Energy Studies News

The prospect of the EU receiving more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Egypt in the short and medium term looks unachievable due to tight gas balances and reduced imports from Israel, Oxford Institute of Energy Studies (OIES) said.Egypt shipped 80% of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe last year as the continent sought to replace Russian pipeline gas after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The European Union in June last year signed a framework deal between the bloc…

Mike Complita is going on 30 years in the maritime industry. Complita started work at Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG) as an intern while attending the University of Washington in his hometown, Seattle. “And since that time, I've served in pretty much every role, from a technical and project management standpoint, all the way up to principal of our organization,” he said. Today, as Principal in Charge and VP of Strategic Expansion, Complita works alongside EBDG’s other principals to help guide the firm’s project managers…

U.S. sanctions imposed last month on subsidiaries of vast Chinese shipping fleet Cosco have given an unexpected boost to European refiners as less crude oil from the North Sea and West Africa heads east, traders and analysts said.Freight rates have soared as oil producers scramble for non-blacklisted vessels, discouraging longer-distance voyages.Complex refining margins for advanced facilities capable of extracting even more valuable products like diesel and gasoline, have been especially strong in Europe, industry sources said.The U.S.

China's targeting of U.S. liquefied natural gas and crude oil exports opens a new front in the trade war between the two countries, at a time when the White House is trumpeting growing U.S. energy export prowess.China included LNG for the first time in its list of proposed tariffs on Friday, the same day that its biggest U.S. crude oil buyer, Sinopec, suspended U.S. crude oil imports due to the dispute, according to three sources familiar with the situation.On Friday, China announced retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump expects the European Union to fund 9 to 11 liquefied natural gas (LNG) ports to absorb "vastly" more shipments from the United States but current EU investment in new projects will only help open small markets.In a White House press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte late on Monday, Trump said part of the U.S.-EU trade talks sought to expand America's reach into the continent's gas markets which were awash in Russian supply."And we are already talking to the European Union about building anywhere from 9 to 11 ports…

Global marine fuel and lubricant trading and brokering company Glander International Bunkering (GIB) has hired Ankita Batra as a trader for its India office.    Batra joins (GIB) with a post graduate in the domain of Energy Trading  from  the University of Petroleum and Energy studies, Dehradun. Batra speaks Hindi and English and is familiar supplying in the ports of India, Singapore and Fujairah.

Glander International Bunkering, a leading, global marine fuel, lubricant trading and brokering company hires Ankita Batra as Bunker and Lubricant Trader for the India office. Ankita Batra joins Glander International Bunkering with a post graduate in the domain of Energy Trading  from  the University of Petroleum and Energy studies, Dehradun. Ms. Batra speaks Hindi and English and is familiar supplying in the ports of India, Singapore and Fujairah. Commenting on the appointment of Ankita Batra, Managing Director and CEO of the Glander International Bunkering group, Christoffer Berg Lassen states, ‘While the world becomes borderless, the markets continue to expand and so does our business.

An Office of Naval Research (ONR) supported enterprise brings sweeping changes to electric power & energy education at U.S. universities. “The number of power engineers in the United States is dwindling just when the Navy and the country as a whole need them most,” said Dr. Peter Cho, a program officer in ONR’s Ship Systems and Engineering Research Division who is overseeing the project. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has used a set of aggressive goals to guide the service toward renewable power as well as electric ships and weapons.

Bureau Veritas Certification France has released a comprehensive Guide on Offshore Wind Farm Project Certification, which allows industry players and experts to make sense of the complex rules applying to certification processes in the field of offshore wind farms. Bureau Veritas is attending the EWEA trade show from 4 to 7 February 2013 in Vienna (Austria). This exhibition will give visitors the opportunity to know more about a major Testing Inspection & Certification (TIC) player for the wind industry.

Next year, developers hope to start building offshore wind turbines in the U.S., which is already a leader in on-land wind generation. As turbines spin off the coast in a dozen other countries, particularly the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, global offshore wind capacity has expanded nearly six-fold since 2006. Most of these installations are in shallow water though winds are stronger out further. If the U.S. is to have offshore turbines, many residents want them distant enough so they can’t be seen or heard.

Keppel Corporation Limited (Keppel) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Tan Puay Chiang (陈培璋) as Independent Director on the Board with effect from June 20, 2012. Mr Tan, 65, is a veteran in the oil, gas and petrochemicals sector. During his 38-year career with Mobil Oil and later ExxonMobil, he held executive management roles in Australia, Singapore and the United States. These included the positions of Vice-President, Mobil Research & Technology Corp, USA and Chairman & Managing Director of Mobil Oil Australia. Mr Tan retired as Chairman, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co in 2008. Dr Lee Boon Yang, Chairman, Keppel Corporation, said, "We welcome Puay Chiang to the Board. Mr Tan is a non-executive Independent Director of Singapore Power and Neptune Orient Line.

U.S. and European sanctions designed to pressure Iran over its nuclear program may be cutting the Persian Gulf nation’s oil exports, as vessels cancel trips to the country. Shipments have declined by 300,000 to 400,000 barrels a day, because sanctions are preventing Iran from selling oil, said Amrita Sen, an analyst at Barclay’s Capital in London. Half of the tankers booked to load at the country’s largest terminal last month didn’t complete the voyages, according to brokers, company officials and ship-tracking data. Ship owners are avoiding trade with Iran because U.S. financial sanctions are blocking payments, and the main providers of cover against risks, such as oil spills, are subject to the European Union’s ban on the purchase, transportation, financing and insurance of Iranian oil.

The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) recently funded four research studies to identify technological and operational safety issues related to the future development of offshore renewable energy on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The studies focus on inspection methodologies and design characteristics of offshore wind turbines, installation and removal costs of ocean energy devices, and potential seafloor effects associated with the installation of renewable energy devices. “We still have much to learn about offshore renewable energy activities”, said MMS Director Liz Birnbaum. “We are continuously evaluating existing regulations and standards to adapt to these new technologies.

Governor Chris Gregoire announced the designation of 11 Innovation Partnership Zones in Washington, geographic areas that will promote and develop the state’s regional economies. Innovation Partnership Zones build on the success around the world of “research parks,” such as the Research Triangle in North Carolina and Torrey Pines in California and bring together research and higher education opportunities, innovation and economic activity to be a strong engine for regional economies. “Washington is home to some of the greatest innovations in the world and I am excited to support the continued success of our state’s world-class companies,” said Governor Gregoire.

The U.S. will become more dependent on tanker-borne petroleum imports in coming years, coinciding with a ship shortage which will push freight costs sharply higher, energy and tanker analysts said on Wednesday. "Products imports are playing a bigger swing role in the U.S. than ever before," Paul Horsnell of Oxford Institute of Energy Studies said. "They're becoming a structural feature of the U.S. Horsnell told members of the tanker owners' organization Intertanko, which met in Sydney this week, that each year was now expected to bring a fourth quarter surge in demand for fuel oil imports -- a trade usually served by Panamax 50,000 tonrs. U.S. demand for gasoline imports would surge each spring. Intertanko research head Erik Ranheim said U.S.

A crucial Caribbean tanker fleet re-entered the market this week, having been held back for over a month because of a dispute between its owner, Pegasus Shipping, and junk-bond creditors in New York. U.S. brokers said the fleet's return would add surplus tonnage to a market that is already cooling, and would put further downward pressure on freight rates. Fuel oil freight stood at around $1.65 per barrel for 50,000 ton upcoast cargoes on Friday (April 27), compared to about $1.90 per barrel in mid-March, brokers said. Pegasus said the two time-charters and five spot fixtures so far completed were all done at market rate. Chairman Nicos Peraticos has resumed negotiations with bondholders and hopes to complete a buy-back of the $150 million Pegasus debt in June, a spokesman in London said.

Oil inventories are getting so tight that commercial stockcover held by oil companies could hit minimum operating levels by early next year, London's Center for Global Energy Studies warned. The CGES said that after a heavy draw in September, commercial inventories held in the industrialized nations of the OECD fell again in October - by an estimated 800,000 bpd in the U.S. and Europe. "What is more, there are hardly any spare stocks at sea, in temporary storage or in the non-OECD countries, the companies having run them down first before tapping their own inner reserves," said the CGES in a monthly report. "Now that middle distillates inventories are also declining the companies may well hit their minimum operating requirement of 50 days of cover some time in first quarter 2000…

Iran announced its biggest oil find in 30 years last week, a 26-billion barrel field discovered just as the country drives to revive exploration activities and foreign firms compete for big deals. Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said the oilfield in the prolific southwest Khuzestan province has the potential to produce up to 400,000 bpd. He said that development on the field, which is close to the Iraqi border, will start by the end of March 2001 and could earn revenues of some $100 billion given current estimates of recoverable reserves. The massive discovery by the National Iranian Oil Company comes under renewed Iranian efforts to rejuvenate exploration activities in a country with the world's second largest natural gas reserves and fifth biggest oil reserves.

Oil inventories are getting so tight that commercial stockcover held by oil companies could hit minimum operating levels by early next year, London's Center for Global Energy Studies warned. The CGES reported that after a heavy draw in September, commercial inventories held in the industrialized nations of the OECD fell again in October - by an estimated 800,000 bpd in the United States and Europe. The OECD commercial stockcover has reportedly fallen from 57 days at the end of June to 54 days at the end of September and will reach 51 days at end-December. Worldwide stockcover was seen sliding from 85 days at end-June to 78 days at the end of the year.

Oil prices in 1999 posted a 35 percent increase on average over 1998, in a triumph of output restraints by exporter group OPEC and key ally Mexico. International benchmark Brent blend for the year was averaging $18 a barrel near the close of business on the last trading day of the year. Brent averaged just $13.34 a barrel in 1998, the lowest in 22 years, when prices slumped amid global surplus caused by excess output and shrinking demand in collapsing Asian economies. Average prices for Brent were $19.34 in 1997 and $20.28 in 1996. By cutting supply in 1999 by about four percent, OPEC boosted petroleum export revenues by some $25 billion, according to estimates released by London's Center for Global Energy Studies.

Oil prices in 1999 posted a 35 percent increase on average over 1998 in a triumph of output restraint by exporter group OPEC and key ally Mexico. International benchmark Brent blend for the year was averaging $18.00 a barrel near the close of business on the last trading day of the year. Brent averaged just $13.34 a barrel in 1998, the lowest in 22 years, when prices slumped amid global surplus caused by excess output and shrinking demand in collapsing Asian economies. Average prices for Brent were $19.34 in 1997 and $20.28 in 1996. "OPEC has succeeded beyond its own expectations in increasing prices and in reducing global crude inventories," said a report from Washington-based Petroleum Finance Company.