Brunei

Coordinates: 4°30′N 114°40′E / 4.500°N 114.667°E / 4.500; 114.667

Brunei (ⁱ/bruːˈnaɪ/, broo-NYE), officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: نڬارا بروني دارالسلام‎), is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, the country is completely surrounded by the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. It is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. Brunei is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo; the remainder of the island's territory is divided between the nations of Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei's population was 408,786 in July 2012.

At the peak of the Bruneian Empire, Sultan Bolkiah (reigned 1485–1528) is alleged to have had control over most regions of Borneo, including modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, as well as the Sulu archipelago off the northeast tip of Borneo, Seludong (modern-day Manila), and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo. The maritime state was visited by Spain's Magellan Expedition in 1521 and fought against Spain in 1578's Castille War.

Gas carrier

A gas carrier (or gas tanker) is a ship designed to transport LPG, LNG or liquefied chemical gases in bulk.

Types

Fully pressurized gas carrier

The seaborne transport of liquefied gases began in 1934 when a major international company put two combined oil/LPG tankers into operation. The ships, basically oil tankers, had been converted by fitting small, riveted, pressure vessels for the carriage of LPG into cargo tank spaces. This enabled transport over long distances of substantial volumes of an oil refinery by-product that had distinct advantages as a domestic and commercial fuel. LPG is not only odourless and non-toxic, it also has a high calorific value and a low sulphur content, making it very clean and efficient when being burnt.

Today, most fully pressurised oceangoing LPG carriers are fitted with two or three horizontal, cylindrical or spherical cargo tanks and have typical capacities between 3,500 and 7,500 m³ (120,000 and 260,000 cu ft). However, in recent years a number of larger-capacity fully pressurised ships have been built, most notably a series of 10,800 m³ (380,000 cu ft) ships, built in Japan between 2003 and 2013. Fully pressurised ships are still being built in numbers and represent a cost-effective, simple way of moving LPG to and from smaller gas terminals.

Fossil fuel

Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years. Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include coal, petroleum and natural gas. Other more commonly used derivatives of fossil fuels include kerosene and propane. They range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields, alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates. The theory that fossil fuels formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth's crust over millions of years (see biogenic theory) was first introduced by Georg Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century.

The Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2007 the primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.0%, coal 27.4%, natural gas 23.0%, amounting to an 86.4% share for fossil fuels in primary energy consumption in the world. Non-fossil sources in 2006 included hydroelectric 6.3%, nuclear 8.5%, and others (geothermal, solar, tidal, wind, wood, waste) amounting to 0.9%. World energy consumption was growing about 2.3% per year.

Bandar Seri Begawan

Bandar Seri Begawan /ˌbɑːndə sᵻˌriː bᵻˈɡaʊ.ən/ or /ˌbæ-/ BA(H)ND-ə sə-REE bə-GOW-ən (Jawi: بندر سري بڬاوان ; Malay: [ˌbanda səˌri bəˈɡawan]) formerly known as Brunei Town, is the capital and largest city of the Sultanate of Brunei. Bandar Seri Begawan has an estimated population of 20,000, and including the whole Brunei-Muara District, the metro area has an estimated population of 279,924.

Etymology

The original name for this city was "Bandar Brunei" or "Brunei Town" in English. In 1967, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III abdicated in favour of his eldest son, Hassanal Bolkiah and took the title of "Seri Begawan". Bolkiah was then made as a defence minister and on 5 October 1970, he renamed the city to honour his late father. The word "Begawan" was also used for Bruneian monarchs who have abdicated, the word originally coming from the Sanskrit word for "god": भगवान bhagavān. Besides that, Seri Begawan was known as "blessed one" in Sanskrit.Seri comes from the honorific Sanskrit word Sri, and Bandar comes from Persian via Indian languages and originally meant "harbour" or "port" or "haven". In Malay, bandar is known as a "town" or a "city".