Chris Reese News

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…

The United States has asked Panama to ban Iranian vessels sanctioned by Washington from using its flag, U.S. State Department special envoy Abram Paley said on Wednesday.Paley said the request aims to prevent ships from being used for illegal actions such as supporting groups designated as Iranian terrorist organizations with oil sales.In January 2023, Panama's maritime authority said it had withdrawn its flag from 136 ships linked to Iran's state oil company in the last four years.

Oil and gas companies and environmental groups on Monday filed dueling legal challenges to the Biden administration's five-year plan to offer drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.The petitions to a U.S. appeals court come four months after the Interior Department unveiled a congressionally-mandated plan for offshore leasing that included just three sales, the lowest since the government began publishing the schedules in 1980.The American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas trade group…

Yemen's Houthis on Thursday said their naval forces targeted an unidentified British merchant vessel in the Red Sea in the group's campaign to disrupt shipping to protest Israel's bombardment of Gaza.Earlier on Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization said that an explosion was reported at a distance off a vessel's starboard side west of Yemen's Hodeidah.The vessel and crew were reported safe, UKMTO said. It was unclear whether it was the ship…

New Jersey's utility regulator on Wednesday approved two offshore wind power projects with a combined capacity of 3,742-megawatts (MW) whose backers include Invenergy and TotalEnergies.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 was slow last year after offshore developers canceled contracts to sell power in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey…

British maritime security firm Ambrey on Thursday said that a Marshall Islands-flagged US-owned bulk carrier reported that four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) approached and circled the vessel approximately 87 miles southeast of Yemen's city of Mukalla."One of the UAVs reportedly fell into the water. No damage or injuries were reported. The bulker was not impacted and continued its voyage," Ambrey said in an advisory note.The maritime security firm said that the drones remained in the bulker's vicinity…

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization and British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Wednesday they had received reports of incidents near Yemen's Aden.The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization said in an advisory note that a ship had been attacked 60 nautical miles southeast of Aden.The "vessel has been hit on port side by an uncrewed aerial system," UKMTO said, adding that there was a fire onboard, which had since been extinguished."Vessel and crew are safe and proceeding to next port of call"…

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday demanded Yemen's Houthis immediately end attacks on ships in the Red Sea and cautioned against escalating tensions while implicitly endorsing a U.S.-led task force that has been defending vessels.The demand came in a Security Council resolution that also called on the Houthis to release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated vehicle carrier linked to an Israeli businessman that the group commandeered on Nov. 19, and its 25-person crew.Eleven members voted for the measure demanding the Houthis "immediately cease all attacks…

Attacks by Iran-backed Yemeni militants in the Red Sea must stop and the U.S. and its partners will continue to protect ships from being targeted, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.The Houthi militant group, which controls vast amounts of territory in Yemen after years of war, has since last month fired drones and missiles at international vessels sailing through the Red Sea, attacks it says respond to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip."Attacks on ships in the Red Sea have to stop…

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.

The Biden administration on Thursday said it would hold an auction of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico on Nov. 8 following a court order to expand the sale.In a statement, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said the sale would offer about 72.7 million acres on the Outer Continental Shelf, including 6 million acres it had withdrawn from the auction in an effort to protect the endangered Rice's whale habitat.Last month, a U.S. appeals court gave the administration until Nov. 8 to hold the sale, which was originally scheduled for Sept. 27.

Exxon Mobil Corp chose BlackRock as the potential buyer for its majority stake in Italy's main liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal, the U.S. oil producer said in a statement.The stake sale drew interest from infrastructure funds and international groups as Italy is expected to increase its LNG imports to partly replace the gas it used to get via pipeline from Russia.In March, Exxon said it was considering selling its 70.68% interest in the offshore Adriatic LNG Terminal…

Norway sovereign wealth fund said on Tuesday it revoked the exclusion of Thoresen Thai Agencies from its investments, and ended observation of Hyundai Glovis Co.It had previously excluded one and put another company on observation due to their practice of sending decommissioned vessels to be broken up for scrap in Bangladesh and Pakistan where working conditions were "extremely poor," according to the fund.Thoresen Thai Agencies has not sent any more vessels to Bangladesh since 2018, while Hyundai Glovis established a new policy for responsible disposal of decommissioned vessels, it added in a

The Biden administration's five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing will not include any sales in 2024 and will feature the lowest number of auctions in the history of the program in the four years to follow, according to three sources familiar with the matter.The schedule for leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska for 2024-2028 is due on Friday following several delays and months of battling between environmentalists and drilling advocates over what the policy should…

A U.S. judge on Wednesday refused to overturn a California county's decision to block Exxon Mobil Corp from using tanker trucks to ship crude oil from coastal facilities to inland refineries while a ruptured pipeline is fixed.U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles denied Exxon's bid to reverse the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors' denial of a trucking permit in early 2022, saying the board's decision was substantially supported by evidence that transporting crude…

Kinder Morgan KMI.N on Wednesday said its Port Manatee, Port Sutton and Tampaplex terminals in Florida sustained minimal damage due to Hurricane Idalia, and that it was also planning to shut its Charleston area terminals later in the day.The U.S. energy company said it was planning to reopen the terminals on Thursday, while its Tampa facilities including the Tampa refined products terminal and Central Florida Pipeline system have resumed normal operations.The Port Manatee, Port Sutton and Tampaplex terminals handle commodities such as fertilizers…

Turkish authorities warned Russian counterparts after an incident involving a cargo ship in the Black sea which took place within international waters, Turkish presidency said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday."Following the incident with the ship counterparts from Russia are warned in an appropriate way to avoid these kinds of attempts that will escalate tensions in the Black Sea," the presidency said.On Sunday, Russia said in a statement its Vasily Bykov patrol ship had fired automatic weapons on the Palau-flagged Sukru Okan vessel after the ship's captain failed to resp

A fire blazed on a cargo ship off the Dutch coast with nearly 3,000 vehicles on board on Wednesday, killing one member of the crew and injuring several others, the coastguard said.Several crew members were forced to jump overboard after the fire began on Tuesday night on the 199-metre (655-foot) Panama-registered Fremantle Highway as it was en route from Germany to Egypt.The Indian Embassy in the Netherlands said in a social media post the fire had "resulted in the death of an Indian seafarer and injuries to the crew", and that it was in touch with family of the deceased.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), a federal watchdog, ruled on Wednesday that the Pacific coast dock workers' strike must end because their union did not provide the required 72-hour notice before the walkout."This strike is illegal," Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan said on Twitter after the ruling.

FTS Group won an auction on Friday to operate a terminal at the port of Paranagua, one of the main ports in Brazil for grains and sugar, amid an uptick in shipping activity in the country.The group will have to invest at least 338.2 million reais ($64.91 million) in expansion works at the port's terminal called PAR50, which deals with transport and storage of bulk liquids, said Portos do Parana, which manages ports in the southern Brazilian state of Parana.Luring private investors to logistics projects is crucial for Brazil…

The first liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel arrived on Friday at Freeport LNG's long-idled export plant in Texas since the facility shut in a fire in June last year, according to ship tracking data from Refinitiv.The vessel Kmarin Diamond is operated by a unit of oil major BP, one of Freeport's big customers, according to several vessel tracking services.News of the vessel's arrival helped boost U.S. natural gas futures by over 5% in post-settlement trade on Friday as the second biggest U.S. LNG export plant will consume a lot of gas once it starts production again.The contract had closed at a 25-month low earlier in the week due mostly to mild weather and low heating demand.Freeport has said it would soon start sending gas to one of the plant's three liquefaction trains…

Brazilian oil workers union FUP said on Wednesday that intelligence staff at state-run Petrobras are aware of a potential plan to invade its Transpetro terminal located in the Maceio port in northeast Brazil.The threat comes as Brazil braces for more protests by supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, after mobs rampaged through public buildings in the country's capital on Sunday.The union said "people identified with coup practices" were behind the plan, which also involves invading a distribution center owned by Vibra Energia in the same port, aiming to disrupt fuel supplies

The Biden administration on Wednesday said it had reinstated bids from a November 2021 Gulf of Mexico sale of offshore oil and gas drilling rights, a requirement buried in U.S. President Joe Biden’s new climate change and drug pricing law.The move comes after a federal judge in January vacated the sale’s results, saying the administration had failed to properly account for the auction’s impact on global warming.The Inflation Reduction act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last month…