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Low Oil News

17 Jan 2024

Hunter Group Signs Charter for Eco-Design VLCC

© Jouni Niskakoski / Adobe Stock

Norwegian shipowner Hunter Group has entered into a three-year back-to-back charterparty for an eco-design and scrubber fitted Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) with an internationally renowned counterparty.Delivery of the 2016-built vessel is expected to take place during March/April 2024.The company will charter the vessel in at a fixed rate of $51,000 per day, before subsequently chartering the vessel out on a floating index-linked spot rate contract."This agreement is yet another…

13 Feb 2023

Kongsberg Kit for Italy's Submarine Rescue Ship

The new SDO-SuRS (Special and Diving Operations - Submarine Rescue Ship) to be built by the Italian shipyard T.Mariotti for the Italian navy. Image courtesy Kongsber/T. Mariotti

Kongsberg Maritime will provide a suite of equipment to a newbuild ship dubbed SDO-SuRS (Special and Diving Operations - Submarine Rescue Ship) to be built by the Italian shipyard T.Mariotti for Marina Militare Italiana (The Italian Navy).Central to this order are a pair of Kongsberg Elegance propulsion pods, direct electric permanent magnet motor driven pods matched with a Kongsberg electric power system, including batteries and power management system.According to Kongsberg…

30 Aug 2022

Wabtec's Power Play

Image courtesy Reinauer Transportation

With shipowners pressed to upgrade machinery to meet strict new emission targets, there’s much confusion with chatter surrounding ‘decarbonization’ and ‘future fuels’, solutions that don’t exist today – and may not exist in mass for another generation – cluttering the conversation. Enter Wabtec, formerly GE Transportation, which today offers a Tier 4 compliant engine with no need for urea. Is it the cheapest propulsion solution on the market? No. But the Pennsylvania-based engine builder mounts a compelling case for its 250MDC diesel engine based on performance…

02 Feb 2022

First of Four FPSOs Deployed at Petrobras' Mero Field

© Modec

The Guanabara FPSO has arrived at the Mero field in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil, the Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras has informed.The FPSO, also known as Mero 1, will be the first 'definitive' oil production system at the Mero field, the third largest pre-salt field behind Búzios and Tupi. MODEC is responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction, mobilization, installation and operation of the FPSO, including topsides processing equipment as well as hull and marine systems.

17 Jan 2022

Kongsberg Propulsion for Norwind Offshore's New Vessels

Credit: Kongsberg Maritime

Norwind Offshore, a new offshore wind-focused ship-owning company recently established in Norway by Farstad, Volstad, and Kleven, will install Kongsberg equipment to its two new Commissioning Service Operations Vessels (CSOVs), to be built by VARD."Kongsberg Maritime’s scope of delivery encompasses a combination of systems which will enable the operator to maximize operational windows whilst minimizing overall energy consumption," Kongsberg said."Key to this is the propulsion technology…

12 Aug 2021

Belgium's Euronav Posts 2Q Loss on Low Oil Tanker Demand

File Photo: Euronav

Belgium's Euronav, which provides shipping and storage services for crude oil, swung to a second-quarter loss, it said on Thursday, as recovering demand for oil and easing production cuts had yet to lead to better shipping rates.The Antwerp-based group posted a loss of $89.7 million for the period compared to a $259.6 million profit a year earlier."Improving crude demand and the tapering of OPEC+ production cuts have yet to translate into freight rate recovery," Chief Executive…

20 May 2021

Royal IHC: 'Recovery in Sight' After Challenging 2020

Image courtesy Royal IHC

As many maritime markets were challenged by COVID-19, Royal IHC, a Dutch maritime conglomerate and bellwether for the industry, reported its annual numbers indicated the smoke is clearing and a recovery is in sight.2020 will surely go down as a year many inside and out of the maritime industry will want to soon forget, and in releasing its annual figures Royal IHC noted that the first half of 2020 was dominated by refinancing and recapitalization, with COVID-19 having a "major impact" on order intakes throughout 2020.

02 Feb 2021

AT 80: ZF Debuts New Thruster Range

The new thruster model range AT 80 from ZF can be adapted to customer requests in various configurations – such as when used as Z-Drive. Photo: ZF

ZF launched its new ZF AT 80 thruster model range today via the SMM Digital maritime trade fair. The range is available as a 360-degree steerable thruster and as a retractable propulsion system, or as a bow thruster, effectively broadening its appeal among ship owners, shipbuilders and naval architects."With this model range, we have created a new generation of environmentally friendly, powerful and efficient propulsion solutions. This way, naval architects, shipyards and fleet…

25 Nov 2020

BIMCO on Tanker Shipping; The Worst is Not Over

Source: BIMCO

While the tanker market had a strong run at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released this morning by BIMCO, tanker shipping will not benefit this year from the usual strong winter seasonal effect. Though the new lockdowns being introduced in many countries are less strict than in the spring, the effect on tanker shipping will be worse, given the supply glut of Q2. The news of an effective vaccine offers some hope of a global oil demand recovery but, however it comes about…

24 Nov 2020

Nigerian Court Jails Seven for Stealing Oil

Credit:  alexlmx/AdobeStock

A Nigerian court has sentenced six foreigners and one Nigerian to seven years in prison for oil theft, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said on Tuesday, three years after the navy arrested 10 suspects with a vessel carrying crude oil off the Niger Delta.The suspects - a Nigerian, two Pakistanis, three Ghanaians, one Indonesian, one Beninois and two Ukrainians - had siphoned about two thousand metric tonnes of crude oil from a loading facility belonging to Shell Petroleum…

28 Oct 2020

Petrobras to Buy P-71 FPSO and Deploy It on Itapu Field

Petrobras 71 FPSO - Credit: Petrobras

Brazilian national oil company Petrobras has agreed to buy the P-71 Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel and use it for the development of the Itapu field.Petrobras said that the FPSO was to be used at the Tupi field, however, after negotiations with its partners in BM-S-11 Consortium, Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda (25%) and Petrogal Brasil S.A. (10%), Petrobras agreed to buy the FPSO for $353 million, the amount corresponding to the partners' share in P-71.The P-71…

06 Oct 2020

Jack-Up Barge Solutions Target Offshore Efficiency

(Photo: Jack-Up Barge)

Dutch offshore self-elevating platform and services provider Jack-Up Barge BV believes innovative and cost-efficient solutions are needed now more than ever across the offshore oil and gas and renewables businesses.The current market faces challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic and low oil prices to wind farms that have spiraled in size from 2-3 MW turbines to 12 MW turbines in just a few years. It’s a constantly changing landscape, and the risk is that if the industry keeps doing things the same way, it’ll get the same results, says Jack-Up Barge.

12 Aug 2020

Hermitage Offshore Services Files for Chapter 11

Offshore vessel owner Hermitage Offshore Services, hit by prolonged low oil prices and business fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, said it has voluntarily filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.New York-listed Hermitage, part of the Scorpio Group, said it filed for Chapter 11 after failing to reach a financial restructuring deal with lenders out of court."While the company would have preferred to complete its financial restructuring out of court, it was unable to reach a consensual agreement with its lenders, which made filing Chapter 11 necessary to provide a single forum for all continuing conversations with its lenders…

29 Jul 2020

Analysts: Temasek Might Drop $3B Bid to Acquire Controlling Stake in Keppel

Keppel Tuas Shipyard - Credit: Keppel Corp.

Temasek Holding's $3 billion bid to acquire a controlling stake in Keppel Corp will be under scrutiny on Thursday as a big quarterly profit drop at the conglomerate could raise the risk of the state investor dropping its proposal, analysts said.Keppel last week warned that material impairments relating to its offshore and marine segment (O&M) would hurt profits, which analysts say could breach so-called material adverse change (MAC) clauses of Temasek's offer.Analysts said the impairments would typically affect net asset value and net profit after tax…

24 Jul 2020

TAS Terminates Shipbuilding Deals for 16 Offshore Vessels

Illustration - Image by corlaffra/AdobeStock

Malaysian offshore vessel operator TAS Offshore has canceled shipbuilding contracts for 16 offshore support vessels.The company had signed the contracts in the 2013-2015 period with two Chinese shipbuilders Guangzhou Hangtong Shipbuilding and Shipping Co. Ltd. (“HangTong”) and Jiangmen Hangtong Shipbuilding Co.The contracts were for 16 offshore support vessels with values ranging from $10.38 million to $39.38 million per vessel.The vessels had initially been slated for delivery between 2014 to 2017…

03 Jun 2020

Allseas to Cut Crew Headcount 'By a Few Hundred'

Allseas' Pioneering Spirit vessel removing the Valhall QP 3,800 t QP topsides in June 2019  - Image Credit: Allseas

Offshore installation, construction, and decommissioning company Allseas is planning workforce cuts due to a bleak outlook for offshore projects in the wake of low oil prices and COVID-19 pandemic.In a statement sent to Offshore Engineer, Allseas said the market situation has caused current and future projects to be deferred or canceled and has thus forced the company to reduced its workforce by "a few hundred.""[The market situation] forces us to implement essential short-term…

25 May 2020

BIMCO Tanker Rate Analysis: Reality Kicks In, Rates Fall

Source: BIMCO, Clarksons

Tanker shipping: sky high freight rates replaced by reality of falling global oil demandGeopolitical tensions have now eased, leaving freight rates to feel the full effects of the weak underlying market and falling demand. Tanker shipping looks set to be under pressure for the rest of the year.Demand drivers and freight ratesThe tanker shipping industry was once again caught in a whirlwind, as freight rates skyrocketed with little regard to the poor market fundamentals before the latter once again caught up with rates.

24 Apr 2020

Maersk Drilling to Mothball Several Rigs, Reduce North Sea Headcount

A Maersk Drilling rig - Image Credit: Maersk Drilling

Danish offshore drilling contractor Maersk Drilling is set to mothball several offshore drilling rigs, and as a consequence, reduce the number of offshore workers, citing low oil prices and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic as the reason."The COVID-19 pandemic and the lower oil price environment are impacting offshore drilling activity. Some tenders and projects are being delayed or canceled which adversely affects commercial prospects," Maersk Drilling said Friday.As previously reported, Tullow Oil in March sent an early termination notice for the Maersk Venturer drillship in Ghana.

12 May 2020

ESVAGT Delays Investments, Cuts Salaries

Image Credit: ESVAGT

Danish offshore vessels owner ESVAGT will cut executive and staff pay, and delay investments in response to the low oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic.Peter Lytzen, the CEO of the company that provides emergency response and rescue vessels (ERRV) and service operation vessels (SOV), said, "Our oil and gas business is challenged in two essential areas of the current situation.""The fact that oil storage is full and oil and gas prices are low means that no investments are being made in well drillings. This has an impact on the ERRV spot market, which is a considerable part of our business.

13 May 2020

Namdock is Back to Business

Photo: Namdock

Namibian ship repair company Namdock has resumed full operations with effect from Tuesday, in accordance with the inception of stage 2 of Namibia’s national COVID-19 lockdown, which has seen the partial easing of restrictive measures thanks to the recent flattening of the minimal in-country infection curve.“Over the past few weeks we have put strict personal protection and sanitization measures in place, to ensure that we could safely resume full-capacity operations when the time came.

22 May 2020

Esvagt CEO: No Job Cuts and Furloughs

(File Photo: Esvagt)

At these difficult times when companies involved in the offshore industry are cutting jobs across the board as one of the ways to preserve cash, there's one offshore vessel operator that, while indeed cutting salaries, is keeping the jobs in place.Esvagt, the Danish provider of emergency response and rescue vessels (ERRV) and service operation vessels (SOV) to the offshore energy industry, mostly in the North Sea, earlier this month said it would cut executive and staff pay, and delay investments.The pay cuts and investment delays are a response to the low oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic…

22 Apr 2020

Oil Prices Hit 1990s Low

Oil prices slumped again on Wednesday, with Brent falling to the lowest since 1999, as the market struggled with a massive crude glut amid a collapse in demand for everything from gasoline to jet fuel caused by the coronavirus outbreak.Brent crude, which fell 24% in the previous session, touched $15.98 a barrel, its lowest since June 1999. It was trading down $2.37, or 12%, at $16.96 at 0511 GMT.West Texas Intermediate was down 51 cents, or 4.4%, at $11.06 a barrel.The falls follow two of the wildest days in the history of oil trading…

23 Apr 2020

Keppel Delivers New Jack-Up Drilling Rig to Borr Drilling

Hild Jack-up rig - Image Credit: Keppel Corp.

Singapore-based offshore drilling rig builder Keppel Offshore & Marine has delivered a newbuild jack-up drilling rig to Norway's Borr Drilling.The rig, named Hild, was built to Keppel's KFELS Super B Class design. The Hild is the sixth jack-up that Keppel has delivered to Borr Drilling, out of the 11 that have been ordered. It is capable of operating in 400 feet water depth and drilling to 35,000 feet. The jack-up is equipped with a maximum combined cantilever load of 2,700 kips and high capacity hook loads of two million poundsFollowing this delivery…