Balazs Koranyi News

Dry bulk shipping firm Golden Ocean reported first-quarter earnings below forecasts on Thursday and said its market had gone from "bad to worse" with market conditions not seen in three decades. Golden Ocean, controlled by shipping tycoon John Fredriksen, said its made a net loss of $75.3 million in the first quarter, below expectations for a loss of $27 million, the result was weighed down by a $141 million impairment charge on its vessels. Excluding the impairments, the firm made an EBITDA loss of $3.6 million, not far from forecasts for a $1 million loss. Its shares were trading 3.13 percent lower at 32.84 Norwegian crowns at 0821 GMT.

Oil services firm Subsea 7 plans to cuts its workforce by close to 20 percent and reduce its fleet of 39 by up to 11 vessels as global oil and gas firms continue to cut spending after the plunge in crude oil prices. Subsea 7, which focuses on the North Sea but has a global operation, expects to cuts it workforce by around 2,500 by early 2016 from about 13,000 at the end of end of 2014, it said in a statement. "The global fleet will be reduced by up to 11 vessels, based on a mixture of non-renewal of charter vessels and either disposal or stacking of owned vessels," it said in a statement. "It is intended that the reshaping of the fleet will be phased over the coming 12 months…

An explosion aboard a BW Offshore's oil and gas production vessel in Brazil has killed five people and four workers are still missing, the firm said in a statement on Thursday. The floating production storage and offloading vessel, working for Petrobras suffered an explosion on Wednesday, which also injured ten workers, two of whom are in critical condition. BW Offshore has shut down the vessel and all personnel have been taken off the unit. The FPSO was operating on the Camarupim and Camarupim Norte fields in Espirito Santo littoral approximately 120 kilometres from the coast.   Reporting by Balazs Koranyi

Five dry bulk shipping firms, including shipping tycoon John Fredriksen's Golden Ocean will form a new venture to coordinate chartering services, hoping to reduce costs in a fragmented market, the firms said in a joint statement. The firms, including Golden Ocean, Bocimar International, CTM, Golden Union Shipping and Star Bulk Carriers will form Capesize Chartering Ltd., aiming to start up operations by the second half of February. "The parties operate in the highly competitive and fragmented capesize industry, and neither party owns, controls or manages sufficient capesize vessels to provide competitively priced bids and efficient trading and operations to serve its customers," the firms said.

Shipping firm Stolt-Nielsen reported fourth quarter earnings below forecasts on Thursday and said it was concerned about the outlook for the chemical tanker market, even as lower fuel prices would help operations. Stolt-Nielsen's fourth quarter net profit fell to $13.1 million from $35.2 million a year earlier, coming short of expectations for $21 million in a Reuters poll of analysts. "We remain concerned about the market outlook for Stolt Tankers, as the order book now stands at over 30 percent in the parcel-tanker segment and the global economic outlook is uncertain," it said. It added that lower bunker costs would eventually have a positive impact on its results but big parts of the savings would have to be passed onto contract customer.

Norwegian oil services firm Aker Solutions won two offshore contracts, including a 120 million pound ($188.82 million) deal to provide engineering, construction and commissioning services on Statoil's Mariner development in the UK, it said on Monday. The firm also won a two-year contract extension worth 360 million Norwegian crowns for asset integrity management work at 11 offshore and three onshore locations for Statoil in Norway. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi

Oslo-listed liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipper Hoegh LNG reported third-quarter earnings below expectations on Wednesday and said its market could remain challenging for the next two to three years due to an oversupply of vessels. Hoegh, which operates LNG carriers and regasification units, said its results were squeezed by one-off costs and start-up challenges for a floating regasification unit. The firm made a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $3.9 million, compared to a profit of $1.3 million a year ago, and below expectations for a $10.4 million profit. Its net loss widened to $16.3 million in the third quarter from a net loss of $2.8 million a year earlier.

Frontline, once the world's biggest crude oil tanker company, reported a bigger than expected third-quarter loss on Tuesday and said it is still considering options to restructure its debt and lease obligations. The Oslo-listed tanker business of shipping tycoon John Fredriksen said its results were weighed down by one-off impairment charges related to the termination of charter contracts. The depressed market, however, has been showing signs of improvement as the company continues to grapple with close to $1 billion of debt. "The tanker market has shown some strength in the fourth quarter," Frontline said. The market took a less optimistic view and Frontline shares were down 6.5 percent by 0848 GMT.

Egypt finalized a deal with Norway's Hoegh LNG for a long-delayed liquefied natural gas import terminal on Monday that will eventually help the power-hungry country resolve a chronic energy shortage. However, the expected launch date for the floating storage and regasification unit was pushed back to the end of March, the latest in a series of delays over the past two years. Liquefied natural gas shipper Hoegh signed a five-year contract with Egypt's EGAS in Cairo at an event that included Egypt's oil minister and the Norwegian ambassador. The firm was initially looking to start up operations by the third quarter of 2014 but the project was delayed earlier this year. In September, the oil ministry said the terminal would be up and running by December.

Development of field could cost up to $32.5 bln; cost estimate higher than analyst forecasts. Sverdrup scheduled to start up in late 2019. Statoil's giant Johan Sverdrup oil field could cost as much as $32.5 billion, the company said in its first full estimate of the price tag to develop Norway's most expensive ever industrial project. Discovered in 2010, Sverdup is the biggest North Sea find in decades, reinvigorating Norway's oil sector where production has been declining for more than a decade. At maximum, its production would equal nearly half of Norway's current oil output. The hefty cost topped what analysts had expected, leading them to slightly downgrade the value of the project.

Norway's Hurtigruten, which operates scenic cruise lines along the country's fjords and into the Arctic, has agreed to a takeover offer from a group led by several board members, driving its shares to six-year highs. Hurtigruten said on Wednesday it was recommending an offer of 7 crowns per share, a 55.6 percent premium on its last close, led by London-based private equity firm TDR Capital, property tycoon and board member Petter Stordalen and Chairman Trygve Hegnar. The bid, which values the company at about 2.94 billion crowns ($444 million), sent Hurtigruten's shares 52 percent higher, its highest level since 2008. "When you do a scan of the leisure space…

Crude oil tanker firm Frontline, part of shipping tycoon John Fredriksen's business empire, appointed Robert Hvide Macleod as chief executive to replace Jens Martin Jensen, the firm said on Monday. Jensen, who was elected to the Frontline board last month, will stay on as the firm's chief for the sale and purchase, newbuilding and other maritime related projects, frontline said. "Combined with his (Macleod's) outstanding network throughout the tanker industry, we believe this will ensure that the Company remains the driving force in the industry," Fredriksen said in a statement. "With Jens Martin Jensen's continuation with the Group and his extensive experience and knowledge I am confident this will continue to help drive the Company forward," Fredriksen added.

Several key oil and gas developments in Norway will cost much more than earlier expected and fields with approved development plans are now seen 10 percent more expensive than originally planned, the oil and energy ministry said on Wednesday. Costs in Norway's offshore oil sector, already one of the most expensive in the world, have soared in recent years, weighing on the budget which provides generous tax breaks during the development phase. The government has already said it would reduce tax breaks for new developments and the oil ministry launched an investigation into why costs soar.

A sluggish offshore drilling market could deteriorate further next year due to weak demand and a flood of new vessels, even though a few places such as Mexico and Brazil remain promising for exploration, industry executives said on Wednesday. Rig rates have fallen sharply over the past 18 months as oil companies cut capital spending, saving cash for dividends, just as dozens of brand new offshore rigs ordered during the boom times hit the seas, creating overcapacity. "The market is going to be bad this year…

Norwegian oil company Statoil has had to stop drilling at the Arctic Pingvin prospect because of an appeal against its environmental permit, North Energy, a partner in the project, said on Friday. "The top hole on Pingvin has been drilled," North Energy said in a statement. Environmental groups have challenged Statoil's plans to drill in the far north, its most ambitious Arctic exploration programme to date. The company was forced to halt work briefly at another well in May pending a review. A challenge, brought by Greenpeace, was rejected by authorities within a few days and Statoil completed the well on the Apollo prospect in the Barents Sea without any incident.

Norwegian firm DNO expects its first shipment of oil from Kurdistan to be sold on the international market by the end of the year and said it was committed to its operations in the region despite the recent flare-up in violence. The firm could until recently only sell oil on the local Iraqi market, at lower prices than it would have got on the international oil market, due to a long constitutional fight between the region and Baghdad over independent oil sales. That changed earlier this month when the Kurdish Regional Government allowed oil firms to seek out international buyers. Oil revenue is a lifeline for the KRG, whose peshmerga fighters are fighting Islamic State militants.

Offshore accommodation rig provider Prosafe reported second-quarter earnings below expectations on Thursday and said that its short-term market outlook is weaker as oil firms cut back on exploration spending. Prosafe's operating profit fell 20 percent to $55 million, short of expectations for $58.8 million while net profit fell 23 percent to $42.1 million, short of expectations for $47.4 million in a Reuters poll. "There are signs that we are entering a period of more uncertainty related to demand for offshore oil services," Prosafe said. "In Prosafe's core markets, this development is most visible in the North Sea region, where there is a lower activity level and fewer tenders and enquiries from clients than in the last three year period," it added.

Western sanctions against Russia may slow down exploration for oil and gas on both the Norwegian and Russian side of the Arctic Barents Sea, lobby group Norwegian Oil & Gas told Reuters on Wednesday. "We have many members working on both sides of the border, where coordination of fields will be a key topic. Collection of seismic and other joint activities may be affected," said the group's head of legal affairs, Oluf Bjoerndal. The association represents oil firms, including most supermajors, as well as some of the world's biggest oil and gas service firms. "We fear that this could become a problem. There's a worry about that. It may mean that some areas aren't explored well enough, that potential discoveries are delayed," he added.

Oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan began withdrawing more staff on Friday in the siege of militants from the Islamic State to the capital of the region, with Afren became the first to announce that he was reducing their production. Shares in London-listed oil and operating in northern Iraq fell for a second day because the closure and evacuation of personnel at other sites became more likely in a region hitherto considered relatively safe compared to rest of the country. The United Islamic group considered non-Muslims and adherents of Shia Islam as apostates and in many cities that has taken control made a tough proposition: become, escape or die.

U.S. sanctions on Russia include Rosneft, Exxon's partner: Project may not break sanctions, but brings political risks. An ordinary, long-scheduled journey of an oil drilling rig into Arctic waters is turning into a major political exercise, attracting international scrutiny and creating a dilemma for ExxonMobil. Exxon, the top U.S. oil major and the world's most valued oil company, is bringing the rig, called West Alpha, from Norway to the Russian Arctic. It is hoping for a major discovery in the Kara Sea with Russian partner Rosneft. The journey has begun just as the United States has slapped the toughest sanctions yet on Russia, including on Rosneft, over escalating violence in Ukraine. Further sanctions are likely after the downing of a Malaysia Airlines' plane in eastern Ukraine.

Offshore driller Seadrill signed a five-year, $1.1 billion contract with Total for work offshore Nigeria, it said on Monday. The contract, for Seadrill's newly built ultra-deepwater West Jupiter drillship, is worth around $600,000 per day, including mobilisation, according to Reuters calculations. The vessel will be delivered from Samsung Heavy Industries' shipyard in Geoje, South Korea in August. (By Balazs Koranyi)

Oil tanker firm Frontline reported first quarter earnings below expectations on Tuesday and said that unless markets improve, it may need to restructure to repay debt. Frontline, the tanker arm of shipping tycoon John Fredriksen, said it made a net loss of $12.1 million in the first quarter, trailing expectations for a $4 million loss in a Reuters poll of analysts. (By Balazs Koranyi)

The global offshore drilling market's dip could be longer than previously expected and charter rates could take until 2017 or 2018 to recover to last year's levels, the head of Maersk Drilling said on Thursday. Oil groups continue to delay projects to save cash and rig rates will fall further just as a slew of new vessels ordered during the boom years start to hit the water, said Claus Hemmingsen, the CEO of Maersk Drilling, part of Danish shipping conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk. "With every quarter that goes by with next to no new projects sanctioned and next to no new deepwater rigs contracted, the recovery is pushed out a little bit," Hemmingsen told Reuters. Analysts at Barclays say that 13 newly built floating rigs due to enter the market this year are still without contracts.