Ocean Onyx, an offshore drilling rig owned by Houstons Diamond Offshore Drilling, left Singapore on March 14 and headed for the southern coast of Australia as the coronavirus virus was shutting down economies and wiping out demand for oil.

With the world awash in unneeded oil, Australian oil producer Beach Energy used a loophole to extricate itself from its $65 million contract with Diamond, which was already struggling and had spent more than $100 million preparing and transporting the rig. Within days, Diamond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and laid off 102 workers.

To be sure, Diamond was struggling before the contract was canceled. The company lost more than $800 million in the first quarter of 2020.

Given the severe downturn in hydrocarbon prices, many companies are hanging on by their fingernails, said Mike OLeary, a partner at law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth in Houston. When it comes to bankruptcies, were seeing the tip of the iceberg at this point.

The offshore oil sector, still rebounding from the 2014-16 oil bust, is again fighting for survival this time from the coronavirus pandemics economic fallout. Many rig operators are laying off workers as offshore energy companies cut short drilling contracts and look for ways to restructure amid mounting financial pressure.

Offshore is getting hit really, really hard, said Matthew Fitzsimmons, vice president of cost analysis for Norwegian research firm Rystad Energy. Its looking like investments will take a while to rebound.

Uncharted waters: Impact of Deepwater Horizon on BP, offshore industry still playing out

The crisis hits an industry that was enjoying something of a renaissance in the months before the collapse. Offshore spending was expected to increase by 5 percent in 2020, Rystad said last year. Ultra-deepwater drilling and massive new projects by Chevron and BP were expected to boost record production in the Gulf of Mexico. And around the world, Exxon and Hess were having success off the coast of Guyana, while Halliburton had won contracts to drill off the coast of Senegal.

Many offshore projects, however, need oil prices above $40 and even $50 a barrel to be profitable. Now with crude stalled just under $40, as it was last week, analysts say only the strongest, best-financed and most-efficient offshore companies will survive, again reshaping the industry into one that is smaller, leaner and that employs far fewer workers.

Thats bad news for Houston and the Gulf Coast, which hosts the vast majority of the 60,000 offshore workers nationally, according to the National Ocean Industries Association, a trade group representing 100 offshore companies. Houston is home to some of the largest offshore operations such as Schlumberger, Halliburton and Transocean.

The cycle were in now is much more drastic than what anyone could have contemplated for the industry, said Erik Milito, president of the association. Youre not going to see a sustainable offshore industry if youre at the $30 range.

The crash has claimed several offshore companies, including Diamond Offshore and Hornbeck Offshore Services, which filed for bankruptcy protection in April and May, respectively.

Diamond, a Houston-based drilling contractor with significant operations in the Gulf of Mexico, said in court filings that demand for its contract drilling services plummeted as oil producers cut costs and idled offshore rigs. Hornbeck, a Louisiana-based oil-field services company that transports oil to shore from offshore rigs, said in its filings that the crash hindered its ability to make payments on $1 billion of long-term debt.

Other offshore players are expected to follow Diamond and Hornbeck into bankruptcy. Houston-based Fieldwood Energy, one of the largest independent exploration and production companies specializing in offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, is reportedly preparing for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in two years.

Offshore oil production, which generally requires massive upfront capital and a decadeslong return on investment, has been slow to recover from past downturns.

A typical offshore well can cost $3 billion to $5 billion to drill, and can take five to 10 years from exploration to production. But they can reliably produce oil for at least 20 years.

Given the time and money required to deploy them, energy companies tend to take a more cautious approach to offshore drilling especially when its impossible to know what the price of oil will be when crude starts flowing years later.

Its a nerve-wracking business, said OLeary, a Houston attorney specializing in the energy sector. This business is not for the faint of heart.

Pandemic strikes: Several BP offshore workers test positive for coronavirus

Offshore energy companies tend to respond relatively quickly to oil crashes, idling rigs and laying off workers. But they are deliberately slower to bring them back as the price of oil rebounds.

Spending this year on offshore projects is expected to plunge by 80 percent to $20 billion from $104 billion in 2019 commitments, according to Rystad. At the worst of the 2014-16 oil bust, offshore spending dropped to $38 billion.

The sharp spending decline means fewer operating rigs and fewer jobs. The number of working offshore rigs declined in June to 448, off 34 percent from the high of 683 in 2014, and about 70 fewer than the IHS Markit 2020 forecast average of 521. Meanwhile the number of offshore jobs in the Gulf of Mexico, which grew to almost 70,000 last year will decline by 13 percent to about 60,000 this year, the National Ocean Industries Association said.

The number of workers in the offshore segment declined by 22 percent during the 2014-16 oil bust half of the decline seen in onshore shale, according to Rystad. But shale production, which requires less upfront capital and short drilling cycles, was able to rebound more quickly, bring back most of the jobs it lost during the downturn. Offshore didnt bring as many jobs back, Fitzsimmons said.

Next wave: Big Oil shows new commitments to offshore African projects

With the coronavirus pandemic, getting workers back into the office to work on new offshore projects will be difficult and likely further delay the recovery, Fitzsimmons said.

Having a project team of 400 engineers all spread out and working from home, its another challenge, he said. You need people in offices to design these big projects. So its best, if youre investing billions of dollars, to wait out the pandemic. The reserves will still be there.

Meanwhile, energy companies are busy idling and mothballing offshore rigs, known in the industry as warm-stacking and cold-stacking rigs, respectively.

Warm-stacked rigs have a limited crew on board to keep some machinery running, while cold-stacked rigs may be vacated and production suspended. Most companies are warm-stacking their rigs in hopes that prices will recover more quickly than expected.

Houston-based Seadrill, for example, decided to mothball a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico for up to three months after a drilling contract ended, forcing the company to lay off its 135 idled workers.

Such layoffs, said Rystads Fitzsimmons, could spell more trouble for offshore companies when things turn around.

The talent and experience drain is going to happen again, Fitzsimmons said. Thats going to delay the restart because the people just arent going to be here. Its a long ripple effect in a long cycle.

paul.takahashi@chron.com

twitter.com/paultakahashi

Link:

Not for the faint of heart: Oil bust lashes offshore industry still in recovery - Houston Chronicle

6/22/2020

Trendsetter Trident Intervention System

HOUSTON Trendsetter Engineering introduced its Trident Intervention System, designed for rapid reconfiguration in the field, providing the flexibility to conduct intervention riser, riserless wireline intervention and hydraulic stimulation operations all with a single system. This modular approach to intervention will result in reduced well maintenance costs, improved production and increased intervention operational efficiency.

The Trident System, initially delivered in the Intervention Riser System (IRS) configuration, provides a 6 3/8 through bore and is suitable for all types of well intervention operations up to 15,000 psi and in water depths up to 10,000 ft.

Tridents robust Well Control Package (WCP) is built around the unique and reliable shear/seal design of the Interventek Revolution valves, providing a robust safety system in an extremely compact package.

With an overall WCP stackup height under 16 and a combined Emergency Disconnect Package / Lower Riser Package weight of just over 67,000 lbs, Trident is uniquely suited for rapid mobilization to any region and integration into almost any rig of availability, including many older generation MODUs which may be limited in both crane capacity and tree cart stackup height.

Read more from the original source:

Trendsetter introduces modular offshore intervention system - WorldOil

Buffeted by breaking waves and a brisk ocean breeze, the town of Rodanthe balances on a precarious shard of land along the Outer Banks. From here, the eastern-most point in North Carolina, it is less than 45 miles to an expanse of the sea where energy corporations plan to puncture the ocean bed in search of oil and gas.

But first, seismic testing companies must do their reconnaissance. To do so, they deploy a boat towing an array of 24 airguns firing every 10 to 15 seconds for 24 hours each day, as many as 208 days a year. At low frequencies, the sound ping-pongs among the ridges and valleys of the ocean bed, and the returning echo patterns can reveal the locations of the energy deposits.

The sounds also reveal the vulnerability of sea life to human-made intrusions. Scientific studies have shown the sound can injure, kill and deafen marine life, including fish, whales and dolphins forcing them to flee their habitats and blunting their desire to eat and breed.

Last week, the federal government overruled North Carolinas objection to seismic testing off the coast, saying the activity proposed by the company WesternGeco is in the national interest. The decision allows the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management to issue permits for seismic testing on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf, roughly from Maryland to Florida. Four more companies have requested permits.

Environmental coastal advocates condemned the decision.

The decision to overrule the state shows the unwillingness of the federal government to listen to the wishes of the people, said Larry Baldwin, Crystal Coast waterkeeper. That arrogance goes even further when a decision by the state of North Carolina, which has been very outspoken against seismic and drilling, is completely ignored.

This news again shows the total disregard for the citizens of North Carolina by this administration, said Oceana Senior Campaign Organizer Randy Sturgill of Wilmington. President Trumps radical offshore drilling plan is a threat to all coastal communities. Seismic blasting and offshore drilling threatens our fishing, tourism, and recreation industries and everyone who visits or calls our coast home.

The decision was signed by Neil Jacobs, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. (Jacobs was a central figure in Sharpiegate during Hurricane Dorian, in which a forecast path was altered to align with President Trumps erroneous statement that Alabama could be hit by the storm. Earlier this month, a federal investigation found Jacobs engaged in the misconduct intentionally, knowingly, or in reckless disregard for the NOAAs scientific integrity policy.)

The targeted area for seismic testing and energy drilling is known as The Point, about 38 miles from Manteo and 45 miles from Rodanthe. It is home to 60 species of whales, including the endangered Right Whale, and dolphins, said Doug Nowacek, professor and chair of Marine Conservation Technology at Duke Universitys Marine Laboratory. It is one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the western North Atlantic Ocean maybe the Atlantic entirely. For some species of whales, like the sensitive Cuviers beaked whale,the density is higher than anywhere else in the world.

In April 2014, WesternGeo applied to BOEM for a permit to conduct seismic testing on a stretch of the Outer Continental Shelf from Virginia to South Carolina. Then-Gov. Pat McCrory supported the testing and potential drilling.

But under Gov. Roy Coopers administration, the NC Department of Environmental Quality contested the permits, arguing that seismic testing, even conducted 40-plus miles off the coast, would reduce the volume of fish catches and harm the states fishing industry. That sector provides 50,000 jobs, $1.5 billion in annual income, $3.9 billion in annual sales.

Initially the state prevailed. In 2017, BOEM denied the applications of all five companies, saying the value of obtaining the information from the surveys does not outweigh the risks of obtaining said informatics.

But shortly after taking office, President Trump signed an executive order to expedite oil and gas exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf. As a result BOEM rescinded its denial of the permits and re-evaluated them.

In its recent decision, Neil Jacobs cited the need to for the U.S. to be energy independent. Although the U.S. is a net exporter of energy, that doesnt mean the U.S. has energy self-sufficiency, the ruling read.

Our energy economic is trending toward wind and solar, said Erin Carey, director of coastal programs for the NC chapter of the Sierra Club. This is inline with propping up a dirty industry.

The federal government also cited a scientific dispute over the long-term and permanent harm marine life, including sea turtles, scallops and plankton, can suffer from the effects of seismic testing. Many marine mammals in particular, rely on sound to navigate, and the frequencies of the air guns can interfere with their ability to do so.

For example, a research team including Nowacek tracked sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 2000s and found the closer they were to air guns, the lower their rate of foraging attempts.

The National Marine Fisheries Service acknowledges that some individual fin whales could experience minor permanent hearing loss that may affect their fitness meaning survival. But NMFS concluded the the harm doesnt rise to a population level consequence for the species.

The rest of whales suffered only minor and temporary hearing threshold shifts, according to NMFS.

NMFS also rebutted a study by Australian scientist R.D. McCauley, who found that the sounds from air guns killed plankton, the building block for the marine food chain. His team used just a single gun air gun pulled behind a boat, and measured the amount of plankton before and after it fired. They found a lot of dead plankton, Nowacek said.

A separate study, though, found no effect on plankton, but that air gun was only fired once in a pond, instead of the tens of thousands of times that are required to map the sea floor.

In fact, since as many as five companies could receive permits to conduct the seismic tests within the same area the information would likely be redundant the number of shots and volume of sound could be overwhelming.

NMFS says it has found only temporary and localized kills of marine life and only at relative close distances.

Nowacek said several studies have revealed that fish catches decrease after a seismic survey. Its unclear if the animals fled, died or were injured. There is this idea that displacement is OK, but its not always, Nowacek said.

As a scientist, my gut reaction is the jury is still out, Nowacek said. But if seismic testing is going to continue, we need to really understand the impacts on turtles, fish and plankton. Seismic surveys are among the loudest sounds we put in the water. Air guns are controlled explosions. If all of the surveys occur as proposed, the number of shots is staggering.

Originally posted here:

Trump administration overrules NC, approves offshore seismic testing for oil and gas deposits - ncpolicywatch.com

The ScotWind Leasing programme is being run by Crown Estate Scotland in its role as manager of Scotland's seabed. It is the first round of offshore wind leasing in Scottish waters in a decade.

Investors and developers can register their interest in obtaining an 'option agreement' with Crown Estate Scotland through an online portal. Successful applications will be granted leases to build offshore wind farms in one of the areas of seabed that will be identified as suitable in the Scottish government's sectoral marine plan (SMP) for offshore wind, which has been published in draft form.

Crown Estate Scotland is anticipating closing applications between October 2020 and early 2021, depending on when the SMP is formally adopted.

Applicants will be required to prepare and submit a 'supply chain development statement', setting out how they plan to engage with and utilise the supply chain to successfully develop their projects. This statement must include information on the geographical location of supply chain activity and evidence of how the commitments in the plan can be fulfilled.

In their launch summary document (7-page / 156KB PDF), Crown Estate Scotland said that it was encouraging "realistic" supply chain commitments. The ScotWind Leasing process does not impose any requirements on level or location of supply chain impact, but commitments will be incorporated into the final option agreement with contractual remedies possible if the commitments are not met.

"More detail on the supply chain requirements for applicants has been keenly awaited, though this remains a moving target as CES has invited feedback on its supply chain commitment proposals by the end of July," said renewable energy expert Alan Cookof Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law. "Shortly after the adopted sectoral marine plan becomes available, they will publish an addendum to the ScotWind Leasing launch documentation which will confirm final details of their requirements. Although bidders supply chain development proposals are not to form part of the scoring which will determine which applicants for seabed areas are successful, this will nevertheless be an important document and will form the basis for contractual commitments in the option agreements which will be granted to successful bidders and to which bidders will then be held."

"There is a tension for bidders between, on the one hand, addressing the aspirations of politicians and potential local supply chain participants and, on the other hand, developing projects to be as economic as possible in order to be able to bid successfully under the Contract for Difference subsidy regime. New global entrants to the Scottish offshore development market may also feel less of an obligation to be seen to be meeting politicians and unions local supply chain aspirations than existing Scottish/UK-based players. More bullish bidders may even be tempted to submit weak supply chain commitments on the basis that the CES launch documentation makes it clear that this will be irrelevant to the process of awarding options over seabed areas anyway," Cook said.

Energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said that the leasing round "presents an opportunity to help develop our strategic economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic".

"As we emerge from the crisis, we have a chance to re-imagine the Scotland around us and to begin building a greener, fairer and more equal society and economy," he said.

Crown Estate Scotland said that total investment in ScotWind Leasing could ultimately surpass 8 billion and deliver enough electricity to power every home in Scotland, saving over six million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

John Robertson, head of energy and infrastructure at Crown Estate Scotland, said: "Offshore wind is currently one of the cheapest forms of new electricity generation and Scotland is perfectly poised to host major new projects, with a well-established energy skills sector as well as some of the best natural marine resources in Europe".

Read this article:

Scotland launches offshore wind seabed leasing programme - Out-Law.com

Human beings have been turning the power of the wind into energy for over a thousand years.

Across about 100 countries, wind is harnessed often with the familiar, sometimes elegant technology of wind turbines. Increasingly, those windmills are in clusters offshore, usually in an ocean; the boom in offshore is especially helping European countries meet renewable energy targets. Offshore wind is really just getting going in the U.S, but states along the East Coast are making big bets on offshore wind.

Now, officials in Ohio have signed on to an offshore wind project on Lake Erie. There are some conditions, including time of day restrictions. But if completed, the six windmills planned off the coast of Cleveland would be the first of their kind on the Great Lakes. And the technology could again gain interest further west on the Great Lakes.

A decade ago, the Great Lakes region heard a lot of talk about wind energy. There was a proposal in Ludington, Mich. The state of New York showed an interest on Lake Erie.

Here in Illinois, the talk about offshore wind on Lake Michigan was centered in the North Shore suburb of Evanston, and some people from Evanston are still pursuing offshore wind for Illinois today.

The story begins in 2010. At that time, the city of Evanston was looking seriously into offshore wind as part of its overall climate action strategy.

Evanston doesnt have open space for a big solar project, but it has a good stretch of open lakefront, so offshore wind looked worth pursuing. Then-Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl formed a group called The Mayors Offshore Wind Farm Committee. It was made up of residents who ranged from a middle school teacher to the ex-director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. There was an attorney, an engineer, an architect, an environmentalist.

The committee asked for proposals around an offshore wind concept from wind developers, and two responded. There was a wide range of reactions to what the two companies suggested for the committee. One member of the working group didnt want to partner with either of the developers. Another didnt want to increase costs to Evanston businesses. One committee member had safety and maintenance concerns.

The environmentalist on Evanstons Wind Farm Committee was Jack Darin, director of the Illinois chapter of the Sierra Club. Ultimately, Darin recalled, most committee members remained interested in offshore wind, but after a year of study he said they came to the conclusion that offshore wind was viable in Lake Michigan, but for infrastructure and economic reasons Evanston couldnt do it itself.

Offshore wind had some serious requirements that made it next to impossible for Evanston. First, where do you plug in the turbines?

Evanston didnt have a suitable place to plug a wind farm into a power grid. Most wind installations try to hold down infrastructure costs by plugging into the grid where transformers and high voltage transmission lines are already set up. Evanston doesnt have an existing power plant on its lakeshore to plug into. Another thing Evanston didnt have was a port to assemble portions of the windmills and haul them out into the lake; in the report, there was talk of a staging area on the lakefront. But the assemblage is extensive and requires special facilities at an actual port. And on the economic front, Evanston alone couldnt guarantee enough customers to kickstart development and overcome high upfront costs.

Getting the legal authority to build offshore wind in the lake is possibly the toughest challenge. The people of Illinois own the lake bed. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources would have to grant a permit. A difficult process all by itself (there are many environmental hurdles), the project would have to survive a public trust challenge to the permit. Public trust doctrine contends that waterways are open and free to all and cannot be appropriated for private interests.

Joel Brammeier with the Alliance for the Great Lakes says Illinois has a particularly rigorous and strong backing of the public trust doctrine. Indeed. The predecessor organization to the Alliance, the Lake Michigan Federation, used public trust doctrine to successfully sue the state for granting Loyola University 18.5 acres of Lake Michigan for landfill. Illinois courts have ruled in favor of a public roadway, a public water treatment plant, public exposition facilities and public football stadium. Courts, though, have also ruled against private railroad facilities and steel plants. When it comes to Lake Michigan, Brammeier said any attempt to put wind turbines in Lake Michigan would probably be decided by the courts, and its a high bar.

Theres a string of familiar public objections to offshore wind. In Clevelands case, a recreational boating association registered objections. Some birding and bat groups ended up getting conditions put into Clevelands approval process where the windmills would get turned off at night in the spring and summer (very possibly a deal breaker). Finally, theres the familiar complaint that windmills detract from the skyline. But advocates for offshore wind point to a poll in New Jersey that showed when people are shown pictures of turbines, or windmills, at various points offshore, the farther away they are, the more acceptable the idea becomes. For some perspective, Darin of the Sierra Club said when windmills are 6 miles out, theyre about the size of your thumbnail if you hold your arm out.

With all the hassles around offshore wind, why bother? Land-based wind is cheaper, and solar in Illinois has huge potential.

The answer is the big role offshore wind could play in the clean energy mix. While the U.S. is just getting started, theres a couple dozen countries that are using offshore wind as a key component to reach climate commitments. Britain now gets 11% of its energy from offshore wind and predicts its capacity will triple over the next 10 years. Ireland just fast tracked seven wind farms that will help it reach its goal of 70% renewable by 2030.

European countries have made offshore part of their climate goals and subsidize them strongly. Now states on the Atlantic coast in this country are beginning to do it, too. New York state passed legislation to support the development of enough offshore wind to power 6 million homes by 2035. Massachusetts is working on an Atlantic wind farm that should generate enough power for 400,000 homes.

Illinois is way behind on its renewable goals. Illinois has legal goals of 25% renewablesby 2025. The state still hasnt cracked 10% renewables, and land-based wind makes up almost all of Illinois 8% renewable portfolio. The governor has rhetorically committed to 100% renewable by 2050 and proposed energy reforms in the legislature target that goal.

The state would find it a lot easier to hit its renewable target with offshore wind in the mix. Offshore wind also has the advantage of being close to where the users are. Land-based wind is popping up around the state, but travels far to reach Cook County, for instance.

Encouraged by Evanstons effort and other activity around the Great Lakes, in 2011, the Illinois legislature created a Lake Michigan Offshore Wind Advisory Council. Its job was to work with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources on a report that gives the department methods for evaluating an offshore wind permit on Lake Michigan. Next, the legislature passed the Lake Michigan Wind Energy Act in 2013 to begin to unravel the economic challenges.

Former Gov. Bruce Rauners administration chose not to appoint a task force to examine those economic challenges, but the idea has new life with the Pritzker administration. Darin is on the new Offshore Wind Energy Economic Development Task Force that the governor established late last year. The Alliance for the Great Lakes is also part of that effort. So is the mayor of Waukegan, and for good reason. Waukegan is a city that has a port and a couple of power plant capacity places to plug into. Another location that meets the port/plug requirement is the Calumet Harbor area near the Illinois-Indiana border. Both locations need economic development. The committee hasnt met yet because of the COVID-19 crisis, but after it does, it has a year to develop a report on ways to overcome some of the economic hurdles to offshore wind. Darin thinks overcoming the economic hurdles lies in the commitment by both Chicago and Evanston to 100% renewable energy. He thinks those commitments could forge a pathway to the development of offshore wind.

Brammeier of Alliance of the Great Lakes said theyre keeping an open mind about offshore wind and he recognizes climate change as a huge threat to the Great Lakes. But, he said, Ive yet to see a compelling vision that checks all the boxes and shows that this is a sustainable approach for the Great Lakes.

Brammeier wants answers about disposal: You dont want a bunch of rusting hulks in the lake 30 years from now, he said. And he weighs the value of the lake as an aesthetic resource: Do we really want to look at windmills off 63rd street beach for 3% of our energy mix?

Chris Wissemann lives in Evanston, and was on the Mayors Wind Farm Report from 2010. Wisseman also served on the advisory panel that helped create the states report on offshore wind. Hes now the CEO of Diamond Offshore Wind Development, a Mitsubishi-owned firm that works in Europe but has an eye on the Great Lakes. He said proponents of offshore wind in the Great Lakes have to show local, serious stakeholders that it can work here. He said whats needed is what he calls a pathway to responsible development. Possibly, a pilot project near an industrial harbor, and getting good data on what happens with birds and fish 5 miles out into the lake.

But Wissemann thinks offshore wind could easily provide a third of Illinois energy alongside land-based wind farms and solar. For his part, Darin thinks theres a few nuclear reactors worth of energy waiting in Lake Michigan.

Many observers believe Clevelands offshore wind project wont move forward because of the restrictions imposed. The developer was stunned by the decision and called it not an approval.

Darin said that leaves the door open for Illinois to be the first offshore wind development in the Great Lakes a good thing because it would mean investment and jobs in Illinois. Special kinds of port facilities and ships are required, and that infrastructure also might be used for other projects. Darin and Wissemann think 5 years is about the earliest a project could get off the ground.

To Darin, that timeline seems too long. He points to 10 years as about the amount of time we all have to avert the worst consequences of climate change.

See the rest here:

The Uphill Battle For Offshore Wind In Illinois - WBEZ

One of the big knocks against renewable resources is their intermittency. The sun doesnt always shine, the wind doesnt always blow. One way to see this is by looking at the capacity factor of solar plants and wind farms.

When you hear about renewable plants being built, you normally hear about the size of the plant in megawatts (MW). For example, our local power providers are building 100 and 200 MW solar plants, and Mountain Views Googleplex gets power from the ~600 MW Altamont Pass Wind Farm. Those numbers reflect how much power the plant can generate at peak. If you multiply that power by time, you get a measure of the maximum amount of energy it can generate over a period of time. So, for example, if you were to run a 100 MW solar plant at full power for a year (that would be impossible because of night and clouds, but just pretend), then it would generate 100 * 365 * 24 = 876,000 MW-hours = 876 GW-hours (GWh) of energy.

In reality, the solar plant would not come close to producing that amount of energy in one year because the sun doesnt shine 24x7. The capacity factor reflects the actual output of the plant compared to the maximum output. On average solar plants in California have a capacity factor of around 28%. That is pretty high for solar California gets a lot of sun. On the east coast, the capacity factor for solar plants is more like 15-20%. (1)

The chart below shows the capacity factors of different types of energy in the US. (2)

This data is sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration

You can see that coals capacity factor (in black) has decreased substantially over the past ten years, despite many plant shutdowns. That is because the remaining plants are running less often as electricity markets prefer to run cleaner plants. This has made coal power more expensive. Gas plants (in red) have picked up some of the slack by running more often. But wind (in green) is also making improvements, and those are related more to technology than to market forces. Wind is becoming a more reliable resource.

You may be wondering how technology can make more wind power from the same wind. Well, computer models can help to better site (position) the turbines to capture more wind. A yaw system can dynamically rotate the turbine to face the wind, while a pitch control mechanism can swivel the blades to pick up more wind. But most importantly, taller turbines pick up higher, more reliable wind, and offshore turbines pick up steadier ocean breezes.

6 MW turbines in heavy seas off of Rhode Islands coast. Source: National Renewable Energy Lab

Turbine improvements have driven big increases in capacity factors for wind farms. Europes onshore wind farms have a capacity factor of 24% because many turbines are smaller and older. The USs wind farms are newer and have a capacity factor of 35%. Offshore wind yields another step up in reliability because the winds are steadier and ocean turbines can be taller. Europes offshore wind farms have an overall capacity factor of 38%, while the UKs more recent offshore farms have a weighted capacity factor of 43%. GE has developed an enormous turbine for offshore use. It is around 60 stories high and almost as wide, with blades as long as a football field. GE claims it will achieve a capacity factor of 63%, and Time magazine named it one of its 2019 Inventions of the Year. That turbine can capture a lot of wind.

European countries have installed 5047 offshore turbines to date, including 502 in just the last year. The UK and Germany are leading in installed capacity. The US also has great potential for offshore wind, as you can see in the map below. Since around 80% of the nations electricity demand occurs in the coastal and Great Lakes states, this offshore power is conveniently situated. (3)

Source: Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy

Incredibly, the US has only five wind turbines offshore right now, located near Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island. In the last few years, though, the industry has gained momentum in the US, and there are commitments for 20GW of wind (3000+ turbines) in just the next five years.

Offshore wind farms planned in the next 5-10 years. Source: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

One of the challenges we have on the west coast, and also in Maine, is that the ocean gets deep very quickly, so offshore turbines that are fixed into the ocean floor are not practical. Fortunately, floating turbines are being developed, and quickly, in part because oil and gas companies have considerable experience with this kind of technology. It is amazing to me that these not only work, but can work better than turbines built into the seabed. A journalist spoke with Po Wen Cheng, head of an international research project on floating wind energy at the University of Stuttgart, and relates that Cheng says that: not only are winds in deeper waters more powerful than those closer to shore but the physics of the flexible, suspended rigs enables them to carry larger turbines. Cheng argues that floating turbines could be even taller than todays largest offshore rigs, perhaps with 400-foot blades and towers stretching nearly 1,000 feet into the air as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Turbines of such dimensions could generate three times the electricity of todays most advanced onshore turbines. (4)

Some technologies used for floating wind turbines. Source: Wind Energies Technology Office

This is not just theoretical. A pilot floating wind project has been running very successfully off the coast of Scotland for several years. With five 6 MW turbines, it realized a capacity factor of 56% in its first two years of operation. To put that in perspective, that means each floating wind turbine generated 6 * 365 * 24 * 0.56 = 29,434 MWh of electricity per year. An average California home uses 6552 kWh per year. So a single one of those floating turbines could power 4492 typical California homes. Consider that the UK already has installed about 1900 offshore wind turbines. Suppose California were to install just 1500 turbines along our coast, newer models, say 8 MW on average with a good 50% capacity factor. That 12 GW of offshore wind would yield 53 TWh of energy per year, which is around 20% of Californias annual electricity consumption. That is an enormous amount of renewable energy.

Maine has seen the light and is going ahead with a pilot project of two 6 MW turbines. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management analyzed six potential sites in California, predicting a capacity of 16 GW in just those areas. With the coastal winds coming on strong in the evenings just as our demand is ramping up and the sun is going down, it seems like a great complement to our solar power.

Six potential sites for offshore wind in California. Source: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

And yet. California, for all its clean energy aspirations, has no pilots for offshore wind. No plans. Just long-lingering hopes. The obstacle is not birds, or marine life, or fishermen, or wealthy coastal dwellers concerned about aesthetics. It is not marine navigation, or even economics. Instead the major obstacle to offshore wind in California is the Department of Defense. According to the San Diego Tribune, The U.S. Navy considers vast portions of California as wind exclusion areas, including the entirety of Southern California. Here is a map that the US Navy released about two years ago showing those areas in red.

US Navy map showing wind exclusion zones off the California coast. Source: Ben Inskeep

The Navy is not leaving much room for offshore wind! A central coast Congressman, Representative Salud Carbajal, has been talking with the US Navy and others for years to find some way to establish offshore wind in his area. It is a great location, especially given ample transmission capacity from the demise of the Morro Bay gas plant in 2014 and (soon) the Diablo nuclear plant. But negotiations are slow going. A recent update from E&E News indicates that the Navy has offered to exchange a small area in return for a ban on many other areas. Among other things, the Navy is suggesting that wind could be built in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Carbajal, on the other hand, is suggesting that it would behoove the Navy to learn how to navigate around wind turbines given that so many other countries, including China, are erecting them along their coasts.

So, well have to wait to see where California ends up with this very promising resource. Northern California may have the best shot in the short term. Change is disruptive, and change of the magnitude we need to see over the next 10-20 years is not easy. We see the tension across all forms of low-carbon energy, however promising they appear on paper. I applaud politicians like Carbajal who are really trying to make it work.

Notes and References0. I will be taking the next few weeks off from this blog to do some summer activities. Happy Fourth of July!

1. The capacity factor of a solar farm is also affected by technology (e.g., whether the panels have tracking capability to better orient towards the sun) and market factors (e.g., how often the plant is called on to operate). Solar plants that need a lot of maintenance will also have lower capacity factors.

2. Nuclear energy is not shown in this chart. Nuclear has the highest capacity factor, at over 90%. Geothermal energy is also high, at around 75%, though there is much less of it.

3. This statistic and others can be found in this top ten list about offshore wind.

4. If you are wondering how such an incremental change in turbine size can make a 3x difference in electricity produced, it is because wind power is proportional to the cube of the wind speed. Engineers spend a lot of time tuning turbines (orthodontics for wind farms, as one writeup puts it) to increase energy production.

5. You can find a good overview of offshore wind in the US from the American Wind Energy Association. This report from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has lots of information about US offshore wind plans.

6. This report has lots of data about wind energy (including offshore wind) in Europe.

Current Climate Data (May 2020)Global impacts, US impacts, CO2 metric, Climate dashboard (updated annually)

Comment GuidelinesI hope that your contributions will be an important part of this blog. To keep the discussion productive, please adhere to these guidelines or your comment may be moderated:- Avoid disrespectful, disparaging, snide, angry, or ad hominem comments.- Stay fact-based and refer to reputable sources.- Stay on topic.- In general, maintain this as a welcoming space for all readers.

Read the original post:

Is Offshore Wind a Reliable Renewable? | A New Shade of Green | Sherry Listgarten | Almanac Online | - The Almanac Online

Offshore construction of the SeaMade wind farm started in September 2019, with the last foundation installed in January 2020 and in the meantime connected by the subsea cables. DEMEs DP2 offshore installation vessel Apollo will now install 58 Siemens Gamesa 8.4 MW turbines on the monopile foundations.

Apollo loaded the first wind turbine components at the Renewable Energy Base Ostend (REBO), which is used as the marshalling harbour for the pre-assembly of the 58 turbines. From Ostend, Apollo will transport the tower elements, nacelles and blades, with a total weight of 1,000 tonnes each, for installation at the SeaMade site which is about 45 kilometres off the Belgian coast. Apollo features an 800-tonne, leg-encircling crane and an unobstructed, spacious 2,000 m deck with a load carrying capacity of 15 t/m.

After the successful installation of the foundations, offshore substations and subsea cables, the start of the turbine installation campaign brings us another step closer to the production of green energy said Michael Glavind, Business Unit Director DEME Offshore. This is also the first turbine installation project for our offshore installation vessel Apollo, which has just completed a challenging foundation piling project in Scotland. This vessels ability to multitask highlights the versatility of our fleet and our ability to handle all aspects of the most complex offshore wind farms.

Mathias Verkest, CEO SeaMade and Otary, added that the offshore installation of 58 8.4 MW wind turbine generators in both concession areas will turn SeaMade into the largest wind farm in the Belgian North Sea and that SeaMade and Rentel will soon have a combined operational capacity of about 800 MW.

By the end of 2020, SeaMade will be operational with a capacity of 487 megawatts providing green energy for 485.000 households.

For additional information:

DEME Group

Read the original:

Wind - DEME Offshore installs the first turbine at the SeaMade offshore wind farm in the Belgian North Sea - Renewable Energy Magazine

The concrete anchors borrow a resilient pattern found in the shells of arthropods such as shrimp, crabs and lobsters.

Inspired by mantis shrimp, a team of researchers from Purdue University and clean energy startups hope to use 3D printing to create cheaper and more environmentally friendly anchors for floating offshore wind turbines.

Floating turbines are an emerging option for generating power in deeper water further offshore than wind turbines fixed on the seafloor. While there are relatively few large-scale floating wind farms in operation, experts hope floating turbines could greatly expand the scope of offshore wind, generating power more efficiently where winds are stronger, and where turbines are less visible from land.

Anchors to secure floating wind turbines to the seafloor are typically made from steel. Now, the team at Purdue is working on using 3D printing to create anchors out of concrete as multiple thin layers with a honeycomb or similar design. Stacked one on top of another, the layers create a structure the researchers compare to the shell of an arthropod, like the shrimp, crab and lobster. Those animals shells are inherently fragile, yet surprisingly resilient because their structure prevents cracks from spreading.

Its a pattern that nature found that is very efficient for improving the mechanical properties for what otherwise is a very brittle material concrete, said Purdue civil engineering professor Pablo Zavattieri.

The anchor would gently meld into the seafloor by harnessing water pressure and a suction effect, avoiding the ecological impact and cost of driving piles into the seafloor for fixed wind turbines. The anchor would also be less ecologically disruptive than other floating turbine anchors, the researchers said.

The innovation is toward reducing the capital costs associated with mooring and anchoring the floating offshore wind turbines, said Rick Damiani, founder and principal of the Floating Wind Technology Company, one of the startups involved in the project. That is something thats still holding back the large-scale deployment of floating offshore wind. New solutions would be certainly welcome.

Damiani previously worked at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with Jason Cotrell, CEO of RCAM Technologies, the startup working with Purdue on the 3D printing portion of the project.

Cotrell added that concrete in general is expected to create more localized jobs than steel because concrete is inherently a regional process with a well-established concrete supply chain in nearly all regions of the country. In contrast, steel anchors are likely to be imported from other states such as the Gulf Coast States or countries with well established offshore steel fabrication supply chains.

The precision and flexibility available with 3D printing means the structure can be designed so the weaknesses inherent in the connection points between layers essentially become strengths, the researchers explained. The design can make sure that cracks in the structure are dispersed so that the energy causing the crack dissipates and the fissure stops.

The preliminary work is very encouraging, explained Jan Olek, a Purdue professor of civil engineering. Were seeing that we can redirect propagation of the cracks and if the interfaces are organized in space in such a way that its a convoluted path for the crack to follow, it takes more energy to actually form the crack.

The team noted that 3D printing is also being explored for onshore wind turbines, offshore oil and gas infrastructure, and buildings more generally. They developed the printing technique proposed for the anchors first using cement paste, and they are now in the process of scaling-up to concrete, which is a mixture of cement mortar and coarse aggregates.

3D printing technology is viewed by many as a waste-free enterprise, Olek said. You deposit the material precisely where you need it. You can be very innovative in your design, you can maximize the material in places it needs to be and minimize it in places where it doesnt need to be.

Zavattieri added that self-healing materials are in the works that could inherently seal or repair cracks, or sense changes in temperature or humidity and react to that. This would be a boon for offshore wind and other energy infrastructure, and such materials would work well with 3D printing.

Damiani said that technology for floating wind turbines thus far has largely been derived from the structures used for offshore oil and gas operations.

But in that industry you can build one-off structures and recoup your costs in a short time, whereas wind cant quite afford that because you need to build several wind turbines for each wind farm, and it takes longer to recoup costs, Damiani said.

Damiani with colleagues at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed a floating offshore wind platform called SpiderFLOAT unveiled last year. Its modular concrete beams are constructed through 3D printing, and it could likely use the anchor that is being developed through the Purdue collaboration, Damiani said.

He said such innovations are changing the paradigm of how you design and build these support structures for floating wind. The philosophy has to shift from mimicking offshore oil and gas infrastructure and it is shifting.

The anchor project participants say their multi-disciplinary expertise has been crucial to the works success. Damiani and Cotrell have deep backgrounds in offshore wind, while Purdue is known for its civil engineering prowess and its expertise in concrete, through the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, and the School of Materials Engineering, where Professor Jeff Youngblood is among the leaders of the project.

Mohamadreza Reza Moini, who did doctoral work on the project and will become an assistant professor at Princeton University next year, noted it is a great opportunity to use the knowledge and technology that is becoming more and more available for the advancement of marine energy infrastructure.

The 3D printed concrete suction anchor research is funded through the National Science Foundation and the Floating Wind Technology Acceleration Competition, which is funded by the Scottish government and run by the Carbon Trusts Floating Wind Joint Industry Project with support from offshore wind developers.

There is still a long way to go before the anchors may actually be launched in the ocean, including testing for stability and other attributes in the lab, then large-scale testing in the environment.

The large water bodies closest to Purdue the Great Lakes arent likely to be among the early sites of the anchors or any floating wind turbines, since ice complicates the situation, Damiani said. But he doesnt rule it out in the future. He worked on the Icebreaker Wind Farm in the works in Lake Erie, where conventional wind turbines fixed to the lakebed will be secured through suction bucket technology similar in principle to the Purdue anchor.

So far it hasnt been done, but I want to think that we can overcome that problem just like has been done for fixed-bottom structures, Damiani said, about the prospects for floating wind turbines in the Great Lakes. Obviously the Great Lakes have a great wind resource and [energy] load centers distributed along the shores. It would make perfect sense.

See more here:

An innovative anchor that could help floating offshore wind take hold - Energy News Network

New Jerseys Governor Phil Murphy has announced plans to develop the New Jersey Wind Port, a first-in-the-nation offshore infrastructure investment to help build offshore wind farms.

The facility will serve as a hub for staging, assembly and manufacturing of offshore wind projects on the East Coast andcould create more than 1,500 jobs in manufacturing and operations and another hundred in construction.

Governor Murphy, said: Offshore wind is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not only protect our environment but also greatly expand our state economy in a way that has immediate impacts and paves the way for long-term growth.

This is a vital step forward in achieving our goal of reaching 7,500MW of offshore wind power by 2035 and 100% clean energy by 2050.

The project is estimated to cost up to $400 million (319.4m) and will be built in two phases, commencing in 2021.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority will lead the project.

See more here:

New Jersey announces 'first-in-the-nation' offshore wind port - Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy

Whats new: Insurance giant AIA Co. Ltd. has received approval from Chinas top insurance regulator to set up the first wholly offshore-owned life insurance company on the Chinese mainland, according to a government announcement (link in Chinese) on Friday.

The announcement said that AIA will convert its Shanghai branch into a wholly-owned subsidiary. AIA is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed AIA Group Ltd., which is one of the largest life insurance groups in Asia.

Why its important: The approval marks the latest development in the mainlands broader drive to grant overseas investors wider access to its financial markets.

In November 2017, China promised to let overseas investors own up to 51% of any life insurance joint venture, according to a consensus that Beijing and Washington reached during U.S. President Donald Trumps visit to China. Last July, China said that the overseas ownership cap would be abolished by 2020.

What else you ought to know: The insurance regulator has approved Lee Yuan Siong and Zhang Xiaoyu to serve as chairman and general manager of the new life insurer.

Lee, who resigned last year from his position as co-CEO of insurance giant Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd., is now AIA Groups chief executive and president. Zhang, also known as Fisher Zhang, is CEO of AIA Groups China business.

The license approval will help accelerate the process for AIA Group to set up new branches across China, which is the fastest-growing market for the group, Frank Yuen, a senior analyst at Moodys Investors Service Inc., said in a note on Monday.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. To read the full official announcement in Chinese, click here.

Related: In Depth: How Chinas Freeze on Insurance Licenses Has Impacted the Market

Contact reporter Lin Jinbing (jinbinglin@caixin.com) and editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

Register to read this article for free.

Register

The rest is here:

Insurance Giant AIA Wins License for China's First Wholly Offshore-Owned Life Insurer - Caixin Global

Construction of the 3.4 million base for Grimsbys latest wind farm is complete.

Contractor Tolent has handed over the new build on Royal Dock to Innogys Triton Knoll team.

Once fully fitted out, the operations and maintenance facility will become the long term regional home for a team of skilled technicians and support staff, responsible for maintaining the offshore wind farm for the next 25 years.

Built across almost four acres of quayside, it features an open plan office space, complete with a control room, meeting rooms, canteen and gym, with associated showers and locker rooms, as well as a new warehouse facility that includes a workshop area and storage facilities.

Julian Garnsey, Innogys project director for Triton Knoll, said: Its a great new facility, a great job by Tolent, and represents the start of another exciting phase for Triton Knoll.

With the construction work now complete, we can now look forward to welcoming the team formally into a brand new, purpose-built and dedicated facility that will sit at the heart of our future operations.

This building gives us a great facility from which to strengthen our long term presence in Grimsby, where we are already preparing to receive our first new apprentices later this year, and are recruiting a new and predominantly local team to support the project.

A new radio mast has been installed to enable communications with the projects offshore operations teams, as well as a temporary modular building that is already accommodating the construction team during the current phase of works to build the wind farm.

The second of two offshore substations has just been installed, with export cable laying continuing and monopile and transition pieces also emerging for the 90 9.5MW turbines to be installed next year.

John Currie, regional director for North East-based Tolent, said: We are extremely proud of our teams who have persevered through recent challenging times to ensure this project could be delivered ahead of time for our client.

Our work across the industrial and commercial sectors has seen us deliver award-winning projects across a variety of sub-sectors including warehouse and distribution, manufacturing, energy, waste and offshore. This will be a fantastic addition to our ever-growing portfolio.

Work began last July on what had been anticipate to be a 12-month build.

Final fit-out works are still to be completed, with the building - between ABPs Port Office and Orsteds East Coast Hub - to accommodate a team of people from Innogy, responsible for maintaining the wind farm long term, and the projects lead wind turbine contractor, MHI Vestas.

A total of 70 new jobs are anticipated, with a number already created, including four wind turbine apprenticeship positions.

Once fully operational, Triton Knoll will be capable of generating enough renewable energy for the equivalent of more than 800,000 homes.

It will become the seventh offshore wind farm to be operated from Grimsby, and - with Orsted's Hornsea Two also entering construction - will take the town to almost 5GW of installed capacity.

J-Power and Kansai Electric Power have bought in as project partners.

Continued here:

3.4m new addition to world-leading offshore wind cluster completes ahead of time - BusinessLive

Dive Brief:

Federal regulators on Thursday announced they would hold two technical conferences based on issues raised by stakeholders one on carbon pricing and one on whether current grid operator frameworks are suitable for offshore wind integration.

Transmission development company Anbaricfiled a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission against the PJM Interconnection last November, asking the commission to find that PJM's transmission interconnection procedures deny meaningful access to offshore wind and similar remote generation technologies. FERC dismissed the complaint, but agreed to hold a technical conference to explore the issue more.

The commission also announced it would host a commissioner-led technical conference on carbon pricing, in response to a request from competitive power suppliers, clean energy advocates, the gas industry and others. "When such a broad group of voices asked the commission to convene an exchange of ideas, I think it's important that we do so," FERC Chair Neil Chatterjee said during the meeting.

Commissioners were broadly in consensus on the importance of the offshore wind and carbon pricing conferences during Thursday's monthly open meeting.

"The fact that we're going to be having a technical conference on how to develop offshore wind and the transmission issues involved with it is very important," Commissioner Bernard McNamee said during the meeting, echoing comments from Commissioner Richard Glick, the lone Democratic appointee on the commission.

Glick said he agreed with the commission's decision to dismiss the Anbaric complaint, but said key questions related to offshore wind and transmission "warrant further investigation." Specifically, he pointed to Anbaric's argument that transmission planning under the eastern regional transmission operators' jurisdiction and elsewhere should plan transmission ahead of offshore wind deployment, to avoid expensive and inefficient development.

"Offshore platform transmission projects, where the transmission is built in anticipation of generation, may be the most efficient approach for accommodating the growth of offshore wind," said Glick. "I commend Chairman Chatterjee for noticing a technical conference to explore whether existing RTO [and]ISO frameworks can accommodate this anticipated growth."

As more eastern states set large offshore wind goals, having a system to minimize costs as well as environmental harm to the ocean, and maximizing efficiency is essential, Anbaric argued in its complaint. On land, the grid already exists and is relatively easier to connect to, but things are "very different" with the ocean, Theodore Paradise, senior vice president of transmission strategy and counsel at Anbaric told Utility Dive.

"We're talking about tens of gigawatts across the Atlantic seaboard to start to meet some of these targets in the near term, not really that many years out," he said. "You can't just run a radial to each wind farm. It's super expensive, that's a ton of cables, kind of spaghetti on the ocean floor, as some people describe it. environmentally, it's kind of a disaster which is ironic because that's what you're trying to avoid."

Overall, the company is pleased with the commission's decision to hold a technical conference, and Paradise says it could lead to a rulemaking process that would address their initial complaints with PJM. "Getting to the technical conferences is a really good outcome from today," he said. Offshore wind advocates were pleased with the move as well.

"FERC's initiative to take a holistic look at how offshore wind can be better integrated in organized markets is forward-thinking, given the significant growth expected for the U.S. offshore wind industry in the near future," Laura Morton, senior director of policy and regulatory affairs for offshore at the American Wind Energy Association, said in an email to Utility Dive.

Offshore wind stakeholders have also criticized the commission for its December order directing PJM to adopt a minimum offer price rule for all new generation that receives a state subsidy, which most analysts agree is likely to raise the prices for offshore wind and make it more difficult for the resource to compete in the wholesale capacity market.

Chatterjee on Thursday told reporters that the decision to hold the technical conference was directly related to the anticipated growth of offshore wind, but that the two issues are related in that the conference and the MOPR "are similarly forward looking."

"I've always been a big believer in renewables and their ability to compete in the marketplace if given the chance. But if you don't have a competitive marketplace then all generation types, including renewables, will be harmed in the long run," he said.

FERC also announced it would examine carbon pricing more closely through a technical conference, as was requested by a diverse array of stakeholders, including NextEra Energy, Vistra Energy, Calpine, the American Council on Renewable Energy, the Natural Gas Supply Association, Advanced Energy Economy and others. The coalition applauded the commission's move in a statement.

"Carbon pricing in organized markets could be a powerful and cost-effective tool to drive down emissions and achieve state policy goals while preserving the benefits of competition," the group said. "There is overwhelming support for a FERC-led conference on carbon pricing from all corners, including state regulators."

The group first wrote to FERC in April, asking the commission to examine more closely how the policy could help states reach their clean energy goals. Chatterjee said he expects the conference to be a "lively exchange," and will likely include discussions over whether FERC even has the legal authority to implement carbon pricing.

"Certainly some of my colleagues will be raising those questions," he said.

The staff-led offshore wind technical conference will be held Oct. 27 and the commissioner-led carbon pricing conference will be held Sept. 30.

Go here to see the original:

FERC schedules technical conferences on carbon pricing, offshore wind integration challenges - Utility Dive

RCG Taiwan director Raoul Kubitschek said the first auction, for 1 GW of capacity for 2026 would take place in Q2 2021. The second auction, for a further 2 GW of capacity for 2027/28, will take place in Q2 2022 and the third auction, for another 2 GW for 2029/30, will take place in Q2 2023.

Mr Kubitschek said, There is still public discussions to be had about the proposals and said it is unlikely that the Taiwanese Government will achieve economies of scale with such an approach.

Offshore Wind Consultants analyst Howard Hu told OWJ, The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) held the first public hearing on 19 June, to announce details of the first draft of Round 3. The MOEA aims to finalise the rule in Q4 2020.

Mr Hu said the plan would prioritise offshore windfarms located in water depths of less than 50 m and a two-phase review of projects would take place. The first phase would take the form of a qualification review looking at environmental impact assessments, technical and financial capability of the proponents of projects and localisation commitments. The second will take the form of price bidding with a potential price cap applied. It is expected that project size will be limited to a maximum of 0.5 GW per project and 2 GW per developer.

Mr Hu said developers feel that insufficient capacity is being released for localisation at a level that the Taiwanese authorities would like to see. Developers would like to see a one-time, larger release or a change of capacity sequence to 2 GW plus 2 GW plus 1 GW, he suggested.

Asia Wind Energy Association board member Edgare Kerkwijk said, It is good to see that the government is keeping its promise about 5 GW more offshore wind. It shows that Taiwan is committed to further building out its offshore wind capacity and to become of the leading offshore wind country in the region.

Until the announcement late last year, there was a lot of uncertainty among developers and investors. A clear path has now been set for Taiwan to go beyond 10 GW of installed capacity.

This will also strengthen the commitment of companies like Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and MHI Vestas, who are building facilities in the country which could act as regional supply bases in the future.

Mr Kerkwijk confirmed that there is a bit of rumbling in the industry regarding the fact that the 5 GW is going to be auctioned in three phases.

Many had hoped that it would be auctioned in one go, all 5 GW, he said. However, the size of each of the auctions, 1 GW, 2 GW and 2 GW, is sufficiently sizeable to keep developers and investors interested.

The plan also shows that the government is being careful in its approach and doesnt want to make mistakes. I suspect that the reason for the staged approach to auctions is that the government wants to see earlier commitments fulfilled that is, projects that have already been awarded and that it expects to obtain lower prices in subsequent auctions.

Taiwan is following a similar approach to other countries who use annual auctions to achieve their long-term targets. Taiwan is no different to many others. Economies of scale are still able to be obtained between projects and developers. All in all, I believe the announcement is an important step for the continuous growth of the Taiwanese and regional offshore wind market.

Read more here:

Taiwan to auction 5 GW of offshore wind in three phases - Riviera Maritime Media

Since Dec. 12, 2016, when the four of five offshore turbines at Block Island Wind started spinning (the fifth briefly malfunctioned and was soon fixed) the 30-megawatt electricity producer has been the only commercial wind farm in operation in the coastal waters of the United States.

But that could change quickly or slowly.

Sixteen projects slated for the Eastern Seaboard from North Carolina to Massachusetts are now on the books at the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management known familiarly as BOEM in various stages of planning and approval.

For many states on the East Coast, offshore wind is integral to plans to achieve carbon neutral energy production.

In the case of Connecticut, in September 2019, Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order mandating that the state end its dependence on fossil fuels for its energy supply by 2040. For Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, the goal is 2050. In Virginia, its 2030.

Among several companies working through the lengthy application and permitting process, Vineyard Wind, a renewable energy development partnership with offices in Boston and New Bedford, has already taken a leading role in Connecticuts energy plans.

In a possible breakthrough, on June 12, with the release of a supplement to a draft environmental impact statement, BOEM advanced a $2.8 billion, 800-megawatt, 84-turbine project, known as Vineyard Wind I, into a required 45-day public comment period before federal environmental approval. The process will include five online public meetings.

Developers claim that the wind farm, located in a wind lease area off Marthas Vineyard, will generate cost-competitive energy for more that 400,000 customers across Massachusetts.

That project had been delayed since last August when BOEM withheld a key permit approval, expected last July, citing the need for an additional environmental review. The project was scheduled for completion in 2022.

On Friday, another Vineyard Wind project, the 804-megawatt Park City Wind project based out of Bridgeport, came before the Public Utilities Regulatory Agency, or PURA, for a three-hour public hearing that was continued in executive session during the afternoon.

The project will produce significant economic development benefits to [Bridgeport], including $890 million of project expenditures in Connecticut, almost 3,000 direct jobs and the saving of $2.2 billion to ratepayers over the life of the project, said Alan Hannah, deputy CEO of Vineyard Wind, during the PURA zoom meeting on Friday.

In December 2019, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection selected the Park City Wind project over two other bidders Mayflower Wind and Constitution Wind for the next phase of renewable energy projects for the state. That decision trimmed expectations for a possible wave of economic development for southeast Connecticut from renewable energy.

The turbines will be located in the federally-designated 160,000-acre lease area OCS-A 0501, located on the outer continental shelf south of Marthas Vineyard.

In a 2019 white paper touting offshore wind development, Tony Appleton of Burns McDonnell, an engineering, construction and environmental consulting firm, based in Kansas City, Missouri, divided potential ports vying for slices of wind energy into four types: ports with manufacturing facilities, ports that manage construction, ports where turbine components are assembled and ports for ongoing operations and maintenance.

According to Appleton, Size, location, depth and the ability to handle the weight of equipment are all key considerations as various ports along the Eastern Seaboard compete for more or less lucrative roles in an industry estimated in a 2019 report by University of Delawares Special Initiative on Offshore Wind at 20 gigawatts of energy production worth $70 billion.

Clearance is another key factor. Many ports along the Eastern Seaboard are constrained by bridges with vertical clearances lower than the latest turbine technology that is assembled on land and shipped upright at a height of 850 feet for installation.

With open access to Long Island Sound, Bridgeport will meet many of the criteria for offshore wind once it is redeveloped.

Vineyard Wind plans to locate an operations and maintenance hub at Barnum Landing, an 18.3-acre industrial waterfront parcel in Bridgeport, in partnership with McAllister Towing and Transportation Co., Inc., a company specializing in marine transportation. The property is also expected to be used as a turbine assembly and staging area that will include steel fabrication.

State Pier in New London is similarly unconstrained and could serve as a base for turbine manufacturing or assembly.

In addition to State Pier, rsted and Eversource have a number of other 50/50 ventures in the works, including Revolution Wind that will provide 400 megawatts to Rhode Island and 304 megawatts to Connecticut, and South Fork Wind, a 132-megawatt project, located 35 miles east of Montauk Point on Long Island. Another 50/50 venture is Sunrise Wind, an 880-megawatt project, also located east of Montauk Point, with support from Con Edison and New York Power Authority.

With the support of the Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), rsted is also developing Ocean Wind, a utility scale 1,100-megawatt project, to be located about 15 miles off the coast of southern New Jersey.

rsted also boasts Skipjack Wind Farm, a 120-megawatt project located 19 miles off the Delaware-Maryland-Virgina coast, coming online at the end of 2023.

rsted is also supporting the engineering procurement and construction of two 6-megawatt wind turbines, part of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project owned by Dominion Energy.

In development as 50/50 ventures between rsted and Eversource are Bay State Wind, a 2-gigawatt project to be located 25 miles off the south coast of Massachusetts, and Constitution Wind, specified for 65 miles off the coast of New London.

In a joint venture, rsted and PSEG also formed Garden State Offshore Energy, LLC in 2007, which holds the BOEM lease OCS-A0482, a 96,000-acre site.

In Massachusetts, Mayflower Wind Energy LLC, a joint venture of Shell and EDP Renewables, won the rights to the lease area OCS-A 052 in December 2018. The companys bid for a 804-megawatt project was accepted by Massachusetts in a second round of offshore bidding.

Equinor, an energy company headquartered in Norway, is developing Empire Wind, an 816-megawatt project 20 miles south of Long Island, as well as Beacon Wind, a 128,000-acre lease in the federal waters off Massachusetts.

In Maryland, U.S. Wind, which is owned by the Italian firm, Renexia S.p.A., and a subsidiary of Toto Holding Group, is developing Marwind, a 248-megawatt project about 20 miles east of Ocean City.

As these energy projects get underway, various states are competing for opportunities in the offshore wind energy supply chain along the so-called East Coast Wind Belt.

The New Jersey Wind Port, a recently announced state plan for a purpose-built 200+ acre development project aims to position the state as a hub for the US offshore wind industry.

The two-phase project will designate 30 acres on the eastern shore of the Delaware River for a turbine assembly and staging area, with an additional 25-acre component manufacturing site and another 160 acres for marshaling and manufacturing space.

In October 2019, Vineyard Wind announced a partnership with Marmon Utility LLC to create the first Tier 1 offshore wind supplier in the United States. In the agreement, Seymour-based Marmon will invest up to $4 million in equipment upgrades and personnel to manufacture Kerite cables for the Park City Wind project.

Vineyard Wind has committed to selecting the Kerite brand for at least 50 percent of the project.

The partnership between Vineyard Wind and Marmon Utility to establish the first American Tier 1 Offshore Wind Supplier in Connecticut is an incredible opportunity for the state to truly develop a world-class offshore wind industry, boasted Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Thaaning Pedersen, in a release. Todays announcement is an exciting step in the right direction but it is only the beginning. Similar to the aerospace sector, we believe that manufacturers all over the state can be a part of this emerging industry, creating long-term jobs and economic opportunity for Connecticut residents.

Link:

As Offshore Wind Projects Pile Up, Glimmers of Progress on the State and Federal Level - CT Examiner

The CEOs of two of the biggest names in global renewable energy headed for the door this week.

First to announce his departure was Henrik Poulsen of Orsted, who will leave the offshore wind giant by February next year at the latest.

The resignation of the fossil-to-wind trailblazer prompted an outpouring of tributes from normally hard-bitten financial analysts, who hailed his transformational role at the Danish group.

Poulsen was non-committal over his future plans, but confirmed they don't include leading the energy transition of another oil and & gas group.

The second high-profile exit was Markus Tacke at Siemens Gamesa "by mutual agreement". Unlike Poulsen, Tacke won't be hanging around until a successor is found the turbine OEM immediately named offshore chief Andreas Nauen as his replacement.

Recharge spent the latter part of last week providing comprehensive coverage of US Offshore Wind 2020 Virtual, as official news provider to the high-profile industry event.

You can read all the great news, analysis and interviews from the conference at our special virtual newsletter page here.

But Recharge kicked-off the proceedings in style with two exclusive in-depth articles a long-read interview with Thomas Brostrm, the North America chief of Orsted, and a feature on the transmission challenges facing US offshore.

Hydrogen is never far from the energy transition headlines, with global players descending on the emerging sector from all directions.

This week it was the turn of utility giant RWE, which said it may kit-out a new LNG terminal to accept green hydrogen, and oil & gas player Repsol, which wants to use the gas in synthetic fuels.

Even the nuclear sector is getting in on the act, and a report from a UK government-backed agency warned that the nation may need nuclear hydrogen to hit its stretching net-zero ambitions.

More here:

Green giants exit, US offshore tradewinds and hydrogen steps on the gas - Recharge

Liam Brooke and Tim Gordon the directors of collapsed peer-to-peer platform Lendy have had their assets frozen while administrators investigate suspicious payments to an offshore account.

In the latest investor update, Lendy administrator RSM revealed that it was looking into 6.8m in payments made to entities registered in the Marshall Islands.

Although the money was said to have been spent on marketing services, RSM said that it is the administrators positionthat these payments were ultimately for the benefit of Liam Brooke and Tim Gordon.

On 1 June 2020, RSM applied for a worldwide freezing injunction to be granted over the assets of both Brooke and Gordon, as well as proprietary injunctions on the properties owned by companies linked to the directors RFP Holdings Limited and LP Alhambra Limited. The injunction was granted three days later.

Read more: Lendy investors face prolonged recovery process

Proceedings have now been commenced against Liam Brooke, Tim Gordon, RFP Holdings Limited and LP Alhambra Limited, RSM confirmed in the latest administrators update.

Owing to the nature of these claims, the joint administrators are unable to provide further information at this time. The joint administrators are continuing to investigate the affairs of the company.

RSM also revealed that it has now interviewed Brooke and Gordon, as well as carrying out reviews of the companys books and records, performing detailed analysis of the companys bank statements and reviewing the results of key word searches of approximately 480,000 company emails.

Read more: P2P administrations face delays due to Covid-19

These investigations have revealed a number of discrepancies in the companys accounts. Solicitors Pinsent Masons have been advising RSM on any legal action that may be required.

Earlier this year, RSM received court approval to extend the Lendy administration process by three years, due to the complex nature of the administration process and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the period covered since appointment, the joint administrators have incurred significant time costs in managing the wind down of the loan book, said RSM in the latest update.

As previously advised, the loanbook has proved to be in a considerably worse state than was immediately apparent on our appointment.

As a result, the process to realise secured assets has been more complex, difficult and time-consuming than was first envisaged. It has become apparent there were significant issues in Lendys underwriting and administration processes, which has contributed significantly to the complexity of the wind down and directly led to an increase in costs. As an example, on multiple cases there is a range of litigation directly linked to the historical Lendy practices.

Lendy went into administration on 24 May 2019 with a loanbook valued at 152m. Just under 17m has been realised to date.

Read the original:

Lendy bosses have assets frozen amid offshore investigation - P2P Finance News

On April 29, 2020, Volvo Construction Equipment (CE) signed a memorandum with the government of Pudong New District, Shanghai, which signaled the official movement of Volvo CEs Asia headquarters from Singapore to Shanghai. This is believed to be a result of Shanghai Free Trade Zones (FTZ) endeavors to promote offshore trade businesses.

Offshore trade, or documentation processing trade, refers to a trade model in which the goods are transferred directly from the exporting country to the importing country without entering the border of the middle country where the contracts, payments, logistics, insurances, financial arrangements, as well as other trading documentations are processed in.

For example, in 2019, Volvo CE shipped two excavators to Nigeria directly from its manufacturing subsidiary in South Korea. In this transaction, the equipment did not enter China, but Volvo CEs Shanghai subsidiary handled all the paperwork, including accepting the order and signing the contract, getting the deposit and the final payment, arranging the production and the later logistics, insuring the goods and settling the tax, etc.

In offshore trade, the subsidiary in the middle country actually plays the role of centralizing and allocating the resources of the supply chain, which in not only good for improving the host countrys role in global trade, but also implies greater tax benefits. Meanwhile, the huge capital turnover in offshore trade can nourish the financial sector and make it more prosperous.

Given this, offshore trade has always been welcomed by major free trade hubs, such as Hong Kong and Singapore. However, it was underdeveloped in Shanghai and other mainland cities, mostly due to the strict regulatory controls.

The customs and the foreign exchange authorities had long held on to the idea that it is hard to determine the authenticity of offshore trade, considering the exporting and importing parties are located outside of China, and the goods, capital, and trade documentation are all separate from each other under this trade model. As fabricated transactions can be very harmful to a countrys economic order and foreign exchange market squeezing the capital from real economy, accelerating the imbalance of international payments, and encouraging unreasonable investments in foreign exchange authorities in China tended to be very cautious and strict towards offshore trade transactions.

In fact, since 2012, Chinas State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has released several administrative documents to exert greater control to foreign exchange in offshore trade and combat fake transactions. In particular, in 2016, the SAFE issued the Notice on Further Facilitating Trade and Investment and Improving Authenticity Check (Huifa [2016] No.7), requiring the bank to review the contract, invoice, transportation documents, and the ownership license of the offshore transactions one by one. Enterprises who failed the reviews would not be able to receive money or make payments.

This strict scrutiny made it hard to do offshore trade business in China where payments and settlements were slow. In the past, many well-established companies engaged in offshore trade have had to shift to Singapore or Hong Kong.

The development of offshore trade is in line with Shanghais ambition to play a bigger role in global finance and become an international trade center.

After years of strict control, offshore trade was brought back into attention again when China planned to build Shanghai FTZ into a first-class free trade port.

In 2017, when the draft plan of Shanghai free trade port was released, offshore trade was listed as one of the top targets to promote.

On October 31, 2019, Shanghai FTZ announced seven preferential policies for offshore trade companies, at a conference about promoting the development of offshore trade business.

Some of the above policies have already been put into practice.

On April 13, 2020, the Shanghai Free Trade Zone Offshore Trade Service Center was officially launched in Waigaoqiao Bonded Area, Shanghai, which signified that the development of offshore trade has entered the fast track.

So far, 47 companies are reported to have enjoyed preferential foreign exchange policies in offshore trade businesses.

According to the official news, the next step is to put the financial support into place and reduce the tax burden on offshore trade businesses.

In the current promotion of offshore trade in Shanghai FTZ, more and more companies engaging in offshore trade are expected to set up as a legal entity in the zone or move their regional headquarters here, like Volvo CE.

However, companies are still advised to get themselves familiar with Chinas regulatory environment and pay close attention to the policy changes now and in the future. In this way, they can stay agile while avoiding compliance and financial risks. For further information orassistance in China, please email us atchina@dezshira.com.

About Us

China Briefing is written and produced by Dezan Shira & Associates. The practice assists foreign investors into China and has done so since 1992 through offices in Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. Please contact the firm for assistance in China at china@dezshira.com.

We also maintain offices assisting foreign investors in Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, The Philippines, Malaysia,Thailand, United States, and Italy,in addition to our practices in Indiaand Russia and our trade research facilities along the Belt & Road Initiative.

More here:

What has Shanghai FTZ Done to Support and Revitalize Offshore Trade? - China Briefing

O

ffshore jurisdictions remain popular for all manner of businesses. Holding companies, asset management, iGaming, blockchain and bitcoin, and even forex are popular sectors for offshore incorporation and operation. But how do you go about picking the right one? It is not as simple as choosing which one you think, superficially, is the best option. You need to dig deep and take a considered decision as to which will be the best fit for you, your company, and your ongoing requirements.

How much will it cost?

One of your key considerations is likely to be how much it will cost you to operate in an offshore jurisdiction. First, you need to take into account the setup costs and then any fees for ongoing maintenance. Additionally, if you are setting up a company you should note additional expenses such as compliance with permanent establishment and/or economic substance requirements. These are just some of the things you need to ascertain before making any concrete decisions on where you will base your business.

Is it a stable jurisdiction?

When choosing the right location, you should aim for one that is politically, socially, and economically stable. It is all very well and good enjoying fiscal benefits and low operating costs but if the economic outlook is poor and the political system is volatile, you will soon encounter issues.

Being in an unstable jurisdiction can make it difficult to conduct short and long term planning. It can also impact relationships with partners and third parties. Choosing a location with a good all-round climate facilitates strategic planning and the smooth running of your business. An additional bonus of stability is not having to worry about currency fluctuations or issues when it comes to remitting profits and revenue elsewhere.

What about Tax?

How much tax you will pay in your jurisdiction of choice is a very important matter. This will directly impact how much of your business income remains yours and how much you can remit elsewhere.

The best-case scenario is to find a place with a zero or low-rate of tax that is not blacklisted. Many jurisdictions have favourable fiscal incentives but are still in line with international best practices.

Is it reputable?

If you pick a jurisdiction with a bad reputation or that is blacklisted, it will severely impact your ability to conduct business. Your reputation is worth more than the money you could save on a zero tax rate or cutting corners. Finding a jurisdiction that has a good reputation and offers you the benefits you want is attainable, with some professional guidance.

Is my confidentiality protected?

Different jurisdictions have different levels of confidentiality that are afforded to those operating there. Information sharing, details of Ultimate Beneficial Owners, and annual or periodic filings are just some things that vary depending on where you are located.

Depending on your business and requirements, you need to decide what level of privacy you want and then pick a jurisdiction accordingly. However, in our view, all jurisdictions will become transparent eventually.

Is it suitable for my needs?

Not every offshore jurisdiction is suitable for every business. As an example, not all are geared up for efficient tax planning and some dont have legislation to properly handle asset management. Furthermore, some might be good for tax and assets, but may not be good for the nature of your business.

Before deciding, you need to consider several factors including filing obligations, capital requirements, tax, nominee and disclosure requirements, audits, incorporation times, and other regulations, statutes or policies. This list is not exhaustive and there are many other considerations you should be aware of before taking the plunge.

Can I find the right professional partner?

Not all corporate service providers are created equally. Some are better than others and have different priorities when it comes to working with clients. You should look for a provider that has experience in all of the jurisdictions you consider, and that works with a large network of international partners. Experience in your industry or sector is also important.

It is also recommended to ask for detailed quotes when inquiring about company formation services as many service providers won't even include the most basic incorporation documents to offer you an incredibly low price. However, you will need to pay those additional/hidden fees later on. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Beware of hidden fees and unnecessary charges and instead opt for custom turn-key packages that are designed to incorporate all of your needs.

The last word

Offshore incorporation and other business activities is not a matter to be taken lightly. After all, it can impact every aspect of your business. Taking the advice of a professional with an extensive track record of working in the offshore sector is the first step towards ongoing success.

Read more from the original source:

Things to consider when looking for an offshore jurisdiction - Yogonet International

Offshore Oil and Gas Market report is segmented on the basis of type, service type, application, and region & country level. Based upon type, offshore oil and gas market is classified into liquefied natural gas, heavy crude oil, and light crude oil. On the basis of service type, the market is classified into directional drilling, logging while drilling, measurement while drilling, offshore contract drilling, and subsea production and processing. On the basis application, the market is classified into a deep water drilling, shallow water drilling, and ultra-deep water drilling.

Offshore Oil and GasMarket is valued at USD 86,900 Million in 2018 and expected to reach USD 151.851 Million by 2025 with CAGR of 8.3% over the forecast period.

Get Sample Copy of This Premium Report https://brandessenceresearch.com/requestSample/PostId/392

**The sample pages of this report is immediately accessible on-demand.**

Market Analysis ofOffshore Oil and Gas-

Offshore oil and gas is the extraction and drilling process of natural gas and oil from below the oceans floor. Natural gas and oil are extracted through the wells and then transferred by pipelines and ships to refineries. In 2013, the industry has faced a downfall in the price due to major environmental disasters which have taken place in Mexico in 2014 i.e. Oil Spill in the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Of Mexico. However, it has been observed that the oil & gas sector is recovering. The global infrastructure and economies highly depend on the petroleum-based products which have led to an increase in the worlds dependence on oil and gas. It has been estimated that the world production of oil and gas is expected to increase because of growing demand which may result in the shrinking of the global economy and availability of oil.

The developing countries like China, Russia, and Brazil are increasing production and exploration efforts. However, geopolitical deliberations such as the ongoing dilemmas in Iran, Qatar, and Venezuelas exit from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will hugely influence oil and gas supply. The trend of alternative and renewable energy is another threat to traditional oil and gas companies coupled with the rise in governmental pressure and pro-eco legislation has the industry is under more scrutiny than ever. Electricity producing from offshore wind and solar power plants has increasingly become cost-effective and cheaper. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, over 80% of newly commissioned renewable energy will be cost-effective and cheaper than new natural gas and oil sources. These factors are expected to hamper the growth of offshore oil and gas market.

The regions covered in this offshore oil and gas market report are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. On the basis of country level, the market of Offshore Oil and Gas is subdivided into U.S., Mexico, Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, India, South East Asia, Middle East Asia (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt) GCC, Africa, etc.

Key Players

The major players operating in the offshore oil and gas market are BP, ExxonMobi, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Petrobras, Statoil, CNOOC and Others.

The Reduction in Price of Crude Oil and Recovery of Offshore Sector are the Major Factors Driving Factors for the Growth of this Market

The oil and gas industry will continue to manipulate the politics and international economics, particularly in the U.S. the level of employment in the sector as more than 10 Mn jobs, are supported and depend on the oil and gas industry. Recently, there has been a recovery in the industry as it enters its third year. The growth is predicted to increase at a significant rate due to increased upstream production which will continue to have a positive effect for midstream businesses. The crude price has also become stable at around $50/barrel. Additionally, 1 million jobs are estimated to be made in 2019 and the number of active drilling rigs has increased to more than 780 as compared to previous years which were 591 in the U.S. The UK offshore sector is also expected to recover as there are planned 16 greenfield projects with recognized development plans and around 29 greenfield projects is estimated to start production between 2019 and 2025.

Middle East and Africa is expected to be the Most Prominent Market for the Offshore Oil and Gas.

Geographically, Offshore Oil and Gas Market report is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. The Middle East and Africa are expected to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period. The increasing growth is mainly because this region has the highest production of natural oil and gas which export to the other region and countries as well. It has been estimated that around 30 Bn barrels are consumed each year, globally, mainly by developed economies. Oil also accounts for major energy consumption share regionally, Europe and Asia account for 32%, North America with 40%, Africa with 41%, and South with 44% and the Middle East with 53%.

Key Benefits for Market Report

Market Segmentation:

By Type:

By Service Type:

By Application:

Get Full Report: https://brandessenceresearch.com/energy-and-mining/offshore-oil-and-gas

About us: Brandessence Market Research and Consulting Pvt. ltd.

Brandessence market research publishes market research reports & business insights produced by highly qualified and experienced industry analysts. Our research reports are available in a wide range of industry verticals including aviation, food & beverage, healthcare, ICT, Construction, Chemicals and lot more. Brand Essence Market Research report will be best fit for senior executives, business development managers, marketing managers, consultants, CEOs, CIOs, COOs, and Directors, governments, agencies, organizations and Ph.D. Students. We have a delivery center in Pune, India and our sales office is in London.

Contact usat: +44-2038074155 ormail usat[emailprotected]

Read the original:

Offshore Oil and Gas Market Research Report Insights and Forecast 2020 to 2025 - Cole of Duty

Danish green energy giantrsted CEO Henrik Poulsen has resigned after an eight-year tenure. rsted is now the worlds biggest offshore wind developer. It recently installed its 1,500th offshore wind turbine, in announced on June 11.

Poulsen will leave rsted by January, the company announced yesterday. The company is now searching for a replacement. He was previously an executive at McKinsey and Lego.

Poulsen said [via the Financial Times]:

Its been an incredible ride over the past eight years, and I have a tremendous amount of affection for Orsted, its vision, and not least its people.

Weve transformed a Danish utility predominantly based on fossil fuels into a global leader in green energy, which was ranked as the worlds most sustainable company earlier this year.

rsted plans to double its wind capacity in the next five years to 20GW. It employs almost 7,000 people worldwide, and had revenues of around $10.3 billion in 2019.

The Financial Times reports:

The companys stock has risen more than 70% since the beginning of last year, brushing off a dip in valuation inflicted by the pandemic and giving it a market capitalization of roughly $48 billion.

The Danish green energy company is growing its onshore wind business, too.

As Electrek previously reported on April 8, in 2013, rsted announced it would stop developing onshore wind to concentrate on offshore wind, but in 2018, it returned to onshore wind development with the acquisition of Lincoln Clean Energy. It completed its largest onshore wind farm, in Texas, in April.

rsteds onshore operational installed capacity has increased to 1.3GW. The company intends to reach 5GW installed onshore capacity by 2025.

It aims to reach 99% green energy production overall by 2025.

Poulsen transformed what was a fossil-fuel company known as Danish Oil & Natural Gas into Orsted, which is now known as the most sustainable company in the world.

He also proved that green energy can be profitable. Lets hope he keeps his hand in the game, as he has achieved remarkable things for the green energy sector and the environment at large.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Follow this link:

CEO of worlds largest offshore wind developer resigns - Electrek