Gas Facilities News

Carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. liquefied natural gas facilities have jumped to 18 million tons per year, up 81% since 2019, adding a volume of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere equivalent to that produced by several big coal plants, according to United States government data.They could more than double to 45 million tons per year by the end of the decade as new facilities, encouraged by soaring overseas demand for the super-cooled fuel, come online, according to company projections provided to the U.S.

Chevron said on Monday full production had resumed at its strike-hit Wheatstone liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Western Australia after a fault last week cut production by about one-fifth.Wheatstone and the nearby Gorgon facility account for over 5% of global LNG supply, and the fault and the strikes did not affect scheduled deliveries, Chevron said, with shipping data on LSEG Eikon also showing exports from Wheatstone were unaffected.Chevron said on Monday full production…

Samsung Heavy Industries has received basic certification for a floating CO2 storage unit (FCSU) from DNV.The FCSU, jointly developed by Samsung Heavy Industries and MISC, is 330 meters long and 64 meters wide, and has a high-pressure tank capacity that can store 100,000 cubic meters of liquefied CO2 at -50 degrees Celsius or less.The injection module mounted on the upper part of the hull secures the ability to send five million tons (MTPA) of CO2 per year to the depths of the seabed.

A Russian warplane destroyed a Ukrainian reconnaissance vessel in an area in the Black Sea where Russian gas extraction facilities are located, the Russian Defence Ministry said early on Tuesday.The ministry said in a short statement that the Ukrainian vessel had been destroyed by an SU-30 aircraft from Russia's Black Sea Fleet.There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which rarely comments publicly on its operations inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory but which…

With a background in subsea and offshore, coming up with new ideas is the norm’ for UK-based engineering consultancy STL (Submarine Technology Limited), writes Elaine Maslin.The last few years have been no different. The company has been focusing on ship-based robotics, including robotic arms. These aren’t just any robotic arms – they’re motion compensated systems for deploying/recovering people and robots to and from fixed or moving objects. That could be wind technicians to…

With a background in subsea and offshore, coming up with new ideas is the norm for UK-based engineering consultancy STL (Submarine Technology Limited), writes Elaine Maslin.The last few years have been no different. The company has been focusing on ship-based robotics, including robotic arms. These aren’t just any robotic arms – they’re motion-compensated systems for deploying/recovering people and robots to and from fixed or moving objects.That could be wind technicians to an…

On the night of September 26, near the end of the calm season on the Baltic, a broiling kilometer-wide circle disturbed the face of the sea and a huge mass of methane erupted into the air. The gas formed a cloud that crossed Europe, in what’s considered the greatest single release of this potent greenhouse gas ever recorded.It was caused by four breaches of Russia’s Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, located in or near the territorial seas of Denmark and Sweden. Seismologists detected explosions at a depth of 70-90 meters on the seabed.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd (MHI) have been selected by the Nippon Foundation, a private, non-profit grant-making organization, to develop an automatic robotic inspection system to predict hazards on offshore oil and gas facilities, and improve the safety of inspection work on offshore platforms."The use of a wide variety of robots to enable unmanned operations and thereby reduce the risk of performing inspections on offshore platforms has long been considered…

The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has awarded Approval in Principle (AIP) to Samsung Heavy Industries’ (SHI) design for a one-side spread mooring system for a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility.The system developed by SHI allows an FLNG to be safely spread moored on one side, enabling LNG carriers to berth and load on the opposite side free from obstructions, ABS said."With more than 150 floating oil and gas facilities in the ABS-classed fleet, ABS is the market leader in classification of offshore production units, which includes FLNG assets.

The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency's (MCA) future oil spill response plan will be informed by a new report that maps out possible threats to the UK's coastal areas, marine life, and traffic as a result of hydrocarbon releases from energy industry operation and shipping.The report on the review of the hydrocarbon release risk on the UKCS over the next decade was delivered for the MCA, by Xodus Group, in association with London Marine Consultants.The review evaluated the risk of a serious mineral oil release occurring in UK waters from vessels of more than 1…

“Fireboats are basically an insurance policy.” -Meeting minutes, Southeast Texas Waterways Advisory Council (SETWAC).Developments in America’s coastal ports are causing officials to closely review maritime safety operations and equipment. Fireboats draw a lot of attention. The reference here is to big fireboats – 40-50 feet, crewed by specially trained firefighters, outfitted with the equipment required to confront and take on a range of waterway emergencies. [CBRN is a frequent acronym used with these fireboats: Chemical…

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. announced Thursday it is moving its corporate headquarters to Houston, positioning the nation’s largest dredging services provider nearer to major regional projects and opportunities. The firm will also open regional offices in Jacksonville, Fla., and Staten Island, N.Y.The move to Houston from from Oak Brook, Ill., which stems in part from changing industry dynamics, places the company closer to key regional customers and new markets, especially along the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River…

A cruise ship has arrived in Russia's northwesterly Murmansk region to accommodate healthy staff from a construction site run by the gas company Novatek, one of Russia's coronavirus hotspots, a local crisis centre said.Novatek, one of the world's top liquefied natural gas (LNG) companies, is building a facility to produce gravity-based platforms for its future LNG plants in Belokamenka near Murmansk, a region bordering Finland and Norway.Many of Russia's oil and gas facilities are located in remote areas where people live and work in close proximity for weeks on end, so that any contagious disease is hard to contain.Russia has nearly 166,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, more than France, of which 1,937 have been recorded in Belokamenka, according to the local crisis response centre.

Offshore oil and gas drilling operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico emit far more methane than government estimates suggest, according to a study released on Monday by the University of Michigan.Drilling platforms emit about half a teragram (Tg) of the planet-warming gas each year, according to the study, which claims to be the first to use aircraft to take direct samples of emissions during normal operations.By contrast, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agengy's Greenhouse Gas Inventory report last year found Gulf offshore platforms emitted about 0.33 Tg of methane…

Chinese oil and gas techincal services company Jutal Offshore Oil Services has announced that the company has obtained a slew of new contracts with total value of RMB3.5bn ($490mln).The number of new contracts include large-scale core modules construction of Arctic LNG 2 natural gas project, wind turbine jacket construction, and other offshore engineering and services said the company engaged in the fabrication of oil and gas facilities and oil and gas processing skid equipment business."Site construction of some large-scale construction projects have been gradually commenced, of which the core modules construction project for an international natural gas petrochemical plant has been completed of a total of approximately 27% of the progress as per scheduled…

Inmarsat will introduce two new satellite payloads dedicated to the Arctic region in a partnership with Space Norway, and its subsidiary Space Norway HEOSAT.The new Global Xpress (GX) payloads support the rapidly growing demand among both commercial and government users for seamless, reliable, high-speed mobile broadband services in the Arctic and throughout the world. They specifically address rising demand for high-speed mobile broadband Fleet Xpress service capability from the merchant shipping…

Dutch firm Heerema Marine Contractors and Singapore's Sembcorp Marine, on Thursday, showed off the world's largest crane vessel that can be used for the setup and decommissioning of offshore oil and gas facilities.The semi-submersible vessel, which cost Heerema about $1.5 billion, is equipped with two cranes that can reach a height of 220 metres, taller than the top of Singapore's iconic boat-shaped Marina Bay Sands hotel. The cranes have a combined lifting capacity of 20,000 tonnes…

Offshore renewable energy is gaining investment support in the United States, particularly on the east coast. While the U.S. is a full generation behind its European counterparts in tapping the wind as an energy source, if current plans come to fruition it could gain ground quickly. Recently we spoke with Astrid Skarheim Onsum, SVP, Head of Wind Aker Solutions, for her view on the path ahead and the growing role and promising future of ‘floating wind.’Please give an overview of your responsibilities as SVP…

Rotterdam Port Fund has invested in remote inspection robotics company ExRobotics, specialising in robots to operate in high risk environments such as oil and gas facilities.The Dutch robotics firm manfacturers modular robots that can carry out remote inspections of oil and gas facilities more efficiently and with a lower safety risk than those carried out by humans.ExRobotics will be working on the further development of this technology in close collaboration with knowledge institutes in the Netherlands and abroad.The participation of the Rotterdam Port Fund creates new opportunities for ExRobotics to increase its production capacity…

ABS granted Approval in Principle (AIP) to Hyundai Heavy Industries’ (HHI) Deepwater Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) hull design.HHI advises the Newbuilding Conversion FLNG hull design for offshore application can be constructed for about 80 percent less than the cost of a conventional FLNG hull. It is based on LNG carrier designs combined with the requirements for FLNG production, such as structural reinforcements to take topside module load and a hull designed to allow up to 25 years operation without dry-docking.“ABS is the market leader in the classification of offshore drilling and production units, including FLNG vessels, with more than 150 floating oil and gas facilities in the ABS-classed fleet,” said ABS Vice President Global Gas Solutions, Patrick Janssens.

Vitol said that the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) integrated oil and gas project offshore Ghana has commenced delivery of gas from the Sankofa field to Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).Both Vitol and GNPC are partners in the OCTP project alongside operator Eni. The offshore project is expected to provide stable supplies of cost effective and environmentally friendly, domestic fuel for the Ghanaian power sector, said Vitol.The estimated net cost of gas to Ghana will be less than $4.5/MMBtu, greatly reducing Ghana’s fuel costs compared to liquid fuels or imported gas.The project will provide approximately 180 MMscf/d for at least 15 years, sufficient to supply half of Ghana’s power generation requirements.

Kvaerner has entered into an agreement with Allseas for the recycling of the topside and bridge of the 36-year-old Valhall QP platform when Allseas removes this installation for operator Aker BP in 2019. The structures will be deconstructed during winter 2019 and spring 2020. Kvaerner has also signed a contract with Saipem Uk for disposal of the Varg A installation. Saipem will remove the installation from the field on behalf of Repsol. Varg A was originally  delivered by Kvaerner’s yard in Verdal, Norway in 1997. The topsides, mono-tower, piles and various ancillaries will be delivered to Kvaerner’s disposal site at Stord during the summer of 2018 for deconstruction and recycling.

Port Corpus Christi officials are confident that the agreement signed between Cheniere Energy of Houston and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) will bring increased traffic to the port, according to the San Antonio Business Journal. Officials from Cheniere accompanies President Trump on his tour to China and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese company. CNPC is the largest gas and oil supplier and producer in China and is also one of the largest providers of oilfied services.