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BP To Cut 275 Jobs In Alaska After Oil Field Disposals

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BP To Cut 275 Jobs In Alaska After Oil Field Disposals

BP will cut around 275 staff and contractor jobs in its Alaska operations in early 2015 following the sale of its interests in four oil fields in the North Slope area, it said on Tuesday. BP, one of the largest oil producers in Alaska, last April announced the sale of the fields to privately held Hilcorp, though it remains committed to developing Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in North America.

BP has a total of 8,300 employees and contractors in Alaska, according to its website. Its plans for expansion in Alaska include an additional investment of $1 billion over five years, including two additional drilling rigs, one in 2015 and a second in 2016. “The Alaska business is still very important to BP. It’s just a smaller business than it was before,” a BP spokesman said.

BP is also considering production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from reserves in Alaska, the company has said. The latest cuts are evidence of BP making divestments to simplify its business globally, analysts at Barclays said, though it has further to go. “What it has not done is simplify the cost base …

This is set to be the next focus for the group and supports our view that material efficiency gains can be made,” Barclays said. BP shares have come under pressure in recent months due to uncertainties over the size of the fine the company faces over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill as well as over the impact of Western sanctions on its operations in Russia. By 1040 GMT, BP shares were trading 0.6 percent lower at 466 pence. 

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GO Phoenix Heads to Indian Ocean to Search for MH370

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GO Phoenix Heads to Indian Ocean to Search for MH370

An Otto Marine vessel GO Phoenix has left Singapore last week to participate in a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 aircraft in the southern Indian Ocean.

As Next Insight reports, GO Phoenix will participate in a search along with two other vessels Fugro Discovery and Fugro Equator.

These vessels, using towed vehicles equipped with side scan sonar, synthetic aperture sonar, multi-beam echo sounders and video cameras will be deployed to locate and identify MH370.

GO Phoenix is a 21,000 bhp ultra large AHTS (anchor handling tug supply vessel).

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PTTEP Plans $3.3B Capex for Myanmar Projects for 2014-2018

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PTTEP Plans $3.3B Capex for Myanmar Projects for 2014-2018

Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) allocated $3.3 billion in capital expenditure for its projects in Myanmar between 2014 and 2018, or just over 20 percent of the $16 billion that the company has earmarked for its projects worldwide. PTTEP indicated that the capex for Myanmar will go to seven exploration projects: Myanmar M11, Myanmar M3, MOGE 3, Myanmar PSC G and EP 2, and Myanmar MD-7 and MD-8, the company revealed in a press release Tuesday.

“We’ve continually invested in Myanmar … Our dedicated goal remains to conduct our business utilizing both our expertise and experience in finding and developing petroleum resources for the benefit of both the Republic of Myanmar and the Kingdom of Thailand. We are proud to have been a significant part in the exploration and production (E&P) industry over the past 25 years, and we are committed to maintain our contributions to Myanmar’s exciting future,” PTTEP President and CEO Tevin Vongvanich said in the press release.

PTTEP’s cumulative production of natural gas and condensate from Myanmar acreages as of August reached 1.26 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) and 9 million stock tank barrels (MMstb), respectively. On human resource, PTTEP revealed that it has hired more than 250 Myanmar workers — or half of the firm’s total workforce in the country — to support its operations in the country. The company noted that Myanmar employees have benefited from PTTEP’s human resource development program, which emphasized sharing knowledge, expertise and experience with the local employees.

“It has been PTTEP’s target to develop more professionals in Myanmar’s petroleum development sector by engaging additional nationals to support its expanding industry profile in the country,” PTTEP added. PTTEP extends 10 scholarships annually to academically strong high school students living in remote rural areas and scholarships in master degree level for employees of MOGE. Recently, the firm awarded scholarships for 70 Myanmar students to pursue studies in the petroleum production technology at the IRPC Technological College in the Thai eastern seaboard province of Rayong.

Looking ahead, Myanmar’s demand for power and energy is surging rapidly as the country develops. With their expertise in the energy sector, PTTEP and parent company PTT Group are ready to invest and develop energy-related infrastructure, including the E&P business, refinery business, the construction of natural gas pipelines, petrochemical and power plants. 

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Possible Expansion of Poisonous Lionfish Off North Carolina, Study Shows

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Possible Expansion of Poisonous Lionfish Off North Carolina, Study Shows

Warming water temperatures due to climate change could expand the range of many native species of tropical fish, including the invasive and poisonous lionfish, according to a study of 40 species along rocky and artificial reefs off North Carolina by researchers from NOAA and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

“The results will allow us to better understand how the fish communities might shift under different climate change scenarios and provide the type of environmental data to inform future decisions relating to the management and siting of protected areas,” said Paula Whitfield, a research ecologist at NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) and lead author of the study.

The North Carolina reefs lie within the temperate-tropical transition zone, where historically, both temperate and tropical species live, at their respective range limits. However, water temperatures in the zone are becoming more tropical, making it an important place to detect climate changes and its impacts.

The researchers first made these discoveries during an ecological study of the marine communities on the North Carolina reefs. Findings from this earlier study showed similar shifts of climate change induced shifts in algal populations.

Researchers combined year-round bottom water temperature data with 2006-2010 fish community surveys in water depths from 15 to 150 feet off the coast of North Carolina. The study revealed that the fish community was primarily tropical in the deeper areas surveyed, from 122 to 150 feet, with a winter mean temperature of 21 °C (69.8 °F). However, many of these native tropical fishes, usually abundant in shallow, somewhat cooler reefs, tended to remain in the deeper, warmer water, suggesting that temperature is a main factor in controlling their distribution.

“Globally, fish communities are becoming more tropical as a result of warming temperatures, as fish move to follow their optimal temperature range.,” said Whitfield. “Along the North Carolina coast, warming water temperatures may allow the expansion of tropical fish species, such as lionfish, into areas that were previously uninhabitable due to cold winter temperatures. The temperature thresholds collected in this study will allow us to detect and to estimate fish community changes related to water temperature.”

“This kind of monitoring data set is quite rare because it combines multi-year quantitative fish density data with continuous bottom water temperature data from the same location,” saidJonathan A. Hare, NOAA Fisheries research oceanographer and a co-author on the study.

Similarly, the distribution of the venomous Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans), a species new to the Atlantic since 2000, was restricted to water depths deeper than 87 feet where the average water temperature was higher than 15.2°C (approximately 59.4 °F). As the more shallow waters warm, lionfish may expand their range, since they seem to be attracted to areas with a warmer minimum temperature. Although lionfish only arrived in North Carolina in 2000 they were the most common species observed in water depths from 122 to 150 feet in this study.

Since their first sighting off the Florida east coast, in the late 1980s, lionfish have spread throughout the western North Atlantic including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. They are considered a major threat to Atlantic reefs by reducing reef fish recruitment and biomass, and have been implicated in cascading impacts such as decreased coral cover on coral reefs. To date, cold winter bottom temperatures are the only factor found to control their distribution on a large scale.

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Scientists Find Large Submarine Canyon in Med

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Scientists Find Large Submarine Canyon in Med

A massive underwater canyon has been discovered in the Mediterranean near Italy by an international team of scientists that includes mapping experts from the National Oceanography Centre.

The canyon measures almost 1000 square miles (2,500 sq km) and the scientists believe this giant area was not carved out by current flows, the usual way underwater canyons are formed, but possibly by landslides initiated by earthquake activity.

It is one of more than 500 submarine canyons that have been discovered along a 150 mile (250km) underwater cliff called the Maltese Escarpment that runs southwards from Sicily and past the Maltese Islands.

Leading the research was Maltese scientist Dr Aaron Micallef, a former PhD student of the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) who now works with the University of Malta. He believes the canyon is being formed by landslides and undercutting of the escarpment.

He said: “The canyons were not cut by large rivers as there are no sizeable rivers on Malta or Sicily. This is one of the largest features on the seafloor and one of the least explored.”

By looking at the condition of the rocks the scientists know that this canyon was formed recently and the area is prone to earthquake activity. Using acoustic equipment the scientists have investigated and charted depths reaching over 2 miles (3.5km). Deep core sediment samples of the ocean floor were taken which will provide important clues to past earthquake activity in the region.

NOC’s leading underwater mapping expert, Dr Tim Le Bas, said: “Submarine canyons can act as conduits for nutrients so have rich and diverse biological communities, but they also act a conduit for pollutants too. We hope to come back with underwater cameras and make detailed maps of the different habitats that are found in canyons.”

Working aboard the Italian research vessel the OGS Explora, this was the team’s second expedition to the region.

Funded by an EU Marie Curie Career Integration Grant, the Cumecs 2 team includes scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, the University of Malta, the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, University College Dublin and Italy’s National Institute of Oceanography and Geology.

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Unconventional Oil, Gas to Lift US Energy Exports

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Unconventional Oil, Gas to Lift US Energy Exports

The rapid rise in U.S. unconventional oil and natural gas production will help boost U.S. energy exports by around 5 percent per year through 2030, according to the September 2014 U.S. HSBC Global Connections Trade Forecast. Imports of petroleum are expected to decline from 12 percent in the near-term to 7 percent in the long-term, according to HSBC report, which highlights the global trade outlook for the United States by sectors such as energy and healthcare.

Emerging markets that don’t have refining capabilities or don’t dispose of energy reserves could represent a major opportunity for U.S. energy exporters, said Derrick Ragland, executive vice president and head of U.S. Middle Market Corporate Banking, HSBC Bank USA N.A., in a Sept. 16 press release.

Chemical plant expansions and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal upgrades, coupled with the opening of Mexico’s energy industry to foreign investment, are expected to result in a new export boom for Houston and to create over 55,000 new jobs, according to a May 2014 report by HSBC. The massive investment in chemical plants and LNG export terminals has fed a second boom as Houston’s engineering, construction and fabrication firms design and construct these plants.

Innovations in hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling, which have unlocked the United States’ shale resources, is behind this boom, HSBC said in the May 2014 report. Local firms that supply the chemical and energy industries also will see their business grow as clients demand more of everything they need to expand overseas operations. The United States’ rise as a major player in global energy markets is of particular importance for U.S. trade, as the rapid rise of U.S. unconventional oil and gas production cut the U.S. petroleum balance by nearly 50 percent since year-end 2008.

“While the ban on crude oil exports is unlikely to be lifted soon, exports of refined products will contribute to export growth in the years to come,” according to HSBC.  

U.S. businesses are increasingly looking to emerging markets for export growth in the short and long-term. U.S. businesses are well-positioned to take advantage of a stronger world economy, and an increasing focus on fast-growing emerging markets will prove essential, according to HSBC.

“While advanced economies – primarily in Europe – will continue to dominate the U.S. trade sector, Asia and Latin America will become more important export destinations for U.S. exporters,” said HSBC on the longer-term trade outlook.

U.S. exports are expected to grow by approximately 6 percent each year through 2030. China and India are predicted to be the best trade prospects for the United States, with U.S. export growth estimated to average 9 percent per year to each country through 2030, HSBC said.

On a global basis, trade is expected to rise by 8 percent per year starting in 2016 from 2.5 percent in 2013. Longer term forecasts indicate global merchandise trade will more than triple by 2030 from 2013 levels as businesses capitalize on the rise of the emerging market consumer and developing markets stabilize their productivity levels for the future, according to HSBC.

“A highly educated workforce, well-developed production processes and innovative technology will help U.S. businesses plug into increased trade flows, while the rise of the emerging market consumer is helping to lift demand,” said Steve Bottomley, HSBC group general manager, senior executive vice president and head of commercial banking for HSBC in North America.

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INROS LACKNER in Baltic 2 OWF Project

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INROS LACKNER in Baltic 2 OWF Project

In the last week of August, the first of a total of 80 wind energy plants of the Baltic 2 offshore wind farm has been erected. For INROS LACKNER this also marks an important milestone for the offshore project which, on behalf of EnBW, is being supported with wide-ranging professional commitment.

The wind farm, with a total capacity of 288 MW, is located some 32 km north of Rugia island and will produce 1,200 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, thus supplying electricity for around 340,000 households.

On behalf of EnBW, INROS LACKNER has already been involved in the construction of the Baltic 1 in the German Baltic Sea, the first commercial offshore wind farm. Since 2009, INROS LACKNER has now been participating in the creation of the Baltic 2 offshore wind farm. Subsequent to planning and tender-related tasks (i.e. major subsoil investigations and internal wind farm cable network), INROS LACKNER has been responsible for the contractual management, in accordance with international FIDIC guidelines, of the lots for the construction of the foundations, the substation and the internal wind farm cable network.

Since the beginning of the offshore construction measures in 2013, an engineering consortium has been responsible for the coordination of the local quality control, the HSE construction site management, the site supervision, the HSE control and the safety and health protection coordination. Furthermore, INROS LACKNER has been charged with a variety of engineering services related to the establishment of the grid connection for the Transmission System Operator 50 Hertz and the submarine cable manufacturer nkt cables (i.e. site supervision, safety and health protection coordination, HSE management for the cable laying, among others).

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China’s CNOOC Makes Deepwater Gas Field Discovery In South China Sea

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China’s CNOOC Makes Deepwater Gas Field Discovery In South China Sea

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has made a deepwater gas field discovery in the northern part of the South China Sea, it said on Monday. The offshore oil and gas specialist found a high volume of gas flows in the Lingshui 17-2 well in August, it said on its website. Lingshui 17-2 gas well was tested to produce 56.5 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, the official Xinhua news agency said, quoting CNOOC manager Xie Yuhong.

However, analysts believe it may take a long time before the field can contribute to CNOOC’s production. “Despite the gas find, it may take at least four to five years from now before the field can contribute to domestic gas production due to a lack of existing infrastructure,” said Gordon Kwan, head of regional energy research at Nomura.

“CNOOC is not likely to book any gas reserves at this stage because more deepwater delineation wells must be drilled to properly ascertain the economic attractiveness of the field.” Lingshui 17-2 is the first significant deepwater gas discovery made by semi-submersible rig CNOOC 981, which started operation in May 2012, CNOOC said.

The well is located 150 km (94 miles) south of China’s southern Hainan Island, with an average operational depth 1,500 metres under the sea, Xinhua said. 

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Boat with African Migrants Sinks Offshore Libya

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Boat with African Migrants Sinks Offshore Libya

A boat with around 250 African emigrates trying to reach the European coast sank near Libya.

As Reuters reports, the boat had sunk near Tajoura, and until now only 26 people have been rescued.

A Libyan Navy spokesperson said that emigrants on the sunken boat were mostly Africans.

Migrants have been leaving North Africa for some time now, mainly heading to Italy. In 2014 alone, around 100,000 Africans have reached Italian shores, Italian government told Reuters.

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EX COMMERCIAL WELDER HELPS AHMED GABR

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EX COMMERCIAL WELDER HELPS AHMED GABR

“In the future, I’ll be more careful about having good ideas so I don’t end up having to weld in 45 degree heat.”

So says Frank Vahrenhorst, one of the team responsible for helping Ahmed Gabr attempt to reach 350m on open circuit scuba this month.

Frank’s role on the team has been to manage the giant floating pyramid that supports the line that Ahmed will be descending down, and the 30m deco ladder that will enable the divers to have a resting place during the long deco stops in the shallows. He joined the team after being asked to help recover the original pyramid, when it had sank before one of the training dives. Frank is an ex-commercial diver, so he has had plenty of experience using lift bags on large objects, something recreational divers (certainly in the Red Sea) don’t have to do very often. He quickly proved himself to be a valuable asset as he not only easily and safely recovered the pyramid, but also identified its weaknesses. Again, Frank’s commercial background came into play, and he was able to improve the design and re-weld the pyramid, making it far stronger than it had been before. His practical experience and knowledge of hydrodynamics has helped him to design a few things that will lessen the workload of the team on the day, very important considering it will be an incredibly long and tiring day for all involved.

Most people who know Frank see him as the bluff, straightforward guy who is passionate about two things: diving and welding. This record attempt has shown him to be far more. “I’ve always preferred solo sports such as horse riding, fishing and windsurfing, so being part of a large team like this has given me an opportunity to work alongside others, and change the way I normally work”. He has also proved himself to be an excellent ‘ideas’ man, something he has come to regret when he has to implement them!

Frank is no stranger to working under pressure, in his previous life he has had to deal with some unusual situations; one of the worst being the time when his surface team had not taken the tides into account and the boat he was working under lowered onto him, pushing him into the silt. His cool head helps him to prevail, and has helped him respond quickly to deal with any situations that occur. At times it even seems like he is several steps in front because of his practical way of seeing what needs doing before anyone else does.

During the training dives Frank is helped by his ‘wingman’ Dan. They are a great team and have developed to the point of needing very few signals between them to understand each other. I had the pleasure of watching them recover the ladder on the last training day, the first time I had done it since they had taken on the task. It had previously taken me around an hour and a half to pull the line and ladder up, and stow it all. This time it took them around twenty minutes, while I mostly floated uselessly watching their silent communication to each other.

Every time the pyramid and ladder are deployed Frank will be found watching them like a hawk and at the slightest sign of an issue is in the water sorting it out. With Ahmed going to 350m it is vital that everything is in the right place at the right time. Frank works alongside a few other divers to ferry tanks in and out during the dive, ensuring all the divers have the gases they need. This will involve multiple dives on the day of the attempt. There is a strict timetable in place to make sure no one is doing too many dives, and everyone has a decent surface interval between their dives. Without this support, the deep divers would have to carry many additional tanks, making their job much more difficult.

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