At least 13 killed in China factory explosion
A massive blast at an explosives factory in eastern China killed at least 13 people with another 20 missing and others buried in debris on May 21, State media reported. Another 19 people were injured in the explosion on Monday at a three-storey workshop owned by Poly Explosives (Jinan), a state-owned company in the eastern province of Shandong.  The company website said the factory manufactures 30,000 tonnes of industrial explosives annually. The force of the blast flung broken glass, smashed concrete and other debris as far as 200 metres, reports said. Walls in outlying buildings were flattened and glass shattered. A total of 34 people were inside the factory at the time of the blast and survivors were...

BP challenges 'spurious’ claims from Macondo oil spill
Oil major BP has petitioned a US court regarding the company’s payouts stemming from its 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, accusing a judge of allowing “absurd” compensation claims. BP wants to halt payouts, amounting to millions of dollars, in what it calls “spurious” compensation claims to victims of the spill.  ...

Exxon and Qatar Petroleum in talks to bring US gas to UK
Britain could receive nearly 16 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas to supply its depleted domestic gas supply market if plans by ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum to build a LNG export plant in the US go through. Reuters says the deal would see 15.6 million tonnes of LNG per year shipped from the proposed Golden Pass plant in Texas to the South Hook terminal in Wales....

Learning from the transformation of US commercial nuclear power
Mary Jo Rogers, a nuclear safety consultant at Strategic Talent Solutions, looks at how the nuclear industry become safer, more reliable and more profitable while under such heavy scrutiny and regulation, and what other industries can learn from this transformation. 

IECEx certification for multi-component integrated products
Specialist Services Group (SSG), an engineering and manufacturing company providing modular buildings to the oil & gas industry for both onshore and offshore applications, has announced that it has successfully achieved IECEx Certification for its Zone 1 purged and pressurised building product line.

New handbook for process industry functional safety
“Process Safebook 1 – Functional Safety in the Process Industry” has been published by Rockwell Automation to provide its customers with an overview of functional safety and guidance in the application of IEC61511, the process industry specific implementation of IEC61508.

Germany's clean energy plans founder on dirty coal
Germany's planned transition to green energy has taken a knock with the announcement in late April that coal-fired plants produced 6% more power in 2012. Most of the coal burned in German power stations is lignite, or brown coal, a dirty and heavily polluting fuel source. Industry association Debriv also said the country mined 5.1% more brown coal in 2012 than in the previous year.