Barclays Capital News

Rig firm Seadrill, which last year filed for bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court, is working towards a comprehensive deal with all its creditors that could be concluded this week, it said in a court filing late on Friday. Once the largest drilling rig operator by market value, Oslo-listed Seadrill filed its bankruptcy case in Texas on Sept. 12 after being hit hard by cutbacks in oil company investment following a steep drop in crude prices. The company, controlled by Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen…

Drilling rig company Seadrill said in a court filing it postponed an initial hearing on its restructuring plan to Feb. 7, which sources told Reuters will give the company more time to consider alternative restructuring plans. Once the largest drilling rig operator by market value, Seadrill filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas on Sept. 12 after being hit hard by cutbacks in oil company investment following a steep drop in crude prices. Wednesday's court filing also said the deadline for objecting to Seadrill's plan had been extended to Feb.

The Liberian Registry has announced strategic new appointments in a number of key areas within the Asian regional offices operated by its US-based manager, the Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry (LISCR). Wan Ching Chiang has been promoted to Registrations Manager for the Liberian Registry in Singapore. Chiang is embarking on her fifth year with the Liberian Registry, which she joined as Registrations and Corporate Coordinator. In her new role, she will be overseeing vessel mortgage and corporate registrations for the Liberian Registry’s fast- growing number of South-East Asian clients. Chiang graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and has previous experience with working in the financial industry with both HSBC and Barclays Capital.

Small and mid-sized independent oil producers in the British North Sea could face a financing squeeze this year as banks cut lending linked to the value of oil reserves, following last year's oil price sell off. Unlike the oil majors, which can slash headcount and delay projects, smaller firms tend to be reliant on few fields, and those that are mid-project have little choice but to continue with their capital expenditure. "Where companies have committed to projects when the oil price was $100-plus and their capital budget was set in advance…

Three of Australia's largest infrastructure funds plan to bid for the country's largest container terminal in a sale expected to fetch about A$5 billion ($4.27 billion) for Victoria state, a source with knowledge of the process said on Wednesday. The prospect of three bidders suggests Victoria, Australia's second most populous state, will reap a hefty price for the asset and encourage other Australian states looking to sell a combined A$130 billion of assets in the next 18 months. Pension fund IFM Investors has hired investment banks JPMorgan Chase & Co and Barclays Capital to prepare a bid for Port of Melbourne, while a consortium of Hastings Funds Management Ltd and Kuwait sovereign fund Wren House Infrastructure Management have hired UBS AG, the source said.

Macquarie Infrastructure Co LLC said it would buy the 50 percent stake in liquids storage provider International-Matex Tank Terminals (IMTT) that it does not control for $1.03 billion in cash and stock. Macquarie, which owns half of IMTT since 2006, said it expects the deal to add to its free cash flow this year given "a number of opportunities" to implement better expense controls and processes at the liquids storage provider. Macquarie said it would pay $910 million in cash and the rest in stock to buy out the remaining stake from IMTT's founding Coleman family, at least three of whom are expected to retire after the deal closes later this month.

GasLog Partners LP, an international owner, operator and manager of LNG carriers, today announced the closing of its initial public offering of 9,660,000 common units representing limited partner interests (the “common units”), including 1,260,000 common units issued upon the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional units. The public offering price was $21.00 per common unit. The net proceeds from the offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and other offering expenses, were approximately $186 million. The proceeds from the offering were used principally to reduce indebtedness and for general partnership purposes, with the remainder distributed to GasLog Ltd. (“GasLog”) (NYSE:GLOG).

LNG carrier owners and operators, GasLog Partners LP, inform it has priced its initial public offering of 8,400,000 common units representing limited partner interests at $21.00 per common unit. The common units will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 7, 2014 under the ticker symbol “GLOP”. The offering is expected to close on May 12, 2014. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,260,000 additional common units from the MLP at the initial public offering price. GasLog will retain 1,422,358 of the MLP’s common units if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional common units is not exercised or will retain 162…

The offering is of Series C Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock, par value $0.0001 per share, liquidation preference $25.00 per share. In connection with the offering, the Company intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase additional shares of the Series C Preferred Stock. Following the offering, the Company intends to file an application to list the Series C Preferred Stock on the New York Stock Exchange. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, UBS Securities LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC are acting as joint book-running managers of the offering, which will be made under an effective shelf registration statement. Barclays Capital Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC are acting as co-managers. About Costamare Inc. Costamare Inc.

E&P costs have been increasing by 11% per annum for the last five years, according to Barclays Capital, and nowhere are they increasing faster than in remote and harsh offshore environments like Alaska’s OCS or Norway’s north Barents Sea. The governments of Alaska and Norway have taken diametrically opposite courses. Alaska decreased its marginal tax on oil production from 85% to 35%, and BP promptly moved to add two new rigs to its Prudhoe Bay operations. By contrast, the Norwegian government has raised taxes on its oil industry, prompting Statoil to defer the Johan Castberg north Barents Sea project. Although the Brent oil price has shown signs of life in recent days…

Intelsat S.A. (formerly known as Intelsat Global Holdings S.A.) announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 19,323,672 common shares at a price of $18.00 per share and concurrent public offering of 3,000,000 Series A mandatory convertible junior non-voting preferred shares (the “Series A preferred shares”) at a price of $50.00 per share. On the mandatory conversion date, May 1, 2016, each Series A preferred share, unless previously converted, will automatically convert into common shares. The Series A preferred shares will have a 5.75% dividend rate and a liquidation preference of $50.00 per share. The Company has granted the underwriters in the initial public offering of common shares a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,898,550 common shares.

Intelsat Global Holdings S.A. announced that it has commenced the distribution of preliminary prospectuses in anticipation of its proposed initial public offering of 21,739,130 common shares and proposed concurrent public offering of 3,000,000 Series A mandatory convertible junior non-voting preferred shares (the "Series A preferred shares"). The offerings are being made pursuant to a registration statement on Form F-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company has granted the underwriters in the initial public offering of common shares a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,260,869 common shares. The company has granted the underwriters in the public offering of Series A preferred shares a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 450…

Oil exports from Iran, OPEC’s second-largest producer, may drop because the nation’s tanker fleet is too small to carry all its cargoes, as European Union sanctions cause international ship owners to avoid the country. NITC owns 39 vessels, able to carry about 70 million barrels of crude, according to its website. The fleet would be insufficient to deliver the nation’s monthly exports of about 65 million barrels because journey durations can be as long as two months, said Dag Kilen, an analyst at Fearnley Consultants A/S, a unit of Norway’s second-largest shipbroker. Sanctions already cut shipments by 300,000 to 400,000 barrels a day, Barclays Capital said on March 7. Frontline Ltd., Overseas Shipholding Group Inc.

Lukoil group companies will be the first new customers to use ESS’s upgraded and much improved eSDS Solution for compliance with REACH/GHS requirements. Electronic Shipping Solutions, the leading shipping eDocs provider, is pleased to announce that several members of the LITASCO Group have signed up to use its electronic Safety Data Sheet (eSDS) Solution. LITASCO will take advantage of the recently released upgrade to the eSDS Solution, featuring an improved user interface and eSDS sending process, further reducing the workload on users to meet REACH /GHS requirements.

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 report from Reuters, the moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has begun to bite oilfield service companies, with market analysts now forecasting lower than expected spending on new projects in the region and pressure on drilling stocks. A survey of companies released by Barclays Capital on Wednesday, June 16, showed oil and gas producers would likely spend $1.6b less on exploration and production in U.S. than they had expected at end-2009 because of the moratorium. (Source: Reuters)

Rowan Companies, Inc. (NYSE: RDC) announced that, effective January 1, 2009, its Board of Directors has named W. Matt Ralls as the company's new President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, succeeding D.F. McNease, who announced his retirement in late October 2008. Mr. Ralls, 59, most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of GlobalSantaFe Corporation, an international contract drilling company, from June 2005 until the completion of the merger of GlobalSantaFe with Transocean, Inc. in November 2007. Prior to that time Mr. Ralls served as Senior Vice President and CFO of GlobalSantaFe. He joined Global Marine, Inc.

Newswires reported that oil prices fell 2.4 percent on Tuesday as the energy industry showed signs of recovery in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and industrialized countries prepared to tap emergency supplies to avert a crunch. U.S. crude CLc1 settled down $1.61 to $65.96 a barrel, below last week's peak $70.85. Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast early last week, shutting down nearly all U.S. offshore crude oil production and paralyzing more than 10 percent of refining capacity in the world's biggest fuel consumer. But the industry's desperate push to recover has begun to pay dividends, as nearly half of the refineries fully or partially closed by the storm returned to service and offshore operators made strides to restore production.