Job Posting: Project Manager - Middle East

Looking for an Engineering/Project Manager with refinery experience in the Oil & Gas sector. Fantastic salary in a growing industry based in the Middle East.

Please reply to lisa-anne@dnarecruit.com

Job Posting: Latin American Business Development Manager

Manage the growth in sales of both Products and Services into the Latin America countries through direct sales and qualified agents. Direct sales responsibilities will also take place in the United States with International Company headquarters located throughout the U.S. Grow sales in certain International locations to a point that it justifies a full time Office & Service location to be established. Highly Entrepreneurial in Nature, Strong Business Minded Candidate, Understands the entire sales cycle and business aspect of the company & its services. If you have not sold Technical Services with multi-year contracts, please do not apply to this particular position.

Position: Business Development, Consulting, Engineering, Marketing, Sales

Salary: $100,000 - $150,000 Per Year

For more information, visit www.YER.com.

Opinion: Is the Power Equipment Market Bracing for a Recession?

Power equipment suppliers are yet to report a major slowdown in spending as a result of the financial crisis. However, many expect 2009 to be a tough year as customers seek to cut corners and rein in spending. David Binning reports.

Like so many industries, the power sector had been coasting along on the crest of a wave for some time before the last October's unravelling of the global economy and the resulting credit crunch. On the one hand developed economies were enjoying unprecedented growth while developing economies – namely the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China – entered unchartered territory with regard to their economic development.

The result was exponential demand for power across the world, and with it the accompanying 'picks and shovels' to support its development. Tighter regulations being imposed by governments in Europe and elsewhere on carbon emissions helped to create new markets also, such as CCS (carbon capture and storage) biomass co-fire conversion and others. In short it was perfect storm of opportunity for suppliers of power equipment and services.

Now, some six months into a storm of an altogether different kind, the mood is understandably glum, especially with so many of the world's major economies sliding deeper into recession, leading to forecasts of a large-scale decline in energy consumption. Yet while no one in the power industry is under any illusions about the implications for business, the bad news is still yet to appear as red ink on the balance sheets for many companies.
Weathering the storm

Speaking at the International Power Summit in Rome in early March, managing director of Italian environmental engineering technologies company Magaldi, Fulvio Zubini, said that while most industry sectors are clearly down the power industry is yet to see much of the fallout. "Business is generally worse, but the crisis [for the time being at least] does not seem to have affected the power industry all that much." Zubini said.

But this did not mean he did not harbour concern for the fortunes of developing economies. "I expect, however, some delays and cancellations in projects developed by private companies in emerging areas such as India."

Magaldi is a niche provider of environmental engineering solutions including bottom ash handling systems for bottom-fired boilers. Zubini said environmental regulations were expected to provide further insulation for his area of trade along with emerging cost benefits. "2008 was the best ever for the company – we now have a very satisfying order backlog. We are still confident of achieving good results in 2009 despite the financial crisis."

Nevertheless, it would seem that buyer behaviour is changing with some in the power industry reporting that the sales process has become noticeably more difficult and protracted over the last few months as a result of the global financial crisis.

Camfil Far sales director Jose Frias said his company – a global cooling and ventilation specialist – is seeing finance executives take a deeper interest in procurement as companies work harder to tighten up their balance sheets. "Finance people are much more involved now; procurement is requiring approval at a far more senior level," Frias said.

Suppliers of power equipment and solutions hope that customers can temper their anxieties about the state of their balance sheets by considering the long-term benefits of investing in new equipment for improved efficiency and environmental performance, all ultimately leading to reduced costs.

"Naturally all of our customers want to spend as little as possible, however, utilities are wise to the benefits they get in operation and maintenance and they buy from us eventually," Zubini said.

Published by: power-technology.com - See full article here

Job posting: Independent Manufacturer's Rep

QuakeWrap is looking for independent reps with proven track record in the Power Industry to represent them. Contact them at office@quakewrap.com for additional info.

Tips from TurnKeyMasters: Let’s go for the gold

Apr 6, 2009 - In according to Jeffrey Nichols gold prices will move to new historic highs well above the $1030 level touched a year ago March.

From the Power Plants brokers’ standpoint, that statement means at least two basic things:

1) Gold mines will need to run more often at peak production rates (a higher capacity factor), maybe by keeping more production lines running for longer, and

2) Some other mining companies will add brand new production lines for the permanent regime.

It's very unlikely that mining companies start exploiting new mining projects right away (because of the higher prices) as many people would say, but they will run current projects at higher production rates instead (ie more tons per hour). This is a high investments industry, and strongly regulated, so they will go for new developments in some point, but is going to take a time before the have it worked out and ready.

In the other hand, each branch is normally committed to meet the production numbers set by the guys at the Headquarters, and their local salary compensations are linked to the production (mining companies normally have performance bonuses based on the production levels delivered). Likewise, due to its nature, gold mining is an energy intensive activity, which you cannot increase by adding more people only, but you need to add more processes/hours and that will turn out in more power requirements.

Bottom line: in either case, mining companies would need to reinforce their generation capacity, due to the high costs associated to any fault/interruption in the power supply side (including the lost of potential bonus). Likewise, as gold prices skyrocket, they may be tempted to go and try to get new generation up and running ASAP so most of them would be looking for Gas Turbines, Power Barges or any other "Fast-Delivery" option (they have seen too many Dominos Pizza’s advertisings).

From our experience, when trying to get fast generation, many companies overlook the final generation costs of different technologies and this is the main reason why the project never happens: They focus on cheap power rather than cheap energy. They keep saying “money isn’t an issue for this project”, but here’s the fact: in MW’s Power Plant Projects money is always an issue!!!!.

To illustrate this, the cost to generate 1MWh with a gas turbine could be 4 times higher than the same MWh generated by a Steam Power Plant based on Coal, but due to the hurry, companies/agents weighted fast delivery better than lower energy costs, and at the end of the day, the proposal (because of the numbers it contains) end up killing the project: Sooner or later, it will be rejected by the one of the layers of stakeholders of the project.

Our recommendation in these cases is simple: getting a low houred or "as new" unit, based on a cheaper technology/fuel as Heavy Fuel Oil or Coal. You get fast delivery (the plant is already built), fast deployment (if need power right away, you can also rent temporary power during the construction), and the convenience of a larger unit (lower energy prices, integration with other processes, etc). Obviously, since the cost of the MW of a GT is quite lower than the same MW with Coal, then the cost of the capital and the risk aversion limits set by the stakeholders should help deciding whether having a higher-investment, lower-energy cost solution (Steam Units) or getting into a lower investment, "pay-it-forward" deal as the one offered by the GTs. At the end, the period of evaluation for power projects is so long, and the interest rates are so low, that 3-5 years more at the end of the cash flow in the spreadsheets are practically negligible.

I know, I know, it depends on the price of the fuels and the type of contract they have, but for many developing countries (for most of them I would say) fuel prices are a horror movie.

Bottom line, to identify potential sources of Power needs around the globe, one of the tools you may use is keeping track of new developments across all others industries complimentary (or large customer) to the Power Industry. You may agree with me that due to the high energy intensity seen in the gold industry, we may considered it as a complimentary industry to Power Plant Sales (as the gold prices skyrocket, we sell more plants), so here’s a map of the largest gold reserves around the world:

This map only shows countries with reserves higher that 1,000 tons but as I said before, when prices rise, mining companies increase their production from their current projects, instead of starting new developments. So In this map, you can see some places where high power demand sources may rise within the mid term.

It must be said though, that not all the “exploitable” gold can be traded at spot prices since most of the companies may be highly hedged through take-or-pay and other types of contracts. My take is that only 20-40 % of the total production would be tradable at spot prices. So another good indicator to refine the research is finding the difference between the max production level of each company and their total capacity contracted. Additional, we should be able to figure how many gold contracts traded in the forward markets would be physically executed.

That’s what I call real Market Intelligence, so please be intelligent.

Keep tuned, more tips to come.

Author: Malaquias Encarnacion - Business Engineer - TurnKeyMasters