Daily Archives: April 21, 2020

Offshore staff

OSLO, Norway If Brent drops to $20/bbl, 30,000 boe/d of UK offshore production would not cover marginal costs, according to Rystad Energy.

Theoretically, the production facilities could be at risk of an early shut-in, although this might not actually happen, the consultant said.

This is because most operators will want to keep facilities running even at a loss and claw back the profit back once oil prices recover. The assumption is that it is more economic to maintain the facility at a loss than to shut it down and attempt a later re-start.

However, a lower oil price would have more impact on discoveries and companies ability to proceed with final investment decisions (FIDs) for new projects.

At $30/bbl, only 34% of unsanctioned UK offshore volumes are commercial, the consultant claimed while at $20/bbl, none are financially viable.

As a result, said Sonya Boodoo, vice president of Upstream Research, we expect sanctioning activity to be low in the current price environment, not only because of the breakeven price of the projects but also because operators will tend to be cautious over the scale and pace of future capital spending commitments.

Last year UK offshore exploration rose from previous lows in 2018. Operators had indicated that activity would fall back again this year, and it now looks as if exploration activity will likely be deferred where possible, although the impact will be felt more in 2021 as most of this years scheduled wells already have contracted rigs.

As for cash flow, under an average oil price of $34/bbl in 2020 and $44 in 2021, Rystad expects most UK upstream activity to be cash-negative in 2020 with free cash flow at -$1.3 billion.

If the oil price falls to around $20/bbl, the situation will be more severe with cash flow at about -$3.4 billion. And if the present situation shows no sign of improvement, UK operators and their partners of all sizes will be forced to make deeper cuts to those already implemented.

UK players already stretched their limits and accumulated losses in the previous market downturn, so they now have very limited opportunity to absorb further reductions, Boodoo said, adding that a favorable tax regime and competitive operational costs for producing assets will sustain short-term production.

04/20/2020

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UK grappling with implications of lower oil price - Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine

(NEW ORLEANS) The new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has been confirmed in more than two dozen people working on oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said.

While an offshore rig might seem like an unlikely place for the virus to show up, workers share close quarters and frequently touch surfaces including handrails that make it difficult to stop the spread, nola.com reported Wednesday.

As of April 8, 26 offshore workers in the Gulf had tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Only seven of the 680 platforms in the Gulf had been affected at that point.

BP is among the companies that has had offshore workers test positive for the coronavirus, said spokesman Jason Ryan. The workers were already onshore when the virus was confirmed, he said, and the platform has since been cleaned and has new crew members on board.

Efforts to limit the spread of the virus on platforms appear to be working, said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. Just 11 COVID-19 cases were detected in the last two weeks in the roughly 15,000 people who work offshore at any given time, he said Monday.

We see what we think are great results, he said. I think thats due to the seriousness and the commitment weve seen.

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COVID-19 Cases Confirmed on Offshore Oil Platforms in Gulf - TIME

MANILA (PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The government is looking into a proposal to let Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) resume operations to generate funds in the fight against the Covid-19 disease, President Rodrigo Duterte's chief economic manager said on Monday (April 20).

"The evaluation is ongoing," Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said. "But let me reiterate - all of the above depends on the results of the ongoing evaluation of the trade-offs involved in the decision of maintaining the current partial lockdown or tightening it or loosening it further."

Mr Dominguez, however, said he was not in favour of lifting the national and local liquor ban despite calls from the alcohol beverage industry.

Pogos and other businesses, except for those involving essential goods and services, have been temporarily closed down amid the lockdown in Luzon and other parts of the country to contain the spread of the disease.

On Sunday (March 19), Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support Partylist (ACT-CIS) Representative Eric Go Yap, chair of the House appropriations committee, called on the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) to allow Pogos to resume their operations for tax purposes.

"In view of (exhausted) government coffers, the suspension of Pogo operations should be lifted immediately to give our tax collection a much-needed boost," Mr Yap said in a statement.

He said the country needed all the help it could get now.

"It will not harm us to have additional sources of revenue that we can use for our hungry countrymen. Lives are at stake and we need to act fast," said Mr Yap, who formerly chaired the House games and amusements committee.

Pagcor said the suspension of Pogo operations was implemented to ensure the safety of all employees and to prevent the further spread of the virus by limiting workers' movements.

But Mr Yap said there were creative solutions that Pagcor could tap.

The state-run gambling regulator should come up with guidelines stipulating dos and don'ts. It should be made clear that work from home should be allowed only if a Pogo is accredited by Pagcor, Mr Yap said.

"I honestly believe that the ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) won't be totally lifted by April 30 and there may still be a need for us to support the people next month. Where will we get the funds?" he said.

"We need to find ways to boost the collection of taxes, but it should not be at the expense of public health," the lawmaker said.

As of early this year, around 60 Pogos had been issued licences to operate by Pagcor, while 218 service providers employing over 108,000 foreigners had registered with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Pogo licensees tap service providers to directly communicate with clients, or online gamblers outside the Philippines, mostly in China.

The government expected to collect twobillion Philippine pesos (S$56.17 million) in taxes from Pogos per month.

Last year, it earned 6.42 billion Philippine pesos in additional corporate and personal income taxes from its campaign against tax-deficient Pogos.

Mr Dominguez said tax collections in April "will be very bad", partly due to the extended deadlines for filing and paying certain taxes in light of the lockdown extension until April 30.

Over the weekend, the Department of Finance said first-quarter tax collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) not only declined, but also slid below targets as the pandemic and the resulting quarantine starting mid-March hurt domestic businesses and external trade.

The country's two largest revenue agencies collected 600.86 billion Philippine pesos in taxes and import duties from January to March, down 1.7 per cent from 611.03 billion Philippine pesos in the same period last year.

The joint BIR-BOC take as of end-March was 20.6 per cent lower than the 757.12 billion Philippine peso goal for the three-month period.

The Centre for Alcohol Research and Development (Card) Foundation Inc appealed for the lifting or easing of the liquor ban in an April 16 letter to Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez.

"If this ban continues, the industry can no longer survive - a situation that can affect a large sector of the community," the group said.

"The alcohol beverage industry bears already the agony of declining market demand due to the imposition of high excise taxes on alcohol," said Card, whose members include Absolut Distillers Inc, Emperador Distillers Inc and Ginebra San Miguel Inc.

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Coronavirus: Philippine government looking into proposal to let offshore gaming operators resume operations - The Straits Times

Dollar bonds of last-mile financiers such as IIFL Finance, Manappuram Fin, Muthoot Fin and Shriram Transport Fin rallied 11-36% from record lows in the past two-three weeks, indicating increasing appetite overseas for debt sold by Indian NBFCs.

Deutsche Bank, Varde Partners, Avenue Capital, SC Lowy, and Blackrock were among those seen negotiating secondary market deals, even as high-yield bonds from other emerging markets such as Mexico found few takers.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment; others did not reply to ETs mailed queries.

The RBIs timely and well calibrated measures have thrown a lifeline and stemmed the sell-off in dollar bonds issued by Indian companies, said Hemant Mishr, founder at Scube Fixed Income, a Singapore-based fund. Against the backdrop of an impending global recession and lingering uncertainties we see investors seeking comfort in the relative safety of bonds.

Indias central bank announced a second set of measures to boost the financing economy on Friday. These bonds had plunged as much as 50 percent, ET reported on March 27.

In the overseas dollar bond market, global distressed investors find big upside for local NBFCs, said Manish Wadhawan, CEO, Serenity Macro Partners, which deals with offshore investors. With RBI booster doses, these companies should survive the current crisis before they resume the growth journey in the next few years.

Power Finance Corp. bonds have gained 11%, trading at a little premium to face value. IIFL Finance has jumped 36%, largely erasing discounts. Manappuram, Shriram and Muthoot have seen prices jump 15-27%.

High-yield Indian NBFC papers offer 5-7%, compared with 3.5-6% for investment-grade paper.

The six-month dollar-based London Interbank Offered Rate plunged about 60 basis points to 1.13% since February.

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NBFCs bonds rally 11-36% offshore, what triggered the rally? - Economic Times

ON 20 April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon incident tragically heralded a period of change for both the oil and gas industry and how it is regulated. While the worlds immediate attention focused on preventing the ongoing oil spill and cleaning up the environment, efforts also got underway to learn and share lessons from the incident and establish partnerships that are now helping to improve offshore operations.

Among the series of recommendations that followed, was a request for the Department of the Interior to establish an Ocean Energy Safety Institute (OESI). The OESI was established in 2013 to provide an independent organisation that could bring together stakeholders from across the offshore community. These stakeholders included the industry itself, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and other regulators, academia, and non-governmental organisations.

Forums for Dialogue have been held periodically since May 2014 to bring together these stakeholders to share their perspectives. They initially covered topics that BSEE was interested in but went on to cover interests of the wider community. Each forum also generated areas of research interest.

The forum topics included:

The second area that OESI was asked to focus on was conducting relevant collaborative research that could be accomplished by the three Tier 1 research universities: Texas A&M University, the University of Houston, and the University of Texas Austin. Based on the results of the initial Forums for Dialogue, and meetings with stakeholders across industry, government, and academia, three primary research areas emerged:

These research areas allowed for collaboration across the partner universities and resulted in papers for each topic, which can be downlaoded at https://oesi.tamu.edu/research/

The titles of these papers are:

Additionally, the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) in their final report on Deepwater Horizon recommended that OESI Conduct further study on riser gas unloading scenarios, testing, and modeling and publish a white paper containing technical guidance that communicates findings and makes recommendations for industry safety improvements.

In a joint research effort, facilitated by OESI, Texas A&M University, and Louisiana State University are studying Experiments on Multiphase Flow of Live Muds in a Full-Scale Wellbore with Distributed Sensing for Kick and Gas-in-riser Detection/Mitigation. This joint research is separately funded by the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Gulf Research Program. The results of this research are expected to be available in early 2021. However, the new capabilities and the impacts of this project are already reaching industry.

Through participation in key industry subcommittees and communication through technical conferences and technical publications, we have helped increase understanding across stakeholders. Additionally, by pursuing fundamental questions surrounding key issues like multiphase flow in the annuli, high temperature high pressure (HTHP) mud properties, and solubility kinetics, safer offshore operations will be strengthened. As a welcome side-effect, the project is also spawning translational projects that are linking oil and gas with biomedical applications. The technologies for visualisation of gas flows in rheological fluids, hydraulic system dynamics characterisation, fiber optics sensing technologies, and gas solubility kinetics all have application to the medical field as well as the oil and gas industry.

These dialogue opportunities, and specific areas of research allowed OESI to look to the future of research requirements for continued improvement in offshore safety. While significant academic-based research is underway, much of the current study is the result of Deepwater Horizon findings from ten years ago. So, how do we get ahead of the issues that are and will arise in future offshore operations?

To help meet this need, OESI has published a 21st Century Ocean Energy Research Roadmap. The roadmap is based on work with multiple offshore industry groups, including the Research Partnership for a Secure Energy America (RPSEA), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the Gulf Research Program, the Center for Offshore Safety (COS). Current and future research needs are discussed and grouped into the following subject areas:

The purpose of developing the roadmap and identifying areas of future capability development was to lay out a plan, to inform the way ahead for research opportunities, for OESI and others. Ultimately, ensuring that the scarce resources put toward research are focused into areas that will further increase safer operations offshore; and not just push an academic agenda.

While a number of areas have been identified by the roadmap, one area stood out that OESI could help move forward within their budget constraints. The need to move away from reactionary measures (lagging) to proactive measures (leading) was identified in a number of the forums.

Shell is championing this work to develop a leading indicators dashboard (LID). Initially, this LID would look at a well-control system offshore, but ultimately it could be fashioned for most onshore and offshore upstream operations. The key is to map out the barriers of the system and understand what goes into the health of those barriers. A key concept for the LID is that it would look at both technical (e.g. mud pit readings) and non-technical (e.g. training status of crew) and assess the health of those system barriers and depict where the risk might be highest, and the inter-relations of those system barriers. By moving to leading indicators, this would be a step-change in how decisions are made. This project is currently in the stage of identifying the appropriate barriers and their data feeds to inform the measures of barrier health. This capability development and change in operational thinking will provide an increase in safer operations offshore and elsewhere.

Throughout the evolution of OESI, the primary focus has been to help enable safer and environmentally responsible ocean energy operations. This mission is just as valid today and into the future as when it was initially assigned. OESIs mission and its efforts will continue core to offshore operations and more importantly can be useful to the whole upstream sector. While the horizon for OESI as an organization may be limited (the cooperative agreement with BSEE that funds OESI ends in August 2020); the requirement for what OESI has brought to the offshore stakeholders does not diminish. With ever-increasing complexity of operations from the beginning of seismic operations to decommissioning of assets, there is a need to continue the dialogue, to exchange ideas and experience, and to inform the research agenda to support all stakeholders.

This article is part of series called Deepwater Horizon: a Decade On. Read the rest of the series here

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After the spill: research for safer offshore operations - The Chemical Engineer

Offshore staff

ABERDEEN, UK Oil & Gas UK (OGUK) has called on its member companies to donate spare personal protective equipment (PPE) to local boards and trusts of Britains National Health Service, care homes or charities.

Demand for PPE remains critical to the health sectors response to COVID-19 in Britain, not solely to protect staff, but also hospital patients and care home residents.

The UK offshore oil and gas industry uses PPE widely, and the association is supporting a campaign with TSG Marine to encourage companies to check their inventories of face masks, contact safety gloves, goggles, chemical suits, paper coveralls, and overshoes and either donate or lend these to those that need it most.

OGUK also acknowledged that many of its companies are doing this already with spare or legacy inventory.

04/20/2020

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UK offshore association calls for personal protective equipment donations - Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine

20 Apr 2020byDavid Foxwell

Kvaerner has awarded Incus-owned Scana Offshore a contract to supply mooring equipment for the Hywind Tampen floating offshore wind project

The contract is Scana Offshores first for hardware in the floating wind market. The company will deliver 33 hull brackets used to attach anchoring lines to the hulls on the floating turbines on the Hywind Tampen windfarm. The company will also provide remotely operated vehicle tools for possible replacement of the anchor lines.

Scana Offshore managing director Torkjell Lisland said the company has adjusted its strategy to be able to respond to the growing market for clean energy. From being a supplier of equipment to the oil and gas industry, the company now focuses more on fish farming and floating wind.

We have a long track record of deliveries to the oil and gas and aquaculture market. Now we are looking forward to delivering mooring equipment for floating wind power as well, a market with great potential, Mr Lisland said.

In order to get into offshore wind and aquaculture, we have developed new, cost-reducing technology.

Incus Investor chief executive Styrk Bekkenes said, This is a market we have worked hard to get into, and the contract with a world leader such as Kvaerner represents both an important milestone and a great feather in our hat.

It gives us another segment to grow in. We see offshore wind as one of the most exciting areas for further growth over the next few years.

The company will start work on the contract for Hywind Tampen immediately and deliver the anchoring equipment to Kvaerner in Q2 2021.

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Riviera - News Content Hub - Scana Offshore breaks into floating wind market - Riviera Maritime Media

HONG KONG, April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OP Investment Management Limited ("OPIM"), Asia's leading fund platform, is partnering with Shanghai Mingshi Investment Management ("Mingshi") to launch Mingshi China Optima Master Fund and two feeder funds which invest all of assets into the Master Fund (together, the "Fund") and operates for the benefits of U.S. tax-exempt investors and other non-U.S. eligible investors.

The Fund's strategy is to actively manage long and short equities listed in mainland China but accessed through market access products issued by QFIIs/RQFIIs. The team incorporates proprietary factor models and quantitative research techniques targeting absolute returns based on years of track record of a similar profile onshore.

Founded in 2010, Mingshi is one of the most experienced quantitative firms with a strong research and development team in Shanghai, China combining China A-share expertise with global best practices in asset management. Leveraging its deep bench with modern quantitative technology, Mingshi's approach to market-neutral strategies will be applied to its first offshore strategy managed under OPIM in Hong Kong.

"The China-A share opportunity set is as volatile as it is tremendous, so it's only natural we're seeing a spiked demand for effective long-short strategies; that not only generate significant alpha, but more importantly, protect it. A lot of players talk about the idiosyncratic China factors, but only a handful of managers have successfully brought this concept offshore." Alvin Fan, Chief Executive Officer of OPIM commented, "Mingshi's team is rare, because they've an outstanding multi-year track record built by a robust R&D team that you'd find in only a handful of shops globally. Given the limited number of successful offshore peers, Mingshi's Optima is arguably China's most important launch of 2020."

Profession Yuan Yu, Co-Founder and Head of Strategy of Mingshi, commented: "We've been working closely with OPIM over the last year in preparation of this launch, and we're intensely focused on ensuring the same institutional grade product offshore as we have onshore. We couldn't be more thrilled to help allocators globally finally build actively-managed exposure to systematic alpha in China's A-share market."

About OP Investment Management Limited

OPIM is a leading Hong Kong based asset management company established and licensed since 2004 with Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (the "SFC") to carry out Type 4 (advising on securities) and 9 (asset management) regulated activities under the provisions of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap.571) (the "HK SFO"). The company is also a member of the Oriental Patron Financial Group and associate of OP Financial Investments Ltd. (Hong Kong publicly listed 1140.HK). OPIM partners with emerging managers to develop innovative strategies for institutional and professional investors. OPIM's institutional fund platform attracts both managers and investors from around the world working with the industry's best business partners in alternative asset management.

About the Oriental Patron Financial Group

Founded in 1993, Oriental Patron Financial Group is an independent financial services group based and fully licensed in Hong with the Hong Kong Securities and futures Commission (the "SFC"). Oriental Patron provides a diverse range of financial securities from Advisory to Investing, Financing to Securities and Research.

About Shanghai Mingshi Investment Management

Established in 2010, Mingshi Investment is a leading quantitative hedge fund manager in China and a member of Asset Management Association of China. Focusing on quantitative investment strategies, Mingshi Investment combines cutting-edge financial research with quantitative models to establish and optimize long-term sustainable investment strategies.

Disclaimer

This document is issued by OP Investment Management Limited ("OPIM"). This document, and the website of OPIM (www.opim.com.hk) has not been reviewed by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong. This document is solely for information purposes and is not intended as an offer, a solicitation of offer or a recommendation, to deal in shares of securities or any financial instruments. Past performance and the predictions, projections, or forecasts on the economy, securities markets or the economic trends of the markets are not necessarily indicative of the future or likely performance of OPIM, any funds managed by OPIM, or any future funds to be launched under the Sunrise SPC Platform. Information herein is believed to be reliable at time of publication but OPIM does not warrant its completeness or accuracy and is not responsible for error of facts or opinion nor shall be liable for damages arising out of any person's reliance upon this information. Any opinion or estimate contained in this document may subject to change without notice. This document may not be published, circulated, reproduced or distributed without the prior written consent of OPIM.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/opim-partners-with-mingshi-to-launch-its-first-quantitative-a-share-hedge-fund-offshore-301043293.html

SOURCE OP Investment Management Ltd

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OPIM partners with Mingshi to launch its first quantitative A-share hedge fund offshore - Yahoo Finance

Spanish utility group Iberdrola wants to be the biggest player in the U.S. offshore wind market, but it will need togo through early market front-runnerrsted to get there.

Iberdrola, among the world's largest wind power generators, plans to steamroll its way through the coronavirus crisis, with CEO Ignacio Galn announcing plans this month toincreaseinvestmentin renewablesprojects and continue adding jobs as soon as the public health crisis is over. Up to a quarter of the10 billion ($11 billion) the company plans to invest this year will go toward offshore wind.

Iberdrola has long been a major player in U.S. renewablesand remains one of the country's largest owners of onshore wind farms through its controlling stake inAvangrid, a utility and renewables developer. The U.S. and Avangrid is now a central plank of Iberdrola's global offshore wind push, accounting for more than 60 percent of its 12-gigawatt global offshore pipeline.

Avangrid is joint owner of Vineyard Wind, whose 800-megawatt project for Massachusetts is likelyto become one of the first major U.S. offshore wind farms despite its ongoing permitting delaysaga. Vineyard is now expected to be finished in 2023; Iberdrola confirmsthere hasbeen no change in the project timeline despite the coronavirus shutdown.

We're in a very good position to be the leading player [in the U.S.],"Jonathan Cole, managing directorof Iberdrolas offshore wind business, told GTM. "We're going to be the first to build a large-scale offshore wind project in Vineyard I. That puts us in a strong position and allows us to just keep growing and growing beyond that.

Denmark'srsted, which is the world's leading offshore wind developer, holds a formidable position in the U.S., with interests in projects across five states totaling more than 8 gigawatts. By the middle of this decade,rsted could own more than 3 gigawatts of U.S. offshore wind, compared to 800 megawatts for Iberdrola if Vineyard successfully builds its first two projects in New England.

ButCole said Iberdrola's market position is unique, given its ownership of a U.S. utility and its vast experience building onshore projects. Avangrid has more than 3 million utility customers in New York and New England. As the decade progresses, Avangrid will look to bring as much as 2.5 gigawatts of capacity online in its Kitty Hawk lease area off North Carolina,whileopening up Vineyard Wind's second large zone in southern New England for construction.

The company is hiring dozens of new U.S. offshore wind employees as it scales up.Initially we've taken some very talented people from the onshore renewables business to help us...as well as assigning some very experienced offshore wind people from Europe, said Cole.

From that critical mass, our plan is to grow a substantial organization that has the capability to do the full lifecycle of an offshore wind project, from initial site finding through development, engineering, procurement, construction, and eventually operations and maintenance."

By the late 2020s, anotherdifferentiator may come into play: Iberdrola's concerted push into floating offshore wind.

rsted has saidlittle publicly about floating wind; the technology, which is still in its early stages of commercial development,barely features on rsted'swebsite or in its annual reports. In an earnings call last August,CEO Henrik Poulsen said rsted was monitoring the market so that "if there is an opportunity where we should act, we would be ready to do so. But for the time being, we are not actively pursuing any floating projects."

Iberdrola, on the other hand, recently revealed details of two demonstration projects in Norway and Spain,and the company looks set to move swiftly once its pilots have run their course. Creating an offshore wind market in its native Spain, where floating turbines will be necessary, gives Iberdrolaa strong motivation to pursue the technology. A growing number of other major European energy companies are actively pursuing floating wind, including EDPR, Shell, Total, Engie and Equinor.

In the context of a net-zero worldwhere we are trying to totally decarbonize the power sector, you need as many of these massive-scale, low-carbon generating facilities as possible and that means that probably you need to look further offshore and into deeper water, said Cole.

In the U.S., there is scope for floating wind off both coasts.

What you're looking for is an area where you've got deep water, good wind resources and high demand, which can drive up a lot of volumes and economies of scale," Cole said."That's how floating [wind] is going get the costs down and [become] cost-competitive with fixed [foundations] by the end of this decade. If you apply that concept to the market, you can see that there are near-term opportunities on the West Coast of the United States and in Asia.

Maine Governor Janet Millshas breathed new life into the 12-megawatt Aqua Ventus floating project off the state's coast, after years of delays and uncertainty. Despite Avangrid's presence in the Northeast,Iberdrola told GTM it would not be investing in Aqua Ventus at this stage, focusing instead on its two floating demos in Europe.

Meanwhile, a study last year by Energy + Environmental Economics (E3) found a case for 7 to 9 gigawatts of floating wind in California by 2040, potentially saving ratepayers $2 billion in the process.

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Iberdrola Plans to Take Top Spot in US Offshore Wind (and Keep It) - Greentech Media News

Editors note: The KOIN 6 Weather team is presenting weather and science lessons to help serve our teachers and students as schools close across the nation amid the novel coronavirus response. Click here for more lessons, and click here for complete coverage.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) This next topic is near and dear to the Pacific Northwest and our response to the direction of the general wind flow. This lesson we are going to take a dive into onshore flow and offshore flow concepts and some of the related terms that come with it. The graphic below does most of the explaining, but there is definitely more to the process than meets the eye. We can begin with the basics:

Onshore Flow: When the wind is generally moving from west to east. That means it is coming from the direction of the ocean and moving east towards the land.

Offshore Flow: When the wind is moving from east to west. Coming from the interior sections of the state/states and moving towards the ocean.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

The direction of the wind can significantly alter our conditions in the Willamette Valley and across the state. With that onshore flow cranking, it can move what we call a marine layer into the valley where moisture moves in from the west and finds its way into the valley. This can create low clouds and precipitation for many.

If you live near the coast, you probably have experienced a sea breeze or land breeze. A sea breeze is when cool ocean air is drawing to the land because of high pressure over the ocean and low pressure over land. Youve guessed it, a land breeze is the exact opposite. While high pressure over land will direct the wind out towards the ocean where low pressure is in place.

SUMMER VS WINTER

What is unique about this process, is the time of the year and the season will also play a part in how we respond to the general flow.

For example, offshore flow in the winter can bring in cold and windy conditions for the Columbia River Gorge and areas of the Willamette Valley. Its that easterly wind that aids in bringing our temperatures down to support snow. Because most of the cold winter air is banked to the east in areas of the Columbia Basin and it takes an offshore flow to push that cold air our direction. Additionally, a strong onshore flow in the winter can spell heavy rain and mountain snow because of the moisture content that is being produced with the warmer Pacific ocean.

In the summer, that offshore flow will heat us up and dry out our local conditions. When we see a strong easterly wind during a summer month, we are usually bumping up our daytime high temperature and concerned for fire weather conditions. When we get the onshore flow during the summer, we sometimes talk about that being natures air conditioning. This is because during the summer the cooler air coming from the Pacific Ocean can help drop the temperatures significantly. Especially for those communities along the coast, where it may be 90 degrees in Portland, but only the upper 60s at Seaside.

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Ocean and land interaction: Onshore vs offshore flow - KOIN.com