Fire erupts at Andersons plant

Police said dust ignited filter in cob mill

Updated: Friday, 04 Feb 2011, 12:23 PM EST Published : Friday, 04 Feb 2011, 7:28 AM EST

Laura Kirtley

DELPHI, Ind. (WLFI) - An overnight fire sparked at Anderson's Grain and Ethanol Group plant in Delphi. The Carroll County Sheriff's Department said they received a call around 1:45 a.m. about dust igniting in a filter in one of the cob mills. Delphi Fire Chief Darrell Sterrett said one of the first firefighters on the scene reported flames reaching 20 to 30 feet in the air. Sterrett said, With assistance from the Camden and Flora fire departments, it took about 4 and a half hours to put out the fire. Sterrett said the bitter cold made things more difficult, and one minor injury was reported from a firefighter who slipped on ice.

Agrana juices merge with Raiffeisen's juices division

8 mar 2011Autor: Ioana David The juice division of sugar producer Agrana and that of Raiffeisen Ware Austria, part of the Raiffeisen Group, with operations in the financial sector, decided to merge internationally, in a move that includes Agrana's plant in Vaslui.

"We expect the transaction, which is awaiting approval from the antitrust authorities, to be finalised in the first half of August," Agrana representatives told ZF.

The company operating on the Romanian market will keep its name - Agrana Juice Romania Vaslui. The Austrians at Agrana Juice Holding own 12 production facilities internationally, with the Romanian-located one exporting 90% of its juice concentrate production. The company focuses on manufacturing apple juice concentrate, which it delivers to other bottlers. Export destinations are countries such as Hungary and Germany. According to Trade Registry data, Agrana Juice Romania Vaslui posted 5.1 million lei (1.2 million euros) in turnover in 2009 and 0.3 million lei (0.07 million euros) in losses. On the other hand, Raiffeisen Ware Austria, which operates on the market of agricultural products, construction materials and DIY products, is involved in this merger through its Ybbstaler Fruit Austria division.

Sugar Business Owners' Association: With just four sugar plants we're import dependent
4 mar 2011Autor: Gabriel Razi Domestic sugar producers say Romania is helplessly seeing sugar prices rise internationally, while being dependent on European imports. Internationally, sugar prices hit the highest level of the past three decades, rising by 46% in the past year alone, to 0.71 dollars (0.51 euros), according to IMF data.

Ioan Armenean, chairman of Romania's Sugar Business Owners' Association, says domestic production is two times lower than demand, which amounts to 550,000 tonnes, because there are just four sugar plants left out of the 33 that operated 20 years ago. "We depend on bourse quote. The price is made in New York, London or Paris," Armenean says. Dan Popovici, a manager with Lemarco Romanian-US-held sugar producer, one of the main players on the market, with turnover worth 370m lei (88m euros) in 2009, is of the same opinion. In Romania, the sugar market is valued at 275m euros, according to ZF data.

http://www.worldheavyoilcongress.com/conference/technical-program

Suppliers of oil equipment: Incidents in Libya will boost OMV's exploration and production investments, Romania included

24 mar 2011Autor: Roxana Petrescu The political crisis in Libya, which prompted Austrian group OMV, Petrom's owner, to suspend hydrocarbon exploration and production operations in the region affected by the conflict, could have a positive effect on the Romanian market. Providers of equipment for the oil industry who are working with OMV expect there will be an increase in investment budgets in other oil-rich areas, Romania included, in order to cover the deficit generated by the Libyan crisis.

Petrom, the only Romanian producer of oil and gas, is the company on whose exploration and production budgets depends the business of many companies that deliver equipment and services for the industry.

"The events in Libya shaved 10% off OMV's hydrocarbon production base just like that. Under the circumstances, it is to be expected that the group will invest more in exploration and production in the regions where it has such activities, which include Romania, in order to cover this deficit somehow. The big money is made from exploration and production, not from refining," says Peter Grobmueller, CEO of the division oil and gas within Siemens. The German group has several contracts with Petrom, with one contract involving maintenance work within Petrobrazi refinery, the only facility of the two held by the oil and gas producer to still be working.

Romania wants to put pollution away in 1bn-euro storage facility

29 mar 2011Autor: Roxana Petrescu Romgaz, Transgaz and Complexul Energetic Turceni (Turceni Energy Complex), three of the biggest energy companies controlled by the Romanian state, want to invest one billion euros in a technology, which is burgeoning in Europe. After talks running for years on liquefied natural gas terminals (the AGRI project) or submarine power cables that would carry electricity to Turkey failed to yield any results, Romania is now in a European-level competition with the biggest member states, to build a project for the storage of carbon dioxide.

Roughly speaking, the carbon dioxide that would normally be released into the atmosphere by CEN Turceni, one of the biggest local polluters, would be sequestered through installations, injected through Transgaz's pipes and buried as deep as 5 kilometres underground, in a carbon storage facility held by Romgaz. The one billion-euro project of the three companies, however, has weak chances of becoming reality unless it receives EU funding covering around half the costs.
"We have initiated many projects that are novelties in Europe, but we have yet to finalise any of them. This one we have to carry through," says Tudor erban, personal adviser to the economy minister