Established Infrastructure News

Offshore seismic survey specialist Shearwater on Friday announced a new project with the Austrian oil firm OMV for a "pioneering" towed streamer survey with Ocean Bottom Nodes over the Berling gas and condensate discovery in the Norwegian Sea. Spanning 1040 sq.km, this hybrid survey starts in July 2023 and will last for three months. Shearwater's vessels, SW Tasman and Oceanic Vega, will lead the operations. SW Tasman will operate as an ROV node deployment vessel for first time…

What will COVID-19 mean for the offshore wind industry? An industry not yet spinning on its own.Epitomized by the roller coaster ride that defined the stock market over the last few weeks, unpredictability has emerged as one of the few certainties of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. Every industry has seen the effects of the pandemic, from hospitality, to travel, and even to the renewable energy sector. Indeed, even though the US offshore wind industry is not yet fully established…

A giant vessel docked at the port of Moheshkhali in Bangladesh two months ago, propelling the populous but poor nation into the fast-expanding club of liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyers.The Excellence is the latest floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), a type of carrier that has proliferated since 2015 as many countries switch to a cleaner and increasingly cheaper fuel than oil and coal.But the young FSRU industry has been beset by more project delays than successes in the past 12 months as fluctuating energy prices…

The Obama administration on Friday blocked new exploration for oil and gas in Arctic waters, in a win for environmental groups that had fought development of the ecologically fragile region. The Department of the Interior released a 2017 to 2022 leasing plan that blocked drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off northern Alaska. It also limited petroleum development in the Cook Inlet off south-central Alaska. Environmental activists have battled drilling in Alaska to protect whales, walruses and seals, and as part of a broader movement to keep remaining fossil fuels in the ground.

China will be able to project "substantial offensive military power" from artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea's disputed Spratly Islands within months, the director of U.S. national intelligence said. In a Feb. 23 letter to John McCain, chair of the U.S. "Based on the pace and scope of construction at these outposts, China will be able to deploy a range of offensive and defensive military capabilities and support increased PLAN and CCG presence beginning in 2016," Clapper said in the letter released this week, using acronyms for the Chinese navy and coastguard. "Once these facilities are completed by the end of 2016 or early 2017, China will have significant capacity to quickly project substantial offensive military power to the region," Clapper added.

Holders of Argentina's  defaulted debt and their supporters have warned the country risks being frozen out from international capital markets unless it finds a way to solve its legal problems by the July 30 deadline. But away from the bad-tempered litigation in U.S. courts, which has dominated the news about Argentina for months, the country is experiencing an oil drilling boom as international companies seek to cash on its huge shale resources. In June, there was an average of 107 rigs drilling for oil or gas in the country, the highest number operating since records began in 1982, and more than double the number at the start of 2012, according to oil field services company Baker Hughes (Chart 1). Most were hunting for oil rather than gas.

Statoil ASA (OSE: STL, NYSE: STO): Statoil and Wintershall have entered into a 10-year gas sales agreement for the delivery of a total of 45 billion cubic meters (bcm) to the German and other North-West European markets. "This strategic agreement demonstrates the continued competitiveness of Norwegian natural gas in the German energy mix. "The agreement with Statoil, a long-term and reliable energy partner with Germany for decades, is a significant milestone for Wintershall. For us this means that we can also use the volumes we produce from the North Sea in Europe in the future without having to expand our own infrastructure," says Wintershall's CEO Rainer Seele. Germany consumes about 80 bcm natural gas per year and is the second largest gas market in Europe.

A fixed platform has been selected by Statoil and its partners for the Dagny oil and gas discovery in the North Sea, while the Eirin gas field is to be developed with a subsea solution. Gas from Dagny will be exported through a tie-back to the infrastructure on Sleipner East, while offshore loading into shuttle tankers is proposed for the oil. The seabed production installation on Eirin will be tied back to the planned Dagny platform. Originally a small gas discovery just north of the Sleipner fields…

Statoil and its partners are considering developing the Skrugard discovery in the Barents Sea by means of a floating production unit with the additional capacity to process and transport from other prospects in the area. A feasibility study has identified a technical and commercial solution for the Skrugard field in the Barents Sea. The solution involving a floating production unit will result in the rapid and cost-efficient development of the discovery. The production unit will have separate oil storage and offshore loading capability with a production capacity of 95…

UK’s Teignbridge Propellers score Middle East first with launch of new manufacturing arm; targets Africa, Asia and the Arab world In a first for the region, UK-headquartered Teignbridge Propellers International today unveiled plans to establish a manufacturing base in Dubai in order to support its existing operation and tap into new markets across the region and beyond. The UAE’s geographical location and established infrastructure is attracting high profile international maritime support companies looking to capitalise on first mover access to growth markets across Africa…

Oil has been proven by Statoil and its partners Det norske oljeselskap ASA and Svenska Petroleum Exploration AS on the North Sea Krafla prospect. The well is located in block 30/11 around 26 kilometres south of the Oseberg South field. Based on preliminary calculations the size of the discovery is between 12.5 and 56.5 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. ”Statoil has had great exploration success in mature areas during the last years,” says Gro Gunleiksrud Haatvedt, Statoil’s head of exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).

StatoilHydro has struck oil during the drilling of an exploration well and a sidetrack north of the Vigdis East field in the North Sea. The proven recoverable resources are estimated at about 25 million barrels of oil. The well confirmed the existence of a 280-metre oil column in rocks with good reservoir properties. "Our exploration activities close to fields on stream are successful and the discovery again confirms that there is still a great potential in this part of the North Sea," said Tom Dreyer, StatoilHydro's vice president, infrastructure-led exploration, North Sea. The exploration well was drilled into the Vigdis North-East prospect, located 3 kilometres south of the Snorre field.

The term short-sea shipping comes up aplenty these days, as the powers-that-be rediscover the practicalities and the economies of waterborne transport. The thinking is renewed and the interest revitalized, but for a lot of harbors nationwide it's deja vu. Take the island city of New York, and the multitudes of communities near and far that are joined to it by inland waters—the rivers, sounds, creeks, streams—all the way up to Albany, to Waterford and the Canal system, and to everything beyond that. There's nothing new about the short-sea shipping principle around here.

As the largest Ship Repair facility in the Middle East, Dubai Drydocks, which made its home in the late 1970's, was built on the foundations of capitalizing on its geographical proximity to the major oil terminals in the Arabian Gulf. Designed to accommodate oil tankers with a capacity of up to one million tons dwt, the year 2003 marks the 20th anniversary of operations at Dubai Drydocks. The Yard's core business of ship repair is backed-up by conversions and newbuildings. Experience in the field of conversions has developed progressively over several years and an important milestone has just been passed with the successful completion of the conversion of the VLCC Mosocean into a Floating Production Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO), named the Xikomba.

As hybrid electric cars become more commonplace on America’s highways, the Navy is working to bring hybrid electric ships to the high seas. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is developing innovative propulsion systems based on new fuel-cell technology for efficient generation of electrical power and greater design flexibility for future ships. To ensure a relatively quick transition to this promising technology, ONR is funding development of a method to extract hydrogen from diesel fuel. A diesel reforming system would take advantage of the relatively low cost of the fuel and the Navy’s established infrastructure for buying, storing and transporting it.