Energy Production News

The world’s first dedicated innovation centre for floating offshore wind has opened in Scotland.Located in the heart of Aberdeen’s Energy Transition Zone, ORE Catapult’s £9 million National Floating Wind Innovation Centre (FLOWIC), delivered in collaboration with ETZ Limited, is designed to help supercharge the development of floating offshore wind technology in the UK, with funding from both the Scottish Government and Innovate UK.Floating offshore wind represents a huge economic opportunity…

Industry trade group the Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) announced the addition of four CEOs to its board of directors.The new board members include Wes Bordelon, Chief Executive Officer, Bordelon Marine; Stacy Jo Stanley, Chief Executive Officer, Offshore Oil Services, Inc.; David Dantin, Chief Executive Officer, Odyssea Marine; and Lasse Petterson, Chief Executive Officer, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock."With the addition of these four executive leaders, OMSA pays homage to its roots while welcoming expanded opportunities in emerging energy frontiers…

New U.S. sanctions on Moscow are more likely than previous ones to cut Indian imports of thermal coal from Russia because they specifically cite top exporters SUEK and Mechel, three major traders of Russian coal said.Russia, historically a minor exporter of the fuel to India, began boosting shipments to the south Asian country after Western sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.The latest U.S. sanctions also include Russia's payment system, financial institutions and energy production."With the new sanctions…

The European Commission's recommendation for the EU's 2040 climate targets, calling for a 90% net GHG emission reduction, are ambitious and critically important, especially following updates suggesting that EU 2030 goals may not be met, says the World Shipping Council (WSC).The climate targets point to the importance of providing renewable marine fuels for maritime sector decarbonization. Committing the EU to production of zero-GHG fuel pathways is essential, not least because European Member States account for one-fifth of global shipping energy sales…

The U.S. offshore wind industry is eying a brighter 2024, with work expected to start on several projects following a year marked by stalled developments and billions of dollars in write-offs.The offshore wind industry is expected to play a major role in helping several states and U.S. President Joe Biden meet goals to decarbonize the power grid and combat climate change.But progress slowed in 2023 after offshore developers canceled contracts to sell power in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey…

COP28 has concluded with agreement on a text named The UAE Consensus that aims to set out a climate agenda to keep 1.5°C within reach. The UAE Consensus calls on parties to transition away from fossil fuels to reach net zero, encourages them to submit economy-wide Nationally Determined Contributions, includes a new specific target to triple renewables and double energy efficiency by 2030, and builds momentum towards a new architecture for climate finance.The UAE Consensus followed a year of inclusive diplomatic engagements and two weeks of intense negotiations.

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on hundreds of people and entities, including in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, as it targets Russia's sanctions evasion, future energy capabilities, banks and its metals and mining sector.The U.S. Treasury and State departments targeted more than 250 individuals and entities in Washington's latest action attempting to crack down on Russia and its evasion of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies over the war in…

Damen Shipyards Group has officially launched a fully electric service operations vessel (SOV), 70 meters x 17 meters, with its offshore charging capabilities.To achieve offshore charging, Damen has partnered with UK-based MJR Power & Automation – a company that has previously developed an offshore charging system for a crew transfer vessel.The charging system uses the motion-compensated gangway to create a connection between the vessel and a turbine or substation offshore, in much the same way a personnel transfer is undertaken.

Windcat has placed an additional order of two Commissioning Service Operation Vessels (CSOVs) with Damen Shipyards.The order increases Windcat’s CSOV fleet to five vessels, leaving the option of acquiring a sixth vessel. This development follows the initial announcement made in November 2022 regarding the construction of a series of hydrogen-powered CSOVs, the Elevation Series.The Elevation Series CSOVs, introduced in collaboration between Windcat and Damen Shipyards, features a pioneering design that significantly enhances capabilities and flexibility compared to traditional vessels.

As the world looks to renewable energy sources to combat climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, offshore wind has emerged as a promising frontier in the United States. A report by the University of California Berkeley released in August concluded that due to the nation’s long coastlines with sustained winds in many areas and falling turbine costs, offshore wind could feasibly supply between 10% and 25% of the country’s energy demand by 2050.While that may paint a rosy picture of a cleaner…

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ordered that a postponed federal auction of drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico be held within 37 days, a setback for environmentalists seeking expanded protections for the endangered Rice's whale.According to court papers, the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit dismissed an effort by four green groups to block an expansion of the sale ordered by a lower court judge in September.The judges said the groups lacked standing to challenge the September decision.

European energy companies, including Denmark's Orsted, will likely write down more of their U.S. offshore wind investments this week after BP and Equinor booked $840 million in impairments in recent days.Orsted, the world's largest offshore wind developer, said in August it may see impairments of 16 billion Danish crowns ($2.3 billion) on its U.S. offshore developments due to supply chain problems, soaring interest rates and a lack of new tax credits.Orsted, which was not immediately available for comment…

A very active Atlantic hurricane season so far this year has not sent storms across U.S. oil and natural gas fields in the northern Gulf of Mexico, sparing energy companies billions of dollars of losses and consumers higher fuel costs.The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season has been another in a string with above average activity producing three major hurricanes with winds above 111 mph (179 kph) out of six hurricanes among 20 named tropical storms.So far this year, only one storm, Tropical Storm Harold, on Aug.

The Biden administration's plan to slash offshore oil and gas leasing drew fire from both the fossil fuel industry and environmentalists on Friday, with energy companies saying it will raise fuel prices and greens saying it undermines efforts to stop global warming. The criticism from both sides reflects the difficulty Biden's White House has had in dealing with U.S. oil extraction policies, as it seeks to balance national energy security with the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change.

The Biden administration on Friday unveiled a plan to phase down oil and gas auctions in federal waters with the release of a long-awaited leasing schedule that includes a maximum of three sales in the Gulf of Mexico through 2029.The Interior Department's plan includes by far the lowest number of sales since the agency began producing Congressionally-mandated five-year oil and gas leasing schedules in 1980. Previous programs have ranged between 11 and 41 sales, according to Interior's U.S.

National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) President Erik Milito has said that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issue of a Notice to Lessees (NTL) with recommended restrictions on ongoing industry activities within the expanded Rice's Whale habitat area imposes “unwarranted restrictions on U.S. energy production at a time of continued inflation with prices rising at the pump for consumers.”With likely fewer than 100 individuals remaining, Rice's whales are one of the most endangered whales in the world.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Monday announced three final Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) offshore Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.These areas, BOEM said, were developed following extensive engagement and feedback from states, Tribes, local residents, ocean users, federal government partners, and other members of the public.If fully developed, the final WEAs could support between four and eight gigawatts of energy production. The Biden administration has a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.The three WEAs total approximately 356…

In Cape Cod Bay, 10-year-old Pilgrim and her calf skim the water's glassy surface alongside the Shearwater research vessel to feed on tiny crustaceans.The two are among the last surviving 340 or so North Atlantic right whales left migrating along the U.S. East Coast – down from 480 right whales in 2010.The biggest threats they face include being struck by passing ships or getting entangled in ropes used for lobster fishing off the U.S. East Coast - scientists have recorded 98 such injuries or deaths of whales since 2017.Now, the whales face another threat as the U.S.

Offshore wind developers Ørsted and Eversource marked the sailaway of the first U.S.-built offshore wind substation, which departed a Texas fabrication facility Wednesday. The substation is transiting across the Gulf of Mexico and then up the East Coast for installation at the South Fork Wind project site in a few weeks.Kiewit Offshore Services, Ltd. (Kiewit), the largest offshore fabricator in the U.S., designed and built the substation, which will be deployed at Ørsted and Eversource’s South Fork Wind project serving Long Island…

The Hanwha Group has completed its take over of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), renaming it Hanwha Ocean.Hanwha Vice Chairman Kwon Hyuk-woong has been appointed as CEO of the shipyard.The Korea Times reports that DSME suffered a 1.6 trillion won operating loss last year and 1.7 trillion won the year before. During the first three months of this year, it suffered 62.8 billion won in operating losses.Hanwha has already established a network of businesses that address renewable energy.

The US National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) has released a study on global oil production emissions that finds that the greenhouse gas intensity of US oil production, particularly in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, is significantly lower than most other regions around the world.Prepared by ICF, the GHG Emission Intensity of Crude Oil and Condensate Production report, calculates that total US oil production has a carbon intensity 23% lower than the international average outside of the US and Canada.

When most people discuss energy sources such as fossil fuel and green energy, it is from an “either-or” perspective. Some favor the former while others advocate for the latter. However, what is often lost in the arguments on both sides is that regardless of the type of energy being extracted or generated, those platforms that are offshore, especially oil rigs, oil and gas pipelines, and wind farms, are incredibly vulnerable to anyone who wants to attack these sources in wartime…

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said Friday that it would hold an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico in March 2023.The Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 259 will offer approximately 13,600 blocks on 73.3 million acres in the Western, Central, and Eastern Planning Areas on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. Lease Sale 259 was one of three offshore lease sales initially cancelled by the Biden Administration in May 2022. The subsequent Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) mandated that BOEM hold Lease Sale 259 no later than March 31…