BHP's return in Argentina is a new sign of hope for copper mines that are still untapped
More than half a dozen officials from the mining industry said that a new incentive program for mining in Argentina has attracted major players like BHP. They are now looking to the South American nation as the next frontier for the copper market. BHP's investment in Argentina last month was the first time in 20 years that BHP had invested in mining. The company teamed up in the $3.25billion buyout of Filo Corp with Canada's Lundin Mining with the goal of developing two mines of copper along the Andes Mountains bordering Chile.
Floating Power Plants: Is Nuclear the Key in the Net-zero Energy Transition?
Floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs) may not immediately spring to mind as providing a solution to several of today’s key global challenges – but FNPP development is emerging as a means of decentralized stand-alone production of cost competitive hydrogen-based fuels and clean electricity and water, according to a new report by Intelatus Global Partners.The commercial case for deployment of FNPPs featuring small modular reactors is founded in the growing demand for hydrogen and hydrogen…
LNG Shipping Rates from US Surge to Record Highs
The cost of shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States to Asia hit a record high on Tuesday as appetite for the fuel from buyers there and delays through the Panama Canal reduced the amount of ships for hire.Freezing temperatures across Asia and Europe have pushed up LNG prices and lifted wider gas prices as buyers grapple with shrinking inventories and the shortage of tankers.Shipping sources said an apparent ban on Australian coal imports into China, which has been reported by Chinese media…
PDVSA Changes Oil Deals to Include Shipping as Sanctions Bite
Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA has begun offering to ship its own oil, figuring in the costs in crude supply deals to help customers who have struggled to hire vessels to carry the country’s oil due to U.S. sanctions, according to company documents seen by Reuters.The United States has blacklisted vessel owners, shipping operators and threatened to sanction any tanker facilitating the country’s oil exports as it tightens restrictions on trade with the South American country.Washington has been trying to weaken socialist President Nicolas Maduro by choking the OPEC member’s oil exports…
BIMCO: 2020 and the Collapse of Bunker Fuel Markets
The sulfur regulation from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) that came into force on 1 January 2020 took the center stage in the shipping industry at outset of the new decade. Four months on, the spotlights have turned to the coronavirus and the OPEC+ oil price war.The outlook for global economic growth remains bleak as the world is faced with the largest recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s.Commodity prices have declined across the board and most recently, the…
China Can't Meet Its US Energy Commitments
The more you delve into the details of China's commitment to buy an additional $52.4 billion in U.S. energy over the next two years, the more it becomes apparent the goal is unachievable, even with the best will in the world.As part of the "Phase 1" trade truce between Beijing and Washington, China undertook to buy energy over and above a $9.1 billion baseline of U.S. imports in 2017, with a split of an extra $18.5 billion in 2020 and $33.9 billion in 2021.In practical terms this means…
U.S. Slaps Sanctions on Firms Moving Venezuelan Oil to Cuba
The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four maritime firms and vessels transporting Venezuelan oil to Cuba, amid an acute fuel scarcity in the island that is forcing people to line up for gasoline and public transport.Despite tough U.S. measures against Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA in January, Cuba's state-run oil import and export company Cubametales and other Cuba-based entities "have continued to circumvent sanctions by receiving oil shipments from Venezuela…
Dominican Republic Kicks Off Licensing Round
The Dominican Republic's first oil licensing round will be a success if it awards more than two of the 14 blocks on offer this year, a government official said at an event disclosing the Caribbean nation's fiscal terms.The licensing round, which began on Wednesday with disclosure of contract terms, comes after Brazil, Guyana and Mexico attracted billions of dollars in oil investment. Cuba and Panama also have taken steps to attract producers with new contract terms, offering new areas…
Venezuela Sells Oil to Tiny Turkish Firm
With U.S. sanctions blocking Venezuela from selling oil to the United States, state-owned energy firm PDVSA has turned to several little-known buyers that include a tiny Turkish company with no refineries but ties to President Nicolas Maduro's government, according to internal documents and a PDVSA source.Until recently, some of the world's largest petroleum and refining firms, including U.S. companies Chevron and Valero Energy, lined up to take Venezuelan oil cargoes and PDVSA had a rigorous vetting process to ensure potential buyers had the capacity to pay.But U.S.
Iran's Oil Tanker Fleet Being Squeezed as Sanctions Bite
Iran is running short of options to replace its ageing fleet of tankers and keep oil exports flowing because renewed U.S. sanctions are making potential sellers and flag registries wary of doing business with Tehran, Western and Iranian sources said.Since U.S. President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions in November, exploratory talks with South Korea for up to 10 new supertankers have stalled and Panama has also removed at least 21 Iranian tankers from its registry forcing Tehran to put the vessels under its own flag…
Great Ships 2018: BP's British Partner
BP Shipping took delivery of British Partner, the first of a half dozen new 173,400 cu. m. capacity liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers to be delivered through 2018 and 2019 from the DSME shipyard in South Korea. BP Shipping, which launched a fleet rejuvenation program in 2016 that includes 32 new vessels for delivery over a three-year period, said the six new Partnership class ships will increase its ability to transport LNG in emerging new markets, such as Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt and Bangladesh, in addition to established markets, such as India, China, the U.S.
LPG Carrier "Laurel Prime" Christened at MHI
Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co.held a christening ceremony for a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier currently under construction for Astomos Energy Corporation. The christening ceremony was held at the Koyagi Plant of MHI's Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works for the ship named “Laurel Prime” by Seiya Araki, president of Astomos Energy Corporation.NYK has traditionally given LPG carriers two-word names that begin with the letters “L” and “P” respectively. This ship was named Laurel Prime with the wish that it will represent superior achievement and honor…
AET Grows in Brazil
With the ongoing development of deepwater pre-salt plays and a decreased demand on local content in tankers and other vessels, Brazilian national operator Petrobras and other super-majors have been looking abroad for better rates and reliable operators of shuttle tankers. Claudio Paschoa, Maritime Reporter’s correspondent in Brazil spoke to Peter Liew, Global Director – Mid Size Tankers, Crude Shipping, about AET Tankers’ history and its operations in Brazil.AET (formerly American Eagle Tankers) was founded in Houston in 1994 primarily to conduct lightering operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
BW Offshore Recycling FSO Belokamenka
The provider of floating production services to the oil and gas industry BW Offshore has signed an agreement to dispose of the FSO Belokamenka for recycling in compliance with the Hong Kong Convention.The Oslo-listed company said in a press release that the FSO Belokamenka is an Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC) of 360,700 deadweight-ton capacity built in Japan in 1980.The vessel is 340.5 meters long, 65 meters wide and has a depth of 31.5 meters. It is flagged and registered in Panama and classed by DNVGL…
Mexico Plans to Enforce Odebrecht Fines via Seizure
Mexico plans to enforce fines imposed on Odebrecht over corruption allegations by confiscating some $30 million owed by state oil company Pemex to the Brazilian firm, a top official at the public administration ministry said.Christian Ramirez, coordinator-general of the public administration ministry (SFP), told Reuters on Tuesday that he expected Mexico's tax authority to seize the $30 million "in the coming months."Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht has spent the past few years at the center of one of the largest corruption scandals in Latin America…
Storm Shuts Nearly 40% of US GoM Oil Output
Nearly 40 percent of daily crude oil production was lost from offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico wells on Tuesday due to platform evacuations and shut-ins ahead of Hurricane Michael.Since Monday, oil producers, including Anadarko Petroleum Corp, BHP Billiton, BP and Chevron Corp , have evacuated personnel from 75 platforms as the storm made its way through the central Gulf on the way to landfall on Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle.Companies turned off daily production of about 670,800 barrels of oil and 726 million cubic feet of natural gas by midday on Tuesday…
LNG Shipping Rates Spike with No Respite Seen Through 2019
The price of shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) has spiked in September and is likely to remain high next year, buoyed by rising production from new plants and concerns that demand for LNG vessels will outpace supply.The rate for vessels shipping LNG from the Atlantic Basin to Asia has jumped to $90,000 to $95,000 a day this week from $75,000 a day at the end of August, brokers and traders said.Rates, which broadly hovered around $30,000 to $40,000 a day from 2015 to 2017, have risen due to longer distances covered to transport LNG from new terminals in the United States and Arctic Russia…
Bomin Exits Bunker Markets in Singapore, Antwerp
The Bomin Group, a supplier of marine fuels, has announced that it will exit the bunker markets in Singapore and Antwerp.Going forward Bomin will operate from only two offices: Houston and Hamburg. The two offices will serve all Bomin customers in all German ports, the US Gulf Coast, Panama, Norfolk, and Ecuador.“The Bomin group is in a transformation and restructuring process and intense competition and low margins characterize the situation in all major ports,” says Jan Christensen, Managing Director of Bomin Group.
LNG Shipping Rates Spike With no Respite Seen Through 2019
The price of shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) has spiked in September and is likely to remain high next year, buoyed by rising production from new plants and concerns that demand for LNG vessels will outpace supply.The rate for vessels shipping LNG from the Atlantic Basin to Asia has jumped to $90,000 to $95,000 a day this week from $75,000 a day at the end of August, brokers and traders said.Rates, which broadly hovered around $30,000 to $40,000 a day from 2015 to 2017, have risen due to longer distances covered to transport LNG from new terminals in the United States and Arctic Russia…
Shell Wins 15-year Deal to Supply LNG for Chinese Company's Power Plant
Royal Dutch Shell has won a long-term contract to provide liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a Chinese company's 441 megawatt LNG-fueled power plant under construction in Colon, Panama, advisors on the deal said this week.The $900 million power project, being built by Sinolam LNG affiliate Sinolam Smarter Energy LNG Power Co, expects to begin taking deliveries of the super-cooled natural gas in 2020.Reporting by Gary McWilliams
