Yantai to launch truck-ferry intermodal service to Japan, Korea

A full container load (FCL) truck-ferry cargo service is soon to be launched between Yantai, a city in northeast China’s Shandong province and Japan and Korea.

The service allows cargo to be transported on the same truck via ferry directly to its destination without transshipping at the border. Preparation for the new service is undergoing in the three countries.

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Bad weather hits India field

Hardy Oil and Gas has shut down the PY-3 field off India’s east coast due to a production equipment problem brought about by bad weather.

Co-venturer Hindustan Oil said production from PY-3 had been suspended due to the breakup of the crude oil import hose occasioned by bad weather conditions prevailing on the south east coast of India. UK-headquartered Hardy is hoping to restart production as soon as there is a weather window. Gross average daily oil production at PY-3 for the six months ended 30 June 2007 was 4948 barrels per day compared to 5913 bpd in the same six months last year. The field is located off the east coast of India in the Cauvery basin with water depths ranging from 40 metres to 200 metres. The project interests in PY-3 are operator Hardy (18%), Tata (21%), Hindustan Oil (21%) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (40%).

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Mexico gets taste for biodiesel

Mexico plans to encourage production of biodiesel from crops like beets, yucca root and sorghum after a new biofuel law comes into effect early next year, said Agriculture Minister Alberto Cardenas.

“Mexico could develop biodiesel faster than ethanol”, says Cardens. Ethanol, an alcohol used as an additive in gasoline to reduce emissions, is usually made from maize or sugar. But competing with the US, the world’s number one maize producer and Brazil, a leader in sugar-based ethanol will be a challenge for Mexico, where cane is expensive to produce and farmers grow less maize than the country consumes. Biodiesel industry would help the country’s poorest farmers, and that none of the crops Mexico currently grows for food would be replaced with biofuel plants.  Critics say biofuel production hurts the poor as increased demand for crops drives up food prices. The Mexican government pressured maize flour producers in January to cap rising prices for tortillas, a staple corn pancake, amid street protests.

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