Sound Energy News

If the global commercial fleet reduced its speed by 10%, it would reduce underwater radiated noise by 40%, but nothing’s ever that simple.The main thing holding the shipping industry back from reducing its underwater radiated noise (URN) is not a lack of appropriate technology. It’s argued that many of the technologies being implemented today to reduce fuel consumption also reduce noise. So, the noise reductions could essentially come at no net cost to the shipowner, but there’s a lack of regulation and a lack of targeted incentives…

GAC Bunker Fuels has opened a new office in Westport, Conn. to help global customers decarbonize in American ports and beyond.The office will be manned by liquefied natural gas (LNG), biofuel, low sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) and marine gasoil (MGO) experts Maurice Lara and John Lindquist, and will be carbon neutral.Beyond aligning with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, GAC Bunker Fuels has pledged zero oil-based bunker sales by January 1, 2030. On 1 September 2020…

Puget LNG and GAC Bunker Fuels have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) marine fuel from Puget LNG’s terminal to GAC’s customers in the Pacific Northwest.When the Tacoma LNG Terminal becomes operational in the second quarter of 2021, it will be the first such terminal on North America’s west coast providing direct shoreside loading access for a bunker barge.GAC Bunker Fuels, a division of the Dubai-based GAC Group, will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Jones Act-compliant LNG bunker barge to be constructed…

On March 3, the Coast Guard published a notice that Martin Midstream Partners (MMP), a petrochemical transport and storage company, was seeking approval to modify terminal operations in Beaumont, Texas, along the Sabine-Neches Waterway. If approved, MMP would expand its liquefied hazardous gas (LHG) operations, both in volume and products. Instead of just handling ammonia the change would allow shipments of butane, propane, ethane, ethylene and propylene.Critically, MMP’s expansion would increase LHG vessel transit from 24 ships to as many as 350 per year.

Moroccan focused upstream gas company Sound Energy confirmed that the drilling at TE-10, the second well of a planned three exploration well campaign in Eastern Morocco, has commenced.The TE-10 well will test the North East Lakbir prospect in the Company's Greater Tendrara permit and is located approximately 25 kilometres to the northeast of the recently awarded Tendrara production concession.The well is designed to test both a material TAGI stratigraphic trap and a smaller TAGI structural closure. The North East Lakbir stratigraphic trap has updated mid case potential on a gross (100%) basis of 2.7 Tcf GOIP (4.5 Tcf GOIP upside case and a 1.5 Tcf GOIP low case) with a Sound Energy internally estimated chance of success of 14%.TE-10 lies within the stratigraphic trap…

Sound Energy, the African and European focused upstream gas company, announced on 29 November 2016, that the terms of the contract for the use of Pergemine S.p.A ("Pergemine")  3000 HP EMSCO C3 rig for the drilling of the Badile exploration well (the "Rig"), provided that payment of 23% of the service charges due to Pergemine would be settled through the issue of new ordinary shares in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") with a value of approximately Euro 1 million. Following the mobilisation of the Rig in January 2017, the Company announces that it has [today] issued an initial 830,565 new Ordinary Shares to Pergemine which, at the closing mid-market price per Ordinary Share on 7 February 2017 of 82.0 pence, had a market value of approximately £680,000 (approximately Euro 790,000).

Sound Energy, the Mediterranean focused upstream gas company, announced that its registered office has changed, with immediate effect, to 4a Brewery Lane, Blighs Meadow, Sevenoaks, TN13 1DF.

Sound Energy, the European/Mediterranean focused upstream gas company, is pleased to provide the following update on its Moroccan and Italian gas portfolio. Further to the recently announced signatures with Schlumberger of both the strategic partnership across Europe and Africa and the Field Management Agreement specifically on Tendrara, the Company has now signed a Letter of Intent with Entrepose Drilling Morocco for the supply of a HH300 rig for the first two wells on the licence (which are expected to be back to back). The Company, post the recently announced transaction with Schlumberger, will retain operatorship and a 27.5% effective net working interest with a 20% effective net paying interest for the first well (increasing to 25% for the second and third wells).

Totem Ocean Trailer Express announced that it has signed a contract with Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd, wholly owned subsidiary Keppel Shipyard Ltd for the conversion of  the  Midnight Sun to dual fuel liquefied natural gas (LNG) propulsion. This is the world’s first major conversion of a large RO/RO vessel to LNG. The work will begin in December and is expected to be completed in 90 days. Once complete, the Midnight Sun will emit fewer air and greenhouse gas emissions, reducing emissions of particulate matter by 91 percent, NOx by 100 percent, SOx by 90 percent and carbon dioxide by 35 percent. Her sister ship, the North Star, is expected to be converted in the 2016/2017 time frame. Totem Ocean will be the first in North America to begin the conversion to natural gas.

Taking another step in forming The Northwest Seaport Alliance, commissioners from the ports of Tacoma and Seattle voted Friday to submit a final agreement to the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) for approval. The Northwest Seaport Alliance will unify the two ports’ marine cargo terminal investments, operations, planning and marketing to strengthen the Puget Sound gateway and attract more marine cargo for the region. “This agreement is the culmination of months of work to set aside decades of competition in creating a new business model for the greater good,” said Don Johnson, Port of Tacoma commission president. The agreement outlines The Northwest Seaport Alliance’s governance charter, management and financial structures, a transition plan and a business development strategy.

A draft of the final agreement between the ports of Tacoma and Seattle has been released, heralding a milestone in the formation of a Seaport Alliance that will unify the two ports’ marine cargo terminal investments, operations, planning and marketing. “We intend to make our organizations stronger and more sustainable to better serve our customers, grow our regional economy and address unprecedented competition facing the shipping industry,” said Don Johnson, Port of Tacoma commission president.

The U.S. Navy said that a newly released scientific report demonstrates the viability of a new method to estimate received sound levels during real scenarios and analyzes movements of satellite-tagged individuals of three species of marine mammals exposed to Navy mid-frequency active sonar around Kauai's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF). "This is exciting news in several ways, not least of which is the promise this new integrated approach holds for learning how sonar affects marine mammals," said Julie Rivers, natural and marine resources program manager for the U.S.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has approved the Navy’s 5-year plan to expand its sonar & live-fire training exercises in the Pacific ocean, but environmentalists are challenging the decision because of the threat it poses to marine life, reports Care2 in the following (excerpted) report. It’s been well established that marine mammals rely on hearing to navigate, communicate, feed and survive, and while there may be some dispute about how much damage the use of sonar causes…

Seattle, WA – Kvichak Marine Industries Inc. was recently awarded a contract by Puget Sound Energy to design and build one each 32’ and 38’ Marine Transport Vessels for PSE’s Baker River Hydroelectric Project. The vessels will be used at a new downstream fish-passage facility PSE is constructing behind the utility’s Lower Baker Dam to further enhance fish populations in the Skagit-Baker watershed in northwest Washington. The transport vessels will be utilized to transport personnel…

Company’s CHIRP Enabling Transducers Provide High Sensitivity and Bandwidth at an Affordable Price. AIRMAR Technology Corporation has announced the introduction of their new broadband transducers that enable CHIRP technology. Some of the company’s broadband transducers are already supplied as original equipment to industry-leading manufacturers of hydrographic survey sounders and advanced commercial-fishing systems. “Airmar has successfully developed methods for increasing transducer bandwidth with minimal effect on acoustic sensitivity,” stated John Bauchat, Senior Business Development Engineer. “This is a low-cost/high-value performance enhancement to our OEMs who rely on us to help them achieve optimal system performance.

Waterways Council’s Inc. (WCI) and its more than 200 members were surprised and disappointed with President Obama’s announcement on September 6 that he intends to ask Congress for at least $50 billion in funding for infrastructure but made no mention of waterways infrastructure projects. Roads, rails and runways — why not Rivers? WCI issued a press statement reacting to the Obama announcement: “While the nation celebrated Labor Day and all that the workforce has done to make America great…

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brandan W. The National Marine Fisheries Services issued a final rule Aug. 16 that allows the Navy to continue operating Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA) sonar in the western Pacific Ocean for the next five years, subject to a yearly authorization renewal. SURTASS LFA consists of two separate components. The LFA portion of the system is suspended vertically below the ship and transmits low-frequency sound energy into the water. SURTASS, the passive portion of the system, is towed behind the ship and is made up of a series of underwater microphones that detect natural and man-made sound energy in the water. This allows underwater objects, such as submarines, to be detected.

The White House is asking the U.S. Navy to pay the six-figure utility bill for Vice President Dick Cheney's house, as Democrats accused Cheney, the administration's point man on energy policy, of "staggering insensitivity." The bill for electricity, gas and water for the 33-room official vice presidential residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory is projected at $136,000 for fiscal 2002 which ends in September, compared with a budget of $43,600, the White House said. The bills have far outstripped the budget since an electricity meter was installed in 1998, the White House said. This has driven Cheney to practice the energy conservation…