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17 Mar 2024

Venture Global LNG to Buy Fleet of LNG Vessels

© Andriy Sharpilo / Adobe Stock

Venture Global LNG said on Sunday it would acquire a fleet of nine liquefied natural gas (LNG) transport vessels, expanding its ability to sell and ship its own cargoes.Venture Global LNG has exported hundreds of cargoes since it started liquefying gas for export in 2022 from the first of its three planned facilities in Louisiana. The vessels it used were owned by other companies and leased.The nine vessels in Venture Global's future fleet will be built in South Korea with the first to be delivered later this year…

06 Mar 2024

MOL and Petrobras Sign Cargo Transfer Vessels Deals

Sealoader 2 (Credit: MOL)

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and Brazil’s state-owned energy giant Petrobras have signed a charter contract for cargo transfer vessel (CTV) SeaLoader 2, and agreed to start negotiations for a new CTV shipbuilding contract by the end of 2024.MOL signed the deal through its wholly owned subsidiary, SeaLoading Holding, which owns and operates CTVs.SeaLoading started a CTV agreement with Petrobras for SeaLoader 2 on a trial period in January 2022, and successfully completed more than 30 crude oil offloading operations from Petrobras' FPSOs located in the Santos Basin…

29 Jan 2024

Russian Oil Facilities Hit by Drone Attacks, Fires

© evannovostro / Adobe Stock

Russia energy infrastructure has been hit by drone attacks and fires in the past month, adding to uncertainty in global oil and gas markets already rocked by the conflict in the Middle East.Russia and Ukraine have targeted each other's energy infrastructure in strikes designed to disrupt supply lines and logistics and to demoralise their opponent as they try to get the edge in a nearly two-year-old war that shows no sign of ending.Following are recent major incidents at Russian oil facilities in the past month:* A Russian appointed official said on Jan.

07 Dec 2023

Russia Pledges More Oil Data to Ship Trackers

© AUUSanAKUL+ / Adobe Stock

Russia has pledged to disclose more data about the volume of its fuel refining and exports after OPEC+ asked Moscow for more transparency on classified fuel shipments from the many export points across the vast country, sources at OPEC+ and ship-tracking firms told Reuters.Russia is the only member of OPEC+ which contributes to export cuts rather than production cuts as part of its participation in the group's agreement to curb supplies. Market analysts have struggled to verify…

18 Oct 2023

Shell's Australian FLNG Facility Poised for Mid-November Restart

Shell is expected to complete maintenance at its flagship Prelude liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility off Australia by mid-November, two sources close to the project told Reuters on Wednesday.The British energy giant started maintenance work at the 3.6-million metric ton a year floating LNG plant in August. A top Shell executive then said in September it was a "major turnaround" work that would last roughly two months.The maintenance is now expected to be completed by mid-November, slightly longer than initially planned after several new issues were discovered and fixed, one of the sources said."The first LNG delivery cargo is now expected by mid-November," the second source said.The last cargo to have left the facility was on Aug.

15 Aug 2023

BP Backs Green Hydrogen Start-Up

Source: Advanced Ionics

BP has invested in a start-up company developing technology seeking to use vapour from heavy industry to sharply reduce the production costs of zero-carbon hydrogen.BP Ventures, the British energy giant's venture capital arm, was among several investors in a $12.5 million Series A financing in U.S.-based Advanced Ionics, the companies said on Tuesday.Other investors include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Clean Energy Ventures and Gatemore Capital Management.Green hydrogen, produced by splitting water through electrolysis using renewable energy…

07 Aug 2023

PHOTO: First U.S. Offshore Wind Substation Stands Tall

Credit: Avangrid

Avangrid, a U.S.-based subsidiary of the Spanish renewable energy giant Iberdrola, on Monday shared a photo of the completed Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind substation.This is the first offshore wind substation installed in the U.S. and will serve the country's first large-scale offshore wind farm - Vineyard Wind.DEME Offshore used its flagship vessel, Orion, to install the 3,000-ton Vineyard Wind 1 substation.The offshore substation serves to collect the generated electricity from 62 wind turbines and sends the power through an export cable and into the regional electricity grid.Once completed…

07 Jul 2023

Thailand's PTT in Advanced Talks with Qatar for LNG Deal - Sources

Credit: Wojciech Wrzesień/AdobeStock

Thailand's largest energy company, state-controlled PTT, is in advanced talks with Qatar for a 15-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply deal, four trading sources told Reuters.The oil and gas conglomerate is negotiating a supply of 1 or 2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), according to different figures cited by the sources, in what would be the latest in a spate of deals by Asian buyers to lock in long term supplies.A fifth industry source said that both companies are in "serious negotiations"…

26 Jun 2023

Offshore Wind Company Will Retrain NY Power Plant Union for Clean Energy Jobs

© esbobeldijk / Adobe Stock

An offshore wind developer partly owned by TotalEnergies said on Monday it has agreed to retrain and keep roughly 100 union workers from a New York City natural gas-fired power plant that it intends to repurpose for its project.The company, called Attentive Energy One, has proposed a 1.4 gigawatt (GW) offshore wind installation off New York that would connect to the mainland grid at the site of the Ravenswood plant in Queens, and is competing for a power contract with the state.The company is a joint venture between TotalEnergies…

14 Jun 2023

Spain's Energy Firms Look to Central Europe Markets for Green Hydrogen Deals

© Corona Borealis / Adobe Stock

Spanish oil company Cepsa signed on Wednesday two agreements aimed at shipping green hydrogen between Spain and the Netherlands, a day after renewable energy giant Iberdrola took a similar step.The two Spanish companies are vying to become green hydrogen leaders, with planned investments worth billions of euros. The recent agreements will help them sell part of their expected production of green hydrogen and derivatives to industrial customers eager to decarbonize in Europe's economic powerhouse…

22 Dec 2022

Has Green Hydrogen Sprung a Leak?

©Andreas Prott/AdobeStock

The green hydrogen express is gathering pace, but it may have a worrying problem with leaks.As governments and energy companies line up big bets on the much-touted fuel of the future, some scientists say the lack of data on leaks and the potential harm they could cause is a blind spot for the nascent industry.At least four studies published this year say hydrogen loses its environmental edge when it seeps into the atmosphere. Two scientists told Reuters that if 10% leaks during its production…

11 Oct 2022

Gazprom: NATO Mine Destroyer Device was Found at Nord Stream 1 in 2015

For illustration - A SeaFox unit - Credit: Open Government Licence version 1.0 (OGL v1.0) via Wikimedia Commons

A spokesperson for Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Monday that a mine destroyer discovered at the Nord Stream 1 offshore gas pipeline in 2015 belonged to NATO. Nord Stream reported on that date in 2015 that a "munitions object" had been cleared by the Swedish armed forces, without giving more detail on the object. Gazprom spokesperson Sergei Kupriyanov told Russian state television on Monday that a NATO device, called a SeaFox, was retrieved from a depth of around 40 metres (125 feet) and made safe.

16 Sep 2022

Gazprom Loads First Cargo from New Portovaya LNG Plant

Russia’s energy giant Gazprom has loaded its first cargo from the Portovaya liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant close to the Russia-Finland border, which has a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).“The cargo was onboard the Pskov LNG vessel, which is now broadcasting a destination of Port Said that provides entry to the Suez Canal in Egypt,” said Olumide Ajayi, senior LNG analyst at Refinitiv, citing Eikon data, adding that the vessel could be heading towards Asia.ICIC LNG analyst Alex Froley agreed, noting that although the ship had yet to move, the signal from its automatic identification system (AIS) indicated a possible Asia delivery and suggested India as a destination.The $1.62 billion plant, built on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, is located in the proximity of the Port

22 Jul 2022

Nord Stream 1 Pipeline Future Depends on Gas Demand and Sanctions, Russia Says

©Luciano Prata/AdobeStock

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the future of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Germany would depend on gas demand in Europe and Western sanctions against Russia.The pipeline from Russia to Germany is undergoing annual maintenance until July 21, but European governments are worried that Moscow could extend that in order to restrict European gas supply, disrupting plans to build up storage for winter.Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom…

07 Jun 2022

Russian Superyacht in Fiji Leaves for US Amid Legal Wrangling

A Russian-owned superyacht docked in Fiji departed for the United States on Tuesday after a court in the Pacific island nation ordered its removal, saying it was a waste of money to maintain amid legal wrangling over its seizure.The U.S. Justice Department's Taskforce KleptoCapture has focused on seizing yachts and other luxury assets of Russian oligarchs in a bid to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.The 106-meter (350-foot) Amadea arrived in Fiji on April 13 after an 18-day voyage from Mexico. It was seized by Fiji authorities after the country's High Court granted a U.S. warrant last month that linked…

11 May 2022

Total, Duke Are Winners of Latest US Offshore Wind Auction

© Fokke / Adobe Stock

France energy giant TotalEnergies and U.S. power company Duke Energy Corp were the winners of two offshore wind leases in federal waters off the coast of North and South Carolina on Wednesday, the Interior Department said in a statement.Winning bids amounted to $315 million, with Duke paying $155 million and TotalEnergies paying $160 million.The auction total was far less than the $4.37 billion in high bids generated at a February wind auction off the coast of New York and New…

09 May 2022

Italy Seizes Luxury Yacht Scheherazade Linked to Putin

The Italian government ordered police on Friday to impound a luxury yacht worth some $700 million that has been linked in the media to Russian President Vladimir Putin.The sleek, six-deck Scheherazade had been undergoing repairs in the Italian port of Marina di Carrara since September, but recent activity at the dockside suggested that the crew might be preparing to put to sea.A source with direct knowledge of a weeks-long investigation into the vessel said police believed the owner was Eduard Khudainatov, the former chief of Russian energy giant Rosneft who is not currently a target of EU sanctions.In a statement announcing the seizure order…

25 Mar 2022

U.S., EU Strike LNG Deal as Europe Seeks to Cut Russian Gas Dependency

 ©Alexander Limbach/AdobeStock

The United States will work to supply 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European Union this year to help it wean off Russian energy supplies, the transatlantic partners said on Friday.The EU is aiming to cut its dependency on Russian gas by two-thirds this year and end all Russian fossil fuel imports by 2027 due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia supplies around 40% of Europe's gas needs.Concerns over security of supply were reinforced this week after Russia ordered the switch of gas contract payments to roubles…

04 Mar 2022

China Taps Alternative Payments to Keep Russian Oil Flowing

© Igor Groshev / Adobe Stock

Chinese refiners are paying for Russian crude oil using cash transfers to maintain imports from Russia’s Fast East, as banks shy away from financing the oil because of sanctions, sources with knowledge of the matter said.Global oil prices have soared to their highest in a decade as banks halted financing Russian oil after the United States and other countries ramped up sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.Spot crude premiums and freight rates also spiked, piling on buyers’ costs.Several European and U.S.

08 Feb 2022

Shell and GTT Partner on LH2 Carrier Design

(Image: GTT)

Energy giant Shell is partnering with French engineering firm GTT with the aim to develop "breakthrough, cutting-edge technologies" to enable maritime transport of liquid hydrogen (LH2).The cooperation agreement between Shell International Trading and Shipping Company and GTT is part of Shell's strategy to develop a hydrogen energy supply chain by creating scalable and safe liquefied hydrogen shipping technologies. This includes the development by GTT of a preliminary LH2 carrier…

20 Jan 2022

Appeals Court Revives BP’s Fight Over Deepwater Cleanup Workers’ Claims

Crewmembers on board Coast Guard Cutter Walnut deploy an oil skimmer into oil the ship collects in its inflatable boom, July 2, 2010. The Walnut, homeported in Honolulu, Hawaii has been temporarily redeployed to the Gulf of Mexico to aid in the BP Deepwater Horizon response. - Credit:  Deepwater Horizon Response/(CC BY-ND 2.0)

A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived a fight between BP, two contractors, and an insurance company over who should pay for thousands of personal injury claims brought by cleanup workers after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in 2010.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed most of a lower court’s rulings for contractors National Response Corp and O’Brien’s Resource Management, and for O’Brien’s excess-liability insurer, Navigators Insurance Co.The decision was not a complete win for BP, however.

21 Jan 2022

Royal Dutch No More: Shell Officially Changes Name

© Alexandr Blinov / Adobe Stock

Shell officially changed its name on Friday, ditching "Royal Dutch", which has been part of its identity since 1907, following plans to scrap its dual share structure and move its head office from the Netherlands to Britain."Shell announced the Board's decision to change its name to Shell plc on December 20, 2021. This change has now taken effect," Shell said in a filing.The London and Amsterdam stock exchanges will reflect the name change on Jan. 25 while the New York Stock Exchange will follow on Jan.

25 Nov 2021

Gulf Energy Seals $927 Million Port Deal with Thai Government

© namatae / Adobe Stock

Thai power producer Gulf Energy Development Pcl on Thursday said its consortium had signed a deal worth 30.9 billion baht ($927 million) with the country's port authority for construction and operation of container terminals.The firm, among the country's largest private power producers, is owned by Thai billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi and has been investing billions of dollars to expand its infrastructure business."Gulf will use accumulated experience in developing and managing large-scale infrastructure projects in Thailand and overseas to develop the port…