Europe

India’s Vedanta Resources has said it will acquire a 51 to 60 per cent stake in Cairn Energy’s Indian unit for between £5.4 billion to £6.1 billion.

The move represents Vedanta's first foray into oil and gas, and will help Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy fund a drilling programme in Greenland.

Cairn India operates the country’s largest onshore oil field, and has a market value of approximately £8.6 billion.

Wagenborg Offshore is a Netherlands based company whose parent group Royal Wagenborg has more than a century of experience in providing maritime services in the Baltic Sea. Operations director Johan Adriaanse explains to John O’Hanlon why its expertise is in demand to support oilfield operations in Kazakhstan.

Deputy director of Boskalis Offshore Bas van Bemmelen talks to Jane Bordenave about the company’s cradle to cradle approach to projects and how it has come to be a world leader in subsea soil intervention.

Founded in 1995, Boskalis Offshore is the specialised oil and gas organisation within the Royal Boskalis Westminster Group. It is based in the Netherlands, but operates globally and has realised projects on every continent. It works to excavate trenches and provide coarse gravel cover for subsea cables and pipelines.

The UK’s biggest energy supplier, Centrica, is buying natural gas assets in Canada from Suncor Energy in a deal worth £229 million.

Direct Energy, Centrica's North American unit, will gain 241 billion cubic feet equivalent of natural gas reserves in the Wildcat Hills area of Alberta, increasing its resources by about 60 per cent to 641 billion cubic feet.

Twenty miles north-west of Calgary, the assets consist of 97 producing wells and related infrastructure, as well as 42,000 net acres of undeveloped land.

Vedanta Resources is in talks to purchase assets or take a substantial stake in the UK oil and gas exploration company Cairn Energy.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the talks are at an advanced stage, with an announcement possible later this month. The companies are said to be discussing a range of options, including an equity stake, asset purchases or a complete takeover of Cairn.

Russian state-owned nanotechnology corporation Rusnano is in advanced talks to take over the UK display screen maker Plastic Logic—a deal that would assist Russia in bringing Western know-how to its fledgling tech industry.

According to the Financial Times, Rusnano is considering the purchase of a significant stake in Plastic Logic—on the condition it relocates the next phase of its development to Russia.

French power giant GDF Suez is expected to announce it has taken over its UK rival International Power (IP) as early as tomorrow.

The two companies had resumed talks after failing to agree a deal earlier this year, with GDF now believed to be offering a special dividend of £1.3 billion to sweeten the agreement for IP investors.

A deal with GDF would create one of the world’s biggest independent power generators, with estimated sales of €13.5 billion. The enlarged group would keep the name International Power.

Jane Bordenave discovers how Thames Water, the UK’s biggest water company, is turning its customers’ flushes into energy and cost savings via its Poo Power initiative.

Hatfield Colliery near Doncaster is proving that the UK coal mining industry is more progressive and forward-thinking than popular perception gives it credit for.

For many people during the past three decades, the perception of the UK mining industry has been one of a sector in decline. However, Hatfield Colliery is turning such assumptions around, providing ample proof that UK mining is very much alive and kicking, thanks to a cleaner, greener approach to coal usage.