OffshoreNews
Anti-Seismic Blasting Lawsuit Filed in South Carolina
Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) attorneys have joined a coalition of conservation groups in filing a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from allowing companies to conduct seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean. The lawsuit maintains that the Trump administration’s approval of “Incidental Harassment Authorizations,” which allow surveying companies to harm dolphins, whales and other sea animals, violate the law. The suit claims these permits violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental...
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Norwegian Safety Agency Orders More Improvements at Goliat
Eni Norge's long-troubled Goliat platform has received another order for required improvemets from Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority. While the facility has made progress in correcting previously-identified deficiencies, newly-discovered issues and the overall quantity of outstanding maintenance pose potential problems going forward, PSA asserted. "The PSA’s observations from this audit show that faults and deficiencies still exist which, until they are corrected, represent a source of uncertainty which makes a negative contribution to the risk picture for the Goliat FPSO," the...
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Saipem's Servers Hit by Cyberattack
In a brief public statement issued Monday, Italian subsea engineering and oil services firm Saipem announced that it had detected an attack on its regional server systems in the Middle East. "We are collecting all the elements useful for assessing the impact on our infrastructures and the actions to be taken to restore normal activities," the firm said. "We are also in the process of notifying the report of the incident to the competent authorities." Saipem officials told Bloomberg that...
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New Battery Application Readied for Offshore Industry
The offshore oil and gas industry is set for more hybrid battery power solutions with the announcement that a lithium-ion battery will be installed on Northern Drilling's West Mira offshore drilling rig. The rig is a sixth-generation, ultra-deepwater semi-submersible designed by Moss Maritime and will be the world's first modern drilling rig to operate a low-emission hybrid (diesel-electric) power plant using lithium-ion energy storage. The solution, from Siemens, consists of four converter-battery systems for a total maximum power of six megawatts....
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Ørsted Sets New Offshore Wind Target
Energy major Ørsted has announced a new offshore wind target as part of a strategic plan approved by the company's Board of Directors. By 2025, the company wants to increase its offshore wind capacity from 11GW to 15GW. CEO and President Henrik Poulsen says: “We expect the global market for renewable energy to more than triple towards 2030. As one of the leading companies within renewable energy, Ørsted has a strong platform to take part in this build-out.” The company's...
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Deep Sea Mining Zone Hosts CO2-Consuming Bacteria
Scientists have discovered that bacteria in the deepest parts of the seafloor are absorbing carbon dioxide and could be an additional food source for other deep-sea life. Prof. Andrew K. Sweetman from Heriot-Watt University in the U.K. studied bacteria living 4,000 meters below the ocean surface in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone. Until now, scientists believed the main source of biomass on the seafloor was the organic matter that floated down towards the depths: dead fish, plankton and other detritus. However,...
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BP Starts Production at Clair Ridge
BP has produced first oil from the Clair Ridge project offshore in the U.K. Clair Ridge is the first offshore deployment of BP’s enhanced oil recovery technology, LoSal®, which has the potential to increase oil recovery from reservoirs by using reduced salinity water in water injection. This is expected to result in up to 40 million additional barrels being cost-effectively recovered over the lifetime of the development. The project is a partnership between BP and Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips and...
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Flowline Separation Caused Newfoundland Oil Spill
A flowline separation has been confirmed as the cause of the 250,000 liter oil spill at the SeaRose FPSO on Friday. The FPSO is located 350 kilometers southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Husky had shut in oil production at the White Rose field on Thursday, November 15 due to operational safety concerns resulting from severe weather. The record release of oil occurred during restart procedures the following day. The restart was attempted during a storm with hurricane-like winds and...
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Major Corporations Want Renewable Energy Made Easier in Europe
Almost 100 organizations signaled their willingness to do more on climate action and called on European governments to make it easier to source renewable energy, during an event in Amsterdam this week. The companies signed a declaration at The RE-Source 2018 event taking place from November 20-21. The RE-Source Platform is a European alliance of stakeholders representing clean energy buyers and suppliers. It is coordinated by SolarPower Europe, WindEurope, The Climate Group and CDP (RE100) and WBCSD. To unlock the...
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Turkey Warns Exxon Not to Drill in Cypriot Waters
On Sunday, Turkey's government warned ExxonMobil that its ongoing exploration activity in Cyprus' EEZ could affect regional stability, and it asserted that Turkey will soon begin its own drilling campaign in waters claimed by Turkish Cyprus. “We have warned the Greek Cypriot administration to stop the unilateral exploration for hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean," Ankara warned in a statement. “We reiterate our warning to the companies involved in these unilateral exploration and drilling. We remind them that sharing the natural...
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