Monthly Archives: March 2022

The area off Southeastern North Carolina's coast being considered for offshore wind will be divided into two leases when companies bid on the rights to develop the ocean areas 17 nautical miles from Bald Head Island, federal officials announced Friday.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued its final sale notice to lease the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area on Friday, set to officially appear in the Federal Registry on Monday.

The move is the penultimate action remaining before the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will select a winner or winners of an auction for the spaces, scheduledMay 11. If developed, the areas could generate up to 1.3 gigawatts, enough to power half a million homes, according to BOEM.

If plans progress, the facilities carry the potential to generate tens of thousands of jobs and billions in economic development opportunities for Southeastern North Carolina, according to the latest estimates.

Stakeholders are preparing to beat thelooming auction timeline with haste, as a moratorium banning new offshore leases, imposed by former President Donald Trump, begins July 1 and lasts through 2032 in an area including Wilmington East.

Under the directive of the Biden administration, BOEM has accelerated offshore wind energy lease opportunities and revived plans for Wilmington East, which had stalled in 2015.

Biden instituted the nations first-ever offshore wind energy goal last March, aiming for 30 gigawatts by 2030 and 110 gigawatts by 2050. Only two offshore wind projects are in operation in the U.S., generating energy that represents less than 1% of Bidens next-decade goal.

This is an historic time for domestic offshore wind energy development, Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a release. We will continue using every tool in our toolbox to tackle the climate crisis, reduce our emissions to reach the Presidents bold goals, and advance environmental justice.

Last month, BOEM tentatively awarded six leases at New York Bight, luring the highest offshore lease bids on record, with the companies bidding a combined $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres, or roughly $8,900 an acre.

Wilmington East's final sale notice tweaks several aspects of the potential leasing arrangement first presented for public comment in November.

First, the area has condensed, from roughly 128,000 acres to nearly 110,100 acres. BOEM shaved off acreage closest to shore, extending the beginning barrier from 15 nautical miles to roughly 17 nautical miles. Last summer, several coastalgovernments in Brunswick County asked BOEM to impose a 24-nautical-mile setback to protect viewshed impacts. In January, the Southeastern Wind Coalition released visualizations of a full-build-out scenario at 15 nautical miles from shore that showed the turbines would not be visible from shore to the unassisted human eye.

Second, two leases are being offered. Leading up to Fridays decision, BOEM considered one to three leases and sought comment from stakeholders on this and other leasing arrangements.

A consortium of the worlds most active and prolific offshore wind energy companies have already indicated their interest in vying for the right to study the spaces viability. In comments submitted earlier this year to BOEM, some corporations said they preferred a single lease, as it would reduce redundant infrastructure requirements and provide flexibility within the space. Others argued more than one space would encourage competition and keep energy prices fair.

Having two lease areas means more economic benefit for the state through additional competition, development flexibility, and multiple players in the space, Katharine Kollins, president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition, said in a statement Friday. Additional lease provisions will drive incentive for localized supply chain and workforce development, allowing North Carolina the ability to take advantage of the $100B at our doorstep.

In addition to thefederal push for clean wind energy, the state has imposed its own ambitious goals to curb carbon emissions. In June, Gov. Roy Cooper set a wind energy goal of 2.8 gigawatts by 2030, and in October, he signed House Bill 951, which could lead to a 70% reduction of 2005-level emissions by then. The bill tasks theN.C. State Utilities Commission with approving a plan to achieve this reorientation, which could involve a customer rate increase.

Duke Energy has committed to meeting the state's and its own 2050 net-zero target. The state's largest energy producer is in the midst of studying how it will achieve these goals, with offshore wind being one potential strategy. "As we continue to evaluate the potential for offshore wind in the Carolinas, we have taken preliminary steps to maintain our optionality by becoming a qualified bidder to participate in the Wilmington East ... lease area auction," Duke Energy spokeswoman Jennifer Garber wrote in an email Friday.

Congressman David Rouzer, R-07, said the development of wind energy in Wilmington East will provide "an economic shot in the arm for many communities that desperately need it." In a statement, Rouzer said he was pleased with BOEM's reductionof the leasing area in light of viewshed concerns an issue he personally urged BOEM officials to consider in writing and in a meeting last summer.

He also saidit is critical for America to be energy dominant in oil, natural gas and renewables as highlighted by the Russian war on Ukraine. Last April, Rouzer was among six other members of Congress to urge BOEM to lease wind areas in advance of Trump's moratorium, which poses a "critical threat to our ability to develop this resource," their letter states.

Companies can bid on one or both leases, with each area about 55,000 acres. Both areas have similar wind resource potential, according to BOEM.

BOEM is offering a 20% credit to bidders that commit to investing in workforce training or supply chain development programs. This commitment is being incentivized to support the rapid progress required to allow for the greatest amount of domestic prosperity in a nascent industry. Lessees will also be required to report engagement with stakeholders, including underserved communities and ocean users, to promote a cohesive use of the area.

The final notice identifies 16 companies as legally, technically, and financially qualified to hold a lease at Wilmington East. This includes:

547 Energy LLC

Arevia Power LLC

Avangrid Renewables, LLC

BP US Offshore Wind Energy LLC

Invenergy Long Bay Offshore LLC

Carolina Offshore Wind LLC

Duke Energy Renewables Wind, LLC

EDF Renewables Development, Inc.

JERA Renewables NA, LLC

Masdar Offshore Wind Americas LLC

MRP Offshore Wind Farm LLC

Orsted North America Inc.

OW North America Ventures LLC

RWE Offshore Wind Holdings, LLC

Shell New Energies US LLC

TotalEnergies Renewables USA, LLC

Should any of the companies choose to participate in the auction, they must indicate their interest to BOEM by April 11 and submit a $2 million deposit by April 25.

See the article here:

Two offshore wind leases to be auctioned for Wilmington East - Greater Wilmington Business Journal

Centricas 49MW Roosecote battery storage project, commissioned in 2018 in Cumbria, northeast England. Image: Centrica.

Centrica Business Solutions has acquired a 30MW fully consented battery energy storage project in Scotland, UK, which will help manage North Sea offshore wind farms.

The two-hour duration (60MWh) battery storage plant in Dyce, near Aberdeen, was developed by Cragside Energy Limited and backed by Omni Partners LLP.

It obtained planning consent in November 2021, and currently has a go-live date of mid-2024. Construction is expected to last eight months, and be aligned with its grid connection date.

As the offshore wind sector continues to grow in the UK with research from trade association RenewableUK this week showing there is now a pipeline of 86GW of offshore wind projects, more than eight times the current operational capacity there is an increasing need to manage network constraints.

National Grid paid 244 million (US$321.7 million) to wind farm operators to curtail generation in 2021, for example. Battery storage could help avoid such a cost, storing energy when the network is constrained and releasing it when generation is less abundant or demand higher.

To read the full version of this story visit Current.

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Centrica's 60MWh battery project near Scottish coast will help integrate offshore wind - Energy Storage News

LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - Britain's new energy security strategy will look to expand domestic nuclear and offshore wind capacity to bolster the country's energy independence and bring down the cost of living in the future, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday.

Johnson is expected to set out a new strategy by the end of the month on energy security after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent oil and gas prices soaring.

"We need to go big on nuclear in this country, we need to go much bigger on offshore wind," he told LBC Radio. "We can make sure that by investing in energy production, domestic energy production, independent energy production, we can have sustainable long-term suppliers that will bring down the costs for consumers over the long term."

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Reporting by Kate Holton, Editing by Paul Sandle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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UK needs to go big on nuclear and offshore wind, Johnson says - Reuters.com

SCHENECTADY - General Electric Co. is going to play a role in the construction of electric grid infrastructure for New York's offshore wind farm projects.

Empire Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Norway's Equinor and London-based BP, is building three wind farms off the shores of Long Island under contracts with New York.

GE Renewable Energy announced Tuesday that it had been selected by Empire Offshore Wind to build the required high-voltage electrical equipment, including an onshore substation, to bring electricity from the first wind farm, known as Empire Wind 1, to New York. Bond Civil & Utility Construction of Medford, Mass., is partnering with GE on the project.

Terms of the contract were not revealed, but most of the work will take place downstate. GE and Bond intend to open a Brooklyn office to manage the project.

Empire Wind 1 will be built on 80,000 acres of ocean about 20 miles south of Long Island. It will generate enough electricity to power 500,000 homes.

Although GE Renewable Energy is headquartered in Paris, GE is merging it eventually into GE Power, which is headquartered in Schenectady, as part of a new public company that will be spun off in 2024. GE employs several thousand people in Schenectady, including a large group of engineers and scientists in Niskayuna at GE Research.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been urging GE to become part of the supply chain of Empire Wind 1, hoping it will create jobs in New York state.

The economic development impact from the three Empire Offshore wind farms is expected to exceed $1 billion and provide enough electricity to power 2 million homes.

Equinor, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian government, is managing the project and will be building major equipment staging and assembly port facilities in Brooklyn and just south of the city of Albany in the towns of Bethlehem and Coeymans.

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GE to play role in New York's offshore wind farms - Times Union

All three Norwind Offshore vessels will have Inmarsats Fleet LTE, the all-in-one service that offers continuous connectivity.

PublishedMar 25, 2022 1:17 PM by The Maritime Executive

[By:Inmarsat]

Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications, has reached an integrated connectivity agreement with Norwind Offshore, a vessel owner that supports the development of renewable offshore energy. The partnership covers connectivity and digitalisation needs for three Service Operation Vessels (SOV) operated by Norwind.

The contract includes an existing Platform Supply Vessel undergoing retrofit to become a SOV, with delivery due in May 2022, and a letter of intent covering two newbuilds. All three vessels will have Inmarsats Fleet LTE, the all-in-one service that offers continuous connectivity. Fleet LTE allows vessels to switch automatically between 4G offshore fibre networks to Fleet Xpress Ka-band service when sailing out of LTE coverage zones and to access FleetBroadbands resilient L-band coverage for unlimited back-up. The vessels will also have Fleet Data and Fleet Connect to facilitate digitalisation onboard and Fleet Hotspot for crew wellbeing.

Under the agreement Inmarsat will partner with Norwind in its digitalisation efforts and will create a single cost-effective digital infrastructure for various original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) onboard to monitor equipment and collect data easily without affecting bandwidth. The data collected onboard will further assist in making data-driven decisions at the touch of a button. In addition, Norwind stands to benefit from Inmarsats Certified Application Providers (CAP) programme that hosts a myriad of applications designed for the maritime industry to reduce fuel emissions, enhance vessel performance and crew welfare as well as save lives at sea.

Inmarsats agreement with Norwind Offshore extends beyond core maritime connectivity services, representing a partnership in which we are working closely with our first offshore wind market customer to fulfil its digitalisation objectives, said Eric Griffin, Vice President Offshore, Inmarsat Maritime. Central to this is the single digital infrastructure through which Norwind and its OEMs will gain actionable insights on fuel efficiency, emissions reduction, weather forecasting and more to benefit its vessels operational efficiency.

The integrated solution means Norwind avoids the prohibitive costs of multiple networks or the complications and expense of installing hardware to support individual applications. In addition, through Fleet Hotspot, Norwind can offer high-speed internet access to crew that is independent of operational bandwidth. This provides a more attractive working environment for vessel personnel and meets the expectations of external engineers attending the ship.

We see Inmarsat as the ideal partner for the offshore wind sector, said Roy Ove Standal, Chief Operating Officer, Norwind Offshore. Thanks to our agreement, we now have a clear path to digitalisation which works towards our safety, operational efficiency, sustainability and crew welfare objectives from day one. Fleet LTE allows us to tap into available 4G infrastructure, when such technology is available at the wind parks, thereby minimising the gap between the internet services that can be enjoyed ashore.

Initially launched in 2020, Fleet LTE is now part of Inmarsats far wider investment plans for maritime, which include the seamless integration of multiple technologies into one cohesive ORCHESTRA of solutions. Inmarsat ORCHESTRA is a unique dynamic mesh network that will bring together existing geosynchronous (GEO) satellites including ELERA (L-band) and Global Xpress (Ka-band) with low earth orbit satellites (LEO) and terrestrial 5G into an integrated, high-performance solution to offer the lowest average latency and fastest average speeds available in the maritime industries.

The products and services herein described in this press release are not endorsed by The Maritime Executive.

Continued here:

Inmarsat and Norwind Offshore Partner on Digital Ecosystem - The Maritime Executive

For decades, there has been a something must be done campaign about places like the British Virgin Islands which, for some purposes, are supposedly as British as Kent or Perthshire but, for others, are global protectorates of crime and corruption.

This week, a Foreign Office minister scuttled off to the Caribbean for urgent discussions on how sanctions against Russian oligarchs can be implemented. A little late, you might think.

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On past form, normal business will resume once the shooting stops. A test will come in legislation going through Parliament to oblige offshore companies with UK property to disclose beneficial owners.

There is also a deadline for the British Virgin Islands to launch a public register showing ultimate owners of companies registered there. In practice, will anything change? It hasnt in the face of previous measures which is why the Russians are heading there.

We often hear of things that will never be the same again because of Ukraine. If this turns out to be one of them, the only tears shed would be from those whose wealth requires secrecy and the amoral industry that serves them.

The current governor of the British Virgin Islands started out as a Scottish solicitor and lecturer at Aberdeen University. Im sure John Rankin would agree that, whether in Buchan or the BVI, its easier to catch the crooks if you know who they are.

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Offshore tax havens: Efforts to impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs make this a good time to act against these ghettos of secrecy and dirty money ...

A consortium led by ExxonMobil Corp. will analyze data collected from the Glaucus-2 appraisal well in Block 10 of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus. Drilling of the now completed well demonstrated the presence of a gas reservoir with high quality characteristics, according to the Cyprus Ministry of Energy, Trade, and Industry.

This is the second discovery well in the block, which covers 635,554 acres (2,572 sq km) in the Eastern Mediterranean in about 6,800 ft of water. Data will be used to help determine the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the reservoir more accurately, as well as the potential options for development and commercialization of the discovery.

The well was drilled by the Stena Forth drillship.

Pursuant to current legislation, the consortium will notify the Ministry of Energy, Trade, and Industry of the data evaluation results as soon as they are completed.

In February 2019, ExxonMobil discovered natural gas offshore Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean at the Glaucus-1 well (OGJ Online, Feb. 28, 2019). At the time, the operator said the discovery could represent an in-place natural gas resource of about 5-8 tcf (142-227 billion cu m).

ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Cyprus (Offshore) is operator (60%) with partner Qatar Petroleum International Upstream OPC (40%).

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ExxonMobil to analyze gas discovery offshore Cyprus - Oil & Gas Journal

Malaysias giant Petronas has signed new Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) for five offshore blocks located offshore the coast of Sabah and Sarawak.

Petronas said that the PSCs were signed for SB412, 2W, and X blocks offshore Sabah and SK439/SK440 located off the coast of Sarawak. The blocks were awarded as part of the Malaysia Bid Round 2021.

The contract signing ceremony took place on Tuesday, March 22, at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

The PSC for Block SB412 was signed between Petronas, PTTEP, and SapuraOMV, while the PSCs for ultra-deepwater Blocks 2W and X were signed between Petronas, Sabah Shell Petroleum, Shell Sabah Selatan, and Petronas Carigali.

The PSC for Sarawaks Block SK439/SK440 was signed between Petronas, Shell, and Petroleum Sarawak Exploration & Production.

Petronas Senior Vice President of Malaysia Petroleum Management Mohamed Firouz Asnan signed the PSCs on behalf of the company.

Petronas is pleased that the newly signed PSCs would attract a capital commitment of about RM600 million over $142 million in exploration activities in Malaysia, reflecting the attractiveness of Malaysias hydrocarbon resources potential, Firouz said.

The reduction in global exploration drilling over the past two years has pressured the industry to resolve current supply shortages. As global economies have started to recover post-pandemic, the industry needs to ensure exploration activities continue to sustain production.

Petronas is committed to reducing carbon emissions from our operations with technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage. We look forward to working together with our partners to provide safe and reliable energy to the market, he concluded.

The Malaysia Bid Round is an annual Malaysia licensing round that offers investors diverse upstream opportunities, including exploration acreages, discovered resource opportunities, and late-life-producing assets. The 2021 round was virtually launched in late February 2021.

As for the Malaysia Bid Round 2022, it was launched on January 27 and it offered 14 exploration blocks, six clusters of discovered resource opportunities, and one late-life asset cluster.

Petronas, via Malaysia Petroleum Management, manages petroleum arrangements in Malaysia and provides stewardship on upstream petroleum activities.

To contact the author, emailusername.eldina@gmail.com

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Petronas Expands Portfolio With Five More Offshore Blocks - Rigzone News