In recent days, Quattichem have decided that the scope of our contract relating to the location of their new manufacturing plant has been changed.  The search location has been amended to include the shortlisted countries in Africa and several potential host countries in their 'Asia' region.  This means that the latest shortlist of thirty seven countries identified by Quattichem must be investigated as part of this contract.  I have in the last 10 minutes received an e-mail which contains brief details of another three countries that they would like to be added to the existing list.  These are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Laos.  A revised data file which will contain the initial details of all these countries will be collated and available for use by the end of today.

Please note that the following countries are the prime suppliers of the bulk dry materials used in the manufacturing processes:

Thailand
Indonesia
South Africa
Switzerland

Most of these materials will be transported in bulk powder form, so it is essential that good transport links are established or can be established without prohibitive costs.  The contract has been extended to include the requirement for approximate costs to be shown, particularly in relation to the enhancement of the transport network in the area as well as an overall budget for the design and construction of the site.  Please add a 30% contingency cost to all projected budgets before they are submitted as part of the report.

Recent developments internationally which have banned the use of single hulled oil tankers in some regions of the world must be taken into account.  This will mean that the plant's requirement for heavy crude oil, with an approximate consumption of 6000 barrels a day will mean that a port taking only the most modern supertankers must be on site or available locally, if the region selected does not have this type of oil locally produced.

Please ensure that the other primary location factors, that is political stability, availability of water and good transport links are also given high priority.  These factors are: that a remote location is required, at least 12 kilometres away from any centres of population.  We must ensure that we evaluate the physical geography of the location, existing transportation links and the potential for new transportation links, climate, political structures and stability, as well as the other requirements mentioned above.  Please identify any potential problems with selecting this location, even if they have not been identified in any of the notes within this document or from the briefing meeting.  This will probably be the most critical factor in your report.  It must be on a relatively flat area of land in excess of 60000 hectares which must not contain a habitat for any protected species of flora or fauna.  Approximately 20000 hectares of the site will be set aside to allow this water to cool back to the natural ambient temperature, before it is returned to the locality. 

The new contract also requires us to produce some draft marketing strategies using the environmental aspects.  They believe that in a changing global economy, consumers have, and will become prepared to pay a little extra to ensure that natural resources are preserved and natural habitats are protected.  As Quattichem use large quantities of oil and other resources, there would appear to be a conflict of interests here and they are keen to try and persuade the consumers of their wide range of products of their 'green' credentials.

In light of the changes to the contact, the team has been enlarged.  Safraz has been seconded to the team for the next week and will lead the work on the environmental presentation.  The existing teams working under David will continue to collect and collate all the relevant information about all countries on the latest list.  Sofia's team will initially focus on those countries where annual Imports are greater than 10 AND less than 300 and with a population of less than 3,000,000.  The starting point for this team will be the following countries:

Sofia's team will ensure that all potential sites within these countries have been investigated by Tuesday's briefing meeting.  By this stage David's team should have all the geographical data on these countries collated and presented, especially those relating to earth movements, earthquakes and any volcanic activity.  I appreciate that for some team members it will involve working in unfamiliar areas, but it is essential that we have several options that can be developed into in-depth studies prior to the final deadline on the 15th.  New team allocations will be: