Egypt: Egyptian minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sherif Ismail has signed six new oil and gas exploration contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars with foreign and Egyptian companies, according to local media.

Petroleum minister Eng. Ismail signed the agreements with Netherland's Shell, Italy's Eni, the UK's British Petroleum, Canada's TransGlobe, Egypt's Tharwa and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation.

The signed deals are worth US$272m in investments, in addition to US$124m worth of grants that were allocated to drilling 41 wells. The government is keen to develop untapped finds to reduce its reliance on imports, but has struggled to persuade companies to invest in the biggest finds, which are offshore, because the amount it pays them barely covers the investment costs.

Germany: N+P has announced that it will expand its cooperation for the delivery of high quality Subcoal^® pellets with Dyckerhoff in Germany.

Subcoal is produced at the Qlyte plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. The Qlyte facility produces about 65,000t/yr of Subcoal pellets, consuming around 100,000t/yr of non-recyclable paper-plastic waste fractions that otherwise would have ended in landfill or waste incineration. The Subcoal is used to replace lignite dust or bituminous coal at cement kilns, power stations and lime kilns.

Dyckerhoff started to use Subcoal in 2013. N+P and Dyckerhoff have since worked together to improve the alternative fuel for optimal use in its kilns. The cooperation has led to a new Subcoal fuel that is used at the Dyckerhoff kiln in Lengerich. The kiln in Geseke will continue to use the standard Subcoal quality.

US: Regulators have scheduled a public hearing about Holcim's request to change the way it burns liquid wastes for fuel at its Holly Hill plant in South Carolina.

"We currently burn fuel in one place in the kiln and this permit will allow us to burn it further along in the process," said Holcim spokeswoman Robin DeCarlo. "It does not change the limits, but allows us more flexibility." Holcim burns a variety of hazardous materials as fuel in the place of fossil fuels. That includes waste solvents, oils, out-of-specification intermediates and products from various industries such as the paint, plastics and petroleum industries.

The public hearing is scheduled for 27 January 2015. The notice was released by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. The plant is currently allowed to burn waste-derived fuel in its cement kiln. The permit will allow the plant to also treat and burn the fuel in the precalciner.

Holcim is also seeking a permit to construct a new stream channel designed to protect the plant from potential flooding. The project is awaiting approval by the US Army Corps of Engineers. DeCarlo said that the company expects to receive approval to proceed though is not certain when it will occur.

India: The Pollution Control Board has despatched 20,000t of effluent sludge generated by textile units in the SIPCOT Industrial Estate in Perundurai to cement plants in Ariyalur district in Tamil Nadu state for use as an alternative fuel. Local media reports that local cement producers have started accepting effluent sludge from the dying industry after the success of a trial run that indicated no variation in the strength and quality of cement. Following the first order demand for another 8000t has been expressed.