China and Saudi Arabia have discussed the creation of a free-trade zone between Beijing and the member states of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), Al-Arabiya reported on Friday, citing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“We have discussed the creation of a free-trade zone between China and the countries of the Persian Gulf,” the crown prince announced, speaking at a Chinese-Arab summit that kicked off in Riyadh. The Gulf states and Beijing are also planning to cooperate on solving “problems of food and energy security,” and “...exploring the possibility of cooperation with China in the field of supply chains,” bin Salman added. China's President Xi Jinping arrived in the Saudi capital on Wednesday, holding separate talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the following day. He is attending the Sino-Arab summit that will reportedly bring together 30 leaders of Arab nations and organizations. China and Saudi Arabia have signed 12 agreements and memorandums of understanding on co-operation in hydrogen energy, judiciary, language education, housing, direct investment, broadcast media, digital economy, economic development, standardization, news coverage, tax administration, and anti-corruption.
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Both LNG and oil deliveries have surged since the start of the year, Chinese customs data shows. Russian shipments of gas and oil to China grew significantly over January-October of this year compared to the same period in 2021, China’s General Administration of Customs reported on Sunday.
According to its data, liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries jumped by 32% in annual terms, to 4.98 million tons. In dollar terms, the increase was 157% and exceeded $5.3 billion. Russia is currently China’s fourth-largest LNG supplier after Australia, Qatar, and Malaysia. While data shows that China’s imports of the fuel from Qatar also grew over the first ten months of the year, shipments from both Australia and Malaysia have been dropping. While the customs agency does not currently list the physical volume of China’s pipeline gas imports, its data shows that the value of pipeline gas flows from Russia in January-October 2022 soared by 182% compared to the same period in 2021, to $3.1 billion. This makes Russia the second largest supplier of pipeline gas to the Asian nation after Turkmenistan ($8.23 billion). China’s oil imports from Russia also surged over this period, rising by about 9.5% to 71.97 million tons. Deliveries were up 53% to $49.19 billion in dollar terms. As follows from the published data, in both October and September Russia was China’s second largest oil supplier. Saudi Arabia remains the leader, having sold 73.76 million tons of the fuel to China for $55.5 billion over January-October. China has been boosting energy imports from Russia, having taken advantage of discounts Moscow offered earlier this year in an attempt to secure buyers for Russian oil and gas. This came as many traditional importers began shunning supplies from the country amid Ukraine-related Western sanctions. Elon Musk’s electric carmaker Tesla plans to begin mass production of its Cybertruck at the end of 2023, Reuters reported this week, citing sources. The electric pickup was first unveiled back in 2019, with production initially scheduled to start in late 2021. However, it has since been pushed back three times for various reasons.
The Cybertruck has become something of a legend among Tesla fans over the past three years, despite the fact that neither the approximate cost of the final production version nor the exact characteristics of the vehicle have been unveiled. In 2019, the initial price was to be under $40,000, but Tesla has subsequently hiked prices across its lineup. According to the report, several hundred thousand buyers have so far paid $100 to reserve a Cybertruck, but the company hasn’t disclosed the exact amount of orders. Tesla shut down pre-orders outside North America this past May, with Musk saying the company had “more orders of the first Cybertrucks than we could possibly fulfill for three years after the start of production.” Last month, Tesla reported that it was working on preparing its plant in Austin, Texas, to start producing the new model. Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) stumbled upon a discovery that could forever revolutionize how we acquire hydrogen from water, according to a press release from the institution published on Thursday.
Light as a trigger The team was led by Associate Professor Xue Jun Min, Dr Wang Xiaopeng and Dr Vincent Lee Wee Siang from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering under the NUS College of Design and Engineering (NUS CDE). The discovery they made was that light could trigger a new mechanism in a catalytic material used in water electrolysis. “We discovered that the redox center for electro-catalytic reaction is switched between metal and oxygen, triggered by light,” said Jun Min. “This largely improves the water electrolysis efficiency.” It all began with an accidental power trip of the ceiling lights in Jun Min’s laboratory almost three years ago. Back then, the ceiling lights in Jun Min’s research lab were normally turned on for 24 hours. When the lights went off due to a power failure, there was an opportunity to observe something that scientists had never witnessed before. When the researchers returned the next day, they found that the darkness had influenced the performance of a nickel oxyhydroxide-based material in the water electrolysis experiment. It had fallen drastically. “This drop in performance, nobody has ever noticed it before, because no one has ever done the experiment in the dark,” said Jun Min. “Also, the literature says that such a material shouldn’t be sensitive to light; light should not have any effect on its properties.” Jun Min and his team knew they had stumbled on something significant, and they embarked on numerous repeated experiments to test out their new theories. They eventually had enough data to publish a paper. Now, the team is working on new ways to improve industrial processes to generate hydrogen such as making the cells containing water to be transparent, so as to introduce light into the water splitting process. Six of the 12 nuclear reactors in France that were found to have corrosion issues in May have been repaired and will be restarted soon, French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher has revealed. She told France Inter radio on Wednesday that, at the moment, there was “no reason” to believe that energy operator EDF would not be able to meet the schedule for restarting all shutdown reactors before winter.
Earlier, media reports stated that EDF had hired about 100 American welders from Westinghouse in order to repair the power units on time. France generates roughly 70% of its electricity from a nuclear fleet of 56 reactors, all operated by EDF. However, many of them have been closed down for maintenance, some due to corrosion-related issues. Currently, only 31 units are reportedly operating. EDF has pledged to restart all shutdown reactors before winter to avoid power shortages in the country. However, since October 6, there have been strikes among EDF employees involved in repair work at 19 reactors, delaying maintenance by several weeks. Last month, the French national electricity grid operator RTE warned that it would not rule out the risk of blackouts this winter due to prolonged strikes halting the repair. According to RTE, outages could only be avoided if power consumption was reduced by 1% to 5%, while in the event of an extremely cold winter – by 15%. Failure to restart the plants on time could have “heavy consequences” for power supply over the winter period, the operator has warned. Sweden won't share findings of the investigation into the explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines with Russian authorities or Gazprom, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Monday.
A Swedish crime scene investigation of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Europe has found evidence of detonations and prosecutors suspect sabotage. Last week Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin sent a letter to the Swedish government demanding that Russian authorities and Gazprom would be allowed to be involved in the investigation, which Sweden denied. On Monday Andersson said Sweden won't even share the findings of the explosions that took place in the Swedish economic zone, with Russian authorities. "In Sweden, our preliminary investigations are confidential, and that, of course, also applies in this case," she told reporters. London Metropolitan Police arrested two environmentalists on Friday after throwing tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s iconic ‘Sunflowers’ portray. A video exhibiting two younger ladies emptying a can of Heinz soup into the glass-encased 1888 masterpiece has gone viral on social media.
“Officers have been shortly on the scene on the Nationwide Gallery this morning after two Simply Cease Oil protesters threw a substance over a portray after which glued themselves to a wall. Each have been arrested for felony harm and aggravated trespassing,” according to London’s police headquarters. The Nationwide Gallery later revealed that the body of ‘Sunflowers’ was barely broken, however the paintings itself was intact. Simply Cease Oil, which is making an attempt to get British authorities to cease all new fossil-fuel tasks, has been blocking bridges and busy intersections throughout London for the previous two weeks. Regardless of the arrest of dozens of its members, the youth group issued a direct warning to regulation enforcement on October 11. Friday’s assault on a Van Gogh portray shouldn’t be the primary time Simply Cease Oil has focused the paintings. Earlier, employees vandalized Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Final Supper’, John Constable’s ‘The Hay Wain’ and Van Gogh’s ‘Peach Timber in Blossom’. In September, a employee, 21-year-old Louis McKenney, was sentenced to 6 weeks in jail after chaining himself to a goalpost throughout a match between Everton and Newcastle United in Liverpool on March 17. Simply Cease Oil was based in February. As a significant supply of funding, it lists the Local weather Emergency Fund, a US-based charity that has funded the abolitionist riot and Britain’s containment – two actions infamous for his or her disruptive protests in London and past.
This comes less than a month after the State Bank of India had agreed to put in place a simplified rupee settlement mechanism aimed at boosting mutual trade. An Indian diplomat told the outlet that Russian banks had requested that India’s eight largest lenders organize settlement in the local currency, but had not received any response. These banks include India’s largest lender, State Bank of India, and also Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Central Bank of India. Sources at lending institutions told the news agency that their management was not considering using this mechanism, at least not yet.
According to a senior executive at a large state-owned bank, financial entities are wary of being punished by the US and EU for trading in rupees with Russia. “They [Western nations] can impose a sanction on us, it will be a major business and reputational loss,” the banker said. Indian banks that are exposed to the international financial system stick to dollars or euros in trade with non-sanctioned Russian lenders. They are concerned that their businesses would be disrupted if targeted by sanctions. Currently, only two small lenders, Yes Bank and UCO Bank, which have agreements with Russia’s PSCB and Gazprombank, are using the rupee payment mechanism. In September, the Economic Times reported that Indian banks had received about 20 requests from Russian credit institutions to open accounts. The rupee trade initiative was set up to bypass the US dollar, thus ensuring uninterrupted cross-border business between the two countries. China is reselling US liquefied natural gas (LNG) on lower domestic demand to energy-strained European states for massive profits, the Wall Street Journal reported this week. Once the largest importer of LNG, China is now exporting on a large scale. As domestic demand for energy has been falling in recent months, China has begun reselling excess LNG onto the global market, with Europe, Japan and South Korea among key buyers.
Taking advantage of low-cost purchases under long-term contracts, Chinese energy companies are selling US LNG to Europe, reaping "hundreds of millions of dollars per cargo". The outlet has pointed out that the number of LNG vessels from the US docked in China from January to August has decreased from 133 recorded in one period last year to only 19 during the same period this year. Not only is American gas being sold on by Beijing, this year China has also imported almost 30% more gas from Russia, and at a significant discount, the outlet wrote, citing shipping data. China’s LNG imports from Russia surged in August to their highest level in at least two years. In September, the Sakhalin-2 LNG export plant in Russia’s Far East sold several shipments to China for delivery through December at nearly half the current spot price, Bloomberg reported, citing traders familiar with the matter.
In support of BALTOPS, U.S. Navy 6th Fleet partnered with U.S. Navy research and warfare centers to bring the latest advancements in unmanned underwater vehicle mine hunting technology to the Baltic Sea to demonstrate the vehicle’s effectiveness in operational scenarios. Experimentation was conducted off the coast of Bornholm, Denmark, with participants from Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport, and Mine Warfare Readiness and Effectiveness Measuring all under the direction of U.S. 6th Fleet Task Force 68.
“In prior BALTOPS we demonstrated advanced capabilities to detect, reacquire and collect images of mine contacts, and transfer those images in near real-time to operators through the use of a specialized Office of Naval Research UUV,” said Anthony Constable, Office of Naval Research science advisor to U.S. 6th Fleet. “This year, through the work of NIWC Pacific and NUWC Newport, we are showing that this capability can be integrated into programs of record by executing complex multi-vehicle UUV missions with modified U.S. Navy fleet assets.”
An additional critical objective was to continue to increase the communication range and data transfer capability to give the operators more flexibility in mine hunting operations. Advancements in communication technology, demonstrated this year, have shown a significant improvement in operating ranges over currently used systems. This provides additional standoff flexibility to the U.S. Navy in conducting safe mine hunting operations. BALTOPS also provides a unique opportunity for the U.S. research, development and acquisition communities to exercise the current and emerging UUV technology in real-world operational environments. This year featured the current and future programs of record for mine hunting UUVs in the Mk18 and Lionfish systems. Both systems were put through the paces over 10 days of mine-hunting operations, collecting over 200 hours of undersea data. “The major benefit of the BALTOPS experimentation is to provide advanced mine hunting capabilities to the operator in the field. By exercising the future capabilities, U.S. 6th Fleet can provide valuable feedback to help guide the Navy acquisition community responsible for mine hunting UUV development and procurement,” said Lt. Joshua Lynn, U.S. 6th Fleet experimental lead for BALTOPS. “This year we have seen the near- and long-term future in mine hunting UUV technology and we are excited to see how quickly the technology and capabilities are improving.” Source: seapowermagazine.org
Sweden's Maritime Authority issued a warning about two leaks in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, the day after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 pipeline was discovered that prompted Denmark to restrict shipping and impose a small no fly zone. Denmark's armed forces released a video showing bubbles boiling up to the surface of the sea. The largest gas leak had caused a surface disturbance of well over 1 km (0.6 mile) in diameter, the armed forces said. "Today we faced an act of sabotage, we don't know all the details of what happened, but we see clearly that it's an act of sabotage, related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at the opening of a new pipeline between Norway and Poland.
Berlin has formed the opinion that a loss of pressure in three natural gas pipelines between Russia and Germany on Monday was not a coincidence, but a “targeted attack” from either Ukraine or Russia, the Tagesspiegel newspaper has reported. Pressure in one of the Nord Stream 2 lines dropped sharply overnight, followed by both of Nord Stream 1's on Monday afternoon. Denmark announced that a gas leak was spotted off the coast of Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea and closed the area for maritime traffic, but could not confirm if this was what caused the situation. According to TagesSpiegel, the German government and agencies investigating the incident “can’t imagine a scenario that isn't a targeted attack,” according to an anonymous source familiar with their assessments. “Everything speaks against a coincidence.” The outlet explained that a deliberate attack on the bottom of the sea has to involve special forces, navy divers or a submarine. Berlin is reportedly examining two possible scenarios. In the first, Ukraine or “Ukraine-affiliated forces” could be behind the attack. The second option is that Russia did it as a “false flag,” to make Ukraine look bad and drive EU energy prices even higher. With Nord Stream offline since late August, Russian gas can only be delivered to Germany and central Europe via the older pipelines going through Poland and Ukraine, Tagesspiegel noted. Siemens Gamesa’s first recyclable blades are spinning on a wind turbine at the Kaskasi offshore wind farm in Germany. For many years it was possible to recycle these blades. The only solution was to use these blades in landfills. For Siemens it’s the first commercial installation of recyclable wind turbine technology. The S panish-German wind engineering giant calls its recyclable blade technology RecyclableBlade. Wind turbine blades are made of a number of materials embedded in resin. Siemens Gamesa explains: Separating the resin, fiberglass, and wood, among others, is achieved through using a mild acid solution. The materials can then go into the circular economy, creating new products like suitcases or flat-screen casings without the need to call on more raw resources. The Recyclable Blade technology was developed in Aalborg, Denmark, and the blades were manufactured in Hull in the UK (pictured above). The nacelles were produced and installed in Cuxhaven, Germany. Siemens Gamesa has a plan to make all of its wind turbine blades fully recyclable by 2030 and all of its wind turbines fully recyclable by 2040. Marc Becker, CEO of the Siemens Gamesa Offshore Business Unit, said: We’ve brought the Siemens Gamesa RecyclableBlade technology to market in only 10 months: from launch in September 2021 to installation at RWE’s Kaskasi project in July 2022. This is impressive and underlines the pace at which we all need to move to provide enough generating capacity to combat the global climate emergency. The 342 megawatt (MW) Kaskasi offshore wind farm is owned by German energy company RWE. It’s 35 km (21.7 miles) north of the island of Helgoland in the German North Sea. Siemens Gamesa doesn’t specify how many of the offshore wind farm’s 38 SG 8.0-167 DD wind turbines will feature the RecyclableBlade; it just says that “a number of turbines” will be recyclable. Those turbines that do feature them will have “handcrafted Siemens Gamesa B81 RecyclableBlades, each with a length of 81 meters [266 feet].”
Ukraine’s eastern region has suffered a “total blackout” a day after a counterattack by Kyiv’s troops forced the Russian army to retreat from large tracts of the Kharkiv region, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accusing Moscow of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure. Ukrainian officials said water facilities and a thermal power station in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, were deliberately attacked, causing power outages and cuts in water supplies.
“No military facilities, the goal is to deprive people of light & heat,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter late on Sunday, describing the Russians as “terrorists”. As many as nine million people in the region, including in territory controlled by Russia, could be affected. “There is no electricity or water supply in several settlements. Emergency services are working to control fires at the sites that were hit,” Oleg Synegubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, said in a statement on social media. Similar reports came in the evening from the regions of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa. ‘Completely dark’ Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid reporting from Kharkiv said there are “power outages in five regions in the northeast and eastern part of the country. What we’re hearing from officials is that the Russians have hit critical infrastructure; they’re not telling us what or where, but this city is in pitch-black. “We were on the streets when [the power outage] happened and as we were driving back to our location, everything was completely dark; there was not one light on. It was quite an eerie scene.” The Hungarian prime minister says his country will not experience any fuel shortages, despite the current energy crisisHungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has blamed the European Union’s energy shortfall on bureaucrats and environmentalists, saying his own country is protected from the crisis.
“If we want to dig to the bottom of the problems, we always end up in the same place: the issue of energy. And the situation is that Europe has run out of energy,” Orban wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday. The premier blamed the situation on “fundamentalist greens and the bureaucrats” playing “geopolitical games,” arguing that the bloc is refusing to use “different energy sources” for “political reasons,” driving up the cost of living and damaging its industries. “There are few continents in such a difficult situation as ours, but only our continent is making its own life so much harder,” Orban said, pledging to do everything “needed by the homeland.” In late August Hungary secured a deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom for additional natural gas supplies, pumped via Serbia. Hungary is one of the few EU member states to comply with the Moscow’s ruble payment requirement for gas deliveries. However, Budapest is also moving to cut energy consumption. Earlier this week, the government introduced an 18-degree Celsius temperature cap in all public institutions across the country. The authorities have also instituted a mandatory slashing of gas consumption for state institutions, except hospitals and social housing facilities. Hungary has repeatedly criticized EU sanctions against Russia introduced over the conflict in Ukraine. Budapest argues that the restrictions have failed to produce the intended result, while disrupting the supply of natural gas to the bloc and sending energy prices to unprecedented highs. |
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