Bangladesh: People go berserk for power

Outraged by frequent power outages, thousands of people swooped on local power distribution offices in the capital and disrupted road and rail communications. Angered by continuous power failure during the first week of Ramadan, thousands of people blocked the streets from Swamibagh to Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. They burnt tyres in front of the Dhalpur power distribution office and ransacked around 50 vehicles on the streets, witnesses said. In Sylhet, 300 people ransacked the Power Development Board office in the city, damaged its furniture and set it on fire.

A Desa official said the area under Islambagh sub-station has been experiencing a severe power crisis for the last few weeks. The supply situation aggravated after a 210MW unit at Ghorashal Power Station tripped due to technical faults. Dhaka city and its adjoining areas experienced 600MW load shedding. The situation in other cities and rural areas deteriorated further. Many rural areas had been without electricity for hours.

(2006-09-30 22:02:11 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

The Arctic: Oil's last frontier

peakoil.com -> money.cnn.com :

The sea under the Arctic polar cap is unlikely to remain largely untapped for long - governments and corporations are racing to carve up the Arctic oil pie, which according to a USGS study may contain 25% of all untapped reserves. With it comes the sticky and as yet unanswered political questions over which countries have rights to which fields and whether this development can be pulled off without too much environmental and social damage.

Then there's the matter of drilling itself. The Arctic ice pack, three to 10 meters thick and always shifting, poses significant challenges. The solution involves heavy reinforcement of rigs or drill ships and using steel that is less brittle, as normal steel can easily break at temperatures below 20 degF (-6.6 degC). Whether even the reinforced rigs survive is a concern for environmentalists, who fear the ice could cause a spill by damaging equipment and make a cleanup next to impossible.

And there's also a feeling that drilling in the Arctic, made possible largely by global warming at least partially caused by burning fossil fuels, is perverse. "It just feeds a vicious cycle," said Athan Manuel, director of lands protection for the Sierra Club. Manuel said meeting the world's energy needs should first start with a serious commitment to conservation combined with expanded use of cleaner technologies. "More drilling is not the solution," he said. "We think this is a terrible idea."

To Peak Oil, or not To Peak Oil

321energy.com :

We have been struck by the number of bearish reports and comments emanating from analysts, fund managers and assorted pundits with regard to oil, gas and other commodities. But an oil bubble or a commodities bubble? We don't think so. And other analysts, including Adam Hamilton, also do not believe it. Oil prices in real terms are below the highs seen at the heights of the Iranian crisis in 1979-80. Today, oil would have to rise towards $100 to equal those levels. Another measurement of a bubble that Hamilton noted was P/E ratios. At the top of the NASDAQ mania in 2000, P/E ratios were well above 100 and some were over 200. It was clearly not sustainable. The average P/E of the XOI stocks today is 8.5 - hardly manic. A quick check reveals such stalwarts as EnCana with a P/E of 6 and Exxon Mobil with a P/E of 10. If anything, they remain cheap.

Oil certainly since the 1970's has a history of booms and busts and there is no reason to not believe as GaveKal correctly points out that it can not happen again. Here we are in complete agreement. Until that happens, though, peak oil and the continued demand for it will continue to maintain an upward push on global prices. And the real explosion is still to come, when war breaks out between Iran and the West that could encompass the entire globe. Then and only then will we see the bubble that many have said has been burst today.

(2006-09-30 15:56:47 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

SPH Magazines acquires Hardware Zone

news.asiaone.com.sg, forums.hardwarezone.com (thread) :

SPH Magazines, a wholly-owned company of media giant Singapore Press Holdings Limited, has acquired Hardware Zone (HWZ), a leading IT media company in Asia, and its subsidiaries for $7.1 million.

HWZ, which provides marketing channels and services to the information communications, technology and interactive entertainment industry, has operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, China and Australia, publishing prolific IT magazine titles. Its stable of publications include HWM, GameAxis Unwired and PHOTOVIDEOi. It also operates popular online portal www.hardwarezone.com which has monthly pageviews of more than 35 million.

- Hmm, IMHO it looks like a case of "The MSM Strikes Back". Some of the forumers are already up in arms. They haven't started talking about "black helicopters", but I'd suppose that's more of an American thing. I don't visit HWZ very often nowadays anyway. I don't buy their magazines. I guess I'd only worry about their ability to continue updating their price lists :)

(2006-09-30 15:29:59 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Seagate to invest $1.3 billion in new Singapore plant

business-times.asia1.com.sg :

Seagate Technology, the world's largest computer disk-drive maker, said it would invest $1.3 billion (US$819 million) in its third hard-disk recording media plant in Singapore.

Jerry Glembocki, senior vice president of Seagate's Recording Heads and Media Operations, said that the new plant would be operational from mid-2008 and would create 3,000 new jobs. Seagate's three plants in Singapore would supply about 80% of the company's total requirement for recording media, a critical component used in the assembly of its disk drives.

Sanyo may cut 1000 more jobs

news.yahoo.com :

Struggling electronics maker Sanyo is considering slashing up to 1,000 more jobs as it seeks to rebuild its appliance operations. Sanyo, Japan's third-largest consumer electronics maker, has already cut 15% of its work force as part of a sweeping restructuring that included closing factories, halving its debt and streamlining unprofitable operations such as appliances and chips.

Sanyo is considered a weak player in the cut-throat electronics industry, unable to produce goods efficiently enough to keep pace with the likes of Matsushita and Sharp. Heavy losses have battered its finances, forcing it earlier this year to issue 300 billion yen (US$2.6 billion) worth of preferred shares on very favourable terms to three financial institutions, which also effectively gained control of its board.