North Sea News

Two installations from Spirit Energy’s ST-1 in the North Sea have arrived at the Dales Voe decommissioning facility in Shetland, Scotland, with works set to be carried out by partners Veolia and Peterson.The 45-metre high 1,300 tonne steel jacket and 1,200 tonne topsides structure arrived into Dales Voe in Lerwick.The structures will be dismantled and disposed of by partners Veolia and Peterson. Now at the end of their working life recovering these platforms is important to maximize the value of the materials and assets they contain…

The  American/British-owned German cruise line AIDA Cruises announced that it is planning the first practical trial of fuel cells (battery power) aboard an AIDA ship by 2021.The trial will take place in cooperation with Meyer Werft within the scope of the ‘Pa-X-ell 2’ project promoted by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure.The German brand of Carnival Corporation said in a press note that it has been focusing for many years in research into and the…

The North Sea "wind harvest" of the first half of 2019 exceeds the first half of 2018 by 16 percent.TenneT Holding said in a press release that in the first half of 2019, the wind energy transmitted from the North Sea to land by the transmission grid operator TenneT rose to 9.51 terawatt hours (TWh).This corresponds to an increase of a good 16 percent compared with the first half of 2018 (8.17 TWh), said the transmission system operator in the Netherlands and in a large part of…

The decarbonization drive is gearing up to be the defining issue faced by the shipping sector in the coming decades and the industry is searching for low carbon and zero emissions technologies that will deliver on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) initial strategy of reducing emissions by at least 50% by 2050. One family of technologies that is seeing an upsurge of interest in the industry is wind-assist and primary wind propulsion solutions. Today the Paris headquartered…

In 1941, geologist Orval Lester Brace stated “it may be tentatively assumed that the Gulf of Mexico is a potential source of salt-dome oil. Whether or not it will be economically feasible to explore these waters for the domes that must exist is a question for the future to answer.”  The future hypothesized by Mr. Brace was not nearly as far off as it seemed. Less than six years after his proclamation, Kerr-McGee Oil Industries, along with Phillips Petroleum, Stanolind Oil and Gas Co…

U.S. crude exports are gaining traction in Europe as even Ukraine turns into a significant consumer of American barrels at the expense of Russian supplies amid heightened U.S. political pressure on Moscow and problems over contaminated Russian oil.Ukraine this month received its first ever barrels from the United States, according to Refinitiv Eikon flows data, as the tanker Wisdom Venture unloaded 80,000 tonnes of Bakken crude in Odessa on July 6 for the Kremenchug refinery,…

Norway-based Atlantic Offshore, a provider of safety and support at sea, announced that it has received contract extensions for three of its emergency response and rescue vessels (ERRVs).The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) UK has declared a 9 month option for Ocean Osprey, commencing end of June, said the provider of emergency response, rescue & recovery, multi-role and platform supply vessel operations, within the UK and Norwegian energy sectors.Ocean…

Hamburg-based Buss Group has acquired SSC Wind from Wildeshausen with an aim to expand its services in the offshore and onshore wind markets.In future, the company will operate on the market under the company name Buss Wind Services GmbH.With this strategic step, Buss completes its portfolio in the wind sector. To date, Buss had focused on port logistics for offshore wind farms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea.Buss offers this service both in its own offshore terminals in Eemshaven (Netherlands)…

Danish provider of offshore service vessels A1 Offshore Solutions ApS and lifting and offshore equipment specialist KenzFigee have signed a cooperation agreement to offer clients in the offshore oil, gas and wind industry a cost-efficient and safe Walk-to-Work vessel solution.The pact follows A1 Offshore Solution’s experiences with the KenzFigee 3D Active Motion Compensated (ACM) 26-meter gangway solution installed on board its’ offshore support vessel ‘Notus Express’.Increasing demand for cost efficient…

Finnish integrated gas company Gasum said that its liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker vessel, Coralius, made its first bunkering in the port and refining area of Rotterdam, supplying LNG to Bit Viking."A milestone of her ship-to-ship bunkering history is reached when proving her availability in the ARA (Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp area)," said a press release from the Espoo-headquartered energy company.“It’s time to celebrate,” says Kimmo Rahkamo, Vice President, natural gas and LNG, Gasum.

Norwegian oil and gas rig operator Dolphin Drilling filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, leading creditors to seize its key assets in a restructuring that will see the company maintain operations.Formerly known as Fred. Olsen Energy, Dolphin Drilling ASA had debt of just over $1 billion at the end of 2018 and a net loss for the year of almost $300 million, its annual report shows.Once a dominant supplier of drilling rigs to oil and gas firms exploring the North Sea, Dolphin was…

Europe's largest multimodal transport group by freight volume Samskip said it is fully prepared for a North Sea container traffic surge, as attitudes harden in the run up to October's revised Brexit deadline.The global logistics company offering transport and related services by land, sea, rail and air said in a release that UK exporters and importers to start switching away from trailers and towards containerisation very soon, repeating a trend established in the run-up to the original deadline for Brexit.“We saw a significant push in container volumes up to March 2019…

NBS Maritime, the ship supply company that provides mobile satellite communications for the maritime sector, has announced  a new complete solution 'SeaDirect' for satellite communications with unlimited Internet connection onboard different types of vessels.Among the first NBS Maritime customers using SeaDirect are international shipping companies as well as superyachts, it said.SeaDirect is now available over the areas of the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea…

Teekay Offshore Partners, midstream services provider to the offshore oil production industry, said that the agreement with Alpha Petroleum signed in October 2018 for Teekay’s Petrojarl Varg vessel to operate on Alpha’s 100%-owned Cheviot field was terminated.Teekay revealed that deal was off, claiming Alpha had been unable to satisfy key conditions.The floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) contract to operate on the Cheviot oil field on the UK continental shelf was for a seven-year fixed term from first oil…

The international oil & gas advisory and classification society DNV GL has won a major contract to provide independent verification services for the Danish transmission system operator Energinet’s section of the Baltic Pipe project, offshore Denmark.The Baltic Pipe project aims to enable the transport of gas from Norway from a tie-in to the existing Europipe II in the Danish North Sea to the export facility in Zealand. The pipeline in the Baltic Sea towards Poland is not included in the contract.

New engineering work involving the overhaul of diesel engines on the offshore construction and dive support vessel (DSV) Rever Polaris, has been completed by power specialist Royston.Engineers undertook the DG1 and DG3 24,000 and DG4 36,000 running hours service on the generator engines on board the 113-meter-long vessel at A&P Tyne’s facilities in the North East of England, as part of a comprehensive refurbishment and maintenance program of critical power units.The 1999-built Polaris is part of Rever Offshore’s fleet consisting of specialist offshore support vessels (OSV)…

Italian multinational corporation Prysmian Group  has been awarded a major grid connection project worth in region of EUR 140 million by the Dutch-German grid operator TenneT which will enable the connection of multiple offshore wind farms to the German grid.“The Dolwin5 project continues our valued long relationship with the major TSO TenneT and demonstrates our ability to provide tailor-made submarine cable solutions for challenging projects, providing the offshore infrastructure needed to support the growth of clean energy in Northern Europe.” stated Hakan Ozmen…

Norway will seek to open two areas for the construction of floating offshore wind parks, which combined could hold a turbine capacity of up to 3.5 gigawatts (GW), the Norwegian oil and energy ministry said.Norway has recently been seeking to develop wind power, both onshore and offshore. The first offshore area, which the ministry will propose before July, is called Utsira North and is situated in the North Sea.

US based Harvey Gulf announced on Tuesday that it has signed a pair of one-year charters in Nigeria, for the placement of two US-flag 3250DWT DPS-2 platform supply vessels (PSV). Both PSVs are capable of working in shallow water ports with 4.5 meters of transit depth and will depart for Nigeria in late June.The company said it also expects to send two 1,000-square-meter deck vessels to the area in the third quarter.CEO Shane Guidry commented, “We are continuing with our commitment to our shareholders of doing all we can to continue to generate positive EBITDA and cash flow…

A BP drilling rig heading to an oilfield in the British North Sea has been forced to turn away twice over the past two days as a Greenpeace vessel protesting climate change tries to hamper its progress.The high-sea chase is the latest step in Greenpeace's nine-day effort to stop the 40,000 tonne Paul Loyd JNR rig from reaching the Vorlich oilfield to start its drilling campaign.The vessel left Cromarty Firth, north of Inverness, Scotland on Friday after police twice removed activists…

Canadian-based Atlantic Towing Limited said it has entered into a contract with Norwegian builder Havyard Ship Technology for the purchase of a Havyard 833 WE platform supply vessel (PSV), the Atlantic Harrier, for delivery in April 2020.Designed and built by Havyard Ship Technology, the Atlantic Harrier is an 89.7-meter vessel with a 1,002-square-meter deck area, significant cargo tankage, and accommodations for 54 people. The vessel possesses an Ice Class 1B notation and is…

With the United States and China about to start their respective offshore wind build-ups, grid operators wondering about the efficiency of their turbines or the emissions-areas compliance of their wind-service vessels will be warmed to know there’s someone they can talk to. Yaskawa’s The Switch — a Japanese industrial giant’s European environmental tech business — is offering one-stop wind-energy shopping. As with shipping, you can order permanent magnet generators, drives and converters for your wind turbines. Take heart. The lingo is the same.

Two Greenpeace activists who were occupying an oil rig have been removed from the structure and arrested.Officers boarded the Transocean rig in the Cromarty Firth, which was contracted by BP for drilling operations in the UK North Sea, at around 2pm on Thursday and arrested two environmental campaigner men, aged 40 and 50, ending a five-day protest.The action is part of the group’s efforts to stop BP’s drilling plans offshore Scotland. The rig had been due to leave from near Invergordon, heading for the Vorlich oil field east of Aberdeen.