Energy Transport News

"The Columbia River and its tributaries, wetlands, and estuaries are the lifeblood of the Pacific Northwest, providing abundant water, power, recreation, agriculture, transportation and natural resources that have supported livelihoods, cultural and spiritual practices, commerce and economic growth.” - President Biden, Memorandum of September 27, 2023.Those abundant benefits directly impact about 13 million people in the Pacific Northwest. Hydropower extends that plentitude to millions more, powering cities and industry from Idaho to California.

PetroChina International has taken delivery of a large liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier from China's Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group Ltd, the first of three tankers ordered under a joint venture with state shipping firms.The vessel Shaolin, named after the renowned Chinese kungfu style, is designed to carry 174,000 cubic meters of the super-chilled fuel, PetroChina International said on its WeChat platform on Wednesday.The carrier is one of three vessels ordered in 2020 costing a total of $600 million by a joint venture between PetroChina International…

Inland maritime transportation systems (MTS) play major roles in domestic and international supply chains, with unique challenges related to upstream and downstream sources disruption, accessibility and shifts in commodities, as well as demand and supply imbalances. With a 20% on-time arrival statistic, the U.S. east coast serves as an example for the increasing appeal of inland waterways as a cost-effective, alternative, with Port of Cleveland traffic reportedly increasing 70% between 2020 and 2021.

Italian industrial giants Eni and Fincantieri have signed an agreement to establish a partnership for promoting initiatives focused on the energy transition. Oil giant Eni and shipbuilder Fincantieri said the goal of the collaboration was to create a system of integrated solutions for decarbonization projects in the fields of energy, transport, and the circular economy."Eni and Fincantieri have identified areas of common interest for developing synergies, including reducing the environmental impact of the maritime transport sector…

On October 22, NYK signed a sales and purchase agreement with France's Total acquiring all of the company’s shares in the ship management company, Gazocean. Based in Marseille, France, and responsible for the management of six LNG carriers, Gazocean is now a wholly owned subsidiary of NYK. The move is designed to strengthen NYK’s ship-management system and expand the company’s LNG transportation business in France. Before the purchase, NYK held 20% of Gazocean shares and Total held 80%.In accordance with its medium-term management plan “Staying Ahead 2022 with Digitalization and Green,” the NYK Group is seeking to secure stable freight rates through long-term contracts…

Sovcomflot plans to raise at least $500 million in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Moscow Exchange, Russia’s top shipping company said on Tuesday, in a deal that could value it at roughly $10 billion according to sources.The move by the state-controlled firm comes as Russian airline Aeroflot also plans to raise capital in a secondary public offering (SPO).For Aeroflot, the cash is needed to fight the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.Sovcomflot (SCF) which is raising money to spend on new projects and reduce debt aims to list in early October…

By Sverre Alvik, Energy transition program director, DNV GLIt is not too good to be true, it is the economic reality that lies ahead of us. The energy transition facing us in the coming decades is an affordable one. In fact, the future energy system is not only affordable, it is cheaper than the energy system we have today. And this creates an opportunity to invest more to achieve the future we want.Let me be more precise: in just one generation, humanity will be spending a much lower share of its GDP on energy than it does today. The main reason is not energy prices, but energy efficiency. Whether you believe in the phenomenon of peak energy…

As demand for energy transportation, especially liquefied natural gas (LNG), is expected to increase in Indonesia, NYK and PT Pertamina International Shipping (PIS), a wholly owned subsidiary of PT Pertamina (Persero) agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for energy transportation.The framework of the deal sees Pertamina, the largest oil and natural gas corporation in the state, and NYK in a strategic partners in energy transportation and covers ownership and management.

Ammonia, the same pungent solution used in fertilizers and cleaning agents, may one day be the key to transporting renewable energy around the world. There are currently a number of government and corporate projects assessing the feasibility of converting excess renewable energy from sources like wind, solar, tidal and nuclear into ammonia and then back into usable energy.In its purist form, ammonia or NH3 is composed of one nitrogen and three hydrogen atoms making it an ideal candidate to chemically bind excess renewable energy. Like several other chemical compounds, ammonia can be transported by chemical tanker in liquid form to end-users. Based on its near ambient liquification point, it may be more appealing to transport ammonia over longer distances than hydrogen.

Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers AS (KNOT), a NYK Group company, has concluded a time-charter contract for a maximum 15-year period starting from 2021 for a shuttle tanker with French oil and gas giant Total for its Brazilian activities.The contract aims to use a 152,000 DWT Suezmax tanker equipped with a dynamic-positioning system built in China by COSCO (Zhoushan) Shipyard Co., Ltd. to shuttle crude oil produced in waters off Brazil.Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers AS (KNOT) is a joint venture company between NYK (which  has a 50 percent share) and TS Shipping Invest AS (TSSI), the parent company of the Knutsen Group. The KNOT Group has a…

Japanese shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) announced its intention to install a navigation system using augmented reality (AR) technology jointly developed by Furuno Electric and MOL Techno-Trade on 21 MOL Group-operated very large crude oil carriers (VLCCs).The system displays information on other vessels sailing on a vessel's planned route and surrounding sea areas and other ocean conditions, such as shallow waters, on tablets and screens. It integrates information from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and radar with real-time video images from the bridge camera in collaboration with Furuno Electric's cutting-edge Electric…

Norway-headquartered Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers (KNOT) has concluded a time-charter contract for two shuttle tankers with Equinor ASA for a maximum 20-year period starting in the second quarter of 2020.KNOT is a NYK Group company, in which NYK has a 50 percent share.The contract aims to use two 152,000 DWT Suezmax tankers equipped with dynamic-positioning systems built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. to shuttle crude oil produced in waters off Brazil.Upon commencement of this contract, the KNOT Group will have 31 shuttle tankers in operation or on order.In accordance with its new medium-term management plan “Staying Ahead 2022 with Digitalization and Green…

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line)  together with Asahi Shipping, has concluded a long-term contract with Kobe Steel for the transport of coal for up to 20 years aboard a newly built ship. After delivery of the new vessel from Oshima Shipbuilding in 2021, the ship will transport coal from locations outside Japan to mainly the city of Kobe. This ship will be equipped with a diesel engine compliant with a more stringent environmental regulation limiting nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions — i.e., the Tier III limits in the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) that require a reduction in NOx emissions by 80 percent compared to 2000 levels.

Emerging spill response trends fit into two big categories: technology and a combination of economic and social forces. Both will shape what comes next.Florida’s stunning Tampa Bay stands out as exactly the kind of place where you have to think about hazardous materials emergencies. It was 25 years ago, on August 10, 1993, that a freighter collided with two barges near the entrance of Tampa Bay, causing a fire and spilling over 32,000 gallons of jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline and about 330,000 gallons of heavy fuel, devastating beaches, wildlife and habitat.

As the maritime market steers toward Athens, Greece and Posidonia 2018, Maritime Reporter & Engineering News interviews Panagiotis Kouroumplis, the Greek Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy. As the Minister of Shipping for the country with the largest merchant fleet and a millennia-old maritime tradition, Kouroumplis carries his responsibilities with pride and humility.Born in Aetoloakarnania in 1951, Kouroumplis holds a Law degree and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Athens.

A futuristic, zero-emission new design of water taxi, called SeaBubbles, was successfully demonstrated today on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The vehicle represents a milestone in the development of new forms of transportation that do not impact the environment or place any burden on urban infrastructure. The water taxi will soon be equipped with the ABB Ability Marine Advisory System – OCTOPUS, a software solution that helps vessel operators gather and analyze all relevant data to optimize water travel. The development of the demonstration craft was supported by the Geneva cantonal authorities and the Department of Energy, Transport and Agriculture (DETA), represented by State Councilors Luc Barthassat and Pierre Maudet, drawing on technology from ABB.

Japanese shipping company NYK Line announced that it signed a contract with EDF LNG Shipping, a subsidiary of Electricité de France (EDF), to charter a newly built LNG carrier for a total of seven years, with optional extension periods for up to 13 more years. The vessel will be built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in Korea and is due to be delivered on April 30, 2020. The vessel will be fitted to EDF’s specific requirements and will have a 174,000-cubic meter capacity membrane-type cargo tank fitted with a GTT Mark III Flex cargo containment system and a dual-fuel slow-speed engine (WinGD X-DF diesel engine). The Mark III membrane system is a cryogenic liner directly supported by the ship’s inner hull and designed to store LNG at near atmospheric pressure.

Where commercial marine and safety considerations allide with recreational and other peripheral agendas, the discussion can sometimes be contentious. One such example of this reality is now playing out on the Hudson River in New York. On June 9, 2016, the U.S. Coast Guard published a three-page Federal Register notice, seeking public comments on a proposal suggesting new anchorage grounds in the Hudson River, from Yonkers to Kingston, N.Y. Officially, this was an advance notice of proposed rulemaking…

Duncan Eley has been appointed chief executive officer of Oslo listed offshore geophysical services company Polarcus Limited, replacing Rod Starr, who has resigned following a two year reorganization period. Eley has been promoted to the CEO role from his current position as chief operating officer, succeeding Starr effective immediately. Starr will continue to work with the executive management team and Polarcus' Board of Directors for a transition period during the second quarter of 2017.

Growing use of electric vehicles around the world is helping lower climate changing emissions, but some means of transport will be hard to electrify, particularly air travel and shipping, energy experts say. To “decarbonise” those, the world will need to rapidly develop and bring to market biofuels – while trying to ensure they don’t crowd out food production, say the authors of a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). With “the right selection of the right raw material” about 12 percent of transport fuel could come from renewable sources by 2030, said Francisco Boshell, a technology analyst at IRENA and one of the report’s authors.

The Japanese shipping company  Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd (MOL) will restructure its organization effective April 1, says a press statement from the company. MOL is establishing the Product Transport Business Unit, under which much of the carrier and port divisions will reside. It has also submitted an application to establish a logistics subsidiary in India. The company will establish the Product Transport Business Unit to create the cross-sectional system “One MOL” to promote businesses in the product transport field and further meet customer needs. The company will establish the One MOL Business Strategy Execution Office in the Corporate Planning Division as an organization that engages in division/area cross-sectional business promotion…

ENGIE, Fluxys, Mitsubishi Corporation, and NYK have taken delivery of the world’s first purpose built liquefied natural gas bunkering vessel (LBV) from Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd., at the Yeongdo shipyard in Busan, Korea. She will run on LNG for her maiden voyage, after a few days of loading LNG delivered by trucks at the shipyard. Zeebrugge in Belgium will be the home port of the vessel, which has been named ENGIE Zeebrugge accordingly. From there, the 5,000 m3 LNG capacity LBV will supply LNG as a marine fuel to ships operating in Northern Europe. The two LNG-fueled pure car and truck carriers (PCTC) operated by United European Car Carriers will be its first customers.

Australia on Monday reached a A$39.3 million ($29.66 million) out-of-court settlement with the owners of a Chinese coal carrier that ran aground in 2010 on the Great Barrier Reef. The settlement, dismissed by an environmental group as not enough, is less than a third of what the Australian government was seeking from the ship's owner - Shenzhen Energy Transport Co - for remediation costs after the 225-metre long Shen Neng 1 ran aground on the reef's Douglas Shoal. The fully-laden carrier was en route to China when it sailed outside the shipping lane and ran aground on April 3, 2010. Anti-fouling paint that peeled off the ship contained a highly toxic component, tributyltin, that is now banned from use.