Energy

BP announces that it has approved a major expansion at the Atlantis field in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and has also identified significant additional oil resources that could create further development opportunities around the production hubs it operates in the region.

The FORESEA (Funding Ocean Energy through Strategic European Action) programme launched its 5th call for proposals on Monday, January 7, 2019.

Ørsted submitted a bid to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) Dec. 28 to build its Ocean Wind project in response to the first offshore wind request for proposal under Gov. Phil Murphy’s clean energy agenda, according to a release.

Ørsted US Offshore Wind has received approval from Connecticut regulators of its 20-year power-purchase agreement for the Revolution Wind offshore wind farm.

On 17 December, conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. government’s approval of the first offshore oil drilling development in federal Arctic waters. Hilcorp Alaska received approval in October 2018 to build and operate the Liberty project, an artificial drilling island and underwater pipeline in the Beaufort Sea.

Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. a leader in innovative and cost-effective ocean energy solutions, announced that the Company's PowerBuoy™ has successfully been deployed in the Adriatic Sea to advance Eni’s R&D MaREnergy project, aiming to develop, deploy and demonstrate suitability of wave energy renewable technologies in Oil & Gas operations.

CAPE Investment Partners announces the acquisition of the majority shareholding in CAPE Holland and FoundOcean from the sustainability focused private equity investor Ambienta who held its participation since 2012.

On December 16^th, Equinor and its partners started production from the Aasta Hansteen gas field in the Norwegian Sea. On December 17th, gas from the Aasta Hansteen field is available to the market for the first time and together with the Polarled pipeline the field opens a new region for gas export to Europe.

Sabella, a pioneering tidal and ocean stream turbine developer, has partnered with QOS Energy to improve the performance monitoring of its ground-breaking Ushant tidal energy project.

In a confirmation of the growing strength of the U.S. offshore wind market, three offshore wind energy leases offered at auction by the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Offshore Energy Management (BOEM) in Massachusetts were won at prices of $135 million, $135 million and $140 million, a huge new record for U.S. offshore wind leases.

On 11 December 2018, several environmental advocacy groups filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina to halt authorizations granted by NOAA Fisheries in November for companies that propose conducting geophysical surveys in the Atlantic Ocean to “incidentally, but not intentionally, harass marine mammals.”

OESA, which is coordinated by the Dutch Marine Energy Center, has been granted funding from Interreg North Sea Region for a three-year project which aims to accelerate the deployment of large-scale ocean energy pilots in the North Sea. 13 partners are tied to OESA, where eight of the partners will provide services for the pilot projects of the remaining five.