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Chevron has announced it has allocated a $US2.3 billion deal to a joint venture between the Australian division of international engineering group Kentz Corporation and New York-based CB&I.

The deal is the largest contract to be awarded locally by Chevron for its $44 billion Gorgon project.

The contract award follows media speculation earlier this week that local engineering firms UGL and Downer EDI had abandoned a $2 billion deal for a similar scope of works at Gorgon over rising costs concerns. Full Post…

— Wooldridge Place Nursing Center, 7352 Wooldridge Road, is listed as a five-star nursing facility under the ratings system used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Systems.

The ratings system is designed to assist the public in choosing care for their loved ones. It calculates the ratings based on results of health inspections, staffing and quality measures.

The center is one of eight skilled nursing and rehab facilities in Texas managed or operated by Life Care Centers of America.

Water Minister Bill Marmion says a tough new inspection regime has seen the number of people fined for not complying with winter sprinkler bans increase dramatically.

Mr Marmion said 1,219 scheme water users had been issued a warning this winter, while 129 had been fined.

This time last year the Water Corporation issued 1,698 warnings, but only seven fines.

“Infringements are higher because the corporation, supported by the State Government, has taken a tougher stance with infringement notices and increased its patrols,” Mr Marmion said.

Mr Marmion said research showed that most people supported a total winter sprinkler ban. Full Post…

TAKING THE PULSE: The coal industry has seen a resurgence of late as export demand continues to grow abroad and U.S. coal miners look to expand in new market segments. Consolidation has picked up in the sector as major firms like Alpha Natural Resources Inc. and Arch Coal Inc. seek control of reserves of metallurgical coal used to make steel. Negotiations for a stake in untapped Mongolian reserves could give Peabody Energy Corp. increased access to growing Asian markets.

Meanwhile, analysts at Goldman Sachs last month predicted shares of coal companies would rise by 35% on average over the next six months as inventories of thermal coal used to generate electricity return to normal levels.

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The commercial opportunities presented by the internet are well documented. More and more of us are clicking to buy goods and services. At the same time, an increasing number of businesses are hurrying to set up virtual stalls to cash in on this boom. But although lucrative, the online rush also presents certain challenges.

Among the most obvious is the question of identity. Companies that operate online need to know their customers are who they say they are. And in addition to identity verification, something that is useful for online retailers such as Asos, there are also instances where the business involved needs to verify the age of its customers – as in the case of the online sports betting company Betfair, for example, whose exchange processes millions of transactions every day. <

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