Energy Crisis News

Offshore LNG infrastructure company Energos Infrastructure has completed the acquisition of two floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) from the affiliates of Greek Dynagas.The two 174,000 m3 closed-loop FSRUs, built in 2021, will be renamed Energos Force and Energos Power, said Energos Infrastructure, a joint venture majority-controlled by Apollo and minority shareholder New Fortress Energy.Earlier in 2023, the FSRUs commenced long-term charter contracts with the German…

“In the first 10 months of 2023, coal shipments to advanced economies fell by 17% y/y, as demand for electricity declined and the share of electricity produced using renewable energy rose. Also slowed economic activity and high energy prices affected electricity demand,” says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.Between January and August, electricity production in advanced economies fell by 4% y/y, according to data from the International Energy Agency. In 2023, measures against high inflation slowed economic growth in advanced economies.

Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA on Monday was loading a supertanker with crude and fuel for Cuba, maritime documents showed, an unusually large volume to help its political ally overcome an energy crisis with repeated blackouts.Several big electrical outages this year have left many in Cuba concerned about power supplies this summer, when residents crank up air conditioning to stay cool in the Caribbean heat.Cuban officials have blamed the intermittent power on difficulties processing heavy sour Cuban crude and fuel shortages on the island…

Allianz just released its 12th Risk Barometer, an annual corporate risk survey incorporating the views of 2,712 risk management experts in 94 countries and territories, including CEOs, risk managers, brokers and insurance experts. The overall global results reveal Cyber incidents and Business interruption as the biggest company concerns for the second year in succession. Macroeconomic developments such as inflation, financial market volatility and a looming recession rose to the third spot followed by the impact of the Energy crisis…

The number of ships loading liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Spain and taking it across Europe doubled in 2022 compared with the previous year, helping ease the energy crisis driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, gas grid operator Enagas said on Thursday."Our plants are contributing very significantly to the energy security of other countries and from the Barcelona plant, especially for Italy," Enagas chief executive Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri told reporters, adding that a total of…

A German environmental group has lodged a complaint calling for the operating licence of a new floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Wilhelmshaven to be shortened by a decade citing its discharging of chlorine and risks to Germany's climate targets.Germany plans to use so-called Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRUs) to import LNG as it weans itself off of piped Russian gas. The group, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), said in a complaint to the commercial regulator in the state of Lower Saxony that the licence for the unit at Wilhelmshaven should end in 2032, not 2042.

The floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal chartered by Finland to replace Russian gas is scheduled to arrive at Inkoo port west of Helsinki on Dec. 26, Refinitiv Eikon data showed on Tuesday. Finland has agreed a 10-year charter for the Exemplar floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) that will serve both its domestic and the Baltic market, providing additional resources as Europe grapples with an energy crisis. On Monday, the vessel's lessee and operator Gasgrid…

The German government has become divided over a deal, agreed last month, which saw Chinese conglomerate Cosco invest in the Port of Hamburg. The deal had been in the works since September 2021 and was championed by the chancellor (and Hamburg’s former mayor), Olaf Scholz.Scholz’s coalition partners have been vocal in criticising the deal. Chief among them is Robert Habeck, Greens member and Scholz’s economics minister, who expressed his fear that Germany was becoming dependent on Chinese business.

An underwater pipeline to carry green hydrogen between Barcelona and Marseille will cost around 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion), according to preliminary estimates of the project agreed between Spain, Portugal and France, two sources told Reuters. It comes as an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine has accelerated European plans to bolster renewable energy as an alternative to Russian gas. Spain and Portugal aim to become clean hydrogen hubs and net energy exporters, causing…

Potential energy shortages in the U.S. northeast this winter have led to arguments that the U.S. Jones Act should be waived. These arguments rarely, however, grapple with what exactly it takes to waive the Jones Act. This is not blameworthy because the Jones Act waiver standard has been a mess. For decades the standard for granting a waiver was interpreted in way as to make it all but meaningless, and now the standard is so strict that waivers are all but forbidden.Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, the so called “Jones Act,” is a “if this, then that” kind of law.

The results of fortunes and failures are often described as a “perfect storm”. The COVID pandemic, domestic inflation, labor issues and current geopolitical events have brought that description to a peak. A promise of a “new normal” emerged post pandemic, with a vision of alternative energy, alternative fuels and alternative supply chain logistics to help toward solving some of the problems, heralding a world of change with reduced emissions, government support and the end of fossil fuels as we know them in energy and marine operations.With those promises came big movements in the U.S.

Shipping group Maersk warned on Wednesday of slowing demand for transport and logistics as a global recession looms and cut its forecast for container demand this year, even as it beat third-quarter earnings expectations. "It is clear that freight rates have peaked and started to normalize during the quarter, driven by both decreasing demand and easing of supply chain congestion," Chief Executive Soeren Skou said in a statement. The company's shares were down 4.4% at 0839 GMT, and have now fallen 38% since hitting a record high of 24,920 Danish crowns on Jan. 13.

A crime scene investigation of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Europe found evidence of detonations, strengthening suspicions of "gross sabotage", Sweden's Security Service said on Thursday. Swedish and Danish authorities have been investigating four leaks after the pipelines, which link Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea and have become a flashpoint in the Ukraine crisis, were damaged at the start of last week. Europe, which used to rely on Russia for about 40% of its gas…

Sweden sent a diving vessel on Monday to the site of Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea that ruptured last week following blasts in the area, to probe an incident that has added new tension to Europe's energy crisis.Europe is investigating what caused three pipelines in the Nord Stream network to burst in an act of suspected sabotage near Swedish and Danish waters that Moscow quickly sought to pin on the West, suggesting the United States stood to gain."The coast guard is responsible for the mission…

Greece has cut Russian gas imports by more than half this year thanks to increased deliveries from other producers to its sole liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal near Athens, the country's gas grid operator said on Thursday.Greece has relied on Russia for about 40% of its gas needs for years but it has ramped up LNG purchases from other countries in line with a European Union plan to cut dependence on Russian energy. It has been receiving Russian gas via the Turkstream pipeline which also delivers to Hungary via Serbia.Its LNG facility on the Revithoussa islet…

President Vladimir Putin mooted on Wednesday reopening a U.N.-brokered deal for Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea and threatened to halt all energy supplies to Europe if Brussels caps the price of Russian gas.In a combative speech to an economic forum in Russia's Far East region, Putin made little reference to his invasion of Ukraine, but said in answer to a question that Russia would not lose the war and had strengthened its sovereignty.On the ground, Ukrainian officials…

RWE, Germany's largest power producer, said Europe needed more investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on land to secure shipped fuel supplies from global gas producers in the long term.But RWE Chief Executive Andree Stracke told the Gastech conference in Milan that he did not think Europe would abandon Russian gas forever because of the cost to industries and households.Europe is facing its worst gas supply crisis ever, with energy prices soaring and German importers…

Cuba, mired in an energy crisis that has brought frequent blackouts, is negotiating with a Turkish company to have it double the megawatts it currently produces for the country from shipboard generators just offshore, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.Cuban officials are in talks with Karpowership, one of the world’s largest operators of floating power plants and part of the Turkey-based Karadeniz Holding, the sources said. The company already has five…

Global oil companies are pumping billions of dollars into offshore drilling, reversing a long decline in spending on the decades-long projects, including some in the remote iceberg waters far off Canada's Atlantic coast.Surging oil prices are encouraging the investments, along with Europe's mounting energy demand as the Ukraine-Russia war drags on. Offshore production sites are more expensive to build than onshore shale, the last decade's investment darling. But once they are up and running…

A cargo of Russian oil bound for Cuba's Matanzas terminal has been diverted to a smaller port, following a spectacular fire that destroyed a large portion of the island's main oil terminal, vessel monitoring data showed on Thursday.Lengthy power blackouts have followed the fatal blaze, which killed one firefighter and left 14 others missing. The outages are a sign of how the accident is aggravating a long-standing energy crisis due to an obsolete power grid and lack of fuel.The Liberia-flagged tanker NS Laguna carrying 700…

A ship carrying grain left the Ukrainian port of Odesa for Lebanon on Monday under a safe passage agreement, Ukrainian and Turkish officials said, the first departure since the Russian invasion blocked shipping through the Black Sea five months ago.Ukraine's foreign minister called it "a day of relief for the world", especially for countries threatened by food shortages and hunger because of the disrupted shipments.The sailing was made possible after Turkey and the United Nations brokered a grain-and-fertilizer export agreement between Russia and Ukraine last month - a rare diplomatic breakthrough in a conflict that is grinding on with no resolution in sight."The first grain ship since #RussianAggression has left port," Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.

Germany's Tree Energy Solutions (TES), backed by Belgian firm AtlasInvest, said on Wednesday it would accelerate plans for a gas import terminal to be built at the northern German port of Wilhelmshaven in partnership with E.ON.It said it was bringing the project forward by about two years because of an energy crisis, which has been fueled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.The terminal, to be built by 2025, would be used to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a transitional energy…

The Signal Group offers an exhaustive overview of the trends in the dry bulk and tanker markets that both defined 2021, and offer a glimpse as to what might be in store for 2022 and beyond. The report is excerpted in short below; to see the full report CLICK HERE.Using Signal Ocean data, give the insight to analyze the trends and changes across the major vessel sizes in the dry and tanker freight market for 2021. This time last year, Signal Group analyzed the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on commercial shipping with a focus on dirty tankers - VLCC…