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Monthly Archives: April 2020
How engineers are operating space missions from their homes – The Verge
Posted: April 21, 2020 at 3:45 am
Last Tuesday, a team of engineers sat huddled around their computer screens, monitoring a spacecraft as it maneuvered around a rocky asteroid more than 140 million miles from Earth. They were conducting an important interplanetary dress rehearsal, running the spacecraft through many of the operations it will do in August when it attempts to snag a tiny sample of rocks from the asteroids surface. This dress rehearsal has been in the works for years, and the team had expected to be gathered together for it in a mission center in Colorado.
Instead, most of them kept tabs on the event from home. It was a skeleton crew that was supporting the event in person, compared to what was originally planned, Mike Moreau, deputy project manager for the mission at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, tells The Verge. More than three-quarters of the team was doing it from home and monitoring remotely.
Moreau is part of NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission, tasked with grabbing a sample of the asteroid Bennu and bringing it back to Earth for study. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched in 2016, and the team had planned for this particular dress rehearsal for more than a decade. They hadnt counted on a pandemic occurring during one of the most highly anticipated checkpoints of their mission but the show had to go on.
We were all going to be there together in the mission operations area, and we actually had rehearsed that even before this checkpoint rehearsal; we had done a simulation, Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator on NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission at the University of Arizona, tells The Verge. None of that happened. We were all in remote work conditions.
Just like millions of workers all over the world, the engineers who operate spacecraft are grappling with how to do their jobs while working from home. All of NASAs centers have instituted mandatory telework policies, with some exceptions for essential personnel. That includes many people who are tasked with calculating commands for interplanetary space probes and navigating rovers through harsh terrains on other worlds.
For some, the transition was awkward at first since operating a spacecraft often relies on ample amounts of in-person communication. Thats been the case for Carrie Bridge, who works as a liaison between scientists and the engineers who operate NASAs Curiosity rover on Mars. Every day, she talks with scientists all over the country about the kind of science theyd like the rover to accomplish, and then she relays those desires to the engineers who actually navigate the robot. Normally, she just walks over to the engineering team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to coordinate the rovers movements for the day.
My morning consisted of being on the phone with the scientists and then going in and sitting beside the rover planners at the computer, Bridge tells The Verge. And we look at the terrain and look at the targets. I then go and report back to the scientists and say, Okay I think we can drive over here.
Now, that entire routine has been moved online. She says she has about 15 to 20 chat rooms open for all of the engineers and rover planners not to mention telecons with scientists across the country. The level of intensity has gone up because youre kind of always watching things, Bridge says. Im also not exercising anymore, she jokes. I used to walk around, and now Im staring at a computer station for hours on end without moving.
One of the lead rover planners that Bridge communicates with is Matt Gildner, who is also coordinating all the commands for Curiosity from his one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles. He and his team started testing how to work remotely back in mid-March when the writing was on the wall about the COVID-19 pandemic, he says. He started coordinating everything theyd need to have at home, including audio headsets, monitors, cables, and even 3D glasses. Curiosity sends back 3D images of the Martian terrain, which the rover planners and engineers observe as 3D meshes, allowing them to simulate how the rover will interact with the environment when it moves.
Im at home now, and I have all my headsets on as I talk to multiple audio channels, put on my red-blue glasses and evaluate parts of a drive that were planning for a few minutes as part of our planning day, Gildner tells The Verge. I have a nice desk set up and Ive got all my houseplants around me, dual monitors, and a good keyboard and mouse headset stand. And this is working out just fine.
Someone does need to physically be at mission control at JPL in order to send Curiosity the commands that Gildner and his team develop. That person sends commands out to the Deep Space Network, an array of large radio antennas here on Earth, which then beam commands to interplanetary space probes like the rover.
Other spacecraft operators have figured out a way to send commands to their spacecraft without actually having anyone in a mission control center. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Utah is responsible for operating two small NASA satellites HARP and CIRiS which are both observing Earth. The team there typically goes into a mission control center to send commands to the spacecraft via a ground station in Virginia. But in a weird twist of fate, operators at the lab came up with a way to actually send the commands from their laptops at home just before everyone went into lockdown.
We were preparing and testing out our working from home techniques right before the pandemic hit, Ryan Martineau, an SDL engineer and spacecraft operator, tells The Verge. We frequently have to operate our spacecraft in the middle of the night, and so we didnt have to have the same two people driving into work every day, we were getting ready to test a secure solution.
Martineau and his colleagues essentially took the software they use at their mission control centers that allows them to connect with the Virginia ground station, and they put it in their local computers. We run a [virtual] Linux machine inside of our Windows laptop that has all the software we need to run the spacecraft, he says. Thanks to this arrangement, Martineau can control the spacecraft around Earth from his home for the foreseeable future. And that means juggling other responsibilities while maintaining the satellites.
I have a three year old and a three month old, Martineau says. There have been a couple of cases where I had to hurry up with a diaper change real quick before I needed to send some commands to the spacecraft.
The presence of children and pets has been a mainstay for many at NASAs workforce at home. One of our dogs [a Great Dane] has this habit of squeaking his toys when he wants attention, Amber Straughn, the associate director for the astrophysics science division at Goddard, writes in an email to The Verge. Hes definitely done that a couple times when Ive been in telecons.
New work companions have also been present for the OSIRIS-REx team as they prepared for their big dress rehearsal last week. Many of the team managers have had to juggle family responsibilities, such as remote learning, as they prepared for the event. For some of the managers it has been really stressful because we obviously wanted to see this go forward, Moreau says. But we were also very concerned about how our people were holding up.
Ultimately, everyone made it to the day of the rehearsal. But with most of the team away from Lockheed Martins mission control center in Colorado, some adjustments needed to be made. Theres no substitute for being in the same building; being on the same floor; being able to walk over to somebodys office and say, Hey, now I was just thinking about this. How does it look on your side? Lauretta says. We couldnt really do any of that.
Lauretta says the team made do with calls, which mostly worked, though there were a few technical difficulties. For some reason my phone kept going on mute, he says. Id be dialed in, and I would be talking and nobody would be hearing me. While that was frustrating, he said everyone was in good spirits. Actually everybody was just happy to be talking to each other on the group chat.
Despite the added challenges, the rehearsal went off without a hitch. During the practice session, OSIRIS-REx got closer to Bennu than its ever been before. It was a key maneuver that paves the way for OSIRIS-REx to get right next to Bennus surface in August and scoop up 60 grams of rocks from a crater called Nightingale. The engineers are thrilled with the result, though there was definitely some sadness over the unexpected circumstances.
I would say it was bittersweet in the sense that it was a great day; everything went according to plan. But we didnt get to celebrate it as a team, says Lauretta, who notes that theyve been waiting for this big test for over a decade. Were hopeful that by August, well all be able to gather together and actually celebrate the actual sample collection event.
For now, its unclear exactly when extreme social distancing will be over, allowing everyone not just spacecraft operators to return to their normal daily routines. But until that time arrives, the people in charge of operating spacecraft are making the most of their new mission control centers at home. For Gildner, its even been a nice distraction from the daily cycle of news surrounding the virus.
Work is a nice escape from everything thats going on, especially when youre working on a spaceflight project, Gildner says You feel like youre doing something that is very worthwhile that humanity appreciates, and right now thats important more than ever, I think.
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How engineers are operating space missions from their homes - The Verge
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Can Offshore Wind Prop Up Oils Supply Chain Through the Price Crunch? – Greentech Media News
Posted: at 3:44 am
Various streams of the energy transition and none more thanoffshore windare seen as possible routes to new, less-riskyrevenues for big oil companies and their supply chains. As the oil and gas sector faces the triple crises of the coronavirus, the resulting recession and the halving of oil prices, can power and renewables plug thegap in their finances?
Many big oil exploration companies have already announced huge spending cuts, resulting inscores of exploration projectsbeingcanceled. For oil-field contractors like Halliburton, Schlumberger and Wood (formerly the Wood Group) that leaves a substantial shortfall in their bottom line.
In Europe, offshore wind has long been seen as an opportunity for North Sea oil services companies to tap new sources of revenue. With Exxon, Shell, Total,BP and other producers cutting billions from their spending, those oil-field contractorshave a lot of ground to make up.
In the next five years alone, globaloffshore wind investment will top 200 billion ($218 billion), according to a January report by Wood Mackenzie. By 2025 there will stillbe twice as much investment in upstream oil and gas (101 billion) compared to offshore wind (45 billion), WoodMac believes, buta decade ago the difference was two orders of magnitude.
There are limited points of actual overlap in the work done by supply chain companies between fixed offshore wind and offshore oil and gas developments, said Mhairidh Evans, principal analyst forupstream supply chain research at Wood Mackenzie, who co-authored the report.
Still, the similarities that do exist alongside the rapid growth trajectory for offshore wind are drawing in many ofthe larger oil and gas service companies,such as Saipem and Subsea 7, Evans said. "When we start to think about floating wind, the overlaps increase. Offshore oil and gas service companies have the expertise on deepwater and harsh environment operations and floating structures."
Wood, headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, is one of the 10 largest oil services companies globally. It has been diversifying its business aggressively in recent years.In 2014, 96 percent of its revenue was from the oil and gas sector. Now mid- and upstream oil and gas make up one-third.
In addition to offshore wind, Wood is also pushing into onshore renewables. Last week the company announced $100 million worth of work building onshore wind farms in the U.S.
The events of the last two months only serve to reinforce our view that our strategy is the correct one,"Martyn Link, Wood's chief strategy officer, told GTM in an email. "Were not fully insulated from the impact of the oil price crash.But as a more diverse business, were certainly much more resilient."
Were optimistic about the offshore wind market as we can see significant capital investment being planned over the next five years in many of our priority regions," Link said.
Wood plans to play a role in all stages of an offshore windprojects lifecycle, from design and planningthrough to operations and maintenance. It's also makingmoves in other sectors, including carbon capture and storage andpower transmission.
Equinor, the Norwegian oil producer, has made an early push into floating offshore wind and sees significant overlap with its traditional businesses.The list ofcontractors for Equinor's88-megawatt Hywind Tampen floating offshore wind project includes a number of firms with an oil and gas background, including Subsea 7 and Kvaerner.
Our strategy todevelop into a broad energy company, to develop profitable oil and gas projects, and to grow our renewable business is still valid in the current downturn in the oil and gas market, an Equinor spokesperson told GTM.
This is not the oil industrys first crisis,and many oilfield service companies are still recovering from the lastprice crash.
Already, companies were looking to diversify, to balance their upstream businesses with something less directly exposed to commodity price fluctuations,be that renewables, downstream/chemicals and so on," said WoodMac's Evans.
"Another downturn,just as the service sector was getting back on its feet again,puts that into a more urgent light."
Oil services companies with the most specific crossover with offshore wind's needs will reap the most immediate rewards. But even as the gap between the two sectors narrows, offshore windwon't be enough to patch up the oil sector's triple crises on its own.
Is offshore wind the thing that will come to the oil and gas supply chains rescue? I doubt it," said Evans."But for some specific companies, it could really help falling revenues and spare capacity."
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Can Offshore Wind Prop Up Oils Supply Chain Through the Price Crunch? - Greentech Media News
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Denmark and Poland are refusing to bail out companies registered in offshore tax havens – Business Insider – Business Insider
Posted: at 3:44 am
Denmark and Poland are refusing to let companies registered in offshore tax havens access financial aid from their coronavirus bailout packages.
The Danish finance ministry on Saturday extended its bailout program into July but stressed that firms based in tax havens would no longer be covered.
"Companies seeking compensation after the extension of the schemes must pay the tax to which they are liable under international agreements and national rules," a translation of the statement said.
"Companies based on tax havens in accordance with EU guidelines cannot receive compensation, insofar as it is possible to cut them off under EU law and any other international obligations."
Poland took similar measureson April 8. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said large companies wanting a chunk of a roughly $6 billion bailout fund must pay domestic business taxes.
"Let's end tax havens, which are the bane of modern economies," he added.
A bench roped off by the police in London. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo
Tax havens are countries that have low or no business taxes. Companies that officially register themselves at addresses in them often avoid paying business taxes to the countries in which they operate.
Among the most famous havens are Gibraltar, the Bahamas, Andorra, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and Panama.
It is unclear whether other European nations will follow the example of Denmark and Poland, but it is unlikely that authorities in the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Luxembourg will do so. All four have provisions making them attractive to businesses that also allow them to be registered offshore.
"Together, they are responsible for half of the world's corporate tax avoidance risks," the Tax Justice Network said last year.
"Companies that seek to dodge their obligations to broader society by cutting their tax bills shouldn't expect to get bailed out when things go wrong," Robert Palmer, the executive director at Tax Justice UK, told Business Insider.
"The UK government should seriously look at copying Denmark's approach. Any bailout needs to come with conditions to ensure good business behaviour."
A spokeswoman for Her Majesty's Treasury told Business Insider: "Obviously we've set up schemes at pace, and they are designed to support jobs in Britain."
"Sometimes that will involve foreign companies who employ people in the UK for example. But we are looking into the specific point on tax havens where as you know we have already taken considerable action."
The British Virgin Islands. wikimediacommons/Henry A-W
Some industries are famous for making the most of offshore tax breaks most notably the cruise industry, which has been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.
Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line, which make up more than two-thirds of the industry, are formally registered in Panama, Liberia, and Bermuda.
Several cruise ships have played host to major coronavirus outbreaks while at sea, drawing international media attention.
Cruise operators had called on the US government for a bailout and hoped the Senate's $2 trillion relief bill would provide a lifeline. However, it stipulated that companies must be "created or organized" in the US, and the Cruise Lines International Association told The Washington Post on March 26 that major cruise lines would be unable to get aid.
The cruise ship Diamond Princess anchored in Yokohama, Japan, on February 7. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
Experts and campaigners in several nations have called on governments to go after offshore funds, saying that claiming these taxes is vital to weathering the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
"Sustainable, robust public responses to shocks require administrative capacity and tax resources," Rasmus Corlin Christensen, a research associate at the International Centre for Tax and Development, told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists earlier this month.
"Tax avoidance and global tax competition, more broadly, strain the ability of countries to raise those resources."
Fabio Fazio, a prominent Italian broadcaster, said tax avoiders were complicit in deaths from the virus.
A doctor in a lounge after completing a round of examinations during a night shift in his ward in the COVID-19 section of the Maggiore Hospital in Parma, Italy, on April 8. Associated Press
"It has become evident that those who do not pay their taxes are not only guilty of a crime, but of murder: if the beds and the respirators are not there they are partly to blame," he wrote in an article for La Repubblica last month.
Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of The Guardian, said the UK government should force companies with offshore tax breaks to relinquish them in exchange for government aid.
"We're starkly realising our public services are drastically underfunded. So here's a suggestion: before any company receives a penny in public Covid-19 support they must first pledge to scrap any artificial tax avoidance arrangements in future," he tweeted on March 22.
"A huge number of corporations engineer ways of avoiding putting any tax the way of our hospitals & other essential services," he added.
This story was edited shortly after publication to clarify the job description of Rasmus Corlin Christensen. He is a research associate, not a campaigner.
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Coronavirus: Pandemic will see consolidation of offshore captive centres – ComputerWeekly.com
Posted: at 3:44 am
Half of small offshore captive IT centres owned by western multinationals could be mopped up by large suppliers or brought home as they struggle to cope with life with Covid-19.
A combination of business volumes dropping, challenges setting up staff to work from home and the increasing draw of automation could create the right conditions for businesses to sell off their offshore operations or integrate them with other operations.
There are thousands of IT delivery centres in locations where costs are low and IT skills are abundant. These are mainly in India and are often fully owned, or co-owned with local suppliers, by large global companies as well as mid-sized western businesses.
According to outsourcing advisory ISG, about 40% of these centres are categorised as small, with fewer than 500 people.
ISG said a lack of scale and logistical capabilities meant these centres had not been able to respond quickly to the challenges brought by the Covid-19 coronavirus, which has forced staff to stay at home.
The Indian government put its 1.3 billion population inlockdown on 24 March, meaning everyone was to stay at home. It has since relaxed this for certain types of companies, including IT service providers, which are now permitted to have 50% of staff in work.
Large suppliers in India, such as Tata Consultancy Services, have used their expertise to scale up home working in response. In Tatas case, it has gone from having about 40% set up to work securely from home before the pandemic, to 90% today.
Smaller centres are struggling, however, according to ISG. Smaller providers and smaller captive centres have struggled with the global work-from-home orders, said Stanton Jones, director and principal analyst at ISG.
We are seeing backlogs develop at many of our clients in critical areas that are often run out of centres like mortgage processing for banks, he added.
Smaller providers and smaller captive centres have struggled with the global work-from-home orders. We are seeing backlogs develop at many of our clients Stanton Jones, ISG
Jones said this would create the right environment for businesses to sell off their offshore centres. We believe we will soon see an increased focus on monetisation of these centres as a way to beef up operational resiliency and to infuse much-needed cash, he added.
The large IT service providers looking to expand their portfolios are likely to be the potential acquirers. We anticipatepossibly half of all global captives with fewer than 500 people being repatriated or acquired, said Jones.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) technology, to replace full-time equivalent staff offshore, could accelerate this consolidation, according to ISG.We will likely see a switch from labour arbitrage strategies to microservices, artificial intelligence and RPA solutions to address the business resilience challenges, it said.
According to a study by EY, over a third of businesses accelerated their automation strategies when the extend of the disruption, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, became clear.
The sudden and unexpected nature of Covid-19 has compelled executives to re-evaluate operating models. While building agility and resilience have been dominant themes for much of the past decade, the unique nature of the current situation has left many companies unprepared. According to EY, 36% of businesses are acceleratinginvestment in automation, while 41% are re-evaluating their automation plans.
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Kayaker rescued offshore near MOTBY – The Hudson Reporter
Posted: at 3:44 am
The Bayonne Fire Department rescues a kayaker.
The Bayonne Fire Department rescues a kayaker.
While many choose to stay at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some residents have other plans. For one man, that meant kayaking, unsuccessfully, in the Hudson River.
According to Fire Chief Keith Weaver, members of the Bayonne Fire Department (BFD) responded to reports of a kayaker in distress in the waters off the city on April 18.
Responding firefighters found a man clinging to his kayak in the middle of the inlet that separates the peninsula at the former Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY) and the LeFante Way Shopping Plaza. At the scene, first responders communicated with the stranded kayaker using a bullhorn and determined that he was wearing a life vest.
The victim was approximately 100 yards from either shore and was unreachable except by boat, Weaver said. The BFD vessel successfully reached the man and pulled him to safety.
All hands on deck!
The victim was transported by the BFD Marine unit to the United States Coast Guard station for further transportation. At the Coast Guard station, the conscious and alert man was met and treated by McCabe Ambulance EMTs who subsequently transported the him to Bayonne Medical Center. No further information has been released regarding the mans condition.
The Bayonne Police Department, McCabe Ambulance, New York Police Department Marine and Aviation units, Port Authority Police, and Bayonne Office of Emergency Management all responded, according to Weaver.
On the scene, Weaver said hes happy that the incident ended well.
Far too often, people run into trouble in the rough waters around Bayonne, but due to the quick action of our Fire Department and other first responders, this young man will be able to tell this story, Weaver said. This is a great example of how wearing a life vest prevented a tragedy.
Weaver said that everyone should always wear a life vest while on the water.
Meanwhile, Mayor James Davis reminded residents on an April 18 COVID-19 update to continue to follow Gov. Phil Murphys stay-at-home order to curtail the spread of the pandemic.
And the likelihood of a water rescue?
For updates on this and other stories, check http://www.hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Daniel Israel can be reached at disrael@hudsonreporter.com.
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KNOT Offshore Partners LP Announces Extension of Charter of Torill Knutsen and Change to Board – Business Wire
Posted: at 3:44 am
ABERDEEN, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KNOT Offshore Partners LP (NYSE:KNOP) (the Partnership or KNOT Offshore Partners)
Torill Knutsen
The Partnership announced today that Eni Trading and Shipping S.p.A. (Eni) exercised two of its one-year options to extend the time charter of the Torill Knutsen until November 2022. In connection with the early exercise by Eni of its options, the Partnership has granted Eni a further option to extend the time charter by one additional one-year period. Eni now has the option to extend the time charter by two one-year periods until November 2024.
Gary Chapman, CEO, said This early declaration and agreement with Eni further strengthens the Partnerships contracted revenue streams and validates our belief that our vessels remain an essential part of our customers supply chains, even in these volatile times. While other vessel charters will naturally come up for renewal in the coming years, we believe that our strategy, our industry-leading position and forecast demand and supply for shuttle tankers leave us very well-placed, as demonstrated by this announcement today.
Change to the Board
The Partnership also announced that its general partner has appointed Mr. Junya Omoto to replace Mr. Takuji Banno on the Partnerships Board of Directors, effective April 1, 2020.
Mr. Omoto has served as the General Manager, Offshore Business Group, for Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) since April 1, 2020 and from 2016 was previously Deputy General Manager of NYKs Offshore Business Group. Mr. Omoto joined NYK in 1993 and until 2006 he served in the Container and Logistics divisions in Japan and Hong Kong. In 2007, Mr. Omoto joined the Petroleum group and from 2010 he acted as Manager of the LNG Group. Mr. Omoto graduated from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Law.
About KNOT Offshore Partners LP
KNOT Offshore Partners LP owns, operates and acquires shuttle tankers under long-term charters in the offshore oil production regions of the North Sea and Brazil. KNOT Offshore Partners LP is structured as a publicly traded master limited partnership. KNOT Offshore Partners LPs common units trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KNOP.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning future events and KNOT Offshore Partners operations, performance and financial condition. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain the words believe, anticipate, expect, estimate, project, will be, will continue, will likely result, plan, intend or words or phrases of similar meanings. These statements involve known and unknown risks and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond KNOT Offshore Partners control. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to, among other things:
All forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for KNOT Offshore Partners to predict all of these factors. Further, KNOT Offshore Partners cannot assess the impact of each such factor on its business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to be materially different from those contained in any forward-looking statement. KNOT Offshore Partners does not intend to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in KNOT Offshore Partners expectations with respect thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
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UK grappling with implications of lower oil price – Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine
Posted: at 3:44 am
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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COVID-19 Cases Confirmed on Offshore Oil Platforms in Gulf – TIME
Posted: at 3:43 am
(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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Coronavirus: Philippine government looking into proposal to let offshore gaming operators resume operations – The Straits Times
Posted: at 3:43 am
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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NBFCs bonds rally 11-36% offshore, what triggered the rally? – Economic Times
Posted: at 3:43 am
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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