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Energy 1997
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The information below comes from the UK Activity Report.
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Celtic Energy has been told by the Environment Agency that it will have to comply with the new tougher emission standards when it revives the disused Uskmouth coal-fired power station, but the company is complaining that this would contradict government attempts to improve the market for coal. 31-Dec-1997 American Electric Power's proposed takeover of Central & South West in the US is expected to be examined by UK regulators as it would give Ohio-based American Electric control of both Yorkshire Electricity and Seeboard in the UK. 23-Dec-1997 Shell Oil and Texaco have agreed to sell a refinery in the state of Washington in order to win regulatory approval for the merger of their US refining and marketing operations. 22-Dec-1997 Dragon Oil has announced a gas discovery in the Gulf of Thailand, in conjunction with its partner Texaco. 20-Dec-1997 The government has given PacifiCorp of the US the go-ahead to rebid for Energy Group, having previously expressed concern about the ability of UK authorities to regulate Energy Group's Eastern Electricity distribution business. 20-Dec-1997 Sibir Energy, the oil group in which Pentex has a 40% stake, is to raise up to £45m in a share placing in order to accelerate the development of large fields in western Siberia. 19-Dec-1997 Dragon Oil has raised £1.5m from the sale of its remaining US offshore oil and gas producing assets, namely West Cameron 368 and Ship Shoal 222/225 in the Gulf of Mexico. 19-Dec-1997 National Power has formed an alliance with Mitsui Babcock, the boiler manufacturer, to offer services to the international power industry. 17-Dec-1997 National Power, PowerGen and Eastern Group have agreed to buy up to 1.8m tonnes of coal from RJB Mining between April and June next year, following discussions with the government aimed at saving miners' jobs. 16-Dec-1997 BP has bought a 24.5% stake in Bluesky, the Chinese aircraft refuelling venture, from Vitol Holding for undisclosed terms. 16-Dec-1997 Desire Petroleum is planning to raise up to £10m through a listing on Aim in order to fund its drilling programme off the Falkland Islands. 15-Dec-1997 Eastern Group has announced plans to sell both electricity and gas when the markets are deregulated, and will offer a £30 cash-back to households that switch to its electricity and a discount of up to 25% off British Gas prices. 15-Dec-1997 Scottish Hydro-Electric is planning a £220m project to upgrade its Peterhead power station, enabling it to use North Sea gas instead of high-sulphur sour gas. 11-Dec-1997 The government has promised that a deal will be reached between RJB Mining and the big three electricity generators in order to prevent the closure of RJB's coal mines for at least 6 months. 11-Dec-1997 Hardy Oil & Gas is to buy a 10% interest in the East Spar gas condensate field off north-west Australia from Apache Corp for £38m. 11-Dec-1997 Burmah Castrol is planning a £10m reorganisation of its lubricants business, involving a cut in the number of senior positions and the creation of four business units to cover the consumer, commercial, marine and industrial markets. 10-Dec-1997 EU ministers have agreed a timetable to deregulate the European gas market, opening up 20% of each country's market in the first five years and providing opportunities for Centrica to export through the Interconnector pipeline. 09-Dec-1997 PowerGen is threatening legal proceedings against its partners in the Liverpool Bay gas project, which include BHP Petroleum, Monument Oil & Gas, and Lasmo, due to a dispute over a take-or-pay gas contract signed in 1991. 08-Dec-1997 Yorkshire Electricity is to cut 160 jobs in a restructuring that will reduce the size of its head office and create a new ownership structure for its generation activities. 05-Dec-1997 Centrica has renegotiated take-or-pay gas contracts with Elf, Conoco and Total, at a cost of £365m, but it is unlikely to renegotiate the remaining 30% of its take-or-pay contracts. 05-Dec-1997 The government is to review its policy on the approval of new power stations and may soften the tough emission targets in an attempt to save the troubled coal industry. 04-Dec-1997 Energy Group's Eastern Natural Gas subsidiary has acquired a 30% stake in the Esmond Transportation System pipeline, which transports gas to the Bacton terminal in Norfolk, from BHP for £4m. 02-Dec-1997 The planned introduction of competition to the electricity supply industry may be delayed beyond the April 1 deadline due to problems with the software that will manage the market. 01-Dec-1997 Shell is linking up with Saudi Aramco to look for openings in oil developments in new markets, and their first project will be in India. 29-Nov-1997 Enterprise Oil is selling interests in the Sedgwick and Galley oilfield developments in the North Sea, as well as 18 exploration blocks, to Sumitomo Petroleum for around £35m. 28-Nov-1997 RJB Mining is expected to close a large number of pits as it now expects next year's coal sales to fall from 30m tonnes to 20m tonnes, having agreed a reduced contract to supply National Power. 27-Nov-1997 Union Energy, the energy company set up by the TUC, is linking up with Scottish Power to offer cheap gas and electricity to 7m trade union members from next year. 25-Nov-1997 National Grid is linking up with MPI International to acquire an 80% stake in the power division of Zambia Consolidated Mines, the provider of electricity to mines, for £30m. 25-Nov-1997 PowerGen is looking to make a major acquisition, either of a regional electricity company or of a US company, and analysts estimate it could spend up to £2bn without increasing borrowings. 21-Nov-1997 National Grid has been shortlisted for a $300m contract to build and operate a 430-mile electricity line across the Andes, linking two systems in Peru. 21-Nov-1997 National Power is planning to double its foreign expansion programme, investing up to £1bn in power ventures before the year 2000. 20-Nov-1997 Northern Ireland Electricity is setting up a new holding company called Viridian Group, which will be used to serve the whole of the Irish market and enable it to generate new earnings streams outside the control of the electricity regulator. 19-Nov-1997 Shell has indicated that it may withdraw from coal production, which is mainly concentrated in Australia and Venezuela, partly due to environmental pressures. 19-Nov-1997 The government and the Chemical Industries Association have agreed a voluntary pact that requires the chemical industry to cut fossil fuel consumption by 20% by 2005. 19-Nov-1997 BG, along with a number of other major oil and gas companies, has signed two production sharing agreements in Kazakhstan, concerning the Karachaganak field and the North Caspian field. 19-Nov-1997 BP is linking up with Sidanco, the Russian oil group, in order to invest about $3bn in the Russian oil sector and possibly launch a joint bid for Rosneft, the next state-owned oil group to be privatised. 18-Nov-1997 Shell is forming a joint venture with Gazprom, the Russian gas group, in order to produce 500,000 barrels of oil a day, while Shell will take up to half of a $2bn convertible bond that Gazprom will issue next year. 18-Nov-1997 RJB Mining has won a contract to supply 4m tonnes of coal a year to Eastern, part of the Energy Group, at an undisclosed price. 15-Nov-1997 Most of the 14 regional electricity companies have agreed to comply with the electricity regulator's supply price review, which will cut £24 from the average annual household bill, thus clearing the way for the introduction of competition to the market from next year. 15-Nov-1997 Pentex is linking up with Enron of the US in an investment and oil swap that will involve Enron acquiring an 11% stake in Pentex and the forward sale of $32m worth of Pentex's oil output. 14-Nov-1997 British Energy and Southern Electric are linking up to build about a dozen 50MW non-nuclear power plants in the UK over the next five years. 13-Nov-1997 BP and Mobil have announced the closure of their jointly-owned lubricants plant at Llandarcy near Swansea, with the loss of 400 jobs. 13-Nov-1997 RJB Mining has suspended development work at the Maltby colliery in south Yorkshire, due to uncertainty over new coal contracts. 13-Nov-1997 BP has submitted plans for a £1.3bn liquefied natural gas project to the government of Papua New Guinea, which include the development of a gas field and the construction of a 4m tonnes a year plant. 12-Nov-1997 Dragon Oil is acquiring Larmag Energy Partners' 25% stake in LEA, the vehicle for Dragon's joint venture in Turkmenistan, for £16m. 12-Nov-1997 Scottish Hydro-Electric is to offer Air Miles to new and existing customers from next year. 12-Nov-1997 BP is to sell 48 service stations in Thailand to Caltex of the US for undisclosed terms. 12-Nov-1997 Shell Oil has agreed to sell its refinery in Anacortes, Washington state, in order to win approval for its refining and marketing merger with Texaco and Star Enterprises. 11-Nov-1997 Eurosov Energy is planning a full listing on the London Stock Exchange to raise up to £20m to help develop oil fields in Siberia. 10-Nov-1997 Shell and Cairn Energy have pledged to invest up to $5bn in oil and gas developments in Bangladesh if they are successful in their bids for six more exploration blocks. 08-Nov-1997 BP is planning to invest a further $300m in Poland over the next few years, with about 60% being spent on additional petrol outlets. 08-Nov-1997 Shell is planning to link up with Gazprom to bid for Rosneft, Russia's only remaining big oil group yet to be privatised. 07-Nov-1997 BP is considering plans to re-start exploration in Russia, having pulled out of the country due to concerns about political stability. 05-Nov-1997 BP is moving to acquire the remaining minority shareholdings in its French and Spanish downstream oil operations. 04-Nov-1997 Consolidated Coal has raised £1.6m in a rights issue to develop its Aberpergwn mine. 01-Nov-1997 Dragon Oil has announced that it expects to start preparation for new drilling in Turkmenistan in spring, while drilling on a natural gas field in Thailand will start in late November. 31-Oct-1997 CIM Resources, the Australian affiliate of RJB Mining, has had plans to acquire Exxon's Australian coalfields rejected by some of its shareholders, although RJB could still go-ahead with the deal. 31-Oct-1997 BG is linking up with Arco to produce liquefied natural gas in Indonesia in order to supply the proposed Tangguh LNG processing plant in Irian Jaya. 31-Oct-1997 Lasmo has announced an oil find of "several hundred million barrels" in Libya, and is expected to surrender half to the state oil company under a production-sharing agreement. 31-Oct-1997 Eastern Electricity, part of the Energy Group, and London Electricity have responded to Centrica's pledge to undercut electricity tariffs by 15% with promised reductions of 20-25% when the market opens to competition. 31-Oct-1997 Centrica has announced plans to move into the domestic electricity supply market next year with 15% price discounts, and it claims it will be the only national supplier of both gas and electricity. 30-Oct-1997 Bula Resources, the Irish oil exploration company, is facing a government investigation into its shareholdings, following concern about the beneficial ownership of shares by Mir Oil Development. 28-Oct-1997 Emerald Energy has won its first oil block in Argentina, in the west-central part of the country, and will invest $800,000 on geophysical and geological work. 28-Oct-1997 Scottish Power and Seeboard are planning a joint venture £200m 500MW combined cycle gas turbine power station at Shoreham in Sussex. 28-Oct-1997 Peabody, part of the Energy Group, has a 25% stake in an international consortium that has won a tender to acquire and modernise the 450MW Kangal coal-fired power plant in Turkey. 27-Oct-1997 The government has ordered a review of the setting of wholesale electricity prices in order to try to establish a system that is transparent, predictable, consistent and accountable. 24-Oct-1997 Dana Petroleum is looking to develop further projects in the former Soviet Union, and wants to increase its stake in Evikhon, the Russian independent oil company. 23-Oct-1997 The government is rejecting calls for big subsidies to solar energy equipment manufacturers, saying that solar is currently too expensive compared to wind power. 23-Oct-1997 Hunting Oilfield Services has acquired Landell Industries of Texas for £4.9m. 22-Oct-1997 Vitol, the oil trader, has cut its stake in Fortune Oil from about 10% to 6% as Fortune expands away from oil trading into aviation refuelling and petrol retailing in China. 22-Oct-1997 National Power is planning to invest £160m expanding its electricity generating business in Turkey, and, as part of a consortium with two local companies, it will operate three existing coal-fired plants and build a 700MW gas-fired plant. 21-Oct-1997 Celtic Energy is claiming £20m damages from the German government, saying that it has been illegally subsidising its coal industry over the last 2 years. 21-Oct-1997 The Beryl Field consortium, which includes Amerada Hess, OMV, Mobil and Enterprise Oil, has acquired interests in three North Sea developments close to the Beryl field from Conoco for about £123m. 21-Oct-1997 Emerald Energy is acquiring the remaining 40% stake in the Apulo Association contract area in Colombia from its partner Petroleos del Norte. 18-Oct-1997 Northern Ireland Electricity and United Utilities' Vertex Data Science subsidiary have failed to agree terms on the creation of a joint venture which was intended to offer billing, data management and training services in Ireland. 17-Oct-1997 National Power and PowerGen are facing an inquiry over plans to close 1,200MW of coal-fired generating capacity, as the electricity regulator believes that the plants could be sold instead. 16-Oct-1997 British Nuclear Fuels is in negotiations with Siemens about the creation of a joint venture for their nuclear fuels and engineering operations in order to offer a one-stop shop for the nuclear power industry. 16-Oct-1997 Premier Oil has announced a gas discovery in the Natuna Sea off Indonesia showing reserves of up to 400 billion cubic feet. 16-Oct-1997 Nuon, the Dutch utility, has acquired a 33% stake in Calortex, the joint venture between Calor and Texaco, and will fund 50% of Calortex's investment programme. 16-Oct-1997 Electricity generating companies in Northern Ireland are to be referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission as their prices are 43% higher than in mainland UK. 15-Oct-1997 BG has reached a compromise agreement with Ofgas which could result in cuts of up to a quarter in gas transportation charges and a possible £34 annual saving for households. 15-Oct-1997 United Utilities has sold its US generation activities to Calpine, the Californian power company, for £25m. 14-Oct-1997 The government has removed conditions on a plan by Scottish Power to export electricity from Scotland to Northern Ireland, which will mean that the power lines can run on overhead pylons throughout its length in Scotland. 14-Oct-1997 Burlington Resources of the US has bought all of BG's interests in the East Irish Sea, and BG is in discussions with about 60 other companies over the sale of further non-core assets. 14-Oct-1997 National Grid has failed in its attempt to acquire PowerNet Victoria, the Australian state of Victoria's electricity transmission grid, which was instead sold to GPU of the US for £1.2bn. 13-Oct-1997 Shell is postponing plans to expand its retail business in the Philippines in response to the collapse of the peso and a ruling by the Supreme Court that temporarily prevents it from raising prices. 10-Oct-1997 National Power has acquired a 48% stake in Elektrarny Opatovice, the Czech power company, for £100m. 10-Oct-1997 Amoco and Amerada Hess have announced a "significant" oil and gas discovery in the North Sea, about 160 miles from the Scottish coast. 10-Oct-1997 Northumbrian Water is to set up a £11m gasification plant next to its sludge treatment centre at Bran Sands, Teesside, generating 5MW of electricity which will either be sold to the National Grid or used to power the sewage works. 10-Oct-1997 Shell is seeking to follow its competitors into the increasingly important oil region of the southern Caspian Sea, saying it is interested in taking a stake in the Kyurdashi field. 08-Oct-1997 Shell is finalising plans to create a renewable energy business with an investment of $250m, and aims to win 10% of the world solar energy market by 2005. 07-Oct-1997 Charterhouse Development Capital is looking to sell its 85% stake in Celtic Energy, the Welsh coalmining and power generation company, as Celtic requires a backer with the resources to finance a number of long-term development projects. 07-Oct-1997 National Power has awarded a £450m contract to ABB Power Generation to build a 1,500MW gas-fired power station at Staythorpe near Newark, creating 1,000 construction jobs. 07-Oct-1997 Norweb has started its campaign to take customers in the North West away from British Gas in preparation for the opening up of the market next February, and is offering 22% discounts on their current bills, a wider choice of tariffs and the eventual unification of their electric and gas bills. 06-Oct-1997 Magnox Electric is to seek permission to build a 400MW combined cycle gas-fired power station at its Anglesey site, with most of the output going to Anglesey Aluminium. 06-Oct-1997 International Energy is to raise £12.4m to help fund its expansion away from its Channel Islands base into the deregulated mainland domestic gas market. 03-Oct-1997 UK oil and gas output was down 2% in August compared to July but up 9% on last year, according to the Royal Bank of Scotland. 03-Oct-1997 Hyder is to shed 350 jobs by combining the managements of its two subsidiaries - South Wales Electricity and Welsh Water. 03-Oct-1997 Shell has announced plans for a major reorganisation of its European petrol retailing business in order to improve the profitability of its network, with up to 3,000 job cuts over the next few years and the possible return of petrol pump attendants at some outlets. 01-Oct-1997 London Electricity is offering immediate price cuts worth a total of £77m in order to help retain its customers when the market opens up to competition next year. 30-Sep-1997 BG has announced details of its share buyback, which will involve £1.3bn being returned to its 1.4m shareholders. 30-Sep-1997 Yorkshire Electric is to offer £150 per annum discounts to potential domestic gas customers in Scotland and the north-east of England, where the market is being opened up to competition from November 1. 30-Sep-1997 BP has won a 10-year contract worth over £1bn to supply fuel to half of Granada's motorway service stations. 30-Sep-1997 Shell is in discussions with Gasunie, the Dutch gas distributor, about the possibility of building a second gas pipeline across the North Sea to store supplies on the continent and then bring them back to meet peak winter demand. 26-Sep-1997 PowerGen is to close one of the four generating units at its coal-fired power station in Ferrybridge, Yorkshire, which is seen as another blow to RJB Mining, the coal producer. 25-Sep-1997 National Grid has announced plans to float Energis, its telecommunications business, and is rumoured to be considering a £1bn bid for PowerNet, the Australian electricity company. 25-Sep-1997 Emerald Energy is raising £3m from a share placing in order to fund its drilling programmes in West Virginia and Colombia. 25-Sep-1997 Lasmo has won three oil exploration licences in Pakistan's Pab and offshore Indus A and B blocks. 24-Sep-1997 Premier Oil has acquired a 29% stake in the Yolla offshore gas field in Australia in a farm-in agreement with the Boral Group. 24-Sep-1997 Ramco Energy has admitted defeat in its £54m takeover bid for JKX Oil & Gas due to opposition from the Ukrainian state-owned gas company that has taken a 21% stake in JKX. 23-Sep-1997 Independent Energy Holdings has been given the go-ahead to build a 9MW gas-fired power plant using gas from the Caythorpe field near Bridlington. 22-Sep-1997 British-Borneo Petroleum is looking to expand into other areas away from its traditional focus on the Gulf of Mexico, with possible targets including West Africa and Brazil. 19-Sep-1997 Hardy Oil & Gas is looking to expand its reserves through acquisition and expects to focus on the UK, Australia, India and Pakistan. 18-Sep-1997 Kerr-McGee of the US has won a government contract to develop the Janice oilfield in the North Sea, which is estimated to contain up to 70m barrels of recoverable oil. 17-Sep-1997 Premier Oil is planning to step up its drilling programme over the next few months with 20 new wells as it tries to reach its exploration target of 40m barrels of oil equivalent a year. 17-Sep-1997 Eastern Group has applied to the government for permission to spend £40m converting its power stations at Drakelow and Rugeley to burn gas as well as coal. 17-Sep-1997 Centrica is reducing prices to gas customers who pay by direct debit by 9% next January, giving a saving of about £28 per year to about 6 million customers. 12-Sep-1997 British Energy has set up a joint venture with PECO Energy of Philadelphia, called AmerGen Energy, which will buy and operate US nuclear power plants. 12-Sep-1997 National Power has called off a £450m plan to use the controversial orimulsion fuel at a power station in Pembroke, blaming the expected delay from a public enquiry. 12-Sep-1997 British Nuclear Fuels expects to agree terms on its merger with Magnox Electric this autumn, a move which has the support of the government. 11-Sep-1997 The government is to introduce new European environmental standards for offshore oil projects two years ahead of the 1999 deadline. 11-Sep-1997 Ukrainian state-owned oil companies have acquired about 11% of JKX Oil & Gas in an effort to prevent the company being taken over by Ramco. 11-Sep-1997 Energy Group is acquiring Southern Energy's 49% stake in the Zamosc Energy Company, which has the rights to develop three 70MW co-generation plants in Poland. 10-Sep-1997 Independent Energy Holdings has secured £25.6m of finance to fund the setting up of new power plants. 10-Sep-1997 Lonrho is to acquire Tavistock Collieries, the South African coal producer, from JCI for £229m, and JCI is expected to use the proceeds to acquire a 26.7% stake in Lonrho. 10-Sep-1997 Transco, the gas pipeline operator, is planning to cut 2,500 jobs by the end of 1998, partly blaming the tough new price controls demanded by Ofgas. 06-Sep-1997 Yorkshire Electricity is planning a £30m combined heat and power plant at a Hickson International chemicals site in Yorkshire. 04-Sep-1997 Pittencrieff, the Edinburgh-based oil and gas company, is looking to expand beyond its traditional North American focus and increase production from 3,300 barrels per day to 12,000 bpd. 04-Sep-1997 Southern Electric is to market electricity and gas through Argos high street stores, which will allow it to expand outside its traditional Thames Valley area. 04-Sep-1997 Save Group, the independent petrol retailer with 413 sites, has indicated it may be interested in a takeover by a major oil company but denies that a deal is imminent. 03-Sep-1997 Shell is planning a $2bn power generation project in India, in co-operation with the Essar Group, which will involve building a terminal to import LNG at Hazira and expanding the capacity of a nearby power station. 02-Sep-1997 BP is to take over the operation of the Ravenspur North gasfield in the North Sea from BHP of Australia. 02-Sep-1997 British Nuclear Fuels has won a £145m contract, as leader of a consortium, to decommission the US Energy Department's nuclear fuel enrichment plant at Oak Ridge. 29-Aug-1997 British Borneo Petroleum is acquiring a 60% stake in the Allegheny Field in the Gulf of Mexico for £23m, with an option to buy the remainder for £15m over the next year. 28-Aug-1997 Texaco has temporarily shut production from the new Captain oilfield in the North Sea while an investigation takes place into an oil spill on Monday. 27-Aug-1997 Enterprise Oil has won government approval to develop the Pierce field in the North Sea, and has acquired BP's 42.8% stake in the field in exchange for its 24% stake in Amethyst and its 13.5% stake in Ravenspurn North. 27-Aug-1997 Monument Oil & Gas has announced plans to boost its exploration programmes in Algeria, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, with funding coming from the revenues from its Liverpool Bay project. 23-Aug-1997 The electricity regulator has agreed a compromise with the generators which will result in electricity prices falling by between 7.5% and 10% over the next few years, a move which is seen as a compromise in order to ensure that market deregulation starts on time next April. 21-Aug-1997 Chevron of the US is to pull out of the UK oil refining and petrol retailing market due to intense competition, with about 450 Gulf service stations being sold to Shell UK. 21-Aug-1997 RJB Mining is closing the Asfordby colliery in Leicestershire due to geological problems, with the loss of up to 500 jobs. 19-Aug-1997 Esso petrol retailers have won a High Court ruling which means that Esso has been breaching European competition rules by forcing them to buy all their non-petrol products from the company. 18-Aug-1997 BG has announced the discovery of natural gas at two exploration wells north of Trinidad. 13-Aug-1997 Entergy has won government approval for its planned £300m 1200MW gas-fired power station at BP Chemicals' Saltend refinery near Hull, dashing the hopes of the coal industry which had hoped that the government would delay gas developments in favour of coal. 08-Aug-1997 BP is planning to announce a share buy-back programme at next April's annual meeting so that investors can benefit from record profits. 06-Aug-1997 BP is forming a joint venture with Modelo Continente in Portugal to set up convenience stores at BP filling stations. 05-Aug-1997 PacifiCorp's £3.65bn bid for Energy Group has been referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission, due to government concern over its ability to regulate the company afterwards. 02-Aug-1997 BP is planning to set up a network of filling stations in Japan, adjacent to shopping malls and DIY stores being built by Iseya Kosan. 31-Jul-1997 Ramco Energy is forming a new 82% subsidiary, Medusa Oil & Gas, at a cost of £4.1m, with Medusa's management taking the remaining stake. 30-Jul-1997 Lasmo has announced the discovery of a new oilfield in the Ghadames Basin in Algeria. 30-Jul-1997 Shell is in discussions to acquire a 50% stake in International Generating Company, the power generation subsidiary of Bechtel of the US, as part of its five-year plan to expand its interests in electricity. 26-Jul-1997 Aminex of Dublin is planning to raise £11m in a rights issue in order to finance an oil development in the Russian republic of Tatarstan. 25-Jul-1997 Amec Process and Energy has announced 350 redundancies at its Tyneside offshore fabrication yard, due to falling orders. 23-Jul-1997 British Borneo is launching a £167m rights issue to fund further exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. 17-Jul-1997 Centrica has signed a contract to supply gas to the Elsta co-generation project in the Netherlands through the Interconnector pipeline, the first such deal with a major European end-user. 16-Jul-1997 Rolls-Royce is to build a £35m power station in Birmingham for Eastern Group, which will use a modified aircraft engine as its generator. 16-Jul-1997 Malaysian Mining is paying £2m for a 28% stake in Northern Petroleum, the oil exploration and development company with interests in Russia. 15-Jul-1997 Medusa Oil & Gas has acquired Tullow Oil's production and exploration interests in the Czech Republic for £2.1m. 14-Jul-1997 Energy Power Resources, which invests in power stations fuelled by renewable resources, is aiming to raise £15m in a share placing in order to fund future projects. 14-Jul-1997 The Energy Group has agreed to sell the power trading activities of Citizens Power, the US electricity company, in order to win approval for its takeover by PacifiCorp. 12-Jul-1997 Calor Group is centralising its UK business by moving its head office from Slough to Leamington Spa and removing two layers of management. 09-Jul-1997 Fortune Oil has announced a £23m rights issue which will help finance an aviation fuel joint venture in China and enable it to expand its Chinese petrol stations business. 05-Jul-1997 Centrica has renegotiated three more take-or-pay gas supply deals, and the contracts, which were with Amerada Hess, OMV and Enterprise, will terminate in October 1998. 05-Jul-1997 Enterprise Oil has set up a $100m joint venture with Enserch Exploration of the US, which covers rights over 80 blocks in the Gulf of Mexico. 02-Jul-1997 Ofgas has announced that the next stage of competition in the domestic gas market will start in November, when consumers in the north of England and Scotland will be able to select their supplier. 01-Jul-1997 Thomas Potts has decided against the planned £24m acquisition of Coalite Smokeless Fuels and Coalite Chemicals from Anglo United, after it was given further information about the businesses. 28-Jun-1997 The Association of Energy Suppliers has been formed by the electricity and gas industries to promote best practice in the run-up to the liberalisation of the market. 26-Jun-1997 Hyder aims to attract about 800,000 customers when the Welsh domestic gas market is opened up to competition, and will recruit about 200 new staff to its Swalec Gas business. 25-Jun-1997 Centrica is planning to renegotiate up to one third of its "take-or-pay" North Sea gas supply contracts by next April. 24-Jun-1997 Pentex Energy is buying the remaining 50% in the Strangolagalli concession in Italy for £926,000. 24-Jun-1997 BP Energy is to build and operate a £29m combined heat and power plant at Heinz's factory in North London, generating cost savings of up to £0.5m a year. 23-Jun-1997 The Coal Authority has decided to close Monktonhall colliery near Edinburgh having failed to attract any satisfactory offers from operators. 21-Jun-1997 BG's Transco subsidiary is to cut its gas pipeline transmission prices, resulting in an average price cut for consumers of £29 per year, following a decision by the Monopolies & Mergers Commission to endorse a demand by Ofgas. 19-Jun-1997 The Automobile Association is linking up with Scottish Power to offer domestic energy supplies to its 6m members. 19-Jun-1997 United Utilities has announced its strategy for the liberalised domestic energy market, which involves setting up a new brand name - Energi, and linking up with an unnamed generator. 19-Jun-1997 PowerGen has secured a 20-year power purchase agreement with MVM, the Hungarian state electricity supplier, which will lead to a £160m power plant development in Budapest. 17-Jun-1997 Scottish Hydro-Electric has announced plans to invest up to £800m in various projects over the next five years, including an expansion of its generating capacity in England and Wales and a £200m upgrade for its gas-fired power station near Aberdeen. 13-Jun-1997 The Office of Fair Trading is to investigate the petrol retailing business through a firm of consultants, in order to understand the effects of low-cost supermarket outlets and alleged predatory pricing by oil companies. 12-Jun-1997 The government is to back plans for a Europe-wide tax on aviation fuel in order to limit greenhouse gas emissions. 12-Jun-1997 Ramco Energy has announced a production sharing agreement with the Georgian State Oil Department for a block in the Greater Caucasus Mountains. 12-Jun-1997 Expro International is to expand its oilfield services business into new areas such as the Gulf of Mexico, where deep water oilfields are increasing demand for advanced subsea equipment. 12-Jun-1997 PacifiCorp of the US is said to be considering a £3.6bn bid for Energy Group, the UK electricity and coal company that was demerged from Hanson. 11-Jun-1997 Soco International has announced a fourth oil discovery in Mongolia, described as the country's first recorded free flowing oil well. 11-Jun-1997 Venture Production Company has been formed in Aberdeen to concentrate on the development of small economically marginal North Sea oil fields using "smart wells" controlled by computers. 09-Jun-1997 Dragon Oil is to raise about £65m in a rights issue in order to fund the development of fields in the Caspian Sea. 07-Jun-1997 Lasmo has acquired the rights to operate oilfields in the Dacion region of Venezuela at a cost of £278m, a deal which could generate a 50% increase in its output over the next four years. 06-Jun-1997 British Energy has agreed a £1.5bn deal with British Nuclear Fuels for the reprocessing and storage of about one third of the waste fuel from its reactors. 05-Jun-1997 British Energy is facing the statutory shutdown of seven of its nuclear power stations in the coming year, for safety and maintenance reasons, which is likely to have a significant impact on its output. 05-Jun-1997 Enron of the US has been ordered by the High Court to pay over £150m to BG and partners for wrongly holding back payments in a dispute over gas transportation. 04-Jun-1997 Ofgas is launching an investigation into whether Centrica's Goldfish credit card, which allows users to accrue points for offsetting against gas bills, is anti-competitive. 31-May-1997 Gulf and Elf Acquitaine have called off plans to merge their UK refining and marketing assets, and Chevron, Gulf's parent, has indicated that it may now sell off its assets. 31-May-1997 Centrica has won Ofgas approval to offer 5% discounts to direct debit customers in the south west of England, the test area for gas supply competition, but Ofgas has warned that this should not be seen as a precedent for other areas. 29-May-1997 Scottish Hydro-Electric is withdrawing from the general commercial and industrial gas market by selling its stake in Vector Gas to Quantum Gas Management. 28-May-1997 Fortune Oil is discussing the sale of East Midlands Oil and Gas, which operates small onshore oil fields, in order to increase the focus on its Chinese operations. 28-May-1997 Quantum Gas Management, the gas trader, is planning an autumn flotation in order to raise funds for acquisitions and finance its entry into the domestic gas market. 26-May-1997 PowerGen has announced that it is looking for a big acquisition, and has also given details of a £398m power station project being planned in Indonesia and a £875m project in Thailand. 23-May-1997 Scottish Power has been awarded a gas transporter licence by Ofgas, which will enable it to install gas pipelines as part of a "total utilities solution" for housing and industrial developments. 23-May-1997 Lonrho is in discussions with JCI of South Africa about a possible merger which would create a £2bn mining group. 19-May-1997 BP is planning to increase its sales of solar energy equipment from $100m to $1bn over the next ten years, and will set up its first US factory at Fairfield, California, later this year. 17-May-1997 National Power has sold its 8% stake in Southern Electric for a loss of about £4.5m. 17-May-1997 Celtic Energy has won a £100m contract from National Power to supply up to 3.4m tonnes of coal over five years from next April. 16-May-1997 The Kuwait Investment Office in London has sold a 3% stake in BP, and Goldman Sachs is planning to sell most of the shares in the US where BP wants to expand its shareholder base. 15-May-1997 Centrica has agreed a contract to supply 3bn cu m of gas over seven years to Thyssengas through the Interconnector pipeline from October 1998. 15-May-1997 PowerGen is linking up with Siemens to build a £150m centre for the demonstration of combined cycle gas turbine technology at the Cottam power station in Nottinghamshire. 08-May-1997 National Power has formed a joint venture with Power Pacific Company of Hong Kong to invest £186m in the development of small power projects in China. 08-May-1997 Premier Oil has announced a new oilfield discovery in Indonesia, as well as a contract to sell about 2.5 trillion cu ft of gas from the West Natuna Sea in Indonesia. 01-May-1997 Soco International, the oil explorer concentrating on Russia and Mongolia, is planning to raise £46m with a listing on the London Stock Exchange in order to accelerate production from a Mongolian concession. 30-Apr-1997 Shell Exploration is acquiring a stake in Cairn Energy's operations in Bangladesh for £80m, and the two companies also plan to co-operate in India and other regions. 30-Apr-1997 Northern Ireland Electricity is linking up with Vertex Data Science to form an outsourcing company called Vertex (Ireland) which will offer data management and other services to NIE and other organisations. 30-Apr-1997 Shell South Africa has sold its coal operations to JCI, the South African mining group, for $100m. 30-Apr-1997 BP is swapping its 43% stake in the North Sea's Pierce Field in return for Enterprise Oil's 24% stake in the Amethyst gas field and a 13.5% stake in the Ravenspurn North gas field. 29-Apr-1997 West of Shetland oil and gas estimates have been greatly reduced from between 700m and 2.1bn tonnes to between 80m and 720m tonnes, according to the Department of Trade and Industry. 29-Apr-1997 Eni, the Italian oil and gas group, is planning a corporate restructuring which will involve moving part of its international business from Milan to London, in an effort to become a true multinational. 25-Apr-1997 Waverley Mining Finance has put its Monktonhall colliery near Edinburgh into liquidation with the loss of 300 jobs, due to flooding of its working coal face. 24-Apr-1997 National Grid has failed in its attempt to win the contract to operate and manage the electricity transmission grid in Kazakhstan, with the government selecting ABB Power Grid Consortium instead. 22-Apr-1997 Energy Group is to develop a 500MW power station and lignite mine at Barsingsar in India in a joint venture with Hindusthan Development Corporation. 17-Apr-1997 CalEnergy has made a provision, thought to be about £100m, for the possible introduction of a windfall profits tax by a future Labour government. 17-Apr-1997 Energy Group has been shortlisted to acquire New England Electric Systems, the US power generator that is being auctioned off. 14-Apr-1997 Rackwood Mineral Holdings is to develop a 500,000 tonnes per year opencast coal mine in Ayrshire, funded by a £8m rights issue. 10-Apr-1997 The government has awarded exploration licences for 114 offshore oil and gas blocks, many in the Atlantic to the west of Shetland, with eight going to a consortium of Statoil, Enterprise Oil and Mobil. 08-Apr-1997 RJB Mining is linking up with National Power to develop a clean coal-fired power station in Yorkshire, assuming positive results from a feasibility study. 08-Apr-1997 British Energy has confirmed plans to buy a 12.5% stake in Humber Power for £28m, with Elf also acquiring a 12.5% stake in the Stallingborough plant. 08-Apr-1997 John Hogg is acquiring the fuel oils division of Lookers' Charles Hurst subsidiary. 08-Apr-1997 British Energy is discussing a possible joint venture with Peco, the US power generator, which could lead to an equity investment. 08-Apr-1997 British Borneo Petroleum has reported disappointing drilling results from the Green Canyon area of the US Gulf of Mexico, as the oil is too thick to be recovered. 05-Apr-1997 Middlesex Holdings is planning to take control of Dominion Energy, the troubled oil company which had its shares suspended over one year ago. 03-Apr-1997 BP is to set up packaged solar systems in villages across the Philippines, having agreed a $30m contract with the government. 26-Mar-1997 American Electric Power and Public Service Company of Colorado has won government approval for its £1.5bn bid for Yorkshire Electricity. 22-Mar-1997 British Borneo Petroleum is planning to almost double its oil exploration and development expenditure to £175m this year, with £75m earmarked for exploring 30 wells. 21-Mar-1997 PowerGen is to acquire full control of Kinetica, the gas marketing company, from Conoco (UK) for £18m. 21-Mar-1997 Cairn Energy is in joint venture discussions with Shell concerning a joint application for exploration licences in Bangladesh. 20-Mar-1997 RTZ-CRA is to reorganise from a geographical to a product-based structure, while cutting 200 jobs in the US and Australia. 20-Mar-1997 Nirex is expected to have problems finding an alternative site for a new dump for intermediate level nuclear waste, having failed to win permission to build a new facility at Sellafield. 19-Mar-1997 Hardy Oil & Gas is planning a big increase in spending on exploration and production, with £80m going on exploration and development this year and the number of wells drilled rising to 17. 19-Mar-1997 Shell is to start inviting human rights and environmental groups to participate in some of its sensitive projects in Latin America and Africa, having been the subject of international criticism recently. 17-Mar-1997 BP has been holding meetings with Greenpeace to try to avert any environmental action against the start of production at its new Foinaven oil field, west of the Shetland Islands. 15-Mar-1997 Northern Ireland Electricity is to cut domestic electricity prices by at least 8% from April 1st, while commercial customers will get reductions of up to 3%. 14-Mar-1997 Medusa Petroleum, the new oil exploration and production company formed from the merger of Medusa Oil and two Czech businesses of Tullow Oil, plans to raise £8m with a listing on Aim. 14-Mar-1997 BP has confirmed that it has made two major discoveries recently - the Girassol oil field off Angola and the Perseus field off Australia. 13-Mar-1997 Shell is about to launch a new loyalty card scheme called Smart, in which it will link up with a consortium of high street retailers and provide points to cardholders which can be redeemed as discounts at any participating retailer. 12-Mar-1997 The government is launching a new onshore licensing round in response to companies wanting to get methane from disused coal mines and to explore for conventional oil and gas reserves. 11-Mar-1997 British-Borneo has been named as the highest bidder for 33 of the 57 blocks it applied for in the US auction of Gulf of Mexico oil exploration leases. 07-Mar-1997 PowerGen and National Power have formally agreed to break all ties with Midlands Electricity and Southern Electric respectively, following the government block on their merger plans. 06-Mar-1997 Hardy Oil & Gas is acquiring a 15.5% stake in Hindustan Oil Exploration of India for £2.9m. 06-Mar-1997 British Fuels is acquiring Sadler Tankers, the chemicals and bulk liquids haulage company, for undisclosed terms, a move which will double the size of British Fuels' tanker fleet. 06-Mar-1997 Centrica has taken over control of operations at Accord Energy, the gas trading joint venture set up with NGC of the US, although NGC will remain a shareholder. 04-Mar-1997 BP and Shell have made a "potentially commercial" oil discovery at Suilven to the west of the Shetland Islands. 04-Mar-1997 Scottish Hydro-Electric has acquired the remaining 50% of the Keadby power station from United Utilities for £253m. 01-Mar-1997 RTZ-CRA, the biggest mining company in the world, is to change its name to Rio Tinto. 28-Feb-1997 Brooklyn Union of New York is acquiring a 24.5% stake in Phoenix Natural Gas and Premier Transco, BG's pipeline and supply operation in Northern Ireland, for undisclosed terms. 26-Feb-1997 National Grid is to increase its stake in Citilec, the Argentine electricity distributor, from 15% to 40% at a cost of £30m. 25-Feb-1997 United Utilities plans to benefit from next year's liberalisation of the domestic electricity market by forming a strategic alliance with one of the US-owned regional electricity companies. 24-Feb-1997 Phillips Petroleum has announced a significant discovery of natural gas and condensate in its Jade block in the North Sea. 21-Feb-1997 Rackwood Mineral has acquired 1,300 acres of coal-bearing land in Ayrshire for £1.1m, and expects to apply for planning permission in the next 12 months. 20-Feb-1997 Enterprise Oil is planning the full-scale development of oil fields in the southern Apennines in Italy which are said to contain over 10bn barrels of oil. 17-Feb-1997 Eastern Group and Celtic Energy are discussing the construction of a 400MW clean coal power station at a cost of £300m. 17-Feb-1997 RJB Mining is planning to build a 200MW-500MW coal-fired power station to utilise output from its Yorkshire coalfields. 11-Feb-1997 Avalon Oil is hoping to raise £35m through a placing on Aim in order to finance the development of oil reserves in southern Russia. 10-Feb-1997 Shell Canada is increasing its stake in the Sable Island natural gas project in Nova Scotia from 26% to 35% through an asset swap with Mobil. 08-Feb-1997 Scottish Coal's plans to set up a large opencast coal mine near Dunfermline have been refused planning permission by the local council in Fife. 07-Feb-1997 York Waterworks has acquired PanEnergy Services' 50% stake in their York Gas joint venture, which markets gas in Yorkshire. 07-Feb-1997 KBC Advanced Technologies, the consultant to the oil refining sector, is planning a flotation in the spring which is likely to value the company at about £70m and provide funds for expansion. 04-Feb-1997 RJB Mining has warned that 8,000 coal mining jobs are at risk because of Environment Agency limits on the emissions of sulphur from power stations. 01-Feb-1997 Celtic Energy is planning to recommission the Uskmouth B power station near Newport in an effort to become Wales's biggest energy producer. 27-Jan-1997 BP is planning to build a £300m 1,100MW combined cycle gas-fired power station at its Port Talbot plant. 27-Jan-1997 RTZ-CRA is buying the Caballo Rojo coal mine in Wyoming for £60m. 22-Jan-1997 Shell is planning a major move into the global power generation market, starting in Namibia and the Philippines, in order to exploit its natural gas and coal assets over the next five years. 17-Jan-1997 British Gas aims to resolve the problem of its take-or-pay contracts by transferring some of its Morecambe gas fields to other North Sea gas producers in return for the renegotiation of contracts. 13-Jan-1997 CalEnergy, the US power producer, is to set up a head office in Newcastle in order to expand its supply and distribution business in Europe and Asia. 13-Jan-1997 British Gas is making a £500m provision in its accounts in order to cover the cost of next month's demerger and the associated job losses. 11-Jan-1997 Hunting has sold Intercontinental Chimie, the owner of 50% of an oil products storage facility in Strasbourg, for £8.4m. 09-Jan-1997 Lasmo is planning to move into power generation in order to build up more end uses for its gas output. 06-Jan-1997 PowerGen has pulled out of a project at Belvedere in Kent to set up a rubbish incinerator which generates electricity as a by-product, following protests by local environmental activists. 03-Jan-1997 The information below comes from the UK Activity Report. 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