Day: April 11, 2024

Kuche: Tarim Basin, a major natural gas source in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has seen vigorous development with 12 new gas wells in being put into operation in Tarim Oilfield since the beginning of the year, elevating the gas supply capability in southern Xinjiang.

According to a report from China Central Television, the advancements have resulted in the oilfield’s daily gas supply averaging over 16 million cubic meters. Furthermore, new infrastructure allows this gas to be transported through a 4,000-kilometer pipeline extending from Xinjiang to the eastern metropolis of Shanghai, as confirmed by oilfield operators.

“We have connected the natural gas pipeline network in Southern Xinjiang with the west-east gas pipeline network by building new pipelines. Branch lines covering a wider range of counties and villages have also been built, and we have set up four compressor stations to elevate gas supply capability,” said Chang Guichuan, head of the transportation and marketing departme
nt of PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Branch.

New natural gas reserves have been found in Tarim Oilfield with the help of new exploratory wells. A new natural gas processing plant has been built on the Pamirs Plateau, pushing up the area’s daily processing capacity from one million cubic meters to three million cubic meters.

With the establishment of Bozi natural gas processing plant in the southern parts of the Tian Shan mountains, the gas-bearing area is able to process over 30 million cubic meters of natural gas.

A total of 32 oil and gas fields have been built surrounding the Tarim basin since the country started an exploration campaign in the area 35 years ago.

The area has proven oil and gas reserves reaching 3.5 billion tonnes of oil equivalent and has a total gas output of over 400 billion cubic meters.

Oil and gas exploration and production have driven high-quality socio-economic development in Xinjiang and have also helped ensure China’s energy security.

Source: Emirates News Agency

ABU DHABI: The Joint Operations Command of the Ministry of Defence announced the successful completion of the 30th ‘Birds of Goodness’ airdrop operation, delivering 125 tonnes of humanitarian aid and Eid clothing to northern Gaza.

The airdrop, which took place on 10th April 2024, was the largest to date and involved six aircraft: three C-17s from the UAE Air Force, two C-295s and one C-130 from the Egyptian Air Force.

The airdropped supplies encompassed essential food items alongside special Eid clothing parcels for families. These parcels contained clothes, toys, sweets, and various products for all family members. The mission aimed to address the needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza during Eid Al Fitr, fostering hope and joy while alleviating their hardships.

The operation targeted isolated areas in northern Gaza that are difficult to access by land. The total amount of aid delivered since the launch of “Birds of Goodness” has reached 1,857 tonnes of food and relief supplies.

This brings the total am
ount of aid sent by the UAE to northern Gaza to over 2,227 tonnes, including both land shipments through the Kerem Shalom crossing and airdrops via ‘Birds of Goodness.’

The “Birds of Goodness” campaign is part of Operation ‘Chivalrous Knight 3’ to support the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Source: Emirates News Agency

MOSCOW: Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (a TASS special reporter in space) and Nikolay Chub will embark on their next spacewalk on 25th-26th April, the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos) announced.

“Preparations [were carried out] for the extravehicular activity under the Russian (VKD-62) programme scheduled for April 25-26, in particular, equipment for experiments was prepared,” Roscosmos said in its 9th April report on the cosmonauts’ activity.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Kononenko and Chub are currently on a yearlong space mission aboard the International Space Station, according to TASS.

Kononenko said in July 2023 that four spacewalks were planned for the ongoing space mission. The cosmonauts conducted one spacewalk overnight to October 26 when they disconnected the hydraulic circuits of the radiator heat exchanger, which had leaked on 9th October, and photographed the coolant leak location.

Source: Emirates News Agency

BRUSSELS: Last year, over half a million (504,002) hectares, an area twice the size of Luxembourg, was scorched by wildfires, according to an advance report on Forest Fires in Europe, Middle East and North Africa 2023 published today by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

The report shows that fires intensified during summer 2023, affecting mostly the Mediterranean region, with Greece (near Alexandroupoli) suffering the largest single fire to occur in Europe since the 1980s. Climate change is making wildfires more and more frequent. And it will get worse, as the European Climate Risk assessment report published in March highlights. Wildfires are increasingly affecting areas that have not been considered fire-prone regions in the past.

In addition, preliminary data for the first three months of 2024 show almost double the average number of fires, although these did not have major impact in terms of burnt areas.

Analysis by vegetation type for 2023 reveals that 37% of the total burnt area was cover
ed by shrubs and sclerophyll vegetation, characterised by hard, thick leaves and adapted to prolonged periods of dryness, while 26% (120,000 ha) were forests. According to the report, the wildfires resulted in severe damage to the environment, producing some 20 megatonnes (Mt) of CO2 emissions, equivalent to nearly a third of all emissions from international aviation in the EU in one year. The three worst years in this century by the extent of burnt area mapped by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) were 2017 (988427 ha), 2022 (837212 ha) and 2007 (588388 ha). The final 2023 report, integrating national contributions, is due to be published in the autumn.

The Commission published in March 2024 a Communication on building climate resilience in the EU and effectively managing climate risks. As part of immediate action, the measures call for enhanced prevention including nature-based solutions, better preparedness thanks to early warning systems and efficient firefighting means made available th
rough the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM).

Source: Emirates News Agency

ABU DHABI: President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan today exchanged Eid Al Fitr greetings during a phone call with His Excellency Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

During the call, His Highness and the Mauritanian President shared congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of Eid Al Fitr and prayed that God continues to bestow His blessings on their countries and peoples.

They also expressed their hopes for God to grant stability and prosperity to Arab and Muslim nations and to the whole world.

Source: Emirates News Agency

ABU DHABI: The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) said today that the country will be affected by an unstable weather condition as a result of an extension of a low surface pressure from the southwest, accompanied by humid southeasterly winds, along with an extension of upper air pressure, accompanied by an air current from the northwest.

On Sunday, the weather is expected to be partly cloudy to cloudy at times, with a light to moderate rainfall that might be heavy at times in some areas, especially over internal and southern areas.

Monday and Tuesday will see the low pressure deepen and the number of clouds increase over scattered areas, accompanied by convective clouds, with rainfall of different intensities over scattered areas, in the form of waves with lightning and thunder, and may be associated with hail at times over some areas.

On Wednesday, cloud amounts will gradually decrease with the continuation of rainfall during the daytime over some areas, especially over northern and eastern areas with
a decrease in temperatures.

Winds will be moderate to fresh south-easterly to north-easterly, becoming north-westerly winds and strong at times, especially with convective clouds and causing blowing dust and sand reducing the horizontal visibility and the flying of some solid objects. The wind speed will decrease on Wednesday to become moderate to fresh at times.

Seas will be moderate to rough and very rough at times, especially with cloud activity on Monday and Tuesday in the Arabian Gulf and Oman Sea, becoming moderate on Wednesday.

Source: Emirates News Agency