Offshore Natural Gas News

The economic output of Australia’s marine industry continued to grow despite the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on some sectors, a new report released by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) shows. The AIMS Index of Marine Industry 2023 is the latest assessment of the contribution of Australia’s marine sector to the national economy, using data from the 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years. It reveals that Australia’s marine industry had a total output of A$118.5 billion (US$774 million) and supported 462…

The heads of NATO and the European Commission flew on Friday to a North Sea platform bigger than the Eiffel Tower in a visit underlining Norway's importance for gas supplies since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.The Troll A platform extracts gas from Norway's biggest gas field. After a drop in Russian flows, the Nordic country last year became the largest gas supplier to the EU.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will discuss the protection of infrastructure and gas supplies to Europe with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere…

The U.S. government is not planning a systematic easing of sanctions on Venezuela after an initial round allowed partners of state-run oil firm PDVSA to resume taking oil for past debts, a State Department official said.In November, Washington issued a six-month license allowing Chevron Corp. to expand operations and export Venezuelan oil to the United States. Eni and Repsol also began taking Venezuelan crude for debt with U.S. approvals, This year, Trinidad and Tobago received a U.S. nod to jointly development an offshore natural gas field with Venezuela. Those moves by U.S.

Qatar's state-run energy firm QatarEnergy, until recently known as Qatar Petroleum, has ordered six LNG tankers, four from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and two from Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in support of its North Field expansion project.Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, said: “We are pleased to take this further step with DSME and SHI, which have built 23 Q-Flex and 14 Q-Max LNG vessels for Qatar as part of our previous LNG expansion project.”Al-Kaabi further said: These orders…

Qatar Petroleum has ordered four new LNG carriers from Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group, a subsidiary of China's CSSC, as part of its North Field expansion project."These four carriers are the first batch of orders in Qatar Petroleum’s massive LNG shipbuilding program, which will cater for future LNG fleet requirements for the North Field expansion projects as well as for existing vessel replacement requirements. This order is also the first ever placed by Qatar Petroleum or any of its affiliates with a Chinese shipyard for LNG ships…

U.S. oil companies on Monday began restoring some of the more than nearly 74% production shut at U.S. Gulf of Mexico platforms ahead of Hurricane Barry, the U.S. offshore drilling regulator said.There was 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production off line in the U.S.-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, about 80,000 barrels less than on Sunday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).Workers also were returning to the more than 280 production platforms that had been evacuated.

Egypt’s petroleum ministry has signed an agreement for UK Petroleum giant British Petroleum (BP) and UAE investment fund Mubadala to buy a 45 percent stake in the country's Noor offshore natural gas concesion in the Mediterannean from Italy’s Eni.In the concession, which is in participation with Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), Eni as operator through its subsidiary, IEOC, now holds a 40 percent interest. The other partners in the concession are BP with 25 percent interest and Tharwa Petroleum Company with 15 percent interest.The transactions were approved during a ceremony in Sharm El Sheik by the Egyptian Government represented by the Egyptian Petroleum Minister, Eng. Tarek El Molla.

Georgia Petroleum Council noted released results from a new study highlighting how Georgia’s economy could benefit from over $200 million in tax revenues as a result of offshore leasing in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).“Cutting-edge technology can safely and accurately discover what resources lay off Georgia’s coast and make possible the potential for millions of dollars in state and local tax revenues from offshore activity detailed in this new study,” said Georgia Petroleum Council Executive Director Hunter Hopkins.“This could be a turning point for Georgia. Our communities could gain high-paying year-round jobs while additional revenues help advance and update our public school systems and infrastructure.

Chevron will exit the Makassar Strait gas block in the Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) offshore natural gas project to focus on more promising areas in the venture, Indonesian officials said on Wednesday.Indonesia's energy minister had issued a decree terminating Chevron's Makassar Strait production sharing contract (PSC) after it decided not to extend its operation of the block beyond 2020, upstream oil and gas regulator SKKMigas said."Chevron was not interested in requesting an extension," SKKMigas chairman Amien Sunaryadi told reporters.

Crowley Maritime Corp. has announced that Tim Bush has been promoted to vice president and deputy general counsel. In his new position, Bush will help support the company’s growth as a provider of solutions for the U.S. government and various public-sector agencies. He will be based in Houston and report to Michael Roberts, senior vice president and general counsel. “Tim is an outstanding lawyer, and adds a great deal of value to the Crowley team,” Roberts said. Bush will continue to serve as Crowley’s lead attorney on several large projects for the U.S government, including the Defense Freight Transportation Services (DFTS) contract for the U.S.

Australia's Wheatstone liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, after starting production earlier this month, has shipped its first export cargo to a buyer in Japan, majority owner and operator Chevron Corp said on Tuesday. Wheatstone is the sixth out of eight projects in a $200 billion Australian LNG construction boom that is now in its final stretch. The two remaining project due to for start-up are Royal Dutch Shell's Prelude floating LNG project and Ichthys, led by Japan's Inpex.

The emergence of the floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) concept has seen an unprecedented focus on development activity and has reinforced the commercial interest in these facilities. However, as the industry strives to make the concept a reality, in addition to the already formidable risks present in conventional projects, a plethora of distinctive risks associated with FLNG have now been added to the mix, with little industry experience to learn from. Simply adapting risk and safety concepts of land-based LNG developments is not the solution…

The United States supports moving forward with offshore natural gas deals in the Mediterranean involving the U.S. company Noble Energy, a State Department spokesman said on Tuesday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has also discussed the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said. "We continue to engage and we support all parties to move forward with the natural gas deal signed between Noble Energy and entities in Jordan and Egypt," Rathke told reporters. Last week, Israel's competition regulator recommended breaking up control of the country's offshore gas reserves by Noble Energy and Delek Group, who together hold 85 percent of the giant Leviathan natural gas field.

Egypt, facing its worst power crisis in decades, on Saturday pledged greater energy cooperation with Greece and Cyprus, a diplomatic move that opened up the possibility of progress in talks to import natural gas from Cyprus. The meeting in Cairo between Anastasiades, Egyptian President Abdelfattah al-Sisi and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras demonstrated deepening ties between the three states, who are challenging Turkey's efforts to chart gas deposits in areas of the east Mediterrean claimed by Cyprus. The emerging alliance fits Egypt's interests well. Its relations with Turkey quickly soured last year after Sisi toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement supported by Turkey's government. Egypt badly needs natural gas imports.

Since 2010, there has been a steadily increasing trend of piracy attacks in Southeast Asia, according to a report released by UNITAR (UN Institute for Training and Research), with 150 separate incidents just from last year alone. After significant strides in reducing the number of hijackings near war-torn Somalia over the past few years, the United Nations declared last month that the epicenter of piracy activity is now in waters off Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The MT Oriental Glory, a Malaysian tanker carrying oil gas cargo, was hijacked two weeks ago in the South China Sea, an apparent and alarming verification that this report is already coming to fruition.

Greece will invite major oil companies next month to conduct offshore test drillings, the government said on Wednesday, launching the debt-laden country's most ambitious attempt so far to develop its untapped hydrocarbon potential. Athens has made several fruitless attempts over the past decades to find big reserves of oil or natural gas. Exploration interest revived during its debt crisis, with the cash-strapped country keen to reduce its big fuel import bill. Several blocks covering a combined area of more than 200,000 square kilometres in the Ionian Sea and south of the island of Crete are expected to go under the hammer. Greece has been encouraged in its quest by big offshore natural gas finds in Israel and Cyprus, nearby in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Lloyd’s Register published a rule set to guide the design, construction and operation of floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facilities – the biggest, most complex floating structures ever seen – meaning natural gas will now be safer, cheaper and have a lower environmental footprint, the company said. Launched today, Lloyd’s Register’s Offshore Rules for FLNG vessels and facilities are based on a real-world projects and extensive work with key industry alliances. The Offshore Rules for FLNG reinforce Lloyd’s Register’s position at the forefront of new maritime and energy technology, building upon the work the company has performed with numerous LNG firsts, such as classing the first LNG fuelled tanker, Argonon.

ABB wins Statoil order to install high voltage power subsea cables  to the 'Troll' A gas platform on the western coast of Norway. The Troll A concrete deep water structure is the world’s largest natural gas production platform, 473 meters tall and weighs 1.2 million tons; it is the tallest structure ever to be moved by mankind. The platform can produce as much as 120 million cubic meters per day; it contains approximately 40 percent of the natural gas reserves on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and is a cornerstone of the gas supply to the European Continent.

More than $335 billion worth of expenditure is expected over the next five years on offshore oil & gas operations & maintenance (O&M), according to a new report, The World Offshore Operations & Maintenance Market Forecast 2012-2016, by Douglas-Westwood (DW). Growth of 8% in expenditure is forecast annually 2012-2016, with O&M markets considerably less vulnerable to downturn than their capital-led counterparts. The underlying driver for all activity, both onshore and offshore, is the growth in global energy demand which…

Technip, in a consortium with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (TDC) has been awarded by Petronas Floating LNG 1 (Labuan) Ltd, a services contract for engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning for a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility of 1.2 million ton per year maximun capacity. The 300 meter-long and 60 meter-wide FLNG facility will be located offshore Malaysia. The contract is an Alliance between TDC, led by Technip, and Petronas. Technip’s portion is composed of project management services and lump sum for engineering. The detailed design of the topsides(1) will be executed by Technip’s operating centers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Paris, France.

According to a report on www.marketwatch.com, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. exceeded its annual order target of $11 billion by 9%, helped by two separate contracts totaling $1.95 billion. The contracts take orders to $12 billion as of Monday.  Daewoo will build a $550-million drill ship for an unnamed North American company by the first half of 2014 and a $1.4-billion offshore natural-gas-processing platform for Chevron Corp. by the second half, the report said, citing a company source.

The growing importance of deepwater exploration and production developments offshore China led classification societies ABS and CCS (China Classification Society) to conduct a joint “Deepsea Developments in the China Offshore Industry” meeting on June 17. The meeting, which was held in Beijing, brought together leading offshore industry professionals to discuss a wide range of energy development issues. More than 100 representatives from the Chinese government, shipbuilders, designers, research institutes, energy corporations and universities attended. Topics included a discussion of the global energy market outlook from research firm Infield Systems…

Shell Development (Australia) Pty Ltd (Shell) has given notice to a Technip Samsung Consortium (TSC) to proceed with the construction of the first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility in the world. TSC will provide engineering, procurement, construction and installation for the FLNG facility Shell will deploy at its Prelude gas field off the northwest coast of Australia. Moored far out at sea, some 200 kilometres from the nearest land, the Prelude FLNG facility will produce gas from offshore fields and liquefy it onboard by cooling.