Energy

By Professor Paul de Leeuw, Director, Robert Gordon University (RGU) Oil and Gas Institute, Aberdeen

The discussion around hard Brexit, soft Brexit, divorce bill, transition arrangements, new trade deals and the Chequers Brexit plan is rapidly turning into a bewildering array of statements, claims and counter claims. The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, explained it well when he told the BBC in early August 2018 that “the possibility of a no-deal Brexit is uncomfortably high and highly undesirable.”

On 6 August 2018, the Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) published an announced that they have received an application for the licensing of a deepwater port.

The United States’ decision to impose sanctions on Iran’s energy industry has impacted plans to develop phase 11 of South Pars—the world’s largest gas field. Concerning its expected exit from the $4.8 billion project, French oil major Total says that co-investor China National Petroleum Corporation has the right to take over its position.

A total of 60 suction buckets have been pumped in place as foundation for the 20 wind turbines in Ørsted's new wind farm Borkum Riffgrund 2.

Everywhere we look – geographically, politically, technologically and financially – wind energy is breaking new ground. Wind energy continues to expand all over the world. It’s at the heart of government thinking on the energy transition. The technology continues to evolve and the costs continue to fall. And crucially it’s now moving beyond the power sector, and we’re beginning to think how wind can help decarbonise heating, transport and industrial processes.

Dominion Energy Virginia and Denmark-based energy company Ørsted took significant steps forward on August 3, 2018, in the development of Virginia's first offshore wind facility. Dominion Energy filed with Virginia's State Corporation Commission (SCC) for approval to build the two 6-megawatt turbines and grid infrastructure needed to connect the facility to the coast.

On July 31, the Massachusetts Legislature passed H.4857, An Act to Advance Clean Energy.”

The world’s first daughter craft based on surface-effect-ship (SES) technology, supported by the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA), has kicked off two months of sea trials at Vattenfall’s Horns Rev 1 and Ørsted’s Horns Rev 2 wind farms. The Sea Puffin’s innovative design aims to enable developers to operate daughter craft vessels in harsher weather conditions, which will be important as wind farms installations move further offshore.

The Ichthys LNG Project reached a major milestone on July 27 with the opening of the first offshore production well, marking the start of 40 years of operations of this gas and condensate field.

On 23 July 2018, Shell Exploration and Production Mauritania (C-10) B.V. and Shell Exploration and Production Mauritania (C-19) B.V. (“Shell”) signed two Production Sharing Contracts with the government of Mauritania for the exploration and potential future production of hydrocarbons in the offshore blocks C-10 and C-19.

According to a recent article by Jordan Blum in Houston Chronicle, oil industry analysts and executives fear a looming global supply crunch is on the horizon, even as Texas and other parts of the nation keep churning out more oil than ever.

The UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has been exploring how ocean energy has evolved in Ireland during the 20th century to determine how the converters would need to be adapted.