Nerijus Adomaitis News

Greenpeace activists painted slogans on an Estonian-owned tanker in the middle of the Baltic Sea on Friday, and said the ship supplied bunker fuel to vessels transporting Russian oil that posed a danger to the environment and would fuel conflict."Oil fuels war," the campaigners, who arrived in small boats, scrawled in large white letters on the side of the Zircone tanker, pictures provided by Greenpeace showed.The vessel, sitting in international waters off the Swedish island of Gotland, has supplied fuel to more than 50 oil tankers travelling to or from Russian ports in the last two months, S

Norwegian oil companies resumed helicopter flights to offshore oil and gas fields on Friday following Wednesday's deadly crash off the country's west coast, operator Equinor and airports said on Friday.On Thursday helicopter traffic was halted to oil and gas platforms following the crash in which one person died and five were injured. Norway said it was considering grounding Sikorsky's S-92A aircraft model while investigating the accident."Based on dialogue with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)…

Sweden on Wednesday dropped its investigation into the explosions in 2022 on Nord Stream pipelines carrying Russian gas to Germany, saying it lacked jurisdiction in the case but had handed evidence it had uncovered over to German investigators.The multi-billion-dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines transporting gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of blasts in the Swedish and Danish economic zones in September 2022, releasing vast amounts of methane into the air.Russia and the West…

Norway's minority government and two opposition parties have agreed to allow seabed mineral exploration in the Arctic region, they said on Tuesday, in a key step towards full-scale ocean mining.The deal comes as Norway hopes to become the first country to make deep-sea mining happen on a commercial scale and secure critical minerals and jobs despite concerns over the environmental impact and international calls for a moratorium.The amended version of the government's proposal, which parliament will formally debate on Jan.

International energy companies, from Germany's RWE to Spain's Iberdrola, are urging Japan to beef up offshore wind power auctions and make investments more attractive, amid soaring installation costs as competition for suppliers grows worldwide.Although desperate to ease its heavy dependence on energy imports from the Middle East and Russia, Japan is coming late to offshore wind, but some industry players say it is taking a more cautious approach that puts it at a disadvantage."It's a global race and we can't look at it in isolation…

Environmental groups on Tuesday will ask a Norwegian court to block the development of three North Sea oil and gas fields, citing insufficient assessment of global climate impact from future petroleum use.The lawsuit filed by Greenpeace and its partner Nature and Youth concerns the Equinor-operated Breidablikk and Aker BP's Yggdrasil and Tyrving fields, which hold combined reserves of some 875 million barrels of oil equivalent.The two NGOs in 2020 lost a case against Arctic drilling at Norway's top court…

A Russian fiber optic cable under the Baltic Sea was completely severed last month when a Chinese container ship passed over it, state company Rostelecom said on Tuesday.Finnish investigators have already said they suspect the vessel, the NewNew Polar Bear, of causing serious damage to the nearby Balticconnector gas pipeline by dragging its anchor over the sea bed during the same voyage.Two other Baltic telecoms cables were damaged on the same night of Oct. 7 along the route that the ship was travelling…

The three incidents that resulted in damage to a gas pipeline and two telecom cables between Estonia, Finland and Sweden "are related", Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said.Finnish police leading the pipeline investigation have named the Hong Kong-flagged container carrier NewNew Polar Bear as the prime suspect in damaging the Balticconnector Finland-Estonia gas pipeline early on Oct. 8.A large anchor was found near the pipeline, and the investigators believe the pipe was…

A Norwegian Navy ship shadowed a Chinese container ship investigated over damage to a gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland for about 15 hours as it sailed along the western coast of Norway on Monday, vessel tracking data showed.Finnish investigators on Tuesday said they were looking into the Chinese vessel, the NewNew Polar Bear, and a Russian-flagged ship, the Sevmorput, as well as other vessels, present in the area when a Baltic Sea pipeline was damaged on Oct. 8.They said the incident was due to "outside activity" and could have been deliberate.The NewNew Polar Bear is a container ship travelling between Europe and China via the Northern Sea Route in the Arctic.

Finnish investigators looking into damage to a Finnish-Estonian gas pipeline said on Tuesday they are probing several ships, including one Chinese and one Russia-owned, which were present in the Gulf of Finland at the time.“Investigation measures have been focused on several vessels, such as Newnew Polarbear and Sevmorput, but also on others which according to data have been in the area at the time of the damage,” Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation added in a statement.Related: Finland Can't Rule Out 'State Actor' Involvement in Pipeline Damage(Reuters - Reporting Anne Kauranen, writin

Norway sovereign wealth fund said on Tuesday it revoked the exclusion of Thoresen Thai Agencies from its investments, and ended observation of Hyundai Glovis Co.It had previously excluded one and put another company on observation due to their practice of sending decommissioned vessels to be broken up for scrap in Bangladesh and Pakistan where working conditions were "extremely poor," according to the fund.Thoresen Thai Agencies has not sent any more vessels to Bangladesh since 2018, while Hyundai Glovis established a new policy for responsible disposal of decommissioned vessels, it added in a

Seismic group TGS, a supplier of key data to the oil industry, has agreed to buy loss-making rival PGS in an all-share deal valued at 9.3 billion Norwegian crowns ($864 million), the two Oslo-listed companies said on Monday.The groups expect "significant economies of scale" from the combination, with a preliminary estimate of cost cuts amounting to $50 million, they said in a joint statement.The deal, if approved by regulators, will give TGS ownership of seven modern seismic ships…

The Norwegian government on Tuesday proposed opening its waters to deep-sea mining despite opposition from green campaigners and some countries, as it seeks to shift from a reliance on hydrocarbons to new sources of economic activity.Norway, whose vast oil and gas reserves made it one of the world's wealthiest countries, has taken a leading role in the global race to mine the ocean floor for metals that are in high demand as countries transition away from fossil fuels."We need minerals to succeed with the green transition…

Inspections of Norway's offshore gas pipelines after the Nord Stream blasts found nothing suspicious, an executive at energy major Equinor told Reuters, in the first official word on the security sweep.However, risks remain after last year's still-unexplained explosions at the Nord Stream pipelines built to carry Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, warned Jannicke Nilsson, who manages security for Equinor.Europe's largest gas supplier after a drop in Russian flows last year, Equinor also acts as technical service provider for offshore pipelines operator Gassco.

Norway's Loke Marine Minerals has acquired deep-sea mining firm UK Seabed Resources (UKSR) from Lockheed Martin, the companies said on Thursday.UKSR holds a 100% interest in two deep sea mineral licences in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific Ocean, and a 19.9% interest in the Ocean Mineral Singapore, licences issued by the International Seabed Authority (ISA)."We've got the approval from the UK government... Our ambition is to start extraction from 2030," Hans Olav Hide…

The market for old oil tankers is booming, and it's all down to efforts by Western nations to curb trade in Russian crude.As Western shipping and maritime services firms steer clear of Russian oil to avoid falling foul of sanctions or harming their reputations, new companies have leapt into the void, and they're snapping up old tankers that might normally be scrapped.The European Union banned all seaborne Russian crude imports from Dec. 5, with a fuel import ban to follow in February.

Norway has deployed a specialist vessel to inspect a subsea gas pipeline to Germany because of safety concerns after suspected sabotage last month on two Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany, according to sources and data.Norway, Europe's largest gas supplier, last week put its energy sector on high alert, deploying its navy and air force to patrol offshore facilities and placing soldiers at onshore gas processing plants after the Sept. 26 Nord Stream blasts.The Havila Subsea, an oil service vessel equipped with remotely operated subsea vehicles, was deployed on Oct. 5 to survey the Europipe II pipeline that runs from the Kaarstoe gas plant in Norway to Dornum in Germany, Refinitiv vessel-tracking data shows.

Global oil companies are pumping billions of dollars into offshore drilling, reversing a long decline in spending on the decades-long projects, including some in the remote iceberg waters far off Canada's Atlantic coast.Surging oil prices are encouraging the investments, along with Europe's mounting energy demand as the Ukraine-Russia war drags on. Offshore production sites are more expensive to build than onshore shale, the last decade's investment darling. But once they are up and running…

Seaborne oil has thrown a lifeline to refiners in eastern Germany and Poland, with non-Russian deliveries into the Polish port of Gdansk hitting at least seven-year highs this month as they switch away from Russian supply.Imports booked for May into Gdansk from Egypt, the United States, Norway, Britain and West Africa had hit 8.4 million barrels by May 16, their highest level according to Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking data that goes back to 2015.At the same time, Russian crude booked for May into Gdansk and the port of Rostock stood at 700…

The European Commission has proposed new sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, including a ban on buying Russian coal and on Russian ships entering EU ports. Yet the EU faces an uphill slog to wean itself of energy imports from its Eastern neighbor.Following is a summary of key facts about the EU's use of Russian oil:How much Russian oil does the EU import?Europe is the destination for nearly half of Russia's crude and petroleum product exports, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA)…

The European Union has agreed to ban the bulk of imports of Russian crude and oil products in its latest round of sanctions following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.The ban on seaborne crude imports will be phased in over six months and for seaborne refined products over eight months. It excludes deliveries via the Druzhba oil pipeline which supplies refineries in Eastern Europe and eastern Germany.Yet many European buyers have voluntarily suspended purchases of Russian oil or announced plans to phase it out…

Norway’s Hammerfest liquefied natural gas plant has resumed operation as planned and is preparing to restart LNG production, a spokesperson for operator Equinor told Reuters on Friday.The plant has been offline for 20 months following a fire in September of 2020.LNG is made by cooling gas to temperatures that liquefy it, thus allowing large quantities to be transported by ship.“We have resumed operations and started cool down of the plant. We will issue a press release when we have LNG to tank…

Engineering firm, a major supplier to the oil industry, has decided to pay a regular dividend and buy back stock as it swung to a full-year profit in 2021 and its outlook improved, the company said on Thursday.Subsea 7 said it "firmly" believed that the market recovery was underway based on increased interest from its customers and it now expects its 2022 earnings to be "in line or better" than last year.Its Oslo-listed shares rose 6.5% by 1019 GMT, on track for their biggest daily gains in some 18 months, following the release of its October-December and full-year earnings.Analysts said the s