Oil Making News

A methanol dual fuel 300,000 DWT crude oil carrier (VLCC) has received Approval In Principle (AIP) from classification society Korean Register (KR).The methanol dual-fuel VLCC, which was developed under a joint project between KR and shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), is powered by methanol and marine gas oil (MGO). HHI has developed the vessel so that the methanol fuel tank can be placed in either the open deck or the cargo area and KR has verified the safety and suitability of the vessel’s design…

Hydrex mobilized diver/technician teams to vessels in the Netherlands and Australia to carry out stern tube seal replacements. In Flushing the repair was carried out on a 200-meter car carrier, and in Port Burnie, Tasmania, on a 188-meter RoRo vessel.Both ships were leaking oil, making an on-site repair necessary. Using a Hydrex flexible mobdock they were able to carry out these operations on-site and underwater, saving a trip to drydock.Despite the remote location of the RoRo vessel…

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) issued a global tender to charter scrubber-fitted oil tankers for at least five years to import Iraqi oil, a tender document seen by Reuters showed.The tender says Indian shippers will be given first right of refusal for the contract as the nation seeks to boost its shipping industry. It is seeking bids from vessels that are less than 10-years old.A scrubber is a product that strips out sulphur emissions and, in doing so, can allow shippers to use dirtier fuel oil but still meet new global requirements for lower emissions.IOC and the country's second biggest state-owned refiner, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL), last year also issued similar tenders seeking vessels for five years.The two refiners…

Half a billion tones of oil delivered by Kazakhstani Shippers to the Tengiz-Novorossiysk crude pipeline since the commencement of operation of CPC pipeline system was lifted from the Marine Terminal of Caspian Pipeline Consortium on November 17, 2018.The “milestone” ton was loaded on the ALEKSEY KOSYGIN tanker, said a press release from the CPC pipeline system, which mainly collects crude oil from large oil fields of West Kazakhstan, as well as crude oil from Russian producers.The first tanker was loaded at CPC Marine Terminal near Novorossiysk (near Yuzhnaya Ozereevka. Settlement, Krasnodar Krai) on October 13, 2001. In February 2018, the 5000th tanker was demoored from the Single point mooring.About 45 tankers are currently beeing loaded at CPC Marine Terminal monthly.

New rules coming into force from 2020 to curb pollution produced by the world's ships are worrying everyone from OPEC oil producers to bunker fuel sellers and shipping companies.The regulations will slash emissions of sulfur, which is blamed for causing respiratory diseases and is a component of acid rain that damages vegetation and wildlife.But the energy and shipping industries are ill-prepared, say analysts, with refiners likely to struggle to meet higher demand for cleaner…

The seemingly relentless slide in the oil price has savaged global financial markets and raised the spectre of widespread recession, but the derivatives market is showing traders are not necessarily buying into the "lower for longer" scenario. Volatility, a gauge of options prices, has rocketed to its highest since the depths of the financial crisis in late 2008 as traders have scrambled to snap up protection against an even more aggressive sell-off. This week has seen a flurry of buying of derivatives that give their holder the right to sell at $30 a barrel as far out as December, suggesting that traders and investors are growing increasingly gloomy about the prospects of price recovery.

China and Brazil sealed their expanding commercial partnership on Thursday with a $5 billion credit line for Brazilian miner Vale and the purchase of 60 passenger jets from Brazilian planemaker Embraer. In a raft of energy, finance and industry accords signed before presidents Xi Jinping and Dilma Rousseff, the two nations agreed to join forces to build railways to help Brazil cut its infrastructure deficit and feed China's appetite for commodities. Trade between China and Brazil soared to $83.3 billion last year from $3.2 billion in 2002, with iron ore, soy and oil making up the bulk of Brazilian exports, making China the South American nation's biggest trade partner.

Brazil hopes that during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping it can boost ties with its biggest trade partner beyond the exchange of commodities for manufactured goods, but that may be wishful thinking. Accords China will sign with Brazil when Xi meets with President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday focus on improving infrastructure to make sure raw materials China is hungry for make it to port, with railways a top priority. Brazilian officials are portraying Xi's state visit as a milestone in deepening a strategic partnership that will lead to Chinese investments in Brazil's manufacturing industry. Trade between China and Brazil soared to $83.3 billion last year from $3.2 billion in 2002, with iron ore, soy and oil making up the bulk of Brazilian exports.

Crude oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic rose on Friday as data showed strong jobs growth in the United States and investors cast doubt on reports Libya's oil ports were about to reopen. The March U.S. non-farm payrolls report showed 192,000 jobs were added in March in major test of the argument that the economic weakness of January and February was due to bad weather. Expectations had been building that an eight-month blockage of Libya's oil export ports would end after rebels and the government said they were close to an agreement. The Libyan government said it had seen evidence of "good intentions" at indirect talks with eastern rebels that could lead to renewed exports.

BP Amoco Plc said it should be able to provide an update on its giant Crazy Horse deepwater oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico when two appraisal wells are completed during the next couple of months. "I would say the preliminary results are very encouraging and hopefully we will have some news in the near future," BP Amoco's Houston region Vice President David Welch told reporters after addressing the American Petroleum Institute's Houston chapter. The London-based company announced the Crazy Horse discovery last year, estimating that it contained reserves of at least one billion barrels of oil, making it the biggest ever deepwater discovery in the Gulf of Mexico.

SMIT Salvage achieved the pollution-free refloating of the product tanker Nino today. This vessel grounded on South Africa’s Wild Coast, around 60 miles north east of East London, on July 18, while carrying a part cargo of 7,700 tonnes of gasoil and gasoline. The vessel went aground at a very remote location. SMIT obtained a LOF/SCOPIC salvage contract and immediately mounted a major casualty and pollution prevention operation. Vessels mobilised in the first few hours included the Wolraad Woltemade – one of the world’s largest salvage tugs, the anchorhandling tug Pentow Service, the environmental patrol vessel S.A. Kuswag 1 and an inshore survey vessel (required to survey the shallow waters around the grounded Nino).