As low oil prices continue to put downward pressure on oil and gas companies, supply chain efficiencies are needed more than ever in the industry, particularly in the non-hydrocarbon area.
Vestas Wind Systems and Siemens Gamesa are giants of the wind-power industry, building mammoth turbines that rise high into the air and power more and more homes. But disappointing earnings reports from the two companies last week indicated that even they are struggling to adapt to a fast-changing sector.
About a hundred years ago, common jobs included manufacturing positions, roles in agriculture and artisan services. Today, occupations in health care, computers and construction are on the rise. Technology and society's changing needs mean the workforce is constantly evolving.
Violations of the federal Clean Air Act can lead to hefty fines, and even heftier spending on improvement plans, as ExxonMobil was reminded last week: The company settled with the Department of Justice, the EPA and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality for a civil fine of $2.5m and an agreement to spend approximately $300m on air pollution improvements.
From the window of our small plane flying low over the desert, Saudi Arabia's Empty Quarter looks as remote as the name suggests, with burnt-orange dunes stretching into infinity under the blinding sun. Not even the Bedouin nomads with their camels are visible, because there are too few of them amid the vast landscape. It's only when the plane bumps down on an empty runway at an outpost called Shaybah that it is clear that the world's biggest sand desert is not, in fact, empty.
University of Delaware researchers have developed a new method for constructing offshore wind farms and proven that it is cheaper, faster and could make possible offshore wind deployment at a scale and pace able to keep up with the region's scheduled retirements of nuclear and coal-fired power plants.
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are working on a project designed to show that homes and vehicles could be powered by fuel made from seaweed grown at large-scale offshore farms.
Europe's air-safety regulator recommended that companies using material from Kobe Steel Ltd. review their supply chains and - if alternative suppliers are available - suspend purchases from the Japanese company that admitted to faking data about product strength.
The latest supply-chain news, analysis, trends and tools for executives in the chemicals and energy industries. Learn how chemical and energy companies and their suppliers around the world are managing the flow of products across all channels of the enterprise. Experts sound off on forecasting and demand planning, supply-chain visibility, logistics outsourcing, inventory optimization, transportation management, warehouse management, supply-chain security, corporate social responsibility and more.
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