Export Infrastructure News

A feasibility study has highlighted the potential for using clean ammonia to refuel ships, particularly iron ore carriers, visiting the Pilbara region of Western Australia.The study, commissioned by Yara Clean Ammonia (Yara) and Pilbara Ports, was undertaken by Lloyd's Register, and looked at key areas including the estimated demand and likely availability of ammonia as a replacement shipping fuel. The potential risks and regulatory requirements for ammonia bunkering at the ports…

The first big ship carrying grain from a Ukrainian Black Sea port has set sail since Moscow quit a deal in July to allow exports, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister said on Friday, part of Kyiv's campaign to break Russia's de facto blockade.The Aroyat "left the port Chornomorsk after loading 17,600 (metric tons of) Ukrainian wheat for Egypt," Oleksandr Kubrakov said on the X social media app, formerly Twitter.He posted a photo of the ship at sea. It was the second of two bulk carriers to leave the port this week using what Kyiv calls a new temporary humanitarian corridor. The first, the much smaller Resilient Africa, left on Tuesday, testing the route with a cargo of just 3…

A cargo vessel carrying grain has left the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Chornomorsk for the first time since a grain deal collapsed, a top government official said on Tuesday, in a test of Ukraine's ability to unblock its seaports for grain export."The vessel RESILIENT AFRICA, carrying 3,000 tons of wheat, has left the port of Chornomorsk and is heading towards the Bosphorus," Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Facebook."This is the first of two vessels that entered Chornomorsk last week through a temporary corridor for civilian vessels established by the Ukrainian Navy."Kubrakov posted a photo of the ship on the open sea.Ukraine…

The Joseph Schulte container ship is in Romanian waters and set to reach Istanbul this evening, said a spokesperson for Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), which owns the ship jointly with a Chinese bank, on Thursday. The departure from Odesa of the Hong-Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte, trapped in the port since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, followed the latest Russian attack on the country's grain export infrastructure.

A container ship set off from Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa on Wednesday in a test of Russia's threat to attack shipping after it abandoned a deal last month allowing Ukraine to export grain.The departure of the Hong-Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte, which had been in the port since Feb. 23, 2022 - the day before Russia's invasion - followed a new Russian attack on Ukraine's grain export infrastructure.Russian air strikes damaged grain silos and warehouses at one of the Danube river ports…

Höegh Autoliners announced it is partnering with Norwegian green energy provider North Ammonia for the supply, distribution, delivery and consumption of green ammonia, a carbon free fuel produced using renewable energy.Under the deal, North Ammonia—established by Grieg Maritime Group and Arendals Fossekompani in 2021—will supply Höegh Autoliners with green ammonia from its planned production facility in Arendal in southern Norway.Höegh Autoliners currently has on order eight ammonia…

Nigerian company UTM Offshore has signed a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for the development of an FLNG facility in Nigeria with JGC Corporation, Technip Energies, and KBR.This will be Nigeria's first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility. Africa currently has two FLNG units in operation, the Hili Episeyo in Cameroon, and, as of recently, the Coral Sul FLNG in Mozambique. In Nigeria, the FLNG unit will be used for development of offshore block OML  204.According to Chief Timipre Sylva…

U.S. crude shippers are exporting huge amounts of oil to meet strong demand from Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against Moscow. In coming years U.S. oil may find even more buyers overseas, but that could test the capabilities of U.S. export infrastructure.How much crude does the United States typically export?U.S. crude exports averaged 3.7 million barrels per day (bpd) over the four weeks through late May, their highest since March 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Canadian grain shipments through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway trade corridor are up 20% in response to continuing world demand for wheat and canola, the latest figures show.Year-to-date shipments of grain (from April 1 to August 31) totaled 5.2 million tonnes, as ships transported Prairie wheat and canola and Ontario wheat and soybeans for both domestic use and for export to markets around the world.The rush of grain, which is carry over from last year’s crops, has helped to offset continuing pandemic-related declines in other key cargoes such as iron ore (down 23%)…

Lock Closures Starting on the Illinois Waterway This Summer May Result in  More Freight Flowing Through St. Louis Region.Businesses that move or handle commodities on the Illinois Waterway system are being encouraged to start making alternative plans due the scheduled closure of locks on that inland waterway system. With a two-week closure planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beginning as early as August 2019 and closures of 90 to 120 days expected in the summers of 2020 and 2023…

Saudi Arabia’s state owned oil company Saudi Aramco will buy 5 million tons of liquid natural gas per year(LNG) from the U.S. company Sempra Energy, based in San Diego under a 20 year agreement.The heads of agreement (HOA) between the companies anticipates the negotiation and finalization of a definitive 20-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) sale-and-purchase agreement (SPA) for five million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of LNG offtake from Phase 1 of the Port Arthur LNG export-project under development. It also includes the negotiation and finalization of a 25% equity investment in Phase 1 of Port Arthur LNG.Amin Nasser, Saudi Aramco’s CEO & President, said,“The agreement with Sempra LNG is a major step forward in Saudi Aramco’s long term strategy to become a leading global LNG player.

In June 2016, the Panama Canal Authority, the body that operates the Panama Canal, opened a third set of locks that facilitated transit of larger ships, the first such expansion since the canal was completed in 1914.In the years since the canal was expanded, the largest change in petroleum flows through the canal has been the increase of hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL), especially propane, from the U.S. Gulf Coast to destinations in Asia. HGL represents all natural gas liquids (NGL) and olefins.Most of the petroleum transiting the Panama Canal travels southbound from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Flows of HGL are the largest single petroleum commodity transiting the canal, according to data from the Panama Canal Authority.

Russia's second-biggest bank VTB is buying one of the biggest grain terminals at the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, in a surprise move that gives the state lender more control over the country's main deep-sea grain export hub.VTB, which already owns a stake in another grain terminal at the port, said on Thursday that it was buying 100 percent of Novorossiysk Grain Terminal from Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NSCP).Its deal to buy the terminal from NSCP, which is controlled…

United States taking share from OPEC nations in Asia, Europe, as China’s biggest U.S. crude buyer to double imports. In the two years since Washington lifted a 40-year ban on oil exports, tankers filled with U.S. crude have landed in more than 30 countries, ranging from massive economies like China and India to tiny Togo. The repeal has unleashed a flood of U.S. shale oil, undercutting global crude prices, eroding the clout of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and seizing market share from many of its member countries. In 2005, before the shale revolution, the United States had net imports of 12.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and fuels - compared to just 4 million bpd today. U.S.

In his speech at the LNG Export & Export & Infrastructure Conference Federal Maritime Commissioner Doyle gives insights on the consequences of the adoption of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as a marine fuel in the United States. I am a Commissioner with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission. The Federal Maritime Commission is an independent regulatory agency responsible for regulating the nation’s international ocean transportation for the benefit of exporters, importers, and the American consumer. I should emphasize that my thoughts and comments here are mine and mine alone – they do not reflect the position of the Commission, and they should not be construed to represent the positions of any of my fellow Commissioners.

It is time for the global maritime industry to push development of Trans Arctic Shipping Routes (TASR) and port facilities along Alaska’s northern coast. Not only for shipping goods from the Pacific to Atlantic and vice versa, but specifically to facilitate development of specialized ports for LNG exports from Alaska to global markets. Alaska has a limited maritime community mostly in the south: Southeast Alaska is a maritime community; South Central, Valdez, The Kenai Peninsula and Anchorage much less so; Southwest Alaska and Aleutians have fishing fleets and the Western, North Slope coasts and, the Interior have only marginal connections to large scale maritime activities. Nearly all Alaska’s vast energy resources, LNG and coal, are on the North Slope.

More independent refineries seek crude import quotas. Total quota may hit 2 mln bpd by end-2016. China could approve more crude import quotas for independent refiners that will bring the total volume to close to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2016, an industry official said on Wednesday. "We expect annual crude import quotas to reach about 100 million tonnes (2 million bpd) by the end of this year," said Zhang Liucheng from China's largest independent refiner Dongming Petrochemical at an industry event. The independent refiners, known as teapots, drove China's crude imports in the first four months of 2016 to all-time highs, rising 12 percent higher than the same period a year ago.

Sentiment is often a somewhat flighty and nebulous concept, but it appears that crude oil markets are turning increasingly bullish about the prospect for higher prices. Certainly the mood at this week's major industry conference in Singapore was a marked change from recent years, with several upbeat presentations, panel discussions and off-the-record chats giving the view that prices were more likely to rise than fall. The most bullish commentary at the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC) was from trading house Trafigura, whose co-head of group market risk, Ben Luckock, said the era of prices being lower for longer was coming to an end, and the market would be in a supply deficit of between 2 and 4 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2019.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced the appointment of 29 new members to the Marine Transportation System National Advisory Committee (MTSNAC). Established in 2010, MTSNAC is comprised of leaders from commercial transportation firms, ship construction, repair and recycling, trade associations, state and local public entities, labor organizations, academics, and environmental groups that advise the Secretary and the Maritime Administration on policies to ensure that the U.S. Marine Transportation System is capable of responding to projected trade increases. The Committee advises the Secretary on solutions to impediments hindering effective use of short sea transportation and other matters as the Secretary determines.

Tankers carrying record levels of crude are leaving in droves from Texas and Louisiana ports, and more growth in the fledgling U.S. oil export market may before long test the limits of infrastructure like pipelines, dock space and ship traffic. U.S. crude exports have boomed since the decades-old ban was lifted less than two years ago, with shipments recently hitting a record of 2 million barrels a day. But shippers and traders fear the rising trend is not sustainable, and if limits are hit, it could pressure the price of U.S. oil. How much crude the United States can export is a mystery. Most terminal operators and companies will not disclose capacity, and federal agencies like the U.S. Energy Department do not track it.

LPG shipping rates are expected to decline from the second half of 2016 as a bloated orderbook for VLGCs (very large gas carriers) fuels fleet growth that will far exceed shipping demand, according to the latest edition of the LPG Forecaster, published by global shipping consultancy Drewry. VLGC earnings have had another stellar year, averaging above $2.0 million per calendar month in the period to September 2015. This has been driven by three principle factors: rising US exports…