ArcelorMittal turns down bid to enter EU steel project

But trade unions and local politicians reacted angrily.Reuters

ArcelorMittal and Minister president Jean-Marc Ayrault said that the move did not mean the idea of using Florange for the ULCOS "green steel" project was be permanently abandoned, nor that the deal with the French Government had been undone.

But trade unions and local politicians reacted angrily.

ArcelorMittal, which has been under fire for months in France about the plan to close permanently on the grounds they are not economically viable Florange furnaces, said it could not at this moment the ULCOS project for technical reasons.

"(This) is perfectly coherent with what is in the agreement signed with the French Government," she said, adding: "this in no way means the ULCOS project has been abandoned."

Ayrault, whose Government was appointed by Francois Hollande, after the Socialist elected president in may, was said in a statement that the European Commission had indicated that the project can be pursued in a future entry.

Even in the best case, a possible start date would now be delayed by several years, throwing into question the idea that ArcelorMittal spending money to keep its shut down Florange ovens viable turnkey would love.

"LIARS"

"We have been cheated. They are liars, "said Michel Liegbott, a Socialist legislator for the surrounding region Moselle, BFM television. "They should have said what they say today, six months or a year ago."

CFDT union leader Edouard Martin told French media that ArcelorMittal had "deceived everyone" and vowed to restart the fight to keep operational Florange.

Ayrault own industry Minister, left-wing Arnaud Montebourg, waves had created before the deal was struck by the steel company Indian chief executive Lakshmi Mittal of "shameless lies" and said that he was no longer welcome in France to accuse.

Agreement last week, including ArcelorMittal has committed to the conservation of approximately 630 jobs on the two blast furnaces, was a crucial test for the Hollande pledge to a run of industrial layoffs and revive the result also French competitiveness.

France's unemployment hit a new 13-year high of 10.3 percent in the third quarter of the year, data showed on Thursday, who has vowed to put more pressure on Hollande, stack the rise to discontinue by the end of 2013.

ArcelorMittal had agreed with 180 million euros in Florange investing and the ovens to keep in State so they can be used if its application to use the site for the ULCOS project was successful.

ULCOS (Ultra-Low carbon steel production) is a consortium of 48 European companies and other organizations that for the development of ways to cut CO2 emissions from steel production to curb greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

A spokesman for the European Commission confirmed on Thursday that the written notification of ArcelorMittal that it had decided to bid are "due to technical problems" attract have received.

Reuters

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Enter Innovation: Improving the Fracking Process

One of the factors involved in pulling energy from shale through hydraulic fracturing is how much water is needed – typically 2 to 4 million gallons per well. Though that’s not as much water as it sounds (electrical generation for the Susquehanna River Basin requires nearly 150 million gallons per day), it’s a public concern. More on water usage at the FracFocus website.

Water also is an industry concern. It isn’t free, and once the well has been stimulated with fracking, there’s waste water that has to be disposed of or recycled. Enter innovation. A number of companies are tackling the issue.

Schlumberger’s HiWAY flow-channel technology claims to use less water, with greater effectiveness:

“HiWAY technology fundamentally changes the way proppant fractures generate conductivity. The first technique of its kind, HiWAY fracturing creates open pathways inside the fracture, enabling hydrocarbons to flow through the stable channels rather than the proppant. This optimizes connectivity between the reservoir and the wellbore—resulting in infinite fracture conductivity.”

Other companies are marketing waterless alternatives, using other agents to apply pressure to the shale – producing microscopic fractures and introducing sand or other proppants to keep the cracks open so the oil or natural gas can drain from the shale and be collected.

Baker-Hughes has developed VaporFrac, combining a high-pressure nitrogen and/or carbon dioxide gas stream and an ultra-lightweight proppant slurry:

“This method safely creates a flow stream that is more than 90% gas, significantly reducing post-frac cleanup. The high energy of the gas phase makes for easy flowback. There’s a quicker tie into pipelines.”

GASFRAC Energy Services’ liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) gel is primarily propane, which the company says has a number of advantages in fracking:

“Since our gel regains permeability with the hydrocarbons we stimulate, we have the ability to recover 100% of the fracturing fluids within days of stimulation. This creates economic and environmental benefits reducing clean-up, waste disposal and post-job truck traffic, while creating higher initial production levels.”

No doubt, other companies, other energy innovators, are at work on this question. The point here is to show the kind of invention that’s being sparked by necessity surrounding water and fracking. Businesses are taking on this issue and others associated with energy development with the goal of making processes better, safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly. When we hear about their stories, we’ll pass them along.

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