Daily Archives: February 27, 2020

Washington Via its Gulf Research Program, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine has awarded eight grants totaling nearly $7.3 million to projects aimed at enhancing safety culture in the offshore oil and gas industry.

The GRP grants support projects that produce data sets, strategies and tools for measurement to help ensure the safety of workers and the protection of the environment in the Gulf of Mexico. A culture of safety has many characteristics, Kelly Oskvig, senior program officer of the GRPs Safer Offshore Energy Systems initiatives, said in a press release. Through this grants competition, we hope to provide the tools to help strengthen some of those characteristics.

The eight SOES projects are:Bringing High-Reliability Safety Culture Decisions into Focus: Training with Interactive Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping ($684,054), directed by Portland State University, focuses on raising awareness among frontline managers of best practices from other high-risk industries.Employee Well-Being and Mindfulness as Predictors of Process and Personal Safety ($828,113), led by the University of Houston, examines how mindfulness exercises can affect safety culture, employee burnout and well-being, and safety behavior compliance.Safety Reporting Action Program for Offshore Oil and Gas Industry in the Gulf of Mexico ($755,851), led by the University of North Dakota, focuses on offshore oil and gas safety regulators need for a more proactive system for workers to report incidents and near misses.

Measuring and Improving Blended Project-Safety Culture in Operations of Offshore Oil and Gas Facilities ($733,631) is a Texas A&M University-led effort to develop quantifiable measurements of safety culture improvements specific to activity, team and type of offshore installation.Aggregating Essential Exposure Data to Enable Meaningful Analysis of Safety Incident Rates Around the World ($739,992), directed by the American Bureau of Shipping, focuses on developing a comprehensive global offshore incident data set to lay a foundation for predictive modeling initiatives.Development of an Evidence-Based, Multilevel Safety Culture Assessment Battery for the Offshore Industry ($1.1 million), directed by The Group for Organizational Effectiveness, aims to develop a set of evidence-based assessment tools to diagnose, measure and track individual safety readiness; a teams safety assumptions, values and beliefs; team leader and team member behaviors; and an organizations safety practices and policies.EMPOWER Safety Dashboards: Evaluate, Measure, and Promote Offshore Worker Engagement and Readiness ($943,008), led by Texas A&M, aims to develop and test field-friendly measurement tools and design, develop and evaluate a dashboard called EMPOWER (Evaluate, Measure, Promote Offshore Worker Engagement and Readiness).Developing an Integrated Offshore Energy Industry Safety Culture Evaluation, Benchmarking, and Improvement Toolbox ($1.4 million), directed by ABS, focuses on developing a roadmap to evaluate and improve organizational safety culture, reduce unsafe behaviors, enhance individual performance, and reduce near misses and incidents.

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Safety culture in offshore oil and gas: National Academies awards grants for project development - Safety+Health magazine

]]> Azinam will operate the prospect where Panoro Energy has taken a share of equity. Credit: Panoro Energy.

Namibian oil and gas exploration firm Azinam has announced it will operate the South African A-J1 oil discovery, previously held by Africa Energy. London-headquartered Panoro Energy will also take a share of the block.

The AJ-1 reserve lies in Block 2B off South Africas west coast. The block is 300km north of Cape Town in the Orange Basin, with water depths ranging from 50 to 200 meters over its 3,604km2 area.

Africa Energy owned 90% of the block, with the remainder held by Crown Energy. Under two separate agreements, it has farmed out a 50% stake to Azinam, who will become the operator of the block. At the same time, Panoro will buy a 12.5% share.

The reserve contains 349 million barrels of oil, with a tested flow of 191 barrels per day. Azinam plans to drill a well up-dip of the discovery later this year.

Recent 3D seismic data has identified significant potential in six prospect areas at depths of up to 800m shallower than the original well.

Panoro said the next proposed exploration well, Gazania-1, will be drilled into the Gazania and Namaqualand prospects.

Azinam managing director Daniel McKeown said: With A-J1 having flowed oil to surface and with the benefit of a significant database of well and seismic information, Azinam believes that Block 2B has the potential to provide South Africa with its first major offshore oil production.

McKeown said: In 1988 the A-J1 well offshore South Africa encountered significant quantities of oil in 150m water depth and only 25km from shore. With the benefit of new 3D seismic, we can see that A-J1 drilled the down-dip section of a potentially much larger oil accumulation in a number of prospects.

Azinam entered the Orange Basin in 2018 taking stakes in Block 3B/4B and Nearshore Block 3B/4B, under an agreement with Ricocure.

Panoro holds exploration and production assets in Africa with oil production from fields in Tunisia, Gabon and Nigeria.

Panoro CEO John Hamilton said: This farm-in to Block 2B is in line with Panoros renewed strategy of acquiring minority high-impact exploration interests close to existing discoveries and with clear routes to commercialisation.

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Azinam and Panoro take interest in Africa Energy's offshore reserve - Offshore Technology

When Illinois residents begin to place bets on sporting events this year, an online gaming venue official warned that in-person registration restrictions could push people to illegal, offshore gambling outlets.

A number of states already offer legal sports wagering. Illinois officials have said they plan to roll out a sports wagering program before the NCAA Mens Basketball tournament begins in March.

But illegal, offshore gambling sites already are available anywhere with an internet connection. Unlike Illinois new gambling laws, those sites wont require gamblers to leave the couch.

For 18 months, sports wagering in Illinois must first be registered inside of casinos and racetracks and other establishments that will have some of the first sports betting licenses, something Yaniv Sherman, head of commercial development at online gambling service 888 Holdings, said will impede the new market from swaying people away from offshore gambling sites.

If youre sitting at home, you have the choice of betting with an illegal operator or driving 45 minutes into a casino and registering a bet on your mobile device, its a no-brainer, he said.

He pointed to the differences between New Jersey, which immediately opened up online wagering, and New York and Rhode Island, which limited their programs in a way similar to Illinois.

Retail is just a lot smaller, the way casinos are located, Sherman said. Theyre deliberately placed outside of the metro areas.

His organization is interested in offering services to Illinois residents, but plans to wait until the moratorium nears an end to consider it. It would be vying for one of the three allowable online-only licenses the Illinois Gaming Board has yet to release. The 18-month delay stems from a 2015decisionby Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan that daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel had broken state law when they offered their services to Illinois residents.

Sherman said many of these offshore gambling organizations have become so ubiquitous that theyre looked at as a part of the legal gambling industry.

News broke last week of a federal indictment of several Illinoisans accused of operating an illegal offshore gambling ring. One of the accused is Casey Urlacher, mayor of Mettawa in Lake County and brother of Hall-of-Fame Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher.

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Illinois' in-person sports gambling rule could send people to offshore sports books, industry player warns - The Center Square

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) talks to reporters following a classified national security briefing of the U.S. Senate on developments with Iran after attacks by Iran on U.S. forces in Iraq, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 8, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday said he was confident the administration of President Donald Trump will extend a ban on oil and gas drilling off Florida, despite its enthusiasm for opening much of the countrys coasts to petroleum development.

I expect that the Trump Administration will not act to oppose or defeat my efforts to extend the offshore drilling moratorium in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico beyond its current expiration in 2022, Rubio, a Florida Republican, said in a statement.

In December, Rubio lifted a hold he had placed on the confirmation of Katharine MacGregor as deputy secretary of the Interior Department. He had voiced concern that MacGregor, a proponent of Trumps expansive oil and gas production policy, would work to lift the ban off Florida.

Florida Senator Rick Scott, Rubios fellow Republican, also opposes drilling off the state. Not extending the ban would face fierce opposition by coastal tourism, real estate and environmental interests in Florida.

The U.S. Senate will not likely pass a permanent moratorium on the drilling, Rubio believes, so he has sponsored a bill to extend the ban through 2027.

Trumps offshore drilling plan, which MacGregor helped develop, was sidelined after a court ruling blocked drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic, but it could resurface after Novembers U.S. presidential elections.

Since lifting the hold on MacGregor, Rubio has been in touch with the White House regarding the drilling moratorium. He now plans to back MacGregors confirmation as No. 2 at the Interior Department and will talk about his support in the Senate this week, his office said.

The White House referred questions about Rubios comments to the Department of Interior. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing Tom Brown

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Senator Rubio confident Trump administration will extend Florida offshore drilling ban - Reuters

(Bloomberg) -- French energy company Total SA is hiring in the U.K. and Denmark to prepare to compete for government contracts for offshore wind farms.

The move adds to evidence of oil majors seeking to enter the wind business as governments everywhere look to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and spur cleaner forms of energy.

The Paris-based company is preparing to bid into an auction due to start later this year for an offshore wind farm in Denmark with an expected cost of about 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), according to a job post on the companys website. Giant renewable-power projects at sea are drawing increased interest from energy companies of all kinds, especially oil majors that are attracted by the scale of investment and security of returns.

Total has spearheaded the oil industrys move into renewables by pushing more than $5 billion in technologies from batteries to onshore wind and solar farms since 2015. It has yet to win an offshore wind tender.

The French company had stakes in 3 gigawatts of renewable-power capacity at the end of last year. Its seeking to double that in 2020 and targets 25 gigawatts by 2025.

The Danish project, known as Thor, is set to be between 800 megawatts and 1,000 megawatts, located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) off Denmarks west coast in the North Sea. Developers who want to bid for the project will qualify later this year and then submit bids.

Total is also hiring a number of people in the U.K., with job descriptions that include design and engineering for fixed-bottom or floating offshore wind projects in the U.K. and internationally. Last year, Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said the company planned to participate in an upcoming auction for offshore wind sites in Scotland.

A spokesperson for Total had no immediate comment.

--With assistance from Francois de Beaupuy.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Mathis in London at wmathis2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson

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Total Hiring to Boost Offshore Wind Teams in Denmark and U.K. - Yahoo Finance

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of EDPR Offshore Espaa by ENGIE and EDP Renovaveis.

EDPR Offshore Espaa is a Spain-headquartered subsidiary of the EDP Group active in the offshore wind industry globally. The company would be the exclusive vehicle of both parties for offshore wind farm activities worldwide.

The European Commission has concluded that the proposed concentration would not raise competition concerns due to its limited impact on the market.

French energy company ENGIE and EDP Renewables, also a subsidiary of the EDP Group, agreed to create a co-controlled 50/50 joint-venture in fixed and floating offshore wind.

EDP Renewables and ENGIE are combining their offshore wind assets and project pipeline in this new entity, starting with a total of 1.5GW of projects under construction, including the 950MW Moray East in the UK, the 25MW Wind Float Atlantic in Portugal, and the 487MW SeaMade in Belgium.

The agreement also includes 3.7GW of projects under development, including the 800MW-950MW Moray West in the UK, the Trport and Noirmoutier projects with a combined capacity of 992MW in France, the 30MW Leucate also in France, the 1,336MW Mayflower in the USA, and the 400MW B&C Wind.

The two companies have previously cooperated as consortium partners on theDieppe Le TrportandYeu Noirmoutierfixed offshore wind projects in France andMoray EastandMoray Westin the UK. EDPR and ENGIE are also partners in two floating offshore wind projects inFranceandPortugal.

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ENGIE-EDPR Offshore Wind Joint Venture Clears Another Hurdle - Offshore WIND

In a regulatory breath of fresh air, the Council on Environmental Quality recently proposed meaningful updates to the National Environmental Policy Act for the first time since the Carter administration.

Advocates of new and dynamic energy solutions for climate and environmental challenges should resoundingly applaud these efforts. NEPA modernization can balance energy growth with environmental considerations and ensure that emerging energy frontiers, including offshore wind, are not stifled through decades-old bureaucratic red tape.

Developing energy projects are a massive undertaking on engineering and technical merits alone; throw in a byzantine regulatory process and the task can be almost impossible. NEPA is almost omnipresent during the permitting and review process for any massive infrastructure project. Any major federal action that is likely to have a significant impact on the environment requires an environmental impact statement.

While environmental impact statements are necessary, it is important to ensure that they are not duplicitous and are not susceptible to politically driven litigation. The average impact statement takes 4.5 years to complete, and NEPA leads all other environmental statutes in the number of lawsuits that are filed under its provisions. The entire spectrum of critical infrastructure projects, ranging from highways and bridges to transmission lines to energy production projects, are at risk without NEPA reform. The current regulatory uncertainty deters future investment in the projects that tangibly improve the quality of life for every American.

Take, for example, the ascendant U.S. offshore wind industry. The United States is on the verge of a nearly $70 billion offshore wind supply chain by 2030, but regulatory uncertainty, in part due to an outdated NEPA model, is delaying progress.

The 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project offshore Massachusetts symbolizes how delicate new industries are, and how susceptible to onerous regulations and short-sighted litigation. Vineyard Wind is supposed to be the nation's first utility-scale offshore wind project, but the secretary of the interior is having to work through a broken NEPA process to ensure that the rising offshore wind industry does not fall victim to unfounded litigation.

Vineyard Wind is a project that both Democrats and Republicans stand behind. The $2.8 billion project will put 3,600 locals to work and power nearly 1 million homes, saving New England residents nearly $3.7 billion.

The ripples from an outdated NEPA process could impact other offshore wind projects. New infrastructure is required up and down the Atlantic coast to accommodate multiple large-scale wind projects, and there could be an unnecessary and unreasonable domino effect instigated by a flawed NEPA process. These potential bottlenecks could cascade and jeopardize the creation of 160,000 direct, indirect or induced jobs thanks to offshore wind by 2050.

The proposed NEPA revisions provide a more certain regulatory path forward for projects such as Vineyard Wind. By establishing a two-year limit on environmental impact statements, requiring joint schedules and a single record of decision, strengthening the role of the lead agency, and facilitating the use of categorical exclusions or environmental assessments, lawmakers can streamline NEPA without sacrificing the spirit and efficacy of the law. Finally, we'll actually get to work on vital projects under the updated NEPA.

American potential is limitless; it should not be constrained by bureaucratic red tape. Any successful effort to modernize American infrastructure and build up the next generation of energy production, including offshore wind, needs a smart and responsive regulatory and permitting regime. The offshore wind industry is poised for development, and NEPA reforms can ensure that Americans can count on its benefits sooner rather than much, much later.

Erik Milito is president of the National Ocean Industries Association.

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NEPA modernization empowers offshore wind development - Washington Examiner

XELLZ B.V. has secured land at the Port of Rosslare in Ireland to establish an offshore wind supply base.

The Dutch company has, through its subsidiary XELLZ Ireland, secured about 200.000m2 of land to facilitate a supply base for installation and operating companies for the near future offshore wind industry.

The prime land is immediately adjacent to the port area and gives direct access to the quay for loading and offloading of offshore wind equipment, as well as pre-installation assembly, XELLZ said.

In addition, there is over 100.000m2 land available for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that wish to get involved in the near future renewable projects.

We are very excited to have been able to secure this land which will give us the opportunity to start the development of the port area and to make it ready for the near future OWFs in the Irish and Celtic Sea, said Petrus (Peter) Bouwhuis, President & CEO of XELLZ B.V.

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XELLZ Finds Offshore Wind Supply Base Location in Ireland - Offshore WIND

Gov. Janet Mills and two top advisers are participating in a trip to Scotland in early March that is designed to showcase the countrys expertise in developing and hosting offshore wind energy projects, including one that once was planned for Maine.

The trip is aimed at sharing knowledge and contacts in a region that boasts the greatest amount of installed offshore wind capacity in the world, the first commercial-scale floating wind turbines and an even larger floating wind project under construction.

Mills, along with Governors Energy Office Director Dan Burgess and Office of Policy Innovation and the Future Director Hannah Pingree, will travel with officials from North Carolina, Virginia and other states on the United Kingdom-sponsored tour, based largely in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh and around the port city of Aberdeen.

In a recent statement to the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Mills said she wanted to see the industry firsthand and learn about how the U.K. is handling issues including port facilities and supply chain support, stakeholder engagement and regulatory policies. Those lessons will be useful as offshore wind interest in the United States expands into the Gulf of Maine.

But perhaps most importantly, I want to convey to them that our state is deeply interested in embracing offshore wind as part of our effort to create jobs, diversify and strengthen our economy, create a sustainable source of clean energy, and fight climate change, she said.

Since Mills took office last year, she has made clear her intentions to restore Maines position as a leader on renewable energy and climate issues. That aspiration was put on hold during the administration of former Gov. Paul LePage, who opposed above-market costs for renewable power.

LePage was instrumental in prompting the Norwegian energy conglomerate formerly called Statoil to abandon plans in 2013 for a floating wind demonstration project off the Maine coast. The 30-megawatt, five-turbine project, called Hywind, eventually was built off Scotland in 2017.

Mills and the entourage wont be able to visit Hywind Scotland, however, due to its distance 15 miles offshore and winter sea conditions, according to officials at the British Embassy who are coordinating the trip. But they will meet with representatives from the former Statoil, now called Equinor, as well as the private developer of the Kincardine Wind project, a 50-megawatt floating wind farm that will be the worlds largest when its due to begin operation later this year.

They also are expected to tour the Levenmouth Demonstration Turbine, a large, offshore wind research and testing facility in Fife, a coastal area of Scotland.

SCOTLAND A MODEL FOR MAINE

Offshore wind farms have helped power Europe for decades, but those ventures mostly involve turbines set on towers driven into nearshore seabeds. The current challenge in offshore energy is to design turbine support platforms that can be anchored in deep water 10 to 20 miles offshore, out of sight of land and in areas where winds are stronger and steadier.

Other states havent been idle during this period, however, and the center of gravity in New Englands nascent offshore wind industry has shifted to ports such as New Bedford, Massachusetts, and New London, Connecticut. This month, for instance, Connecticut officials said 460 construction jobs will be created for a $157 million redevelopment of the State Pier in New London as a hub for the industry, paid in part through a partnership with utilities set to buy the power.

OPPORTUNITIES AND UNCERTAINTIES

Americas first commercial-scale farm, the five-turbine Block Island Wind, began operating off Rhode Island in 2016.That ushered in a new wave of multibillion-dollar projects set to rise up along the East Coast of the United States, from the Carolinas to Massachusetts.

But suddenly, that momentum is threatened.

Development in federal waters needs permits from the Department of the Interiors Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The industry had been closely watching the permitting process for Vineyard Wind, a major project off Massachusetts with 84 turbines and a capacity of 800 megawatts, enough to power 1 million homes. The $3 billion wind farm is being jointly developed by a partnership that includes Iberdrola and Avangrid, the parent companies of Central Maine Power Co. It was due to be in operation in 2021.

But last August, the bureau dropped a bombshell on Vineyard Wind. It announced a so-called cumulative impacts environmental review of all the projects planned on the East Coast. The agency now says it will make a final decision in December.

The permitting delay forced Vineyard Wind this month to push back its estimated operations date to 2022.

When the bureaus slowdown was first announced last fall, Mills and the governors of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Virginia sent a letter to the secretaries of the Interior and Commerce Departments voicing their concerns.

Further government delay would have negative impacts on this project, offshore wind development along the East Coast and the further expansion of American jobs that support this industry, they wrote.

On another front, Maine officials are participating in a recently formed regional task force made up of states that border the Gulf of Maine. They are trying to work with the federal government to develop an industry in the gulf that can coexist with existing interests, such as fisheries and tourism.

Taken together, those efforts may benefit from the experiences and contacts Maine officials gather during their upcoming overseas trip.

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In Scotland, Mills will glimpse Maine's offshore wind potential - Press Herald

Fred. Olsen Windcarriers has been contracted to install the last offshore wind turbines from insolvent German OEM Senvion.

The Norwegian companys Global Wind Service unit will use its jack-up vessel Blue Tern to install the remaining 11 Senvion 6.2M152 machines on the 200MW Trianel Windpark Borkum 2 array in the German North Sea.

The last Senvion offshore machines had rolled out of production facilities in Bremerhaven, Germany, that were subsequently closed.

Senvion had filed for insolvency under self-administration in April 2019, and later managed to sell its European onshore service business and IP, as well as a blade plant in Portugal, to its larger rival Siemens Gamesa, but couldnt find a buyer for most other parts of its business.

We are looking forward to working with our new client and to get the chance to support the finalisation of the Trianel wind farm with our jack-up vessel Blue Tern, said Kristina Pind Lvgren, Head of Nautical, Fred. Olsen Windcarrier.

Blue Tern is ideal for this project due to her capacity. Our related company, Global Wind Service, is already on the project and delivers technicians, QA and Site Management for the installation and mechanical completion of the turbines.

The insolvency of Senvion and bad weather had delayed the installation of Trianel Borkum 2, which was planned to be completed by the end of 2019, its project company led by regional utility EWE said in December.

The Blue Tern is currently in the Dutch port of Eemshaven, waiting for better weather conditions to start its journey to the construction site 45 kilometres north of the island of Borkum.

Dutch contractor Jan de Nul had installed the first 21 Senvion turbines at Borkum 2.

Trianel, a network of German and Swiss utilities, owns 37.99% in the project, while regional utility EWE holds another 37.5%. A joint venture between EWE and the power utility of the city of Zurich owns another 24.51%.

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Fred Olsen to install last Senvion offshore wind turbines - Recharge