Category Archives: Offshore

A view of a Keppel Corporation shipyard in Singapore January 19, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su

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Aug 12 (Reuters) - Singaporean conglomerate Keppel Corp (KPLM.SI) said on Friday it would spend 305 million euros ($314.7 million) along with a unit for a 50.01% stake in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that owns 50% of Borkum Riffgrund 2, an offshore wind farm in Germany.

The deal comes as companies race to increase their exposure to renewable energy assets which have risen in prominence in recent years amid a global push towards clean and sustainable energy.

"The transaction further accelerates the growth of the group's exposure in renewable energy assets," Keppel said in a statement, adding that it would have a total renewable energy portfolio of about 2.2 gigawatts after the investment was completed.

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Borkum Riffgrund 2, which is located off the coast of Lower Saxony in the North Sea and has an operating capacity of about 465 megawatts, is 50% owned by Danish renewables firm Orsted (ORSTED.CO). Thai power producer Gulf Energy Development (GULF.BK) owns the entire SPV.

Keppel said it would fund its share of the deal through capital contributions to the joint venture, while its unit may pay for the investment with a combination of internal funds, equity, debt and external borrowings.

The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2022.

($1 = 0.9693 euros)

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Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Keppel, unit to invest in German offshore wind farm in renewables push - Reuters

Work is underway to test the first of two sites as a potential hub for wind energy development off Maine's coast.

Gov. Janet Mills directed the Maine Department of Transportation to explore the midcoast town of Searsport. A study done last year pointed to a portion of state-owned land on Sears Island and also nearby Mack Point as potential site options.

Crews have begun cutting trees and clearing a path on the island for geotechnical drilling and testing, said Matt Burns, executive director of the Maine Port Authority.

Testing will eventually happen at the Mack Point terminal as well, he said.

"We want to collect this data and really be able to look at the sites side by side, compare the pros and cons and distill that data that's actually digestible by a group that could look at it objectively," Burns said.

Rolf Olsen, vice president of Friends of Sears Island, said he supports Searsport as a potential hub for wind energy development but believes the island should be preserved for recreational purposes.

Mack Point terminal is already an industrial site and has served as a delivery point for land-based wind turbines.

"There's 50 years of history trying to develop Sears Island, and this is the latest iteration," Olsen said. "I'm in favor of wind energy, alternative energy, but do it on Mack Point, not Sears Island."

Burns said the Sears Island testing should be finished by the end of this month. There's no timeline for when the state might choose between these two sites or consider other alternatives, he added.

Maine wants to establish the nation's first offshore floating wind research array in the Gulf Maine, which it views as a key step in achieving its renewable goals of 80% by 2030.

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Testing underway on Sears Island as potential offshore wind development hub - Maine Public

By Akif Chaudhry, Principal Analyst, Corporate Research, Wood Mackenzie

No longer in its infancy, offshore wind is a proven technology on course to play a key role in the decarbonisation of the global economy. Over the next decade, the industry will attract almost US$1 trillion in new investment.

A growing number of competitors are flocking to take advantage of the massive opportunities that will be created by the boom. The Majors notably the European Majors are no exception. Right now, their share of the market is small, but ambition is ramping up as they bet bigger with their investments in the zero-carbon value chain. And there is all to play for as the offshore wind industry scales rapidly and globally.

[Wood Mackenzie's] insight Why the Majors need to consider margins in weighing up offshore wind uses a proprietary new metric to break down why offshore wind offers a big prize for Big Oil. Using the expertise of our Corporate Service, we provide a detailed analysis of the relative performance of new field assets across the oil and gas industry and compare that to offshore wind.

Offshore wind delivers by some margin

The upstream sector has long analysed cash margins on a per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) basis. This well-understood metric reveals how much operating cashflow upstream oil and gas assets generate per unit of production. Its especially useful for articulating cash generation capacity and benchmarking portfolios.

Conventional analysis of renewables pitted against oil and gas investment usually focuses on relative risk and returns. But comparison with the legacy business needs new metrics. [Wood Mackenzie's] new cash margin metric operating cash flow per gigajoule equivalent (GJe) goes beyond traditional comparisons. And it reveals that offshore wind comes up trumps.Credit: Wood Mackenzie

Drawing on composite data from [Wood Mackenzie's] Lens Upstream and Lens Power platforms, [Wood Mackenzie's] study shows how a group of renewable leaders offshore wind portfolios stack up against the Majors oil and gas portfolios on this key metric. Tracking this asset-by-asset data demonstrates that offshore wind will deliver 25% higher unit operating cash margins in comparison to new field oil and gas projects.

Even the lowest offshore wind portfolio average operating cash margin is above the upstream average. And the renewable technologys margins trump deepwater Big Oils highest margin asset class.

Offshore winds strong operating cash margin performance shows that the financial prize is more than simply long-term and steady cash flows. Such a cash wedge within a business is a good way to support other portfolio areas or, indeed, a significant dividend commitment, and to hedge exposure to carbon and hydrocarbon prices.

Returns do, of course, matter. Falling IRRs from offshore wind projects will not be sustainable if the sector is to attract the capital required for it to play its part in meeting global climate goals. Mid-single digit returns will not be acceptable.

Companies have already been leaning on traditional tools of debt-financing and asset rotation to lift IRRs. As the sector matures other levers, such as increasing merchant exposure, power trading and building power-to-x projects, will also come into play to boost returns.

The Majors can play the long game with offshore wind

Offshore wind is not without challenges: dark clouds of supply-led cost inflation and rising cost of debt are looming large. The industry is currently grappling with oversupply, while the demands of next-generation technology mean that massive investment will be needed to back new tower production facilities.

But after years of managing volatility in oil and gas, the Majors are equipped to get the balance between risk and return right. And they are flush with deep pockets of cash to take advantage of the huge upcoming opportunities.

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Big Oil Set to Cash in On Trillion-dollar Offshore Wind Prize - Offshore Engineer

ALBANY The developers of a wind farm 30 miles off the shore of Long Island are providing $300,000 to train residents of Albanys South End neighborhood to help build it.

Orsted and Eversource, partners on the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind Project, announced the funding with local officials and potential trainees Wednesday at the Multi-Craft Apprenticeship Preparation Program training center in Albany.

It is drawn from the $1 million Upper Hudson Workforce Development Fund created by the Sunrise Wind project.

Sunrise is one of the first major offshore wind power projects in the United States, and one of the largest. An entire supply chain and support apparatus must be created for it.

More than 150 miles from the areawhere Sunrise will stand, foundation components will be built in the Port of Coeymans and towers will be built in the Port of Albany.

Residents of the South End, which adjoins the Port of Albany, are targeted for the job training because it is a historically disadvantaged neighborhood, with lower income and greater exposure to air pollution.

This is a long-awaited and exciting opportunity that will provide job training and sustainable unionized employment opportunities to low-income residents and people of color from Albanys South End neighborhood, Mayor Kathy Sheehan said.

The goal is to recruit workers of color and/or lower income to careers through which they may sustain a family, and to bring more diversity to the building trades in the process.

The new funding will cover pay, training and emergency financial needs for 15 to 20 participants each in 2022 and 2023.

The structured worksite and classroom training is designed to equip participants to navigate a union apprenticeship program.

Offshore wind is part of New York States plan to reach a zero-emissions electric grid by 2040. The target is at least 9,000 megawatts of power generated by offshore wind turbines by the year 2035.

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Albany residents offered training for offshore wind jobs The Daily Gazette - The Daily Gazette

In the past several weeks we have heard and read about huge amounts of work getting sent offshore. To India mostly, also the Philippines. Outsourcing is nothing new and rather expected given todays talent shortages but 30%? Perhaps more?

Doing a quick search pulled up a 2011 Accountancy Age article which mentioned PwC wanted to send 20% of its core audit hours to India by 2014, this would have been a leap from the 1-2% of work being outsourced at the time that article was written 10+ years ago. We found a couple recent pieces that repeat a single statistic: prior to the pandemic, about 6.2% of accounting firms used offshore staffing, post-pandemic that number grew to 41.3% with many more firms not currently offshoring but open to the idea.

Would anyone care to share their experiences with offshoring at your firm? Because what were hearing isnt great.

The guy who always comments you kids better stop insisting on remote work or your firm is going to replace you with Indian labor on our WFH articles is also welcome to say his piece, your moment has finally arrived buddy!

Have something to add to this story? Give us a shout by email, Twitter, or text/call the tipline at 202-505-8885. As always, all tips are anonymous.

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Are Accounting Firms Really Sending 30% of Their Work Offshore? - Going Concern

The University of Plymouth and the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult have established a new programme to develop offshore renewable tech: the Collaborative Offshore Renewable Energy Subsea Systems (COSS) research accelerator.

Theres pressing need to hasten progress. In order to attain the 8,000TWh required in 2030 under the International Energy Agencys Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario, the world must increase its electricity generated by wind by an average of 18% per year during 2021-2030.

It is also necessary to raise annual capacity additions to 310GW of onshore wind and 80GW of offshore wind.

With the UK Government itself seeking 50GW of offshore wind by 2030, projects such as these could be key. Can this research collaboration hasten the scale and pace of deployment for UK renewables, and share offshore wind knowledge across the globe?

COSS is a collaborative partnership between the University of Plymouth and ORE Catapult, explains Simon Cheeseman, sector lead for wave and tidal energy at ORE Catapult, and Deborah Greaves OBE, professor of ocean engineering at the University of Plymouth.

Both parties meet regularly to identify potential R&D projects and to combine their respective networks, with a view to seeking industrial sponsors for those projects. This engagement with industry is designed to encourage and stimulate research activity that draws on the specialist expertise held in both the ORE Catapult and the university.

It is also designed to take advantage of the universitys facilities, providing research engineers and sponsored PhD students to support collaborative projects delivered through the partnership. Where appropriate, the local supply chain will be invited to join the collaboration to help resolve technical challenges and build up its own capacities and capabilities.

Its evident this is a scaling up to hasten fossil alternatives and enable net-zero faster, and looks to take advantage of particular benefits unique to the University of Plymouth.

The south-west is home to a wealth of expertise in emerging ORE technologies, and unique natural assets, say Cheeseman and Greaves.

It draws from a rich heritage of marine and maritime expertise and, from a university perspective, we have been pioneering new technologies and assessing their potential impacts on marine and coastal environments for over two decades.

Through the initiative, the partners will seek to accelerate offshore wind, wave and tidal power, with a particular emphasis on floating wind.

The UK Energy Security Strategy has announced more demanding targets for 2030 and beyond, say Cheeseman and Greaves. With ORE Catapult having a presence in the region and the university hosting a number of world class facilities, the COSS represents a pragmatic way to join forces and drive innovative solutions that contribute to net-zero.

It is also a means of helping the supply chain demonstrate its capability and grow its capacity ahead of the anticipated Celtic Sea procurement calls over the coming years.

In addition, the new partnership aligns with the universitys leadership of the national Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy) Hub. This is a $10.7m (9m) million Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council-funded project, which provides aims to connect academia, industry, policymakers and the public to encourage innovation in offshore wind, wave and tidal energy.

Regarding specific drivers and targets for COSS, these are still being defined: ORE Catapult and the university are still in the process of outlining key performance indicators that will govern the annual throughput of projects and the scale of industrial collaboration, say Cheeseman and Greaves.

The partners are among those involved in a number of multi-million pound initiatives, such as the $46.2m (45m) Tidal Stream Industry Energiser project and the $7.6m (6.4m) Cornwall FLOW Accelerator initiative, but there is no direct funding associated with COSS.

We are working on the basis of securing industry sponsorship to fund projects and industry PhD places.

Offshore, self-evidently, is a tough environment. As such, a focus on the monitoring and repair side of the tech will be key.

The skills and capability of research and development in the south-west, and University of Plymouth in particular, will centre around the hydrodynamics of floating structures, offshore engineering and control systems, say Cheeseman and Greaves.

Through these, we are looking to manage the interaction of wave, tide and metocean conditions with wave, tidal and floating offshore wind platforms. Linked to this is the study and development of autonomous marine systems and maritime cyber security for the inspection, maintenance and repair of offshore systems and environmental monitoring.

Additionally, two PhD studentships are due to start this autumn, covering integrated modelling of floating offshore wind turbine systems (FOWTS). This aims to develop a nonlinear coupled model for design.

Researchers will also complete work on real-time hybrid testing for physical modelling of new high-capacity floating offshore wind turbines. They hope this will provide a step-change in the ability of the offshore renewable energy community to conduct scale modelling of FOWTS.

The partners explain that this new research collaboration has been established in direct support of the UK Governments expanded ambition to deploy up to 50GW of offshore wind by 2030, with up to 5GW provided by floating offshore wind.

This should be more than enough to power every home in the UK and support UK commitment to achieve net-zero by 2050.

To help the country meet its net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050, all forms of ORE will be required, says Greaves .

Although they are at different stages of maturity, the need to maintain and accelerate research and development is paramount. We know the natural resources are there and across science and industry we have the expertise to harness them.

However, the fact remains that if we are to truly realise the sectors potential it needs more than just numbers on paper and goodwill. The sixth carbon budget and balanced pathway, recommended by the Committee for Climate Change, would require an investment programme worth around $59.7bn (50bn) each year from 2030 to 2050.

But, more than ever before, future emissions reductions will require people to be actively involved and that must be embedded throughout policy.

From the ORE Catapult perspective, the programme remains fully committed to supporting the transition from fossil fuels at pace and scale.

Its worth noting the ORE Catapult has operations in Glasgow, Blyth, Levenmouth, Aberdeen, the Humber, the East of England, the south-west and Wales and operates a collaborative research partnership in China.

Therefore, there is ample scope to share gleaned knowledge globally and advance other economies, not just the UKs. All in all, this is a fascinating space to keep an eye on, awaiting new tech to shift further the role of renewables in the energy transition.

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Inside the UK's latest offshore wind research accelerator - Power Technology

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is leading the response to the leak.

PORT FOURCHON, La. Shell Oil reported that a connection between two major oil pipelines on land leaked Thursday near Port Fourchon, forcing the company to shut down production at three of its largest deepwater oil platforms off the coast of Louisiana.

Shell can confirm that the Mars and Amberjack Pipelines have been shut-in due to a flange leak at the Fourchon booster station, Shell spokeswoman Cindy Babski said. As a result, Shells deepwater assets in the Mars Corridor Mars, Ursa and Olympus have also been shut in.

An extended shutdown could have a major impact on production because those platforms produce about 410,000 barrels 17.2 million gallons of oil per day. But Babski said in an updated statement later Thursday that Shell expects to have the pipelines back up and running Friday.

The oil leak itself was at a port facility on land and has been contained after two barrels of crude, about 84 gallons, were spilled, Babski said. Chett Chiasson, executive director of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission, confirmed the leak happened at the end of Highway 1, at the junction with the only road to Grand Isle to the east and Port Fourchon to the west.

Chiasson also confirmed that the flange that leaked was a connection between the Mars Pipeline and the Amberjack Pipeline.

The Louisiana State Police said its HAZMAT unit was not deployed. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is leading the response to the leak.

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Shell shuts offshore oil pipelines after connection on land leaks - WWLTV.com

Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind, a joint venture of TotalEnergies and Corio Generation, has selected Offshore Design Engineering Ltd. (ODE) to deliver Owners Engineer support to the pre-front-end engineering design (FEED) stage for its 1.5 GW Outer Dowsing offshore wind project in the UK.

As Owners Engineer, ODE will conduct concept development and selection for components such as wind turbine foundations, onshore and offshore substations, and inter-array cables and will support the definition of the projects Employers Requirements.

Located 54 kilometres off Englands Lincolnshire coast, the Outer Dowsing project will be one of the UKs largest offshore wind farms upon completion, according to ODE.

Following the recent approval by the UK Government of the Crown Estates Habitats Regulations Assessment process, the projects developers submitted a scoping report to the Planning Inspectorate last week for their wind farm, forming part of an extensive consultation exercise with stakeholders.

According to Corio Generation, the views gathered during the scoping process, together with ongoingsurveys, will be used to guide the design and layout of the wind farm and its associated infrastructure, ahead of formal submission for development consent which is planned for late 2023.

As a reminder, the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy gave approval for over 8 GW of offshore wind to move into the next step in the seabed licensing process which means that theOuter Dowsing offshore wind projectcan now progress to enter into an Agreement for Lease with the Crown Estate.

Once fully commissioned, the wind farm will generate enough renewable electricity to power over 1.6 million households.

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ODE Wins Work on UK's 1.5 GW Offshore Wind Project - Offshore WIND

RALEIGH Earlier this month, Gov. Roy Cooper joined Dominion Energy CEO Robert M. Blue to observe Dominion Energy wind turbines off the coast of Virginia and addressed the third North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies (NC T.O.W.E.R.S.) meeting in Elizabeth City.

The potential for reliable, affordable offshore wind energy in North Carolina that grows our economy and benefits our environment has never been stronger, Cooper said. The economy is rapidly embracing clean energy and seeing the wind turbines up close underscores how investing in this exciting industry will bring tremendous opportunities to combat climate change, power homes and businesses, and put money in the pockets of North Carolina families.

Dominion Energy is at the forefront of offshore wind development in the United States. Our experiences with the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project will help make commercial scale offshore wind a reality in the Mid-Atlantic, to the benefit of our Virginia and North Carolina customers, said Robert M. Blue, Dominion Energy Chair, President and CEO. Developing this burgeoning industry will create new jobs and economic benefits, while lowering fuel costs for our customers and diversifying our energy supply.

North Carolina continues to support offshore wind as an opportunity for economic growth and to further the states transition toward a clean energy future, according to a recent statement from the North Carolina Department of Commerce. In June 2021, Cooper signed Executive Order No. 218, establishing North Carolinas offshore wind development goals of 2.8 gigawatts off the North Carolina coast by 2030 and 8.0 GW by 2040. The order also established the NC TOWERS taskforce.

At an Aug. 4 meeting of the NC TOWERS team community members and stakeholders heard details on programs and policies for developing offshore wind energy projects, foster industry relationships throughout the offshore wind supply chain and advance opportunities for equitable access to the economic benefits created by the offshore wind industry.

In June 2022, NC TOWERS released a report highlighting its work and identifying goals for the taskforce in the 2022-2023 year. The taskforce has established four subcommittees to focus on Economic Opportunity and Business Development, Workforce, Education, and Training Opportunity Development, Infrastructure, Environmental Justice, and Inclusion, and Outreach and Engagement.

Cooper issued Executive Order No. 246 in January 2022 to establish next steps in the states plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and reaffirm North Carolinas commitment to a clean energy economy. The order updated North Carolinas economy-wide carbon reduction emissions goals, increasing the statewide goal to a 50% reduction from 2005 levels by 2030 and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, no later than 2050.

In October 2020, Cooper joined the Governors of Virginia and Maryland to sign the SMART-POWER MOU to advance offshore wind development and economic opportunities for the region.

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North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper continues to explore offshore wind energy - The Robesonian

File image courtesy NAC / CC BY SA 4.0

PublishedAug 10, 2022 7:10 PM by The Maritime Executive

Scotland has opened a brand new kind of offshore wind lease round aimed specifically at providing clean power to offshore oil and gas platforms. The newly-announced Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) lease round is additional to the massive ScotWind auction for commercial-scale offshore wind projects, which was completed in January.

The new, unique leasing round will help Scotland's offshore industry decarbonize enough to meet the targets of the UK North Sea Transition Deal, which calls for a 50 percent cut in emissions from offshore production by 2030. The INTOG wind auction solicits proposals from offshore wind developers for projects that provide electrical power for platforms or for other innovative purposes. Developers with new ideas can apply for small-scale leases to try out new technologies at a scale of less than 100 MW.

Crown Estate Scotland has made the terms of the lease agreements more attractive for developers by extending the option periods to seven years (up from five) and doubling the lease period to 50 years (from 25) for platform-electrification projects.

The application window for the lease round closes in mid-November, and depending on the quality and quantity of the proposals, results should be announced by the end of the first quarter of next year.??INTOG represents an exciting opportunity to help decarbonise oil and gas installations and enable innovative projects which are important in lowering costs for the commercial deployment of offshore wind, reducing risk, and developing Scotland as a destination for innovation and technical expertise," said Colin Palmer, Director of Marine for Crown Estate Scotland. "Taken as a whole, INTOG will play a significant role in helping us reach net-zero and meet our energy requirements of the future."

Top image: UK North Sea oil platforms (NAC / CC BY SA 4.0)

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Scotland is Installing Offshore Wind to Power Offshore Oil Platforms - The Maritime Executive