Natural Gas Platform News

The heads of NATO and the European Commission flew on Friday to a North Sea platform bigger than the Eiffel Tower in a visit underlining Norway's importance for gas supplies since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.The Troll A platform extracts gas from Norway's biggest gas field. After a drop in Russian flows, the Nordic country last year became the largest gas supplier to the EU.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will discuss the protection of infrastructure and gas supplies to Europe with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere…

Crowley Maritime Corp. has announced that Tim Bush has been promoted to vice president and deputy general counsel. In his new position, Bush will help support the company’s growth as a provider of solutions for the U.S. government and various public-sector agencies. He will be based in Houston and report to Michael Roberts, senior vice president and general counsel. “Tim is an outstanding lawyer, and adds a great deal of value to the Crowley team,” Roberts said. Bush will continue to serve as Crowley’s lead attorney on several large projects for the U.S government, including the Defense Freight Transportation Services (DFTS) contract for the U.S.

Four crewmembers aboard the lift boat Superior Trust were rescued after the vessel became unstable near Southwest Pass, La., Wednesday. U.S. Coast Guard Sector New Orleans watchstanders received a call early Wednesday morning reporting one of the Superior Trust’s legs failed and made contact with a natural gas platform’s walkway resulting in approximately 10 gallons of oil discharge. Coast Guard Station Venice launched a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium boatcrew that arrived on scene and transported the Superior Trust crew back to shore. There were no reported injuries. Coast Guard Cutter Brant crewmembers later arrived on scene to monitor the lift boat, and Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans MH-65 aircrew conducted an over flight.

Brazil oil regulator says 3 dead, 10 injured in Petrobras platform explosion   An explosion at an offshore Petrobras oil and natural gas platform killed three workers and injured 10 more, Brazil's oil regulator ANP confirmed in a statement on Wednesday.   The explosion, caused by a gas leak, occurred on a floating oil platform (FPSO) called Cidade de São Mateus which is owned by Norwegian-listed BW Offshore and contracted to Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known.     (Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Chris Reese)

At least three oil workers were killed and others were injured in an explosion on Wednesday at an offshore oil and natural gas platform in Brazil operated by state-run energy company Petroleo Brasileiro SA , union officials said. The workers were killed in an explosion aboard the Cidade de São Mateus, a floating oil production, storage and offloading ship (FPSO), said Davidson Lombo, finance director of Sindepetro-ES, the union representing workers on the platform. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.

The U.S. Coast Guard launched several assets in response to a report of a fire on board a natural gas drill platform in Cook Inlet Thursday. The Coast Guard diverted a Coast Guard Hercules HC-130 crew and an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew to conduct an overflight of the Baker Platform in Cook Inlet, near Nikiski. The Coast Guard also launched the Coast Guard Cutter Mustang and the diverted the Coast Guard Cutter SPAR to the location. A five-mile, no-fly safety zone at 5,000 feet and a two-mile safety zone have been established around the platform. All four people aboard the platform were safety evacuated. "Our goal is to mitigate any potential risk to the environment," said Cmdr. Shane Montoya, the Coast Guard Federal On-Scene Coordinator and acting Coast Guard Sector Anchorage commander.

Since 2010, there has been a steadily increasing trend of piracy attacks in Southeast Asia, according to a report released by UNITAR (UN Institute for Training and Research), with 150 separate incidents just from last year alone. After significant strides in reducing the number of hijackings near war-torn Somalia over the past few years, the United Nations declared last month that the epicenter of piracy activity is now in waters off Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The MT Oriental Glory, a Malaysian tanker carrying oil gas cargo, was hijacked two weeks ago in the South China Sea, an apparent and alarming verification that this report is already coming to fruition.

ABB wins Statoil order to install high voltage power subsea cables  to the 'Troll' A gas platform on the western coast of Norway. The Troll A concrete deep water structure is the world’s largest natural gas production platform, 473 meters tall and weighs 1.2 million tons; it is the tallest structure ever to be moved by mankind. The platform can produce as much as 120 million cubic meters per day; it contains approximately 40 percent of the natural gas reserves on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and is a cornerstone of the gas supply to the European Continent.

A major natural gas leak shut down the Norwegian Visund offshore oil and natural gas platform, AP reported. No one was injured in the incident, but 17 of 91 crew members aboard were flown to a nearby North Sea platform by helicopter as a precaution when gas and fire alarms sounded. It was a major leak, but that strong winds kept the gas away from the platform itself. Gas leaks on offshore platforms can cause catastrophic explosions and fires, often far from shore, and the agency said it was investigating the incident. Visund was the sixth Statoil-operated field suffering problems this week. The total lost production is 250,000 barrels per day of oil and condensate, also called light oil, and about 50 million cubic meters of natural gas.