Monthly Archives: June 2017

Welcome home from work! Go play with your kids or talk to a neighbor or just frolic in the sunshine! Thats what I imagine the Phillies were collectively telling us with this game. You probably couldnt watch the beginning and by the time you could watch there wasnt a point.

This game was over early. I could tell because in the third inning John Kruk suggested that Daniel Descalso run from first on a 3-2 count just to work on things. You know, because the Phillies are a summer-long spring training squad. The score at that point was 5-0. By the end of the inning it would be 6-0 and the Phillies starting pitcher, Nick Pivetta, would be done for the afternoon.

Pivetta lasted just 8 outs, walking 5, K-ing 3, and allowing 7 hits, i.e., almost as many as outs. It was a terrible start for a young pitcher riding a small wave of success. In his previous two outings hed blanked the Red Sox for 7 innings and dominated the Cardinals to a tune of 10 Ks to 1 BB. In those games, he threw his fastball for strikes and kept hitters off-balance with a slider, curveball, changeup mix. By way of contrast, today Pivetta could not control, let alone command, his fastball, and his secondary pitches became ineffective as a result. The problem announced itself from the first batter. Pivetta worked ahead of Chris Hermann 0-2 with fastballs in the zone but not particularly well located. Hermann wasted a few fastballs and took others to get back even in the count. Pivetta couldnt put him away. Then, on the last pitch, Pivetta grooved a fastball a little above the knees and right down the middle. Hermann slashed it into the right-center pool where some Phillies fans were partying. (They dutifully threw the ball back.) Pivetta bounced back in that first inning, fanning two. But the signs of his unravelling were already present. For the next inning and a third it would be a struggle for him just to keep his fastball in the zone, let alone keep it off of barrels. If not for a double play following three consecutive walks in the second, Pivetta probably wouldnt have made it into the third inning at all.

The suspense of the game was neutered early, but thats not to say the Phillies didnt have a chance to make it interesting. Diamondbacks starter, Zack Greinke, did not have his command to start the contest either. Daniel Nava led off the game with single. Freddy Galvis followed that with an at-bat where he saw exactly 2 of 7 pitches in the zone. Unfortunately, Galvis swung at all but 2 of those pitches. He did manage to crush the last one to centerfield, but Rey Fuentes cruised underneath it. Aaron Altherr would then single to keep the pressure on Greinke. But in the end, Greinke channelled his inner Monica Seles and grunted his way out of the inning. (Literally, he was grunting on every pitch. Ive never noticed him doing this before.)

That inning was particularly frustrating because two of the outs came in at-bats that should have been walks. Ive already mentioned Galviss at-bat. The other was Odubel Herreras. Herrera got ahead 3-1 by taking close pitches. But once the count went 3-2 Herrera swung at everything, close or not. Surprisingly, Herrera made contact with a lot of those pitches and made Greinke work. But eventually Greinke caught on, bounced a slider in front of the plate, and watched Herrera wave at it vainly. Herrera has had a stellar June thanks to an outrageous (but mostly earned) BABIP. If he wants to avoid these swings from abyss to peak, he needs to turn those kinds of at-bats into walks. Despite how well hes hit this month, hes still barely walking.

After the third inning, where Pivetta finally fell apart, the game turned on the autopilot. Greinke cruised until the fifth, where his struggles returned, he surrendered a run, and ended his outing short. Daniel Nava, who had a good game, drove in that run. Hoby Milner and Ricardo Pinto both got their second chances to make an impression in the bigs and fared better than in their first. But for the most part it was just professional baseball played by professionals and indistinguishable from the myriad of other games this afternoon. (Whats that? There was only one other game this afternoon because afternoon games on Mondays are like drive-in movie showings on an off-shore oil rig? Oh. Well, maybe thats for the best.)

The Phillies move on from Arizona and head to Washington to face the Mariners. Everyone say, Hi, Chooch!

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Like an Offshore Drive-In: D'Backs 6, Phillies 1 - The Good Phight

June 27th, 2017 Jason Jiang Europe, Offshore 0 comments

DEME Groups offshore marine engineering subsidiary GeoSea has received a notice to proceed from Siemens for fabrication and offshore installation of 16 wind turbine foundations and one offshore transformer module for the EnBW Albatros offshore wind farm.

The project will cover an area of around 11 sq km and will feature 16 turbines with a total installed capacity of 112 megawatts.

Fabrication of the foundations is expected in 2017 and 2018 whilst offshore installation will take place in 2018 together with the offshore installation of the EnBW Hohe See offshore wind farm.

We see the award of the Albatros project as a recognition by our Clients of our continuous strive for efficiency and synergies in the execution of projects. Our presence in Germany also strengthens our relationships with all our German partners and as offshore foundation specialist we are proud to support Siemens in the entry to the German offshore wind market with the Siemens Offshore Transformer Module (OTM). The Albatros contract gives continuity to our project portfolio in Germany and will be handled by our local project team of experts from our regional offices in Bremen, said Christopher Iwens, general manager of DEMEs German subsidiaries.

Jason Jiang

Jason worked for a number of logistics firms following his English degree, then switched this hands-on experience to writing and has since become one the most prolific writers on the diverse China logistics industry writing for a host of titles including Supply Chain Asia, Cargo Facts and Air Cargo Week. Jasons access to the biggest shippers with business in China has proved an invaluable source of exclusives.

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GeoSea secures offshore wind installation work - Splash 247

The Obama administration is gone, but many of its last-minute regulatory changes remain. Rushed through and foisted on a public preoccupied with selecting their future leader, it is entirely appropriate that the Trump administration recently announced important regulatory reviews of these changes as part of its Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy executive order.

Among the most important regulations the executive order will review is an obscure Notice to Lessees from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). An under-the-radar move, it raised the financial assurance requirements on energy companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Should it stand, this innocuous-sounding policy measure will sweep the legs out from under independent drilling operators. That would be disastrous for a Texas economy already fighting significant headwinds.

Talk about a direct affront. Texas pulled the U.S. economy out of the Great Recession, adding one of every seven new American jobs between 2010 and 2014. But Obamas harsh anti-petroleum mindset led his administration to kick this gift horse hard, with executive and agency actions entirely adverse to pro-growth policies our communities need right now. The Lone Star State is feeling the damage. Since 2014, Texas has lost over 90,000 oil, gas, and mining jobs.

Its no wonder so many Texans rallied around Donald Trump. As a candidate, Trump recognized that oil and gas is overregulated and as president, he has shown his intention to put America back to work. He realizes this will require a strong energy industry. Rolling back the BOEM notice offers an early opportunity to remove the yoke from oil and gas companies and to bolster our nations growth.

Applied properly, financial assurance is a common-sense requirement. To qualify for a lease, energy companies currently must put up bonds or other collateral to ensure there will be funds to decommission a well once the oil and gas have been extracted. This ensures that bankruptcy or malfeasance cant endanger the environment or force taxpayers to foot the bill to plug a well.

The previous financial assurance guidelines were highly effective for decades, even as the industry stared down falling prices and some failed enterprises. Nonetheless, the BOEM made the unilateral decision to require larger bonds or more capital set-asides without a clear rationale.

There are several problems with this. First, higher financial assurance requirements siphon off funds that could be spent on energy exploration, job creation and investment in environmental safety, including well decommissioning itself.

More concerning is the fact that most small operators will be simply unable to comply. Unlike large multinationals, independent energy companies generally lack sufficient capital assets for collateral, so they depend on bonds. But experts suggest the bond market cannot absorb the exponential increase in demand stemming from the BOEMs guidelines.

If ending the day of independent oil and gas operations is the intention, there are few more effective ways to achieve it. Without access to bonds, independent companies cannot get or keep leases to drill. Without leases, they cannot stay in business and their employees will be pounding the pavement looking for jobs.

A study by Opportune LLC outlines the national impacts: production falling by the equivalent of 367 million barrels of oil, a $10 billion hit to GDP, and 85,000 fewer jobs. Thats too high a price to pay. Given the role of Gulf energy in our economy, Texas will bear a disproportionate share of the pain.

There is an alternative. President Trump and Congress are poised to take action to reverse the crippling changes to financial assurance guidelines and the myriad of other rushed anti-oil and gas administrative actions forced in the 11thhour by the departing Obama administration. Domestic energy production is central to the economy, to job creation and national security. All were cited as top priorities for a Trump administration, so we are pleased these new leaders in Washington feel the urgency of action.

Originally posted here:

President Trump's offshore executive order is an important first step - TribTalk