Gas Contracts Research Articles

MEMS thermal gyroscope with self-compensation of the linear acceleration effect

The MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) thermal gyroscope uses gas instead of a solid proof mass to detect Coriolis acceleration and provides better high-shock and strong-vibration resistance than the MEMS mechanical gyroscope. Despite its mechanical robustness, the output of the MEMS thermal gyroscope is affected by linear acceleration. The MEMS thermal gyroscope described in this paper includes two symmetric heaters and two symmetric temperature sensors. By alternating power to the two heaters, a bidirectional flow of expanding gas is created. The Coriolis acceleration deflects the symmetric gas flow and produces a differential temperature between the two temperature sensors. By reducing the heaters’ switching frequency, we are able to compensate for the linear acceleration effect of the thermal gyroscope. At a low gas flow frequency, the thermal gyroscope operates in both transient and steady states. The differential temperature acquired in the transient state is a combination of the signals produced by acceleration and rotation. However, in the steady state, the velocity of gas flow produced by gas expansion and contraction drops to zero. At this point, the desired Coriolis acceleration diminishes, and the device operates solely as an accelerometer. Thus, the differential temperature signal detected in the steady state can be used to compensate for the differential temperature signal detected in the transient state. This method also provides both rotational and acceleration signals from the same device.

The unconventional gas revolution and the prospects for Europe and Asia

The development of unconventional gas exploration in the USA, in particular shale gas, caused a revolution in the American and the global gas markets. The regional-wide use of unconventional gas resources could stabilise the natural gas demand and the energy supply security of European and Asian countries. But traditionally, almost all gas contracts in Europe and Asia are linked to oil because of the demand for stable, long-term contracts. Furthermore, in many Asian countries, large state-owned enterprises dominate their national gas markets, leading to little competition and incentives to reduce gas prices. In Europe, the expansion of unconventional gas is facing grassroots opposition from environmental groups who are concerned about ground water safety, adequate waste water management, seismic events and greenhouse gas emissions. This article examines the rapidly changing natural gas markets and the role and prospects of unconventional gas as well as the impacts it may have on European and Asian energy security. It highlights, in particular, the geo-economic and geo-political implications and discusses whether the US unconventional gas revolution can be duplicated in Europe and Asia.

Studying the core-cusp problem in cold dark matter halos using N-body simulations on GPU clusters

The discrepancy in the mass-density profile of dark matter halos between simulations and observations, the core-cusp problem, is a long-standing open question in the standard paradigm of cold dark matter cosmology. Here, we study the dynamical response of dark matter halos to oscillations of the galactic potential which are induced by a cycle of gas expansion and contraction in galaxies driven by supernova feedback. We developed a fast tree-code for PC clusters with GPU which displays high performance and high scalability. We perform large scale N-body simulations to follow the dynamical evolution of dark matter halos under the effect of oscillating gravitational potential. Furthermore, we compare the results of simulations with an analytical model of the resonance between particles and density waves to understand the physical mechanism of the cusp-core transition.

Robust Management and Pricing of Liquefied Natural Gas Contracts with Cancelation Options

Liquefied Natural Gas contracts offer cancelation options that make their pricing difficult, especially if many gas storages need to be taken into account. We develop a valuation mechanism from the buyer's perspective, a large gas company whose main interest in these contracts is to provide to clients a reliable supply of gas. The approach combines valuation with hedging, taking into account that price-risk is driven by international markets, while volume-risk depends on local weather and is stage-wise dependent. The methodology is based on setting risk-averse stochastic mixed 0-1 programs, for different contract configurations. These difficult problems are solved with light computational effort, thanks to a robust rolling-horizon approach. The resulting pricing mechanism not only shows how a specific set of contracts will impact the company business, but also provides the manager with alternative contract configurations to counter-propose to the contract seller.

Küreselleşme Sürecinde Azerbaycan’ın Ekonomik Yeniden Yapılanma Ve Kalkınma Politikası (Economic Reconstruction and Development of Azerbaijan in the Globalization Process)

Azerbaijan, which is one of the countries gained its political independence after the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), has started using the advantages, i.e. its rich oil and natural gas reserves as a locomotive power to achieve economic reconstruction and development, and to integrate into the global world. The energy sector has been playing a decisive role in the transitional period in the country. Azerbaijan signed oil and gas contracts with western companies to develop and produce the country's oil and gas reserves. After these contracts, Azerbaijan signed a contract with a consortium of companies to build a pipeline which will carry Caspian oil from Baku through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. In addition to this pipeline, Azerbaijan signed another contract with a onsortium of companies to build a pipeline which will carry Shahdeniz gas from Baku through Georgia to Turkey. Oil revenues has started to flow into Azerbaijan from 2006. In the mid-term, the country will use oil and gas revenues to rebuild its crumbling infrastructure and to develop non-oil sectors. In the long run, Azerbaijan has decided to focus on education sector, and information and communication technologies to continue its economic development.

The connection between star formation and metallicity evolution in barred spiral galaxies

We have performed a series of chemodynamical simulations of barred disc galaxies. Our goal is to determine the physical processes responsible for the increase in the central gas-phase metallicity and of the central SFR observed in SDSS. We define a 2kpc diameter central aperture to approximate the integrated spectroscopic fibre measurements from the SDSS. The chemical evolution observed within this central region depends critically upon the relative size of the bar and the aperture, which evolves strongly with time. At t~0.5Gyr, a strong bar forms, whose length is considerably longer than the 2kpc aperture. The stars and gas lose angular momentum and follow elongated orbits that cause an intense mixing of the gas between the central region and its surroundings. During the next 1.5Gyr, the orbits of the gas contract significantly until the entire gas bar is contained in the 2kpc aperture, resulting in a net flux of gas into the central region. During this period, the metallicity in the central region increases steadily, and this enrichment is dominated by metal-rich gas that is flowing into the central region. The main result of this work is therefore that the observed enrichment in the centres of barred galaxies is not dominated by in-situ enrichment by stars formed in the centre. Rather, star formation occurs along the full length of the bar, much of which occurs initially outside the 2kpc aperture. About 50% of the metals that end up in the central region originate from this extended bar-long star formation, but flow into the central region due to loss of angular momentum. We conclude that there is no direct connection between central SFR and central metallicity. The central metallicity does not originate exclusively from central stars. Instead, the global SFR (especially along the bar) and the large-scale flow of enriched gas play a major role.

Ortho-H2and the age of prestellar cores

Prestellar cores form from the contraction of cold gas and dust material in dark clouds before they collapse to form protostars. Several concurrent theories exist to describe this contraction but they are currently difficult to distinguish. One major difference is the timescale involved in forming the prestellar cores: some theories advocate nearly free-fall speed via, e.g., rapid turbulence decay, while others can accommodate much longer periods to let the gas accumulate via, e.g., ambipolar diffusion. To tell the difference between these theories, measuring the age of prestellar cores could greatly help. However, no reliable clock currently exists. We present a simple chemical clock based on the regulation of the deuteration by the abundance of ortho‐H2 that slowly decays away from the ortho-para statistical ratio of 3 down to or less than 0.001. We use a chemical network fully coupled to a hydrodynamical model that follows the contraction of a cloud, starting from uniform density, and reaches a density profile typical of a prestellar core. We compute the N2D + /N2H + ratioalong the density profile. The disappearance of ortho-H2 is tied tothe duration of the contraction and the N2D + /N2H + ratio increases in the wake of the ortho-H2 abundance decrease. By adjusting the time of contraction, we obtain different deuteration profiles that we can compare to the observations. Our model can test fast contractions (from 10 4 to 10 6 cm −3 in ∼0.5 My) and slow contractions (from 10 4 to 10 6 cm −3 in ∼5 My). We have tested the sensitivity of the models to various initial conditions. The slowcontraction deuteration profile is approximately insensitive to these variations, while the fast-contraction deuteration profile shows significant variations. We found that, in all cases, the deuteration profile remains clearly distinguishable whether it comes from the fast collapse or the slow collapse. We also study the para-D2H + /ortho-H2D + ratio and find that its variation is not monotonic, so it does not discriminate between models. Applying this model to L183 (=L134N), we find that the N2D + /N2H + ratio would be higher than unity for evolutionary timescales of a few megayears independently of other parameters, such as cosmic ray ionization rate or grain size (within reasonable ranges). A good fit to the observations is only obtained for fast contraction (≤0.7 My from the beginning of the contraction and ≤4 My from the birth of the molecular cloud based on the need to keep a high ortho-H2 abundance when the contraction starts ‐ ortho-H2/para-H2 ≥ 0.2 ‐ to match the observations). This chemical clock therefore rules out slow contraction in L183 and steady-state chemical models, since steady state is clearly not reached here. This clock should be applied to other cores to help distinguish slow and fast contraction theories over a large sample of cases.

Region o niskim stopniu zainteresowania w polityce zagranicznej Stanów Zjednoczonych na początku XXI wieku

American Foreign Policy towards Low Interest Region at the Beginning of the 21st Century. Case Study of Maghreb States The Mediterranean Area is a very important region at the contemporary international relations. Since 2001 the United States have established closer relations with North African countries. There are two main goals of the American foreign Policy towards Maghreb: one of the main goal of this cooperation is searching for the alternative way of supplying the United States by African gas and oil. Algeria, Libya and Nigeria are one of the biggest holders and exporters of these natural minerals. Nowadays, U.S., European countries and Russia are in rivalry for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and oil contracts with the African partners. The winner of this compete will keep control of the whole market of minerals and from the political, economic and strategic point of view will be stronger in the future. The second one is supporting by Maghreb countries U.S. counter-terrorism military operation Active Endeavour.

Measuring the Instability Premium and the Oil Price Shocks to the Indian Economy

Instability in the world has led to lag availability of various kinds of resources, particularly oil. In order to procure oil, which is a major form of energy, a nation pays, what has come to be known as an 'Instability Premium' (how do you define instability premium in relation with oil price hikes?, how do you find the instability premium, of what importance is the premium that is calculated on oil prices at the supply side?). The instability gets manifested in the form of shocks to the oil prices (can you specify what is the kind/nature and extent of the shock? The causes (enumerate all) of such shocks could be positive or negative. It is euphemistically understood that anything which adversely affects the large nations’ (as in the theories of International Trade) interests in the oil sector is a 'Shock', it may be a loss of gas contract to some other vehemently emerging hegemony, economies of scale (what are the economies of scale after merger? How would sharing of ‘benefits’ under ‘synergy’ be possible between consumers and producers?) after merger of two oil majors corporations without the senate approval, a dare drive to pass on the benefits of synergy to the consumers or even producer nations focusing upon developing markets in a continent having a powerful effect on oil prices (how does this affect as a shock?). When a large nation reacts to such changes adversely, it instigates a $10-$12 Instability Premium on oil prices, so, it intrudes into the fiscal capacity of the developing nations.The prophecy of the capitalism to have ‘ways’ (do you intend to create an analogy against capitalists?), has astounded the interests of many. Interests of the ‘developing and other than capitalist nations’ vouches a need for scientific, political and consistent end to the instability and the sufferings associated with it. India's growth prospect largely hangs on where the oil prices. How is supply demand mismatch manifested in the case of Indian Economy? How is the mismatch causing such an inflationary situation? Check for the oil price changes and its impact of India’s Balance of Payments? Check when does this shock make an impact on the Real National Income?Why do oil prices play such a vital role on the future of the world's second fastest growing economy? India ranks among the top 10 largest oil- consuming countries and oil accounts for about 30% of India's total energy consumption. India imports about 70% of its total oil consumption and makes no exports. This naturally would create a supply deficit, as domestic oil production is unlikely to keep pace with demand. India's rough production is only 0.8 million barrels per day. An IMF report says that among the oil importing countries, the largest impact on GDP growth and the balance of payments is expected to be felt in India, Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey.The report further indicates that a USD 5 per barrel increase in oil price would lead to a 1.3% increase in inflation and a drop of 1% in GDP growth. How are such standards calculated? Although the entire burden of the spike in price has not been passed to the domestic consumer, the Indian government's finances have taken a sufficient hit, affecting the macroeconomic outlook in India. India, as a result, will experience deterioration in its balance of payments, putting downward pressure on exchange rates.Ultimately, imports would become more expensive and exports less valuable, leading to a drop in real national income. Higher oil prices generate cost push inflation, leading to increased input costs, reduced non-oil demand and lower investment in net oil importing countries. Also, tax revenues tend to fall and the budget deficit increases, due to rigidities in government expenditure, which drives interest rates up.The economic system of the country relies on the value of the country's currency to stay the same how is the oil trade related to the forex market changes? The primary reason that inflation affects the economy so negatively is the loss of value. Inflation impacts the economy so significantly because economies are organized based on the value of currency, both within and outside of the country. The International Monetary Fund, however, said that though soaring oil prices and inflation in emerging economies pose new risks to economic recovery, it is not yet strong enough to derail the economy.India imports about 76 per cent of its crude oil requirements which amounts to an oil import bill of around $50 billion every year. India’s crude oil import bill rose by 3.48% in rupee terms and 16.67% in dollar terms during the first half of the current fiscal year.

Strategic Management of Multi-Year Natural Gas Contracts in Electricity Markets

Combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants show some advantages, such as better economies of scale, or lower CO2 emission rates, in comparison to other technologies. In addition, due to their flexible operation, CCGT plants are a useful support for the integration of the growing renewable energy installed capacity. Consequently, during the last years, CCGT plants have proliferated in electricity systems, increasing the global demand of natural gas (NG). In order to guarantee the NG supply and to hedge the price volatility, electricity generation companies (Gencos) sign supply contracts with NG producers. Typically, NG producers force long-term contracts in order to recover their huge capital investments. Therefore, Gencos should optimize the exercise of the supply contracts in the long-term scope in order to maximize their profits in the electricity market. However, the optimal exercise of the supply contracts on behalf of the Gencos could be impeded because of possible bottlenecks in the NG system. Accordingly, this paper proposes a methodology to incorporate both the characteristics of NG supply contracts and the congestions in the NG system in an electricity market model that could support the decision-making process on behalf of the Gencos. A study case illustrates the methodology.

The Play of Voices in Metaphor Discourse: A Case Study of “NATIONS ARE BROTHERS”

Dialogic patterns around the metaphor “NATIONS ARE BROTHERS” is the object of investigation of this article. The purpose is to demonstrate heteroglossia created by this metaphoric proposition. The article seeks to explore the variation of themes and social implications evoked by the same metaphoric concept. Various social agents adopt and adapt the metaphor to achieve dissimilar communicative and ideological goals. Receivers of the metaphoric message do not react uniformly to the proposition either. Multiple voices are involved in negotiation of values and ideas associated with the metaphor usage. The play of voices around the metaphoric proposition extends, reverses, twists and truncates the mapping of the metaphoric paragon. The article concludes with the discussion of discursive techniques which enable metaphor producer to enlarge or alter the scope of metaphoric inferences. 1Compare Medvedev: my i seychas ispytyvaem bratskie chuvstva po otnosheniyu k gruzinskomu narodu “D. Medvedev: ‘We feel the fraternal feelings towards the Georgian people even now’” (September 7, 2008; retrieved from http://www.newsru.com/arch/russia/07sep2008/grt.html). In this article, Russian politicians maintain that they have only fraternal feelings toward Georgians even after the South Ossetia war which resulted in annexation of South Ossetia from Georgia. Similarly in Putin: Glavnoe v otnosheniyakh s Ukrainoi ne gaz i flot, a chuvstvo loktia “V. Putin: ‘The most important thing in relations with Ukraine is not the gas and the fleet but the feeling of comradeship’” (April 22, 2010; retrieved from http://afn.by/news/i/134633). Putin argues that the feeling of comradeship is more important in relation between Ukraine and Russia than the economic and geopolitical benefits. Ironically, Ukraine had to agree upon a ruinous gas contract with Russia and a Russian military presence in Ukraine.

New regulatory authority over significant price discovery contracts: An example of natural gas swaps with econometric applications

This study details the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's significant price discovery regulatory authority over exempt, over-the-counter contracts, as introduced in 2008. A vector autoregressive model is used to conclude that three cash-settled natural gas contracts traded on the IntercontinentalExchange are significant price discovery contracts (SPDCs). Thus, this study demonstrates the methods’ use in analyzing the new financial policy authority and other similar and evolving policies. The paper also discusses some of the policy implications of the SPDC determinations. Lastly, the authors address the transition of the Commission's SPDC authority as a result of the passage of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law in July 2010.

Глобализация рынков газа – новые вызовы

Currently, gas markets are going through a phase of transformation into global ones. They are largely following the American model of the spot trade market development with the building of LNG terminals for the internationalization and globalization of supply chains. All this greatly changes the structure of the relationship between the producers and consumers of long-term gas contracts, primarily in Europe. The availability of a ramified network of gas transmission pipelines in the territory of the European Union and the diversification of supplies through greater application of liquefied natural gas allows Europe to more effectively build its energy strategy. In particular, the stress is made on the creation of large hubs (junctions of inter-country flows) to turn the spot trade into a dominant mechanism of natural gas supplies.

Geopolitics of Natural Gas Supply in Europe – Poland between the EU and Russia

The article analyses possible interests, attitudes and activities of the major actors in the ‘natural gas supply game’ in Europe after 1990: Russia/Gazprom, alternative suppliers like countries in the Caspian Sea area, the main consumers of gas and transit countries. It stresses that behaviour of the actors depends on the changing international political and economic situation and conditions in individual countries. Special attention is paid to pipeline projects: Nord Stream, South Stream and Nabucco, and reactions to them, such as building a LGN terminal at Świnoujście (Poland), North-South (Baltic-Adriatic) energy corridor and the Polish-Russian gas contract of 2010.

Cores and revived cusps of dark matter haloes in disc galaxy formation through clump clusters

Cusp-core problem is a controversial problem on galactic dark matter haloes. Cosmological N-body simulations has demonstrated that galactic dark matter haloes have a cuspy density profile at the centre. However, baryonic physics may affect the dark matter density profile. For example, it was suggested that adiabatic contraction of baryonic gas makes the dark matter cusp steeper. However, it is still an open question if the gas falls into the galactic centre in smooth adiabatic manner. Recent numerical studies suggested that disc galaxies might experience clumpy phase in their early stage of the disc formation, which could also explain clump clusters and chain galaxies observed in high redshift Universe. In this letter, using numerical simulations with an isolated model, we study how the dark matter halo responds to these clumpy nature of baryon component in disc galaxy formation through the clump cluster phase. Our simulation demonstrates that such clumpy phase leads to a shallower density profile of the dark matter halo in the central region while clumps fall into the centre due to dynamical friction. This mechanism helps to make the central dark matter density profile shallower in the galaxies whose virial mass is as large as 5.0*10^11 solar masses. This phenomenon is caused by reaction to dynamical friction of the stellar clumps against the dark matter halo. The halo draws the clumps into the galactic centre, while kinematically heated by the clumps. We additionally run a dark matter only simulation excluding baryonic component and confirm that the resultant shallower density profile is not due to numerical artifact in the simulation, such as two-body relaxation.

Long-term natural gas contracts and antitrust law in the European Union and the United States

Long-term natural gas contracts and their specific features are at the forefront of legal and policy discussions around the world. Issues like oil price indexation and price reviews, flexibility and take-or-pay clauses or a move to shorter term trading are being debated. This is particularly true for Europe where major changes are taking place, but also in places like Australia and Asia. This study will focus on the antitrust treatment of long-term take-or-pay natural gas contracts and their specific provisions in the European Union and the United States. It will also examine the regulatory treatment of these contracts and the regulatory environment in which these contracts operate. Issues that are covered include questions on duration and volumes, take-or-pay provisions and oil indexation, destination or use restrictions, vertical integration and monopolization. Recognitions and methodological remarks This article was written as a part of a larger study on long-term natural gas contracts and EU competition law. The results of this study have been reported in this AIPN research article and in a book titled Vertical Natural Gas Transportation Capacity, Upstream Commodity Contracts and EU Competition Law (Kluwer Law International 2011). The focus in these two studies is different. The present article focuses on the legal aspects of the application of antitrust laws to natural gas contracts. It focuses on the application of law in the European Union (EU) and compares this to the situation in the United States (US). Drawing on the regulatory history in the US natural gas markets and the application of antitrust laws to long-term contracts, the study also provides for comparative remarks. The book on the other hand, focuses on competition ‘policy’ and the interplay between law and international geopolitics in the EU natural gas sector. It portrays a picture where the boundaries to the application of EU law in the natural gas sector are set by the geopolitics. It examines the role of politics in the application of law. The book also focuses on the question of how EU competition law should be applied to long-term natural gas commodity and capacity contracts, as opposed to the focus of this article which examines the application of the law.

Selection of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Contracts for Minimizing Procurement Cost

Recent increases in energy prices, the rise in natural gas demand due to the concerns over CO2 emissions and a possible carbon tax, the development of a low-cost and high-capacity liquefied natural gas (LNG) value chain, the emergence of new suppliers with large gas reserves, the flow of uncommitted LNG capacity to the market, and the disappearance of conventional clauses such as destination are stimulating global LNG trade. Moreover, natural gas liberalization is resulting in the emergence of new buyers with variable demands, which is increasing the competitiveness and dynamicity of the LNG market. The LNG contracts are thus diversifying in price formulations, flexibility, duration, quality, quantity, commitment, discount, and other terms and conditions. Finding a combination of contracts and suppliers, which trades off various cost factors in an optimal manner, is becoming more and more challenging, where systematic optimization-based approaches can be very useful. In this study, we address contract selection from the perspective of an LNG buyer company. We develop a mixed-integer linear programming formalism that helps the buyer select the best combination of suppliers and contracts in an integrated manner that addresses various aspects, such as contract timings and lengths, demands, price formulations, volume discounts, delivery terms, shipment costs, purchase commitments, etc. We minimize the sum of purchase and transport costs, and we illustrate our approach using three examples with diverse and realistic features.

Legal Strategies in Upstream Oil and Gas Contracts to Attract Foreign Investment: Iran's Case

Legal Strategies in Upstream Oil and Gas Contracts to Attract Foreign Investment: Iran's Case

Security of supply and retail competition in the European gas market.: Some model-based insights

In this paper, we analyze the impact of uncertain disruptions in gas supply upon gas retailer contracting behavior and consequent price and welfare implications in a gas market characterized by long-term gas contracts using a static Cournot model. In order to most realistically describe the economical situation, our representation divides the market into two stages: the upstream market that links, by means of long-term contracts, producers in exporting countries (Russia, Algeria, etc.) to local retailers who bring gas to the consuming countries to satisfy local demands in the downstream market. Disruption costs are modeled using short-run demand functions. First we mathematically develop a general model and write the associated KKT conditions, then we propose some case studies, under iso-elasticity assumptions, for the long–short-run inverse-demand curves in order to predict qualitatively and quantitatively the impacts of supply disruptions on Western European gas trade. In the second part, we study in detail the German gas market of the 1980s to explain the supply choices of the German retailer, and we derive interesting conclusions and insights concerning the amounts and prices of natural gas brought to the market. The last part of the paper is dedicated to a study of the Bulgarian gas market, which is greatly dependent on the Russian gas supplies and hence very sensitive to interruption risks. Some interesting conclusions are derived concerning the necessity to economically regulate the market, by means of gas amounts control, if the disruption probability is high enough.

Impact of Natural Gas System on Risk-Constrained Midterm Hydrothermal Scheduling

This paper studies the impact of natural gas (NG) contracts and constraints on a GENCO's midterm risk-constrained hydrothermal scheduling problem. The NG contracts and constraints are modeled as a set of linear equations. The proposed model utilizes the stochastic price-based unit commitment (PBUC). The PBUC hourly solution considers uncertainties of market prices for energy and ancillary services, uncertainties of natural water inflows, and random NG infrastructure interruptions in Monte Carlo scenarios. Illustrative examples analyze the GENCO's risk levels when considering midterm schedules for generating units, target payoffs, and usages of water inflow, NG and other thermal resources. Simulation results show that a GENCO's midterm schedules and financial risks could be impacted significantly with the consideration of NG contracts and constraints.