Energy Finance News

Floating platform developer Gazelle Wind Power has appointed clean energy finance industry expert Álvaro Ortega as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).Ortega is the former Vice President of Finance at Avangrid Inc., a publicly traded company on the NY Stock Exchange and the U.S. subsidiary of global energy leader Iberdrola.“Finding someone with a track record like Álvaro’s is rare. Due to his financial expertise and passion for renewable energy, his joining the team is a home run for Gazelle as we enter an exciting phase in our company’s development,” said Gazelle CEO and Founder Jon Salazar.

Renewable energy investors and developers are increasingly turning to digital technology to build effective investment strategies, with almost half (47%) of the finance industry saying they have digitalization as a core part of their publicly stated strategy.New industry-wide report from DNV GL highlights benefits and challenges of digital technologies for renewable energy financing as market moves away from subsidies.DNV GL surveyed nearly 2000 senior stakeholders from across the energy industry. A lack of digital mindset is seen as a bigger barrier in the finance industry compared to other sectors.The survey revealed that that with renewables projects increasingly exposed to the full volatility of the market by the phasing out of subsidies…

Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen-owned LNG shipper Flex LNG believes that the LNG market is in the early stages of a multi-year recovery.According to a report by Flex LNG, the market for seaborne transportation of LNG has improved significantly during the third quarter with the primary driver being the nearly 50 per cent year on year growth in imports to China.Additionally there is high demand growth in other more mature markets such as South Korea and Taiwan.Flex LNG pointed out that Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimate demand growth of approximately 8.5% in 2018, adding 24MMtpa to the global market which will reach a total…

Offshore wind power continues to gain momentum in the United States. How will the Jones Act affect the development, operation and maintenance of offshore wind farms? After years of planning and some unsuccessful attempts, offshore wind power developers finally have their first success in the United States. The Block Island Wind Farm, a 30-megawatt wind farm located just off the coast of Rhode Island, began operations in December 2016, fulfilling the goal of the project’s developer, Deepwater Wind LLC, to build America’s first offshore wind farm.

The world’s biggest specialized vessel to import liquefied natural gas (LNG)  is scheduled to be operational in November to contribute to Turkey's energy supply security, Bloomberg reported. The MOL FSRU Challenger, as long as the Eiffel Tower, is expected to arrive from South Korea this month and start by year-end. Last winter, a cold snap gripped the whole region, including Iran, where Turkey gets some of its gas from. That meant the nation couldn’t get hold of enough fuel to meet its booming gas demand and the grid asked private power plants to reduce fuel demand by as much as 90 percent. A first floating storage and regasification unit, the Neptune, arrived in December to complement two onshore terminals at Aliağa and Marmara Ereğlisi.

State-owned Qatar Petroleum said Tuesday it aims to raise Qatar’s LNG production from 77 million to 100 million tons per year. The new additional volumes will be secured by doubling the size of the new gas project in the southern sector of the North Field, which Qatar Petroleum had announced last April. This will increase the North Field’s production of natural gas, condensate and other associated products by one million barrels of oil equivalent per day. The announcement was made by Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, who said: “Last April, we announced our intention to develop a new gas project in the southern sector of the North Field that can be targeted for export.

Some positive market indicators could presage an investment revival in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico – and beyond. The good news, reported by Bloomberg, is that in the third quarter of 2016, the largest oil companies increased cash from operations by nearly $26 billion. This reflects a 67 percent increase from the previous quarter and more than twice the amount of the first quarter of 2016. Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Total and BP indicated that the increase was due to lower spending, increased output and rising crude prices, although the numbers were still below last year’s numbers.

Twenty years, the investment timeline to consider when ordering a new tanker, is a long time in any industry, not least in the rapidly evolving energy markets and the drive for cleaner fuels, says Gibson tanker report. Whilst, the collapse in oil prices in recent years may have taken the shine off many cleaner sources of energy (at least from a cost perspective) other pressures, mainly environmental, are likely to continue to influence energy consumption. In our industry, changes to bunker specifications will influence the type of fuels consumed, whilst more economical designs will see the average fuel consumed per ship fall. The same is true across many sectors, not least automotive where continuous gains in battery technology is seeing electric cars becoming increasingly feasible.

Stevens Institute of Technology congratulates Thomas H. Wakeman III, research professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering who will hold the position of 2015 President-Elect for two prestigious American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) organizations: the Coast, Oceans, Ports and Rivers Institute (COPRI) and the Academy of Coastal, Ocean, Port and Navigation Engineers (ACOPNE), which awards engineering certification in these specialty areas of civil engineering. In 2016, he will be the President of the two organizations and represent COPRI and ACOPNE at national and international events. A Life Member of ASCE, Dr. Wakeman has extensive experience in navigation engineering, port development, maritime security, and freight transportation planning.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) today announced $101.7 million of support for Moree Solar Farm, which upon completion will be one of the largest solar plants in Australia. ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht congratulated renewable energy company Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) who are set to begin construction on the project shortly. “Moree Solar Farm will be the first large-scale solar plant in Australia to use a single-axis horizontal tracking system, where panels follow the sun across the sky to capture sunlight and maximise power output,” Mr Frischknecht said. Mr Frischknecht said the Moree community would benefit from the project and had been keen supporters, along with the Moree Plains Shire Council, for several years.

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.

Foreign ministers from East and West will try to defuse the Ukraine crisis on Thursday in Geneva, once frequently the scene of Cold War negotiations, but will risk being upstaged by Russian President Vladimir Putin. With Russian troops massed on the border with Ukraine, prospects of significant progress at the four-way talks appear slim. By contrast, what Putin says during his annual "hotline" session with the Russian people may have far greater influence on events in Ukraine's rebellious east. Thursday's talks will bring the ministers of Russia, Ukraine and the United Statestogether with the European Union's foreign policy chief to discuss a crisis in which Kiev is struggling to reassert its authority in eastern towns largely controlled by armed pro-Russian separatists.

Power generation from hydro, wind, solar and other renewable sources worldwide will exceed that from gas and be twice that from nuclear by 2016, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today in its second annual Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report (MTRMR). According to the MTRMR, despite a difficult economic context, renewable power is expected to increase by 40% in the next five years. Renewables are now the fastest-growing power generation sector and will make up almost a quarter of the global power mix by 2018, up from an estimated 20% in 2011.

Japan is preparing to bolt turbines onto barges and build the world’s largest commercial power plant using floating windmills, tackling the engineering challenges of an unproven technology to cut its reliance on atomic energy. Marubeni Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel Corp. are among developers erecting a 16-megawatt pilot plant off the coast of Fukushima, site of the nuclear accident which pushed the government to pursue cleaner energy. The project may be expanded to 1,000 megawatts, the trade ministry said, larger than any wind farm fixed to the seabed or on land. “Japan is surrounded by deep oceans, and this poses challenges to offshore wind turbines attached to the bottom of the sea…

Offshore wind-power producers from Dong Energy A/S to RWE AG are building custom ships at record rates to reduce the cost of the technology which is  three times as pricey as electricity from coal plants. As many as 20 vessels, some with movable legs which reach the seafloor, will come onto the market in the next few years, reducing chartering costs of as much as 200,000 euros ($261,000) a day, said Marc Seidel, an offshore engineer at Suzlon Energy Ltd., which supplies turbines to Germany’s RWE. A lack of specialized installation ships has forced companies to hire barges designed for oil exploration, holding up work at projects such as EON AG’s Robin Rigg wind farm off Scotland’s western coast.

Omar Sekkat has joined DnB NOR’s energy division at the bank’s Asian headquarters in Singapore. He comes to the role after transferring from DnB NOR in London. Mr Sekkat’s appointment as a Senior Vice President of the energy division at DnB NOR Asia takes immediate effect and his role is to contribute to the bank’s ongoing expansion in Asia Pacific within energy finance. look forward to working with my team to develop further the bank’s client base in Asia. Mr Sekkat has a strong track record stretching over several years at DnB NOR.

Omar Sekkat has joined DnB NOR’s energy division at the bank’s Asian headquarters in Singapore. He comes to the role after transferring from DnB NOR in London. Mr Sekkat’s appointment as a Senior Vice President of the energy division at DnB NOR Asia takes immediate effect and his role is to contribute to the bank’s ongoing expansion in Asia Pacific within energy finance. Omar Sekkat said today: “It is with great anticipation that I undertake this role and I look forward to working with my team to develop further the bank’s client base in Asia.

ATHENS, Greece, March 14, 2011 – Crude Carriers Corp. (NYSE: CRU)  today announced that its Board of Directors has elected Dimitris P. Christacopoulos to serve as a Director on the Company’s Board. He will be an independent Board member and will serve on the Board's Audit and Independent Directors’ committees. Mr. Christacopoulos, 40, joined the Company’s Board on March 11th, 2011. Mr. Christacopoulos currently serves as a Partner at Octane Management Consultants. He started his…

According to a September 6 report from Bloomberg, the German government’s plan to extend the phase-out of nuclear power risks hampering investment in offshore wind turbines. Utilities including E.ON AG and RWE AG may cut their investment in the industry to compensate for a tax of $3.9b a year they will be charged, said an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The levy on nuclear-plant operators is meant to support renewable energy. (Source: Bloomberg)

Ports America has appointed Nasir Khan as its new chief development officer who will be responsible for leading the company’s future investments and expansion in marine terminals. Prior to joining Ports America, Khan served as director of infrastructure and energy finance (IEF) at Citigroup, New York, where he led that company’s financing of transportation sector projects in the Americas. During his time with Citigroup, he also served as the director and regional head of IEF in its Sydney, Australia, office. Khan, who is a graduate of Yale University with his MBA from Columbia University, will be based in Iselin, N.J., and report to President and CEO Stephen Edwards. (www.portsamerica.com)