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
Leak raises questions about Akkuyu deal
Documents from Panama-based Mossack Fonseca, the firm behind the Panama Papers scandal in 2016, suggest a pro-Turkish-government construction conglomerate owner Mehmet Cengiz made a US$15-million deal with a firm based in the British Virgin Islands in order to purchase shares in Turkey’s first nuclear power station, according to Cumhuriyet. The independent Turkish newspaper is the […]
Transmission
France energy exports to UK rise
British reliance on importing French power has increased by almost a quarter during 2018 in further evidence of Britain’s energy supplies crisis as its Brexit deadline looms. UK energy prices are now around a fifth higher than they were this time last year on the wholesale market while French nuclear power stations have created cheap […]
Storage
Siemens to use ammonia in battery study
A chemical compound used to increase crop yields could help boost battery efficiency as German manufacturing giant Siemens looks to open a £1.5-million project in the UK to use ammonia in a new form of energy storage. The industrial firm hopes to prove that ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, could replace lithium-ion batteries […]
Consumption
Gazprom signs $1.2bn Bolivia deal
Russian state-run gas monopoly Gazprom has committed to invest US$1.2 billion in exploration and production at the Vitiacua onshore field in southern Bolivia. “This contract will mean an investment by Gazprom of US$1.2 billion, the drilling of two exploratory wells, six development wells, adding a total of eight wells, with a maximum production of 400 […]
Policy
Ukraine tries to seize Gazprom UK assets
Ukraine and Russia are in disagreement again, with Naftogaz handing Gazprom an order to freeze assets in England and Wales. Ukrainian Naftogaz said the commercial court in London issued the order to enforce this year’s Stockholm arbitration ruling, which said that Gazprom owed Naftogaz US$2.6 billion. The ruling in Sweden was supposed to end a […]
Environment
EU blunders on biomass: study
The European Union’s climate commissioner declared this week that the bloc could make bigger greenhouse-gas cuts than it pledged under the 2015 Paris climate agreement but environmentalists are warning that the EU’s renewable energy policy fails to account for the impact of burning wood to generate power. By classifying biomass, such as wood pellets used […]
Industry
Le Maire plays down Iran hopes
Most French companies will find it impossible to continue doing business in Iran after the US imposes sanctions, France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said today (Tuesday). French energy giant Total and carmaker PSA, which includes Peugeot and Citroen, have said they are unlikely to stay in Iran. Renault has said it will remain despite […]
Opinion
Biblical Proportions: The Pope, Paris, and Energy Justice
Since his ascension in 2013, Francis has rebelliously wielded the power of the papacy in in new and groundbreaking ways. But in early June, he may have embraced his most important cause yet, going all-in on arresting climate change. Inviting some 50 CEOs of major oil and gas companies to the Vatican, the Pope called […]
Turkey’s first drilling vessel heads to Mediterranean
On the morning of May 31, Turkey took a new step in the complex dispute over gas: its first offshore drilling vessel – not an exploratory one – left the Dilovası Beldeport Port in the eastern Marmara Sea en route to explore a gas well off the coast of Antalya on Turkey’s southern coast. The […]