Monthly Archives: October 2019

FLOATING TURBINES Matthew Marshall, executive director of the Redwood Coast Energy Authority, describes why the North Coast is an ideal area for offshore wind energy at public meeting in Eureka. Daniel Mintz | Union

Daniel MintzMad River Union

HUMBOLDT A public-private partnership is aiming to gain site control for an offshore wind energy project that will deploy 10 to 15 turbines and produce up to 150 megawatts of electricity.

At a Sept. 25 public meeting held in Eureka, representatives of the partnership said winning site control through a federal lease auction in 2020 will be a first step. The process will then proceed with project design and studies of environmental and socio-economic impacts.

Matthew Marshall, the executive director of the Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA), told an audience of about 50 people at Eurekas Wharfinger Building that the project will be sited 25 to 30 miles offshore of the Eureka area.

The ocean environment will shape the projects design. The offshore turbines are very big unlike on land, you dont have the constraint of moving things around by truck, he said. So the scale of these is much larger and with fewer turbines, there is more efficiency and reduced costs.

Marshall added that the tip of the turbine blades will reach about the height of the Golden Gate Bridge. Youre getting into the 600-foot tall range, he said.

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For context, Marshall said the former Samoa pulp mills smokestack is 300 feet tall and the turbines height may even be more than twice as tall as that.

So they will be very big but there will be fewer of them and theyll be more spaced out, he continued.

RCEA is partnering with three companies on the project, the globally-active EDP Renewables, Norways Aker Solutions and Principle Power, an Emeryville, California company that specializes in floating turbine platforms.

The turbines will be mounted on the floating platforms, which will be anchored to the sea bed by synthetic lines.

A federal agency, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, is helming the process and leasing the project area. The leasing is competitive and awarded through bidding.

Mark Severy of Humboldt State Universitys Schatz Energy Research Center, described the centers independent offshore wind feasibility studies. Funded through a variety of sources, the studies assess all aspects of offshore wind development, including a range of potential impacts.

But the partnerships specific impact and feasibility assessments wont be launched until site control is gained. Tyler Studds, an employee of EDP Renewables, acknowledged that there are concerns about that.

One concern is, Youre committing to a particular site and then youre doing the research? What if you find something out that tells you the site doesnt work? he said.

He added that to mitigate that risk, weve done a lot of research upfront, talking to stakeholders and doing work to identify upfront a site that mitigates potential impacts.

The outreach includes tapping the concerns of environmental groups to identify key research questions on potential impacts, including those affecting whales and seabirds.

On the socio-economic scale, the local fishing industry is facing significant impacts. Ken Bates of the Humboldt Fishermens Marketing Association emphasized that his groups members have been acutely affected by ocean trends related to climate change and generally support projects that reduce carbon emissions.

But the project will inevitably impact fishermen. When someone from the fishing fleet looks at a project like this, the first thing we look at, instantly, is how much ground we are going to lose, said Bates.

In addition to the initial footprint of the project itself, undersea power transmission cables will demand surface area travel lanes for installation and maintenance vessels, he continued. The vessel travel lanes will also have to be clear of fishing gear and Bates said there will also be impacts to fishermen in the harbor area.

He added that the projects partnership has taken a positive step in doing early outreach, which has been lacking in other areas of California and the United States.

After the project sites lease auction is held in 2020, project design and impact/feasibility assessments will follow. If those elements are favorable and financing is secured, construction will start by 2025.

See more here:

Offshore wind partnership seeks first step of site control - Mad River Union

Engineering news The autonomous drone could repair offshore wind turbines (Credit: Orca Hub)

An autonomous drone can inspect and place sensors on offshore turbines and could even repair damage, keeping people out of the dangerous environment.

The flying robot was demonstrated by the Orca Hub, a multi-million pound consortium of five universities and 35 industrial and innovation partners.

Led by Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburghs Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, the Hub showcased 16 autonomous and semi-autonomous robotic technologies at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult in Blyth, near Newcastle.

Designed to boost safety, improve efficiency and support the environmental objectives of offshore energy infrastructure, the technology included the autonomous drone from Dr Mirko Kovac at Imperial College London.

As well as visually inspecting a turbine for integrity concerns, ours make contact, placing sensors on the infrastructure, or acting as a sensor itself, to assess the health of each asset. Our technology could even deposit repair material for certain types of damage, said Dr Kovac.

This has far-reaching applications including removing the need for humans to abseil down the side of turbines which can be both dangerous and expensive. Our drones could also reduce the number of vessels travelling to and from windfarms, providing the industry with both cost and environmental benefits.

The device is not the only drone aimed at offshore wind-turbine maintenance and repair. One system from the 4m Mimree (Multi-Platform Inspection, Maintenance and Repair in Extreme Environments) project, for example, combines drone inspection with the six-legged BladeBug robot, which is designed to crawl across turbine blades and use an electronic skin to identify faults.

Other Orca Hub demonstrations included Limpet, a cost-effective, integrated multi-sensing device designed for deployment in large collectives. Each one includes nine sensing devices and four methods of communication, and can be placed either underwater or higher up on wind turbines.

The demonstrated research is of huge interest to EDF, said the companys senior research engineer.

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This drone could patch up offshore wind turbines without human control - Professional Engineering

The Trump administration is considering a rule change that would make it easier for American companies to stash money offshore to avoid U.S. taxes, despite the presidents repeated campaign promises to bring offshore cash back home.

The Treasury Department is looking to weaken or eliminate Obama-era regulations aimed at preventing companies from moving their income to their overseas branches to lower their U.S. tax bill, Bloomberg reports. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, instead wants to replace the existing rules with something more business friendly.

The move would be a boon to large corporations, who already saw their taxes permanently slashed by the Republicans 2017 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefited companies at the expense of individual taxpayers.

Prior to the 2016 rule, companies were able to move money to their offshore branches that they could then lend to their American branches, while deducting the interest from the tax bill. The Obama-era rule allowed the IRS to consider these inter-company loans as equity, which eliminated a key incentive for companies to move profits overseas.

Democrats slammed the administration for trying to weaken rules that allow tax avoidance when it should be creating tougher ones.

One of the Trump administrations top priorities has been making it as easy as possible for the wealthiest Americans and corporations to cheat and avoid taxes, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement. Rules preventing the offshoring of corporate profits should be strengthened not weakened.

Critics of the rule say it is no longer necessary because the tax cuts made these inter-company loans less attractive, according to Bloomberg.

Mark Mazur, Obamas former assistant secretary for tax policy at Treasury when the rule was created, disputed that claim.

On the face, they do slightly different things and so its hard to believe that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act took care of every one of those dimensions, he told Bloomberg.

On its face, Republican criticism of the rule simply doesnt align with reality. Trump had earlier claimed that the 2017 tax cuts would bring back $4 trillion in offshore profits that had been stashed overseas. Through the end of 2018, his claim fell about $3.3 trillion short, Bloomberg reported earlier this year.

The tax law slashed the rate on repatriated profits from 35 percent to a onetime 15.5 percent tax rate on cash and an 8 percent tax on non-cash assets. Trump claimed that the change would bring back $4 trillion in offshore profits, even though banks estimated that only about $1.5 trillion to $2.5 trillion was held offshore by U.S. companies. Corporations brought back less than $670 billion from the time the tax law was enacted until the end of 2018.

Researchers also rejected Trumps claim that the repatriated profits would boost investment in the U.S.

Policy changes have a relatively small impact on hiring and investment decisions if firms have relatively easy access to credit markets, said a 2018 report from researchers at the University of Richmond and Claremont McKenna College.

Instead, companies have been using their tax savings for stock buybacks, in which companies buy back their own stock to return more money to shareholders.

A report from Citigroup found that companies in the S&P 500 spent more than $800 billion on stock buybacks in 2018, far more than the total amount spent on investing in new equipment or the total amount of repatriated cash.

Last year, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas,introduced a bill that would close loopholes in the tax law to equalize tax rates on domestic and foreign profits.

"President Trump promised the American people he'd end the march of jobs and profits overseas," Whitehouse said in a statement at the time. "Instead, he's doled out massive new tax breaks that reward offshoring."

Democrats again called out Trump for trying to help major corporations rather than workers.

Another betrayal by President Trump choosing corporations over American workers, wrote Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Shameful.

Go here to read the rest:

Trump promised to bring offshore profits back home. Now he's doing the opposite - Salon

Clean Power

Published on October 14th, 2019 | by Joshua S Hill

October 14th, 2019 by Joshua S Hill

Norwegian energy company Equinor has confirmed Final Investment Decision on the 88 megawatt (MW) Hywind Tampen offshore wind farm development which, when completed, will supply power to oil and gas platforms in the Norwegian Sea.

Illustration of the Hywind Tampen project. Dimensions and distances are not realistic.Photo courtesy of Equinor

Equinor and its partners in the Snorre and Gullfaks fields in the North Sea announced their final investment decision (FID) last week and submitted two updated plans for development and operation of their planned floating offshore wind farm to the Norwegian authorities. The Snorre and Gullfaks oil and gas platforms will be the first ever to be powered by a floating offshore wind farm which will be located between the Snorre and Gulfaks platforms, approximately 140 kilometers from shore in waters 260 to 300 meters deep.

We have been systematically maturing technologies for floating offshore wind for almost 20 years, said Eldar Stre, chief executive officer of Equinor. The decision by the Snorre and Gullfaks partners helps bring this technology an important step forward. About 80 % of the global resource potential for offshore wind is in deep waters, and floating offshore wind may play an important part in the energy transition towards more sustainable global energy supply. This brings substantial opportunities for Norwegian industry.

Chief executive Eldar Stre (left) and Arne Sigve Nylund, executive vice president for Development & Production Norway.Photo courtesy of Ole Jrgen Bratland, via Equinor

Investments for the Hywind Tampen floating offshore wind farm will amount to almost NOK 5 billion (US$0.55 billion) and will be supported by an investment of NOK 2.3 billion from the Norwegian authorities through Enova, aNorwegian government enterprise responsible for the promotion of environmentally friendly production and consumption of energy.

The Hywind Tampen floating offshore wind farm will consist of 11 wind turbines with capacity of 8 MW each, totaling 88 MW for the project upon completion, enough to meet 35% of the annual power demand of the five Snorre A and B, Gullfaks A, B, and C platforms.

The pioneering Hywind Tampen project will help cut emissions from Gullfaks and Snorre, said Arne Sigve Nylund, Equinors executive vice president for Development & Production Norway. We are driving a transition aimed to sustain and add value on the Norwegian continental shelf, while reducing the carbon footprint from our operations.

Scheduled to come online in late 2022, Hywind Tampen will help reduce the use of gas turbines on the fields which will cut CO2 emissions by more than 200,000 tonnes per year, which is the equivalent of taking 100,000 passenger vehicles off the roads.

Follow CleanTechnica on Google News.It will make you happy & help you live in peace for the rest of your life.

Tags: Equinor, floating offshore wind, floating wind, Gullfaks, Snorre

Joshua S Hill I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket!I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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Equinor To Proceed With 88 Megawatt Hywind Tampen Offshore Wind Farm - CleanTechnica

FORT MYERS BEACH

The Roar Offshore is back in Southwest Florida with boats that will reach incredible speeds.

The Race Village opened on Thursday, kicking off the start of the Roar Offshore powerboat races this weekend.

On Thursday morning tons of spectators were seen at the Race Village and many are excited to catch a glimpse of the boats before they hit the water on Saturday.

Organizers are expecting more than 60,000 people to attend the festivities which will bring a big economic boost to the town. Many of the hotels on the island are booked and organizers expect to bring in millions of dollars this weekend alone.

WINK News spoke to one owner of a boat competing this weekend who says he has a fond memory about his past experiences here.

What I remember the most about Fort Myers is a very enthusiastic fan basegreat crowds, an educated fan base and a town that opened its arms to the racers, said Scott Behovich, driver of Miss Geico.

The Matanzas Pass Bridge will be closed from 5:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Thursday for a boat parade, and the Race Village will be open until 4 p.m. on Friday.

For more information about the schedule of events and everything else that will be offered, visit the Roar Offshore website here.

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Roar Offshore begins Thursday, kicks off with parade on Fort Myers Beach - Wink News

Save to read list Published by Nicholas Woodroof, Assistant Editor Oilfield Technology, Wednesday, 16 October 2019 09:30

India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ExxonMobil. The MoU will enable the two petroleum companies to undertake joint technical studies and cooperate in frontier areas like deepwater and other Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) blocks of ONGC in the east and west coasts and open acreages for joint bidding.

The work under the MoU will be carried out in three phases. This will lead to a joint technical study for potential collaboration areas.

Vice President Asia Pacific ExxonMobil, Michael Deal, said: We welcome the opportunity to work with ONGC and apply our collective expertise to be an even bigger part of Indias bright energy future.

ONGC CMD, Shashi Shanker, said: This meaningful partnership with EXXONMobil will be a step towards unlocking value in ONGC PEL offshore blocks, study open acreage areas and enable us to get closer to meeting Countrys energy aspirations.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/offshore-and-subsea/16102019/ongc-and-exxonmobil-sign-mou-for-development-of-offshore-resources/

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ONGC's overseas explorer has recorded a gas discovery in Brazil's Sergipe Alagoas Basin and an oil discovery in Colombia's Llanos Basin.

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ONGC and ExxonMobil sign MoU for development of offshore resources - Oilfield Technology

The UK on Monday launched the first step of its 7GW-plus Round 4 offshore wind leasing process, which is expected to see more of the worlds oil and gas giants seek a slice of future development rights for turbines off Britain's coast.

Seabed landlord the Crown Estate issued the pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) designed to gauge developers financial and technical ability to deliver the massive projects the round hopes to spur off England and Wales into the late 2020s.

Round 4 is the first major opportunity in a decade to secure new acreage in the worlds biggest offshore wind market, where growth has so far been dominated by power sector players such as Iberdrola, Vattenfall, E.ON and Innogy, as well as Orsted of Denmark, which shifted decisively away from fossil fuels to become the global leader in wind at sea.

Norwegian oil and gas group Equinor has already emerged as a major force in the UK sector after the giant Dogger Bank development was the biggest winner in the latest contract-for-difference (CfD) round, which awards government-backed power deals to projects successful in earlier Crown Estate leasing rounds.

Round 4 is expected to see the entry of more big fossil fuel players. Shell which is active in other offshore wind markets has indicated several times it is interested in the UK sector, and could be a bidder.

Frances Total has said it is open to entering UK offshore wind, with leasing off Scotland subject of a parallel process by the Crown Estate there namechecked by its CEO earlier this year.

Most recently Italian oil and gas group Eni said it would team up with developer Mainstream Renewable Power to enter Round 4.

The Crown Estate zoned in on four broad areas for development under Round 4 to add to the UKs existing 9.3GW of operating offshore wind the largest in the world with another 4.4GW already under construction.

Three of the bidding areas Dogger Bank; Eastern Regions and Northern Wales and Irish Sea, already feature heavily in the UKs offshore wind plans.

The fourth, South East England, opens the way for development off the nations south coast. A map showing the areas can be viewed here.

The PQQ submission deadline is 29 November, ahead of the first invitation to tender stage early in 2020.

The Crown Estate expects to finalise leases with successful bidders in late 2021.

See the article here:

Oil giants hover as UK starts offshore wind lease round - Recharge

By Leman Mammadova

Some 1.1 billion tons of oil and 713 billion cubic meters of gas have been produced from the offshore fields located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, SOCARs Vice President for Field Development Yashar Latifov said on October 16.

In addition, volume of onshore production totaled 979 million tons of oil and 139 billion cubic meters of gas, he said.

Yashar Latifov made the remarks during the SPEs 6th Annual Caspian Technical Conference on "Digital Transformation: Enabling the Future", held on October 16, in Baku.

Latifov noted that presently, 28 offshore oil and gas fields have been discovered, 19 of which are under development. As for onshore deposits, 53 oil and gas fields have been discovered so far, 40 of which are currently in operation.

He further added that currently, there are 570 active wells in the Azerbaijani Oil Rocks. Noting that 340 kilometers of the fields territory are used, Latifov pointed out that there are 58 active sites and 14 productive horizons.

Over the period of activity, 175 million tons of oil have been produced at Oil Rocks, and now the recovery percentage is 50 percent. As many as 10 million tons reserves remain. Geological reserves also amount to 10 million tons, he said.

The Oil Rocks was discovered in 1949. The first oil platform in Azerbaijan, the Oil Rocks was also the first operating offshore oil platform in the world. Intensive development began in 1950. The first oil tanker was launched from Oil Rocks in 1951. An industrial settlement 100 miles off the coast of Baku, the Oil Rocks is a complete town on the Caspian Sea.

Referring to the conference "Digital Transformation: Enabling the Future", Latifov noted that in modern conditions in processes such as exploration and production, there is a high need for various solutions, including the most advanced digital technologies.

He further spoke about SOCAR's achievements on the use of modern information technologies in the companys daily activities.

John Stephenson, BPs Vice President of Production for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, noted the importance of holding a conference in terms of the exchange of experience between industry professionals, engineers, experts, students, etc.

Stephenson talked about the use of digital technology in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli and Shah Deniz fields, operated by the company.

He emphasized that the digitalization process is important in order to respond to the challenges typical of oil production in a timely manner. The operation processes on oil platforms indicate that we need to operate on a global scale, applying new trends in our actions to develop new promising wells and monitor them.

Referring to a 2017 report, he noted that the digitalization transformation is the potential to generate more than $ 1.6 trillion through the use of this transformation in the oil and gas industry.

Stephenson said that the integrated management of the Shah Deniz field will use the right management measures. Logistic difficulties encountered on our way will be prevented through the use of new technological processes.

We are talking about using the latest technologies developed by scientists. The theme of the conference is relevant, since it is already necessary to begin cooperation with important partners and competitors, he added.

Denis LeMarchal, Managing Director at TOTAL E&P Azerbaijan, stressed that despite the increasing use of alternative and renewable energy sources, oil and gas are still the main sources of energy.

Touching upon problems and risks in the oil and gas industry, LeMarchal spoke about the modern technologies used by the company in terms of reducing the risks of field exploitation.

Over the past few years, the use of new technologies has transformed the oil and gas industry. New digital approaches have been introduced to simplify a number of operational processes, reduce person-hours, increase equipment reliability and safety.

As part of the theme Digital Transformation: Enabling the Future, the conference will discuss the impact of digital technologies on the oil and gas industry, as well as how this will affect current and future digital trends and applications.

The conference, which includes three keynote panel sessions, namely Past, Present, and Future; Sustainability, Growth and Profit and New Generation Talent and Human Factors, will last until October 18.

SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) provides its services to more than 156,000 specialists involved in the extraction and development of energy resources in 154 countries of the world.

Its mission is to collect, disseminate and exchange technical knowledge on the exploration, production and development of oil and gas resources and related technologies that bring public benefit, as well as providing professionals with opportunities to enhance their technical and professional competencies.

SPEs 5th Annual Caspian Technical Conference was held in Kazakhstan in 2018.

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Leman Mammadova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter:@leman_888

Follow us on Twitter@AzerNewsAz

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SOCAR reveals volume of production in Azerbaijan's offshore oil&gas fields [PHOTO] - AzerNews