Top 40 News

Dongara Marine received orders to build custom-designed vessels: a monohull commercial fishing boat and a high speed catamaran for recreational use.An experienced commercial fisherman is the client for Dongara Marine’s first new vessel for the South Australian Rock Lobster fishery.Customised to client preferences, the 17.8m long aluminium hull features the hallmark fine entry of Southerly Designs’ offshore capable monohulls, topped by a single level wheelhouse – an arrangement…

Though bankruptcies among U.S. onshore exploration and production (E&P) companies are on the increase during these days, Rystad Energy doesn’t believe this indicates doom for the shale industry.“In a nutshell, we do not believe the recent bankruptcies that have beset a number of shale players are indicative of an industry-wide epidemic,” says Alisa Lukash, a senior analyst on Rystad Energy’s North American Shale team.During the next seven years, the top 40 US shale oil producers are expected to spend about $100 billion on debt instalments and interest unless further debt refinancing is applied.These drillers, which accounted for nearly half of US shale crude production in 2018…

In a remarkable turnaround, the second quarter of 2019 is the first three-month period on record when US shale operators achieved positive cash flow from operations after accounting for capital expenditures, according to Rystad Energy.Rystad Energy has studied the financial performance of 40 dedicated US shale oil companies, focusing on cash flow from operating activities (CFO). This is the cash that is available to expand the business (via capital expenditure, or capex), reduce debt, or return to shareholders.In the second quarter of 2019, 35% of operators in the peer group balanced their spending with operational cash flow, and reported an accumulated $110 million surplus in CFO versus capex.“That is an industry first,” says Rystad Energy senior analyst Alisa Lukash.

Fossil fuel subsidies cost governments in emerging markets more than $500 billion every year and are a major contributor to climate change, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The biggest subsidies are concentrated in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and parts of Latin America, according to the IEA's Fossil Fuel Subsidy Database (http://www.iea.org/subsidy/index.html). Moreover energy-exporting countries accounted for three quarters of all consumption subsidies in 2012, according to the IEA and OPEC members account for more than half the world's subsidies. Subsidies account for 82 percent of the cost of electricity and fuel in Venezuela…

Fairweather, LLC has announced the appointment of Lori Davey as the company’s new general manager. Davey will be responsible for directing all of Fairweather’s business activities and overseeing the company’s expansion and management of Deadhorse Aviation Center. A member of the Edison Chouest Offshore group of companies, Fairweather LLC is a 38-year-old Alaskan company and a leader in providing remote medical, aviation, logistics and scientific support services to Alaska’s natural resource industry.

HALO Maritime Defense Systems (HMDS), announces the addition of Greg Hersch to its Board of Directors. Mr. Hersch replaces John Shephard who will remain involved with the company as a member of the Board of Advisors. Greg is a Senior Vice President in Wealth Management at UBS Financial Services in New York City. He has over twelve years of experience as a financial advisor working with a diverse range of clients from sophisticated family offices and high net worth individuals to institutional relationships such as hedge funds, pension plans and endowments. Greg was recently recognized as one of the 'Top 400 Financial Advisors in America' by the Financial Times…

KfW Group, Germany’s state-owned development lender, may make 1.5 billion Euros ($2 billion) of new shipping loans this year, even as rivals scale back operations in the crisis-hit industry. While that is less than new lending of 2 billion Euros in 2011, KfW IPEX-Bank plans to keep the size of its 13.5 billion- euro shipping portfolio “stable,” Christian K. Murach, head of transportation finance and a member of the lender’s management board, said in an interview in Frankfurt. Commerzbank AG (CBK), Germany’s second-largest lender, and Hamburg-based HSH Nordbank AG are scaling back their shipping portfolios amid new capital rules and to obtain approval for bailouts they received during the global financial crisis.

According to the Great Lakes Maritime Task Force, Russia’s decision to suspend grain exports has ships throughout the world steering for the Great Lakes to load wheat and other staples. However, the Great Lakes Navigation System has unused capacity and can meet this unexpected demand. “Grain shipments through the Seaway in September increased 68 percent compared to a year ago,” said James H.I. Weakley, President of Great Lakes Maritime Task Force, the largest labor/management coalition ever to promote waterborne commerce via the Lakes/Seaway system. The surge in grain shipments is forecast to last until the St. Lawrence Seaway closes toward the end of December, and then could well resume in the spring.

U.S. containerized imports and exports plunged 21 percent in the first quarter, with No. 2 carrier Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Co. defying the trend with an 8.9 percent increase in import volume despite one of the worst periods in the history of containerized shipping, The Journal of Commerce reported. The first-quarter numbers reported in the Top 40 Container Line rankings published in The Journal of Commerce July 20 edition were the first to show the full impact of the global economic crisis. Although trade began to slow early in 2008, container volumes did not start to tumble until early in last year's fourth quarter. The slowdown in trade has forced ocean carriers to reduce staff and services and idle ships.