Energy Trade News

Canceled offshore wind projects, imperiled solar factories, and fading demand for electric vehiclesA year after the passage of the largest climate change legislation in U.S. history, meant to touch off a boom in American clean energy development, economic realities are fraying President Joe Biden’s agenda.Soaring financing and materials costs, unreliable supply chains, delayed rulemaking in Washington and sluggish permitting have wrought havoc ranging from offshore wind developer Orsted’s project cancellations in the U.S.

Britain's Princess Anne will on Friday officially open Port of Aberdeen’s £420 million South Harbor expansion project on Friday. The project is expected to catalyze a multi-billion-pound economic and job boost for Scotland.According to a press release issued by the port, independent analysis forecast that when the expanded Port of Aberdeen reaches its full potential the port’s Gross Value Added contribution will jump 60% to £2.4 billion and increase the number of jobs supported by 45% to 17…

An Indian agency has stepped in to provide safety certification for most of Gatik Ship Management's fleet, a major carrier of Russian oil to India, after Lloyd's Register and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) withdrew classification for many of its vessels, records show.Mumbai-based Gatik, which has emerged this year as a significant player in Russian oil transport, also recently reflagged at least four of its vessels to Mongolia, according to data from maritime platform Lloyd's List Intelligence.This followed the de-flagging of 36 of the Gatik-managed fleet by St.

Scotland's new First Minister Humza Yousaf and Just Transition Secretary Màiri McAllan this week visited Port of Aberdeen's £400 million South Harbour expansion.According to Port of Aberdeen, the duo heard firsthand how the port "supports Scotland's Just Transition and creates new opportunities in energy, trade, decarbonization, and tourism."Senior leaders from the port, Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, Energy Transition Zone and Opportunity North East met with Yousaf and McAllan to discuss the economic opportunities and challenges facing the region's key industries…

War in Ukraine is transforming the outlook for the supply, demand and price of hydrocarbons and the pace and cost of the energy transition. While the precise timing and implementation of future bans on Russian commodity imports are difficult to predict, a rewriting of energy trade flows is now underway. With the global economy on a knife edge and energy prices structurally higher, there a real risk of some global supply being lost. Europe’s push for more liquified natural gas…

Egypt's Suez Canal aims to have a 15% share of global energy trade by 2040, up from 8% in 2019, the canal authority said on Wednesday.The increase would come from "adopting flexible marketing policies", it said in a statement.(Reuters - Reporting by Moamen Said Attalah; Writing by Mahmoud Mourad; Editing by)

FuelTrax has partnered with Topl to use Topl’s Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform to meet the demand for greater transparency in energy trading operations.With blockchain integrated into EFMS products, each step in the energy trading process has an equivalent digital step, including contract formation, asset tracking, and delivery of the product. As supply chain events occur in real-time, each is added to the Topl Blockchain, where a tamperproof record will live forever,…

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on five Iranian ship captains who delivered oil to Venezuela, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed Washington's backing for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido.Speaking at a news conference, Pompeo said the ships delivered about 1.5 million barrels of Iranian gasoline and related components, and warned mariners against doing business with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose ouster Washington seeks."As a result of today’s sanctions, these captains’ assets will be blocked. Their careers and prospects will suffer from this designation," Pompeo said in a statement later."We will continue to support the National Assembly…

Iran could send two to three cargoes a month in regular gasoline sales to ally Venezuela, sources say, helping offload domestic oversupply but risking retaliation from U.S. President Donald Trump who has sanctions on both nations.Iran has since April sent five tankers totalling about 1.5 million barrels to the leftist government of fuel-starved Venezuela, though the shipments have done little to alleviate hours-long lines at gas stations.The Trump administration, which is seeking both to block Iran's energy trade and bring down Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, has threatened reprisals and warned ports, shipping companies and insurers against facilitating the tankers.But Tehran plans to keep up the shipments…

The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) Board of Directors has elected Galen Cobb, Vice President of Industry Relations of Halliburton, as Chairman and Matt McCarroll, President & CEO of Fieldwood Energy, as Vice Chairman for the 2020-21 term. Cobb and McCarroll were confirmed in their positions during a virtual Board Meeting today.NOIA President Erik Milito said, “As the offshore industry continues to navigate unprecedented energy uncertainty, Galen and Matt’s leadership will be a steadying factor.“The American offshore industry provides incredible benefits, and truly lifts society through safe and environmentally sustainable energy production. Despite the historic challenges facing our industry, the U.S.

Wind and solar energy companies on Thursday called on Congress to pass tax incentives that would help the sector avoid project delays and keep financing flowing amid a pandemic that has choked off supply chains and slowed construction.In a letter to House and Senate leadership, seven clean energy trade groups asked lawmakers to extend deadlines that would allow their projects to qualify for generous wind and solar federal tax credits despite delays caused by the spread of the coronavirus across the globe.The American Wind Energy Association…

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced that it has awarded more than $280 million in discretionary grant funding through the new Port Infrastructure Development Program. This funding is designed to improve port facilities at or near coastal seaports.The Port Infrastructure Development Program supports efforts by ports and industry stakeholders to improve facility and freight infrastructure to ensure our nation’s freight transportation needs, present and future, are met.

North American energy infrastructure company Sempra Energy and Saudi Aramco's Aramco Services Company, signed an Interim Project Participation Agreement for the Port Arthur LNG export project under development in Jefferson County, Texas.According to a press release, the IPPA represents another milestone for both companies after having signed a heads of agreement in May last year for the purchase of 5 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and a 25% equity investment in the Port Arthur LNG project.Jeffrey W. Martin, chairman and CEO of Sempra Energy said:"Today's announcement is a reflection of the growing alignment between our companies' interest in the overall success of the Port Arthur LNG project.

SEA\LNG has released the results of its third investment study, which underlines liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a compelling investment solution for Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) on the Arabian Gulf to China trade route.Conducted by Opsiana, the study demonstrates benefits of LNG as a marine fuel for a newbuild 300K DWT VLCC on the Arabian Gulf to China trade route, in comparison with other alternatives currently available and scalable to the shipping industry across three fuel pricing scenarios.The business case compares the relative investment performance of four propulsion alternatives: a conventional VLCC sailing with Very Low Sulfur Fuel Oil…

China's purchase of some U.S. soybeans is being viewed as a tentative sign of a little détente in the dispute between the world's two largest economies, but real progress would be a resumption of what had been a burgeoning energy trade.U.S. and Chinese negotiators are meeting for two days of talks in Shanghai starting on Tuesday amid modest expectations for progress to resolve the trade imbroglio that has resulted in tit-for-tat tariffs being imposed on billions of dollars worth…

VLCC spot freight rates between the Arabian Gulf and China rose 101% in the days between June 13, 2019 and June 20, 2019, in the aftermath of attacks on two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Spot freight rates for a VLCC, carrying 2 million barrels of oil, between the Arabian Gulf and China reached USD 25,994 per day on June 20, their highest level since March and significantly above the May average of USD 9,979 per day.Despite this increase, freight rates on this route only narrowly exceeds the daily break-even costs of a VLCC…

Wind energy provided 14% of the European Union’s electricity last year, according to figures published by the region’s wind energy trade body, WindEurope, with 11.7 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity added, including 2.65 GW of offshore wind. Continued growth in capacity and the use of more powerful turbines are helping to drive up wind’s share in the electricity mix. Denmark had the highest share of wind in its electricity last year (41%) followed by Ireland (28%) and Portugal (24%). Wind was 21% of Germany’s electricity.Wind accounted for 49% of all the new power generation capacity in Europe in 2018. But the amount of new wind capacity was down a third on 2017 (a record year).

Europe installed a total of 2.6 gigawatts (GW) of new offshore wind capacity in 2018, an 18% increase which takes the region to a total capacity of 18.5 GW.According to new figures published this week by the region’s wind energy trade body, WindEurope, 15 new offshore wind farms came on line. The UK and Germany accounted for 85% of the new capacity: 1.3 GW and 969 MW respectively.Europe now has 105 offshore wind farms across 11 countries with a total capacity of 18.5 GW. This is around 10% of the total installed wind energy capacity in Europe – the rest is onshore.The size and scale of offshore wind continues to rise. The average size of the new turbines installed last year was 6.8 MW, 15% up on 2017.

Despite a marginal deterioration in the growth outlook for the global shipbuilding industry, annualized five-year growth rates for the sector are still forecast to reach a healthy 3 to 5%, before picking up substantially after 2017, says Castrol Marine Trade Barometer. The Barometer predicts that growth will be driven largely by the Asia-Pacific region, but also Latin America and the Middle East. All European nations but the Netherlands face a downward trend until 2017. Mandhir Singh, COO at Castrol, says, “The main growth in shipbuilding will come from AsiaPacific countries to 2019. These nations are well positioned to supply ultra-large vessels, which shipping companies are increasingly demanding for their fuel efficiency and economies of scale.

U.S. Gulf Coast refiners are cashing in on rising fuel demand from Mexico, shipping record volumes to a southern neighbor that has failed to expand its refining network to supply a fast-growing economy. The fuel trade could top a million barrels per day (bpd) at times in 2017 as Mexico becomes increasingly dependent on the United States for strategic energy supplies and providing business worth more than $15 billion a year to refiners such as Valero, Marathon Petroleum and Citgo Petroleum. The rise in Mexico's fuel imports reflects an economy that, after expanding for 27 quarters in a row even amid a public austerity plan, has been unable to increase its refining output to satisfy the consistent growth of its energy demand.

For the past few years, depressed commodity prices, stricter regulatory requirements and competition from onshore development at home and from other countries offering attractive offshore lease and royalty terms have had severe impacts on new exploration in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Thankfully, the tide appears to finally be turning.In August, Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 251 drew increased competition for offerings and $178 million in high bids, $53 million more than previous sale held in March.

Lithuania received its first spot shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States on Monday, the result of a deal aimed at reducing dependence on Russia and consolidating relations with Washington amid increased tension in the region. Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 has spooked the Baltic states, once ruled from Moscow but now members of both NATO and the European Union. "This is crucially important for the whole region," said Lithuania's Foreign Affairs Minister Linas Linkevicius. "We want to cement our relationship with the United States in many aspects in addition to defence and security - energy trade is one of the strategic areas for cooperation," he told Reuters.

Energy ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group will discuss climate change and business opportunities at a meeting in the Philippines next month but not the South China Sea. China claims most of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims. The Philippines has filed a case with an international arbitration tribunal over rival claims in the South China Sea but China has rejected the proceeding and says disputes must be handled bilaterally. China is a member of APEC.