Energy Bangla

The upstream oil and gas industry is not a black hole. There’s no mystery wrapped in an enigma here. There are a lot of meetings with engineers, chemists and geologists. There’s a constantly evolving learning curve. And then there’s all the regulations and compliance. But all-in-all it’s pretty straight forward, that is, until the media gets a hold of it. That’s when it becomes complicated. It’s as though we are... »

The newest Mercedes autonomous car looks like a car on the outside but like a lounge on the inside, with four swivel seats facing each other in a multimedia bubble of padded leather and walnut veneer. The F 015 ‘Luxury in Motion’ concept car unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year is completely self-driving but still has a steering wheel and brake if you want... »

Lest we be too quick to forget whence we came, America is now 9-months into lower gasoline prices, which started their swoon the week of June 30, 2015 from a lofty national average just under $3.70, tumbling almost every subsequent week before bottoming and bouncing from $2.02 the end of January, according to gasbuddy.com. It is estimated that for every penny gas goes down, consumers collectively save $1 billion. Therefore,... »

Proper price and market structure is the key for ensuring the uninterrupted quality supply of any product. If an appropriate commercial framework of business is not in place, market distortion, price fluctuations and supply disruptions are bound to happen. The energy market in Bangladesh is no exception. International Gas Union (IGU) in its survey of wholesale gas price found that 43 percent of the total 3480 bcm gas consumed in... »

To enhance competition and accountability in the energy sector, state power utilities and regulators should be ‘freed’ from political interference, according to a study report by the World Bank. It also points out that the state governments in India need to give greater operational autonomy to their power utilities and regulators while holding them accountable for performance if the sector is to move to a higher level of service delivery.... »

Global mining giant BHP Billiton today said its first-half net profit almost halved to US$4.26 billion on the back of collapsing commodity prices as it reiterated a plan to spin off non-core assets. The 47.4 percent slump in the six months to December 31 compared to US$8.1 billion in the previous corresponding period, with revenues dropping 11.9 percent to US$29.9 billion. Underlying earnings-which exclude one-off writedowns-were down 31 percent to... »

This New Year, an old trend may become a new trend as conventional drilling in North America is once again in the spotlight at a time when oil prices continue their slump and the unconventional becomes increasingly uneconomical. Advanced horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking for extraction is much more expensive than conventional drilling. While these high-cost methods are the technology that ushered in the North American shale boom, in times... »

The oil and gas boom in the United States was made possible by the extensive credit afforded to drillers. Not only has financing come from company shareholders and traditional banks, but hundreds of billions of dollars have also come from junk-bond investors looking for high returns. Junk-bond debt in energy has reached $210 billion, which is about 16 percent of the $1.3 trillion junk-bond market. That is a dramatic rise... »

What does it take to build up a new region for oil and gas development? Obviously, the resources have to be in place and economically recoverable. But it is not as easy as just sticking a drill into the ground and pumping out oil and gas. Even with significant oil and gas reserves trapped in shale, a variety of factors need to come together to turn a given region into... »

THERE is a large family of well-meaning clichés roaming free throughout Bangladesh espousing the need to protect children in different ways. “The children are our future”, they scream loudly, but largely they’re all ignored. Children’s rights are still an illusion. Take corporal punishment for example. On January 13, 2011, Bangladesh High Court justices Md. Imman Ali and Sheikh Hassan Arif outlawed the barbaric evil practice. The wise Bangladeshi patriots declared... »