Energy Consulting News

Several offshore wind developers will likely bid in New York's fourth offshore wind solicitation by the Thursday deadline, including units of European energy firms Orsted, Equinor and BP.The development of the U.S. offshore wind industry took a major blow last year when companies working in several states said they could no longer complete projects profitably because of rocketing construction costs, higher interest rates and supply chain snags. The problems also hit the wind industry in other countries.The development of the industry is key to meeting both U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S.

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…

Developers in the U.S. offshore wind industry will likely cancel some power sales contracts in New York after the state last week denied passing on more of the costs to consumers, but major projects off Massachusetts and Rhode Island are set to start up later this year.Several states and U.S. President Joe Biden's administration consider offshore wind to be a key part of their plans to transition away from fossil fuels for energy, create jobs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.Last week…

Commonwealth Wind said late Monday it will move forward with a submitted but not yet approved power purchase agreement with Massachusetts electric companies and its 1,232-megawatt offshore wind project.Commonwealth made its announcement after the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) denied, in early November, Commonwealth's motion to suspend its agreement. That motion raised questions about the future of Commonwealth's offshore wind project.Commonwealth is a unit of Avangrid Inc.…

U.S. firm New Fortress Energy Inc's proposed Louisiana offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility likely will not begin operation until the second half of 2023, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.The 2.8 million tonne per year export project initially was proposed to start next March but has faced delays during its permit review. U.S. regulators on Friday lifted a stop-clock order. The soonest the facility could begin producing LNG, assuming no further delays, is the second half of next year, one of the people said. The U.S.

Maine Maritime Academy’s Board of Trustees announced that Jerald S. “Jerry” Paul has been named as the college’s 15th President. Paul, current President of Capitol Access and a 1989 graduate of the institution, will take office this spring.Paul will succeed President William J. Brennan, who steps down from the position at the end of April following 12 years of transformative leadership at MMA. “I am gratified that the Board has selected such a fine individual to lead this wonderful college when I step down next spring,” says President Brennan.

Global Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production is on the growth trajectory as the global liquefaction capacity is expected to increase from 396 Mt in 2018 to 434 Mt in 2019.According to the energy consulting service company Rystad Energy, most of the new capacity will be added by the commissioning of US projects.The US capacity expected to grow from 29 Mt to 61 Mt this year as Cameron LNG, Elba Island and Freeport start operations and Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi continue to ramp up.Australia will overtake Qatar as the world’s largest LNG exporter with the ramp up in production in Prelude FLNG and Ichthys, it said.With the new capacity, global LNG production will reach close to 350 Mt this year up 11% YoY which will lead to a looser market.

Global financial and technology giant BGC Partners has completed the acquisition of Poten & Partners, a ship brokerage, consulting and business intelligence firm specializing in LNG, tanker and LPG markets.Under the terms of the agreement, BGC acquired 100 percent of Poten, which includes operations in New York, London, Singapore, Houston, Athens, Guangzhou and Perth, the company said in a statement.Founded over 80 years ago and with 170 employees worldwide, Poten provides its clients with valuable insight into the international oil, gas and shipping markets. Shaun D. Lynn, President of BGC Partners said: "The addition of physical LNG, LPG and tanker brokerage, and energy consulting capabilities will allow BGC to expand its operations in the oil, gas and shipping sectors.

LOC Group has today announced the appointment of Dr RV Ahilan to the position of joint CEO, alongside Jerome Rutler. Ahilan brings a strong strategic and technical understanding of LOC's key offshore markets to the leadership team. Over a 30-year career in maritime, oil and gas and renewable energy consulting, Ahilan served as Executive Vice President of the Renewables Advisory Division at DNV GL, President of GL Garrad Hassan and MD of GL Noble Denton in Americas and Europe before he joined LOC Group in February 2016. Commenting on his appointment, Ahilan said: "We must be prepared as a business to serve our industry as it continues to evolve, and to provide support to all our clients for the successful construction and operation of shipping, energy and power assets.

African economies are growing, and becoming more connected to the world economy than ever before. Still, many companies have not discovered the great business opportunities on offer in Africa. In 2017, Nor-Shipping, one of the world’s leading maritime events, will put Africa on the agenda. “We are delighted to present the first Africa week to our delegates next year,” Birgit Liodden, Nor-Shipping director. The program for 2017 has been dubbed Africa@Nor-Shipping 2017, and will represent the very first time that Nor-Shipping has featured a platform promoting mutually beneficial business opportunities between Africa and Europe in the maritime and ocean industries.

Marine Energy Consulting Ltd. (MECL) and 20|20 Marine Energy, two leading consultancies in this field, today announced that they will collaborate to produce a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of MARPOL Annex VI global sulphur regulations on the shipping industry. The study will include a detailed impact assessment of the regulations, as well as insights into compliance solutions, enabling recipients to make more informed decisions when developing strategies to both manage the transition, and the future. The regulations, which mandate the use of bunkers with a sulphur content of less than 0.5% on a global basis, will be implemented in either 2020 or 2025…

The first shipment of gas fracked from U.S. shale will arrive in Britain next week, upping pressure on Scotland to reassess its opposition to fracking. Chemicals giant Ineos will be importing ethane, obtained from rocks fractured at high pressure, in a foretaste of larger deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from shale set to reach Europe in 2018. The shipment of ethane, used to make plastics, anti-freeze and detergents, will arrive in Scotland's Firth of Forth on Tuesday, accompanied by a lone Scots piper at sunrise, the company said. The Zurich-headquartered group is against a Scottish moratorium on fracking. It is Britain's biggest shale gas company in terms of acreage and it has promised to share six percent of future shale gas revenue with local residents.

Press release - Accidental release of cryogenic liquids such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) poses a significant risk to personnel and assets on oil and gas installations. In addressing these risks, Lloyd’s Register Energy has developed a guidance note that provides a consistent methodology to establish cryogenic exposure. Lloyd’s Register Energy’s newly launched guidance note provides a methodology to establish risk-based cryogenic exposure based on a probabilistic approach. It is applicable to any unit where hydrocarbon and refrigerant cryogenic hazards are relevant, but offers special guidelines on how to handle leak scenarios specific to LNG plants.

Full-year underlying profit guidance unchanged; writedown raises questions over company's oil strategy. Danish oil and shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk moved to shrink its Brazilian petroleum operations on Tuesday, selling its stake in its only producing Brazilian oilfield and saying it will write off $1.7 billion of investments in the country. The write-off affects two exploration areas, Itaipu and Wahoo, which failed to deliver on oil volume expectations, and the Polvo field, both northeast of Rio de Janeiro in the Campos Basin, Maersk said. Maersk bought the assets from South Korea's SK Energy Co Ltd for $2.4 billion in 2011. On Tuesday, Brazil's HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA said it bought Maersk's 40 percent Polvo stake for an undisclosed sum.

Terntank proclaims its options on two sister ships to the two LNG powered product tankers ordered in the autumn of 2013. The oil company NEOT also confirmed that they are taking in two of these on time charter. Terntank Rederi AS now has four LNG powered 15,000 dwt product tankers on order at the Chinese shipyard Avic Dingheng Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. The ships will be delivered at three-month intervals so that the first one will be delivered in the spring of 2016 and the fourth in the beginning of 2017. Terntank elected to declare its two options because there is considered to be a demand for energy efficient and environmentally adapted tanker tonnage.

Recent meetings between U.S. oil producers and Commerce Department officials have fueled industry hopes that the Obama administration may soon begin to ease a longstanding ban on oil exports. Although it would require an act of Congress to end the four-decade export ban, some analysts and executives believe the White House may be getting ready to open up the taps a bit, allowing some export of a super-light form of oil known as condensate, which falls into a regulatory gray area. Executives and sources said a number of major shale oil producers have quietly stepped up lobbying efforts over the contentious energy issue in recent weeks, meeting with officials from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which oversees exports.

The New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST) and DNV GL (formerly DNV KEMA) today announced the opening of the new state-of-the-art Battery and Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Testing and Commercialization Center in Rochester, New York. The Center’s services include a suite of test, validation and independent certification capabilities that are necessary to introduce new energy storage technologies into the marketplace and accelerate integration of renewable and distributed energy. Created through a partnership between NY-BEST and DNV GL with seed funding from New York State, the BEST Test and Commercialization Center is an independent global testing and commercialization facility.

The International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) says it has appointed Robin Meech as its new vice-chairman for a one year term of office. An independent and well respected bunker industry consultant, Robin Meech is a former bunker buyer and author of several books for the marine fuel sector. Meech replaces Jens Maul Jorgensen who became IBIA chairman on 1 April, 2014. Welcoming Robin Meech’s appointment IBIA chief executive Peter Hall said:

 “Robin Meech has been involved with IBIA for many years and always brings a knowledgeable commercial perspective to the association. IBIA adds that Robin Meech is managing director of Marine and Energy Consulting Ltd, an independent practice established in 2001 focusing on the marine sector with an emphasis on the transport of energy.

Energy consulting, testing and certification company DNV KEMA will open a new Multiphase Flow Laboratory (MPFL) in Groningen, the Netherlands. The facility will allow equipment manufactures and oil and gas companies to test, validate and calibrate multiphase technologies – e.g. separators and flow meters – for the production of oil and gas and the measurement and trading of gas. As the MPFL is operating in a unique true-to-life environment, the facility will help increasing the accuracy of future multiphase flow meters, as well as the efficiency of future multiphase separators.

Eleven companies in Europe joined forces in the newly established North Sea Power to Gas Platform to further develop the concept of Power-to-Gas (P2G): the conversion of renewable power into gas. P2G will play an increasingly important role in our future energy system, as it reduces temporal surpluses of renewable power by converting these surpluses into gases. As these gases can be used for different purposes such as transportation, domestic heating, as feedstock for the chemical industry and power generation, the potential value of P2G is considerable.

Anderson Associates, facing an increasing workload and a growing need for additional technical depth in its engineering services hire two new team members: Stephen E. Gatz & Marc A. Derenburger. Stephen E. Gatz, PE is a naval architect working in the firm’s marine group, while Marc A. Derenburger has joined the facilities group as an entry-level mechanical engineer. Stephen Gatz brings a diverse background in naval architecture & marine engineering design, marine research and development, and marine operations.

Bjørn K. Haugland, DNV Group Chief Technology & Sustainability Officer says, “This acquisition brings together two organisations that have been supporting sustainability as it has evolved over the last 30 years. The announcement comes shortly after DNV announced the acquisition of 74.3% of the shares of the Dutch energy knowledge company, KEMA, to jointly create the world-leading energy consulting, testing and certification company DNV KEMA Energy & Sustainability. Mr. Haugland continues, “By joining forces with Two Tomorrows, we aim to become the trusted, independent experts in sustainability to global business and governments. Two Tomorrows executive chairman Mark Line…

Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group to team up with event organizer The Oriental Pro-Energy Consulting Organization (Topco). Sinopacific announce its cooperation with the leading event organizer The Oriental Pro-Energy Consulting Organization (Topco) to jointly present at the Offshore Support Vessel World Forum (OSV World 2012) in Shanghai China on 11-12 Sep 2012. The event, event, supported by Sinopacific, Shanghai International Shipping Institute, UCIBN, LTI Steel Wire Rope, GL, MARIC, TCC Fleet and Wuchang Shippbuilding etc., is expected to attract 200 industry players to get updates on key design & technology trends in offshore projects and to network.