Power Utilities News

Japan, the world's top liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer, is facing its latest challenge in securing vital gas supplies from Russia after Western reinsurers said they would halt marine war insurance for ships travelling in Russian waters from Jan. 1.Having joined other G7 countries in imposing sweeping sanctions on Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine, Japan has been reducing its reliance on Russian oil and coal, but it continues to buy Russian LNG amid elevated prices in a tight…

DBX, a new dry bulk commodity analytics firm based in London, officially launched earlier this year having successfully completed Signal Venture’s incubation program, and it has now initiated a round of seed funding.The venture started in the summer of 2020 with all around support from Signal Ocean. This support included financial, data, technology and recruitment, OilX, an oil commodity analytics firm previously launched by Signal, also provided high level technical support.DBX…

The production vessel at Tullow's flagship Jubilee oilfield off Ghana's west coast will shut down next week for 21 days while it undergoes repairs, the country's power utilities said on Monday. The planned shutdown next Monday of the Kwame Nkrumah production vessel, which currently produces both oil and gas, will result in a cut to offshore gas supply, the companies said in a statement. They said any loss of power generation would be offset by generating additional power from the eastern port of Tema area. Tullow did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Port handles 60 mln tonnes/year of foreign and domestic seaborne coal. Guangzhou port, the largest coal transport hub in southern China, has halted foreign coal imports, according to traders who use the port and said they had been informed of the shutdown by customs authorities and senior company officials. Traders said the move caught merchants using Guangzhou by surprise and interpreted it as a sign of Beijing stepping up its campaign to cut pollution caused by the burning of coal. China already banned coal imports at small ports in July but Guangzhou has 14 coal berths and can handle 60 million tonnes of shipments per year. Chinese coal imports in the first seven months of 2017 totalled 110 million tonnes, an average of over 15.7 million tonnes a month.

Inventor. Builder. Entrepreneur. Optimist. Take your pick, and you have described Edmund O. Schweitzer, III, founder of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. (SEL) in 1982. Starting in his basement with an idea and a plan, he has seen his start-up blossom into a global electric powerhouse that is making significant inroads in the maritime and offshore markets. To its core Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. (SEL) is an engineering firm that seeks to not only develop and deliver engineered solutions per its client’s need…

U.S. coal-burning power utilities are being forced to turn to barges and more expensive trucks to move coal, desperate to shore up stockpiles left dangerously low by the widespread bottlenecks on rail networks. The shift in how coal is being delivered to some power plants from mining regions such as Illinois Basin and comes amid persistent railroad delays that began during last year's severe North American winter. The delays have been perpetuated also by a surge in rail deliveries of crude oil and grain…

Natural gas pipelines and power utilities across the United States struggled for several weeks to keep lights on and homes warm through the coldest winter in decades, but it may take many months for the cost and the fallout of the so-called "polar vortex" to work through the energy chain. As sub-freezing temperatures spread in January and February, spot natural gas prices spiked at many gas delivery points in the Midwest, Northeast and New York, pushing wholesale power prices above $100 per megawatt-hour for days at a time. Customers will soon receive gas and electric bills, reflecting the higher cost of gas in January. In unregulated power markets, January bills will present a "double whammy," said Nick Akins, chief executive of American Electric Power Co, one of the largest U.S.

As Cargo, Fuel or both; LNG is emerging as the clear and clean way forward for the maritime industry. The use of LNG as a marine fuel is not new. Vessels trading cryogenic LNG have burned boil-off natural gas in steam boilers for many years as a simple solution to maintaining necessary temperatures and pressures within cargo spaces. The use of the fuel varied according to the size of the ship and a boil off rate ranging between 0.10 to 0.18 percent of the total cargo. As a result of the variable quantities…

As Cargo, Fuel or both; LNG is emerging as the clear and clean way forward for the maritime industry. The use of LNG as a marine fuel is not new. Vessels trading cryogenic LNG have burned boil-off natural gas in steam boilers for many years as a simple solution to maintaining necessary temperatures and pressures within cargo spaces. The use of the fuel varied according to the size of the ship and a boil off rate ranging between 0.10 to 0.18 percent of the total cargo. As a result of the variable quantities…

Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O) expects its Associated Bulk Carriers unit to carry a price tag of around $190 million when it floats on the Oslo Stock Exchange in July. Shares in ABC, one of the world's largest independently owned operators of Capesize bulk carriers, will be priced at between 40 and 65 Norwegian crowns, according to the prospectus for the issue. Peter Smith, P&O director of corporate affairs, said ABC's relatively young fleet means it could use its newfound currency of shares to seek out potential acquisitions in a shipping industry ripe for consolidation. "There isn't a need for them to invest heavily, so they have the strength now to go out and make the most of their market-leading position," he said.

SpecTec Group has signed an agreement with diesel engine company Wärtsilä whereby Wärtsilä will become a value-added distributor of SpecTec's AMOS software product range. The agreement marks the beginning of a partnership with the two companies co-operating to enable the delivery of fully integrated CMMS (Computerised Maintenance Management Systems), which includes e-business and electronic documentation. In the agreement just signed, SpecTec grants Wärtsilä the right to license, sub-license and market AMOS Express (Maintenance and Spare Part System), AMOS M&P (Maintenance, Purchase and Spare Part System) and AMOS Mail (Communications System) to its clients globally.

Reports indicate that the Dubai-based ETA-Ascon, a diversified group, plans to buy 76 new ships to expand the size of its fleet to 100 in five years, a report said. The total investment involved in this order will amount to $2.72 billion. The company is negotiating with a number of ship builders for signing major orders. These include orders for four tankers with Japan's Universal Shipbuilding Corporation, he said. The new orderbook will range vessels from Panamax to very large crude carriers (VLCCs) that will require investment in billions of dollars, the report said. Reportedly, the plan will make it the largest fleet owner in the Middle East.

In 2000, freight rates turned out at a significantly higher level than during the previous year. On an average basis, tripcharter rates for Capesizes (150,000 dwt) more than doubled to $17,600/day, while rates for modern Panamaxes increased from $7,500 to $11,100/day. For Handymaxes, tripcharter rates went up from $6,900 to $9,200/day. The freight market showed a steady rise through the first three quarters of the year, but softened somewhat during its final three months. The main cause of the firmer freight market was the strong upturn in world economic growth, and particularly in the U.S. The strong U.S. economy combined with imports of finished goods created strong support for industrial production in and exports from the rest of the world.