Industry News
BP Plans $3 Billion Project to Refine More Canadian Heavy Crude Oil in U.S. Midwest
Representatives of BP announced that the company has entered the final planning stage of a US$3 billion investment in Canadian heavy crude oil processing at its Whiting Refinery located in northwest Indiana.
BP America Inc. Chairman and President Bob Malone said the company intends to reconfigure its Whiting Refinery so most of its feedstock can be heavy Canadian crude oil. Reconfiguring the refinery also has the potential to increase its production of motor fuels by about 15 percent, which is about 1.7 million additional gallons of gasoline and diesel per day.
The Whiting Refinery currently produces about 4.5 billion gallons of transportation fuels each year, enough to supply more than 5 million vehicles. "After our investment, the refinery will have the potential to supply motor fuels to about 6 million automobiles," Malone said.
Construction of the project is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2007 and be completed by 2011, pending regulatory approvals.
Speaking at a briefing held in Indiana with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and other government and business leaders, BP's Group Vice President for Refining Mike Hoffman said the Whiting Refinery is optimally located in the U.S. Midwest and has substantial capacity for reconfiguration as well as effective infrastructure to support this project.
The project will increase capacity for coking, hydrogen production, hydrotreating and sulfur recovery. The replacement processing units and enhancements to existing refinery units will increase Canadian heavy crude oil processing capability by about 260,000 barrels per day.
Hoffman reported that BP continues to make progress to complete agreements with providers for heavy oil production, pipeline access, engineering, procurement and construction.
Dan Sajkowski, BP Whiting Refinery Manager and Vice President of BP Products North America Inc., said the company's planned investment is expected to create jobs for approximately 2,500 workers during the peak of its three-year construction phase and 60 to 80 permanent full-time employees to operate enhanced processing units and other refinery improvements.
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Alcatel Awarded a €30 Million Contract for Beijing Metro Line 4 Signaling Project
Representatives of Alcatel announced Tuesday that the company has been selected by Beijing MTR Corporation Limited to deploy its industry leading radio-based signaling system for the Metro Line 4. The contract, worth €30 million (US$38.8million), was awarded to the consortium led by Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel's flagship Chinese company.
The Beijing Metro Line 4 is 28.18 kilometers long, linking 23 underground stations and one above-ground station in total. Under the contract, Alcatel will deploy its advanced SelTrac® S40 radio Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) solution to this new mass transit line in Beijing.
The CBTC signaling system provides moving-block technology to optimize safe operation of trains with closer separation, as well as fully automated central control. These features allow high capacity for service frequency and efficiency, as well as flexible fleet operations. Operating data is transmitted between train and track-side equipment via an open-standards radio and WLAN system. Compared to conventional signaling systems, Alcatel's CBTC significantly reduces life-cycle costs.
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Ericsson Appoints Jan Wäreby as Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Multimedia
Representatives of Ericsson announced the appointment of Jan Wäreby, currently Corporate Executive Vice President and Head of Sales and Marketing at Sony Ericsson, as Senior Vice President and head of business unit Multimedia as of January 1, 2007.
On September 15, 2006, Ericsson announced its intention to further strengthen its leadership and market presence by forming a new organization where a new business unit for multimedia is a part.
Jan Wäreby has held his position within Sony Ericsson since the establishment of the successful joint venture on October 1, 2001.
Jan Wäreby has previously worked Ericsson which he joined in 1980. He has held several different positions in Ericsson including Executive Vice President in Ericsson Radio Systems with global responsibility for all AMPS/D-AMPS activities. In 1999, he was appointed Executive Vice President in Ericsson, with responsibility for Europe, Africa and Middle East. From 2000, he held the position as Executive Vice President and Head of Consumer Products Division. Jan Wäreby holds a Master of Science degree.
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Raytheon Names Bernard Elero Vice President, Business Development for its Intelligence and Information Systems Business
Raytheon Company has appointed Bernard "Bernie" Elero vice president of Business Development for its Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS) business, a $2.5 billion unit specializing in intelligence, information systems and technology.
In this role, Mr. Elero will lead business development strategy and initiatives at IIS to expand its stronghold in intelligence systems as well as strengthen strategic partnerships to fuel growth into new, related markets.
Elero, a 20-year industry and business executive, joined Raytheon from L-3 Communications, Titan Group, Reston, VA, where he was most recently a senior vice president of Business Development, Intelligence Solutions Division. Prior to joining L-3 Communications, Elero was a vice president of strategic management for Harris Technical Services Corporation. He has also held business development positions with Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space and General Electric.
Elero holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters of Business Administration in finance from Eastern Michigan University.
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Tom Luce Rejoins Dell Board of Directors
Representatives of Dell announced Tuesday that Tom Luce has rejoined Dell's Board of Directors as a member of the Audit Committee. Mr. Luce previously served on the Dell Board from 1991 to 2005 and also served as a member of the Audit Committee for much of that time.
Luce served as United States Assistant Secretary of Education for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development from July 1, 2005 until Sept. 1. He continues to serve as a consultant to the Department. He has also been appointed five times to major posts by Texas governors, including Chief Justice pro tempore of the Texas Supreme Court. Mr. Luce was a founding and managing partner of the law firm of Hughes and Luce, LLP until his retirement from the firm in 1997. Mr. Luce will serve on the Board of Directors until the next annual meeting of stockholders, at which time his continued service will be subject to renomination and stockholder approval.
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EDS Appoints Martin C. Faga and James K. Sims to Board of Directors
Representatives of EDS announced the appointment of two new members to its board of directors, Martin C. Faga and James K. Sims.
Martin C. Faga is the former president and CEO and a current board member of The MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit organization of federally funded research and development centers benefiting the U.S. Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration and Internal Revenue Service. Faga recently retired after 13 years with the company. Prior to MITRE, he dedicated 26 years to national defense and intelligence roles, including posts with the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Congress and National Reconnaissance Office.
James K. Sims is the founder, chairman and CEO of GEN3 Partners. GEN3 Partners is one of the world's leading product innovation consulting companies. Prior to founding the company, Sims founded Cambridge Technology Partners and Concurrent Computer Corp. He also currently serves as chairman of RSA Security Inc., a publicly held company providing computer security software, and will continue in that capacity until the recently announced sale of the company is completed in the near future. Sims is also the director of several private boards.
EDS now has 12 Board of Directors members. Faga and Sims begin their roles immediately.
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Huawei Wins GSM Expansion Contract with Colombia Movil
Representatives of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., a leader in providing next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, announced it has won a GSM core network expansion contract with Colombia Movil, Colombia's the third biggest mobile operator to enable the company to bring enhanced services to over 560,000 users across Colombia's five biggest cities of Medellin, Cali, Bucaramanga, Barranquilla, as well as its capital Bogota.
Colombia Movil, a leading mobile operator in Colombia, created by Bogota Telecommunication Enterprise (ETB) and Medellin Public Enterprise (EPM) serves 2.5 million mobile subscribers. This new expansion contract will be Huawei's largest mobile softswitch network in Latin America and extend the capacity of Colombia Movil's core network to over one million subscribers.
Huawei is a leader of mobile softswitch networks worldwide, and the first to introduce 3G technology to enhance GSM network performance, providing 3G-like service over a 2G network. Huawei mobile softswitch networks deliver excellent user-experience and help operators to maximize their value and profit by lowering network construction costs and the network life-cycle operation and maintenance expenditures.
To date, Huawei's Mobile Softswitches serve over 100 million subscribers, and Huawei has deployed more than five hundred thousand TRX applications with large-scale networking and swapping experiences in complex wireless environments.
