Seadrill is pleased to report the delivery of the ultra-deepwater drillship West Polaris from Samsung Heavy Industries. The drillship will leave Korean waters tomorrow after completing fuelling and some general mobilisation activities en route to its first drilling assignment for Exxon in Brazil. West Polaris was delivered 10 days after original contract schedule with a [...]

South Korean steelmaker POSCO said on Monday it has agreed to a sharp rise in coal prices with an Australian miner for fiscal year 2008.
POSCO, the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker, had agreed on a 205 percent to 210 percent hike in coking coal prices with the Australian supplier from April 1, a company spokeswoman said.
Earlier in [...]

Eastern Drilling is currently subject to a 135 nkr per share mandatory offer from peer Seadrill, which currently owns 63.96 pct of the firm, following a drawn-out bidding process.
Eastern Drilling has two rigs on order with Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea, with delivery expected in the first and third quarters of 2008 respectively.

Transocean’s affiliate, Transocean Offshore International Ventures Limited, has entered into an agreement with Pacific Drilling Limited, providing Transocean with the exclusive marketing right for two currently unnamed deepwater drillships under construction, as well as an option to purchase a 50% interest in a joint venture company through which Transocean and Pacific Drilling would own the [...]

Asian stock markets continued their strong year-end run on Thursday after a record close on Wall Street, while crude oil stabilized just above $60 a barrel after losing $3 in four sessions.
The yen, which hit a record low against the euro last week and a two-month low against the dollar this week, was steadier, finding [...]

Hyundai Steel Co. , South Korea’s second-largest steelmaker, signed an agreement to buy iron ore and coal from Cia. Vale do Rio Doce and Rio Tinto Group as it begins construction today on a $5.5 billion expansion.
The steelmaker may buy as much as 5 million metric tons of iron ore a year from both Brazil’s [...]

VIASPACE Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VSPC), a company that works to transform proven space and defense technologies from NASA and the Department of Defense into hardware and software solutions that solve today’s complex problems, announced today that its subsidiary, Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation (DMFCC), has signed a cartridge design and certified manufacturer agreement with [...]