German energy provider RheinEnergie has awarded a contract to Alstom to supply a generator transformer for the combined-cycle heat and power plant (CHP) in Niehl, Cologne (Germany).

The transformer which has a power output of 560MVA, 410/21kV, will transmit the energy generated by the power plant into the Cologne power grid.

To be manufactured at Alstom plant in Mönchengladbach, the transformer is scheduled to be delivered in mid-2015.

In December 2012, Alstom won the turnkey construction of the combined-cycle heat and power plant from RheinEnergie. In addition to this, Alstom has also signed a 15-year service agreement for the plant.

The plant is intended to generate 453MW of electricity and approximately 265MW of heat by means of a combined heat and power system; this can supply up to one million households with power and approximately 50,000 households with district heating.

The generator transformer features a compact design thanks to four oil-air coolers functioning as an ODAF1 cooling system.

Alstom Grid project manager Heiko Schneider said the new construction project in Niehl, Cologne, clearly illustrates the range of Alstom’s service portfolio for energy generation and transmission.

“Alstom has the advantage of being able to provide customers with a complete range of services, in both manufacturing of a new combined cycle plant, and providing the necessary equipment for electricity transmission,” Schneider said.

The Nottingham City Council in the UK will set up a new non-profit energy supply company by 2015 to supply gas and electricity through the national distribution systems.

The Nottingham Energy Supply Company is being set up by the council to do battle with the six big energy companies. The company will provide competitively priced energy tariffs that will lower customer energy bills, reduce local fuel poverty and increase Nottingham’s energy self-sufficiency.

It will also provide a competitive tariff to businesses to encourage growth in the city, provide a market for locally generated, sustainable electricity resources, and provide local jobs with employment at the company.

With the setting up of new company, more than 177,000 households across the city could benefit from cheaper energy bills – saving up to £120 per year, Nottingham Post reported.

To be run on a non-profit basis, any profit obtained by the company will be reinvested in the energy supply. The company will use power generated by the Eastcroft incinerator and also from solar panels, waste food plants and electricity and gas bought from the market at competitive rates.

In 2011, the Nottingham City Council had made a manifesto commitment to deliver a new, cheap energy tariff. To meet this commitment, the council is setting up the new licensed energy supplier for providing both electricity and gas to Nottingham residents and businesses.

The Nottingham City Council has sought a consultant to undertake the delivery of an energy supply licence and an energy supply company set up.

Obtaining the electricity and gas supply licence will allow the council to participate in the regulated electricity and gas markets. This will lead to greater control over locally generated energy and opportunities to supply both domestic and commercial properties with competitively priced electricity and gas. Ultimately, the delivery of the project will meet the council’s commitment of providing a cheap energy tariff to Nottingham residents.

Approval of £49,000 will fund the appointment of a consultant to undertake this study. The funding will come from Energy Development Fund.

The consultant will be responsible to complete an executive board report (first draft 27 March 2014 and final report on 8 April 2014) that provides a clear project plan and necessary considerations for obtaining an energy supply license and associated organisational structure to operate an energy supply company.

The consultant will also be responsible for liaising between the council and a chosen service partner during the early stage of setting up the new company and energy supply license. The consultant has to support the council in developing solutions that meet all necessary legal, financial, and compliance requirements.

Shell UK has awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to Technip for the onshore elements of the Peterhead gas carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project in Scotland.

The FEED contract includes a grassroots carbon capture and compression plant and modifications to an existing combined cycle gas turbine power plant.

Located in Aberdeenshire, the CCS project is designed to capture, compress and transport carbon dioxide through a pipeline to an offshore gas reservoir for long-term storage beneath the North Sea.

The project is estimated to transport around one million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually by pipeline. It also supports development of key technology to reduce carbon emissions.

Technip’s operating centre in the UK, Milton Keynes, which executed a pre-FEED study for the Peterhead CCS project about 18 months ago, will execute the FEED for this next phase.

The UK office acts as a centre of excellence in developing end-to-end solutions for carbon capture and sequestration projects.

Technip senior vice-president, process technology Stan Knez said “The company is devoted for the development of innovative, sustainable solutions for the customers and seeks to expand its footprint into the carbon capture and sequestration value chain.”

Shell is developing the Peterhead CCS project with strategic support from SSE Generation, owner and operator of the Peterhead power station.

The project was chosen in March 2013 as one of two CCS demonstration projects to progress to the next stage of the UK government’s CCS Commercialisation Competition funding.

The project’s FEED is the next stage of design, which has been approved through an agreement signed between Shell and the UK Government in February 2014. The FEED works are expected to last through 2014 and 2015.

Irish engineering firm Kentz has won a $640 million contract for the construction of a new liquefied natural gas (LNG)project facility in Australia.

The unit rate re-measurable contract is to be performed by the UGL Kentz JV, a 50/50 joint venture between UGL Resources and Kentz.

The contract for the Ichthys Project Onshore LNG facilities in Darwin includes a gas processing plant at Blaydin Point.

The Ichthys LNG Project is a joint venture between Inpex group companies, major partner Total and the Australian subsidiaries of Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Chubu Electric Power and Toho Gas. It is expected to produce 8.4 million tonnes of LNG and 1.6 million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) per annum, along with approximately 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak.

The contract, which is due to commence in August, will provide more than 900 jobs for construction personnel. The contract scope includes the provision of services for site-wide installation for process trains, and additional pre-commissioning and commissioning expertise.

“The Ichthys LNG Project will be one of the most important LNG developments to take place in Australia. The strength of our construction business unit in winning and executing work on major LNG facilities in Australia, is an area of expertise that our customers value,” said managing director Chris Warlow.

Drilling at the highly anticipated Moroccan offshore licence, in which Dublin-based explorer, Fastnet Oil & Gas holds a significant stake, is expected to begin next month.

Fastnet — which has a 12.5% shareholding in the Foum Assaka field, which contains an estimated 360m barrels of oil equivalent, said yesterday that lead partner on the licence, US explorer Kosmos Energy has confirmed that it expects the FA-1 well, on the licence, to “spud” during March.

Such a date would be in line with previous timing estimates for the commencement of drilling activity and follows last month’s announcement that a rig had been secured to execute high impact drilling at the block.

This year will also see Fastnet begin drilling at its onshore Moroccan interests.

Elsewhere, yesterday, Providence Resources announced that it will pay a fixed fee for data from the largest 3D seismic programme due to be undertaken in Irish waters this year.

The Tony O’Reilly Jnr-headed exploration firm — which was recently granted a significant extension to its highly-rated Barryroe field in the Celtic Sea — is to acquire the data from international geological surveying firm, Polarcus, later this year.

Irish oil and gas explorer Providence Resources has said it is to acquire part of a 3D seismic survey on the Drombeg licence off the coast of Ireland.

The company, which is listed in Dublin and London, said the survey, which is planned to commence this summer, will cover the deep-water Drombeg exploration prospect that is situated in the southern Porcupine Basin, approximately 220 km off West Cork.

The Drombeg prospect lies in 2,500 metre water depth and is 3,000 metres below the seabed.

The total planned seismic acquisition programme will cover a minimum area of 3,200 km2, which will include 1,065 km2 over the Drombeg Licence.

Providence has an 80 per cent share in the licence with its partner Sosina Exploration Limited, holding the remaining interest.

Separately, Fastnet, the oil and gas company focused on near term exploration acerage in Africa and the Celtic Seas has said Kosmos Energy, its partner in the Forum Assaka licence area in Morocco, has confirmed that it expects the FA-1 well to spud in March.

The FA-1 well will target the Eagle prospect, which is estimated by Kosmos to contain 360 mmboe of Pmean resources in its primary deepwater Lower Cretaceous reservoir objective. The well will also target multiple secondary objectives which could provide additional upside in a success case. The planned target depth is 4,000 metres, in water depth of approximately 600 metres. The well is expected to take up to three months to reach target depth.

On the completion of a farmout agreement with the SK Group, which was announced on in December, Fastnet will hold a 9.375 per cent interest in the Foum Assaka Licence, with Kosmos holding 29.925 per cent, BP 26.325 per cent, SK Innovation 9.375 per cent and ONHYM the remaining 25 per cent.

Fastnet is carried for past costs and the cost of the FA-1 well up to a gross well cost of $100million.

Oil and gas firm Aminex said its open offer, which was announced in late January, raised £670,797 as 32.7 per cent of the shares on offer were taken up.

The Dublin listed company now has seven days to seek subscribers for the shares not taken up under the open offer.

Aminex is seeking to raise gross proceeds of £10 million through a placing and open offer as it seeks to develop its assets in Tanzania.

Last month the company announced a share placing of 800 million new ordinary shares as part of a plan to raise £8million. It also revealed plans to raise a further £2million through a one-for-four open offer to shareholders that is priced at one pence per share.

The exploration group said its management was to contribute £1,394,018 to the proposed fund raising.

Swiss power and automation technology group ABB has won orders worth $56m from Power Grid Corporation (Powergrid) of India to supply power transformers and shunt reactors for substations.

As part of the order, 14,500MVA, 765kV ultrahigh voltage single-phase auto-transformers will be installed at greenfield substations being constructed in Kanpur and Varanasi to support the country’s ultrahigh voltage transmission grid development.

In addition, ABB will supply 26 units of 80MVAr and ten units of 110MVAr, 765kV ultrahigh voltage single-phase shunt reactors for the four substations being built in the country.

The substations will receive power from Jharkhand and West Bengal states and distribute it in Uttar Pradesh state to meet growing demand in the region.

ABB’s Power Products division head Bernhard Jucker said, “These transformers and shunt reactors will help enhance grid reliability and ensure the highest standards of efficiency with reduced life-cycle costs. We are pleased to continue supporting India’s efforts to strengthen its transmission infrastructure and improve power availability.”

The orders were booked in the fourth quarter of 2013 and in the first quarter of 2014.

India is investing in its ultrahigh voltage network to strengthen its power transmission grid and ABB is playing a key role in supporting this development through turnkey substation solutions and a range of power products including switchgear and transformers.

Powergrid owns and operates more than 100,000 circuit kilometers of transmission lines and 178 substations in India.

Tullow Oil has said a well on the Langlitinden prospect in Norway, in which the Irish-listed company has a 15 per cent stake, will be permanently plugged and abandoned after the operator of the well failed to find commercial levels of oil.

Operator Det Norske said it drilled down to 2,878 metres below sea level and encountered an oil-bearing channel sand of triassic age.

“Extensive data sampling, including cores, wireline logs and fluid samples have been performed. Based on preliminary analysis, Det norske is of the opinion that the volumes proven in this well, as of today, are insufficient to justify a field development.”

The news comes just two months after Tullow had to abandon and plug the Mantra wildcat well, also in Norway, after failing to find oil or gas. Earlier in December Tullow also drilled a dry hole in Ethiopia.

Tullow’s revenues advanced by 13 per cent to €2.6 billion last year, and the group’s operating cash flow increased by 7 per cent. Profits were hit however by a combination of factors, including an increase in exploration write-offs of $200 million to $871 million. Profits before tax slumped by 72 per cent, down to €313 million.

Irish exploration firm, Petroceltic International has all but concluded its planned secondary farm-out at its highly-rated Ain Tsila gas discovery in Algeria, with the country’s government signing off on the deal.

The $180m asset sale has been described by management as being “a major commercial milestone” for the Dublin-based company.

Yesterday’s announcement basically copper-fastened the deal previously announced last October, under which Algerian State oil company, Sonatrach — previously a junior partner in the field — agreed to purchase an additional 18.4% from Petroceltic, to boost its overall shareholding to just under 43.4%.

The Irish company had, at one stage, controlled 56.6% of the Ain Tsila asset — seen as being one of the biggest gas finds in the world — but in 2012 sold an initial 18.4% stake to Italian energy giant, Enel. This secondary farm-out — which has been planned by management for some time — reduces Petroceltic’s share of the field to 38.25%.

The Algerian firm will pay the $180m in installments — roughly by way of an initial $20m payment, a further $140m covering of Petroceltic’s development costs and contingent payments of a combined $20m based on certain project-related milestones being reached.

However, given that the deal is back-dated, to some degree, the initial payment is likely to be in the region of $35m.