed for Pertamina employees. “Since 2008, Pertamina sends every year two junior engineers to attend the GE Oil & Gas University program. Starting 2012, we intend to cooperate with GE in conducting leadership program for our managers and leaders, Esaid Ida Halya, leadership development program manager at Pertamina Learning Center.

Malaysian company Petronas makes strategic entry into Canada

June 9, 2011 | admin

PETRONAS, through wholly-owned subsidiary PETRONAS International Corporation Ltd (PICL), has reached an agreement to form a strategic partnership with Canada-based Progress Energy Resources Corporation to develop the Altares, Lily and Kahta shale gas assets in northeastern British Columbia.

Under the agreement signed on 2 June 2011, PICL will acquire 50 per cent of Progress Einterest in the three areas for a total consideration of CDN$1.07 billion (RM3.32 billion). The assets included in the transaction cover approximately 150,000 gross working-interest acres of land with an estimated contingent gas resource of more than 15 trillion cubic feet. The assets will be operated by Progress.

The proposed acquisition will mark PETRONAS Emaiden entry into Canada and will  allow for accelerated upstream growth that could potentially advance a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export value proposition in that country. PETRONAS views the acquisition as a highly attractive opportunity, paving its entry into the North American shale gas industry while at the same time further strengthening its position as a leading global LNG player.

As part of the acquisition, PETRONAS and Progress have agreed to establish an LNG Export joint venture to conduct a feasibility study on the economic viability of an integrated LNG Export facility in Western Canada. This could provide a strategic alternative to the traditional North American pipeline gas market.

The two companies have also agreed to collaborate on other potential natural gas opportunities in Western Canada.

The transaction is conditional upon relevant regulatory approvals and PETRONAS expects the transaction to close in the third quarter of 2011.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is the exclusive financial advisor to PETRONAS on this transaction.

Foundation laying for ThyssenKrupp Forging Group: ThyssenKrupp sets milestone in Nanjing

June 2, 2011 | Main Editorial Team

The new crankshaft plant of the materials and technology group ThyssenKrupp in China is taking concrete shape. Following the foundation stone laying last year, ThyssenKrupp is now celebrating a further milestone: The foundations of the new factory in Nanjing, China, show the scale of the future production shops.

Following completion of construction work in October 2012 the plant will manufacture crankshafts for the auto industry. The main customer is the truck industry, which has a particular presence in China.

ThyssenKrupp is investing around 190 million US dollars in the modern plant. Therefore ThyssenKrupp extend the production capacities of the ThyssenKrupp Forging Group at a strategically important location.

 

ArcelorMittal announces new GMB Responsibilities

May 25, 2011 | Main Editorial Team

Luxembourg, 24 May 2011 – ArcelorMittal today announces some changes to both its Group Management Board and Management Committee.

Changes to the GMB are as follows:

• Aditya Mittal, CFO with current responsibility for Flat Carbon Americas, Strategy, Investor Relations and Communications, remains CFO, but will now have responsibility for Flat Carbon Europe as well as Investor Relations and Communications.
• Michel Wurth, who previously was responsible for Flat Carbon Europe, will now be responsible for Long Carbon worldwide
• Gonzalo Urquijo, who previously was responsible for Long Carbon, will take up responsibility for AACIS (excluding China and India), AMDS, Tubular Products, Corporate responsibility and will also remain Chairman of the Investments Allocations Committee (IAC).
• Lou Schorsch, currently a member of the Management Committee and CEO of Flat Carbon Americas, will join the GMB with responsibility for Flat Carbon Americas, Strategy, Technology (CTO), Research & Development and member of IAC.
• The other GMB responsibilities will remain unchanged, eg Peter Kukielski will continue as Head of Mining; Sudhir Maheshwari will continue to hold responsibility for Corporate Finance, M&A, Risk Management, China and India; and Davinder Chugh will continue with responsibility for Shared Services.
• Christophe Cornier has chosen to retire from the GMB and will assume the role of Advisor to CEO and GMB; he will also remain as Chairman of ArcelorMittal France.
• Mr Lakshmi Mittal, CEO, will take direct charge of Health and Safety.

The Management Committee has also been extended from 12 to 25 members with the following new additions, all of whom are CEOs and leaders from around the Group:

• Augusto Espeschit de Almeida
• Brian Aranha
• Benjamin Baptista
• Bill Chisholm
• Gregory Ludkovsky
• Jean-Luc Maurange
• Nku Nymebezi-Heita
• Jefferson de Paula (who will be replacing Gerson Menezes, EVP of Long Carbon Americas, who is retiring)
• Geert Van Poelvoorde
• Sanjay Samaddar
• Juergen Schachler
• Kleber Silva
• Rinat Starkov
• P S Venkat
• Marc Vereecke

Commenting, Mr Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman and CEO, said: “When Christophe decided to retire from the GMB, we took the opportunity to review the current structure of the GMB and re-assign some operating responsibilities. It is always useful to bring fresh-thinking and new perspectives into the business and I am sure that these changes will be very positive for the organisation. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Christophe for his excellent work and commitment over the years, as well as welcoming Lou Schorsch and the new members of the Management Committee on board.  The new members of the MC are drawn from our main operations around the world and bringing them together in this way will help us in our drive of continuous improvement and operational excellence across the Group.”

 

Tepco to cancels 1100 graduates new hirings

April 27, 2011 | admin

Tepco announced that it would cancel 1100 new graduates hirings. In Japan the university cursus goes from April to March. Securing a Job at a major company is crucial for many students. Japanese employees rarely introduce themselves with their position but more by their company.

University hiring has been quite controversial in Japan during the last year. The few companies that cancelled hiring were facing a lot of opposition from their peers, the press and Japanese politicians. While in Western countries recruiters are warmly welcome to introduce themselves any time of the year, many Japanese companies have said that hiring campaigns were disturbing their educational work and have asked companies to refrain from pre-recruiting to early.

But TEPCO is definitely an exception. Because the company you work for is your societal status, it is probably certain that some students have also anticipated this move and  searched already for another position.

On another note TEPCO announced big cuts in its payroll, selling its shares in KDDI telecom company.  TEPCO has clearly no more cash and would probably bankrupt in a normal world, but since March 11 it is different to believe that Japan is now in a normal world. The government will probably have to back TEPCO with cash or by nationalizing it for a few years.

 

Coal, the new job Gold: 1400 managers to be hired by the giant state owned Coal India

April 21, 2011 | admin

This would for sure a surprise to many western countries. When the coal industries started redundancies after world war II few expected this sector to hire again in the future.  It was all nuclear and coal was seen polluting and “out of fashion” to many. TVs were showing empty streets, coal mines closing and people  losing their jobs.

But coal becomes cool again.While Germany is announcing the closure of its nuclear plants, a Coal India representative recently announced that his company plans to hire 1400 managers by October 2011. The Indian giant continues to surprise by the number of employees. Last year Mr. Partha S Bhattacharyya, Chairman, Coal India Limitedwas conferred with  ’CEO with HR Orientation’ award by Council of World HRD Congress during the Global HR Excellence Awards Ceremony 2010 held in Mumbai. Coal India represents 80% of the Coal sector in India, the company is the world’s largest producer of Coal according to Thomson Reuters.

Areva to pursue its expansion in Asia despite Fukushima issue

April 16, 2011 | admin

While Nuclear remains the main activity of Areva, renewable energies are also part of its portfolio. Asia growth need to be fed with increasing energy demand.

New power plant construction will primarily occur in China (2005-2020 program) and in India, where the political situation has greatly progressed.

India has great ambitions for the development of its fleet of nuclear power reactors (currently 4GW). As a result, it could reach 20GW in 2020 and 60 GW in 2030. At the end of 2009, the Rajasthan 5 reactor was connected to the grid.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding the provision of EPR™ reactors and fuel was signed on February 4, 2009, by AREVA with the nuclear electricity provider NPCIL, following a technical and sales offer in July. A partnership has also been signed with Bharat Forge for the construction of a factory to manufacture forged parts.

In China, according to the statements made by President Hu Jintao at the UN on September 23, 3009, nuclear and renewable energy will be actively developed to achieve the goal of 15% non-fossil primary energy by 2020. Concretely, China will need around 30 additional GWe: this currently represents the world’s largest deployment plan for the civil nuclear industry.

In late November 2007, AREVA signed an 18 million-euro contract with its client CGNPC (China Guangdong Nuclear Power Company) to construct 2 EPR™ reactors on the Taishan site in the Guangdong province, and to provide the nuclear fuel required for their functioning for over 15 years. The Taishan EPR™ project took an important step this year with the start-up of concrete-pouring operations at the end of October. Since then, AREVA and SGNPC have reaffirmed their dynamic partnership by signing an agreement in December 2009 to develop a joint engineering company in China, designed to foster cooperation on projects in China and internationally. At the same time, feasibility studies for the construction of a spent fuel treatment-recycling plant in China were launched with CNNC (China National Nuclear Corporation).

As part of its first long-term energy plan covering the period up to 2030, South Korea predicts a significant increase in the share of electronuclear energy produced (from 36% in 2008 to 58% in 2030).

In the medium to long term, several countries have shown their interest in an electronuclear program, including Vietnam and Indonesia.

Regarding renewable energies?

India shows strong prospects for significant development in bioenergy, solar energy and in the field of hydrogen. The potential, as estimated by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, amounts to 20 GWe, while the fixed capacity is 1.4 GWe (2007 figures).

India is also a platform for access to high-potential countries in Southwest Asia. India enabled low-cost procurement associated with high levels of engineering and expertise.

China has demonstrated its willingness to promote and develop renewable energy. Close to 20% of its energy mix should come from renewable sources in 2020. These include: hydraulic energy, wind power, biomass and photovoltaic solutions. In 2008, China positioned itself as the world’s second largest producer of wind power. The Jiangsu Province ranks among the most economically developed regions and is firmly committed to the development of renewable energy technologies, notably the offshore wind turbine industry. In line with the National Plan, the Jiangsu Province will build the Chinese offshore facility with a capacity of 10MW. Moreover, China represents a high-potential solar energy market.

Australia also shows strong development prospects for solar energy.

Asia Pacific figures

• 112 reactors
• 87 GWe (electrical gigawatt) installed in 2009 (vs. 86 GWe in 2008)
• 529 TWh (terawatt hours) of nuclear power generated in 2008 (vs. 545 TWh in 2007). These figures can be compared with a total electricity generation estimated at around 7,433 TWh in 2008, making an increase of 6.1% in comparison with 2007.
• 8% : estimated percentage of electricity generated by nuclear power.
• Share of consumption of electricity generated by nuclear power for different countries in the region: South Korea (36%), Japan (25%), India (2%), China (2%).

 

 

Veolia Environment to support Minamisanriku water distribution issue

April 15, 2011 | admin