Top Energy/Automotive News As Reported, Thursday, 23rd March, 2023
London, 23 March, 2023, (Oilandgaspress):Oil prices gain some ground this morning after major losses earlier this week.
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced that it has reached a basic agreement on a partnership for software development with KPIT Technologies Limited (KPIT Technologies), one of the largest software integration partners for the automotive and mobility industry. In today’s automobile market, the popularization of electrified, automated and connected cars is accelerating, and the strong capability to develop software necessary for such vehicles is becoming indispensable. Moreover, the importance of software development is increasing, as product development based on the concept of “software-defined mobility,” in which software defines the value of hardware and services, is accelerating toward the realization of new value creation through next-generation mobility products and services.
In light of such automotive technology trends, Honda has reached a basic agreement on a partnership with KPIT Technologies, a company with strengths in software development. Through this partnership, the two companies will bring together their respective strengths, namely Honda’s software architecture and control and safety technologies and KPIT Technologies’ software development capabilities, and strive to realize new value that can be created through software. Based on this partnership, KPIT Technologies plans to increase the number of its vehicle system software development experts to a level close to 2,000 by 2030.
Based on this partnership, the two companies will work together for software development in the following areas.
Operating system(OS) for the next-generation electrical/electronic (E&E) architecture
Electrified powertrains
Advanced safety and automated driving
IVI (In-vehicle infotainment) and connected technologies Read More
Solar Solutions International 2023
Delta, a global leader in power and thermal management solutions, will be present at Solar Solutions international, hosted at the Expo Haarlemmermeer, the Netherlands. Delta will showcase its full range of Flex Series string inverters, which are suitable for residential, commercial and industrial rooftop PV installations. In addition, Delta will demonstrate its PV inverter monitoring solution, along with its Integrated Bluetooth® solution that enables smartphones to be connected to the inverter for easy commissioning with the DeltaSolar app. With decades of experience in developing solar inverter solutions, combined with its global resources and partner network, Delta is well placed to empower customers to make the transition to more efficient and sustainable energy resources.
Complete range of Solar Solutions Delta’s full range of Flex products and solutions include the M15A/M20A/M30A Flex – for applications and environments that require low-noise levels – to the M50A/M70A/M100A Flex, for demanding, large rooftop systems. Highlights of the Flex Series include a compact design with a large front door, a uniform mounting plate and integrated type 2 surge arresters on both sides. The inverters are easy to combine, while setup and system monitoring and management are conducted conveniently via the internet through the MyDeltaSolar Cloud service. Monitoring Solutions for PV Inverters
Delta’s PV inverter monitoring solution is the combination of the Data Collector and Power Meter (in single phase or three phase), designed for monitoring PV inverters and conducting export control/dynamic power control applications to ensure that solar energy is supplied based on the requirements of the power company, or to take into account the load on the grid connection. With its wired and wireless communication interface,the Data Collector offers connections to either the MyDeltaSolar or 3rd party cloud services to realise remote 1/2 Read More
Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and the Toyota Group companies will hold a memorial service for TMC honorary chairman the late Shoichiro Toyoda, who passed away on February 14 this year, at the following date, time and location.
Date Monday, April 24, 2023 Time 14:30-16:30 Tokyo Room Fuyo, 1st floor, The Main building, Hotel New Otani Tokyo
4-1, Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nagoya Midland Hall, 5th floor, Midland Square
4-7-1, Meieki, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi Toyota Main Hall, Toyota Motor Corporation
1, Toyota-cho, Toyota-shi, Aichi NOTES Flowers and gifts will not be accepted. Read More
Equinor ASA (OSE: EQNR, NYSE: EQNR) publishes the integrated annual report for 2022, combining financial and sustainability reporting. “Through 2022 we focused on securing safe and reliable delivery of energy. The invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s weaponisation of energy brought further instability to already tight markets, and across the organisation we have felt the responsibility that comes with being the single largest supplier of gas to Europe. At the same time, we also progressed on our Energy transition plan,” says Anders Opedal, President and CEO of Equinor ASA.
Equinor publishes an integrated report for 2022 combining annual financial and sustainability reporting. This reflects the increasing importance of environmental, social and governance issues to the company’s stakeholders. The report applies the principle of double materiality, covering topics that are most material either financially or due to Equinor’s impact on nature or society, or both.
Operational and financial performance
In 2022 Equinor stepped up to deliver safe, secure, and reliable energy production, with low emissions from operations. The twelve-month average Serious Incident Frequency (SIF) 2022 was 0.4, unchanged from 2021.
“My number one priority is to keep everyone working for Equinor safe. It is encouraging to see that the number of serious incidents is at the lowest level so far. We will continue to work systematically and collaborate with our peers and suppliers to ensure the safety of all our people,” Opedal says. Read More
DNO ASA, today reported that cumulative oil production from its Peshkabir field in the Kurdistan region of Iraq has broken through the 100 million-barrel milestone less than six years after startup. The field was initially estimated to contain proven and probable reserves of 75 million barrels of oil commingled with associated gas.
In 2020, DNO completed a USD 110 million project to capture, transport and inject the commingled gas into the neighboring Tawke field to achieve the triple goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing oil recovery and saving gas for future use, in what is the first and only such project in Kurdistan.
“Even though Peshkabir has already delivered more oil than we thought it held, we now project that there are at least another 100 million barrels still to be produced from this prolific field,” said DNO’s Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani. “Team DNO has succeeded in getting oil out of the ground in record time and at industry beating costs while adjusting drainage strategy as understanding of the reservoir grows,” he added.
Mr. Mossavar-Rahmani went on to say that DNO firmly believes there are more Tawkes and Peshkabirs in Kurdistan and that the Company is well positioned to find and tap them. Cumulative oil production from DNO’s currently operated fields is approaching 440 million barrels.
Development of the Peshkabir field continues with the drilling of new wells and initiation of water and gas injection pilot projects to assess additional oil recovery potential. Earlier this month, field production was reduced from about 60,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) to 43,000 bopd for maintenance workovers, including to replace downhole pumps. Once completed, the Company expects to recover full field production by end April and retains its 2023 production projection of 100,000 bopd for the Tawke license. DNO operates and has a 75 percent stake in this license containing the Tawke and Peshkabir fields with partner Genel Energy plc holding the balance. Read More
Appearing together before stakeholders for the first time since the leadership change press conference, President Akio Toyoda and incoming President Koji Sato spoke about Toyota’s relationship with its suppliers.They took the stage at Toyota’s global suppliers convention, held in person for the first time in four years. Speaking for some 700 representatives from around the world, the current and incoming presidents shared their thoughts on the relationship that Toyota has built with its suppliers over many years.
Toyota Times shares their messages in full. Read More
The first car of Bentley’s Blower Continuation Series – known as Car Zero – is set to invoke the history of its ancestor by racing at a series of events across 2023. Completing its purpose of engineering validation while honouring its genealogy, Blower Car Zero will take to tracks in the UK, France and Belgium in a set of races that will test its performance and endurance.
The Blower Continuation Series – the first pre-war continuation series ever created – has been built by hand using a combination of modern laser-scanned data and original drawings. Both the blueprints and the 3D data were taken from the 1929 4½-litre supercharged Team Car #2 – the most famous Bentley in the world, and one of the icons of the Bentley Heritage Collection. 93 years after that car competed at Le Mans (and elsewhere), Car Zero will assume the original Blower’s mantle and race to win – including at the Circuit de la Sarthe, in what will be the first Bentley works car to race at Le Mans since the Speed 8’s victory in 2003.
Modifications to allow Blower Car Zero to go racing have been minor, and safety-related. They include the installation of a rain light, wing mirrors, towing points, a fire extinguisher and a battery isolation switch. The car also now holds an Historic Technical Passport (HTP), the certifies the car as eligible to compete in FIA-sanctioned events for historic vehicles.
Blower Car Zero will compete at three tracks in 2023:
Donington Park, UK, 29 – 30 April
Le Mans, France, 29 June – 3 July
Spa, Belgium, 28 – 30 September
After Car Zero, 12 further Blower Continuation Series cars have been commissioned through Mulliner – Bentley’s bespoke and personalisation division – with eight delivered and four still in-build. Some of these customer cars will compete alongside Car Zero at Le Mans in the summer, together with original Bentley Team cars from the 1920s. Read More
The painting of a Bugatti hyper sports car requires incredible consistency to always meet the standards of the brand, week after week, car after car.
Once a car is painted to the high standards required by Bugatti, there still remains four days of polishing for the perfect shine – the most comprehensive polishing process in the industry. Finally, the paintwork is scrutinized under the bright white lights of Bugatti’s light tunnel for ten hours, the body work scrutinized by touch and sight to identify any near-microscopic blemishes.
In total, this extremely meticulous process of paintwork alone takes 600-700 hours of craft, or the equivalent of one person working 24 hours a day constantly for nearly a month. The end result is a jewel of precision and beauty that is designed not just for years, but centuries. But the painting specialists are not only responsible for bringing to life a customer’s vision in color, they also play a key role in the bespoke process of creating a very specific color if a customer requests it. Indeed, their expertise is sought by the Bugatti design and engineering teams in the creation of unique colors, perhaps to match the warm tones of a sunset viewed from their home or their favorite handbag. The paint craftspeople are often the arbiters of what is possible to achieve to Bugatti’s uncompromising standards. Read More
Volkswagen anchor investor Porsche SE on Thursday said it aimed to improve its net liquidity to between minus 6.1 and 5.6 billion euros by the end of this year following its purchase of a Porsche AG equity stake last year.
It stood at minus 6.7 billion euros ($7.3 billion) by the end of last year.
The company proposed a dividend of 2.56 euros per preference share and 2,554 euros per ordinary share.
“It is important to us that this proposed dividend finds a balance between a stable dividend and the steady reduction of our debt,” Porsche Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said upon releasing the figures. Read More
Porsche AG and its partner UP.Labs have jointly founded their first company. Los Angeles-based startup Pull Systems is developing a machine-learning-as-a-service solution for capturing and analyzing vehicle data.Pull Systems intelligent platform aims to quickly and easily generate important information about the vehicle, such as the condition of the vehicle’s battery or power electronics. Vehicle manufacturers, suppliers as well as third-party providers are expected to benefit from better data quality thanks to Pull Systems. The team was launched in 2022 and consists of experts from the automotive industry and operates in California and Germany. The launch of Pull Systems has now been announced at South by Southwest®. The creation of the company is subject to the approval by the competent antitrust authorities.
Pull Systems is the first startup from Porsche’s collaboration with U.S. company UP.Labs, the venture lab of mobility investment firm UP.Partners. “With UP.Labs, we are expanding our digital ecosystem to include an external venture lab. In this way, we are strengthening Porsche’s digital expertise and entering into an exchange with international talents and their know-how,” says Lutz Meschke, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG and Member of the Executive Board for Finance and IT.
UP.Labs and Porsche together plan to establish six new companies by 2025 – with innovative and customized business models around core topics of mobility that are strategic to Porsche and the industry at large. Pull Systems, who’s first investment round was led by UP.Partners, is the first of these companies and aims to set new standards in data-driven analytics to enhance the product experience. Read More
| Oil and Gas Blends | Units | Oil Price $ | change |
| Crude Oil (WTI) | USD/bbl | $70.09 | Up |
| Crude Oil (Brent) | USD/bbl | $75.95 | Up |
| Bonny Light | USD/bbl | $75.73 | Up |
| Saharan Blend | USD/bbl | $75.69 | Up |
| Natural Gas | USD/MMBtu | $2.19 | Down |
| OPEC basket 22/03/23 | USD/bbl | $74.75 | Up |
KBR (NYSE: KBR) announced today that it has acquired Acetica℠, an acetic acid production technology, which expands KBR’s petrochemicals value chain through a profitable pathway for CO2 utilization. This technology will enable the back-integration of CO2 from carbon capture to produce high value chemicals such as Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM), which is a key ingredient in sustainable coatings, adhesives, and other materials that support a net-zero transition. KBR is the only independent global licensor of acetic acid technology. “KBR is continuing to expand its wide spectrum of sustainable technology solutions in the syngas and acetyls value chains,” said Doug Kelly, KBR President, Technology. “As the only independently available acetic acid technology in the global market today, KBR’s Acetica enables clients to monetize captured carbon through the production of sustainable high-value products used in our daily lives.” Read More
Baker Hughes Rig Count
U.S. +8 to 754 Canada -16 to 207
| Region | Period | Rig Count | Change from Prior |
| U.S.A | 17 March 2023 | 754 | +8 |
| Canada | 17 March 2023 | 207 | -16 |
| International | February 2023 | 915 | +14 |
OilandGasPress Energy Newsbites and Analysis Roundup | Compiled by: OGP Staff, Segun Cole @oilandgaspress.
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