Chief Scientist & Professor of Exploration Geoscience, Heriot-Watt University
Assistant Professor, Durham University
Chair of Urban & Regional Planning and Director of Canberra Urban & Regional Futures, University of Canberra, Visiting Professor, University of Warwick
Associate Professor in Biophysics, University of Pretoria
Production
Russia unveils LNG bunkering ambitions
Gazprom Neft, the oil branch of the Russian de-facto gas monopoly Gazprom, says it plans to build the first LNG bunker barge by 2020. “Gazprom Neft Marine Bunker is working on something unique for the industry: the construction of Russia’s first LNG bunker barge by 2020,” the company’s board of directors announced. “In the medium […]
Transmission
Activists demand ministers relax renewable policy
Environmental activists have demonstrated outside a meeting of EU energy ministers in Sofia to call on governments to stop restricting the rights of people to produce and share renewable energy. The ministers were discussing the final stages of talks with the European Parliament and European Commission on the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive. The directive is […]
Storage
Study hails battery breakthrough
US researchers say they have made a lithium-ion battery that uses manganese as the cathode material instead of cobalt or nickel, as is traditionally used and are more expensive and limited. Most lithium-ion cathodes use cobalt or nickel because they keep structures layered and ordered. Lithium-based batteries use more than 50 per cent of all […]
Consumption
Shell targets 100% electric cars by 2040
Royal Dutch Shell has estimated that 100 per cent of new car sales in the US, EU and China could be zero-emission electric vehicles five years earlier than the UK’s current target of 2040. The Anglo-Dutch giant released a report saying the transition could occur “more rapidly than many expect” with 50 per cent of […]
Policy
Duma to ban US nuclear trade
A bill submitted to Russia’s State Duma would ban all trade between the state-owned nuclear utility Rosatom and US nuclear-power firms. The bill was submitted to the lower house with cross-party support and its chairman Vyacheslav Volodin but could be altered by parliamentarians, the Duma said The bill responds to US sanctions imposed against 24 […]
Environment
Tidal power project hails progress
The construction element of the first phase of the world’s largest tidal stream array has been completed off the coast in Scotland in a project that could be replicated in other coastal areas of Europe The MeyGen scheme in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth off the Caithness coast involves four tidal turbines and […]
Industry
Total buys utility in €1.4bn swoop
French oil giant Total has followed Royal Dutch Shell by extending its exposure to the household energy sector with a €1.4-billion deal to buy a power company. Worried that pressures to mitigate climate change could eventually curb demand for fossil-fuel products, oil and gas firms are making major investments in an increasingly diverse array of […]
Opinion
Houston, We Have a Solution: Carbon Capture and Storage
As the World Bank prepares to host its annual “Spring Meetings” in Washington starting April 17th, President Trump and his cabinet will likely use the opportunity to continue their push for the Bank and other development institutions to support fossil fuel projects and emissions-reduction technologies including carbon capture and storage (CCS). Planned personnel moves, including […]
Panama Canal Portends as Long-Term Bottleneck for U.S. LNG
The resurgence of U.S. oil and gas production in recent years has been nothing short of staggering. In 2013, the United States once again became world’s the largest oil producer – a title it previously held from 1860-1897 and 1902-1975 – thanks to its development of horizontal drilling techniques. The International Energy Agency (IEA) agrees […]