Sustech, a Japanese startup, has seen its valuation soar to over $800 million in the latest funding round
Sustech, a Japanese energy technology startup, is expected to raise $50m from investors. This will value the company at over $800m, according to people familiar with the matter. The Tokyo-based company wants to tap into the fast-growing global demand for cleaner energy. Sources said that the valuation of Sustech, which is 124 billion Japanese yen (816 million dollars), in its fourth fund-raising round, represents a 3.5 times increase from 35 billion yen last year. This brings it closer to the group of Japanese unicorns valued at over $1 billion. Sources declined to identify themselves as it is a private matter.
From the Science Lab: Clean Energy Projects that Could Impact Maritime
As part of a $175M grant for 68 novel clean energy technology projects from the U.S. Department of Energy, these four offer promise in helping the maritime industry meet its decarbonization goals.Makai Ocean Engineering – Waimanalo, HIRemotely Installed Anchorages for Floating Offshore Wind and Other Offshore Renewables Cost Reduction -$849,951The Makai Ocean Engineering (Makai) team will develop novel mooring and anchoring methods to reduce the costs of offshore renewable energy. Makai will focus on enabling…
Castello Branco Named Petrobras CEO
Brazil's incoming far-right government on Monday tapped a University of Chicago-trained economist with experience in the oil sector to be the chief executive of state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA, amid a debate over privatization of the company's assets.The nomination of Roberto Castello Branco is the latest in a string of business-friendly appointments by President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who takes office on Jan. 1.Castello Branco, a member of Petrobras's board until 2016, has also held executive positions at Brazil's central bank and at iron ore miner Vale SA.He will take over from Ivan Monteiro…
For North Korea, Cutting Off Oil Supplies Would Be Devastating
Isolated North Korea doesn't consume much oil, but curbing or cutting off its supplies in retaliation for further nuclear or long-range missile tests would be painful and potentially destabilising to the regime of Kim Jong Un. U.S. Separately, the Global Times, an influential Chinese tabloid whose stance does not necessarily reflect official policy, said in an editorial on Wednesday that "Chinese society" would approve of "severe restrictive measures that have never been seen before, such as restricting oil imports to the North," if Pyongyang engages in further provocative activity.
Alkhayyal Joins Marathon Petroleum Board
Abdulaziz F. Alkhayyal has been elected to Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s (MPC) board of directors, effective October 26, 2016. Alkhayyal serves on the board of directors of Halliburton Company, where he is a member of the health, safety and environment and the nominating and corporate governance committees. He retired from Saudi Aramco in 2014 as the senior vice president of Industrial Relations, following a 30-year career there. He served on the Saudi Aramco board of directors from 2004 to 2014. “The addition of Mr.
Chevron Names Morris VP of Human Resources
Chevron Corporation has named Rhonda J. Morris corporate vice president of Human Resources, effective October 1, 2016. Morris is currently vice president of Human Resources for Chevron's Downstream & Chemicals business. In her new role, Morris will oversee Chevron's Human Resources, Diversity and Ombuds, and Medical and Health Services groups. She will report to Chevron's corporate vice president of Human Resources and Corporate Services, Joe Laymon, who will continue to oversee Chevron Business and Real Estate Services, Global Security and Aviation until his planned retirement in late 2017.
La Nina Forecast Downgraded: Kemp
Sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific have been significantly below the seasonal average for the last 10 weeks, consistent with the formation of mild La Nina conditions. But U.S. government forecasters have cut the probability of La Nina occurring this winter to 36%, down from an estimated probability of 76% at the time of their May forecast. The U.S. government now predicts conditions this winter are likely to be neutral, with neither La Nina or El Nino evident, and puts this probability at 56%, up from 21% in May.
U.S. Hopes to Flex Energy Muscle with Oil Reserve Makeover
The United States boasts the world's largest stash of emergency oil supplies, yet the country's ability to influence global crude markets with releases from that reserve has waned. The Obama administration hopes to fix that problem with an overhaul of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, and details about its plans should be revealed in coming weeks. The Energy Department is expected to send Congress a report detailing a proposal to modernize the SPR, a string of crude-filled underground salt caverns guarded by sharpshooters in four remote locations on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana.
Woodside Appoints Pickard Non-executive Director
The Board of Woodside has appointed Ms Ann Pickard as a non-executive director effective 29 February 2016. Ms Pickard joins Woodside as an independent director. Woodside Chairman Michael Chaney said that Ms Pickard had significant international business experience. “The directors are delighted that we have been able to attract a person of Ms Pickard's background and experience to the company's Board,” Mr Chaney said. On 1 February 2016 Ms Pickard retired from Royal Dutch Shell plc, where she held numerous positions during her 15-year tenure with the company.
Petrobras Writedown Could Bolster Class-Action Suit
Brazilian oil company Petrobras' $17 billion write-down, announced last week, may have been meant to close the accounting on a sprawling corruption scandal, but could instead provide fresh ammunition for a U.S. class action lawsuit. The case, filed in Manhattan federal court in December by a group of large investors, alleges $98 billion of the company's American depository shares, or ADRs, and bonds were artificially inflated since 2010 by the company overstating the value of assets such as major projects. Petrobras has moved to have the case dismissed.
SoCalGas Launches First Power-to-gas Project in US
Southern California Gas Company is bringing sci-fi innovation to life and has joined with the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the National Fuel Cell Research Center (NFCRC) to launch demonstration projects to create and test a carbon-free, power-to-gas system for the first time ever in the U.S. The technology converts electricity into gaseous energy and could provide North America with a large-scale, cost-effective solution for storing excess energy produced from renewable sources.
Transport Sector to Give Lift to Oil Demand
Demand for oil is intimately connected to the demand for transportation in the United States and the other advanced industrial economies. Cars, trucks, airlines, railways and shipping accounted for 71 percent of total U.S. oil consumption in 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Petroleum-derived fuels, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and fuel oil, met 97 percent of the transportation sector's energy needs. Before the oil shocks of the 1970s as much as half of U.S. oil demand came from power producers and for heating homes, offices and factories.
Keppel Appoints Vestring to its Board
Mr Vestring, 50, is a partner in Bain & Company's (Bain) Southeast Asia office. Of his 24-year career with Bain, Mr Vestring has spent over two decades in Asia advising leading companies on portfolio strategy, growth, mergers and acquisitions, merger integration, organisation and performance improvement. The companies he has advised include those in shipping, offshore & marine, industrial products, automotive, infrastructure, commodities, airlines and telecoms. Mr Vestring works closely with Asian and multinational companies to grow organically and inorganically across Asia.
Lower Prices Blunt Drive for Efficiency: Kemp
For a decade, high and rising prices have created a strong incentive to use oil-derived fuels more sparingly. By the end of 2012, efficiency improvements, substitution, and changes in behaviour had cut oil consumption in the advanced economies by 8 million barrels per day (bpd) compared with the pre-2005 trend, according to James Hamilton at the University of California ("The changing face of world oil markets" July 2014). Today, consumption of petroleum products in the United States is 1.8 million b/d (9 percent) lower than it was in 2005…
Kemp: Oil Market Mightier than OPEC
There is nothing remotely surprising about the sharp fall in oil prices over the last four months, except perhaps the timing. The fundamental forces driving prices lower (rising supply outside OPEC from shale and sluggish demand growth as result of conservation and substitution) have been clearly visible for at least two years. "If the shale revolution can be sustained in the United States, and successfully exported to other countries, some combination of OPEC production cuts or lower oil prices to encourage demand and forestall more investment…
Mary A. Francis is CS & CGO of Chevron
Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) today named Mary A. Francis corporate secretary and chief governance officer effective May 1, 2015. In her new role, Francis, 50, will counsel the board of directors and senior management of Chevron on corporate governance matters, manage the Corporate Governance Department and serve on the Law Function Executive Committee. She succeeds Lydia I. Beebe, who is retiring from Chevron on April 30 after 37 years with the company. "Mary brings years of leadership and management of Chevron’s law function to the position," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Watson.
Kemp: Time for a Good Sweating in Oil Markets
U.S. demand for petroleum products has experienced an unprecedented and broad-based decline over the last eight years as soaring oil prices have forced consumers to become more efficient and seek cheaper alternatives. Consumption of oil-based products has fallen in every major category - from gasoline, diesel and jet kerosene to heating oil, fuel oil, petrochemical feedstock, petroleum coke and asphalt, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In every case, consumption has fallen in absolute terms and the decline is even steeper compared with the growth in population and the size of the economy since 2005.
Philanthropies, Investors pledge $50bln Fossil Fuel Divestment
The Rockefellers, who made their vast fortune on oil, and other philanthropies and high-wealth individuals on Monday will announce pledges to divest a total of $50 billion from fossil fuel investments. The Global Divest-Invest coalition will announce new pledges and members one day before 120 heads of state address the United Nations on how their countries will contribute to a global effort to halt a dangerous rise in temperatures. Since the divestment movement launched three years ago, some 650 individuals and 180 institutions…
University of California Not to Divest from Fossil Fuels
The University of California voted on Friday to maintain its investments in fossil fuels, frustrating a student-led effort to divest its portfolio in oil, natural gas and coal. UC is among the major college endowments have been reluctant to shake up their portfolios by pulling out of fossil fuels after Stanford University, one of the most prestigious and wealthiest in America, took that step in May. Jagdeep Bachher, UC Regent's Chief Investment Officer, said in a presentation that UC's fossil fuel holdings amounts to $10 billion of the $91 billion in the college's investment portfolio.
Kemp: Higher Oil Price Forecasts Misjudge Shale Boom
"The world of energy may have changed forever," according to Professor James Hamilton of the University of California. Hamilton, who is one of the most respected economists writing about oil, made his bold prediction in a paper on "The Changing Face of World Oil Markets", published on July 20. "Old hands in the oil patch may view recent developments as a continuation of the same old story, wondering if the high prices of the last decade will prove another transient cycle with which technological advances will eventually catch up," he wrote.
