Monthly Archives: March 2017

To read the complete fleet status report of March 10, 2017, click here.

1. Class: Jackups

Year

Built

Spec.

Feet/K feet

Contract

End

Current

Day rate

Location

Rate at 0 revenue

1982/2006

mid 7/17

76

[NDC ZADCO]

UAE

M1161

1980

Early 4/18

62

[Dynamic Drilling/ONGC]

Bareboat chartered

India

B152

1982/2004

Late 11/17

81

[NDC]

UAE

(L1112)

Noble Ed Holt

1981/2003

Late 10/18

38

[Dynamic Drilling/ONGC]

Bareboat chartered

India

L786

1983/1998

[Dynamic Drilling/ONGC]

Bareboat chartered

India

Prospector 5

6/2014

JU 2000E

HS-HE

218

[Total]

UK NS

Sold to SinoEnergy

B 391

1981-2001

[Centrica]

UK NS

4-wells

JU 2000E

HS-HE

113

Swap with C461

[ONE]

NL

Sold to SinoEnergy

3. Prospector Offshore HE-HS Jack-up new build.

Name

Year built

Spec.

Feet/K feet

Contract

End

Information

Prospector 6

Delayed

JU 2000E

HS-HE

Prospector 7

delayed

JU 2000E

HS-HE

Prospector 8

delayed

JU 2000E

HS-HE

Note: The company has the option to delay the delivery of Prospector 6. The three rigs (P6, P7 and P8) are being constructed on a non-recourse basis with no parent company guarantees. They do not figure into the fleet status anymore.

Cold Stacked and Ready Stacked Rigs

Note: Ready stacked includes warm stacked, hot stacked and available (When the status or rig name is marked in blue you can click to get more information).

1981/2002

2011

Cold stacked

M842

M825

The company indicated a backlog of $242 million as of December 31, 2016 (now estimated at $195 million as of March 10, 2017):

Paragon Fleet Status

Commentary:

Paragon Offshore released another depressing FSR after a long silence. As a reminder, the preceding fleet status was released on October 18, 2016.

1 - The company managed to bag a small 4-well contract @$55k/d, in the North See for the JU B 391 in UK with Centrica. Additional backlog is $5 million.

2 - Prospector 1 and C461. Contract runs until mid 2/2018.

Executed rig-swap with ONE, transferring all remaining contracted days from the Paragon C461 to the Prospector 1. Anticipate 6 days off rate in March 2017 for planned upgrades; these days to be added to the end of the contract.

The rest is here:

To read the complete fleet status report of March 10, 2017, click here. - Seeking Alpha

Hearings starting Monday could determine whether Maryland becomes a leader in the development of offshore wind power in the United States.

The Maryland Public Service Commission will begin what could be two weeks of hearings on proposals from two developers to build wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean off Maryland. The two developers are competing for up to $1.9 billion in subsidies over 20 years, paid for by the state's electricity ratepayers, a crucial financing mechanism for developers to recoup the cost of building the massive wind farms.

The commission is expected to decide whether to move forward with one by May 17.

Offshore wind energy, which is booming in Europe, offers significant potential to replace aging energy infrastructure along the East Coast, create jobs and bolster the economy.

The federal government has leased thousands of acres off the East Coast to be developed into wind farms, but the industry has yet to take off in the United States. Wind development has been hobbled largely by its cost as well as by regulatory hurdles and opposition from politicians opposed to subsidizing energy, coastal residents worried about views and environmentalists worried about migratory birds.

Only one small offshore wind farm has been installed in the United States, just five turbines off Block Island in Rhode Island. But other projects are in the works off Massachusetts, New Jersey and North Carolina.

If Maryland successfully becomes one of the first states to establish an offshore wind farm, the project could position the state to be a leader in the industry and serve as a hub for the contractors who could service future offshore wind farms up and down the East Coast.

"The opportunity Maryland has is huge," said Liz Burdock, executive director of the Business Network for Offshore Wind, a national advocacy group. "Where the infrastructure goes into place, where first companies set up, will be the base for where the rest of the industry is served."

Maryland has set a goal of getting a quarter of the state's power from renewable sources by 2020. Of that, up to 2.5 percent must come from offshore wind.

To meet those goals, utility companies such as Baltimore Gas & Electric Co., will be required to buy energy credits from offshore wind farms, solar companies and other renewable energy producers.

To encourage development in offshore wind, state lawmakers in 2013 approved legislation that will allow energy companies to pass on the cost of the offshore wind credits to ratepayers. Under the law, residential power bills could go up $1.50 a month and businesses could pay up to 1.5 percent more, to support an offshore wind project once it is up and running.

The Maryland Public Service Commission will decide how much utilities should pay for the offshore energy credits and from which project, essential determining which might get built.

"Maryland wants to be a leader in renewable energy and wants to have more homegrown renewable energy," said James McGarry, a policy director for Chesapeake Climate Action Network, an environmental nonprofit in Takoma Park. "Offshore wind is potentially the biggest untapped source of homegrown renewable energy."

The two proposals under consideration are from US Wind, a Baltimore-based subsidiary of Italian energy and construction giant Toto Holding SpA, and Deepwater Wind, the Providence, R.I. -based developer of the only wind farm off the U.S. coast.

In 2014, US Wind won a federal auction for the leases of two offshore wind sites off the coast of Ocean City. The company wants to build a 750-megawatt wind farm with 187 turbines on the 80,000-acre site. The project would be built in three stages, with the first capable of creating 250 megawatts of wind power. The first stage could be complete by 2020 and the entire project could be built by 2022.

The first stage of the project would cost about $1 billion, said Paul Rich, US Wind's director of project development. He declined to share the proposed impact to ratepayers' energy bills.

Rich said he thinks the company's "go big" approach is Maryland's best bet for establishing itself as a long-term industry leader.

The plan calls for manufacturing facilities at Sparrows Point in Baltimore County that would be run by contractors who will make the massive turbines and bases they sit on. Rich envisions those facilities becoming the go-to resource for future projects up and down the East Coast.

All told, the project could create 5,000 construction, fabrication, electrical and support jobs, he said.

"We are trying to embrace a vision," Rich said. "This will be the Silicon Valley of industrial activity for the offshore wind industry for the whole East Coast."

Meanwhile Deepwater Wind is proposing a smaller, $720 million project that executives called the "right size" for Maryland.

The Skipjack Wind Farm would be located on a 96,400-acre site about 17 nautical miles northeast of Ocean City, actually in waters off Delaware. The company has proposed building 15 turbines, capable of producing 120 megawatts of energy, with the possibility of adding more turbines in the future. Construction could start in 2020 with the farm operational by 2022.

Deepwater has proposed a price for its energy that would cost residential customers 34 cents a month, said Deepwater CEO Jeff Grybowski.

Deepwater acquired the site's lease last year from utility company NRG Energy. The lease had been among the first granted by the federal government in 2012, but NRG's planned wind farm stalled due to financial constraints.

Deepwater leaders said their more conservative proposal is based on their experience developing the only other offshore U.S. wind farm.

The five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm is capable of producing just a quarter of the energy as the proposed Skipjack Wind Farm and took more than a decade to bring to fruition, said Chris van Beek, president of Deepwater, who discussed the project at an event hosted by Business Network for Offshore Wind in Lithicum Heights last week that also featured a presentation by US Wind.

"The problems we had, we were able to handle them because it was small," van Beek said. "I think we start small and prove to the industry that a wind farm can be built and is possible, and I think that's more important than the size of the project."

The Skipjack project also calls for manufacturing operations at Sparrows Point and several hundred construction jobs.

Both companies would establish operations and maintenance offices in Ocean City.

Regardless of which developer Maryland regulators chose, labor unions say the project could be a lifesaver for trade workers who have struggled to find jobs as manufacturing declined in Maryland.

"The promise is enormous for our ready and willing, skilled ironworking workforce and apprenticeship program," said William Beckman, a representative of the Ironworkers Local 5, in testimony submitted to the Public Service Commission. "We will all thrive with exciting new economic development projects that can revive our great city."

Despite such promise, cost remains a concern among consumer advocates. Maryland People's Counsel Paula Carmody, whose office represents residential utility consumer interests, worries that the projects could end up being more costly and a bigger burden to consumers than projected.

"This is a cost impact what that risk or impact might have on the rates they pay in the future, that's what we're talking about," Carmody said. "What we are taking a look at is the level of uncertainty in those projections."

sarah.gantz@baltsun.com

twitter.com/sarahgantz

More:

Maryland takes next step toward offshore wind - Baltimore Sun

The Turnbull government is contemplating measures to boost the revenue it collects from offshore oil and gas projects. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The federal government could gain revenue of US$4.8bn ($6.4 bn) from Chevrons Gorgon gas project between now and 2030 if it made offshore gas projects subject to a royalties regime, according to research from a Monash University academic.

The Turnbull government is contemplating measures to boost the revenue it collects from offshore oil and gas projects after collections under the petroleum resource rent tax plunged after 2012-13, and crude oil excise collections fell by more than half.

The Tax Justice Network has used an inquiry the government is conducting into the PRRT to argue that it should impose a 10% royalty on all offshore oil and gas projects in Australia to ensure taxpayers start getting a fair return on their natural resources.

Monash University lecturer Diane Kraal, who is conducting research on integrated natural gas-to-liquids projects that extract from basins in commonwealth waters, also favours the imposition of a royalties regime for offshore oil and gas.

She says that in the absence of a royalties regime, the Gorgon project will not pay any PRRT until at least 2030.

Kraal says the PRRT is clearly not working as intended for gas, and imposing commonwealth royalties for offshore projects would be one way of addressing the problem, without creating double taxation.

Royalties are fully credited from any PRRT payment, so there is no double taxation, she says.

Gas producers have used the review to dig their heels in over changes to the PRRT.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA), the peak national body that represents companies engaged in oil and gas exploration and production operations in Australia, has told the inquiry investment is at risk if the system is overhauled.

Any changes that lead to increased imposts under the resource taxation system will damage the ability of Australia to attract projects and thereby diminish the capacity to create sustainable taxation revenue streams for future generations, APPEA says in its submission to the PRRT review.

But with the budget in need of more revenue, the government has made it clear it will use the review process to determine how to achieve better rates of return. Reports this week suggest the treasurer, Scott Morrison, is contemplating several options, including imposing a minimum resource tax.

On Friday, the government also left open the option to pursue a separate policy change that the gas industry is opposed to creating a domestic gas reservation to ensure a percentage of gas remains onshore for domestic use.

The prime minister, who will meet gas executives next week to address a looming shortage of gas supply, refused on Friday to rule out reserving gas for domestic industry.

The Australian Energy Market Operator warned this week that New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia would face gas shortages from the summer of 2018-19. It said the tight domestic gas market would have flow-on effects, including rising electricity prices, that could threaten the financial viability of commercial and industrial businesses.

Last year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission warned the government against adopting a reservation policy be it a percentage of reserved gas supply, export controls or a national interest test to try to address the problem of gas shortages in Australias eastern states.

The ACCC said gas reservation policies seek to shield domestic users from the effects of linking to export markets.

In the short term, such policies may reduce prices for domestic users as additional gas is forced onto the domestic market above efficient market demand, the competition watchdog said. These artificially reduced prices weaken the economic incentives for further gas exploration and appraisal.

The gas industry has rejected arguments it should face a royalties regime for offshore projects.

Kraal said on Friday she had analysed all the industry submissions to the PRRT review. It is clear that the petroleum industry has closed ranks and is calling for no change to resource taxation, such as the PRRT, she said.

But she contended the industry had not supplied any substantive evidence to the inquiry to support the idea that the PRRT was operating as intended, and providing equitable returns to the public from current gas projects.

No industry submission has fully addressed the range of issues put forward by the PRRT review, she said.

Kraal expressed hope that the review would countenance a wider range of views than just those of the industry because the Australian public was entitled to have adequate rates of return on resources development.

She said she was a supporter of LNG development, and it was obvious Australia should welcome foreign investment, but the hanging question is who is shaping our policy on resource taxation?

Read this article:

Offshore gas project royalty would reap billions for government, report says - The Guardian

Australia is not a country you'd expect to be investigated for crimes against humanity, but that's exactly what a group of human rights lawyers is asking the International Criminal Court to do.

The alleged human rights abuses took place far from Australia, in two offshore immigration detention centers in the South Pacific.

"Both of these are extremely remote Pacific islands," says Rebecca Hamilton, an Australian human rights lawyer who teaches at American University's Washington College of Law.

She's not kidding. One camp is on the tiny 10-square-mile island nation of Nauru. It's in the middle of Pacific about 25 miles south of the equator. There's nothing near it.

The other camp is on Manus Island, part of Papua New Guinea but several hundred miles off its coast in the Admiralty Islands.

Hamilton says Australia outsourced the detentions camps with one thing in mind: "They have been set up by the Australian government with the specific purpose of not letting any asylum-seekers onto the Australian mainland."

The offshore location of the detention camps also allowsAustralia to skirt its obligations as a signatory to theUnited Nations Refugee Convention.

Since 2001, the "Pacific Solution," as it's known, has been used on and off by Australian governments to intercept asylum-seekers at sea and transport them to the detention centers on Nauru and Manus Island.Hamilton says it's not a right or left issue. Australian governments across the political spectrum have used the detention camps.

"The rationale has been that making the boat journey to Australia is very dangerous and [the government]doesn't want people trying to make that journey," Hamilton explains."But the situations that these people are fleeing are incredibly dangerous as well and if they are making the calculationsthat it is worth them to try to at least seek asylum in Australia, then the Australian government has no right to say that they can't pursue that option."

The asylum-seekers on Nauru and Manus Island number around 1,250. Many have been there for nearly four years. The camp on Manus Island houses single men only. Nauru has women, families and children.

The 108-page brief submitted to the ICC on March 6 describesthe "harrowing practices of the Australian state and corporations towards asylum-seekers,"including long-term detention in inhumane conditions, physical and sexual abuse of adults and children and "epidemic levels" of self-harm among those held on the islands.

Hamilton says even though the camps are outside Australia and operated by people who are not Australian citizens, if the ICC decides to investigate and finds something, it's the Australian government who is still in the hot seat.

"Australian government officials, to the extent that they are aware of what is happening and are continuing to authorize it, they're absolutely on the hook," she says.

Hamilton says the evidence presented in the report to the ICC was gathered through interviews with former officials who have worked at the detention camps. "The Australian government has outsourced the running of these islands to private contractors. And as some of those people have resigned and left those positions, they have spoken out about the conditions that they've seen on the island."

The lawyers also drewon atrove of documentsleaked to The Guardian newspaperin August 2016. It comprised more than 2,000 incident reportsfrom inside the detention camp in Nauru that describedassaults, sexual abuse, self-harm attempts and child abuse. More than half of the incidents involved children.

It's not yet clear if the ICC will investigate the controversial camps. The court must first decide if it wants to do a preliminary examination. Hamilton says the standard for that is: "Is there a 'reasonable basis'for thinking that these allegations that are being made could be true?If there is and if the particular situation meets different legal standards for the court, then the court is able to start a preliminary examination."

Hamilton is hoping that the submission to the ICCwill help pressure the Australian government to shut down the camps and allow the asylum-seekers to resettle somewhere safe.

"There's a very strong constituency in Australia that is opposed to what the Australian government is doing here," she says."They're a minority but they have been on this issue for years and years and years and there are Australian human rights lawyers who have been pushing the Australian government to try to address this issue. But it hasn't yet hit a tipping point domestically."

She hopes that the submission to the ICC will get it there.

Read this article:

Is the Australian government enabling crimes against humanity in its ... - PRI

LONDON Subsidy costs for British offshore wind farms are likely to fall below that of new nuclear plants in next month's government auction, German firm Siemens' head of its British offshore wind turbines business told Reuters.

Britain's government is under pressure to bring down users' electricity costs at the same time as subsidizing low-carbon generation to help meet its carbon emission reduction targets and plug a looming supply gap.

The next government auction setting prices for new renewable power projects will open in April and Clark MacFarlane, Siemens managing director for offshore wind, said this could see offshore wind costs fall below new nuclear for the first time.

"I predict the price for offshore wind in the upcoming auction will be lower than that given to Hinkley," he told Reuters in an interview.

"The price will keep coming down, as we find better logistic solutions, new grid solutions, as well as bigger turbines, he said.

French utility EDF was awarded a contract which guarantees the new Hinkley C nuclear power station will get a price of 92.5 pounds ($112.50) per pounds/megawatt hour (MWh) for the electricity it produces, which is more than double the current wholesale price of electricity.

The cost of producing electricity from wind farms off the coast of Britain has already fallen 32 percent in the past four years, and averaged around 97 pounds per megawatt-hour (MWh) in the 2015-2016 financial year an industry report said earlier this year.

MacFarlane said increasing the size of wind turbines means automatically cutting the number of turbine towers and foundations needed to produce the same amount of electricity, thereby reducing costs.

Siemens produces turbines for British offshore wind projects at its 310 million-pound ($380 million) manufacturing plant in Hull, northeast England, including Dong Energy and Macquarie's Race Bank project off the nearby coast.

The plant's current order book will keep it busy until 2019, MacFarlane said, adding that the firm was confident of securing future deals with offshore project developers who are successful in the new government auctions.

In the longer term Siemens hopes to also export turbines from the plant across Europe but has said this could depend on the outcome of Britain's negotiations to leave the European Union.

"If we don't have tariff exemptions for exports then that would be a concern," MacFarlane said.

($1 = 0.8222 pounds)

(Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Utility crews reinforced by teams from several Midwestern states scrambled on Thursday to remove fallen trees and repair downed electric lines strewn across Michigan the day after a record windstorm that claimed two lives and left at least 1 million customers without power.

LOS ANGELES New U.S. solar installations nearly doubled last year, but slowing demand for both residential and large-scale systems, falling panel prices and concerns about looming federal tax reform are still dampening investor appetite for the sector.

SANTIAGO SunPower Corp has put a large solar plant in Chile up for sale, according to two sources with knowledge of process, as the second largest U.S. solar panel maker seeks to cut costs across the globe.

See more here:

UK offshore wind power subsidies set to drop below nuclear ... - Reuters

A sum of US$11.6 million has been allocated to the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Coast Guard and Air Wing in the 2017/18 Financial Year to improve its offshore patrol and aerial surveillance capabilities.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service Audley Shaw made the disclosure in his budget debate presentation, titled Journey to Prosperity, in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

He said the allocation is part of a three-year programme, valued at $6.6 billion (US$51.4 million), which aims to improve the capacity of the JDF to eradicate the guns-for-drugs trade.

This is in light of evidence indicating that violent crimes are being fuelled by the trade.

He said the investment will also serve to provide greater protection of the fishing industry and improve search and rescue operations.

The first tranche of the funds of US$33.6 million was expended in the 2016/17 Financial Year, and the third tranche of US$9 million will be programmed in 2018/19.

Minister Shaw noted that $1 billion was expended during the current financial year to upgrade the information and communications technology (ICT) capability of the police, the JDF and the Department of Correctional Services.

Funds have also been made available to the Ministry of National Security for the upgrading and refurbishing of police stations and the acquisition of motor vehicles. Over $400 million has been spent on improving the mobility of the security forces, he indicated.

Shaw pointed out that the 2017/18 budget includes provisions to continue with the acquisition of equipment to secure the countrys borders, complete the ICT upgrade, acquire additional motor vehicles, rehabilitate police stations, and construct the Lathbury Barracks at Up Park Camp.

The Citizen Security and Justice Programme has also been allocated $1.3 billion to continue the implementation of social intervention programmes, with an increased focus on improving governance and promoting behaviour change.

This is to be achieved through conflict resolution, social inclusion and safety, and increased use of gender-responsive justice services through the Legal Aid Council, victim support services and the Justice Training Institute.

The Ministry of National Security has been allocated $3 billion, which is 24 per cent of the total Capital A budget.

JIS

Read more here:

JDF gets US$11.6 million to improve offshore patrol, aerial surveillance - Jamaica Observer