Gulf Of Mexico News

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…

The first liquefied natural gas tanker to go to Cameron LNG's export plant in Louisiana since Hurricane Delta was set to arrive on Tuesday.Golar Seal was [on Tuesday] sailing up the Calcasieu Ship Channel on its way to Cameron, according to Refinitiv ship tracking data.The last vessel to go to Cameron was SK Audace on Oct. 4-5, according to the Refinitiv data. That tanker left before Hurricane Delta hit the coast near Cameron on Oct. 9.The U.S. Coast Guard said it will allow vessels…

Tankers were entering and leaving Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas export plant in Louisiana despite draft limitations in the Sabine-Neches Waterway after a rig ran aground in the channel over the weekend.The U.S. Coast Guard said a large semi-submersible rig, called the Jasminia, drifted into and ran aground in the Sabine Bank Channel, limiting vessels entering the waterway to those with a maximum draft of 36 feet (11 meters).The waterway sits on the Texas…

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday that a large semi-submersible rig drifted into and ran aground in the Sabine Bank Channel, limiting vessels entering the Sabine-Neches Waterway to those with a maximum draft of 32 feet (9.8 meters).The waterway sits on the Texas-Louisiana border and connects the Gulf of Mexico to Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant and to oil refineries in Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas.That area is west of where two hurricanes struck in recent weeks.

U.S. subsea services firm Harvey Gulf Subsea Solutions has selected Oceaneering for ROV and support services onboard its four Jones act compliant offshore vessels. Oceaneering will provide eight Millennium Plus ROV systems, personnel, and accompanying survey suites in a multi-year deal supporting Harvey Gulf Subsea's operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. offshore support vessel company Harvey Gulf International has ordered Wärtsilä's energy storage system for four of its platform supply vessels.The order comes just after Harvey said in September it had completed an upgrade of its platform supply vessel Harvey Energy, making it the first "tri-fuel" PSV in the U.S. The upgrade included a Wärtsilä battery-power system on the PSV which was already a dual-fuel vessel capable of fully operating on LNG or diesel.Now, the company will have five offshore vessels capable of full tri-fuel operation…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Wednesday that it may be able to clear enough debris from Hurricane Delta to open the Calcasieu Ship Channel in Louisiana to vessels drafting up to 30 feet (9.14 m) with restrictions by the end of the week.The Army Corps, however, said it does not have a timeline for restoration to full deep draft (40 feet) traffic.Analysts said a fully laden liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker has a draft of around 40 feet.

The future USS Mobile (LCS 26) completed acceptance trials in the Gulf of Mexico on September 25, Mobile, Ala. shipbuilder Austal USA announced. LCS 26 is the third Austal-built ship for the U.S. Navy to complete acceptance trials in 2020.“I am proud of how the Austal team has come together again, in the middle of this pandemic, only a week after a Cat 2 hurricane made landfall in our backyard, completing another major milestone for one of our Navy ships - especially one so near and dear to us, named after our great city of Mobile, Alabama,” said Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Tuesday it has identified three obstructions from Hurricane Delta that have to be removed before it can reopen the Calcasieu Ship Channel in Louisiana to deep draft vessels.The Army Corps, however, said it needs more data before it can estimate how long it will take to dredge the channel.That channel allows tankers to access the Cameron liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant, the Lake Charles refineries owned by Citgo Petroleum Corp and…

Delfin Midstream (“Delfin”) has informed that the FEED has been completed for the Newbuild FLNG Vessel for the Delfin LNG project offshore Louisiana, in cooperation with Samsung Heavy Industries and Black & Veatch.Delfin LNG project has been described as a brownfield Deepwater Port "requiring minimal additional infrastructure investment to support up to four FLNG Vessels producing up to 13 million tonnes of LNG per annum."Commenting on the completion of the FLNG FEED Delfin said: "The tripartite cooperation has been successful in developing a robust…

U.S. energy companies were returning workers and restarting operations at storm-swept production facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday, two days after Hurricane Delta barreled through the area.Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BHP Group were returning workers to production platforms in the U.S.-regulated northern Gulf of Mexico, the companies said.BHP expect[ed] to complete the return of workers to its Shenzi and Neptune production platforms on Sunday, spokeswoman Judy Dane said…

Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding has delivered a newly built self-unloading barge to VanEnkevort Tug & Barge for operation on the Great Lakes.The new barge, named Michigan Trader, measures 740 feet in length, 78 feet in beam, and 45 feet in depth. The barge has a 265-foot unloading boom and capacity for up to 37,000 long tons of cargo.David Groh, president of VanEnkevort Tug & Barge, said Michigan Trader will be the fourth self-unloading barge in the company's Great Lakes fleet. The barge will be the 10th in the VTB fleet…

A strengthening Hurricane Delta dealt the greatest blow to U.S. offshore Gulf of Mexico production in 15 years, halting most of the region's oil and nearly two-thirds of its natural gas output.An already large and powerful storm, Delta could intensify further on Friday as it churns through the Gulf's prime oil-producing area. Its winds reached 120 miles per hour (195 kmh), according to the National Hurricane Center.Delta has shut 1.67 million barrels per day, or 92% of the Gulf's oil output…

More than half a dozen liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers were waiting to enter U.S. export plants in the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Delta marches toward the Gulf Coast.Most tankers were located outside of Cheniere Energy Inc’s Sabine Pass and Cameron LNG’s Cameron plants in Louisiana, according to data from Refinitiv. There were also a few outside of Freeport LNG’s Freeport plant in Texas.Delta is expected to slam into central Louisiana as a major hurricane on Friday, putting the storm closer to Cameron than Sabine.

Mexico's naval authorities on Tuesday ordered the closure of oil, cargo and passenger ports in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean ahead of Hurricane Delta, expected to sweep the Yucatan peninsula overnight.Ports shuttered to large ships included Dos Bocas in Tabasco and oil installations in Campeche.(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; editing by Drazen Jorgic)

Energy companies were securing offshore production platforms and evacuating workers on Tuesday, some for the sixth time this year, as a major hurricane took aim at U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.Hurricane Delta, the 25th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season, was churning in the Caribbean with sustained winds of 140 miles per hour (225 kph), already a dangerous Category 4 storm that is expected to scrape across Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and re-enter the…

Energy companies on Monday began evacuating offshore oil platforms as the 25th named storm of the year formed in the Caribbean and was forecast to become a major hurricane before it entered the Gulf of Mexico and threatens the U.S. mainland.Tropical Storm Delta was expected to rapidly strengthen and become a Category 3 hurricane with up to 120 mile per hour (194 kilometers per hour) winds. It was about 160 miles south southwest of Negril, Jamaica, on Monday evening and moving west at 8 mph.Delta will bring rain…

The U.S. Coast Guard’s ninth national security cutter, Stone (WMSL 758), has completed acceptance sea trials, Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division announced Friday.Having recently spent two days in the Gulf of Mexico proving its systems, Stone is scheduled to deliver later this year and will be homeported in Charleston, S.C.Ingalls in Pascagoula, Miss. has delivered eight Legend-class NSCs with two more under construction and one additional under…

Offshore vessel operator Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) will build and operate the first-ever U.S. flagged Jones Act compliant Service Operations Vessel (SOV), used for offshore wind farm operation and maintenance works.Edison Chouest Offshore, Ørsted, and Eversource announced Thursday the execution of a long-term charter agreement for the provision of the SOV."The SOV will be engineered, constructed and operated by ECO as an integral part of the operation and maintenance of the Revolution Wind…

Global mobile satellite communications provider Inmarsat plans to extend its Fleet LTE coverage for offshore service vessels to the Gulf of Mexico.Inmarsat said that the decision to expand in the Gulf of Mexico followed successful trials with V.Ships Offshore in the North Sea area in early 2020."In conjunction with Inmarsat’s service provider One Net, the North Sea trials were undertaken with ship management company V.Ships Offshore at the beginning of 2020, delivering hybrid connectivity via 4G cellular plus satellite coverage on VSAT Ka-band and L-band…

Ocean mapping at scale is the target of a new unmanned systems player started by two ex-US Navy SEALS. They have big ambitions, from new building unmanned vehicles to creating the intelligence that will drive them to changing how accessible ocean data is. Elaine Maslin learned more. The pace of change in the ocean mapping space has been fast in recent years. New entrants have come into the scene offering “force multiplier” mapping using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and unmanned surface vessels (USVs).

The captain and crew of a Hong Kong-flagged containership came to the rescue of a sailboat crew in distress on Sunday amid severe weather and waves during storm Sally, in the Gulf of Mexico, some 130 nautical miles west of Port Tampa Bay, Fla.The COSCO SHIPPING Lines containership COSCO Malaysia was en route from Mobile, Ala. to Port Tampa Bay when it received a distress call from the sailboat Yes Dear at 8:22 a.m. local time and immediately carried out rescue operations under instruction from local U.S.

Energy companies, ports and refiners raced on Monday to shut down as Hurricane Sally grew stronger while lumbering toward the central U.S. Gulf Coast, the second significant hurricane to shutter oil and gas activity over the last month.The hurricane is disrupting oil imports and exports as the nation's sole offshore terminal, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), stopped loading tanker ships on Sunday, while the port of New Orleans closed on Monday.The U.S. government said 21%…