Forsvarsministeren vil først være en del av president Donald Trumps delegasjon under toppmøtet i NATO i Brussel neste uke. Han vil så reise til Kroatia og Norge, ifølge Pentagon selv.
Den amerikanske ambassaden bekrefter besøket til Norge overfor Aftenposten. Public Affairs Officer Ann McConnell skriver i en e-post at flere detaljer vil bli gjort tilgjengelig i neste uke.
Seniorrådgiver Marita Hundershagen i Forsvarsdepartementet kan også bekrefte at et besøk er under planlegging:
–Jeg kan bekrefte at den amerikanske forsvarsministeren James N. Mattis planlegger et besøk til Norge denne måneden. Vi vil komme tilbake til detaljene rundt besøket, skriver hun i en e-post.
James Mattis har vært USAs forsvarsminister siden president Donald Trump tiltrådte i 2017.
Den pensjonerte marinekorpsgeneralen har tidligere hatt en rekke toppstillinger i det amerikanske forsvaret, blant annet som sjef for USAs styrker i Midtøsten.
Over 18.000 HPV-vaksinedoser kunne blitt kastet grunnet avtale med legemiddelgigant. Nå griper statsråden inn, og vaksinene gis til utsatte grupper.
– Det har vært veldig viktig for meg å få løst denne saken. Det er misbruk av ressurser, og helt meningsløst, å kaste fullt brukbare vaksiner den norske stat allerede har betalt for, sier eldre- og folkehelseminister Åse Michaelsen (Frp).
Etter anbudskonkurranse skal Cervarix fra i høst av erstatte Gardasil som HPV-vaksine mot blant annet livmorhalskreft i Norge.
Men flere kommuner har opptil flere hundre Gardasil-doser liggende, og Folkehelseinstituttet (FHI) har et restlager på hele 18.000 doser. Det er nok til vaksinering av 6000 personer.
Norges avtale med produsenten av Gardasil, legemiddelgiganten MSD, innebar imidlertid at dosene utelukkende kunne brukes i barnevaksinasjonsprogrammet – og ikke til å vaksinere andre grupper i befolkningen.
Fordi barna som starter vaksinering i høst får Cervarix, lå det dermed an til at tusenvis av fullt brukbare Gardasil-doser måtte kastes.
Alcoa Norway ANS har inngått en 15-årig kraftkontrakt med Guleslettene Vindpark AS. Alcoa vil kjøpe hele produksjonskapasiteten fra den planlagte vindkraftparken på Vestlandet. Dette er Alcoas tredje vindkraftavtale, og avtalen styrker selskapets posisjon som en av de ledende kjøperne av bærekraftig vindkraft i det europeiske energimarkedet.
– Aluminium spiller en strategisk rolle i europeiske verdikjeder, og for avkarboniseringen av Europa, sier Kai Rune Heggland, som er Alcoas Norgessjef. – Denne kontrakten viser at Alcoa forplikter seg til å utvikle en bærekraftig aluminiumindustri, og til å sikre konkurransedyktig, fornybar energi til smelteverket i Mosjøen.
Kapasiteten til vindparken på Guleslettene er planlagt til opptil 197,4 MW, med en årlig produksjon på ca. 710 GWh. Med denne nyeste kontrakten forventes vindkraftavtaler å dekke om lag 70 prosent av Mosjøens kraftforbruk fra 2022.
Det er Vestas som skal levere opptil 47 turbiner på 4,2 MW hver til den nye vindparken. Zephyr, en ledende norsk vindmølleutvikler og operatør, står for konstruksjon og drift av parken. For å gi ytterligere sikkerhet til investorene har prosjektet mottatt en kraftgaranti fra GIEK – Garantiinstituttet for eksportkreditt.
– De tre vindkraftkjøpsavtalen som vi nå har signert bidrar til innovasjon i fornybarsektoren, sier Alvaro Dorado, energidirektør for Alcoas virksomhet i Europa. – De bidrar også til oppnåelse av både EU og Norges fornybarmål.
Kontrakten viser fram potensialet for verdiskapning som finnes i land med globalt konkurransedyktig rammeverk for energiintensiv industri.
– Våre tre vindkraftavtaler viser at vindkraftprosjektene klarer å møte aluminiumindustriens etterspørsel etter langsiktige kraftkontrakter, sier Heggland. – Men for å sikre gode rammebetingelser for kraftforedlende industri i Norge må vi også framover finne en god balanse mellom kraftproduksjon og krafteksport.
Coca-Cola har aldri tidligere solgt for mer eller oppnådd bedre resultater i Norge enn i 2017 – det samme året Rema 1000 droppet leverandøren som bestevenn.
Coca-Cola European Partners Norge hadde en omsetning på 2,6 milliarder kroner og et resultat før skatt på 264,7 millioner kroner i fjor. Det er det beste for selskapet noensinne.
– 2017 er et rekordår for oss. Det skyldes knallhardt arbeid i hele selskapet, sier administrerende direktør Stein Rømmerud.
Rømmerud trekker frem at selskapet kuttet kostnader betydelig. I tillegg fikk selskapet en del gevinster fra gunstige valutaeffekter, særlig for euroen og den svenske kronen.
Big Oil is losing faith in President Donald Trump’s pledges to build the U.S. into a self-reliant energy superpower.
Top executives from Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total SA all took shots at Trump’s trade plans at the World Gas Conference in Washington, expressing concern that U.S. tariffs are a risk to oil and gas demand, and that restrictions on importing steel could impede one of the country’s fastest-growing major industries. An executive from BP Plc targeted Trump’s plan to “bail out” unprofitable coal and nuclear power plants.
The common thread: Restricting trade hurts investor confidence, risking major energy projects from shale pipelines to gas export terminals. It’s a reversal from six months ago when Big Oil was singing Trump’s praises for slashing corporate taxes.
“The risk of trade skirmishes or trade wars starts to weigh on people’s perceptions of economic growth in the future,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said in a panel discussion with Exxon chief Darren Woods. “From a demand standpoint I think that’s a risk.”
Last year’s tax reform seems like a long time ago. Exxon praised the tax cut and pledged to invest $50 billion in projects along the Gulf Coast, although many of them were already in the works.
“Early on with tax reform, the deregulation you’ve seen in the U.S., those have enhanced the projects we were looking to do for our company,” Woods said Tuesday. They “are steel intensive projects. When tariffs come on and with threats of a trade war, you risk making those projects less competitive and less attractive.”
Trump has made energy a centerpiece of his plan to boost economic growth, and until now executives have been largely supportive of his policies, such as a plan to open up more than 90 percent of the U.S. coastline to oil exploration.
The ability of companies to extract oil and gas from shale has transformed global energy markets, with the U.S. now rivaling Russia and Saudi Arabia as one of the biggest producers of crude. Trump’s administration has been keen to push this trend. The U.S. will become “the strongest energy superpower this world has ever known,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in January.
Steel is another flashpoint. Heavily used by the oil industry, it has been subjected to levies and counter-levies contributing to mounting concerns of a full-blown trade war between China and the U.S., the world’s two largest economies.
“We certainly try to buy steel in the U.S.,” Wirth said. But “not everything we need here is made here. Certain alloys and sizes of pipe are not made by U.S. steel manufacturers. We have to procure those elsewhere. It runs the risk of being a drag rather than a huge negative.”
Trump has also been critical of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he says benefits Canada and Mexico to the cost of U.S. companies and workers. Woods made a point of defending the agreement.
OSLO — Nearly two-thirds (64%) of oil and gas sector leaders expect to increase or sustain spending on gas projects in 2018, as the sector prepares for gas to overtake oil as the world’s primary energy source in the mid-2030s. Confidence in the case for gas is growing, according to a survey by DNV GL, the technical advisor to the industry. The vast majority (86%) of the 813 senior industry professionals surveyed agree that gas – the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel – will play an increasingly important role in the global energy mix over the next decade, up from 77% last year.
The findings appear in Transition in Motion, a special report from DNV GL’s research on the outlook for the oil and gas industry in 2018. It reveals the primary driver for investment in natural gas and LNG projects this year is the global energy transition. The pace of the oil and gas industry’s intentions to lower carbon emissions differs by region, however. Just a third of survey respondents in North America (33%) say that their company is actively preparing for the shift to a lower carbon energy mix this year, compared to more than half (51%) in Middle East and North Africa.
The stage is set for gas to become the largest single source of energy. Demand for it will peak in the mid-2030s, well after the use of each of the other fossil fuels has gone into long-term decline, according to DNV GL’s 2017 Energy Transition Outlook, an independent forecast of the global energy mix in the lead-up to the mid-century. The model predicts the industry’s intentions for increasing gas investments will accelerate in the early-2020s as major oil companies decarbonize their business portfolios.
“Society’s transition to a less carbon-intensive energy mix is already a reality, and oil and gas will continue to be crucial components. Our research affirms that the industry is already taking positive steps to secure the important role we forecast gas to play in helping to meet future, lower-carbon energy requirements,” said Liv Hovem, CEO, DNV GL- Oil & Gas.
“Significant investment will be needed in the gas industry over the coming decades to increase capacity, transform assets to source and transport a decarbonized mix of energies, and to safely build and maintain the infrastructure needed to connect emerging supply regions with evolving demand centers,” Hovem added.
Power generation is predicted to be the primary consumer of gas in most regions, though manufacturing could demand similar volumes in emerging markets. DNV GL’s 2017 Energy Transition Outlook suggests that North East Eurasia and the Middle East and North Africa will increase gas output towards 2040 at least, overtaking North America as the world’s largest gas producer. Production is also forecast to double in China, the Indian Subcontinent and South East Asia.
Other key findings from DNV GL’s Industry Outlook research:
•Nearly a quarter (24%) believe that onshore pipeline projects currently in development are adaptable enough to cope with potential long-term changes in the gas mix, such as greater variety of calorific values, hydrogen and biogas. 13% disagree
•72% believe that, as traditional coal energy generation becomes obsolete over the coming decades, the long-term attractiveness of gas will significantly improve
•The number of respondents stating that traditional oil and gas prices will decouple in the long-term has increased from 45% in 2017 to 55% this year.
Norway, which shares an Arctic border with Russia, lacks a “credible plan” how to meet NATO’s spending target, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a letter to the country’s prime minister, the Norwegian daily VG reported on Tuesday.
Oil-rich Norway has committed to buy more than 50 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin as part of efforts to beef up its air forces, and contributed troops to NATO’s mission in the Baltics, but Norway should do more, Trump was quoted as saying.
“Norway … remains the only NATO ally sharing a border with Russia that lacks a credible plan to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense,” Trump said in the June 19 letter, a copy of which was published on VG’s website.
He said he expected to see “a strong commitment” from Norway, what he called the Alliance’s “eyes and ears” on the northern flank, at the NATO summit in July.
This year, Norway plans to spend 1.56 percent of gross domestic product, down from 1.62 percent in 2017.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg told a regular new conference on Tuesday the country aimed to strive toward the 2 percent target, reiterating the government’s position and without providing any deadlines.
“We will stop the decline … and we will move towards 2 percent by 2024,” Solberg later told Norwegian broadcaster NRK, referring to Trump’s letter.
Oil companies in Norway have more to rejoice about than just higher crude prices: they’re now boasting the best exploration results in almost a decade.
If they keep that pace up, explorers could find close to 1 billion barrels of new oil and gas this year for the first time since the landmark discovery of the giant Johan Sverdrup oil field in 2010.
The results are a welcome boost to Norway, which depends on exploration success to replenish a dwindling project pipeline and limit a drop in production from the middle of the next decade. The nation is emerging from a bruising three-year slump that saw oil companies cut budgets to the bone, strangling exploration activity. Results in the promising Arctic Barents Sea, which saw record efforts last year despite the downturn, were also a disappointment.
The tide could now be turning: with 10 wildcat wells completed in 2018, explorers have found about 330 million barrels of oil equivalent, according to Bloomberg calculations based on the mid-point estimate for all discoveries reported by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. That’s already more than what the 24 wildcat wells delivered last year. And it’s the best performance per well since the Sverdrup discovery pushed the 2010 average to almost 100 million barrels.
Ford has commissioned Snøhetta as the design leader to re-envision its Headquarters and Research Campus in Dearborn, Michigan, as well as its new urban campus in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood. The new Corktown facilities will serve as an innovation hub for Ford’s vison for the future of transportation: leading a plan to reconceive urban mobility solutions including smart, connected vehicles, roads, parking, public transit, and autonomous and electric vehicles.
Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) are developing a small autonomous passenger ferry in Trondheim, Norway, a region that has opened its doors for testing self-driving ship technology.
NTNU’s Departments of Electronic Systems, Technical Cybernetics and Marine Engineering are developing a prototype driverless ferry that can carry a dozen passengers on calm inland waters. The initial test route crosses a 100-yard-wide channel in Trondheim’s Ravnkloa district, and when the ferry enters into full operation it will cut 10-15 minutes off the walking time between the areas on either side of the waterway.
A half-scale, 16-foot-long version of the electric ferry is already built, and it is in use for testing batteries and propulsion systems (photo above). The research team is now working on autonomous docking, driverless navigation systems and collision-avoidance sensors. “We will use four different sensors. It will be radar, infrared camera, optical camera and LIDAR (light detection and ranging). This will be a robust system of sensors that complement each other,” said Edmund Brekke, associate professor at the Department of Technical Cybernetics, NTNU. Land-based sensors will also be deployed on the fixed route in order to provide additional traffic detection capabilities.
Once these systems are developed, a full-scale model will be built and tested, with a shore-based driver operating it by remote control. This testing phase is scheduled for next year. Ultimately, the team wants to deploy a model that is capable responding to the push of a single button, with a user experience that is little different from calling an elevator.
The researchers are confident that self-driving ferries will prove popular if they can be developed into a reliable commercial product. “Driverless ferries can become a new tool in the toolbox for town planners, said Prof. Egil Eide of NTNU’s Deptartment of Electronic Systems. “If we succeed with everything we plan to do, then there is no doubt the market is there.”
In its mission statement, the team asserts that autonomous vessels could help revitalize and develop Norway’s coastal areas with low-cost waterborne transportation. In this vision, the technology has the potential to create new markets and offer new transport services that do not exist today due to high crew costs.
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