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Scientists make supermaterial a reality
Friday, January 11, 2013
t’s been a long time coming, but scientists are at the cusp of realizing the dream of carbon nanotubes.
What’s the dream?
A low-weight material that’s as strong as steel, as electrically conductive as copper and conducts heat like metal. It’s like Spidey silk, only better.
Such a material would open up a new realm of engineering properties, for everything from common wiring to spacecraft hulls.
Scientists have long recognized the potential in single-walled carbon nanotubes — but they’ve been expensive to make in quantity and quality, and it’s been difficult to connect the tiny, micron-long tubes into longer, useful fibers.
Now, in a new paper in the journal Science (see abstract), Rice scientists say they’ve devised a new carbon nanotube fiber that looks and acts like textile thread and conducts electricity and heat like a metal wire. The process of creating these fibers also appears to be scalable, which means it shouldn’t be too difficult for industry to make them.
“It’s a known technology to scale this,” Matteo Pasquali, a Rice professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, told me.
The feedstock and chemicals used to make these fibers are also relatively common, meaning that once a manufacturing process is put in place, the carbon-base materials and catalysts aren’t expensive. Pasquali is working with the Dutch firm Teijin Aramid to make this happen.
The new material is not quite the perfect carbon nanotube fiber: it’s stronger than steel; it’s thermal conductivity is much better than aluminum or copper, but it’s not quite as electrically conductive as aluminum or copper. But he said there’s still room for improvement.
The bottom line is that it’s resilient, conducts electricity and dissipates heat. Yeah, I think in the 21st century, a world of iPhones and Dreamliners, we might have use for a material like that.
Related articles
- Nanotube fibers have unmatched combination of strength, conductivity, flexibility (rdmag.com)
- Nanotubes Turned Into Super Fibers (technologyreview.com)
- New nanotech fiber: Robust handling, shocking performance (eurekalert.org)
Worldwide Field Development News Dec 29 – Jan 4, 2013
This week the SubseaIQ team added 3 new projects and updated 9 projects. You can see all the updates made over any time period via the Project Update History search. The latest offshore field develoment news and activities are listed below for your convenience.
Asia – Far East
CNOOC Bolsters South China Sea Production
Jan 3, 2013 – Production has started at CNOOC’s 100% owned Liuhua 4-1 field in the South China Sea. Liuhua 4-1 is a subsea development consisting of one production manifold and eight production wells. They are produced through the Nanhai Tiao Zhan FPS and then pumped to the Nanhai Sheng Li FPSO. Peak production is expected to be reached later this year. In addition, the company completed an adjustment project on the Panyu 4-2 and 5-1 oilfields. The objective of the project was to achieve more efficient production from the two fields through shared facilities.
Europe – North Sea
North Sea Energy Provides Badger Update
Jan 3, 2013 – North Sea Energy’s operating committee recently held a meeting to discuss the path forward regarding the Premier Oil-operated Badger prospect in the UK North Sea. Badger is a structural/stratigraphic trap with an objective in lower Cretaceous Coracle and Punt sandstones. Further delineation is required and critical risk elements need to be mitigated before a drilling decision can be made. The company hopes to be in a position to make that decision by the end of 3Q 2013.
Det Norske Submits Ivar Aasen POD
Jan 3, 2013 – Det norske, on behalf of the partners in Production License 001B, submitted to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy the Plan for Development and Operation of the Ivar Aasen field. If approved, first oil could be seen in 4Q 2016. Information gained during appraisal drilling indicates that the field contains 150 mmboe and will produce at a steady rate of 23,000 boepd. The development will also include the Hanz and West Cable discoveries. Hanz will be utilized by a subsea installation tied back to a production platform servicing Ivar Aasen and West Cable.
Project Details: Ivar Aasen
Jan 3, 2013 – BP announced the start of production systems at the Skarv field on December 31, 2012. Over its life, Skarv is expected to produce over 100 million barrels of oil and condensate and over 1.5 trillion cubic feet of rich gas. Water depth at the location is almost 1,500 feet. Development facilities include a new harsh environment FPSO, five subsea templates and a 50 mile export pipeline. Production rates will gradually increase over the year to an expected maximum daily rate of 165,000 boed.
Project Details: Skarv/Idun
S. America – Other & Carib.
Priodontes Well Spuds Off French Guiana
Jan 3, 2013 – Shell, as operator of the Guyane Maritime Permit (French Guiana), spudded an exploration well at the Priodontes prospect on December 29, 2012. The well is being drilled by the Stena Drillmax ICE (UDW drillship). Well GM-ES-3 is the second well in the current drilling program and is testing a different area of the Cingulata fan system that contains the recent Zaedyus oil discovery. Results of the Priodontes exploration will allow the license partners to gain a better understanding of the area’s geology and overall potential.
S. America – Brazil
PanAtlantic to P&A Jandaia
Jan 4, 2013 – Jandaia reached its targeted depth without encountering any indication of hydrocarbons. PanAtlantic and its partner Panoro Energy have plugged and abandoned the well. Jandaia, which is located in concession BM-S-71, was the third well in Vanco’s three-well program offshore Brazil. Sabia, the first well in the program, encountered volume at the low end of the pre-drill estimate and the second well, Canario, was dry.
Mediterranean
Noble Close to Flipping Switch at Tamar
Jan 3, 2013 – With the Inauguration of the Tamar production platform Noble Energy and the other Tamar interest holders are one step closer to the realization of first gas which is expected in April of this year. Discovery of the deepwater reservoir took place four years ago and development has progressed on schedule and within budget. The platform was installed in 800 feet of water and has the capacity to process 1.2 bcfd from its subsea wells. Once processed, the gas will flow through 93 miles of subsea pipeline to the Ashdod Terminal on Israel’s coast. Tamar is estimated to hold 8.4 tcf of gas reserves and its development will help bring the country to the verge of energy independence.
Project Details: Tamar
N. America – US GOM
FMC Awarded Delta House Contract
Jan 3, 2013 – LLOG Exploration awarded a subsea equipment contract to FMC Technologies relating to the recently approved Delta House development project in the deep waters of Mississippi Canyon in the US Gulf of Mexico. Under the contract FMC will supply nine subsea trees, four subsea manifolds, five multiphase meters with all associated topside control systems and subsea distribution systems. Delivery of the $114 million order will take place this year.
Project Details: Delta House
Related articles
- Gulf of Mexico: FMC Technologies’ Subsea Equipment for LLOG’s Delta House Project (mb50.wordpress.com)
- With Subsea Compression Technology, Offshore Platforms Could Become Obsolete (gcaptain.com)
- UH to open first subsea engineering masters program in 2013 (appliedagrotech.net)
Pangea, Tamar Partners Share Israeli FLNG Costs
A Cost Sharing Agreement (CSA) has been executed between Levant LNG Marketing, a subsidiary of Pangea LNG B.V., and Tamar Partners. This major milestone demonstrates the continuing progress toward the export of LNG from the Tamar and Dalit fields in the Eastern Mediterranean, 60 miles offshore from Israel.
The Tamar Partnership will participate in the cost of developing the project front end engineering and design (FEED) for a permanently moored offshore floating natural gas liquefaction vessel with onboard storage. Pangea LNG and Tamar Partners anticipate launching FEED by end of 2012 and making a final investment decision by the second half of 2013.
The floating liquefaction (FLNG) midstream solution is being developed by Pangea LNG, an LNG development and investment company owned by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), Next Decade International and D&H Solutions AS. Pangea LNG is a floating LNG liquefaction and storage project developer now working on projects around the globe that will connect gas suppliers to the world’s most important LNG demand markets.
The Tamar Partnership includes Noble Energy Mediterranean Ltd, Isramco Negev 2 Limited Partnership, Delek Drilling Limited Partnership, Avner Oil Exploration Limited Partnership, and DorGas Exploration Limited Partnership. These companies are the owners and producers involved in the discovery of significant natural gas resources in the Tamar and Dalit fields where development drilling is underway.
Gerhard Ludvigsen, a founding member of the Pangea LNG board of directors, said “the Tamar project embraces the entire value chain and balances the risk positions for the owners of hydrocarbons, the off takers and the midstream technology provider.
“The Pangea business model offers the opportunity for all stakeholders to take part in the value enhancement from gas production through the FLNG/midstream solution to the final off take of LNG. Pangea LNG opens the potential for national oil companies and owners of small to medium size gas reserves to monetize stranded gas and take part in the value creation in the entire value chain.”
Pangea LNG continues to work on off-take agreements for LNG production from the Tamar project. Pangea LNG has already executed several letters of intent with potential off takers and is in the final stage of negotiations for the long term sales and purchase agreement.
The Tamar framework agreement represents an important step in the development of what will be the first floating LNG liquefaction project in the Mediterranean basin. The Tamar and Dalit fields are located in the Levantine basin in Israeli waters.
“The Eastern Mediterranean gas fields provide a particularly good location for deploying an offshore floating LNG solution,” said Kathleen Eisbrenner, Pangea LNG’s chief executive officer. “The reserves are large, the climate is moderate and the location offers efficient access to significant LNG markets.”
O.K. Shin, Team leader of DSME Corporate Strategy Team, noted that the vessel-mounted liquefaction system being designed will take advantage of the efficiencies of the DSME shipyard construction environment and the best practices the company has developed during many years of LNG and process vessel construction.
Pangea LNG brings together a team that generated the innovations that are at the foundation of the floating LNG sector. DSME, the majority owner of Pangea, is one of the world’s leading shipbuilders and a contractor for major energy companies providing them with offshore platforms, drilling rigs and floating production units. The company builds special purpose vessels and specializes in LNG carriers. It constructed nine of the 11 floating LNG regasification vessels now in service.
Pangea, Tamar Partners Share Israeli FLNG Costs| Offshore Energy Today.
- Israel: Major Milestone in Tamar FLNG Project Development (worldmaritimenews.com)
- Pangea LNG Continues its Development of Mediterranean Floating LNG Export Project (prnewswire.com)
- Global Market for Floating Production Systems to Reach $91 Billion; More Than $28 Billion in Global FLNG Liquefaction Spending (sacbee.com)
Tamar Partners Dive into FLNG FEED (Israel)
Delek Group gas subsidiaries announced that the Pre-FEED stage of Tamar and Dalit floating liquefied natural gas project (FLNG), off the coast of Israel, has now been successfully completed.
Therefore, the Tamar partners decided to begin the second phase-front-end engineering design (FEED). LNG production is expected to be up to 3 MMTPA. In accordance to that, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. (DSME) signed an agreement with Levant LNG Marketing and Pangea LNG BV for the completion of the FEED stage.
DSME will carry out the costs of FEED and Tamar partners will contribute a total amount of $15 million (100%). The agreement has been set for two years, or until the date of the final investment decision of the FLNG project, whichever is earlier.
Tamar Partners Dive into FLNG FEED (Israel)| Offshore Energy Today.
- Pangea LNG Continues its Development of Mediterranean Floating LNG Export Project (prnewswire.com)
- Australia: KBR Secures Bonaparte FLNG Design Work (worldmaritimenews.com)
- Global Market for Floating Production Systems to Reach $91 Billion; More Than $28 Billion in Global FLNG Liquefaction Spending (sacbee.com)
- Israel Corp, Tamar Oil Partners Sign $4 Billion Gas Contract (jewishpress.com)
Corpus Christi, TX: Tamar Platform En Route to Israel
Tamar production platform has left the Keiwit Shipyards in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA, and is now on the way to its location offshore Israel, according to Globes, the Israeli financial newspaper.
It took 18 months for the 280 m platform to be completed, and the project has been described as “the largest infrastructure project in Israeli history.”
Noble Energy, operator of the Tamar field, did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
The Tamar platform will be located in approximately 800 feet of water and will be able to process 1.2 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day. The Tamar field is estimated to contain 8.4 trillion cubic feet of gas and will be produced through several subsea wells connected to the platform by 150 km long flow lines. The single-lift topsides facility has four deck levels and weighs nearly 10,000 tons.
Globes further reports that the platform is expected to reach its destination during the fourth quarter this year. First production is scheduled for March 2013.
Noble Energy operates Tamar with a 36 percent working interest. Other owners are Isramco Negev 2 with 28.75 percent, Delek Drilling with 15.625 percent, Avner Oil Exploration with 15.625 percent, and Dor Gas Exploration with the remaining four percent.
Iran says it treats Israeli military threats as American
DUBAI | Wed Sep 5, 2012 7:01am EDT
(Reuters) – Iran makes no distinction between U.S. and Israeli interests and will retaliate against both countries if attacked, an Iranian military commander said on Wednesday.
The comments came after the White House denied an Israeli news report that it was negotiating with Tehran to keep out of a future Israel-Iran war and as U.S. President Barack Obama fends off accusations from his election rival that he is too soft on Tehran.
“The Zionist regime separated from America has no meaning, and we must not recognize Israel as separate from America,” Ali Fadavi, naval commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
“On this basis, today only the Americans have taken a threatening stance towards the Islamic Republic,” Fadavi said. “If the Americans commit the smallest folly they will not leave the region safely.”
Iran – which has missiles that could reach Israel and U.S. targets in the region – has conducted military exercises and unveiled upgraded weapons in recent months, aiming to show it can defend itself against any strike against its nuclear sites.
Israel – thought to be the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons – says the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran would pose a threat to its existence. Tehran denies it is developing weapons and says its nuclear program is peaceful.
With the approach of U.S. elections in November, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a tougher stance against Iran – implicitly knocking Obama’s emphasis on diplomatic and sanctions pressure to halt Iranian nuclear work.
While Israel would expect U.S. backing if it decided to strike Iran, the top U.S. general has suggested Washington would not be drawn into a conflict.
“I don’t want to be complicit if they choose to do it,” Britain’s Guardian newspaper quoted Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey as saying.
Netanyahu abruptly ended a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet on Wednesday, saying someone in the forum had leaked details of its discussions on Iran.
Any decision to go to war against Iran would, by Israeli law, require the approval of the security cabinet. One government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no such decisions had been on the table at Tuesday’s meeting.
(Reporting By Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Related articles
- U.S. Tells Iran: We Won’t Join Israeli Attack (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Did Obama Just Make A Deal With Israel To Delay The War With Iran Until After The Election? (judgementofamerica.wordpress.com)
U.S. Tells Iran: We Won’t Join Israeli Attack
Senior officials in the Obama Administration sent a message to Tehran in the past few days, according to which the U.S. does not intend to join Israel‘s side if it decides to attack the Iranian nuclear installations on its own, reports Israel’s second-largest paper, Yediot Aharonot.
According to the report, the U.S. sent the message to Iran in order to avoid an Iranian response military response that would target U.S. installations in the Gulf region.
The message was reportedly conveyed to Iran through two European countries that serve as a conduit of communication between Iran and the U.S. in times of crisis.
Nationalist newspaper Makor Rishon has accused Yediot Aharonot of working with the Obama Administration against the Netanyahu government’s planned strike on Iran.
According to the New York Times, senior U.S. officials have argued that Israel is “trying to corner” Obama into a military commitment that he does not yet need to make.
Related articles
- U.S. Tells Iran: We Won’t Join Israeli Attack (raptureimminent.wordpress.com)
- ‘Time is Running Out’ on Iran, Netanyahu Told Visiting U.S. Rep. (raptureimminent.wordpress.com)
- White House Denies Secret Deal with Iran (judgementofamerica.wordpress.com)
US disowns Israel over Iran strike: No weapons or military backup
September 1, 2012, 10:04 AM (GMT+02:00)
US Gen. Martin Dempsey’s assertion Thursday, Aug. 30 that the US would not be “complicit” in an Israel strike against Iran, together with the drastic reduction in the scale of next month’s joint US-Israeli war game disclosed by TIME, add up to a blunt message from US President Barack Obama to Israel: You are on your own! See how you manage without special US weapons and US military backup, including a shield against missile counter-attack, if you decide to defy us and go through with a military operation against Iran.
Instead of the 5,000 US troops originally assigned for Austere Challenge 12, the annual joint exercise, the Pentagon will send only 1,200 to 1,500 service members. The missile interception systems at the core of the joint exercise will be reduced in number and potency: Patriot anti-missiles will come without crews and maybe one instead of two Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense warships, according to the magazine.
debkafile’s military sources: The Obama administration has put Israel on harsh notice that an attack on Iran to disrupt or delay its nuclear armament will be refused US missile backup – both in the course of the operation and to cover Israel’s back in the event of a counter-strike widening into a general Middle East conflict. The Netanyahu government will bear full and exclusive responsibility for the consequences of attacking Iran.
Obama, who has repeatedly pledged his commitment to Israeli security, is the first American president to cut Israeli adrift against a major threat to its security explicitly posed by Iran.
The US president has put his campaign for reelection next month at great albeit calculated risk. His rival Mitt Romney will not doubt follow up on the charges he made during his acceptance speech to the Republican convention Thursday that Obama threw “allies like Israel under the bus” and failed utterly to stop Iran’s centrifuges spinning.
Obama may find the Jewish vote and campaign contributions fading. For Romney an incumbent president throwing Israel to the wolves against the ayatollahs is a dream come true.
Binyamin Netanyahu and his defense minister Ehud Barak must bear some of the onus for one of the most damaging ruptures US-Israel relations have ever faced – as will be discussed later. However, the prime cause must be sought elsewhere.
In the last month, Obama has undergone a change of face: The top US soldier and ambassador Dan Shapiro were told to start treating Israel like a pest and telling its leaders that the administration is fed to the teeth with their clamor for action on Iran.
This change did not come out of the blue. debkafile’s Washington and Moscow sources report it evolved from three events:
1. During this month, President Vladimir Putin severed Russia’s military ties with Iran and Syria as debkafile reported earlier: Obama reciprocated by cutting Israel down to size. Moscow informed Tehran and Damascus that there would be no more Russian arms supplies after the delivery of the last items in the pipeline. Putin therefore left both Iran and Syria high and dry amid war dangers in return for Obama cutting Israel off from advance military hardware at a time of peril.
The Russian and American leaders thus put in place the first bricks of an accord for resolving their disputes over a nuclear Iran and the Syrian crisis by the device of slashing the military capacity of Iran, Israel and Syria.
The Russian president took another step as a gesture to Obama: He pulled Russian warships out of the Syrian base of Tartus and the eastern Mediterranean, leaving only a floating dry dock.
In return, he counted on Washington forcing Israel to abandon any plans to strike Iran.
2. But this exercise in symmetrical reciprocity ran into a major snag: Obama found a tough nut in Jerusalem: Binyamin Netanyahu held out for a pledge of US military action against Iran as his price for holding back. Despite the massive pressure Obama threw at the Israeli government, both through the highest ranking US political and military channels and by mobilizing the government’s most vocal opponents and anti-war circles at home, Netanyahu and Barak did not budge.
They understood, despite Obama’s concealment, that the secret US-Russian deal would in fact preserve Iran’s nuclear program at a point at which Iran’s leaders could have a weapon assembled and unsheathed at any moment.
The also realized that as long as Israel’s military option against Iran was alive, the Obama-Putin deal was stuck, because both Iran’s Ali Khamenei and Syria’s Bashar Assad would likewise refuse to fall into line.
When Romney said he would give America’s friends “more loyalty” and Putin “a little less flexibility and more backbone,” he was referring to President Obama’s request from Putin on June 18, at the G20 conference in Mexico, for more time against his promise to the Russian leader of “more flexibility” later.
To keep his deal with Putin in motion, the US president will have to tighten his squeeze on Israel’s leaders to forego an attack on Iran.
3. The Netanyahu government, for its part, committed three tactical errors:
- One: They dragged out the dialogue on Iran with the US administration for far too long – three years or more – and come away for it empty-handed. If their purpose was to persuade the United States to carry the can against Iran, as many Israelis believed, they failed. No Israeli leader has the right to procrastinate to this extent on action affecting its fundamental security, if not existence. Netanyahu fell into the trap of crying wolf by shouting year after year that Iran must be stopped – and doing nothing.
- Two: Israel’s deterrent capacity, already sapped by inaction, was further eroded by US General Martin Dempsey’s assertions that Israel lacks the capacity to destroy the Iranian nuclear program.
- Three: They failed to act expeditiously to prevent the political opposition using a campaign against an attack on Iran as a stratagem for bringing the government down.
It has been four weeks since the former Mossad director Ephraim Halevi said that if he was an Iranian, he would be worried in the next twelve weeks.
That was on Aug. 2.
Thursday, Aug. 30, Halevi said: “It is important for Israel’s military threat to be credible.”
He was throwing down the gauntlet for Netanyahu and Barak to show they were serious about striking Iran – or else back down completely.
His timeline gives them another eight weeks to show their mettle.
During that time, they will be under heavy bombardment from Washington.
Related articles
- Israeli Officials See Gap With USA Widening… (bloomberg.com)
- US disowns Israel over Iran strike: No weapons or military backup (counterjihadreport.com)
Continents of the World
