Oil Flow News

Oil pipelines from the top U.S. shale field to Houston that have run half empty are filling again as rising output has absorbed most of the space on lines to the main south Texas export hub in Corpus Christi.U.S. crude exports climbed to a record of about 4.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, spurred by recovering Chinese demand and competitive pricing for U.S. oil. Sanctions on Russian crude purchases by the European Union and Britain also have boosted demand.Pipelines…

Top U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil producer Shell said on Thursday it halted production at three U.S. Gulf of Mexico deepwater platforms after a leak shut two pipelines connecting the platforms, adding it expected pipeline service to resume on Friday.A failure at an onshore pipeline junction in Louisiana leaked about two barrels of oil, said Chett Chiasson, executive director of Greater Lafourche Port Commission. A fix is expected to take about a day, he added.A Shell spokesperson said the leak…

Autoship Systems Corporation (ASC) supplied Boksa Marine Design (BMD) with its latest Autohydro 6.10, offering yet more features and tools leading to new efficiencies for calculating hydrostatic parameters, stability and longitudinal strength. BMD, a naval architecture and marine engineering firm located in Lithia, Fla., has designed and engineered more than 600 completed projects up to 740-feet for over 50 clients since 2003, including leading shipyards.Specializing in full-scale…

On the world stage, the grounding of the supertanker TORREY CANYON on Pollard’s Rock in the Seven Stones reef between Cornwall and the Scilly Isles is more significant than the 1989 EXXON VALDEZ oil spill. The TORREY CANYON was one of the first tankers large enough (120,000 tons capacity) to be designated a supertanker. It was also the first loaded supertanker to spill its entire cargo. After salvage efforts failed and the oil flow increased, the British Government decided to bomb the ship in an attempt to burn the oil. This was a radical decision because the wreck was outside the three-mile territorial sea limit prevalent at that time. The Royal Air Force had difficulty hitting the ship, so the Royal Navy sent its planes in.

"With the conversion of SAJIR, we are the first shipping company worldwide to convert a container vessel of this size to natural gas propulsion."  Richard von Berlepsch, Managing Director Fleet Management at Hapag-LloydIn its more than 170 years of existence, the Hamburg-based Hapag Lloyd  has used all kinds of solid and liquid fuels to generate energy for the propulsion of its ships. And now the shipping company has announced that it intends to convert the propulsion system of its 15…

Two cargoes of U.S. crude oil have been booked to sail to Australia, trade sources and data companies said, highlighting the increasing global reach of exports from the United States.Aframax tanker Esther Spirit loaded U.S. oil in early April at Enterprise Houston Terminal and is scheduled to discharge at Kwinana in Western Australia on May 20, ship-tracking data from Refinitiv and Vortexa showed.BP Plc chartered the Silver Sun, an Aframax, to load from the U.S. Gulf Coast this week to Kwinana for $2.35 million, according to a shipbroker and Refinitiv data. BP operates a refinery at Kwinana producing fuels for Western Australia.Crude exports from the United States tend to be so-called light grades that yield large amounts of gasoline and diesel when refined…

Oil exports from southern Iraq have fallen by 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) this month, according to shipping data and an industry source, suggesting OPEC's second-largest producer is heading for a third month of lower shipments. Southern Iraqi exports in the first 21 days of March averaged about 3.36 million bpd, compared to 3.43 million bpd in February, shipping data followed by Reuters and independent tracking by an industry source showed. The fall suggests there is still no…

As the global maritime industry steams toward ever-stricter fuel and emission rules, industry leaders such as MAN Diesel & Turbo and Hyundai continue to invest in facilities and technologies. In the most recent case, MAN D&T said today it will build a new test-engine facility in collaboration with its two-stroke licensee, HHI-EMD, the engine and machinery division of Hyundai Heavy Industries. The new venture -- located in Ulsan, Korea at HHI-EMD’s works and scheduled to open in 2019 -- will expand MAN Diesel & Turbo’s R&D test capacity and strengthen its development of dual-fuel gas engines.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was "very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea" and that such moves would prevent "a friendly solution" to the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear program. "Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!" Trump wrote in a post on Twitter. China earlier on Thursday said there had been no U.N.

Vestdavit has completed its largest ever single-point A-frame davit for over the side boat handling, rising to the continuing challenge set by customers to be able to launch and retrieve ever larger workboats from their ships. The first PAP-16000 davit, which features a safe working load of 16t, will be installed on board a service operation vessel destined for a specialized segment in the offshore industry for an unspecified owner. The 58.5 m length vessel, due delivery by the end of 2017, will operate off north continental Europe.

Client consultation and a full internal technical review have prompted Vestdavit to refine lifting speed vs power options available across its entire davits range. The boat handling specialist has been focusing on how best to optimize equipment hoisting and lowering speeds within available power constraints, or reduce power while maintaining speeds. “Optimizing the handling speed/power balance is a precondition for our equipment, but customers have different priorities,” says Thomas Nordin, the Vestdavit Senior Project Engineer with responsibility for the review.

Libya is resuming oil exports from some of its main ports which forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar seized in recent days and has lifted related "force majeuere" contractual clauses, the National Oil Corporation said on Thursday. The north African nation is highly dependent on hydrocarbon revenues and needs oil exports to resume to save its economy from collapse. Conflict since Libya's 2011 uprising has reduced its oil output to a fraction of the 1.6 million barrels per day the OPEC member once produced. "Exports will resume immediately from Zueitina and Ras Lanuf, and will continue at Brega ... exports will resume from Es Sider as soon as possible," NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said.

Bluetide Communications’ Access Management Portal (AMP) application for wireless network management is changing the way workboat operators manage data, crew and costs. Thousands of miles, and weeks or months out at sea, the next best thing to physically being there, is an electronic connection home, and today, mariners increasingly are reluctant to board vessels without access to some form of it. Internet access and cheap global roaming SIM cards top the list of desired amenities in recent surveys of seafarers.

Gill Sensors & Controls Limited announced immediate availability of its new Oil Debris Sensor that provides continuous real-time monitoring of particle contamination in hydraulic and engine oil lubrication systems. The new sensor triggers either an immediate shutdown in cases of large particle build-up, or an early warning indication for needed maintenance in both cases preventing unexpected downtime. Typical applications include monitoring helicopter gearboxes, industrial gearboxes…

A U.S. appeals court said BP Plc, which in July reached a $18.7 billion settlement of federal, state and local claims over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, must face one of two proposed class-action lawsuits claiming that the oil company defrauded shareholders over the disaster. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said investors who bought BP's American depositary shares in a 33-day period soon after the spill may pursue group claims that BP initially "lowballed" the oil flow rate, and that the share price tumbled as the crisis' magnitude became known.

Hiab launched the HIAB Z-HiPro 191 and HIAB Z-PRO 171 crane. Part of the new HIAB Z-series, the cranes feature the ability to be folded into a Z position and parked behind the drivers cab with the tools still attached. This unique attribute makes them the only models available on the market to be fully optimised for transport, whilst meeting the latest legislation. The Z-series cranes have been designed for applications where speed, efficiency and a high number of load cycles are typically required. For example, customers handling digging, filling, waste handling and other light tool operations will now get the job done faster. With…

Iran is using its sea power in the Gulf to show it will not be cowed by Washington's newly assertive Arab allies, prompting critics to accuse Tehran of destabilising the region. Iranian ships fired shots at a Singapore-flagged tanker which it said damaged an Iranian oil platform, causing the vessel to flee, and seized a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil route, over a debt row. The incidents coincided with a push by Washington to reassure Gulf Arab monarchies that their interests would not be threatened by a nuclear accord that Tehran and world powers are trying to reach by the end of June. In an escalating confrontation with Saudi Arabia over Yemen…

The trend of modernizing ships and fitting them with more efficient separator systems, which has been noticeable since 2014 particularly in Europe and North America, has continued seamlessly into the first quarter of 2015, GEA reported. More than 50 OSE separators from GEA from the Oelde site have been ordered since the start of the year for ship modernizations for U.S. and Canadian naval authorities alone. The objective of the retrofits is to make the shipping operations of the navy…

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards staged war games in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, including a gunboat attack on a model U.S. warship, in Tehran's latest display of military muscle in a Gulf shipping channel vital to world oil exports. The Shi'ite Muslim Islamic Republic sees the Gulf, between Iran and the Sunni Arab states, as its own backyard and believes it has a legitimate interest in expanding its influence there. A ceremony marking the exercises was attended by commanders of the Guards, an influential military force led by anti-Western hawks, as well as by parliament speaker Ali Larijani. "With attention to the situation in the region…

Norwegian firm DNO expects its first shipment of oil from Kurdistan to be sold on the international market by the end of the year and said it was committed to its operations in the region despite the recent flare-up in violence. The firm could until recently only sell oil on the local Iraqi market, at lower prices than it would have got on the international oil market, due to a long constitutional fight between the region and Baghdad over independent oil sales. That changed earlier this month when the Kurdish Regional Government allowed oil firms to seek out international buyers. Oil revenue is a lifeline for the KRG, whose peshmerga fighters are fighting Islamic State militants.

Rosneft subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz officially opened two new oil and gas production units at the Priobskoye field, oil and gas production unit–22 and oil and gas production unit–23. The creation of new production units in Yuganskneftegaz is caused by intensive commissioning of producing wells after drilling, construction of multiple well platforms and infrastructure facilities. It is planned to complete 535 new wells at the Priobskoye Field during 2014, which will increase oil output by over 100 thousand tons. Production gain is provided not only by increased number of producing wells. The enterprise also applies new technologies of mechanized extraction.

Sheriff Craig Apple assured a room of concerned citizens that county emergency crews were prepared to handle an oil-train accident involving three or four tank cars. Firefighters have been training to combat railcar fires with foam, and evacuation plans are detailed in a 500-page emergency response plan, Apple told residents in a May 12 address. Albany's tracks handle as much as a fourth of the oil pumped from North Dakota's booming Bakken Shale, or up to several 100-car trains per day, each carrying 70,000 barrels. It is one of several spots along North America's new oil-by-rail corridors where residents and officials are restless, following six fiery derailments in the past 10 months.

A former 20-year veteran of BP plc who oversaw the company's cleanup efforts from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will pay more than $224,000 to settle civil charges alleging he used non-public information about the disaster to commit insider-trading, U.S. regulators said on Thursday. The Securities and Exchange Commission said that Keith A. Seilhan, 47, will settle the case without admitting or denying the charges. Mary McNamara, an attorney for Seilhan, said four years had passed since the spill, and her client wanted to "avoid further distraction and protracted litigation" by settling the matter. "Mr. Seilhan is widely respected for his work helping to lead the cleanup and containment efforts in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010," McNamara added.