Petter Skonnord News

Chemical tanker firm Odfjell said it will not invest in scrubbers to clean fuel on its vessels to comply with new stricter emission rules from 2020 but instead buy fuel which meets the new standards.To combat air pollution, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations' shipping agency, has set global regulations to cap the sulphur content in marine fuel, known as bunkers, at 0.5 percent, down from 3.5 percent now.Shipowners can either install scrubbers, which clean the cheaper high sulphur fuel oil, or buy costlier marine gasoil."Our conclusion for the moment is that it do

Maersk Drilling and Aker BP have signed a one-year contract to deploy the Maersk Integrator jack-up rig off Norway from June 2019, Aker BP said in a statement on Thursday.The contract, based on an alliance created between the two firms and Halliburton in 2017, is based on market-rate terms and holds the possibility of a sizeable upside for all parties, based on actual delivery and performance, it said.Maersk Integrator will finish its current campaign on the Gina Krog field off Norway in June 2019, and then go directly to the Ula field in the North Sea for a new one-year assignment with Aker B

Shares of seismic services company PGS, which surveys the seabed for oil and gas deposits, dropped on Thursday on lower-than expected second-quarter results but its CEO said the market outlook was improving.PGS's April-June core operating earnings (EBITDA) rose to $136.0 million, below the $144 million expected by analysts in a Reuters poll, but up from $112.5 million in same quarter last year.Its shares traded three percent down by 0911 GMT, after dropping eight percent in early trade."We see a clear sign of improvement, it's a lot more tender activity, and we have realised higher contract pr

Norway filed a challenge to the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium with the World Trade Organization on Tuesday."In Norway's view, the additional tariffs imposed by the U.S. on steel and aluminium imports are a violation of the WTO rules. Today we have therefore requested dispute settlement consultations with the US in the WTO," Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Soereide said in a statement.Reporting by Ole Petter Skonnord

Increased scrapping of older oil tankers and the potential for higher output of OPEC crude are likely to boost vessel demand and thus rates, Oslo-listed shipper Frontline said on Thursday.The company reported a first-quarter operating profit of $2.8 million, while analysts in a Reuters poll on average had expected a loss of $13.3 million.Tanker rates are still low, however, and 78 percent of Frontline's very large crude carriers (VLCCs) are covered at a daily $11,600 for the second quarter compared with $14,900 in the first quarter and a cash break-even level of $22,700 for 2018."There are encouraging signs that seaborne crude volumes may soon increase as a result of changes by OPEC and a slowing trend of inventory draws…

The world's largest liquid petroleum gas (LPG) shipper, Norway's BW LPG, is offering to buy competitor Dorian LPG in a $1.1 billion all-stock deal in an effort to boost its earnings in a weak market, it said in a statement on Tuesday.Dorian shareholders will receive 2.05 BW LPG shares for each Dorian share, equal to $7.86 per share, a premium of 13 percent from Friday's closing price, and based on BW LPG's share price on May 28.New York-listed Dorian LPG's equity is valued at about $441 million and including debt the transaction is valued at $1.1 billion.The deal is backed by shipping conglome

Oil firm Eni said output from Norway's Goliat field has resumed after being shut since Friday morning following a small fire. The platform has a capacity to produce almost 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. "Production resumed Sunday morning," a Eni spokeswoman told Reuters. (Reporting by Ole Petter Skonnord Editing by Edmund Blair)

The world's northernmost oilfield was shut on Friday when a fire broke out in a sauna in the oil platform's living quarters, Eni, the Italian oil company that operates the field, said. The Arctic Goliat field is in the Barents Sea about 88 kilometers off the coast of Norway and inside the Arctic Circle. The platform has floating production, storage and offloading facilities and can produce close to 100,000 barrels of crude per day. The fire was quickly put out, and no crew members were injured, although some smoke did develop, Eni said. "All safety procedures worked appropriately: the production was shut down and the crew mustered to the lifeboats," the company said in a statement. Eni said the rig has a crew of about 120 people.

Oil companies should be prepared to pay higher rates for renting offshore service vessels, in order to secure the long-term survival of a key part of the industry's supply chain, the Norwegian Shipowners' Association said on Thursday. Energy firms sharply curtailed investments in the wake of the 2014 oil price crash, idling many service vessels and driving down market rates to unsustainable levels, Chief Executive Harald Solberg of the Norwegian lobby group said. At the peak last year…

Global shipping should set a goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, Norway's government and shipowners' association said on Thursday before talks by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London next week. Norway's fleet is worth about $45 billion, the fifth most valuable in the world behind Japan, Greece, China and the United States. Norway's shipping includes offshore, gas, chemicals, car vessels, dry bulk, crude, crude products and containers. The IMO, which says international shipping represents about 2.2 percent of world carbon dioxide emissions, will meet from April 9-13 to develop a strategy to combat climate change. Shipping was not included in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Shipping tycoon John Fredriksen has reached an agreement with a majority of creditors over a restructuring plan for oil rig firm Seadrill, according to U.S. court documents on Monday. The company, once the world's largest offshore driller by market value, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with debt and liabilities of over $10 billion last September after a sharp drop in oil prices in 2014 cut demand for rigs. "It's good for all parties that Seadrill comes out of an expensive and time-consuming process," said Frederik Lunde, head of research at brokerage Carnegie.

EU antitrust regulators are set to fine Nippon Yusen KK (NYK) and several other Japanese shippers as well as Norwegian Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics ASA (WWL) in the coming weeks for rigging bids for shipping cars, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The EU sanctions follow a near six-year investigation which started with dawn raids by the European Commission in September 2012 in coordination with Japanese and U.S. antitrust authorities. Competition regulators around…

Natural gas shipper BW LPG expects a better freight market in 2018 than in 2017 and will not make any new long term contracts below $20,000 per day for its very large gas carriers (VLGC), CEO Martin Ackerman said on Thursday.

Shipping and seafood billionaire John Fredriksen consolidated his position as the top shareholder in debt collector Axactor by buying more stock in the firm on Thursday, lifting the firm's share price. Through his family firm Geveran Trading, Fredriksen acquired 22.9 million shares in Axactor at a price of 2.65 crowns per share. Following the deal, Geveran will own 11.47 percent of the stock and remain the company's top shareholder, up from 9.96 percent. Fredriksen's business empire range from transporting oil with Frontline, dry bulk with Golden Ocean to salmon farming with Marine Harvest, among other interests. Shares in Axactor jumped on the news as much as much as six percent before retreating somewhat and closed up 2.6 percent at 2.75 crowns on the Oslo bourse.

BW Offshore CEO Carl Arnet in FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) firm BW Offshore Ltd says the Catcher field project in the British North Sea will add about $200 mln in annual EBITDA to its results when it comes on stream in December 2017. ** BW is also developing Dussafu field in Gabon.

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.

Norwegian shipping firm Hoegh Autoliners denied on Tuesday allegations made by South Africa that it and Japanese rival Mitsui O.S.K Lines had colluded to fix transport tariffs to and from South Africa. Hoegh Autoliners specializes in transporting cars, controlling 50 specialized vessels or 6-7 percent of the global fleet in this market. South Africa's Competition Commission said on Tuesday Hoegh Autoliners had been referred for prosecution on seven charges relating to collusive tendering, price fixing and market division.

Chemical tanker firm Stolt-Nielsen aims to cut debt, CEO Niels G. Stolt-Nielsen said on Thursday.

CEO: Frontline will continue to expand its fleet; won't pursue M&A now, though consolidation may come later. Oslo-listed oil tanker firm Frontline has abandoned its pursuit of New York-listed rival DHT Holdings and is not working on any alternative acquisitions, Frontline's CEO told Reuters on Monday. DHT last month rejected a fifth takeover proposal from billionaire shipping tycoon John Fredriksen's Frontline, calling the $500 million all-share bid "woefully inadequate". Frontline has now admitted defeat and switched course away from takeovers for the time being. "We will not spend time pursuing the DHT track," Frontline Chief Executive Robert Hvide Macleod said in a written comment to Reuters.

Shipping firm Avance Gas Holding , which transports liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), expects freight rates for its vessels to remain weak in 2017 despite an improvement in the last two weeks, the Oslo-listed firm said. A sharp influx of newly built very large gas carriers (VLGCs) pushed global spot vessel rates from above $100,000 per day two years ago to around $10,000 recently, although rates have since risen to about $11,000. "There is more export of LPG from the United States…

The High Court of the Marshall Islands has dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit brought by tanker firm Frontline to stop rival DHT selling a major stake to shipper BW Group, DHT said on Monday. Frontline, which according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data holds a 10.3 percent stake in DHT and is controlled by shipping tycoon John Fredriksen, has been trying for the past year to take over its New York-listed rival. However, DHT struck a tankers-for-shares deal with BW Group in March, making the latter DHT's biggest shareholder with a stake of over 30 percent.

Tanker firm Frontline, controlled by billionaire investor John Fredriksen, expects a growing number of supertankers to be used for storing crude in anticipation of higher oil prices, its chief executive told Reuters on Friday. While none of Frontline's own vessels are currently used for this purpose, independent shipbrokers estimate that around 10 of the world's very large crude carriers (VLCCs) have recently been contracted for oil storage. "It sounds correct, and the number is rising," Frontline Chief Executive Officer Robert Macleod said. "It's always an option," he added. Frontline has 20 VLCCs, each of wich can carry around 2 million barrels of oil.

BW Offshore, which delivers floating production services to the oil and gas industry, sees signs of an improved market. "It's still early days but we definitely see a pick-up in discussions and tendering activity," CEO Carl Arnet said during the firm's first-quarter earnings presentation. Says Brazil will be important but also sees activity elsewhere. BW Offshore reported Q1 earnings below forecast on Monday. Regarding the FPSO Cidade de Sao Mateus, which has been off work since an explosion in February 2015: Insurance settlement gave a positive liquidity effect in Q1.