UK
British
gas vague on future prices
Announcing an 18% rise in energy use for the quarter British gas owner,
Centrica, said it would use extra profits to “maintain our price
competitiveness”. Whether that means prices are on hold, and for how long, is a
little unclear.
Energy
firms in offshore tax havens
BP, Shell, Centrica and SSE are amongst the FTSE 100 companies listed as
having offshore divisions in tax havens – including those in UK crown
dependencies. Shell tops the list of energy companies with 473 subsidiaries in
tax havens closely followed by BP with 457. Centrica has 51 and SSE 60.
Europe
UK
government lobbies against vehicle efficiency
Briefing documents seen by Energydesk suggest the UK government is advising
MEPs to reject rigorous proposals on car efficiency for 2025.
European
bank considers coal investments
The boss of Europe’s bank of reconstruction and development says he is
considering investing in ‘high-carbon’ projects . The EBRD is one of Europe’s
largest energy investors with a £32bn loan book, 41% of which is invested in energy
and infrastructure. The bank recently invested in a new lignite mine in
Slovakia. Ricardo Pulleti said “affordability is a problem, security of supply
is also a problem”.
Turkey
unveils largest wind farm
Turkey has opened it’s largest wind farm in the western province of Balikesir.
The 0.5GW plant was opened by the Energy minister Taner Yildiz. It comes as
reports suggest Turkey is about to sign an energy
deal with Isreal focusing on gas imports.
World
Indian
coal imports hit record high
India's coal
imports are reported to have hit 135Mt in FY12-13, up from about 107Mt in
11-12. Output reached 558Mt,
increasing by 3.3%. This implies a 46 Mt / 7% increase in apparent
consumption, while GDP grew at about 5.0%.
Glencore
abandons giant Australia coal terminal
Mining giant Glencore has abandoned plans to build a giant new coal terminal in
Queensland, Australia, to export coal to Asian market. The move, which follows
years of environmental opposition, reflects the weakening of Australia’s coal
market, where prices have fallen this year.
Climate
Climate
change linked to European hurricanes
A new study has suggested global warming could lead to an increased incidence
of hurricanes in Western Europe. The study
comes as another research paper suggests much of the global warming that
has occurred in the last decade has taken place 700 meters below sea level (in
the oceans).
