Offshore Infrastructure News

As the U.S. offshore wind industry endures a predictable number of stops and starts during its adolescence, common mantras are ‘learn from the established European model’ and ‘embrace technology transfer from the offshore oil and gas sector.’ In Robert Langford, the American Bureau of Shipping has all of that and more bundled in one neat package.Rob Langford has worked in the offshore industry for more than three decades, ‘cutting his teeth’ in a UK design firm working in the North Sea oil and gas platforms, the holy grail of rigorous conditions in offshore energy production.

Damen Shipyards Group has officially launched a fully electric service operations vessel (SOV), 70 meters x 17 meters, with its offshore charging capabilities.To achieve offshore charging, Damen has partnered with UK-based MJR Power & Automation – a company that has previously developed an offshore charging system for a crew transfer vessel.The charging system uses the motion-compensated gangway to create a connection between the vessel and a turbine or substation offshore, in much the same way a personnel transfer is undertaken.

Energy Transfer LP has entered into a non-binding Heads of Agreement (HOA) with TotalEnergies related to term crude oil offtake from its proposed Blue Marlin Offshore Port for 4 million barrels per month. The HOA is subject to the negotiation and execution of definitive agreements and the satisfaction of other conditions, including Energy Transfer taking a final investment decision on the project, expected to be developed in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Cameron Parish, Louisiana…

As Europe turns to renewable sources to diversify energy supplies away from Russian oil and gas, a peaceful marine scene conceals a billion-dollar security headache.Rising above the Baltic Sea less than 10 km (6 miles) off the coast of Denmark, 161 wind turbines spin slowly. They supply around 4% of the country's power, sent to shore through two cable connections.The turbines have no barriers or surveillance."Our technicians are only here until five o'clock in the afternoon, then they go home…

Realizing the full value of digital solutions far exceeds the capability of technology. The technology exists today to help offshore energy and maritime operators radically improve efficiency and cut costs in equal measure. The real trick to driving efficiencies is to take advantage of the latest technologies while at the same time negotiating the necessary culture change within individual organizations, to really reap the benefits.Harvest Technology Group is a relatively young and small Australian company that has caught the attention of a number of offshore and subsea industry heavyweights…

The 2023 Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS) will be held Nov. 14-16, 2023, as an in-person event, hosted by Maritime College, State University of New York (SUNY) at the Maritime Academic Center. The theme of the 14th annual event is “Managing Impacts of Supply Chain Disruptors, Renewable Energy, Emerging Technology on the Maritime Transportation System (MTS)” with a focus on offshore infrastructure risk and disruptors. Founded in 1874, Maritime College is the oldest maritime college in the United States, providing mariner training for 150 years.

Inspections of Norway's offshore gas pipelines after the Nord Stream blasts found nothing suspicious, an executive at energy major Equinor told Reuters, in the first official word on the security sweep.However, risks remain after last year's still-unexplained explosions at the Nord Stream pipelines built to carry Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, warned Jannicke Nilsson, who manages security for Equinor.Europe's largest gas supplier after a drop in Russian flows last year, Equinor also acts as technical service provider for offshore pipelines operator Gassco.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said Friday that it would hold an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico in March 2023.The Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 259 will offer approximately 13,600 blocks on 73.3 million acres in the Western, Central, and Eastern Planning Areas on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. Lease Sale 259 was one of three offshore lease sales initially cancelled by the Biden Administration in May 2022. The subsequent Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) mandated that BOEM hold Lease Sale 259 no later than March 31…

Russia has in recent months tried to gain intelligence to sabotage critical infrastructure in the Dutch part of the North Sea, Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD said on Monday.A Russian ship has been detected at an offshore wind farm in the North Sea as it tried to map out energy infrastructure, MIVD head General Jan Swillens said at a news conference.The vessel was escorted out of the North Sea by Dutch marine and coast guard ships before any sabotage effort could become successful…

Edward Heerema, founder and president of the offshore installation services firm Allseas, has decided to step aside after nearly forty years at the helm. His eldest son Pieter will assume the role of president of the Allseas Group. According to Allseas, Edward Heerema will remain as chairman and concentrate on developing and integrating new technological developments. Edward Heerema launched Allseas in 1985 and has since built the company into a global offshore contractor.In a press statement announcing the change at the helm…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has revoked the pollution control permit of Bluewater Texas Terminal, according to a letter sent by the EPA to the offshore oil terminal, following objections from environmental groups.The terminal, jointly developed by refiner Phillips 66 and commodities trader Trafigura, had applied for a Clean Air Act permit in 2019 and received an EPA pollution control license in November 2020 that allowed it to emit almost 19,000 tons of pollutants…

Oil and gas company Noreco on Thursday announced the sailaway of the new Tyra II process module (the "TEG"), 10.15am local time, from Batam, Indonesia and bound for the TotalEnergies-operated Tyra gas field redevelopment project in the Danish North Sea.The process module was fabricated at the McDermott yard in Batam by McDermott and TotalEnergies, and the heavy transport vessel GPO Emerald will sail the 17,000 metric tons unit to the Tyra field in the Danish North Sea, a voyage of 8,700 miles taking approximately one month.

North Star’s new UK-built hybrid-powered daughter craft, specifically designed for the offshore wind market, has been launched at a naming ceremony held at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht club in Lowestoft, adjacent to the firm’s regional operations hub. The vessel was christened ‘Grace Darling’ in honor of a famous lighthouse keeper’s daughter from the North East of England who risked her life in 1838 to save the stranded survivors of a wrecked merchant ship traveling from Hull to Dundee.

Over the last year we have seen an upswing in floating production and storage systems ordering after many years of low activity. According to our colleagues at World Energy Reports, “The global oil and natural gas markets are contending with rebounding energy demand on top of supply disruptions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As a result, activity and business sentiment in the floating production sector has seldom been stronger.”  This increased activity in the floating production…

As offshore market activity recovers and continues to increase through the next decade, as we expect it to, oilfield service (OFS) capacity is expected to tighten.As offshore market activity recovers and continues to increase through the next decade, as NorthStone Advisors expect it to, oilfield service (OFS) capacity is expected to tighten. In NorthStone Advisors’ view, this will create a period of increased scarcity and cost inflation, presenting significant cost and schedule risk to decommissioning programs.Many eyes are on the UK…

Partners Group, a global private markets firm, has agreed, on behalf of its clients, to buy North Star, a UK-based operator of emergency response and rescue vessels, which has recently also dived into the offshore wind sector with several orders made for essential offshore wind maintenance services vessels, from Basalt Infrastructure Partners for an undisclosed price.Aberdeen-based North Star has a fleet of 48 Emergency Response and Rescue Vessels (ERRVs) and Service Operation Vessels (SOVs) and around 1,400 employees.

The World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC) and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to formalize their long-standing working relationship.Francisco Esteban Lefler, PIANC President and Karen Davis, OCIMF Managing Director, signed the memorandum of understanding in January 2022. Its key aim is to enhance the impact of both organizations in the area of waterborne transport infrastructure, to cooperate, communicate and collaborate in the area of the ship-shore interface while recognizing and respecting their individual identities, membership expectations and traditions.

UK-based offshore vessel owner North Star Group has won another service operations vessel (SOV) contract at the Dogger Bank wind farm, this time for the third phase.North Star Group said Thursday it had secured a long-term charter worth about £90 million ($118,7 million) to deliver an additional ship for Dogger Bank C to support offshore wind technicians working in the field.The contract comes a week after SSE Renewables, with partner Equinor, reached financial close on Dogger Bank C, the third phase of what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, located in the UK North Sea.

Hurricane Nicholas on Tuesday took another swipe at U.S. Gulf Coast energy facilities, cutting offshore oil and gas output gradually recovering from the last storm and disrupting power to onshore pipeline, gas and chemical plants.Royal Dutch Shell halted production its Perdido offshore oil platform due to heavy winds, and U.S. liquefied natural gas producer Freeport LNG said processing at its Texas coast facility was halted, likely due to a power outage.Power losses briefly cut Colonial Pipeline's main gasoline and diesel lines out of Houston…

Energy firms on Sunday had suspended 1.74 million barrels per day of oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), as Hurricane Ida slammed into the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 storm.Ida made landfall on Sunday near Port Fourchon, the land base for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the largest privately-owned crude terminal in the United States.Oil companies raced to evacuate employees from offshore infrastructure in the days ahead of the storm, prompting shutdowns at their facilities in the Gulf.Almost 94% of U.S.

Heerema Marine Contractors' deepwater construction vessel Balder has recently completed the offshore removal of the Morpeth Tension-leg Platform (TLP) in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for client Eni.The Morpeth Tension-leg Platform had reached a 20-year design life and ceased all production in August 2018.Heerema Marine Contractors' Balder mobilized to the Morpeth Field in mid-April 2021 to begin executing the TLP removal. The campaign involved the engineering, preparation, removal, and disposal of the offshore infrastructure.

For the next three months, three wind farm survey vessels will be busy in the Southern North Sea at the North Falls offshore wind farm site in the UK.North Falls, a proposed extension to the existing Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm, is located approximately 20 kilometres from the East Anglia coast on a site covering a total of 150 km2. North Falls is jointly owned by SSE Renewables and RWE Renewables.The surveys, being conducted by the Dutch marine survey contractor Fugro, will be integral to the project’s environmental impact assessment…

Abu Dhabi Ports’ maritime arm SAFEEN has signed an agreement with offshore vessel owner Allianz Marine & Logistics Services (AMLS), to launch a new international provider of integrated maritime logistic services."Operating under the title of Offshore Support and Logistics Services Company (OFCO – Offshore International), headquartered in Abu Dhabi, the new joint venture will be one of the largest, most capable, and cost-efficient providers of onshore and offshore integrated logistics solutions and subsea services in the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Counci] Gulf Cooperation Council region and beyond," Abu Dhabi Ports said in a statement.According to the statement released Thursday…