(Bloomberg) -- The Dutch town of Barendrecht has a message for Royal Dutch Shell Plc: Not under my backyard.
The oil company and the Netherlands government intend to build the first of a new generation of carbon-dioxide storage facilities in two depleted natural-gas fields in Barendrecht. The plan is to capture emissions from a gasification hydrogen plant at Shell’s nearby Pernis refinery and then store the CO2 more than a mile below area homes, preventing the greenhouse gas from reaching the air and harming the environment.
“I don’t think this is the solution to the CO2 problem,” said 53-year-old resident Gerard van Gils. “Why do a project in a residential area and not offshore? The atomic bomb wasn’t tested under Manhattan. To me this means: Not under my backyard.”
Barendrechters like Van Gils say they’re concerned about safety and a possible drop in property values. Governments around the world want energy companies to store CO2 instead of releasing it, to combat global warming. The Netherlands aims to bury 30 million tons of CO2 by 2030 and is spending about 750 million euros ($980 million) in three years on CO2 reduction.
Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, involves extracting CO2 from power generation and industrial projects, compressing it and injecting it into depleted oil and gas fields or saline aquifers. The technology would allow prolonged use of coal for electricity generation while reducing greenhouse pollution.
“We are very confident about the safety of the project,” said Margriet Kuijper, CCS project manager at Shell. “Barendrecht is strategically important for Shell and for the Netherlands, as it is paving the way for the bigger projects.”
Environmental Assessment
An independent environmental assessment this month will determine whether the project at Barendrecht, on the outskirts of Rotterdam, addresses all concerns. The city council, which so far has opposed the plan, will deliver a final decision by June 29. That can still be overruled by the Dutch government, which commissioned the project.
In its preliminary finding, the council said public support was “lacking” and asked Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer to halt the venture.
“This project is an experiment, and we don’t think that it is a good idea to have that in a densely populated area,” Simon Zuurbier, alderman of the city council, said in an interview. “It would be better to do it somewhere else.”
Negligible Risks
The Dutch Economic Affairs and Environment Ministries sought proposals for the project. Shell’s plan is to inject as much as 10 million tons of CO2 into the fields, the same amount of the gas created by heating one million modern houses over five years.
The fields are about 1,700 meters (5,577 feet) and 2,700 meters underground. Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, says the risks are negligible and within government standards.
The proximity of the refinery to the ageing gas fields and the existing pipelines make Barendrecht the ideal site for a trial project, The Hague-based Shell said.
Other countries are competing for European Union funding to support similar projects. BP Plc in 2007 scrapped a $1 billion carbon capture and storage power project in Scotland because possible U.K. government money would come too late.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will introduce incentives this week for U.K. businesses to capture carbon dioxide and store it underground, two people familiar with the plans have said.
Read more here
Monday, April 20, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Asian Shares Rise Before Weekend; Tech Stocks Solid
(MarketWatch) -- Asian shares were higher Friday, led by technology stocks after their U.S. peers gained on hopes for better demand and some stability in the economy there.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 2.2% with Australia's S&P/ASX 200 up 1.5% and South Korea's Kospi Composite up 0.7%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 1.9% with Taiwan's main index up 0.7% but the Shanghai Composite Index down 1.9%.
"It's all reasonably positive at the moment," with U.S. bank earnings so far not a major cause for concern, said MF Global senior trader Anthony Anderson in Australia.
All eyes though were on Citigroup's report, due later Friday. "If it doesn't throw up too many surprises we're probably going to test high levels," Anderson said.
Wall Street gained Thursday amid hopes for an economic bottom in the U.S., though U.S. stock futures were mildly lower in screen trade as the weekend drew near.
Google shares erased an initial late-session gain to be down 0.1%, despite news its first-quarter net income rose 8.9% on higher revenue and U.S. paid clicks for Internet searches, with the results topping Wall Street's estimates.
And Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen sounded a note of caution on the U.S. outlook. "The global nature of the downturn raises the odds that the recession will be prolonged, since neither we nor our trade partners can look to a boost from foreign demand."
Barclays Capital analysts said sentiment had improved dramatically over the past month, with risky assets rallying. "The verdict is still out on whether this is just another bear market correction or a sign of better times to come."
In Asia, Toshiba was up 4.1% after the company said it likely sustained a group operating loss of around Y250 billion for the year ended last month, a narrowing from its existing estimate of a Y280 billion loss, helped by output cuts by chipmakers
Asian tech shares generally were finding buyers with Samsung Electronics up 2.9%, LG Electronics up 4.3% and Hynix up 8.3%. Sony added 4.9% in Japan with TDK up 5.8% and Elpida up 6.7%.
Taiwan's Nanya Technology was up 3.1% with Inotera Memories up 6.7%, helped by a recent rise in DRAM prices. Nanya said Thursday it planned to raise contract chip prices 10% in the latter part of April; "contract prices will likely remain strong throughout this year amid an expected supply shortage although demand won't likely to pick up any time soon," said Kim Gee-soo at Goodmorning Shinhan Securities.
LG Display added 4.2% in Seoul. It posted its second-straight quarterly net loss in the three months ended March 31, but the flat-panel maker signaled better results in the current quarter.
Financial stocks were gaining across Asia with National Australia Bank up 2.0% and Commonwealth Bank of Australia rising 2.0%, too. Korea's KB Financial was up 1.8%, with bank stocks helped by Thursday's rise in JPMorgan Chase shares in the U.S. after its results.
Tourism stocks gained in Taiwan before cross-strait trade negotiations, with Formosa International Hotel up 3.4% and China Airlines higher by 0.7%.
Cathay Pacific Airways was up 0.7% in Hong Kong, even as it said it was reducing its passenger and cargo capacity and would ask some staff to take unpaid leave over the next 12 months.
Hong Kong developer stocks were higher, helped by brisk sales at Cheung Kong's new project Central Park Towers II, with Cheung Kong up 1.7% and Sino Land up 4.6%.
Read more here
Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 2.2% with Australia's S&P/ASX 200 up 1.5% and South Korea's Kospi Composite up 0.7%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 1.9% with Taiwan's main index up 0.7% but the Shanghai Composite Index down 1.9%.
"It's all reasonably positive at the moment," with U.S. bank earnings so far not a major cause for concern, said MF Global senior trader Anthony Anderson in Australia.
All eyes though were on Citigroup's report, due later Friday. "If it doesn't throw up too many surprises we're probably going to test high levels," Anderson said.
Wall Street gained Thursday amid hopes for an economic bottom in the U.S., though U.S. stock futures were mildly lower in screen trade as the weekend drew near.
Google shares erased an initial late-session gain to be down 0.1%, despite news its first-quarter net income rose 8.9% on higher revenue and U.S. paid clicks for Internet searches, with the results topping Wall Street's estimates.
And Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen sounded a note of caution on the U.S. outlook. "The global nature of the downturn raises the odds that the recession will be prolonged, since neither we nor our trade partners can look to a boost from foreign demand."
Barclays Capital analysts said sentiment had improved dramatically over the past month, with risky assets rallying. "The verdict is still out on whether this is just another bear market correction or a sign of better times to come."
In Asia, Toshiba was up 4.1% after the company said it likely sustained a group operating loss of around Y250 billion for the year ended last month, a narrowing from its existing estimate of a Y280 billion loss, helped by output cuts by chipmakers
Asian tech shares generally were finding buyers with Samsung Electronics up 2.9%, LG Electronics up 4.3% and Hynix up 8.3%. Sony added 4.9% in Japan with TDK up 5.8% and Elpida up 6.7%.
Taiwan's Nanya Technology was up 3.1% with Inotera Memories up 6.7%, helped by a recent rise in DRAM prices. Nanya said Thursday it planned to raise contract chip prices 10% in the latter part of April; "contract prices will likely remain strong throughout this year amid an expected supply shortage although demand won't likely to pick up any time soon," said Kim Gee-soo at Goodmorning Shinhan Securities.
LG Display added 4.2% in Seoul. It posted its second-straight quarterly net loss in the three months ended March 31, but the flat-panel maker signaled better results in the current quarter.
Financial stocks were gaining across Asia with National Australia Bank up 2.0% and Commonwealth Bank of Australia rising 2.0%, too. Korea's KB Financial was up 1.8%, with bank stocks helped by Thursday's rise in JPMorgan Chase shares in the U.S. after its results.
Tourism stocks gained in Taiwan before cross-strait trade negotiations, with Formosa International Hotel up 3.4% and China Airlines higher by 0.7%.
Cathay Pacific Airways was up 0.7% in Hong Kong, even as it said it was reducing its passenger and cargo capacity and would ask some staff to take unpaid leave over the next 12 months.
Hong Kong developer stocks were higher, helped by brisk sales at Cheung Kong's new project Central Park Towers II, with Cheung Kong up 1.7% and Sino Land up 4.6%.
Read more here
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Economy still worsening across U.S.: Beige Book
(MarketWatch) - The economy continued to worsen across the United States in March and early April, amid scattered signs that the pace of the decline was lessening in some regions, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday in its Beige Book account of the economy.
"Overall economic activity contracted further or remained weak," the Fed said, based on reports from thousands of business sources across the country. "However, five of the 12 districts noted a moderation in the pace of decline, and several saw signs that activity in some sectors was stabilizing at a low level."
The report, written by the economics staff at the Dallas Fed, generally agrees with comments by top policymakers that there are some signs that the economy may be getting worse at a slower pace.
The economy declined at a 6.3% annual pace in the fourth quarter, and economists are forecasting a decline of 5% in the first quarter and about 2% in the current quarter.
Read more at MarketWatch
"Overall economic activity contracted further or remained weak," the Fed said, based on reports from thousands of business sources across the country. "However, five of the 12 districts noted a moderation in the pace of decline, and several saw signs that activity in some sectors was stabilizing at a low level."
The report, written by the economics staff at the Dallas Fed, generally agrees with comments by top policymakers that there are some signs that the economy may be getting worse at a slower pace.
The economy declined at a 6.3% annual pace in the fourth quarter, and economists are forecasting a decline of 5% in the first quarter and about 2% in the current quarter.
Read more at MarketWatch
China's economy likely to show bottoming
(MarketWatch) -- Key Chinese economic data due out this week may mark the low point from which a recovery will follow, economists say.
"The worst of statistics in terms of GDP are probably behind us," said Credit Suisse's Chief Asian Economist Dong Tao in Hong Kong. "Either the fourth quarter of last year, or the first quarter of this year are probably the worst in terms of China's growth cycle."
China's gross domestic product growth likely slowed to 6% in the January-March quarter, according to the median forecast of 15 economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, compared to a 6.8% expansion in the fourth quarter.
The first-quarter GDP figures are due to be released Thursday morning in Beijing, or 9 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday.
The big question in the minds of China watchers is whether the 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package -- along with other measures designed to kick start the economy -- are beginning to find traction.
For the most part, analysts were upbeat over the latest batch of data, released over the weekend, which showed efforts to inject cash into the economy appear to working.
Money supply, as measured by M2, expanded 25.5% in the first quarter from a year earlier. Meanwhile, banks extended 4.58 trillion yuan in new loans in the quarter, nearly as much as the 4.9 trillion yuan that was issued in all of 2008.
Those two figures prompted several analysts to say new bank-lending growth this year looks likely to top 8 trillion yuan, up from the government's earlier 5 trillion yuan target.
Read more at MarketWatch
"The worst of statistics in terms of GDP are probably behind us," said Credit Suisse's Chief Asian Economist Dong Tao in Hong Kong. "Either the fourth quarter of last year, or the first quarter of this year are probably the worst in terms of China's growth cycle."
China's gross domestic product growth likely slowed to 6% in the January-March quarter, according to the median forecast of 15 economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, compared to a 6.8% expansion in the fourth quarter.
The first-quarter GDP figures are due to be released Thursday morning in Beijing, or 9 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday.
The big question in the minds of China watchers is whether the 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package -- along with other measures designed to kick start the economy -- are beginning to find traction.
For the most part, analysts were upbeat over the latest batch of data, released over the weekend, which showed efforts to inject cash into the economy appear to working.
Money supply, as measured by M2, expanded 25.5% in the first quarter from a year earlier. Meanwhile, banks extended 4.58 trillion yuan in new loans in the quarter, nearly as much as the 4.9 trillion yuan that was issued in all of 2008.
Those two figures prompted several analysts to say new bank-lending growth this year looks likely to top 8 trillion yuan, up from the government's earlier 5 trillion yuan target.
Read more at MarketWatch
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Bono Plays Matchmaker as YouTube, Universal Create Music Site
(Bloomberg) -- Since MTV started in 1981 with “Video Killed the Radio Star,” record labels have treated videos as a marketing expense. Now, with album sales plummeting, music companies aim to make them a source of profit.
That’s the goal of Universal Music Group’s venture with Google Inc.’s YouTube. Vevo.com, a new site announced last week, will stream videos from artists such as U2, Beck and the Rolling Stones. YouTube will then split advertising revenue with Universal, the world’s largest music company.
The agreement is a sign of progress in the record industry’s efforts to make money from YouTube, the biggest online video service. Internet ads could help the labels rebound from a 45 percent plunge in U.S. album sales since 2000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Working with YouTube also may let the industry rein in the wild-west nature of online music.
“As an industry or a company, we have to figure out how to derive some sort of revenue from the consumption of music, whether or not people buy it,” said Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music’s ELabs, which handles its e- commerce strategy.
Over dinner earlier this year in Paris, U2 singer Bono urged Universal Music Chairman Doug Morris to get in touch with Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt about working together, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.
Giving Away
The revenue-sharing plan is a shift from the 1980s and 1990s, when videos from artists such as Bon Jovi, Madonna and ‘N Sync were given free to MTV for marketing purposes. With album sales falling, music stores closing and MTV moving to a reality-television format, videos need to start paying for themselves.
New York-based Universal, owned by France’s Vivendi SA, says its videos have been watched on YouTube more than 3.6 billion times.
“The video used to be just a cost center,” Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of Vivendi, said in an interview last month. “We used to do lots of great artistic videos that we gave away to MTV and other people for free. We didn’t get paid. Now it’s becoming a profit center.”
Universal and Google executives are asking the other major record labels to join their partnership. That includes Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Group Ltd. and Warner Music Group Corp.
Jeanne Meyer, a spokeswoman for EMI, said talks with YouTube are at a “very early stage.” Warner Music’s Will Tanous declined to comment on the discussions. Claire von Schilling, a Sony spokeswoman, didn’t return a call seeking comment.
‘High Hopes’
YouTube also needs new ways to make money. The business will lose $470 million in 2009, according to Credit Suisse estimates. A deal with Universal could be a model for agreements with other content providers, allowing the Web site to charge premium ad rates for professionally made clips.
“We have high hopes we’re creating a sustainable, profitable business model,” David Eun, vice president of strategic partnerships at Mountain View, California-based Google, said on a conference call last week.
YouTube, famous for the low-budget videos posted by its users, is trying to add more premium content. Of the top 100 most-viewed video producers on YouTube, 39 are from musicians and labels, according to David Burch, a marketing manager with the video-tracking firm TubeMogul Inc. in Emeryville, California.
Read more at Bloomberg
That’s the goal of Universal Music Group’s venture with Google Inc.’s YouTube. Vevo.com, a new site announced last week, will stream videos from artists such as U2, Beck and the Rolling Stones. YouTube will then split advertising revenue with Universal, the world’s largest music company.
The agreement is a sign of progress in the record industry’s efforts to make money from YouTube, the biggest online video service. Internet ads could help the labels rebound from a 45 percent plunge in U.S. album sales since 2000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Working with YouTube also may let the industry rein in the wild-west nature of online music.
“As an industry or a company, we have to figure out how to derive some sort of revenue from the consumption of music, whether or not people buy it,” said Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music’s ELabs, which handles its e- commerce strategy.
Over dinner earlier this year in Paris, U2 singer Bono urged Universal Music Chairman Doug Morris to get in touch with Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt about working together, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.
Giving Away
The revenue-sharing plan is a shift from the 1980s and 1990s, when videos from artists such as Bon Jovi, Madonna and ‘N Sync were given free to MTV for marketing purposes. With album sales falling, music stores closing and MTV moving to a reality-television format, videos need to start paying for themselves.
New York-based Universal, owned by France’s Vivendi SA, says its videos have been watched on YouTube more than 3.6 billion times.
“The video used to be just a cost center,” Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of Vivendi, said in an interview last month. “We used to do lots of great artistic videos that we gave away to MTV and other people for free. We didn’t get paid. Now it’s becoming a profit center.”
Universal and Google executives are asking the other major record labels to join their partnership. That includes Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Group Ltd. and Warner Music Group Corp.
Jeanne Meyer, a spokeswoman for EMI, said talks with YouTube are at a “very early stage.” Warner Music’s Will Tanous declined to comment on the discussions. Claire von Schilling, a Sony spokeswoman, didn’t return a call seeking comment.
‘High Hopes’
YouTube also needs new ways to make money. The business will lose $470 million in 2009, according to Credit Suisse estimates. A deal with Universal could be a model for agreements with other content providers, allowing the Web site to charge premium ad rates for professionally made clips.
“We have high hopes we’re creating a sustainable, profitable business model,” David Eun, vice president of strategic partnerships at Mountain View, California-based Google, said on a conference call last week.
YouTube, famous for the low-budget videos posted by its users, is trying to add more premium content. Of the top 100 most-viewed video producers on YouTube, 39 are from musicians and labels, according to David Burch, a marketing manager with the video-tracking firm TubeMogul Inc. in Emeryville, California.
Read more at Bloomberg
Thursday, March 27, 2008
UPDATE 1-RESEARCH ALERT-UBS raises aluminum price forecasts
... key producer regions, including South Africa and China. The brokerage said energy cost pressures and ... closed at $36.03 Wednesday on New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Jennifer Robin Raj in Bangalore; ...
Forex - US dollar lower against yen in early Asian trade on weak US data
... > > > Forex - US dollar lower against yen in ... a shift to the safety of the Japanese currency. The US Commerce Department said Wednesday ... the release Tuesday of the Bank of Japans quarterly Tankan survey of business sentiment. Ten ...
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