Whiting News

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Facilities Design and Construction Center completed a contract modification with The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company Aug. 25 to remove up to 100 submerged concrete piles under the old Pier November at Base Charleston in North Charleston, South Carolina. The modification, with a potential value of approximately $14.8 million, includes work that is necessary to complete construction of new, modernized piers to provide support and logistics for up to five…

Imports of fuel oil bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast fell to a five-year low last month as refiners ran more cheap, heavy Canadian crude and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East pressured fuel oil flows.Fuel oil deliveries to the Gulf Coast dwindled in February to just 318,000 barrels per day (bpd), a 20% drop from the prior month and marking their lowest level since February 2019, data from tanker tracking firm, Kpler showed.Heavy fuel oil feedstocks like high sulfur fuel oil…

German outboard manufacturer Neander announced it has welcomed Richard Whiting on board to join the team as marketing director. Whiting brings many years of experience in increasing brand awareness and will be responsible for leading all of the company's communications efforts designed to promote the Dtorque 50 diesel outboard and build customer confidence in the product.Whiting said, "I'm absolutely thrilled to be joining the outstanding Neander team. Having worked with Joel Reid at Cox Powertrain as Creative Manager in the past…

French firm CGG, best known for its seismic data services for oil and gas exploration, has now launched a maritime pollution monitoring solution named SeaScope."Combining expertise in remote sensing science, Earth observation data, machine learning and high-performance computing, SeaScope provides critical sea surface slick intelligence for a range of industries to strengthen situational awareness of the interaction between offshore assets, coastal facilities, local vessel activity and the natural marine environment…

A wave of oil and gas bankruptcies in North America is likely to continue this year as oil prices remain depressed and a new surge of COVID-19 cases threaten to stall any recovery in fuel demand, law firm Haynes and Boone said in a report released this week.Bankruptcies surged in the second quarter, including from major shale independents Chesapeake Energy and Whiting Petroleum, as oil prices collapsed due to the pandemic and a brief, unexpected price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.There were 18 producer bankruptcies in the second quarter…

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…

When it was time for France Pelagique to start renewing its fleet, an electric-power alliance of Dutch and Scandinavian yard interests formed up and delivered. The result was the first installation aboard a trawler of NES’s Odin’s Eye, a DC grid solution to integrate another first for trawlers — quiet-running permanent magnate, or PM, propulsion.Where to begin a fleet modernization that ends with green credentials and richer harvests? Well, there are multiple points of contact…

The number of plastic bags found in the seas around Britain has significantly dropped since 2010 as European governments crack down on their use, researchers said on Thursday. The percentage of trawls by fishermen that catch at least one plastic bag in the greater North Sea, off Britain's east coast, more than halved since 2010 to 16 percent, scientists in Britain and the Netherlands said. Prior to 2010, the average was 40 percent, said the study which spanned 25 years. Several European countries…

U.S. refineries from Ohio to Minnesota are capitalizing on access to cheap crude from Western Canada and North Dakota oilfields, helping their region break a historic dependence on fuel from the Gulf Coast while redrawing oil trade maps. Since the early 2000s, crude and fuel flows from the Gulf Coast into the U.S. heartland have been cut in half, as crude coming from Canada and North Dakota has pushed U.S. Midwest refining activity to record levels. In 2016, Midwest refining capacity rose to 3.9 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude, the highest annual volume on record. Midwest refiners such as Marathon Petroleum Corp, Phillips 66, BP PLC and Husky Energy have invested billions of dollars on new units capable of turning sludgy crude from Canada into gasoline and diesel.

Rolls-Royce said it has signed a contract to deliver ship design and an extensive range of ship equipment to a purse seiner / pelagic trawler to be built for the shipowning company Gunnar Langva AS based in Ålesund, Norway. The 75 meter long vessel is to be built by Westcon Yards in Norway, and the Rolls-Royce contract is signed with the yard. This will be Westcon’s second order for Gunnar Langva. The previous vessel was delivered in 2013 and also designed by Rolls-Royce. Additionally, the new vessel will be the sixth vessel in a row to be named Gunnar Langva after the family-owned company.

U.S. shale drilling slowdown may be temporary. Oil prices rose to an eight-week high on Thursday, as a rally in U.S. gasoline futures spurred further gains this week that came after key OPEC members pledged to reduce exports and the U.S. government reported a sharp decline in crude inventories. U.S. gasoline futures were the biggest percentage gainer in the petroleum complex, up 1.6 percent to their highest since May 30. "Today's buying rotation back to the front of the (gasoline) curve is a healthy sign that augers in favor of additional price gains," Jim Ritterbusch, president of Chicago-based energy advisory firm Ritterbusch & Associates, said in a note. Benchmark Brent futures were up 50 cents, or 1 percent, at $51.47 a barrel by 12:54 p.m. EDT (1654 GMT). U.S.

Kongsberg has signed a contract with maritime technology company Havyard Ship Technology for the delivery of a complete Fishmaster Integrated Vessel Concept for a newbuild pelagic trawler. The vessel is a collaborative effort between Havyard Ship Technology and the Paris based fishing company France Pélagique. The vessel is developed in close cooperation with Dutch ship designer ASD, and will represent the latest technology for sustainable fishing and efficient processing of pelagic species such as herring, mackerel and blue whiting.

U.S. energy firms this week cut oil rigs for an 10th week in a row to the lowest levels since December 2009, data showed on Friday, as some producers focus more on completing their drilled but uncompleted wells instead of drilling new ones. Looking forward, analysts forecast the rig count will bottom in a few months before recovering later this year when they expect crude prices to rise. Drillers removed 13 oil rigs in the week ended Feb. 26, bringing the total rig count down to 400, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report. That compares with 986 oil rigs operating in same week a year ago. In 2015, drillers cut on average 18 rigs per week for a total of 963 oil rigs for the year, the biggest annual decline since at least 1988.

The Navy's annual Installation Excellence Award winners were announced today by Commander, Navy Installations Command. This installation excellence award program recognizes the Navy's top three large and small installations, and rewards installation performance consistent with the command's strategic goals and Office of the Secretary of Defense criteria for the DoD-wide Commander in Chief Installation Excellence Awards. 1st Place: Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island (led by Capt. M. K. 2nd Place: NAS Lemoore (led by Capt. M. G. 3rd Place: Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay (led by Capt. J. W. 1st Place: NAS Whiting Field (led by Capt. 2nd Place: Naval Air Facility El Centro (led by Capt. W. C. 3rd Place: Naval Support Activity Mechanicsburg (led by Capt.

U.S. crude settled at a more than six-year low on Tuesday after China's currency devaluation raised questions about oil demand from the No.2 consumer, and a new OPEC estimate showed non-member producers were likely to keep output high despite low prices. A BP refinery outage in Whiting, Indiana that could last at least a month, idling some 240,000 barrels per day of crude distillation, added to the bearish sentiment, traders said. U.S. crude fell $1.88, or more than 4 percent, to $43.08 a barrel, its lowest settlement since March 2009, and about $1 above the 2015 contract low on March 18. Brent fell $1.23, or 2.4 percent, to $49.18 a barrel, paring more than half of its gains in a rally on Monday.

A new sea rescue operation is to be launched in May to try to reduce the number of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers killed making the treacherous crossing from Africa to Europe, medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) and Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) said on Thursday. Last year was the deadliest on record when more than 3,400 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean, MSF said. This year, the death toll is expected to be even higher, MSF added. There is less help available for boats in distress since the Italian navy's search and rescue operation, Mare Nostrum, closed down in November last year because of a lack of funds.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and the United Steelworkers union (USW) negotiated for hours on Tuesday over a new labor contract for U.S. refinery workers, the company said on day 10 of the biggest refinery walkout since 1980. They have been unable to agree since this year's talks started on Jan. 21 on the size of wage increases and how to monitor worker fatigue, which is tied to accidents and can be handled through overtime pay or adding workers. Shell is the lead representative for oil companies at the negotiations for a three-year pact that would cover 30,000 workers at 63 plants. The union wants wage increases, a tighter safety policy, and reductions in non-union contractors working in refineries.

Brent crude was buoyed on Friday by market uncertainty over the future of Saudi oil output, while U.S. crude fell on more signs of oversupply. Saudi Arabia's new king, Salman, who took the throne on Friday morning after the death of his brother Abdullah, is expected to continue OPEC's policy of keeping oil output steady to protect market share. Some traders did not want to believe that, "clinging on some faint hope that the news is wrong, the Saudis can't possibly mean what they're saying," said Walter Zimmerman, chief technical analyst at United-ICAP. OPEC announced last November it would keep output steady at 30 million barrels a day, despite pleas from some members for it to cut output to support prices and revenues.

U.S. oil refiners work to recover from weekend glitches, fires. Three of the largest U.S. oil refineries will be working to restore operations on Tuesday after a series of weekend glitches temporarily knocked out some 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of processing capacity, the worse spate of outages in years. A fourth plant, Husky Energy Inc's 155,000-bpd Lima, Ohio, refinery, is not expected back online until the end of the week after a blast at its 25,000-bpd isocracker unit, which sources have said was extensively damaged. The disruptions - which included three fires on Saturday and one shutdown late last week - affected about one-fifth of the refining capacity in the eastern half of the United States, fueling deeper losses in U.S.

Climate change is aiding shipping, fisheries and tourism in the Arctic but the economic gains fall short of a "cold rush" for an icy region where temperatures are rising twice as fast as the world average. A first cruise ship will travel the icy Northwest Passage north of Canada in 2016, Iceland has unilaterally set itself mackerel quotas as stocks shift north and Greenland is experimenting with crops such as tomatoes. Yet businesses, including oil and gas companies or mining firms looking north, face risks including that permafrost will thaw and ruin ice roads, buildings and pipelines.

BP today announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2014. Underlying replacement cost profit for the quarter of 2014 was $3.6 billion, 34% higher than the $2.7 billion reported for the same period in 2013 and 13% higher than the $3.2 billion result for the first quarter of 2014. The company also announced a quarterly dividend of 9.75 cents per ordinary share, the same level as the previous quarter but 8.3% higher than a year earlier. As previously announced, BP’s board will review the level of the dividend with the first and third quarter results each year. “This was another successful quarter, delivering both operational progress and robust cash flow.

Whiting Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: WLL) (“Whiting”) and Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE: KOG) (“Kodiak”) today announced a definitive agreement pursuant to which Whiting will acquire Kodiak in an all-stock transaction valued at $6.0 billion, based on the closing price of Whiting on July 11, 2014, and including Kodiak’s net debt of $2.2 billion as of March 31, 2014. The transaction will create the largest Bakken/Three Forks producer with over 107,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production in the first quarter of 2014, 855,000 combined net acres and an inventory of 3,460 net future drilling locations. The combined company’s leading oil-weighted platform will drive meaningful production and operational synergies through complementary acreage positions…

BP today announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2014. Underlying replacement cost profit1 for the quarter was $3.2 billion, compared with $2.8 billion for the previous quarter and $4.2 billion for the first quarter of 2013. Operating cash flow in the quarter was $8.2 billion. The company also announced a quarterly dividend of 9.75 cents per ordinary share to be paid in June, 8.3% higher than a year earlier. As previously advised, the Board will continue to review the level of the dividend with the first and third quarter results each year. BP Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley commented: “This is a very solid start to 2014.