Foreign investment flowing into India is primarily pooled and managed in offshore jurisdictions. This is because our regulatory framework discourages asset managers based out of India from managing offshore pools of capital. As a result, several offshore funds which target investing in India have fund managers of Indian origin who have relocated to offshore locations. It is high time we enable offshore fund activity to shift to India, giving a boost to the domestic fund management industry.

Of the $43 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows which India received in FY17, $24 billion was invested via Mauritius and Singapore. Both these jurisdictions have emerged as the preferred destination for fund managers to set up their operations. Compared to this, the domestic pool of capital managed by India-based asset managers under the Securities and Exchange Board of Indias (Sebi) alternative investment fund (AIF) guidelines is only $7 billion. A significant chunk of the offshore capital flowing into India can be managed by fund managers based out of India if regulatory changes are carried out. Unless that happens, fund managers in India who want to attract foreign capital will keep shifting offshore, leading to loss of employment and tax revenue for India.

There are two ways in which regulations can enable fund managers based in India to manage offshore pools of capitalallow them to manage offshore funds from India without taxing the offshore fund as an Indian entity, and permit foreign investors to directly invest in funds set up in India. For both these cases, regulatory changes need to be carried out.

The most important regulatory change required is to ensure that an offshore fund will not be taxed as an Indian entity just because it is being managed by a fund manager located in India. A beginning was made in Finance Bill 2015. Under the newly introduced Section 9A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (ITA), it was clarified that the income of an eligible offshore fund would not be taxed in India merely because the fund is being managed by a fund manager located in India.

The objective of Section 9A was to allay fears that the presence of a fund manager in India would lead to the offshore fund being taxed in India at domestic tax rates, rather than lower rates specified under various double taxation avoidance agreements (DTAAs). Unfortunately, the conditions specified under the Section are so strenuous that for all practical purposes, they remain unachievable.

For instance, one of the conditions specifies that an investors share in the fund, directly or indirectly, should not exceed 10%. This is a very restrictive condition when it is common for funds to have a sponsor or anchor investor whose share in the fund generally exceeds 25%. Also, most funds are targeted at a specific group of investors, which does not exceed 10. Further, fund managers may consciously want to cater to a small set of investors who can make large investments.

Regulators should relax this condition by looking beyond the investor and also including the investors beneficiaries. This is because an investor in a fund could be a pool of several other investors. Thus look through provisions will enable several offshore funds to be classified as eligible funds under Section 9A. Also, given that Sebi-registered foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) already meet broad-based requirements of being diversified in terms of investor participation, they should automatically be regarded as an eligible investment fund.

Another debilitating condition specified under Section 9A is that offshore funds should not control or manage any business in India. Offshore private equity funds, during the course of the fund tenure, may be required to acquire a controlling stake in the investee companies to protect their initial investment. Further, even in cases where the fund has only a minority stake, exercising any minority interest protection rights could be classified under existing law as resulting in control over the investee company in India.

Furthermore, the benefits of Section 9A are available only to PMS (portfolio management services) asset managers and investment advisers registered with Sebi. Investment managers of AIFs and mutual funds are not covered under the list of eligible investment managers that can make use of Section 9A. This limits the number of fund managers who can make use of the regulatory relaxation.

Given these difficulties, the alternative is to have foreign investors directly invest in funds registered in India. Changes in regulations to permit this have been more encouraging. In November 2015, the Reserve Bank of India permitted automatic approval for foreign investors to invest in AIFs, real estate infrastructure trusts and infrastructure investment trusts. Previously, investment in these vehicles required specific approvals from the foreign investment promotion board. Further, in the Finance Bill 2016, it was clarified that foreign investors investing in India-based funds would be taxed at rates mentioned under the various DTAAs.

However, given that not all foreign investors are comfortable directly investing in India, there is still a need to enable fund managers in India to manage offshore funds. Regulatory changes to permit this can midwife a truly multinational asset management industry in India.

Ravi Saraogi is investment strategist, IFMR Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd, Chennai.

Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.com

First Published: Tue, Jun 27 2017. 12 13 AM IST

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On-shoring offshore funds to India - Livemint

BBC News

Union ballot over offshore catering pay BBC News Offshore catering staff are being consulted on industrial action over pay. It follows a consultative ballot by the Unite union of members employed by companies represented by the Caterers Offshore Trade Association (Cota). They previously rejected an ... and more »

More here:

Union ballot over offshore catering pay - BBC News

TAIPEI -- The Taiwan Strait will likely generate an annual 3 million kilowatts to 5 million kilowatts from wind power, Premier Lin Chuan said Monday, implying an upgrade to the previously targeted 3 million kilowatts in 2025, thanks to investment applications from foreign companies.

President Tsai Ing-wen's administration aims to shrink nuclear's share of the electricity supply from 14% in 2015 to zero by 2025. To support the phaseout, the government plans to quintuple renewable energy's share from 2015 levels to 20%.

Offshore wind's potential output exceeds 10 million kilowatts, Lin said, highlighting hopes of this renewable source of energy replacing the atom. Each nuclear plant can generate up to 2 million kilowatts, he said.

Danish giant Dong Energy and Australian infrastructure developer Macquarie are among the applicants for investments. Lin shared hopes that Japanese companies with advanced technologies in wind power will take part as well. Siemens of Germany and Japan's Hitachi are seen as candidates.

With Swancor and other equipment providers in Taiwan trailing Western rivals in technological capabilities, the authorities here are eager to import foreign know-how to establish Taiwan as an Asian hub of wind power generation.

See the original post:

Taiwan welcomes investment in offshore wind power: premier - Nikkei Asian Review

Microsoft values privacy, even while facing the wrath of the Department of Justice. Recently, the DoJ has been pushing on the tech giant, claiming that the recent rulings in its favor are severely misinterpreting the law. Now, CNN reports that the Department of Justice will be approaching the Supreme Court about Microsofts refusal to provide private information from other jurisdictions.

The case that brought the legislative debate about originated when the federal government wanted information about a potential drug trafficking case. Law enforcement sought Microsoft out for private emails and information stored on its database servers in Ireland. The courts first found that Microsoft should hand over the information, but after appealing to the Second Circuit, it was reversed. After all, if Microsoft gave the U.S. government information stored in Ireland, what was stopping other governments from requesting U.S. information?

The Department of Justice didnt take too kindly to the ruling, now appealing to the Supreme Court for clarification. It believes that if information can be accessed domestically with the click of a computer mouse, then the information is fair game for the U.S. government.

Brad Smith countered the DoJ claiming that it seemed backward to continue the debate in courts. The DOJs position would put businesses in impossible conflict-of-law situations and hurt the security, jobs, and personal rights of Americans, he explained in Fridays blog post.

In less than one year, a new European data protection law will go into effect. Under that law called the General Data Protection Regulation it would be illegal for a company to bring customer data from Europe into the U.S. in response to a unilateral U.S. search warrant.

This isnt the first time Microsofts integrity was called into question regarding transnational information. An employee was criminally charged and the company fined for not complying with a request between the differing laws Brazil and the U.S. Smith believes that no matter who wins the case with the Supreme Court, that the new legislation is still a much needed addition.

Read more from the original source:

US Justice Department wants to take Microsoft to Supreme Court in offshore email case - OnMSFT (blog)

SHANGHAI Tradeweb, a fixed-income trading platform, will connect with China Foreign Exchange Trading System (CFETS) to be the main interface for offshore investors trading in China's bond market through the country's upcoming "Bond Connect" scheme, the company said on Monday.

Talks between Tradeweb and the Hong Kong exchange were exclusively reported by Reuters last August.

Tradeweb, majority-owned by Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News, matches buyers and sellers of fixed income products across more than 22 international OTC bond markets.

In a statement, Tradeweb said that eligible overseas institutional investors from its network of more than 2,000 clients would be able to trade directly with liquidity providers in the CFETS market through Tradeweb's platform.

Investors trading through Tradeweb will be able to use global custodians to settle through a nominee holding arrangement provided by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Central Moneymarkets Unit, the statement said.

Read more from the original source:

Tradeweb to Be Main Offshore Trading Platform for China 'Bond Connect' - New York Times

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Sunday, June 25, 2017

Robert Whitcomb, Columnist

Robert Whitcomb

June may be had by the poorest comer."

-- James Russell Lowell

The new ordinance banning smoking outdoors in part of downtown Providence reflects the confusions and hypocrisies of American policies regarding tobacco and some other drugs (such as alcohol). On the one hand we say that smoking is very unhealthy and leads to many thousands of deaths a year and vast health expenses, on the other hand, tobacco products are legal and pull in billions of dollars a year in tax money. (Some argue that smoking, by causing early and often fast deaths, actually saves on overall national health costs: Fewer of those too-expensive old folks who take so long to expire.)

I think that the new ordinance isnt a bad idea. It may extend a few lives, including of those people who must breathe in second-hand smoke in situations such as waiting for buses at Kennedy Plaza. And there will be fewer cigarette butts and other smoking-related litter on the streets and sidewalks.

Smoking banned downtown

Now back to the scarier substance-abuse problem opiate addiction and lethal overdoses.

xxx

I was not at all surprised that young Jon Ossoff narrowly lost the 6th District Georgia congressional race to Republican Karen Handel last Tuesday. The traditionally very Red district, another triumphant example of ruthless Republican gerrymandering, was still the GOPs to lose, whatever the many millions of dollars the Democrats pumped in.

It will take a while to deconstruct the vote, but I suspect that the Democrats did not get quite the turnout that theyd hoped for. This would be another example of why, although in many national polls a majority of the public backs what are basically Democratic positions on health care and other big issues, the GOP, aided by the state legislatures doing the gerrymandering of congressional districts, does so well in campaigns.

Consider the failure of the young, who lean heavily Democratic, to vote while people in their 50s and older vote heavily -- most often for Republicans. That may continue as long as the GOP doesn't threaten their Medicare and Social Security.

Democrats leadership troubles

The older (or just old) Tea Party types (mostly men) who comprise, for example, the little group who denounce me every week in the Facebook comments at the bottom of this column, do vote. And some or most are retired and have plenty of time to denounce socialists and elitists in social-media posts while they take a break from the Fox News echo chambers. God bless em! At least theyre not passive.

Meanwhile, Democratic strategists must be wondering if they should have poured a lot more money into a special South Carolina congressional race, in another intensely gerrymandered and traditionally very Republican district. Democrat Archie Parnell came very close last Tuesday to winning that contest. He may have been a better candidate than the somewhat callow and too-mild Mr. Ossoff, who perhaps should have taken on the Trump regime with much more energy.

The underlying demographic changes favor the Democrats but maybe they dont deserve to win because so many of the folks calling themselves Democrats are too lazy to take 20 minutes to show up at the polls every couple of years.

Oh yes, and the Democrats urgently need new leaders in the U.S. House. Number 1: Nancy Pelosi, 77, should retire as their leader now! The party needs new faces to present to the public.

They desperately require leaders with inspirational talents, organizational ability and pragmatism. They need to eloquently promote the interests of lower-and-middle-income people and push back hard against the plutocracy now in charge in the White House and in the Capitol.

Meanwhile, some Democrats may be secretly hoping for a recession. Given the realities of business cycles (the current business expansion is very old) and other factors among them Chinas economic woes, Brexit and inflated technology stock prices -- they may well get it next year. Ten percent unemployment would give the Democrats control of Congress in 2018, probably by a landslide.

xxx

The Trump administration, in a sleeping bag with the oil and natural-gas sector, wants to hand out permits for large-scale seismic blasting up and down the Atlantic coast, from Delaware to Florida, to detect the presence of fossil fuel. Such blasting can injure or even kill such intelligent mammals as whales and dolphins and other marine animals.

xxx

A plan to help maintain the 17-acre Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, in downtown Boston, may be an example for upkeep of other public parks. Since property owners near the Greenway obviously benefit more than most people from this amenity, theyve agreed to pay $1 million a year in a voluntary tax on the big buildings along the Greenway via a Business Improvement District that would defray the bulk of yearly maintenance. The idea is to let the state reduce its spending on the park to $750,000 a year by 2020 from the current $2 million.

User taxes, including highway tolls, are very fair. You benefit; you pay.

India Point Park, in Providence, is an example of where similar arrangements could be made to better maintain public spaces and save on local and state government spending. Certainly the Downtown Providence Improvement District has done fine work in making Downcity a lot more presentable than it was a couple of decades ago.

xxx

President Donald Trump

xxx

If you want to know who the prime historical villains are in our exorbitantly expensive and convoluted health-care system, look no further than the American Medical Associations support, starting in the 40s, for a fee-for-service, private- insurance company model that would maximize physicians incomes. In tandem were the AMAs successful efforts to prevent the creation of the sort of universal, government-backed health system that virtually all other developed nations have and better health.

This system has ensured that American physicians are the worlds highest paid although medical outcomes lag behind most other developed nations. Of course, in the 60s Medicare and Medicaid came along. But Medicare, trapped in the traditional fee-for-service model, was for decades a bonanza for doctors, until federal cost containment efforts in recent years.

Yes, it was all about the money.

xxx

Anti-Republican lunatic James Hodgkinson, who shot at a group of GOP politicians at a park in Alexandria, Va., gravely injuring House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, had 200 rounds of ammunition in a storage unit. Thats the sort of thing youd expect in a nation whose gun laws are written by the National Rifle Association and their paymasters in the weapons biz, in collaboration with the Republican Party. I (and numerous family members) have owned guns all my life but the need to stock up on war-zone levels of ammo has eluded me. But then, I somehow forgot the potential joys of mass murder.

xxx

As the United States withdraws from speaking out for human rights and democracy, the Chinese dictatorship moves in with piles of money. That money is already having sad effects.

Consider that Greece has vetoed a European Union statement denouncing Chinese human-rights abuses in the wake of Greece recently getting billions of dollars in infrastructure investments from Beijing. Croatia and Hungary (the latter run by a semi-fascist president), also the beneficiary of massive Chinese spending, have also blocked E.U. statements on Chinese actions, including Chinas attempt to take over the entire South China Sea. Each E.U. nation has veto power over statements meant to be the official E.U. position.

Here at home we have the Confucius Institute problem. The Instituteis affiliated with ChinasEducation Ministry and has the official aim to promote Chinese language andculture. But it is really a propaganda and intelligence office, a handy base for industrial and other espionage and a sturdy platform for the increasingly aggressive and expansionist dictatorship to keep in line Chinese students studying abroad. Their very presence tends to constrain intellectual freedom regarding things Chinese.

Some U.S. colleges and universities, such as Rhode Islands Bryant University, have partnered with the Institute satellites for the money and business connections they provide after they set up shop on American campuses. These Confucius Institute operations provide free (to the colleges) teachers and textbooks and cover operating costs. Some administrators and faculty members like them because they help bring in full-tuition-paying Chinese students and provide free and luxurious junkets to China to some administrators and faculty members. Such operations are inappropriate on American college campuses.

Rachelle Peterson, director of research at the National Association of Scholars, a conservative group, has accurately complained: Confucius Institutes export the fear of speaking freely around the world. They permit a foreign government to have intimate influence over college classrooms. Its time to kick them off campus. Ms. Peterson quoted former Chinese Communist Party propaganda chief Li Changchun as calling the on-campus Confucius Institute satellites an important part of Chinas overseas propaganda efforts.

xxx

Amazons plan to buy Whole Foods has elicited a lot of heavy breathing and assertions that Amazon will wipe out a lot of grocery stores. I think that these forecasts are exaggerated. Groceries stuff that can rot are not the same things as books and clothes. The distribution challenges are very different.

Most people will continue to drive or walk to a regular (not high-end, expensive organic) supermarket or small grocery store for the foreseeable future. Inflation-adjusted wages have been falling for most people. The market for expensive (and some would say pretentious) food is unlikely to vastly expand. For all its alleged glamour, most people dont shop at the expensive likes of Whole Foods and never will.

An Amazon-Whole Foods mating might work very well in densely populated affluent areas with a close enough proximity to warehouses to ensure that the stuff can be delivered unspoiled to Amazon-Whole Foods supermarkets or to your home. But it wouldnt work well in thinly populated areas.

Finally, even in this plutocratic age, its possible that the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Justice Department will awake from their all-too-frequent torpor and press monopoly charges against the company if it tries to take over a big hunk of the grocery business.

Anyway, Im more worried about the effects on employment and wages of the automation of cashier and other jobs now underway in many kinds of stores than about Amazon specifically (I always use cashiers, not those machines, in a tiny effort to help preserve jobs.) And I worry about the effects on local tax revenue and jobs from so many stores of all kinds closing because of the online revolution.

xxx

Scott Avedisian

Read more:

Robert Whitcomb: No Smoking Downtown; Dems at Sea; Blasting Offshore - GoLocalProv

Heavy seas engulf Rhode Islands Block Island wind farm, the first U.S. offshore wind warm. Photo by Energy.gov/Flickr

Offshore wind developments are rapidly expanding. But most wind turbines are not built to withstand a direct hit from the strongest hurricanes, according to a new study in Geophysical Research Letters that models the worst-scenarios caused by category-5 storms.

Researchers predict new offshore turbines would face hurricane wind gusts of more than 223 miles per hour but the turbines can only manage gusts of 156 miles per hour based on current engineering standards. Part of the problem: Offshore turbine designs often draw from onshore wind turbines in Europe, where hurricane conditions are essentially nonexistent.

We need to make sure offshore wind energy is successful the first time around, said Rochelle Worsnop, doctoral candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder, who spearheaded the project. We believe that this research can help guide those standards to help turbines placed in hurricane prone regions survive these major hurricanes.

Offshore wind energy development is growing along U.S. coasts. The first U.S. commercial offshore wind farm went into operation in December, and many more are on the horizon. Offshore wind energy generation could expand the nations energy supply with potential to provide 160,000 jobs and low-cost energy for millions of Americans, according to a government report.

Worsnop and her colleagues started this project by looking into where hurricane winds cross paths with offshore wind farms. At first, getting this kind of data proved nearly impossible.

Hurricanes that come within striking distance of offshore wind turbines are infrequent. Plus, at the moment, offshore wind developments are few and far between. Most wind measurements she could find in public databases were recorded too high above the water or too far from shore to reflect what a wind turbine might experience.

So, Worsnops team member George Bryan of the National Center for Atmospheric Research recommended she use a computer simulation driven by hurricane data from the last 15 years. Bryan used this high-resolution model to recreate the worst of the worst a category-5 hurricane eyewall, where winds can exceed 220 miles per hour to see how wind turbines would hold up. The team also investigated how wind characteristics, such as changes in direction and turbulence, might affect turbines.

Researchers found the extreme wind speeds they modeled would cause structural damage to wind turbines and possible failure of turbine parts. When wind speeds from typhoon Usagi in southern China exceeded turbine specifications in 2013, for instance, blades bent and towers toppled over.

Large and fast changes in wind direction could be problematic too, based on Worsnops model. Wind turbines work best when facing directly into the wind, so turbine rotors swivel about the tower to maintain a wind-in-the-face orientation. The researchers found most turbines would not twist fast enough to respond.

We are learning more about the anatomy of a hurricane, which is improving the design resilience of future wind turbines, Walt Musial, an engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and a senior author on the study, told NewsHour via email.

Their model also predicted wind direction changes up to 55 degrees between the ground and the tip of a blade a measurement called veer. As a result, these category-5 winds could bend a turbine blade in one direction say, at the tip as it simultaneously applies stress on another portion, causing the blade to malfunction or break.

One of the benefits of this study is that you can get a much better global, spatial quantification of that veer and thats fabulous, thats exactly what a wind turbine designer needs, said Sandy Butterfield, chairman of the International Electrotechnical Commission Renewable Energy (IECRE), the organization that writes the standards for wind turbines and other renewable energy equipment.

The researchers behind the study are now guiding a revamp of turbine engineering standards. Musial said they may take three years to implement.

The simulation is the best estimate we have. Its more accurate than any other estimate for the kinds of winds that could really damage a wind turbine, Butterfield, who was not involved in the study, said. Its going to help us update the standards to reflect wind turbine design criteria for hurricanes.

Originally posted here:

Why offshore wind turbines can't handle the toughest hurricanes - PBS - PBS NewsHour

Greece has approved an application by a consortium of ExxonMobil, Frances Total SA, and domestic oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum, to drill for oil and gas off the island of Crete, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting the Greek energy ministry as saying.

Greece has also approved another application, by local company Energean Oil, to start drilling for oil offshore western Greece.

The countrys oil and gas resources management body will launch a tender for exploration licenses in the blocks by the end of June, with the goal to award licenses by the end of this year.

Last month, the energy ministry held talks with Exxon and Total to discuss the potential of offshore gas exploration. Back then, a government official told Reuters that a consortium of ExxonMobil, Total, and Hellenic Petroleum was expected to file an application to explore south of the island of Crete.

Greece, which has been struggling with a severe debt crisis in the past few years and has received billions of euros of EU- and IMF-backed bailout support, is trying to resume efforts to search for hydrocarbons both onshore and offshore and possibly lessen its dependence on energy imports in the future.

In October last year, Greeces energy ministry named a consortium led by Total SA and comprised of Italys Edison and Hellenic Petroleum as the preferred bidder to drill for gas in an offshore block in the Ionian Sea west of the country.

Related:Underperforming Energy Sector May Soon See M&A Wave

The head of the Hellenic Hydrocarbons Resources Management (HHRM), Yannis Bassias, said last month that the country would start opening new onshore oil and gas blocks for exploration in 2018.

As of next year, and perhaps earlier, we will begin announcing that we are opening the door to whoever is interested in onshore sites, according to the head of Greeces oil and gas resource management body.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

Read more from the original source:

Greece Okays Exxon-Total Bid To Explore For Offshore Oil - OilPrice.com

A widely used method to find oil and gas for offshore drilling can kill tiny sea creatures that are key for feeding many marine animals like shellfish, fish, and even whales. And the impacts on these tiny, drifting creatures called zooplankton are seen in an area much larger than previously thought.

The study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, adds to the body of evidence that the loud noises produced during oil and gas exploration can disrupt marine life including whales that use sound to communicate and look for food. It also comes just a few months after President Donald Trump has signed an executive order looking to expand offshore gas and oil drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

louder than a Saturn V rocket during launch

Oil and gas companies looking for offshore natural resources use seismic airguns to blast compressed air through the water and into the seafloor. The noise produced by these airguns is louder than a Saturn V rocket during launch, according to Nature. So researchers wanted to see what the effects are on the seas base of the food chain, the zooplankton.

The researchers blasted airguns in the ocean off southern Tasmania, and checked zooplankton populations before and after by using sonar and nets. The abundance of these tiny creatures dropped by 64 percent within one hour of the blast, the study says. Two to three times as many zooplankton were also found dead and the impacts were recorded as far away as 0.7 miles. Scientists previously estimated that impacts would occur only within 33 feet from the blast.

Its not 100 percent clear how the airguns are causing the die-offs, but its possible the blast throws off the receptors the animals use to navigate, disorienting them and causing them to die, according to Nature. Because zooplankton is key for feeding larger marine animals, the die-offs could have serious cascading effects.

"Plankton underpin whole ocean productivity," lead author Robert McCauley, an associate professor at Curtin University in Australia, said in a statement. "Their presence impacts right across the health of the ecosystem so it's important we pay attention to their future."

The rest is here:

The hunt for offshore oil is killing tiny sea creatures that are key for healthy oceans - The Verge

Recently unveiled plans for an offshore wind farm in the Australian state of Victoria face a major hurdle: onshore projects are far, far cheaper.

Right now, in Australia its a very competitive price market, said Robert Liew, senior analyst for Asia-Pacific at MAKE Consulting, which is owned by GTMs parent company Wood Mackenzie. The price of onshore wind is even more competitive than, say, a new-build coal project.

Onshore projects are delivering power at between USD $0.45 and $0.56 per megawatt-hour, he said. Offshore wind in Australia might struggle to come in at twice that level.

In Europe, offshore wind is getting close to Australias onshore price range because countries such as Germany and the U.K. have spent decades building an industry to support their projects. Europe also boasts several major offshore wind turbine manufacturers.

But the lack of native turbine-makers or an established supply chain makes it hard for offshore generation to come anywhere close to the price of onshore projects in Australia.

Nevertheless, Victorias government this month welcomed a proposal from Offshore Energy, a little known developer, to carry out a feasibility study for a 250-turbine project between 10 and 25 kilometers off the coast of Gippsland, in the southeast of the state.

A new renewable power generator of this size would drive down electricity prices, and well support offshore energy wherever we can to progress this study, said Victorias Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Lily DAmbrosio, in a press release.

If the AUD $8 billion (USD $6 billion) project goes ahead, It is hoped the wind farm could be generating power in time to contribute to the Labor Governments Renewable Energy Target of 40 percent by 2025, the press note said.

Its a big "if," though.

Jack-up barges, which are just one vital element of the offshore wind supply chain, can cost $165,000 a day. There are almost certainly none in Australia, nor, quite possibly, in the whole of the southern hemisphere.

If a barge has to be chartered all the way from Europe, along with all the other vessels needed for construction, support, cable-laying and more, and the turbines and other components also have to be shipped around the world, Its going to be difficult to get the cost down, said Liew.

Onshore wind, in contrast, is cheap and easy. The average size of onshore wind farms in Australia is 130 megawatts, and the projects have capacity factors of between 35 percent to 45 percent.

Add in the low cost of plots in Australias vast open landscape, and the country emerges as one of the best places on the planet to build onshore wind farms. Whether offshore can offer better value is the million-dollar question, Liew commented.

And its not just costs that could pose a problem for offshore wind in Australia.

According to Robert Bates, assistant underwriter at the renewable energy insurer GCube, Earthquakes and cyclones, while infrequent in Australia, are natural-catastrophe-type risks that developers in Australia offshore wind may have to contend with.

The seabed surrounding Australia is diverse and complex, he said. Moreover, different soil types require different foundation types. Detailed geotechnical studies will be crucial in determining what will be best for each site.

Finally, given that there are more than 1,100 offshore oil and gas platforms around the country, safely circumnavigating existing marine infrastructure is especially challenging.

Australia does not appear likely to gain an industrial advantage by planting turbines off Gippsland. It has no original equipment manufacturers that would benefit, or nearby markets to exploit.

That said, it is too early to completely write off the prospect of Australian offshore wind. Liew said he spoke to developers curious about investigating offshore projects in the country.

Australia also has a history of welcoming foreign companies to build infrastructure projects, he said. And with high electricity prices, there might be an opportunity to introduce technologies that would not be viable elsewhere.

Finally, the timeframe for the Gippsland project may leave enough room for further cost reductions. Beyond 2020, a low-cost offshore supply chain might be accessible from Asian markets such as Japan or South Korea.

Turbines, meanwhile, might be supplied by firms such as Siemens, Vestas or Senvion, which already have a significant presence in the Australian onshore market.

I wouldnt rule it out, said Liew. Maybe the conditions [in Gippsland] are just perfect. But its a real tough sell.

See the rest here:

The Big Problem Facing Offshore Wind in Australia - Greentech Media

Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island, has long been known for its rugged beauty. Surrounded by beaches, rolling hills and fresh-water ponds, its a top tourist destination.But now it is known for something else: home to Americas first offshore wind farm, consisting of five turbines capable of powering up to 17,000 homes.

CGTNs Karina Huber reports.

Making history wasnt easy. Developed by Deepwater Wind, the $300 million project faced substantial opposition. Environmentalists were worried about the impact on bird species and some residents werent happy about the prospect of altered views.

Long-time resident Lauri McTeague says compromises had to be made.

Its a give and take. You want to save something, youre going to have to maybe not have the best view, McTeague said.

David Roosa, who has lived on the island for 38 years, says when he looks at the wind farm he doesnt see an eyesore. He sees progress.

Its nice to go by the power company and not see all the smoke coming out of the stacks and the noise and Im sure the neighbors there really appreciate it, Roosa said.

The island used to be powered entirely by diesel fuel. Nearly one million gallons of it transported every year by ferry.

Before Deepwater Wind, Block Island had among the highest electricity rates in the country. They also had the dirtiest power in the country, Conservation Law Foundations Jerry Elmer said.

Now the island is powered almost entirely by clean energy. The project was meant to be a prototype to prove offshore wind can be economically viable in the U.S. Its successful launch has potentially changed the landscape for the offshore wind industry.

Offshore wind power is in its infancy stage in the United States, but there are signs it is picking up. In January, another project was approved off the shores of New Yorks Long Island. That project will have up to 15 turbines capable of powering 50,000 homes which will make it the biggest offshore wind farm in the United States.

But some are concerned about the future of renewables in the U.S. Many projects rely on federal tax incentives and U.S. President Donald Trump has shown less enthusiasm for renewables than his predecessor.

I think that we will continue to see substantial build out of renewable resources and in particular offshore wind regardless of what the federal administration in Washington does, Elmer said.

He believes states will take the lead in subsidizing projects as they wont be dropping their mandates to fight climate change. He also expects the price of renewables to continue to fall, which will help the industry grow.

As time goes on, these subsidies from state or federal government are becoming increasingly less important, Elmer said.

Americas first offshore wind farm may be small but its potential is huge. A recent U.S. government report concludes offshore wind could produce about double the amount of electricity currently generated in the U.S.

The rest is here:

America's first offshore wind farm powering a small community - CGTN America (blog)

6/23/2017

HOUSTON -- The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), with the support of Aqualis Offshore, has matched its own pre-monsoon rig move record set last year offshore India. Aqualis Offshore has also secured a new contract extension to support ONGC.

ONGC executed a total of 33 jack-up rig moves in April, May and June this year. Most the rigs were located on the west coast of India with one jack-up on the east coast. Aqualis Offshore, working together with the ONGC Rigmove cell, assisted with most of these moves, placing each rig on its respective monsoon location before the onset of the seasonal adverse weather conditions.

Aqualis Offshore conducted the work with mariners from the companys Dubai office and with engineering support from London, UK.

Last year I commented that ONGCs pre-monsoon rig move was an impressive milestone in Indian offshore operations. This years achievement is just as remarkable. It is a huge logistics challenge that has been solved safely and effectively by everyone involved, says Rodger Dickson, group marine director at Aqualis Offshore.

In May this year, following last years successfully executed rig moving campaigns, United India Insurance Company once again reappointed Aqualis Offshore to provide marine warranty services to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limiteds (ONGC) assets offshore India.

Under the agreement, Aqualis Offshore will continue to provide marine warranty services to ONGCs fleet of jack-up rigs and mobile offshore production units (MOPU) in Indian waters.

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ONGC, Aqualis Offshore match rig move record offshore India - WorldOil (subscription)

One hundred percent of coastal communities throughout South Carolina have demonstrated opposition to offshore drilling and exploration in the Atlantic, and we thank Rep. Mark Sanford for taking the lead against drilling off our shores.

On May 20 beach-goers and Lowcountry ocean activists took to Folly Beach for a beach cleanup and to participate in Hands Across the Sand.

Locals, both young and old and from various political parties, joined hands on our beach for several minutes, forming a human line in the sand to say no to offshore drilling and yes to a clean energy future.

As we oppose offshore drilling time and time again, we need our elected officials to stand with us particularly given President Trumps latest executive order that promotes energy exploration and production above all else.

Such expansion in the Atlantic poses a direct threat to our beaches that draw millions of tourists, to our fishing industry, and to our way of life. Coastal resources provide over 79,000 jobs and generate $4.4 billion annually statewide.

South Carolina wont trade this in for dirty and dangerous offshore drilling and seismic airgun blasting. I support Mr. Sanfords bill, the Coastal Economies Protection Act, and urge his colleagues in Congress to co-sponsor this legislation that protects our coast.

Marlo Ann Shedlock

Huger Street

Charleston

Read this article:

Letter: Offshore drilling - Charleston Post Courier

June 23rd, 2017 Sam Chambers Americas, Offshore 0 comments

US offshore vesseloperator Seacor Marine has announced a stalking horse bid to form a joint venture with compatriot owner Montco Offshore.

The term sheet contemplates that Seacor Marine and Montco Offshore will jointly form and capitalise a new joint venture company, with Seacor Marine as the majority owner.

Montco is looking toconsolidate thirteen liftboat vessels currently operated by a subsidiary of Seacor Marine, six liftboat vessels currently operated by Montcoand two liftboat vessels currently operated by an existing joint venture between the two.

The venture would assume approximately $130m of indebtedness from Monto Offshores credit facilities.

Seacor Holdings spun off Seacor Marine this month. The OSV operator has been hoovering up much tonnage in the past couple of years as other OSV players have fallen by the wayside.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the worlds oldest newspaper, Lloyds List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.

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Seacor Marine reveals stalking horse bid to form JV with Montco Offshore - Splash 247

Christian slund/Greenpeace

A ship operates an air gun array while looking for oil deposits off the coast of Greenland.

Powerful sound waves created during offshore surveys for oil and gas can kill microscopic animals at the base of the ocean food chain, according to a new study. And these lethal effects travel much farther than ecologists had previously assumed. Researchers fear that damage to these animals, collectively known as zooplankton, could harm top predators and commercially important species of fish that depend on such species for food.

Seismic surveys blast compressed air to produce pulses of sound that can probe the sea floor thousands of metres down for natural resources. At 220250 decibels, the pulses produced by these air guns are louder than a Saturn V rocket during launch. Scientists have known for decades that whales and other marine mammals that use sound to communicate change their behaviour in response to such noise1. There is increasing evidence that seismic surveys also affect fish2 and marine invertebrates3. And now, researchers have found that the noise from air-gun blasts can kill zooplankton at distances of up to 1.2 kilometres away more than two orders of magnitude farther than previously thought. They reported their results4 on 22 June in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

We were quite gobsmacked, says lead author Jayson Semmens, a marine biologist at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia.

Semmens and his team conducted their study off the southeastern coast of Tasmania in 2015. They used sonar and nets to assess populations of zooplankton, including krill larvae and tiny crustaceans called copepods, before and after firing a series of air-gun shots. The team found that zooplankton abundance dropped by 64% within one hour of the blasts. And the proportion of dead zooplankton increased by 200300% as far away as 1.2 kilometres the maximum distance the researchers sampled. This suggests that the impact of the blasts could extend well beyond such distances, Semmens says.

Wim Van Egmond/SPL

Sea urchin larvae are one of many zooplankton groups harmed by air gun blasts.

Dead bodies in net tows don't lie, says Doug Nowacek, a marine ecologist at Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina, who was not involved in the study. He suggests the next question for researchers is figuring out what this means for the ocean ecosystem. If you start impacting the zooplankton population, that can cause a serious cascade through the food web.

The results come as US President Donald Trump proposes opening up large swathes of the Atlantic coast of the United States to seismic surveys. The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is considering permit requests from six companies to conduct seismic surveys that were denied under former President Barack Obama. As part of that process, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) must also evaluate permit requests from those companies since their proposed activities could affect marine mammals. The NOAA permit requests are open for public comment until 6 July.

Although it's unclear if the companies will be able to start seismic surveys, initiating the permit process is part of a larger effort laid out in an executive order that Trump issued in April to expand US offshore energy development.

The study didn't pin down precisely how air-gun blasts kill zooplankton, Semmens says, but the noise they produce probably damages the highly sensitive hair-like receptors that the animals use to navigate. The blast might not kill them all directly, but it could disorient them and make it harder for them to survive.

Semmens is planning a follow-on study with a full seismic air gun set-up similar to that used in industrial activities to determine how far the effects of the noise extend. He and his team also want to look at what these blasts do to zooplankton physically. Although most research has focused on the impact of air-gun blasts on marine mammals, Semmens notes, perhaps its the invertebrates that are most at risk. It could be that our focus has kind of been blinkered because its been on whales, he says. Invertebrates are the forgotten ones.

More:

Air guns used in offshore oil exploration can kill tiny marine life ... - Nature.com

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