Europe

UK oil and gas explorer EnCore Oil has announced a new North Sea oil find at its Cladhan field.

Cladhan is located 225 miles north-east of Aberdeen, in 536 feet water depth. It is thought that the field may hold reserves of between 100 million and 200 million barrels.

The Cladhan announcement follows the discovery of the 300 million barrel Catcher field, which was identified in June and in which EnCore also has a stake.

EnCore, which started drilling at the Cladhan site in August, will now drill horizontally to determine the size of the field.

Denman Instrumentation Ltd, based in Hull, England, has secured a major contract with French power engineering company Alstom on a €1 billion joint repowering and new construction project in the southeast of the Netherlands.

The complex project involves the integration of three new gas turbines into a former steam power plant near Maastricht to form a 1,280 MW combined cycle power plant. The project features the most advanced technology available for a power plant and will reduce CO2 emissions by 40 per cent.

Diageo, the world's biggest drinks maker, has reported pre-tax profits of £2.24 billion in the year to the end of June—an increase of 12 per cent.

Overall sales at the firm, whose brands include Smirnoff, Guinness and Johnnie Walker, grew by five per cent to £9.9 billion.

Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy has said it may have found oil in the untapped waters of western Greenland.

Cairn, which is the only firm so far to have been allowed to drill for oil off Greenland, said that it has found gas in thin sands in the Baffin Bay basin, which could be a sign of oil. The area lies around 400 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.

The company said it is still too early to gauge the significance of the find, as the well has not yet been drilled to its total depth.

Mining giant Xstrata has agreed to acquire Australian iron ore developer Sphere Minerals for A$428 million (approx. €300 million), it has been announced.

Buying Sphere will increase Xstrata’s iron ore presence in Africa through the Australian company’s three iron ore projects in Mauritania. These include the $1.65 billion Guelb el Aouj development, operated asa 50/50 joint venture with Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM), Mauritania’s state-owned iron ore producer.

Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE has won a €200 million contract to build a mobile network for Telenor in Hungary, it has been announced.

The deal further cements the Chinese company’s position as a key supplier to European telecoms operators.

Under the terms of the contract, ZTE will build a mobile network for as many as 4.5 million users for Telenor in Hungary. It will provide the European carrier with radio and core infrastructure over the next five years.

Aberdeen-based exploration firm Dana Petroleum has received a £1.87 billion hostile takeover offer from South Korea's state-owned oil company KNOC.

The offer is equivalent to £18 per share—59 per cent above Dana's share price of £11.51 prior to KNOC’s interest first being announced.

Dana’s board rejected approaches from KNOC earlier this month.

UK satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat is to receive almost £218 million over the next 18 months from a co-operation agreement with US communications group LightSquared.

The agreement between LightSquared and Inmarsat aims to increase the contiguous broadband spectrum available to both companies and give LightSquared increased flexibility to roll out its fourth-generation (4G) network in the US. This will allow users without their own wireless network or limited geographic coverage to develop and sell their own devices, applications and services.

Edinburgh-based Melrose Resources has said that the opening of new fields in Bulgaria will boost the company’s production by 7,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The first of two Bulgarian fields—Kavarna—is expected to begin production in September. Kavarna and Kaliakra are both being developed as single well subsea tiebacks to the Melrose-operated Galata field platform. Kaliakra will follow, beginning production in October.

UK-based energy services group Hunting is to buy US electronics company Innova-Extel for $125 million to boost its well construction unit, it has been announced.

London-based Hunting, whose equipment is used in the construction and maintenance of oil and gas wells, is also seeking further purchases in order to transform into a higher margin, higher growth business.