Europe

Dutch oil giant Shell has reported profits of $18.6 billion (£11.5 billion) for 2010, on the back of increased production and rising oil prices.

Profits were nearly double that of last year, with earnings in the final quarter soaring by almost 400 per cent to $5.7 billion.

Commenting, Shell’s CEO Peter Voser said: “Our 2010 earnings increased substantially from 2009 levels, driven by improving industry fundamentals, and Shell’s production growth and cost performance.”

West Africa-focused Stellar Diamonds has reported “encouraging” initial diamond recoveries from drill core samples of the company's Droujba kimberlite pipe in south-east Guinea.

The company recovered 538 diamonds from 291.62kg of kimberlite, including five commercial-sized diamonds larger than 0.85mm.

The majority of the diamonds recovered are classified as white, colourless and transparent.

Employment in the UK’s wind power industry has surged 91 per cent in just three years, according to a report commissioned by trade body RenewableUK.

Figures in today’s report show a 91 per cent increase in full-time employment in the sector between 2007/8 and 2009/10.

The study was jointly commissioned by RenewableUK and Energy & Utility Skills—the Sector Skills Council for the power sector—from Warwick University’s Institute for Employment Research (IER) and Cambridge Econometrics.

Polaris International Industrial Parks looks set to become an historic project that will cement economic relations between Turkey and Egypt. Osman Arikan, general manager, and Elif Gurpinar, corporate communications director, talk to Jayne Alverca.

Iceland has little in the way of natural resources with the exception of clean energy, which it is putting to good use to boost the economy, as Alan Swaby discovers.

Honoured for Outstanding Export Achievement in the Global Business Excellence Awards and Best SME in the Best Business Awards, Alba Power had a good 2010 and is poised for an even better 2011. Senior sales manager Grahame Martin explained why to John O’Hanlon.

Final bids have been submitted for the £1 billion contract to build a new crossing over the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

Forthspan and Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC), together representing eight bridge building and civil engineering firms,are competing for the principal contract to build the new bridge and connecting roads on the Forth Replacement Crossing (FRC) project.

The submission of the bids marks the last major step in the process before the contract is awarded in April, with work expected to start soon after the deal is signed.

DCNS, a French naval submarine and nuclear technology group, has paid €14 million for a stake in the Irish tidal energy developer OpenHydro.

Paris-based DCNS, a state-owned specialist in naval defence and nuclear energy systems, is taking an eight per cent stake in OpenHydro for €14 million, valuing the Irish company at €175 million.

Europe’s biggest manufacturer of solar panels is to create 300 new jobs at a plant in the UK.

Sharp said the expansion in Wrexham, North Wales, follows the extension of its production facilities and will increase the workforce from 800 to 1,100.

The company anticipates that the enlarged factory, which was first announced in July last year, will almost double production capacity, manufacturing an additional 8,000 panels every day by March 2011.