Tom Brown News

UK-based company Tugdock has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Salamander floating offshore wind farm to collaborate on innovation for floating offshore wind energy in Scotland.Tugdock, based in Cornwall, UK, has patented marine buoyancy technology that enables heavy marine structures to be built or assembled and loaded-out in ports with water depth or space restrictions.Salamander Offshore Wind is a joint venture development project between Simply Blue Group, Ørsted and Subsea7, which is developing a floiating wind farm to be located offshore from Peterhead in North-East Scotland.

Venezuela has resumed direct shipments of oil to China after U.S. sanctions sent the trade underground for more than a year, according to Refinitiv Eikon vessel-tracking data and internal documents from state company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).Chinese state companies China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and PetroChina - long among PDVSA's top customers - stopped loading crude and fuel at Venezuelan ports in August 2019 after Washington extended its sanctions on PDVSA to include any companies trading with the Venezuelan state firm.The imposition of the sanctions was part of a push by the Trump administration to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro…

Brazilian prosecutors pressed charges on Friday against two people for an alleged scheme to obtain confidential market information from Petrobras to benefit A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world's largest shipping company.The case stems from an investigation that started in 2014 as part of Brazil's sprawling Car Wash scandal, which has since included suppliers like Maersk and uncovered corruption throughout multiple countries in more than 70 police operations.A statement released by prosecutors on Friday said a former Maersk executive in Brazil…

The United Nations said on Tuesday it was still waiting for Yemen's Houthi group to authorize deployment of an assessment team to a decaying oil tanker that is threatening to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil off the war-torn country's coast.Two weeks ago U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock told the U.N. Security Council that Houthi officials had agreed to allow a U.N. team to conduct a technical assessment and whatever initial repairs might be feasible on the Safer tanker.U.N. Yemen…

The Port of Paranaguá, Brazil's second busiest for soybean and sugar cargoes, is gradually resuming grain export operations after a fire that affected conveyor belts at two terminals, according to a statement from the port authority on Wednesday.Operations remain halted at the two affected terminals, connected to berths 212, 213 and 214, which form part of an export corridor comprising 11 terminals, the authority said.The belts at the two terminals struck by the fire were idle at the time it broke out…

Tankers carrying nearly two months worth of Venezuelan oil output are stuck at sea as global refiners shun the nation’s crude to avoid falling foul of U.S. sanctions, according to industry sources, PDVSA documents and shipping data.Washington is tightening sanctions to cut Venezuela’s oil exports and deprive the government of socialist President Nicolas Maduro of its main source of revenue.The OPEC member’s exports are hovering near their lowest levels in more than 70 years and the economy has collapsed, but Maduro has held on - to the frustration of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.Washington has blacklisted ships and…

The United States is considering imposing sanctions on dozens of additional foreign oil tankers for trading with Venezuela, U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday, the latest effort to sever what Washington sees as a lifeline for President Nicolas Maduro.Some sanctions could be announced in the near term while others could be imposed over a longer period if the trading activity persists in violation of U.S. restrictions, one of the officials said on condition of anonymity.Earlier on Friday…

A flurry of tentative bookings to export U.S. crude oil from the Gulf Coast suggests demand is edging up after the coronavirus slammed energy consumption worldwide.BP, Trafigura and Equinor have all tentatively fixed vessels this past week to carry U.S. crude to global destinations over the coming month, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and shipping sources.Commodities merchant Trafigura and Occidental Petroleum are among companies looking to book vessels to ship crude from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Asia, one shipbroker said. The U.S.

Soybean loading operations were set to resume late on Tuesday at a berth at Brazil's Paranaguá port after a ship was ordered into quarantine following a positive COVID-19 test on a crew member, authorities said.Loading at the berth was halted after the positive test, the Williams shipping agency said, adding that it was the first confirmed case of the disease at the port since the coronavirus outbreak began.All other berths at the port continued to operate as normal.Brazil's health surveillance agency ANVISA later authorized the ship to leave berth 214 after all other crew members were tested,

In an alert that appeared aimed squarely at Iran, the U.S. Navy issued a warning on Tuesday to mariners in the Gulf to stay 100 meters away from U.S. warships or risk being “interpreted as a threat and subject to lawful defensive measures.”The notice to mariners, which was first reported by Reuters, follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat last month to fire on any Iranian ships that harass Navy vessels."Armed vessels approaching within 100 meters of a U.S. naval vessel may be interpreted as a threat," according to the text of the notice.A U.S.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, the world’s third-largest cruise operator, raised doubts about its ability to continue operating on Tuesday, the first in the sector to signal it may succumb to the coronavirus crisis.The company’s shares closed down more than 20% as it launched a $1.6 billion offering of shares and bonds in a scramble to raise money, and announced a $400 million investment in a subsidiary from private equity firm L Catterton.“This is an industry that we’ve been pursuing for a long period of time…

Clean-up crews were working to contain an oil spill at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System's (TAPS) Valdez Marine Terminal, officials said on Wednesday, but the volume spilled was not preventing tankers from loading at the site.A sump overflow spilled oil into the water at the terminal on Sunday night. By Wednesday, clean-up crews had recovered 574 barrels (24,108 gallons) of an oil-water mix, authorities said.A team composed of system operator Alyeska Pipeline Service Co, the U.S.

OPEC and allies led by Russia agreed on Sunday to a record cut in output to prop up oil prices amid the coronavirus pandemic in an unprecedented deal with fellow oil nations, including the United States, that could curb global oil supply by 20%. Measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus have destroyed demand for fuel and driven down oil prices, straining budgets of oil producers and hammering the U.S. shale industry, which is more vulnerable to low prices due to its higher costs.

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…

Offshore oil driller Valaris PLC is exploring debt restructuring options as it grapples with a rig accident and a broader collapse in energy prices, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.Valaris has tapped debt restructuring attorneys at law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP for advice on ways to rework its roughly $6.5 billion debt pile, and is exploring enlisting a turnaround firm that specializes in urgently addressing stressed finances to bolster its roster of advisers, the…

California’s governor on Thursday asked President Donald Trump to send a U.S. Navy hospital ship to the port of Los Angeles “immediately” as the state braces for an expected surge in the number of coronavirus cases over the next eight weeks.Trump said earlier this week the Navy hospital ships Mercy and Comfort would be pressed into service, one on each coast, as healthcare systems become badly strained during the pandemic.But U.S. defense officials have said the ships were not yet ready to sail on the emergency mission…

A Texas grand jury on Wednesday declined to issue felony indictments against a group of Greenpeace USA activists who closed a key oil export waterway for 18 hours last year by tying themselves to a Houston bridge and dangling over the water.Felony charges had been brought against 31 activists involved in the September 2019 protest. The indictments, sought by the Harris County District Attorney's Office, were under Texas' new critical infrastructure law, which makes it a felony to interfere with oil and gas pipelines and ports…

The Amazon river dolphin is an intelligent and friendly mammal that appears to grin and flush like a human blushing when it gets excited.But some are concerned about the world's largest freshwater dolphin coming under threat again in Brazil, where fishermen hunt and kill it illegally to make bait for a catfish called piracatinga.A legal moratorium on fishing the piracatinga ended last month, prompting calls for its renewal from environmentalists and researchers such as biologist Vera da Silva…

The United States on Friday lifted sanctions on one of two units of the Chinese tanker company COSCO, the U.S. Treasury said, partially reversing its punishment on the company for transporting Iranian oil after China complained about the measure in trade talks with Washington.President Donald Trump's administration on Sept. 25 blacklisted two units of COSCO, named after the northeastern Chinese port of Dalian. The move sent worldwide freight costs to record highs and disrupted the global shipping market.The U.S.

U.S. refiners are scooping up cheap high-sulfur fuel oil for processing from Russia and the Baltic states as they take advantage of new shipping rules that have cut demand for the dirtier marine fuel, according to oil traders and shipping data.U.S. refiners Valero Corp, Chevron Corp and Phillips 66 have been buying HSFO, traders said, taking advantage of their complex operations to turn HSFO blended with crude oils into products like diesel, gasoil and gasoline.This month, 2.2 million tonnes of fuel oil…

CME Group on Thursday said it would add two more delivery points for its WTI Houston crude futures contract, pending regulatory review, as it seeks to provide customers with additional options to hedge physical price risk.* Beginning with the March 2020 contract, customers can take delivery of U.S.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four maritime firms and vessels transporting Venezuelan oil to Cuba, amid an acute fuel scarcity in the island that is forcing people to line up for gasoline and public transport.Despite tough U.S. measures against Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA in January, Cuba's state-run oil import and export company Cubametales and other Cuba-based entities "have continued to circumvent sanctions by receiving oil shipments from Venezuela…

A Republican U.S. senator on Wednesday said President Donald Trump will not waive rules requiring that only U.S.-flagged ships move natural gas from American ports to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Northeast.The nearly 100-year-old Jones Act mandates the use of U.S.-flagged vessels to transport merchandise between U.S. coasts. Republican senators said the administration was seriously considering waiving the requirements for 10 years. Bloomberg News reported last week that Trump was leaning in favor of some kind of waiver.Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters on a conference call that Trump told Republican lawmakers he would not support a waiver.