Joachim Dagenborg News

The shipping industry has long been criticised by campaigners for allowing vessels to be broken up on beaches, endangering workers and polluting the sea and sand. Now, it is being called to account from a quarter that may have a bit more clout - its financial backers. Norway's $1 trillion Oil Fund, a leader in ethical investing, in February sold its stake in four firms because they scrap on the beach. Three of the firms excluded by Norway's fund - Taiwan's Evergreen Marine, Precious Shipping and Thoresen Thai Agencies (TTA) of Thailand - say they have been unfairly singled out.

Rebranding would cost up to $32.5 mln but firm plans to ramp up renewables investment. Norway's Statoil plans to change its name to Equinor, reflecting its commitment to become a broad energy company rather than one focused only on oil, it said on Thursday. In a video posted on social media, Statoil presented the switch as a way to show its determination to develop investments in renewable energy. Reactions by various social media users were mixed. "Equinor sounds like a princess on a horse in Game of Thrones," one Twitter user said. "Equi" is the genitive singular in Latin for "horse". Others liked the change. "Congratulations on an exciting name change. The green shift is happening faster and faster. Norway must be a part of it.

Shares in crude oil tanker firm Frontline jump 10.5 pct to 34.48 crowns. DNB Markets predicts VLCC spot rates set to increase from $22,000 a day in 2018 to $41,000 a day by 2020. On asset values, DNB sees an 11 percent upside to VLCC resale prices by 2019 and 27 percent upside by 2020. DHT, Euronav, Frontline, Gener8 Maritime and Teekay are all upgrade to buy from hold. Share price target in DHT lifted to $5.2 from $4.0, Euronav to $10.7 from $9.0, Frontline NOK 42 from NOK 33 and Gener8 Maritime to $7.4 from $4.9 and Teekay to $1.8 from $1.5. DNB Markets says tanker stocks with moderate leverage have been unchanged year over year which shows that the downside has been taken out.

Dry bulk shipper Golden Ocean proposed a bigger than expected dividend for the fourth quarter on the back of forecast-beating results on Tuesday, and reiterated the market was getting better. The company, controlled by Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen, returned to profit in the third quarter thanks to improving market conditions and demand for renting ships. On Tuesday, Golden Ocean said it would pay a dividend of $0.10 per share against expectations for $0.02 in a Reuters poll of analysts. Day rates are expected to improve further, the company said, as the world economy expands and lower fleet growth is expected over the next year or two.

Norway must identify potential offshore oil and gas reserves near its northern maritime border with Russia to better protect its economic interest in the remote Arctic region, energy minister Terje Soeviknes said on Wednesday. The two countries agreed in 2010 to split previously disputed areas of the Barents Sea between them, allowing each to exploit resources hidden beneath the seabed. An increase in drilling activity on the Russian side of the border should lead Norway to push its own agenda, the minister said. "We need to start the discussion about what to do in the far north. We see a development on the Russian side of the border, where they are drilling and likely will find oil," Soeviknes told an energy conference in Sandefjord.

Norway's energy ministry has awarded 75 offshore exploration blocks to oil companies in a so-called predefined areas (APA) licensing round, handing out acreage to 34 firms, of which 19 got at least one operatorship, it said on Tuesday.   A total of 39 firms had applied for the offered acreage, up from 33 companies that applied in the previous round a year ago, when the ministry awarded 56 exploration licenses. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Joachim Dagenborg, editing by Terje Solsvik)

Norway's Statoil will continue to drill for oil in the Arctic Barents Sea next year even though its 2017 campaign was mostly disappointing, the company's head of exploration told Reuters on Tuesday. Statoil plans to drill between 25 and 30 wells in Norwegian waters in 2018, of which five or six are expected in the Barents and the rest will be split between the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea, which are both located further south. "We have tested a lot of potential there (in 2017)…

Frontline q3 net loss $‍24.1​ million. The current crude oil tanker rate environment does not presently reflect that strong demand. Shares down 4.8 pct at 0840 GMT vs fall of 0.3 pct in Oslo's benchmark share index.

Oslo-listed rig firm Seadrill named a new chief executive from within its own ranks on Wednesday and said its talks to restructure $14 billion of debt and liabilities had reached an advanced stage. Once the world's most valuable rig firm, Seadrill's business was hard hit when oil companies sharply cut investments and exploration in the wake of a 2014 crash in oil prices. Anton Dibowitz, current chief commercial officer, will take the top job from July 1, succeeding Per Wullf who will remain a board director, the company said. Dibowitz, a U.S. citizen, joined the company 10 years ago.

Norwegian conglomerate Kongsberg Gruppen aims to supply command and control systems to the submarines that Norway and Germany plan to order from Germany's Thyssenkrupp, a spokesman for the company said on Friday. The Norwegian and German governments on Friday said they aim to buy a combined six submarines, and that talks with Poland and the Netherlands could lead to further orders. "The (Norwegian) defence minister made it very clear today that one of the main reasons for choosing Thyssenkrupp was that it was the best solution for industrial partnerships," Kongsberg Gruppen spokesman Ronny Lie said. "It's no secret that we are very optimistic," he added. (Reporting by Joachim Dagenborg)

A gas tanker from Oslo-listed shipping company BW LPG has collided with an Indian ship off the coast of Chennai in India, a BW LPG executive said on Monday.   The BW Maple, with a total capacity of 82,000 cubic metres of liquefied petroleum gas, was half full when it collided with another ship. There were no reports of injuries, he said.   "There has been no spill from our ship, but it looks like there has been an oil spill from the other ship," Pontus Berg, BW LPG's head of technical and operations, told Reuters. He did not have reports of any injuries, he said.     (Reporting by Joachim Dagenborg, writing by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik)

Volatile markets currently prevent Danish shipping firm Torm from going through with a planned stock market listing in the United States, but the company still aims to do so later this year, it said on Thursday. "Right now, it doesn't seem like the most obvious time to go through with this (a U.S. listing). The window for capital markets opens and closes and just now, I note that it is closed," Chief Executive Jacob Meldgaard told Reuters at the sidelines of an industry conference in Oslo. "We still have a plan to do this in 2016, but we have no problem with postponing it," he added.

Norwegian oil major Statoil plans to develop its Arctic Johan Castberg oilfield after having cut costs by half, with a decision on investments in 2017, its chief executive said on Tuesday. Worried by high costs of operating in the remote Arctic Barents Sea, the Norwegian oil major last year delayed a final investment decision for Castberg, one of the world's northernmost oil finds. "The investment estimate is almost halved from around 100 billion crowns ($11.29 billion) to between 50 and 60 billion crowns," Chief Executive Eldar Saetre told an industry conference on Tuesday.

The expected boom in liquefied natural gas exports from the United States risks being hampered by a lack of vessels to handle the trade, the head of the U.S. coast guard told  shipping industry executives on Tuesday. The LNG tanker market, currently suffering from oversupply due to weak demand for natural gas, could thus in a few years face a shortage of capacity, Paul Zukunft told the Nor-Shipping conference. Several large projects are under construction on the U.S. Gulf coast, including Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass, due to come on stream later this year, and Sempra Energy's  Cameron LNG, set for completion in 2018. "Right now we have one of the largest LNG facilities in the world being built in Louisiana," Zukunft said, referring to the Cameron plant.

Dry bulk shipping charter rates remain well below break even levels, pushing vessel scrapping to record highs, though some market improvement is expected in the second quarter, Herman Billung, the CEO of shipping firm Golden Ocean said. Dayrates have plunged as China's slowdown reduced its iron ore imports while the market is flooded with brand new vessels entering the market, sending the Baltic Dry index to an all-time-low of around 500 points in February from around 1,600 points a year ago.

The market for oil and gas drilling rigs continues to deteriorate as oil companies cut back on investments, Seadrill Chief Financial Officer Rune Magnus Lundetrae told an energy conference on Wednesday. "We have still not seen the bottom of the day rate fall," he said. "Unfortunately there is nothing preventing day rates from falling down to break even levels."   Reporting by Joachim Dagenborg

BW Offshore cut its dividend on Monday, blaming lower spending by customers due to a fall in crude prices as well as a deadly accident in Brazil last week. The company, which also met fourth-quarter earnings forecasts, said it planned a dividend of 2 U.S. cents a share for October-December, one cent less than in recent quarters and below expectations for 3 cents in a Reuters poll of analysts. On Feb 11, an explosion on one of BW's oil production vessels offshore Brazil killed five employees, while four are still missing. "The cut in dividend is because of the drop in oil price, increased uncertainty and on the backdrop of recent events," Chief Financial Officer Knut Saethre said during the company's earnings presentation in Oslo.

CEO Hvide bullish on tanker demand and freight rates. Oslo-listed crude tanker group Frontline expects continued high demand and solid freight rates, boosted by the drop in oil prices and increased contango driven storage, Chief Executive Robert Hvide Macleod told Reuters on Tuesday. A seasonal rise in oil demand and buyers taking advantage of lower prices to boost stocks have sent freight rates for Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) up 100 percent since mid-October to around $55,000-$60,000 per day. Macleod said he believes the current rate levels are sustainable. "We still see a solid demand and rates are holding up well, even though they are down slightly from the top," he said.

Oil firms are purposefully delaying the development of oil and gas fields off Norway, the head of the agency tasked with managing the country's oil and gas resources told Reuters on Thursday. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate was expecting some 13 development projects to be submitted by energy firms to Norwegian authorities this year and the next, but none have so far been submitted. "Our impression is that there is an increased number of oil projects that are being delayed," Bente Nyland, the head of the NPD, told Reuters on the margins of a news conference. "We see that they are being moved by a few weeks or by a quarter, or even longer ...

Western sanctions against Russia may slow down exploration for oil and gas on both the Norwegian and Russian side of the Arctic Barents Sea, lobby group Norwegian Oil & Gas told Reuters on Wednesday. "We have many members working on both sides of the border, where coordination of fields will be a key topic. Collection of seismic and other joint activities may be affected," said the group's head of legal affairs, Oluf Bjoerndal. The association represents oil firms, including most supermajors, as well as some of the world's biggest oil and gas service firms. "We fear that this could become a problem. There's a worry about that. It may mean that some areas aren't explored well enough, that potential discoveries are delayed," he added.

A sluggish offshore drilling market could deteriorate further next year due to weak demand and a flood of new vessels, even though a few places such as Mexico and Brazil remain promising for exploration, industry executives said on Wednesday. Rig rates have fallen sharply over the past 18 months as oil companies cut capital spending, saving cash for dividends, just as dozens of brand new offshore rigs ordered during the boom times hit the seas, creating overcapacity. "The market is going to be bad this year…

The oil price drop will hand tanker markets an unexpected bonus next year, boosting demand for oil storage at sea while distant eastern markets also bargain-hunt fuel and need shipping. Supertanker rates are already close to five-year highs of over $83,000 a day - helped by a drop in shipping fuel bunker prices. Overcapacity, which has dogged owners for years, is also receding. Herbjorn Hansson, chairman and chief executive of Nordic American Tankers, told shareholders recently that lower oil prices "may trigger stockpiling or have a more general positive impact".

Royal Dutch Shell has dropped one of Norway's biggest and most innovative industrial projects due to rising costs and complexity, dealing a blow to a technology that some hope could revolutionise offshore production. Shell said on Friday it would postpone a project to provide subsea compression at the North Sea's Ormen Lange, the second-biggest Norwegian gas field, despite the objections of a key license partner. The decision will not be re-evaluated for several years, until new technology and reservoir information become available, Shell said. Costs have soared in Norway's vast offshore oil sector over the past decade, and oil firms are cancelling or delaying major developments to save on costs and earn more cash for dividends.