Category Archives: Offshore

Maryland waters could be home to some of the nation's first and by far its largest offshore wind farms under a decision issued Thursday by the state Public Service Commission to approve two projects.

Officials had only been expected to choose one of the vying proposals, but surprised wind developers by giving both the green light, saying they would "position Maryland as a national leader in offshore wind energy."

"I believe this decision creates tremendous opportunities for Maryland," commissioner Michael T. Richard said in a statement. "It enables us to meet our clean, renewable energy goals using energy generated within the state while conditioning our approval on holding project developers to their promises of creating jobs and spurring economic growth."

The decision could dot the Ocean City horizon with wind turbines as soon as 2020 and add $1 to monthly residential electricity bills.

It is also expected to prevent emissions of hundreds of thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide and create some 5,000 jobs and $74 million in state tax revenue.

The two companies have until May 25 to accept a set of conditions, requiring certain levels of job creation and investment, that the commission laid out in its decision.

U.S. Wind, a subsidiary of Italian energy and construction company Toto Holdings SpA, plans to build 62 turbines about 14 miles off the coast of Ocean City, a $1.4 billion project. It also plans to build $100 million worth of industrial and manufacturing facilities associated with the project in the Sparrows Point area of Baltimore County.

"The decision is in and now we're ready to get to work," Paul Rich, director of project development for U.S. Wind, said in a statement. "Maryland is now the undisputed national leader for offshore wind."

Skipjack Offshore Wind LLC, a subsidiary of Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind Holdings LLC, is planning a $720 million project including 15 turbines at least 20 miles off the coast.

Skipjack is behind the United States' only offshore wind project constructed to date, the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island. It is also planning projects off the coasts of Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

The project developers are required to build the turbines as far from shore as possible up to 17 miles for the U.S. Wind farm and 24 miles for the Skipjack turbines.

U.S. Wind officials have said that on a clear day, their turbines would appear to a person on the beach as about the size of a thumbnail at arms length.

This story will be updated.

sdance@baltsun.com

twitter.com/ssdance

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After approval, Maryland to be home to nation's second and third offshore wind farms - Baltimore Sun

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May 10, 2017, 10:12 AM EDT

Calls from the industry and utilities including Vattenfall AB for Germany to auction more offshore wind blocs are unlikely to fall on sympathetic ears until voters elect a new parliament.

Germanys maiden offshore auction, which wrapped up last month with the winners willing to forgo subsidies for the first time, is spurring calls to raise tender caps as developers seek yields through economies of scale. While the calls have garnered backing in the Environment Ministry, the prospects of amending auction limits are zero, lawmaker Bernd Westphal said.

You can forget lifting the caps before the election in September, the Social Democrats spokesman for energy said in an interview at a wind conference in the port of Bremerhaven. With power grid expansion delays, this just wont make sense.

Utilities Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG and Dong Energy A/S in April upended expectations that offshore wind power requires aid. Industry lobbies including the Offshore Wind Foundation are asking why Germany needs offshore auctions at all if utilities are ready to build for free, seeking investment returns in competitive prices for wind power in the open market.

Speaking at the same event, Felix Wuertenberger, head of Vattenfalls offshore development in Germany and the Netherlands, on Wednesday urged the government to raise auction limits beyond the planned 3 gigawatts in 2017 and 2018 to bring down technology costs.

Developers of North Sea wind projects need to build at least 4 gigawatts of capacity a year from 2020 -- equal to one turbine a day -- to keep the industry buoyant, said Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energys new Chief Executive Officer Markus Tacke at the event.

Some 7 gigawatts a year would be more appropriate to generate sufficient volume to lower costs and sustain innovation, said Tacke. Just 1 percent of the seas wind power potential is currently under development, according to the company.

The problem in Germany, according to the Social Democrats Westphal, is that the country is already struggling to accommodate current rates of green power expansion on its grid. The plan to build three high-voltage power lines to transmit wind and solar power from the north to the south of the country wont be realized before 2025.

At the same time, Chancellor Angela Merkels ruling coalition is divided over steering growth of wind parks in the North Sea, according to the lawmaker.

The Social Democrats, the junior partner in Germanys ruling coalition, sought higher caps for offshore auctions while Chancellor Angela Merkels Christian Democrats sought lower limits on cost grounds and grid concerns, Westphal said.

Raising the limits on auction volume cant be ruled out after Septembers election, he said.

The rest is here:

Merkel Lawmakers Reject Calls to Expand Offshore Wind Auctions ... - Bloomberg

The Trump administration is considering letting six companies test for oil and natural gas off the Atlantic coast.

The Wednesday decision by the Interior Department is an early step toward potential drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, reversing an Obama administration policy to reject such applications.

Seismic surveying helps a variety of federal and state partners better understand our nations offshore areas, including locating offshore hazards, siting of wind turbines, as well as offshore energy development, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement.

The Wednesday announcement does not necessarily mean that any permits will be issued, since they still need to go through an approval process.

The six companies had previously sought seismic testing approvals, but the Obama administration rejected them in January, leading the companies to appeal to an Interior board.

Interior is now asking that board of administrative judges to allow the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management another chance to consider the requests.

Zinke is presenting the policy change as fulfilling President Trumps executive order signed last month to expand offshore oil and natural gas drilling.

Seismic testing would allow the oil industry to research for the first time in three decades what resources could be under the ocean floor.

Any permits to drill in the Atlantic would be years away, following numerous federal approvals.

Environmental advocates have long opposed seismic testing in the Atlantic, both because of the harm they say it causes to wildlife in the ocean and the potential that it would lead to drilling.

Oceana says seismic testing creates loud noises that can be heard for thousands of miles, which can injure marine mammals such as whales and dolphins.

Read more from the original source:

Trump to consider new testing for offshore Atlantic oil and gas - The Hill

Ocean Carriers

NEW YORK STATE HAS DESIGNATED A 79,000-ACRE AREA OFF OF LONG ISLAND FOR WIND POWER GENERATION: The state has a goal of 35 percent renewables for the electric grid by 2030.

Statoil Wind US, a wind-energy company and subsidiary of the Norwegian mostly government-owned oil company, is looking for projects to invest in the United States.

Statoil is already involved in massive offshore wind energy projects in Europe, one of which will require the deployment of 4,000 vessels to being to fruition.

But because of the Jones Act there are limitations on the vessels we can use in a comparable project in the US, said Knut Aanstad, the companys president. Aanstad suggested that those legislative requirements could impede a company such as his to go all-in on a wind project because of the scale that such a project would require to make it worthwhile. Aanstad spoke speaking at a program on renewable energy at Columbia University in New York last week.

The Jones Act, passed in 1920, prohibits a foreign vessel from transporting merchandise between points in the United States. The act also applies to shipments from points on the North American continent to installations on the Outer Continental Shelf, hence its applicability to offshore wind installations. A violation of the Jones Act may result in the assessment of a civil penalty equal to the value of the merchandise. A waiver may be obtained, under limited circumstances, from the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Although the Trump administration appears to be rolling back renewable energy goals set by former president Barrack Obama, many states and even private utilities have their own renewables programs. New York State has a goal of 35 percent renewables for the electric grid by 2030. In cooperation with the US government, New York State has designated a 79,000-acre area 11 miles off of Long Island for wind power generation. Statoil is a bidder on that project which is in the early permitting stages.

There have been attempts to repeal or reform the Jones Act for decades, all without success. If anything, the pendulum is now swinging in the direction of greater enforcement, with the creation last year within US Customs and Border Protection of the Jones Act Division of Enforcement (JADE). JADE was stood up, primarily, it is presumed, to catch Jones Act violators in the offshore oil and gas industries, but it could just as easily be used in connection with wind farm operators. Just recently the Department of Justice settled a case which included payment by a shipping company of the biggest Jones Act penalty ever, $10 million.

While the Jones Act may be one hurdle, disarray in US government energy policy is probably the biggest challenge for producers like Statoil. The greatest danger to business is the lack of predictability, said Aanstad. The market needs clarity to see when and where capacity needs to be made available.

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Jones Act Could Impede US Offshore Wind Projects - Global Trade Magazine (blog)

What happened

Shares of oil and gas drillerW&T Offshore(NYSE:WTI) fell throughout April, finishing the month at $2.04 per share, down 26.4%.

W&T is a small company primarily focused on natural gas liquids production in the Gulf of Mexico. In April, its market cap dropped about $100 million to $280 million. Huge swings like that aren't uncommon for small companies, but what was unusual was the apparent lack of rationale for the drop.

W&T Offshore has underperformed the industry over the last ten years. Image source: Getty Images.

There's often some sort of catalyst for a drop like this: a broader market or sector decline, unfavorable industry news, or -- for an energy company -- falling oil or natural gas prices. As you can see from the blue line in the chart below, W&T stock's biggest drop came on April 18:

WTI data by YCharts

But as you can also see from the S&P 500's line on the chart above, there wasn't a broader market decline on that date. There was a bit of a drop in the overall oil and gas sector, but nothing that would account for the severity of W&T's slide. While other oil and gas producers -- particularly smaller ones -- dropped that day, none fell quite so far.

Nor where there any of the sort of company-specific causes one might expect to induce a big stock plunge: no underwhelming earnings report, no analyst downgrade, no unfavorable news coverage.

There was just one lone news item released by the company on April 18: Thomas F. Getten, the company's vice president, general counsel and secretary, who had been withW&T since 2006,retired and was succeeded byShahid A. Ghauri.

It seems inconceivable that such a minor news item could have caused such a pronounced stock slide; it's certainly possible that the timing was just a coincidence. But sometimes even minor news items can have a big impact on small, volatile companies that don't put out a lot of information. So even though it sounds weird, this may have been one of those cases where a piece of minor news had an outsized impact, or just turned a moderate drop into a severe one.

Obviously, you shouldn't buy or sell this stock -- or probably any stock -- based on whether the company's general counsel is retiring. But it goes to show that investors in small, volatile companies -- and W&T is both -- may have to stomach wild stock swings that happen with little or no reason.

As for W&T, the company has underperformed almost its entire industry since oil prices started sliding in 2014, losing more than 86% of its value. And given that it cut its dividend to zero in late 2015, there are better and safer places for your money in the oil patch.

John Bromels has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why W&T Offshore Shares Dropped 26.4% in April? - Motley Fool

HAMISH RUTHERFORD

Last updated14:14, May 11 2017

Cameron Burnell/Fairfax NZ

Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler says some banks are close to hitting the limit of what they can borrow offshore, meaning competition for local savers will continue.

A war for savers is expected to intensify in the coming months, pushing deposit rates above 4 per cent and driving up the cost of mortgages, experts say.

Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler said some of New Zealand's major commercial banks were "approaching the limits" of what they could borrow offshore.

Already this had pushed up the interest rates offered to savers, and the price at which banks were offering mortgages, and Wheeler hinted the battle would intensify.

"I would expect that competition for deposits to continue quite significantly in the coming months," Wheeler said on Thursday.

READ MORE:Dovish Reserve Bank says next OCR move could be a cut

While the official cash rate (OCR), the benchmark interest rate, remains at an all time low of 1.75 per cent, New Zealand's major banks have been raising the rates offered to everyday customers.

The average interest rate offered to savers on asix-month deposit rate is now3.32 per cent, up from 3.14 per cent 12 months ago.

Meanwhile, the rate on the average two-year, fixed-rate mortgage has risen from 5.64 per cent to 5.8 per cent over the same period.

Cameron Bagrie, chief economist at ANZ, said the banks were already pulling back on credit in a bid to increase local deposits.

If the banks were to continue to tap offshore markets for funding at the same rate as recent years, New Zealand's current account deficitwould "blow out", raising the risk that the banks would face credit rating downgrades.

With asset prices booming, Bagrie said the banks were starting to show some restraint.

"It's midnight at the bar, we've had a few drinks. Do we stay out to 4am and wake up with an almighty hangover, or do we go home?," Bagrie said.

"The banking sector at the moment are basically rationing the drinks at the bar."

Bagrie said the battle for deposits was alive and would continue. How far rates on both deposits and mortgages rose depended on how quickly deposits rose.

Currently banks were offering around 3.5 per cent interest for 1-2 year deposits, Bagrie said.

"It looks to be a matter of time until we see those deposit rates rising through 4 per cent," Bagrie said.

As deposit rates rose, mortgage rates would also climb "at the same time," Bagrie said.

"There's a big gap between where credit growth sits at and where deposit growth is."

RATES ON HOLD FOR 'PROLONGED PERIOD'

The New Zealand dollar dropped sharply on Thursday after theReserve Bank said the benchmark official cash rate (OCR) would stay low for longer than expected.

Wheeler was expected to leave the OCR at 1.75 per cent, but hint that increases would come sooner than he predicted back in February.

But Wheeler made little change to his future projection for the OCR, which influences mortgage and savings rates.

"Monetary policy will remain accommodative for a considerable period. Numerous uncertainties remain and policy may need to adjust accordingly."

ASB chief economist NickTuffleysaid Wheeler's stance was little changed from February.

"We had expected some bringing forward of the implied tightening to the first half of 2019."

Financial markets reacted by pushing down the New Zealand dollar.

The kiwi was buyingabout US69.4c just before the Reserve Bank statement, dropping to around US68.5c minutes later.

It now sits just above the 11-month low it fell to last week, as traders took a major "short" position.

Economists had expected that higher than expected inflation and strong job creation revealed in recent weeks would lead Wheeler to signal interest rate increases were coming.

Butthe governor said the overall impact of recent developments was "neutral". Althoughglobal economic growth had picked up, major uncertainties, including political, remained, Wheeler said.

Wheeler said a fall in New Zealand dollar - which is down about 5 per cent since February "is encouraging and, if sustained, will help to rebalance the growth outlook towards the tradables sector".

-Stuff

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War for local savers building as banks 'approaching the limits' of offshore funding - Stuff.co.nz

The offshore drilling sector has been completely obliterated. Many of the stocks in this sector are down more than 90% from their highs of many years ago. For years the news has been terrible, and investors, regardless of how cheap the stocks have gotten, would not touch the sector. The offshore drilling industry, at around 30% of total worldwide production, is vital to the global economy, therefore it absolutely must survive. This week we have the first green shoots appearing and I believe the sector will, over time, rebound strongly from here.

David W. Williams, Chairman, President and Chief Executive said: "We believe improving conditions in the offshore drilling industry are becoming clearer. Client tenders for both jackups and floating rigs are on the rise and include emerging regions, as well as previously active areas that have largely been dormant over the past two years. Also, contract awards, especially in the jackup sector, are occurring with greater frequency, and field development activity is up, relative to the recent past, as project cost rationalization efforts lead to better program economics. Finally, we believe long-term oil market fundamentals are supportive of stable to higher crude oil prices, which with time will support an increase in rig demand." From Q1 Press Release

" I'm very pleased with Noble's start to 2017 and encouraged by what continues to be clear evidence of recovery in the offshore industry, although it's still in its early stages." David Williams, Noble Corp CEO on Q1 conference call

There it is, the first mention of a recovery in offshore oil drilling coming from Noble Corp (NYSE:NE), one of the strongest and best companies in the sector. For a sector that has been all but left for dead, these are the green shoots, the first signs of optimism that the bottom is in, and the early stages of a recovery are appearing.

What is the "clear evidence" that Noble Corp is referring to? First of all, rig tenders and inquiries are increasing globally. Everywhere from Brazil to the Middle East and from the North Sea to Asia/Pacific. Each market is showing increased inquiries and rig tenders. Contractual backlog increased for Noble from $3.3 billion at year end to $3.5 billion today. This is a remarkable change of pace for the company and its investors who have come to expect nothing but bad news from the sector.

Noble Corp is not alone in making positive remarks. Diamond Offshore (NYSE:DO), earlier in the week, made similar comments on their conference call, saying that inquiries into rigs were increasing as well as saying that we are seeing the first signs of a trough in falling rig demand. This was especially refreshing news as Diamond Offshore is normally the company in the sector that expresses the least amount of optimism.

There are a handful of reasons why investors should understand that this sector provides a huge opportunity for profits. The first and most obvious would be simply to say that this sector, which also includes Transocean (NYSE:RIG), Atwood Oceanics (NYSE:ATW) and Rowan (NYSE: RDC), has been the most beaten down sector in the market for a while now. Believe it or not, as the S&P 500 hits all time highs, the stock prices of many of these offshore drillers have been hitting multi-decade lows. Noble Corp traded as high as $60 per share a decade ago and recently bottomed at $4.16 per share. Atwood Oceanics traded at $60 a decade ago and recently bottomed at $6.12 per share. Diamond Offshore traded at $140 per share a decade ago and recently bottomed at $13.06 per share.

Readers of this article may question why I use the term "bottomed" when I refer to recent price action of these companies. The answer is, I truly believe that this past week saw the capitulation bottom for this sector, and it's perfectly timed with the first green shoots appearing. The fact that management from multiple companies are all coming out saying inquiries and tenders are increasing and for Noble, the fact that contractual backlog increased this quarter, is huge. These companies have won new contract work lately, and Diamond Offshore had a favorable ruling in a Brazilian Court recently in a dispute with Petrbras (NYSE:PBR).

The price action in the stocks also showed signs of a bottom. For example, the trading volume in all of these companies was well above average. In a two minute period on Friday, Diamond Offshore traded over 250,000 shares, which represents 10% of its normal trading volume for a full day. Seasoned investors know that when we see huge price jumps on huge volume, triggered by positive news in a sector that has seen only bad news, there is a strong chance that a solid bottom is in.

Even with the jump yesterday, investors can still buy these stocks at fire sale prices, and the best part is, these companies, with the exception of Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL), are not even in danger of failing. Diamond Offshore reported a small profit this past week, and Noble, while they reported a loss mostly tied to the writedown of asset values, reported an enormous amount of free cash flow for the quarter. This free cash flow for Noble amounted to 10% of their current market value, and this was one quarter. The full year will not continue at this pace, but the fact is, these companies are generating a ton of cash relative to their market values at or near the bottom of the cycle.

What are they doing with this cash? Diamond, in typical fashion, is stockpiling cash in anticipation of being able to buy distressed assets at pennies on the dollar. Noble on the other hand, is rapidly repaying debt. These capital allocation strategies ensure these companies exit the downturn in better shape than today. Ultimately, this is what matters the most, as investors today are not buying these companies for today's profits. Rather, we are buying them for the significant profits that come in the future.

So what does the sector look like in the future? This is the final piece to the puzzle, and one of the hardest for investors to grasp because the oil cycle takes years to play out. Many don't know this, but the truth is, the offshore oil sector, which produces nearly one-third of oil worldwide, is critical to the global economy. If one only listens to surface level news and does not think beyond headlines, it would be easy to convince oneself that oil is down because of shale oil production and shale oil production is the future preferred means of oil production.

A couple of key facts need to be understood, the first of which is that shale is incapable of replacing offshore. This is hard for many people to grasp because the noise surrounding the growth in shale production is deafening, yet no one talks about the obvious reality that it is not sustainable. When shale fields are first drilled, the best locations are drilled first. Depletion rates are often in excess of 50% annually, which means in order to maintain production, more and more wells are needed. Drilling additional wells still costs the same, but with lower production from existing wells and lower production from newer wells (because the best locations were drilled already), the model, similar to a person attempting to run on a treadmill that is inclining, eventually becomes unsustainable as it requires ever increasing efforts to maintain the same pace.

Many investors may stop at this point and wonder why shale is so popular today if it is not sustainable. This is indeed a good question, and my opinion is that the oil giants of the world are so cash starved from trying desperately to maintain their dividend payments in the face of negative free cash flow that they simply do not have the cash flow required to invest in offshore production. With shale, the payout comes much quicker than with deepwater production. Oil majors are aware that offshore produces more cash over the life of a well, but they do not have the budget necessary to pay the years of upfront expenses needed to justify sanctioning offshore projects.

My suspicion is that two things will change this favoritism towards shale over time. First, as oil prices have risen significantly off of their lows of early 2016, many oil majors are again able to generate enough internal cash flow to pay their dividends and fund capital expenditures. With more cash flow available, oil companies will again look towards offshore as it generates more cash over time.

The second reason is that depletion is very soon going to be an enormous problem for oil companies. Last year, Chevron depleted more oil from its reserves than it discovered. This is simply not a sustainable business model and there will come a day when shareholders demand oil companies begin to increase reserves. This will no doubt bring the oil majors back to offshore, a place where almost one third of total global oil production is sourced from.

With the reports coming out this past week, investors in the beaten down offshore sector finally see the first green shoots of a recovery. Inquiries and rig tenders have increased globally and they are occurring at multiple companies. Two of the strongest players in the space, Noble Corporation and Diamond Offshore, are generating huge amounts of free cash flow at or near the bottom of the cycle. As these companies repay debt and prepare to buy distressed assets, they set themselves up for success as the cycle turns up for the first time in years. Given how negative the news has been, even just a sentiment shift can take these stocks significantly higher. Investors would be wise to not wait for the recovery to begin, but rather to use this opportunity while the news is still terrible and the situation is clearly improving, to aggressively build positions. The offshore sector is crucial to the global economy. The sector has to survive and the Diamond Offshore and Noble Corp will emerge as winners. Their stock prices trade around at levels that are 90% below their all time highs. Considering their valuations, and the emerging positives, the stocks represent an incredible opportunity to make huge gains in this market with most of the risk already well priced in.

Disclosure: I am/we are long NE, DO, ATW.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Green Shoots Appearing In Offshore Drilling - Seeking Alpha

The Dutch government has committed to getting 14% of energy from renewables by 2020. Photograph: AFP/Getty

Dutch officials have opened what is being billed as one of the worlds largest offshore wind farms, with 150 turbines spinning far out in the North Sea.

Over the next 15 years the Gemini windpark, which lies some 85km (53 miles) off the northern coast of the Netherlands, will meet the energy needs of about 1.5 million people.

At full tilt the windpark has a generating capacity of 600 megawatts and will help supply 785,000 Dutch households with renewable energy, according to the company.

We are now officially in the operational stage, the companys managing director Matthias Haag said, celebrating the completion of a project first conceived in 2010.

The 2.8bn ($3bn) project is a collaboration between the Canadian independent renewable energy company Northland Power, wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Wind Power, Dutch maritime contractor Van Oord and waste processing company HVC.

It was quite a complex undertaking, Haag said, particularly as this windpark lies relatively far offshore ... so it took quite a lot of logistics.

Gemini would contribute about 13% of the countrys total renewable energy supply and about 25% of its wind power, he added.

It would help reduce emissions of carbon-dioxide emissions, among the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, by 1.25m tonnes, the company says.

The Netherlands remains dependant on fossil fuels which still make up about 95% of its energy supply, according to a 2016 report from the ministry of economics affairs.

The Dutch government has committed to ensuring 14% of its energy comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar power by 2020, and 16% by 2023, with the aim of being carbon neutral by 2050.

Gemini is seen as a stepping stone in the Netherlands and has shown that a very large project can be built on time, and in a very safe environment, Haag said.

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Full tilt: giant offshore wind farm opens in North Sea - The Guardian

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is f acing a union backlash amid plans to cut more than 250 tech staff and offshore dozens of jobs to India.

The bank informed staff on Tuesday that it would be letting go of 154 contractors by year-end, while 180 permanent roles have been put at risk - with a total of 92 staff positions set to be axed.

It also emerged that RBS is on track to offshore 38 tech roles to India.

The move comes just months after chief executive Ross McEwan ordered a 2 billion four-year cost-cutting drive, which is widely expected to result in significant job losses and branch closures.

An RBS spokesperson said: "As RBS moves towards becoming a simpler, smaller bank UK focused bank, we're continuing to restructure our back office support and reducing its size so it's a better fit for our business.

"Unfortunately, these changes will result in the net reduction of 92 roles.

"We understand this will be difficult news for staff and we will be offering support to those affected, including redeploying people into other roles where we can".

The cuts are expected to affect tech staff across a number of the bank's departments including risk solutions, digital engineering services, finance solutions, core and payments, and NatWest markets technology.

Rob MacGregor, a national officer at Unite, said the union has hit out at the bank over the job cuts and is now now calling on RBS to introduce a moratorium on the offshoring of jobs.

"Unite cannot understand how RBS, which continues to be taxpayer-backed, can justify hundreds more staff cuts and continue transferring important work out of the country.

"It is wholly inappropriate and unjustified for these technology roles to be sent offshore. Unite has called on RBS to halt the offshoring announcements and impose a moratorium on the offshoring of jobs.

"The loss of these jobs to India does nothing to support the well-being and livelihood of UK workers and their families. This is not in the taxpayer interest."

The union is also pressing RBS - which is still 72% owned by the Government - to guarantee that there will be no forced job losses as a result.

The news comes just days before RBS faces investors at its annual general meeting in Gogarburn, Scotland on Thursday.

Shareholders in RBS are being urged to cast vote against a new remuneration policy, which makes Mr McEwan eligible for a long-term award of 175% of his salary, and finance chief Ewen Stevenson 200%.

The vote on the bank's executive pay policy will be binding.

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RBS faces union backlash over plans to cut staff and offshore jobs to India - Belfast Telegraph

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Saqib Rahim, E&E News reporter

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. States advancing offshore wind want everything they've seen in Europe: cheap, low-carbon power and the jobs that come with it.

They may soon find themselves having to choose between those aims, a panel of European industry executives said here yesterday.

Jonathan Cole, a managing director with renewables giant Iberdrola SA, said European countries did.

"What do they want in this sector? Do they want the cheapest unit cost of electricity? If so, consider the Dutch model," Cole said at the U.S. Offshore Wind conference. "Do they actually want to build a long-term sustainable industry? If so, they need to think, certainly for the first few units, about something different."

Cole said the Netherlands focused its policies on building the cheapest turbines, but that meant it had to import the units. Germany and the United Kingdom were less price-sensitive, but that drew more technological innovation to their shores.

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The remarks frame the dilemma before Maryland, Massachusetts and New York, as well as other states hoping to make offshore wind a contributor on the scale of nuclear and coal plants.

These states want zero-carbon electrons but also hope to jolt manufacturing. And they'd prefer not to be blamed for raising utility bills.

European companies say if states want to see that, they need to make firm promises measured in gigawatts.

Europe has built about 3,600 turbines, and the industry says it's reaching new economies of scale that are driving costs down. In April, the world's largest developer, Denmark-based Dong Energy, won an auction with two projects that were economical without any subsidy.

The industry says it can wring out more cost from economies of scale and larger turbines that harness more wind. One informal goal: getting costs under 10 cents per kilowatt-hour.

"The two fundamental drivers in the end are scale and competition," said Sven Utermhlen, chief operating officer at E.ON Climate & Renewables.

Northeast states are grappling with how that looks in America.

Smaller offshore wind projects have come in around 20 cents/kWh, said Willett Kempton, a professor at the University of Delaware.

On a grid fueled by nuclear, natural gas and onshore wind, 20 cents is well above market. So New Jersey and Maryland have offered special subsidies for offshore wind projects that can show economic benefits, whether in the form of jobs or local content.

New York is touting the size of its offshore wind resource, which it pegs around 1 gigawatt, and the promise of scale. Massachusetts has emphasized cost reduction: Each round of bids has to be cheaper than the last.

Several factors came together in Europe to drive down costs, the panel said.

One was heavy competition among manufacturers. The market consolidated around three main turbine builders Siemens AG, General Electric Co. and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind that are now locked in fierce competition.

Another was the long-term policy commitment to growing offshore wind, the panel said. Europe has installed around 12.6 GW of offshore wind. U.S. commitments amount to 4-5 GW.

Cole said that's nowhere near enough to get a factory for nacelles and blades, which are the most valuable parts of the turbines. To get factories for those, he estimated, the United States would have to build 3-4 GW a year.

"There are many reasons this will come, but it will not start with the nacelle. Nacelles will be the last component," said Kempton.

"There is plenty of other stuff which I think makes absolutely no sense to be manufactured outside the U.S., if we want to have a U.S. offshore wind business," said Utermhlen. "Cables. Foundations. Vessels. I think there's plenty of opportunity there."

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OFFSHORE WIND Jobs or cheap power? Experts say US can't have both - E&E News