European Union countries depend heavily on Russian gas supplies, and any steps taken by Gazprom to expand its business evoke their concern. They were clearly suspicious of the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding between Gazprom and the Algerian state-run oil and gas company Sonatrach, the two major gas suppliers to Europe. The Algerian share of the European markets stands at 10 percent to 12 percent, while Russia controls more than a quarter of the market.
The concern of the EU, which has so far not adopted a clear-cut common energy policy, is rooted not so much in the details of the Moscow memo, as in their assumptions about the role which the Kremlin assigns to Algeria in its new energy-based foreign policy. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi was very alarmed by the news from Moscow, and urged the EU to draft a common energy policy without further delay.
“This agreement is further evidence of how quickly we must achieve energy independence, and elaborate a common European policy in this sector,“ he said.
The Moscow memo provides for the establishment of a Russian-Algerian coordinating committee and joint permanent working groups. Russian-Algerian cooperation will start with gas exchange deals. Algeria may reduce its gas supplies to Italy, which would be compensated for by Russian exports, and Gazprom will receive liquefied gas from Algeria. It is possible that Gazprom will supply more gas. Under the agreement, Sonatrach may take part in the Baltic liquefied natural gas project. This will allow the Algerian company to compete for the project with the Italian companies, which have already expressed interest in the construction of an LNG plant in the suburbs of St. Petersburg. The chief executive officer of Eni, an Italian concern, has recently announced talks with Gazprom on building an LNG plant with a capacity of 8 billion cubic meters of gas and a price tag of $2.5 billion, Upi.com said.
European observers are particularly concerned about the prospects of a Russian-Algerian coordinated pricing policy in Europe. Judging by the European reaction, Brussels sees a way out in a consumer organization patterned after cooperation between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Energy Agency in the oil market. In this situation, it is important to understand the motives behind Gazprom’s active international expansion. Do the two companies have normal business relations, or are they thinking of forming a organization?
Gazprom is already working on pipeline and prospecting projects in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. This is only natural for a global company like Gazprom. However, recent agreements with Hungary’s MOL on commerce and logistics rather than politics have aroused new fears about attempts to “surround Europe.“ These agreements envision the formation of a joint venture to carry out feasibility studies for a pipeline from Russia to southern Europe, which will help supply the Blue Stream pipeline. In Europe, Gazprom pursues an active policy, but it is by no means aggressive. Its major aims are commercial-- Gazprom wants to keep its share of the European market and deal directly with the end user (in gas transportation and storage). If politics gets involved, the main reason is European behavior. Brussels is trying to present a package of measures as a common energy policy. This package, which is being continuously criticized in Europe, provokes gas suppliers into introducing elements of price coordination. One of the measures restricts the duration of gas supply contracts (to seven years at most). Before, contracts were concluded for dozens of years, which enabled suppliers to plan long-term investment. But the current conditions create a market for spot contracts. Russia and other gas suppliers will not benefit from Europe’s plans to liberalize the gas market and switch to short-term contracts, because giving free rein to market forces is bound to result in lower prices for gas.
The oil market bears out that a prevalence of spot contracts encourages sellers to form price organizations. Pressure from gas consumers is pushing gas producers and sellers toward the idea of a gas OPEC.

One of the major challenges investors were facing was the increased cost of energy. The solutions provided by Energy Management Services (EMS), the leading energy service company (ESCO) in the Middle East, have largely contributed to the reduction of these energy costs.
The availability of advanced energy-efficient solutions has attracted investors in the property and real estate sector to invest in Jordan and UAE, at a time when the two countries were witnessing an escalation of energy costs. Meanwhile, new investment laws have helped attract several hundred million dollars of investment in the real estate, maintenance and property development sectors, resulting in the construction of new towers and luxurious residential complexes.
Engineer Nedal Zatari, General Manager of EMS (Jordan) said, “Studies have shown that energy consumption in Jordan during the year 2004 was approximately JD 1.153 Billion, and Jordon’s energy demands during the next decade is expected to be about 2399 mega watts, costing approximately USD 3.1 billion. These figures underline the importance of increasing public-private partnerships to formulate a national strategy to reduce energy consumption.“
’To maximize the energy efficiency of buildings, we offer our consultancy services from the design stage of the project itself. We send a team of experienced engineers who are experts in the field of energy management, to assist the architects in the design of the project. Our team will suggest the most suitable energy management system for the building and will be fully involved in the implementation of the system,’ Zatari added, ameinfo.com said.
Zatari highlighted that the implementation of energy efficient systems reduces the overhead costs of the project and uses natural resources to reduce energy consumption. The advanced systems that the company offers are capable of saving energy even in existing buildings. He added that the systems not only reduce the operating costs of the project but also significantly reduces the capital cost of the project.
Energy Management Services is unique in the provision of exceptional services in the field of energy & water management and conservation services. These services include technical consultancy related to conserving energy in existing projects and projects in the design phase, including factories, commercial and residential buildings, hospitals, towers, resorts, hotels and various other establishments which have a high level of energy and water consumption. The company also provides full-fledged solutions to reduce energy consumption and is actively monitors and supervises the implementation of the systems on a monthly basis to achieve best results.
The company has also been involved in conducting studies on the national and regional scale in the field of renewable energy resources, the implementation of energy saving systems in street lighting, water pumping stations and for electricity generation.
Engineer Zatari also pointed out that the company is cooperating with the Jordanian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources by organizing various activities and conferences to raise awareness and train Engineers in the field of energy saving. The company has also signed a contract with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, according to which the company has conducted studies on the buildings of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, and implemented energy and water management systems.

Mention “hydrogen“ and tragic images come to mind, namely the ill-fated Hindenburg airship and the H-bomb. But for all its potential in causing death and destruction, hydrogen is far more beneficial than it is cracked up to be.
Truth be told, the Hindenburg airship blew up because the Germans used hydrogen instead of helium, but the petrol and diesel we have in our vehicles are just as dangerous, if not more. But we think nothing of it most of the time.
And as for the H-bomb, well, it is a weapon of mass destruction, which is not the best use for hydrogen really.
What hydrogen is good for is as a renewable, non-polluting fuel. That is to say, hydrogen can be obtained easily by breaking down water molecules into two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, and when hydrogen is burned with oxygen, you get water.
Yet, why is the world slow to adopt hydrogen as a mainstream fuel source? Politics and ignorance.
It is simply not in the interest of powerful lobbyist groups to wean Western industries off oil, particularly Middle East oil.
And so turning to hydrogen as a source of fuel is made to look impractical or uneconomical.
Just look at how expensive hybrid cars are generally. Are they really so limited by today’s understanding of fuel-cell technology that they become impractical for the common person? The answer to that is, no.
And thanks to the Internet, such a veil of ignorance is being lifted, albeit slowly, fuelcellsworks.com said.
The truth is, any old car, bus, truck or motorcycle can be turned into a hybrid vehicle with cheap hydrogen fuel cells produced from materials available at the common hardware store.
And you do not need an automotive engineering degree or a doctorate in nuclear physics to produce a working hydrogen fuel cell. Simple Form Four level of understanding in electrolysis and some experience in machine tooling will do.
Of course, one is not suggesting that Malaysians build their own hydrogen fuel cells in their backyards. Just as it is unwise to fool around with gasoline, it is unwise to fool around with hydrogen.
Nonetheless, the fact remains that it can be done without advanced technology and without costing anyone an arm and a leg.
A particularly interesting Internet site is http://www.waterpowered car.com. It explains how simple it is to produce a “hydrogen booster“ fuel cell, replete with diagrams and tips on how to produce the most efficient gasoline-hydrogen hybrid vehicle for as little as US$100 (RM370).
More importantly, the Webmaster for the site is no engineering expert. And this begs the question, “With all the great minds of the West cracking their heads to find a viable renewable source of alternative fuel, why couldn’t they come up with something as simple as the hydrogen booster?“ Conspiracy theorists would suggest that they have been paid off to shut up. The alternative is, they may not be as smart as they would like us all to think, which is unlikely.
Whatever the reason, Malaysians are now fortunate to have commercial- grade hydrogen boosters that produce hydrogen on demand, thanks to the efforts of HFT Sdn Bhd in bringing the technology to the fore. Working hand-in-hand with LM Star Autoworld Sdn Bhd, HFT Sdn Bhd has made available the hybrid SUV LMG Tourer and hybrid 4X4 LMG Trekker.
Aptly, “Just add water“ became the motto at the launch of two hydrogen hybrid vehicles by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. “Now that the Prime Minister has launched the `cracker plant’ (hydrogen booster) via LMG cars, we can breathe a sigh of relief,“ says HFT’s chief executive officer Mohammad Isa Abdullah. “Before this, it was perceived as a hoax.“

Critics contend that in fact traditional ethanol production consumes nearly as much energy in the form of fossil fuel as it produces in the form of renewable fuel. (WN.com Photo)

Last week Husky Energy Inc. announced that its ethanol plant in Lloydminster will be producing within weeks and should reach peak production by the end of the year.
The Lloydminster plant will produce 130 million liters of ethanol annually from 350,000 tons of wheat. That begs the question: just how much fossil fuel is really being saved when you factor in the gasoline and diesel that powers the equipment used to grow and transport that wheat and fuel the ethanol factory itself?
Critics contend that in fact traditional ethanol production consumes nearly as much energy in the form of fossil fuel as it produces in the form of renewable fuel.
But the key word in that sentence is “traditional.“ As National Geographic News recently highlighted, there are new ethanol plants using a very non-traditional and highly renewable energy source to power the ethanol process: cow manure.
Hereford, Texas (just an 80-kilometer drive from Tulia, Texas, where I lived as a kid) is a cattle town. And that means, as Todd Carter, CEO of Dallas-based Panda Energy, puts it, “There are literally mountains of manure.“
Panda plans to extract methane from 453,000 tons of manure each year (produced by about 500,000 cows) and burn it to produce the steam necessary for processing corn into 378 million liters of ethanol. Panda expects to save the equivalent of a thousand barrels of oil a day. Best of all, the manure is free: feedlot operators have to dispose of it anyway, Canada.com reported.
Another company, E3 Biofuels, headquartered near Kansas City, is taking things a step further. This fall, it plans to begin operating a “closed loop“ plant that will combine a feedlot with an ethanol plant.
Manure that falls from cattle kept in long barns with slotted floors will be pumped directly into the methane-extracting facility. This saves the cost of collecting and transporting the manure and prevents the atmospheric release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from slowly decomposing manure into the atmosphere.
E3’s plant will break down manure inside an anaerobic digester, a device in which bacteria attack the manure in the absence of oxygen, producing both methane and (another bonus) an ammonia byproduct that can be sold as fertilizer.
The plant, built around an existing feedlot, will use the manure from 30,000 cattle a year to produce 91 million liters of ethanol from locally grown corn. One byproduct of the ethanol process will be protein-rich wet distillers’ grain, which can be fed back to the cattle.
E3 has high hopes for its closed-loop system. Its CEO, Dennis Langley, says that while a traditional ethanol plant takes one BTU of energy to produce ethanol containing two BTUs of energy, each BTU of energy used by E3’s closed-loop plant will produce ethanol containing 46.7 BTUs; or, to put it another way, that producing 3.8 liters of E3 ethanol is equivalent to producing 87 liters of traditional ethanol, or 57 liters of gasoline.
Some ethanol skeptics doubt that the difference will be that great, but admit that the E3 approach just might swing the questionable energy balance of ethanol production in ethanol’s favor.
Just in time, too. The US passed an energy bill last year that called for increased ethanol production. That’s one reason E3 wants to build three to five new plants every year from now on, and Panda already has plans to build its versions of manure-powered ethanol plants in Haskell County, Kansas, and in Yuma, Colorado.
Saskatchewan, of course, was the first province in Canada to pass a law requiring ethanol in its gasoline; eventually the requirement will be that the gasoline sold by distributors must contain an average of 7.5 percent ethanol.
With that requirement, the province will use about 125 million liters of ethanol per year, mostly (thanks to the Lloydminster and other new plants currently being built) produced from our own wheat.

Qatar expects to conclude a study into the state of its vast North gas field and take decisions on its future development next year, a Qatari official said.
“We are hoping by the end of next year that we will have the result and management will be able to take appropriate decisions,“ Taieb Belmahdi, technical advisor at Qatar’s energy ministry, told reporters at an industry event in Norway, tradearabia.com said.
Qatar has put new projects on hold at the field while it finishes the study. Energy experts believe the field is the largest single reservoir of unassociated gas in the world.
Qatar has said it would only go ahead with a second phase of development at the North field when it was sure it could do so without damaging the reservoir by pumping too hard.
Qatar aims to become the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter in the world, boosting shipments to 77 million tons a year in 2012 from around 25-26 million tons this year.
Construction of the South Hook LNG terminal in the UK is on course for completion in the fourth quarter of 2007, Belmahdi said.
The terminal will have capacity to import close to 16 million tons per year, he said.

While the Wave Hub awaits consent, it is closer to development with a quarter of its funding in place. (Solaraccess.com Photo)

Wave Hub, the deep-sea electricity socket that will connect up to four wave energy devices to the national grid 10 miles off the Cornish coast, received almost one fourth of the funding needed from the UK Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Marine Renewables Deployment Fund.
The Wave Hub, which will act like a giant extension cable, is closer to development with GBP 4.5 million [US$8.46 million], pending consent.
“The announcement on August 24 is another significant milestone for the Wave Hub project,“ said Jane Henderson, chief executive of the South West of England Regional Development Agency (RDA). “We are now awaiting the outcome of our consents application. If that is granted, we expect Wave Hub to come into operation in 2008.“ A decision is expected by the end of the year, Solaraccess.com said.
If consent is granted by the DTI and Defra, the Wave Hub scheme that has been spearheaded by the South West of England RDA will provide almost a quarter of the estimated GBP 20 million [US$37.6 million] needed to get the Hub into the water and connected to the mainland via an underwater cable that will come ashore at Hayle, Cornwall.
“As an island nation the UK has an invaluable resource in terms of marine energy and we are leading the world in developing the infrastructure to harness the power of the seas,“ said Minister for Energy Malcolm Wicks commenting on the grant.
“The project has still to get through a robust consent process before getting into the water, and to finalize the device developers who will connect to it,“ Wicks said. “But if successful, it will be a shining example of UK innovation that could provide three percent of Cornwall’s electricity needs. That is up 20 megawatts of renewable and secure emission-free energy powering 7,500 homes.“