Lake Charles News

Qatar's planned expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production could see it control nearly 25% share of the global market by 2030 and squeeze out rival projects including in the United States where President Biden paused new export approvals, market experts say.Qatar, one of the world's top LNG exporters, plans an 85% expansion in LNG output from its North Field's current 77 million metric tons per year (mtpa) to 142 mtpa by 2030, from previously expected 126 mtpa.Some market experts said that the move will have an impact on global projects in the United States…

Gale-force winds and high waves from a storm led to the listing of an elevated liftboat in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Wednesday. Damage to the vessel and cargo was estimated at $6.9 million.On November 20, 2022, the liftboat L/B Robert was reported to be listing alongside a stationary oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico about 80 miles southeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana. The crew had evacuated two days prior due to forecasted adverse weather in the area, leaving the vessel elevated out of the water and unattended.

Analysts and commentators are quick to point out that fossil fuels will power maritime equipment, and indeed dominate the fueling marketplace, well into the future. However, they will do so alongside new fuels, and new technologies, that will be introduced to the maritime sector in the coming years. In its September, 2023 report “Beyond the Horizon: View of the Emerging Energy Value Chains”, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) explains that, “During the recent 80th meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80)…

With three Gladding-Hearn pilot boats already in their fleet, the Louisiana-based Lake Charles pilots have ordered another launch from the Somerset, Mass., shipyard.Based on the Cameron Pilot II delivered in 2019, the new all-aluminum pilot boat features the Deep V hull by Ray Hunt Design and has an overall length of 73’, beam of 23’, and draft of 5.3’. It will be powered by twin Cummins QSK38-M1, EPA Tier 4-certified diesel engines, each delivering 1,300 Bhp at 1,800 rpm and a top speed of over 27 knots.

SEACOR Holdings said Monday it had agreed to sell its U.S. harbor towing operations and assets from its Seabulk subsidiary to two parties, E.N. Bisso & Son, Inc. and Bay-Houston Towing Co.The E.N. Bisso transaction includes 12 harbor towing vessels across ports in Florida and Alabama. Bay-Houston is acquiring eight vessels operating in Texas along the Sabine Neches Navigation District and in the Port of Lake Charles, La."E.N. Bisso and Bay-Houston are two industry-leading harbor towing providers supported by many decades of safe and reliable operations…

Only one of three available areas was sold during the United States' first ever offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.The auction, held by the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) offered up three sites for offshore wind development, including one in Louisiana (Lake Charles) and two in Texas (Galveston I and II). Together, the three shallow water sites contain a theoretical potential of 3.7 gigawatts (GW). While 16 companies had prequalified to participate in the auction, bid activity was subdued.

An oil/chemicals tanker came to the rescue of an ailing boater some 55 miles south of Lake Charles, La., on Friday.A man aboard a 22-foot pleasure craft put in a call for help to the U.S. Coast Guard via VHF-FM channel 16 at 3:03 p.m. stating that his wife was displaying symptoms of a heat stroke.The nearby vessel Stolt Perseverance responded to an urgent marine information broadcast issued by Coast Guard watchstanders at Sector Houston-Galveston. The tanker moored alongside the…

The United States announced the first offshore wind power development rights sale in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, which President Joe Biden will discuss during a trip to highlight the administration's efforts to boost renewable energy.In February, the United States proposed to expand offshore wind power developments into the Gulf of Mexico, introducing the nascent clean energy industry into a major hub for oil and gas production.The Interior Department said the sale will take place on Aug.

The U.S. Department of Energy's refusal to grant export permit extensions to liquefied natural gas (LNG) developers that fail to meet a construction deadline poses a new hurdle for greenfield plants, analysts said on Thursday.The DOE last month said it would grant future extensions solely on extenuating circumstances and rejected an extension for Energy Transfer's proposed Lake Charles LNG project.The change will fall heavily on firms without a track record and available financing, analysts said.Around a dozen LNG projects in the U.S.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said Friday that it would hold an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico in March 2023.The Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 259 will offer approximately 13,600 blocks on 73.3 million acres in the Western, Central, and Eastern Planning Areas on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. Lease Sale 259 was one of three offshore lease sales initially cancelled by the Biden Administration in May 2022. The subsequent Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) mandated that BOEM hold Lease Sale 259 no later than March 31…

The U.S. administration on Wednesday proposed the first-ever offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, as part of the government's plan to spur offshore wind deployment beyond the East Coast.The proposed sale is part of the leasing path announced by Secretary Haaland in 2021 to meet the Biden-Harris administration’s goal to deploy 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and follows the Department’s approval of the nation's first two commercial-scale offshore wind projects.The Proposed Sale Notice (PSN) announced Wednesday includes a 102…

At least three proposed U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants have likely found enough customers to receive financial approvals this year, according to Reuters calculations, developments that would make the country the world's largest LNG exporter for years to come.After a dearth of plant approvals last decade, developers have secured dozens of long-term contracts to finance new multibillion-dollar LNG plants. The pace of approvals has accelerated as Europe has shifted…

Most of the media coverage of offshore wind development in the United States focuses on the leases of the offshore areas where the wind turbines will be located. However, equally important is the landside dimension of these projects, including the manufacture, installation, maintenance and operation of the turbines. Several awards made in the last two rounds of funding under the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) show how offshore wind now offers an additional direction of port development for which funding is available.

An estimated 3,500 gallons of used lubricant oil that spilled near Calcasieu Point Landing, in Louisiana, has been contained, U.S. Coast Guard officials said in a statement on Tuesday.The discharge, reported on Monday, was discovered to have escaped from the secondary containment at Martin Energy Services, the Coast Guard told Reuters in an emailed statement."The source of the spill has been secured and the oil has been contained with boom along the banks of the Lake Charles Industrial…

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico, best known to the offshore energy industry as an oil and gas province, is for the first time opening its doors to the offshore wind industry, with the U.S administration on Monday designating two areas for offshore wind development in the region.The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Monday said it had finalized two Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) in the Gulf of Mexico, with the potential to produce enough electricity to power nearly 3 million households.The first WEA is located approximately 24 nautical miles (nm) off the coast of Galveston, TX.

Crowley said its Ocean Class tugboats are now equipped to connect to shore power at the Port of Lake Charles in Louisiana.Shore power infrastructure from Entergy Services, Inc. will allow Crowley's vessels to connect to electricity when not in service instead of running on diesel-fueled generators.The result will be an estimated reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by more than 500 metric tons per year, Crowley said.The Jacksonville, Fla. based shipping and logistics firm in 2021 announced its commitment to achieve net-zero emissions across its operations by 2050.

The Biden administration on Wednesday said it had identified 700,000 acres for possible offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexico, seeking to expand a growing clean energy industry to a major U.S. oil and gas hub.It also said President Joe Biden would direct his Interior Department to move ahead with offshore wind development in areas of the Atlantic coast where former President Donald Trump banned oil and gas development."Today we open up yet another coast and frontier in expanding offshore wind…

Soaring demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) as buyers steer clear of Russian fuel is putting some long-stalled U.S. export projects back on track. But rising costs for materials and labor threaten to snarl these plants once again.Two developers with projects sidelined due to the U.S.-China trade war – Energy Transfer with its Lake Charles LNG and Tellurian Inc with its Driftwood LNG – have begun talks with construction provider Bechtel Group over costs, according to a…

Hurricane Nicholas on Tuesday took another swipe at U.S. Gulf Coast energy facilities, cutting offshore oil and gas output gradually recovering from the last storm and disrupting power to onshore pipeline, gas and chemical plants.Royal Dutch Shell halted production its Perdido offshore oil platform due to heavy winds, and U.S. liquefied natural gas producer Freeport LNG said processing at its Texas coast facility was halted, likely due to a power outage.Power losses briefly cut Colonial Pipeline's main gasoline and diesel lines out of Houston…

Royal Dutch Shell on Monday began evacuating staff from a U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil platform, and other energy companies began preparing for hurricane-force winds from a second Gulf Coast storm in as many weeks.Tropical Storm Nicholas was about 105 miles (115 km) south of Port O'Connor, Texas, and moving north with winds of 60 miles per hour (97 kph). It could become a hurricane just ahead of landfall on Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.Waves stirred up by Nicholas neared 12 feet (3.7 m) in height were reported outside of Port Aransas…

Most ports along the U.S. Gulf Coast had reopened on Thursday following lengthy closures from Hurricane Ida, which lashed southern Louisiana with 150-mile-per-hour winds that caused extensive infrastructure damage and floods.Two of Louisiana’s main ports, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, reopened late on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. They joined the already functional terminals of Panama City, Biloxi, Mobile, Pascagoula, Bienville, Beaumont, Cameron, Lake Charles, Port Arthur…

More than two dozen oil vessels were clustered off Louisiana seaports on Tuesday as the U.S. Coast Guard and port operators assessed damages wreaked by Hurricane Ida, according to sources and Refinitiv Eikon data.Dozens of ports from Louisiana to Alabama closed as Ida tore through the Gulf of Mexico and slammed into the coast on Sunday. A few have reopened with restrictions on vessel drafts.Ida made landfall at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, packing 150-mile-per-hour (240 km-per hour) winds that knocked out power to a substantial part of the state.

Hurricane Ida pummeled U.S. Gulf Coast energy suppliers, knocking out most of the region's offshore wells and nearly half its motor fuel production and drove prices broadly higher.The storm crashed on Sunday into the Louisiana coast, tearing through U.S. offshore oil and gas fields with 150 mile per hour (241 kph) winds and pushing up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) of water ashore. More than 620,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana were without power.Production losses - including at six Gulf Coast refineries - will lift retail gasoline prices by 5 to 10 cents a gallon, said tracking firm GasBuddy.