Iran beefs up oil tanker fleet
Iran has beefed up its oil tanker fleet with vessels from China and is selling more crude to Beijing as Tehran struggles under international sanctions, the IEA said in a report Friday.
Iran's once lucrative oil sector has been crippled by sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union over Tehran's controversial nuclear drive. Despite Iranian denials, the West is convinced Tehran is pursuing a nuclear bomb.
In its monthly oil market report, the International Energy Agency said Iranian crude oil production in July fell back to 2.6m barrels per day (mbd) 50 000m barrels less per day from June.
In contrast, however, the IEA said that preliminary data show that Iranian crude oil exports climbed to 1.16 mbd from just 960 000 barrels per day in June, mainly owing to a rebound in Chinese imports which last month rose to 660 000 barrels of oil per day from 385 000 the month before.
"Just five countries reported importing crude from Iran in July China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates," the IEA said, noting the number of countries totalled as many as 16 in January 2012.
Despite this, the IEA said "Iran continues to expand its shipping fleet in a bid to sustain crude sales in the wake of increasingly stringent international sanctions".
Since May, it has added four more supertankers, known as VLCCs, to its fleet, which now totals 37 VLCCs and 14 smaller crude tankers.
Most of the additions come from China as part of a 2009 deal to buy 12 VLCCs for $1.2bn.
"The expanding shipping fleet should provide the state oil company more flexibility in marketing its crude and for use in floating storage," the IEA said.
In his first news conference since taking office, Iran's new President Hassan Rowhani earlier this month said he is determined to find a solution to the nuclear programme issue. The IEA said that although analysts are still sceptical, "markets warmed to the tone".
New permit proposals could slow shale drilling
Beset by protests that have made the question of whether to allow shale drilling a national issue, shale firms complain that the UK's complex application process takes months longer than in the United States, discouraging investment.
In a technical guidance document on its website, the EA proposed taking longer than normal to decide whether to give an environmental permit for onshore oil and gas exploration if a site is of "high public interest".
If approved, the agency said that the new guidance could increase the time scale for granting environmental permits from the current 13 weeks to six months or more to give it time to consult properly with local communities.
That would be just the latest blow to an industry that the government, keen on the jobs and revenue that Britain's theoretically substantial shale gas reserves could generate, has said it is keen to support.
"This has the potential to delay the exploration of shale gas resources in the UK," said Simon Colvin, an expert on energy and environmental regulations at law firm Pinsent Masons.
"The high public interest status could mean an extremely lengthy process, taking into account a number of rounds of community consultation."
The proposal is part of a consultation document which people can comment on until October 23. The agency will then consider the responses before publishing a final version of the guidance later this year.
"Given the current level of public interest in unconventional gas and oil exploration, it's likely that we will treat such sites as being of high public interest," the agency said in the document on its website.
Fracking
It has been estimated that Britain might have major shale reserves but the amount which could be developed commercially is still uncertain.
The government is looking to shale gas to reduce its reliance on natural gas imports and unveiled tax breaks last month for shale gas developers, which analysts said could attract more companies.
British exploration firms IGas and Cuadrilla are at the exploration stage in shale gas, while other firms are watching developments with interest. But they continue to face significant barriers.
Fracking, which retrieves gas and oil trapped in tight layered rock formations by injecting high-pressure water, sand and chemicals, has already been banned for a year in 2011 after triggering small earthquakes. Protestors successfully blocked access to a Cuadrilla site in southern England last month.
Developers already need to make nine separate applications to the EA for a single exploratory well. They also have to get planning permission from the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Health and Safety Executive.
"Delaying the process further is simply another layer of red tape at the early stages of exploration," said Colvin.
The cost of complexity
Simple:
conquering the crisis of complexity by Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn
THE subtitle of this book is conquering the crisis of complexity, and a crisis it is.
Are you paying for things you did not order because the account is too complex to understand? Americans are paying $2bn each year for services they did not request or use on their phone accounts, because the format is confusing.
Research into insurance policy holders indicates that a third to a half of them misunderstood what they have bought.
Most medicine warning labels and inserts are insufficient warning to all but the medically trained.
The solution to these problems is to reduce or eliminate complexity. Simplification is not degeneration into the simplistic. The distinction lies in understanding what is essential and meaningful as opposed to what is not, and then ruthlessly eliminating what is not essential and meaningful.
Why has everything we encounter become so complex? The authors cite many factors, one of which is that simplicity is hard to achieve, which is why Leonardo da Vinci is referred to as “the ultimate sophistication”.
We also need to accept that it is deliberately used as a money-making tactic by those who wish to extract what we would not hand over, if we only knew. On the other hand, many think that more information equals greater clarity, which it definitely does not.
Simplification involves removing complications, unnecessary layers, or distractions while focusing on the essence of what people want and need in that situation.
Are some industries and offerings too complicated to be simplified? Consider air travel with the various forms of reservation, seating, meals, check-in, landing rights, disembarking and embarking, plane maintenance, fuel volatility, and more. Add to this the overcrowding in the industry.
Southwest Airlines have made their mark through simplifying everything from booking to the maintenance of their planes, from meals to their baggage policy. The result is that they are one of the world’s few consistently profitable airlines.
There are probably very few things that cannot be further simplified. What simplification requires is a thorough and persuasive commitment by an organisation to “empathize, distil, and clarify”.
Consider the following situation. You are asleep on the 20th floor of a hotel in a foreign city. At 03:30 you are awoken by a fire alarm. You can smell smoke. You recall seeing the evacuation instructions on the door.
You try desperately and unsuccessfully to decipher what map is describing, as the alarm is blaring in your ears and the smell of smoke is becoming more intense.
The map was designed by a safety agency in a well-lit office, by a relaxed and cheerful safety officer. When he was done, he was sure he had a good piece of work. It was clear and accurate. So, what went wrong?
He had not considered how one feels on the 20th floor of a hotel in a foreign city at 03:30, when you are woken up by a fire alarm and can smell smoke. Your emotional state was not considered; the safety officer had not empathised with the condition of the reader of the map under duress.
Empathising with the clients, whether it is the intake at a hospital or your monthly bank or cellphone statement, requires an understanding of how the recipient will experience what you are communicating.
The second factor in simplification is to distil the information or procedure down to its essentials. These essentials are defined by the user’s requirements, not those of the company.
In the Siegel+Gate 2011 Global Brand Simplicity Index, one brand stood out above the rest: Google. Using Google is a simple and a rewarding experience. Visit their landing page and then the landing page of other search engines. Google’s is uncluttered and simple.
To keep it this way, any new features staff wish to add to the landing page must go through an “audition”. The goal is for the home page to have the fewest number of points, because more points mean less simplicity.
This is not only an aesthetic consideration - rather, it has been proven to be an economic one. Studies in the USA have shown that consumers are willing to spend about 20 minutes trying to work out how to operate a new toy. After that, they give up and return the toy to the store.
The cost of returned products in the USA is $100bn a year, excluding the reputational damage.
Flip, a video camera, has only one button. Press it and you start videoing and press it again to stop. That is it. A primary school child and an adult can use it, but it is not a cheap, crude toy.
Rather, it is a highly sophisticated camera with proprietary, built-in exposure control algorithms to make sure the picture maintains a smooth look over a range of lighting conditions. You do not see all the complexity, all you see is the elegant simplicity, the distillation of the user’s needs into a convenient video camera.
Two million units were sold in the first six months it was on the market, and it held an impressive 37% of the camcorder market in 2011.
The third part of the simplification process is the clarification aspect. According to health research organisation NEIH, people’s inability to follow prescription drug instructions cost $290bn in medical expenses each year. The instructions are obviously not clear enough for the users.
The problem is compounded when you have multiple drugs in your medicine cupboard, all in very similar-looking vials.
A pioneer in this field was alerted to the problem when her grandmother took ill from mistakenly using her grandfather’s similar-looking medication. The medicine labelling, she discovered, was practically unreadable even for her, a young woman.
She devised a very simple format that would occupy most of the size of the label and contain only three pieces of information. What is the name of the person for whom then medicine is intended? What is the name of the medicine and the dosage prescribed? How should it be taken?
Any business or service can increase its appeal to customers merely by simplifying the engagement with them. The number of touch-points where improvement can be made inexpensively and quickly is substantial.
The range includes product instructions, invoicing, correspondence, and even finding your contact details. The simplicity of getting information on how you can serve potential customers is widely indicated.
There is gold in this book. Read it.
THE subtitle of this book is conquering the crisis of complexity, and a crisis it is.
Are you paying for things you did not order because the account is too complex to understand? Americans are paying $2bn each year for services they did not request or use on their phone accounts, because the format is confusing.
Research into insurance policy holders indicates that a third to a half of them misunderstood what they have bought.
Most medicine warning labels and inserts are insufficient warning to all but the medically trained.
The solution to these problems is to reduce or eliminate complexity. Simplification is not degeneration into the simplistic. The distinction lies in understanding what is essential and meaningful as opposed to what is not, and then ruthlessly eliminating what is not essential and meaningful.
Why has everything we encounter become so complex? The authors cite many factors, one of which is that simplicity is hard to achieve, which is why Leonardo da Vinci is referred to as “the ultimate sophistication”.
We also need to accept that it is deliberately used as a money-making tactic by those who wish to extract what we would not hand over, if we only knew. On the other hand, many think that more information equals greater clarity, which it definitely does not.
Simplification involves removing complications, unnecessary layers, or distractions while focusing on the essence of what people want and need in that situation.
Are some industries and offerings too complicated to be simplified? Consider air travel with the various forms of reservation, seating, meals, check-in, landing rights, disembarking and embarking, plane maintenance, fuel volatility, and more. Add to this the overcrowding in the industry.
Southwest Airlines have made their mark through simplifying everything from booking to the maintenance of their planes, from meals to their baggage policy. The result is that they are one of the world’s few consistently profitable airlines.
There are probably very few things that cannot be further simplified. What simplification requires is a thorough and persuasive commitment by an organisation to “empathize, distil, and clarify”.
Consider the following situation. You are asleep on the 20th floor of a hotel in a foreign city. At 03:30 you are awoken by a fire alarm. You can smell smoke. You recall seeing the evacuation instructions on the door.
You try desperately and unsuccessfully to decipher what map is describing, as the alarm is blaring in your ears and the smell of smoke is becoming more intense.
The map was designed by a safety agency in a well-lit office, by a relaxed and cheerful safety officer. When he was done, he was sure he had a good piece of work. It was clear and accurate. So, what went wrong?
He had not considered how one feels on the 20th floor of a hotel in a foreign city at 03:30, when you are woken up by a fire alarm and can smell smoke. Your emotional state was not considered; the safety officer had not empathised with the condition of the reader of the map under duress.
Empathising with the clients, whether it is the intake at a hospital or your monthly bank or cellphone statement, requires an understanding of how the recipient will experience what you are communicating.
The second factor in simplification is to distil the information or procedure down to its essentials. These essentials are defined by the user’s requirements, not those of the company.
In the Siegel+Gate 2011 Global Brand Simplicity Index, one brand stood out above the rest: Google. Using Google is a simple and a rewarding experience. Visit their landing page and then the landing page of other search engines. Google’s is uncluttered and simple.
To keep it this way, any new features staff wish to add to the landing page must go through an “audition”. The goal is for the home page to have the fewest number of points, because more points mean less simplicity.
This is not only an aesthetic consideration - rather, it has been proven to be an economic one. Studies in the USA have shown that consumers are willing to spend about 20 minutes trying to work out how to operate a new toy. After that, they give up and return the toy to the store.
The cost of returned products in the USA is $100bn a year, excluding the reputational damage.
Flip, a video camera, has only one button. Press it and you start videoing and press it again to stop. That is it. A primary school child and an adult can use it, but it is not a cheap, crude toy.
Rather, it is a highly sophisticated camera with proprietary, built-in exposure control algorithms to make sure the picture maintains a smooth look over a range of lighting conditions. You do not see all the complexity, all you see is the elegant simplicity, the distillation of the user’s needs into a convenient video camera.
Two million units were sold in the first six months it was on the market, and it held an impressive 37% of the camcorder market in 2011.
The third part of the simplification process is the clarification aspect. According to health research organisation NEIH, people’s inability to follow prescription drug instructions cost $290bn in medical expenses each year. The instructions are obviously not clear enough for the users.
The problem is compounded when you have multiple drugs in your medicine cupboard, all in very similar-looking vials.
A pioneer in this field was alerted to the problem when her grandmother took ill from mistakenly using her grandfather’s similar-looking medication. The medicine labelling, she discovered, was practically unreadable even for her, a young woman.
She devised a very simple format that would occupy most of the size of the label and contain only three pieces of information. What is the name of the person for whom then medicine is intended? What is the name of the medicine and the dosage prescribed? How should it be taken?
Any business or service can increase its appeal to customers merely by simplifying the engagement with them. The number of touch-points where improvement can be made inexpensively and quickly is substantial.
The range includes product instructions, invoicing, correspondence, and even finding your contact details. The simplicity of getting information on how you can serve potential customers is widely indicated.
There is gold in this book. Read it.
New trade route to Europe
A 19 000-ton cargo vessel is making the first journey by a Chinese merchant ship to Europe via the Northeast Passage, a shortened route that could revolutionise trade, state media reported Saturday.
The Arctic route has become navigable due to global warming melting sea ice and promises to slash journey times by around 12 to 15 days, saving shipping companies and Chinese exporters millions in lower fuel bills and reduced operating costs.
A freighter belonging to Chinese shipping firm Cosco left the northeastern port of Dalian on Thursday and was expected to take 33 days to reach Europe via the Bering Strait and Russia's northern coastline, the official China Daily reported.
The SinoShipNews website said the vessel was headed for Rotterdam and was due to arrive on September 11.
The new route, which is now navigable for around four months of the year from the end of July, avoids the politically unstable pinch point of the Suez canal, and trims around 7 000 kilometres off the journey, according to the China Daily.
Around 90% of China's foreign trade is carried by sea and Beijing is also hoping the new shipping route can help develop the northeast.
In 2012, 46 ships used the Northeast Passage, compared with four in 2010, according to Rosatomflot, a Russian operator of icebreakers.
But the traffic is still negligible compared with traditional commercial shipping routes, such as the Suez Canal, which has 19 000 ships pass through it a year.
Previous estimates have suggested up to 15% of Chinese foreign trade could use the Arctic route by 2020.
Europe is one of China's largest trading partners, with two-way trade last year worth nearly $550bn.
