Monthly Archives: August 2022

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is leading the response to the leak.

PORT FOURCHON, La. Shell Oil reported that a connection between two major oil pipelines on land leaked Thursday near Port Fourchon, forcing the company to shut down production at three of its largest deepwater oil platforms off the coast of Louisiana.

Shell can confirm that the Mars and Amberjack Pipelines have been shut-in due to a flange leak at the Fourchon booster station, Shell spokeswoman Cindy Babski said. As a result, Shells deepwater assets in the Mars Corridor Mars, Ursa and Olympus have also been shut in.

An extended shutdown could have a major impact on production because those platforms produce about 410,000 barrels 17.2 million gallons of oil per day. But Babski said in an updated statement later Thursday that Shell expects to have the pipelines back up and running Friday.

The oil leak itself was at a port facility on land and has been contained after two barrels of crude, about 84 gallons, were spilled, Babski said. Chett Chiasson, executive director of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission, confirmed the leak happened at the end of Highway 1, at the junction with the only road to Grand Isle to the east and Port Fourchon to the west.

Chiasson also confirmed that the flange that leaked was a connection between the Mars Pipeline and the Amberjack Pipeline.

The Louisiana State Police said its HAZMAT unit was not deployed. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is leading the response to the leak.

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Shell shuts offshore oil pipelines after connection on land leaks - WWLTV.com

The University of Plymouth and the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult have established a new programme to develop offshore renewable tech: the Collaborative Offshore Renewable Energy Subsea Systems (COSS) research accelerator.

Theres pressing need to hasten progress. In order to attain the 8,000TWh required in 2030 under the International Energy Agencys Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario, the world must increase its electricity generated by wind by an average of 18% per year during 2021-2030.

It is also necessary to raise annual capacity additions to 310GW of onshore wind and 80GW of offshore wind.

With the UK Government itself seeking 50GW of offshore wind by 2030, projects such as these could be key. Can this research collaboration hasten the scale and pace of deployment for UK renewables, and share offshore wind knowledge across the globe?

COSS is a collaborative partnership between the University of Plymouth and ORE Catapult, explains Simon Cheeseman, sector lead for wave and tidal energy at ORE Catapult, and Deborah Greaves OBE, professor of ocean engineering at the University of Plymouth.

Both parties meet regularly to identify potential R&D projects and to combine their respective networks, with a view to seeking industrial sponsors for those projects. This engagement with industry is designed to encourage and stimulate research activity that draws on the specialist expertise held in both the ORE Catapult and the university.

It is also designed to take advantage of the universitys facilities, providing research engineers and sponsored PhD students to support collaborative projects delivered through the partnership. Where appropriate, the local supply chain will be invited to join the collaboration to help resolve technical challenges and build up its own capacities and capabilities.

Its evident this is a scaling up to hasten fossil alternatives and enable net-zero faster, and looks to take advantage of particular benefits unique to the University of Plymouth.

The south-west is home to a wealth of expertise in emerging ORE technologies, and unique natural assets, say Cheeseman and Greaves.

It draws from a rich heritage of marine and maritime expertise and, from a university perspective, we have been pioneering new technologies and assessing their potential impacts on marine and coastal environments for over two decades.

Through the initiative, the partners will seek to accelerate offshore wind, wave and tidal power, with a particular emphasis on floating wind.

The UK Energy Security Strategy has announced more demanding targets for 2030 and beyond, say Cheeseman and Greaves. With ORE Catapult having a presence in the region and the university hosting a number of world class facilities, the COSS represents a pragmatic way to join forces and drive innovative solutions that contribute to net-zero.

It is also a means of helping the supply chain demonstrate its capability and grow its capacity ahead of the anticipated Celtic Sea procurement calls over the coming years.

In addition, the new partnership aligns with the universitys leadership of the national Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy) Hub. This is a $10.7m (9m) million Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council-funded project, which provides aims to connect academia, industry, policymakers and the public to encourage innovation in offshore wind, wave and tidal energy.

Regarding specific drivers and targets for COSS, these are still being defined: ORE Catapult and the university are still in the process of outlining key performance indicators that will govern the annual throughput of projects and the scale of industrial collaboration, say Cheeseman and Greaves.

The partners are among those involved in a number of multi-million pound initiatives, such as the $46.2m (45m) Tidal Stream Industry Energiser project and the $7.6m (6.4m) Cornwall FLOW Accelerator initiative, but there is no direct funding associated with COSS.

We are working on the basis of securing industry sponsorship to fund projects and industry PhD places.

Offshore, self-evidently, is a tough environment. As such, a focus on the monitoring and repair side of the tech will be key.

The skills and capability of research and development in the south-west, and University of Plymouth in particular, will centre around the hydrodynamics of floating structures, offshore engineering and control systems, say Cheeseman and Greaves.

Through these, we are looking to manage the interaction of wave, tide and metocean conditions with wave, tidal and floating offshore wind platforms. Linked to this is the study and development of autonomous marine systems and maritime cyber security for the inspection, maintenance and repair of offshore systems and environmental monitoring.

Additionally, two PhD studentships are due to start this autumn, covering integrated modelling of floating offshore wind turbine systems (FOWTS). This aims to develop a nonlinear coupled model for design.

Researchers will also complete work on real-time hybrid testing for physical modelling of new high-capacity floating offshore wind turbines. They hope this will provide a step-change in the ability of the offshore renewable energy community to conduct scale modelling of FOWTS.

The partners explain that this new research collaboration has been established in direct support of the UK Governments expanded ambition to deploy up to 50GW of offshore wind by 2030, with up to 5GW provided by floating offshore wind.

This should be more than enough to power every home in the UK and support UK commitment to achieve net-zero by 2050.

To help the country meet its net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050, all forms of ORE will be required, says Greaves .

Although they are at different stages of maturity, the need to maintain and accelerate research and development is paramount. We know the natural resources are there and across science and industry we have the expertise to harness them.

However, the fact remains that if we are to truly realise the sectors potential it needs more than just numbers on paper and goodwill. The sixth carbon budget and balanced pathway, recommended by the Committee for Climate Change, would require an investment programme worth around $59.7bn (50bn) each year from 2030 to 2050.

But, more than ever before, future emissions reductions will require people to be actively involved and that must be embedded throughout policy.

From the ORE Catapult perspective, the programme remains fully committed to supporting the transition from fossil fuels at pace and scale.

Its worth noting the ORE Catapult has operations in Glasgow, Blyth, Levenmouth, Aberdeen, the Humber, the East of England, the south-west and Wales and operates a collaborative research partnership in China.

Therefore, there is ample scope to share gleaned knowledge globally and advance other economies, not just the UKs. All in all, this is a fascinating space to keep an eye on, awaiting new tech to shift further the role of renewables in the energy transition.

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Inside the UK's latest offshore wind research accelerator - Power Technology

Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind, a joint venture of TotalEnergies and Corio Generation, has selected Offshore Design Engineering Ltd. (ODE) to deliver Owners Engineer support to the pre-front-end engineering design (FEED) stage for its 1.5 GW Outer Dowsing offshore wind project in the UK.

As Owners Engineer, ODE will conduct concept development and selection for components such as wind turbine foundations, onshore and offshore substations, and inter-array cables and will support the definition of the projects Employers Requirements.

Located 54 kilometres off Englands Lincolnshire coast, the Outer Dowsing project will be one of the UKs largest offshore wind farms upon completion, according to ODE.

Following the recent approval by the UK Government of the Crown Estates Habitats Regulations Assessment process, the projects developers submitted a scoping report to the Planning Inspectorate last week for their wind farm, forming part of an extensive consultation exercise with stakeholders.

According to Corio Generation, the views gathered during the scoping process, together with ongoingsurveys, will be used to guide the design and layout of the wind farm and its associated infrastructure, ahead of formal submission for development consent which is planned for late 2023.

As a reminder, the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy gave approval for over 8 GW of offshore wind to move into the next step in the seabed licensing process which means that theOuter Dowsing offshore wind projectcan now progress to enter into an Agreement for Lease with the Crown Estate.

Once fully commissioned, the wind farm will generate enough renewable electricity to power over 1.6 million households.

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ODE Wins Work on UK's 1.5 GW Offshore Wind Project - Offshore WIND

RALEIGH Earlier this month, Gov. Roy Cooper joined Dominion Energy CEO Robert M. Blue to observe Dominion Energy wind turbines off the coast of Virginia and addressed the third North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies (NC T.O.W.E.R.S.) meeting in Elizabeth City.

The potential for reliable, affordable offshore wind energy in North Carolina that grows our economy and benefits our environment has never been stronger, Cooper said. The economy is rapidly embracing clean energy and seeing the wind turbines up close underscores how investing in this exciting industry will bring tremendous opportunities to combat climate change, power homes and businesses, and put money in the pockets of North Carolina families.

Dominion Energy is at the forefront of offshore wind development in the United States. Our experiences with the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project will help make commercial scale offshore wind a reality in the Mid-Atlantic, to the benefit of our Virginia and North Carolina customers, said Robert M. Blue, Dominion Energy Chair, President and CEO. Developing this burgeoning industry will create new jobs and economic benefits, while lowering fuel costs for our customers and diversifying our energy supply.

North Carolina continues to support offshore wind as an opportunity for economic growth and to further the states transition toward a clean energy future, according to a recent statement from the North Carolina Department of Commerce. In June 2021, Cooper signed Executive Order No. 218, establishing North Carolinas offshore wind development goals of 2.8 gigawatts off the North Carolina coast by 2030 and 8.0 GW by 2040. The order also established the NC TOWERS taskforce.

At an Aug. 4 meeting of the NC TOWERS team community members and stakeholders heard details on programs and policies for developing offshore wind energy projects, foster industry relationships throughout the offshore wind supply chain and advance opportunities for equitable access to the economic benefits created by the offshore wind industry.

In June 2022, NC TOWERS released a report highlighting its work and identifying goals for the taskforce in the 2022-2023 year. The taskforce has established four subcommittees to focus on Economic Opportunity and Business Development, Workforce, Education, and Training Opportunity Development, Infrastructure, Environmental Justice, and Inclusion, and Outreach and Engagement.

Cooper issued Executive Order No. 246 in January 2022 to establish next steps in the states plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and reaffirm North Carolinas commitment to a clean energy economy. The order updated North Carolinas economy-wide carbon reduction emissions goals, increasing the statewide goal to a 50% reduction from 2005 levels by 2030 and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, no later than 2050.

In October 2020, Cooper joined the Governors of Virginia and Maryland to sign the SMART-POWER MOU to advance offshore wind development and economic opportunities for the region.

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North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper continues to explore offshore wind energy - The Robesonian

File image courtesy NAC / CC BY SA 4.0

PublishedAug 10, 2022 7:10 PM by The Maritime Executive

Scotland has opened a brand new kind of offshore wind lease round aimed specifically at providing clean power to offshore oil and gas platforms. The newly-announced Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) lease round is additional to the massive ScotWind auction for commercial-scale offshore wind projects, which was completed in January.

The new, unique leasing round will help Scotland's offshore industry decarbonize enough to meet the targets of the UK North Sea Transition Deal, which calls for a 50 percent cut in emissions from offshore production by 2030. The INTOG wind auction solicits proposals from offshore wind developers for projects that provide electrical power for platforms or for other innovative purposes. Developers with new ideas can apply for small-scale leases to try out new technologies at a scale of less than 100 MW.

Crown Estate Scotland has made the terms of the lease agreements more attractive for developers by extending the option periods to seven years (up from five) and doubling the lease period to 50 years (from 25) for platform-electrification projects.

The application window for the lease round closes in mid-November, and depending on the quality and quantity of the proposals, results should be announced by the end of the first quarter of next year.??INTOG represents an exciting opportunity to help decarbonise oil and gas installations and enable innovative projects which are important in lowering costs for the commercial deployment of offshore wind, reducing risk, and developing Scotland as a destination for innovation and technical expertise," said Colin Palmer, Director of Marine for Crown Estate Scotland. "Taken as a whole, INTOG will play a significant role in helping us reach net-zero and meet our energy requirements of the future."

Top image: UK North Sea oil platforms (NAC / CC BY SA 4.0)

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Scotland is Installing Offshore Wind to Power Offshore Oil Platforms - The Maritime Executive

August 12 (Renewables Now) - Canada-based Northland Power Inc (TSE:NPI) and Germanys RWE Renewables GmbH are adding a fourth project to their Nordsee offshore wind cluster in the German North Sea to reach an overall capacity of 1.5 GW.

The 225-MW Godewind scheme is joining the 433-MW Nordsee Two, the 420-MW Nordsee Three and the 480-MW Delta Nordsee to form a single bundle, the Canadian power producer said on Friday. The cluster will be developed by Northland Power and RWE through a joint venture that was set up in January.

With the additional project, the unit of energy major RWE AG (ETR:RWE) and its Canadian partner will seek to enhance the size and scale of their collaboration and realise synergies. The deal for the JVs expansion is pending formal closing, Northland Power said.

As previously agreed, Northland Power and RWE will develop, build and operate the wind farms through an entity that is 51%-controlled by the German firm. The duos plan is to develop and manage the projects on a joint basis and reach commercial operations between 2026 and 2028.

The expanded cluster will be located in close proximity to the 332-MW Nordsee One wind farm, which is jointly owned by RWE and Northland Power.

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RWE, Northland expand Nordsee offshore wind tie-up to 1.5 GW - Renewables Now

Re Offshore wind developer sensitive to publics concerns (Other Views, Aug. 6): I read the column by Kenneth Kimmell, vice president of offshore wind development for Avangrid Renewables, with interest. I question his due diligence.

He states there is ample parking on the north side of the market. There are approximately 70 spaces in the lot he references. The lot the company will commandeer behind the market has 136 spaces. That creates a shortfall of 66 spaces where residents can now park.

He goes on to state the traffic along Sandbridge Road will not be impacted by the laying of cable. Now, I admit Im not a traffic engineer, but unless they plan on using a shovel instead of heavy equipment, it is impossible not to impact the flow of traffic.

Kimmell goes on to state, our intent is to lay cables only in already disturbed areas ... . Sandbridge Road is a two-lane road that is barely wide enough for two cars to pass safely. Over the years we have pleaded with the city to improve this section of Sandbridge Road. Their reply has always been they cant because it is protected wetlands. I would like to know where these already disturbed areas are located and why the city hasnt used this information to improve the road in the past.

The wind farm is located off the coast of North Carolina where there have been 55 hurricanes since 1851, according to UniversalProperty.com. North Carolina is the third most vulnerable state for hurricanes on the east coast.

Janet Y. Meyer, Virginia Beach

Re Offshore wind developer sensitive to publics concerns (Other Views, Aug. 6): I read Avangrid Renewables response to Sandbridge residents concerns. My question is why not tie in the power for both wind projects, Dominion Energys recently approved and Avangrids newly proposed, at the same location?

Having Avangrid tie in at the state military reserve as proposed for Dominion does mean some more miles of undersea cabling, but it would save the expense and disruption of digging up Sandbridge. After all, whether the cables from the two projects come ashore separately or together, they are going to tie into Dominions infrastructure.

James Luehman, Virginia Beach

This morning, at my local store, I met a young mother and her 3-year-old son. She held a sign that said, Please help us. She was a beautiful young mother with sparkling blue eyes and an exaggerated thin frame. Her face was blistered from the sun, her nose sore and peeling.

She and her son were sleeping in a car. She had a fistful of $1 bills given to her from the sympathetic shoppers who passed her, but not enough for one nights stay.

I filled her meds and called shelters and emergency services. The first emergency service for homeless mothers and children was an adoption agency. I called another emergency shelter. It was closed on the weekends. Then I called another; she could only get in if she was beaten and abused.

Finally, a Norfolk agency said, there is no help. She can put her on a list; this worker buys hotel rooms for mothers and kids with her own money. But unless youre a pregnant mother, politicians do not care. Children dont vote and neither do the homeless.

Republicans, as long as they can claim, they are saving the babies, they dont care. But once the child is born and is homeless or in need of medical care? They blame you for societys ills.

The mother and 3-year-old? I left her begging in the Walmart parking lot. There is no help for them; they will no doubt sleep in a car again tonight, in America in the 21st century. Where is our humanity?

Lisa Petry, Chesapeake

Weekly

The week's top opinion content and an opportunity to participate in a weekly question on a topic that affects our region.

Re Virginia Beach book critics argue one-size-fits-all obscenity standard no longer effective; advocates disagree (Aug. 8): I see that Del. Tim Anderson and former congressional candidate Tommy Altman are back at banning books again.

They are not satisfied with taking books out of school libraries, but are going after bookstores as well. As stated in the article, Altman didnt like what he read on seven pages of a book that is 240 pages long and decided to object to it. These gentlemen not only want the pages banned from bookstores, they want a temporary injunction against anybody who sells, transports, etc., the books. Why dont people, especially these two, understand that a parent can decided for his or her own child what he or she reads?

What is next for Anderson and Altman? Burning books?

Lynn Davidson, Chesapeake

Every law-abiding U.S. citizen and immigrant seeking citizenship should be supportive of stopping Mexican cartel, illegal infusion of fentanyl and all drugs across our southern border. Period.

Come on, President Joe Biden, stop the death pill. Direct and focus the Department of Homeland Security on its job to safeguard the homeland. Today, you are miserably failing. Come on, Biden, wake up and get engaged.

John R. Baer, Yorktown

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Letters for Aug. 12: Offshore wind will be disruptive to Sandbridge - The Virginian-Pilot

Offshore staff

LONDON Trade association Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) has issued new guidelines to help UK offshore oil and gas companies reduce methane emissions from their production of oil and gas.

The guidelines coincide with implementation of the associations Methane Action Plan (MAP), one of the targets of last years North Sea Transition Deal between the UK government and the offshore oil and gas industry.

Methane is thought to have 20 to 86 times the impact of carbon emissions. Globally, the oil and gas industry is said to be the third largest emitter of methane after agriculture and waste.

It has a shorter atmospheric lifespan compared to CO2, OEUK added, so reducing methane emissions can have a near-immediate positive impact on the atmosphere that carbon reductions alone cannot achieve.

MAP commits the sector to halve its methane emissions by 2030 from levels in 2018 and to adopt the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) methane intensity target of 0.25% by 2025.

It also recommends that companies and owners of offshore installations set up their own action plans by year-end 2023. The guidelines should provide assistance in terms of identification of methane sources, detection and measurement, quantification, and abatement

OEUKs Emissions Improvement Manager Thibaut Cheret said, Although the offshore oil and gas industry represents just 2.7% of total UK methane emissions, we recognize that theres always more to be done. These guidelines will help steer the sector on its journey to net zero, showing wider leadership as to what can be achieved, even in a mature basin.

08.11.2022

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OEUK issues guidance on offshore methane reduction measures - Offshore magazine