Oil Workers News

Brazilian oil workers union FUP said on Wednesday that intelligence staff at state-run Petrobras are aware of a potential plan to invade its Transpetro terminal located in the Maceio port in northeast Brazil.The threat comes as Brazil braces for more protests by supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, after mobs rampaged through public buildings in the country's capital on Sunday.The union said "people identified with coup practices" were behind the plan, which also involves invading a distribution center owned by Vibra Energia in the same port, aiming to disrupt fuel supplies

Hundreds of workers set up oil barriers along beach fronts in Thailand's eastern Rayong province on Friday as authorities raced to limit the environmental damage from gallons of oil that leaked from an underwater pipeline earlier this week.The leak from a pipeline owned by Star Petroleum Refining Public Company Limited (SPRC) started late on Tuesday and was brought under control a day later after spilling an estimated 50,000 litres (13,209 gallons) of oil into the ocean 20 kilometers…

U.S. energy companies on Thursday began airlifting workers from Gulf of Mexico oil production platforms and moved vessels from the path of what could become a devastating hurricane by the weekend.A storm is brewing in the Caribbean Sea and is forecast to grind through the main oil-producing region of the Gulf. It could become a major hurricane ahead of landfall on the central Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricanes with winds of up to 111 miles (178 km) per hour are classified as major and can bring devastating damage onshore.BHP…

Azerbaijan’s state energy company, SOCAR, said on Sunday its offshore gas platforms in the Caspian Sea were safe after media reports of a large fire in the area.Videos and photos published online showed smoke rising above the sea off the coast. Russia’s RIA news agency cited SOCAR as saying that an eruption of mud was the most likely reason for that, although it did not explain how it could cause a fire.“No incidents have happened at the offshore fields and industrial structures controlled by SOCAR…

The Indian Navy mounted a massive air and sea rescue mission on Tuesday for 81 missing oil workers and crew whose barge sank in heavy seas following a powerful cyclone that tore up the west coast of the country.Around 180 of those on board the barge were rescued from the water as it sank off Mumbai. Efforts had started to move crew stuck on a second barge that was driven aground by the storm, the navy said."There are waves of 20 to 25 feet, the winds are high and the visibility is low," said navy spokesman Vivek Madhwal.

Fires that crippled two Equinor plants in Norway last year were caused by both technical and human errors, the energy company said on Wednesday, promising to hire and train more staff.A blaze last September at Hammerfest LNG, Europe's only large-scale liquefied natural gas plant, caused an outage expected to last 18 months, while a fire in December at the Tjeldbergodden methanol facility took two months to repair."We are bolstering our recruitment of engineering resources within electrical disciplines and up to 50 skilled workers are bound for the onshore facilities…

For professional maritime training, the 2020 holiday season was bright indeed. In a world clutching for optimism, officials from the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) made a series of announcements that will strengthen, expand and intensify America’s maritime academic programs—really the maritime industry—for at least the next decade, likely much longer. Consider this string of news:On December 15, MARAD announced cutting steel for the first new National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) at Philly Shipyard Inc.…

Energy companies were securing offshore production platforms and evacuating workers on Tuesday, some for the sixth time this year, as a major hurricane took aim at U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.Hurricane Delta, the 25th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season, was churning in the Caribbean with sustained winds of 140 miles per hour (225 kph), already a dangerous Category 4 storm that is expected to scrape across Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and re-enter the…

Several workers on a BP Plc oil platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico have tested positive for coronavirus, the company said on Wednesday, a day after a worker at BP's operations in Alaska also tested positive.The cases are the first recorded among oil workers in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, and follow a positive test at an Equinor offshore project in the North Sea.A case of the coronavirus was also reported at BP's Whiting, Indiana refinery, according to local media reports.More than 850…

Equinor reported the oil industry's first coronavirus infection on an offshore installation on Wednesday, highlighting the challenge in preventing contamination for thousands of workers living in the close quarters on rigs and platforms.A worker was in isolation on the Norwegian energy firm's Martin Linge oil and gas platform off Norway where production is due to start at the end of this year, the company said. It said it would cut activity at the field, but personnel would remain at installations, while workers would reduce meetings and sit further apart in canteens to prevent further contamination. It has 776 people working on the project spread across three installations, Martin Linge, the Maersk Intrepid drilling rig and the Floatel Endurance accommodation rig.

At least 38 workers from Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela’s, including the president of maritime subsidiary PDV Marina, were detained on accusations of trafficking fuel, Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on Saturday, describing the accusations as "treason."The move comes just days after other state officials were detained and amid a shakeup at PDVSA after President Nicolas Maduro last month named a committee to restructure the OPEC nation’s oil industry, which is struggling under U.S. sanctions designed to force Maduro’s ouster, as well as years of mismanagement, corruption, and declining cash flow.On Friday…

Oil workers have been evacuated from the Statfjord A platform in the North Sea after it was struck by a platform supply vessel (PSV), Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor said on Friday.The platform was not producing when it was struck by the support vessel Sjøborg during loading operations at 1:55 a.m., and there were no injuries to the 276 people on the platform, Equinor said.The Statfjord A platform has been shut since the end of May for maintenance expected to last through July…

Venezuela's main oil export port of Jose and the country's four crude upgraders have been unable to resume operations following a massive power blackout on Monday, according to industry workers and a union leader close to the facilities.The most recent oil shipment for export, on the carrier Dragon chartered by Russia's Rosneft, left Jose, which is owned by state-run PDVSA, on March 24, according to Refinitiv Eikon vessel-tracking data and PDVSA's trade documents."There is no electricity, everything is paralyzed," oil workers' union leader Jose Bodas told Reuters on Tuesday.The blackout, Venezuela's second major power outage in a month…

Last July 6, Major General Manuel Quevedo joined his wife, a Catholic priest and a gathering of oil workers in prayer in a conference room at the headquarters of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.The career military officer, who for the past year has been boss at the troubled state-owned oil company, was at no ordinary mass. The gathering, rather, was a ceremony at which he and other senior oil ministry officials asked God to boost oil output."This place of peace and spirituality…

Logistics hubs and Fast Supply Vessels will be key assets in the complex offshore transport solution Petrobras has devised for moving workers and goods, to and from Brazil’s remote pre-salt plays. Here is a look at a modern local shipyards building the heavy-duty aluminum vessels, with overall lengths ranging from over 30 meters to around 50 meters. Claudio Paschoa, Maritime Reporter’s correspondent in Brazil spoke to Flavio Santarelli, Arpoador Shipyard’s Director of Operations. The logistics involved in transporting supplies and people to the production FPSOs located as far as 300km offshore has been daunting. Offshore logistics hubs…

Hundreds of workers on Norwegian offshore oil and gas rigs went on strike on Tuesday after rejecting a proposed wage deal, leading to the shutdown of one Shell-operated field and helping send Brent crude prices higher.One union said hundreds more workers would join the strike on Sunday if an agreement over union demands for a wage increase and pension rights was not reached.Royal Dutch Shell said that due to the strike it was temporarily closing production at its Knarr field, which has a daily output of 23…

Norwegian drilling rigs workers will end their industrial action after the union representing 1,600 striking employees reached a deal with the group acting for their employers, the parties said on Thursday.The strike began on July 10 after the Safe union and the Norwegian Shipowners' Association could not come to an agreement over wages and pension conditions. The industrial action led to the shutdown of one Shell-operated field."The strike is over ... All workers will go back to work today…

Some 2,250 workers on Norwegian offshore oil drilling rigs and in drilling and catering services on oil producing platforms could go on strike this summer after rejecting a proposed wage deal, the Safe labor union said on Thursday.Industri Energi, the largest labor union representing drilling workers, last month agreed to a deal, while the smaller Safe said it would ask its members to vote on the offer made by the Norwegian Shipowners' Association.A strike could hit oil companies' exploration efforts later this summer, although a mandatory round of mediation must be held before any conflict is

Oil prices surged 4 percent on Wednesday, with Brent settling above the psychological $50 a barrel mark, after a larger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude inventories. It was a second straight day of gains for oil, which has risen nearly 8 percent since Monday's settlement to recover almost all of what it lost after Britain's shock vote to exit the European Union. Fading concerns over the so-called Brexit, potential for an oil workers' strike in Norway and a crisis in Venezuela's energy sector were among factors supporting Wednesday's rally. While spot contracts in Brent and U.S. crude surged, the premium for longer-dated oil spiked too as traders bet crude in storage will fetch better prices in coming months. The U.S.

Bored with palm-fringed beaches and turquoise seas? Then the gigantic oil platforms of the North Sea beckon. The first ever "rig-spotting" cruise just ended off the coast of Norway, and those onboard the four-day trip said it was jawdropping. "I couldn't believe that these big buildings could be made," said passenger Kari Somme, 86, after seeing Statoil's Troll A platform - the heaviest structure ever moved by mankind - towering 200 metres (650 feet) above the surface of the sea. "It's just wonderful, just wonderful. I was so excited because I didn't know much about it. So when I came here and we went from rig to rig, or platform to platform, I was amazed," she said. The North Sea is usually known for its cold and storms.

Three offshore oil workers filed a lawsuit against units of Royal Dutch Shell and Enbridge, seeking $1 million in damages for injuries they allegedly received during a Nov. 8 fire on a U.S. Gulf of Mexico production platform. The suit, filed in Galveston County court in Texas on Dec. 5, claims safety lapses on Shell's Enchilada platform caused severe injuries to the three. The complaint seeks more than $1 million in damages from Shell International Exploration and Production, Shell Offshore…

Repairs have been finished on a Libyan oil pipeline damaged in a suspected attack five days ago and production is restarting gradually, engineers said. The blast and resulting fire on Tuesday about 130 km (80 miles) south of the Es Sider terminal caused a drop in output estimated by the National Oil Corporation (NOC) at 70,000-100,000 barrels per day (bpd). An engineer from the company that operates the pipeline, Waha Oil Co, said damaged parts had been replaced and flows would start returning to previous levels.

From a helicopter, it looks like just another North Sea oil rig, a grey cube supported by massive yellow pillars, 90 kilometres (56 miles) off western Denmark. But the DanTysk facility is the world's first accommodation platform for offshore wind, which is borrowing techniques and labour from the crisis-hit oil sector as it tries to cut costs and end an addiction to state subsidies. The wind industry is moving further offshore and into the deeper waters tamed long ago by oil companies to increase scale and capture stronger and more constant winds. "There's a lot of new-generation technology in the offshore wind industry, but when I'm out there…