NRG Bluewater’s Offshore Wind Selected for Power Purchase Agreement from State of Maryland

December 8, 2009

NRG Bluewater Wind, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG), has been named one of three companies to supply power from renewable sources to the State of Maryland. This award to provide up to 55 megawatts (MW) of wind generation will be NRG Bluewater’s second power purchase agreement (PPA) in the region.

“We commend Maryland for its vision in developing offshore wind resources,” said Drew Murphy, NRG Energy’s Northeast Regional President. “This project also helps meet the state’s renewable portfolio standard, and advance the commercialization of clean energy technologies in a competitive manner.”

In 2008, Governor Martin O’Malley successfully championed the effort that more than doubled Maryland’s renewable portfolio standard that requires utilities to purchase 20% of their power from clean energy sources by 2022. The State of Maryland, in partnership with the University of Maryland, designed the “Generating Clean Horizons” request for proposal (RFP) program to help spur development of commercial-scale renewable energy projects. The Generating Clean Horizons award supports and helps realize the recently signed tri-state partnership by the Governors of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, which calls for the Mid-Atlantic States to leverage resources to bring offshore wind energy to the region.

“These state leaders recognize the potential of a regional offshore wind industry to provide jobs as well as clean energy alternatives,” said Peter Mandelstam, President of NRG Bluewater Wind.

“Offshore wind is established in Europe but new for the United States, and it produces reliable and emission-free power close to higher population areas, which makes it an attractive and valuable renewable resource.”

NRG Bluewater Wind is expected to receive this PPA later this month from the University of Maryland.

The Company also has a 25-year, 200 MW PPA with Delmarva Power & Light Company.

About NRG

NRG Energy, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, owns and operates one of the country’s largest and most diverse power generation portfolios. Headquartered in Princeton, NJ, the Company’s power plants provide more than 24,000 megawatts of generation capacity—enough to supply more than 20 million homes. NRG’s retail business, Reliant Energy, serves more than 1.6 million residential, businesses, commercial and industrial customers in Texas. A past recipient of the energy industry’s highest honors—Platts Industry Leadership and Energy Company of the Year awards, NRG is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a group of business and environmental organizations calling for mandatory legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More information is available at www.nrgenergy.com or www.nrg-econrg.com.

About NRG Bluewater Wind

NRG Bluewater Wind, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc., is one of the nation’s leading developers of offshore wind energy projects, and a tireless advocate of wind as a clean, safe, and stable-priced means to meet our energy needs while creating additional “clean tech” jobs. The NRG Bluewater Wind team has many years of combined experience in the wind, energy, environmental, finance, public policy, and marine sectors. More information is available at www.bluewaterwind.com.

Safe Harbor Disclosure

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions and include statements regarding Bluewater’s wind development and typically can be identified by the use of words such as “will,” “expect,” “estimate,” “anticipate,” “forecast,” “plan,” “believe” and similar terms. Although the Company believes that its expectations are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct, and actual results may vary materially. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated above include, among others, general economic conditions, hazards customary in the power industry, weather conditions, competition in wholesale power markets, the volatility of energy and fuel prices, failure of customers to perform under contracts, changes in the wholesale power markets, changes in government regulation of markets and of environmental emissions, unanticipated outages at our generation facilities, adverse results in current and future litigation, and the inability to implement value enhancing improvements to plant operations and companywide processes.

NRG undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The foregoing review of factors that could cause NRG’s actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in the forward-looking statements included herein should be considered in connection with information regarding risks and uncertainties that may affect NRG’s future results included in NRG’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.

source: www.benzinga.com

Are offshore choppers safe?

30 November, 2009

Federal NDP defence critic Jack Harris appeared before the Wells inquiry and argued the inquiry needs to broaden its mandate and hear testimony from Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces (DND/CF) officials about how search and rescue (SAR) works.

Inquiry commissioner Robert Wells agreed, saying it's hard for him to analyze how well search and rescue works "without knowing exactly what the Department of National Defence SAR does." Wells has asked the DND/CF to provide a witness who can testify about SAR response. To do so, Wells had to check and see if he was overstepping the mandate of his commission -- and has decided he did not overstep.

While that might be good news, it would be better if this inquiry were far broader.

This is a harsh point to make, but the inquiry -- as it is currently constituted -- is very much closing the barn door after the horse has already left.

It's talking about helicopter safety after a specific crash, and that's fundamentally where the inquiry begins and ends.

That's not to say that its work isn't valuable and important. It is. Wells' recommendations will no doubt lead to changes in helicopter travel to and from Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore platforms and may ripple far more widely, making significant changes in other parts of the oil industry -- and perhaps in mining and tourism and other areas where there are significant concerns about helicopter safety.

But it's also a lost opportunity. There are a huge number of areas where offshore safety could be examined -- and could be examined before we have a tragedy that forces more retrospective concern.

Are offshore helicopters safe? Should we be examining ways to make them safer, or should we be asking if helicopters are the best method to transport workers to offshore platforms as well? Are the industry's offshore safety standards capable of withstanding a rigorous review? Are offshore escape systems reasonable and functional? We're already involved in an inquiry where a helicopter crashed -- and that helicopter failed a specific test of its ability to operate with a rapid loss of oil from its main gearbox. The manufacturer walked around that test by sayings the loss of oil was an extremely remote occurrence. Not remote enough, apparently.

In other words, the helicopter was able to meet paper standards and rules, but may not have met the level of performance it needed to.

While we're looking at helicopters, why aren't we looking at the possibility of having performance standards, not only for aircraft, but for escape systems and lifeboats? Do the current life-safety systems work well enough in our particular combination of weather conditions, sea-state, and the sheer distance of our offshore facilities from any kind of help? Are standby vessels able to help, or would they merely be forced to stand by and watch tragedy unfold? Have we met the safety needs offshore, or are we happy enough checking off boxes about the paper standards that are met, all the while turning a blind eye to real-world circumstances?

If there's a problem with this inquiry, it's one that the commissioner has started to spell out: it's limited to a specific event. If we're lucky, the recommendations will help to prevent similar occurrences.

In other words, it will close one barn door.

It just seems like we're content to leave other ones open until they have their own specific disaster to deal with.

-- The Canadian Press

DRILLING & PRODUCTION

John Waggoner • Houston

Rethinking the OCS debate

If the US seeks to bolster the long term sustainability of its energy supply, it should look to hydrocarbons in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the leaders of some of the world’s largest oil companies say.

Delays in bringing ongoing debate forward into policy ideas about opening new exploration and production in the OCS have led the oil and gas industry to renew the effort to win over groups opposed to offshore drilling.

Government moratoria on drilling in the OCS expired last year amid fervent debate over the future of the country’s energy policy.

At the time, oil prices were screaming near a level of $147/bbl and the surge in fuel prices that followed led to renewed support for opening the OCS as a means to raise domestic hydrocarbon supplies.

Today, however the bumper stickers once common throughout the coastal states of the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere urging “Drill, baby, drill!” have begun to fade and peel while the issue languishes for debate.

Oil prices have since retreated, and industry leaders now say it is increasingly important to call attention to the advancements in offshore drilling technology that protect human life, the environment, and the health of the economy.

Gary Luquette, president of Chevron North America comments that renewed engagement with groups opposed to OCS drilling is essential.

“The industry has done a poor job of getting the message out about how the industry is important to the economy,” he says.

The industry should take “credit and great pride” in the advancements over the past 40 years, Luquette says, particularly those which protect the safety of the environment and ensure maximum recovery with every well.

The consensus among speakers on the topic at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston in May was that one of the main obstacles to opening the OCS is a perception by many in the country that renewable energies are somehow at odds with the hydrocarbons, even though the US needs oil and gas every bit as much as other sources to keep up with demand.

Worse, renewable energies are viewed by some as an easy replacement for the hydrocarbons that keep the world running, starkly in contrast to empirical fact and the economic and practical limitations of wind, solar, and nuclear power.

The polarization of renewable energy against oil and gas industry is essentially misleading because the country’s energy needs will continue to rely predominately on hydrocarbons well into the future, Luquette says.

“In 30 or 40 years, oil and gas will still play a very important role,” he says.

ExxonMobil president Tim Cejka agrees that technology will be a decisive factor for the industry to deliver on its promises in the OCS.

“New cutting edge technologies…can produce safely and with minimal environmental impact,” Cejka says.

Karen Alderman Harbert, president and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, believes that the OCS drilling agenda must be pursued as part of a comprehensive energy policy alongside renewables.

“There is no silver bullet, but there is silver buckshot,” she says.

The Department of the Interior’s strategy for meeting the growth in energy consumption includes both conventional and renewable resources. However, a five-year plan from the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to address new OCS leases has been delayed, raising concerns by the industry that the topic remains in limbo.

For some, if there is a single “line in the sand” which divides those in favor of drilling and those opposed, that line would be the environment.

Map showing US Outer Continental Shelf acreage. Image courtesy of Minerals Management Service (MMS).

Sidney Coffee of America’s Wetland Foundation says it is essential that OCS exploration and production operate from a sound environmental platform.

The group has organized the Gulf Coast states into a coalition of economic, environmental and energy interests to “educate America, shape public policy, and speak with a shared voice in Washington.”

In Louisiana, this coalition was instrumental in the effort to change the state’s constitution to direct the state government’s portion of federal OCS income to hurricane restoration and coastal protection.

For reasons such as this, experts say federal OCS revenue and the ability to create new jobs – many of them high paying and levied at a higher income tax rate – are powerful arguments in a recession.

David Dismukes, associate director and professor at the Center for Energy Studies at Louisiana State University says the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) currently produces each year some 490 MMbbl of oil and 3 tcf of gas, accounting for 23% and 14%, respectively, of all domestic US production.

This once restricted activity has translated into federal revenue of $32 billion per year over the last five years, Dismukes says. That amount is second only to the tax-gathering might of the Treasury itself, meaning no other industry can claim to have paid back more to the American people than oil and gas producers.

However, operations in the GoM cannot maintain this pace forever. The region’s producing wells are maturing, and federal proceeds will inevitably decline along with production unless new areas of the OCS are opened.

Due to the age of US Department of Energy data – much of it acquired with 2D seismic – the data about the country’s offshore reserves is hopelessly out of date, experts say.

Until new areas are opened to the private sector to begin exploration, oil and gas operators say it will be impossible to determine how much oil and gas is out there.

But for the operators to take on the long term risks involved in exploring these new areas, Dismukes says allowing access to the OCS will mean little without consistent governmental policies to support development.
source: offshore-mag.com

Another rig joins the offshore drilling fleet

HOUSTON: New rigs continue to join the offshore drilling fleet, even as rig demand continues to fall in some rig markets, according to ODS-Petrodata's Weekly Mobile Offshore Rig Count.

The worldwide contracted mobile offshore rig count fell by a net two rigs, and now stands at 564. One new rig joined the world fleet, which now numbers 729 rigs. The rig that joined the fleet, a jackup, does not have a contract commitment and is currently idle.

Worldwide offshore rig fleet utilization this week is 77.4 percent, its lowest level since March 2000.

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico rig count has slid again, and fleet utilization is down as a result. This week, 56 of the region's 114 mobile offshore drilling units are under contract and fleet utilization is 49.1 percent.

The South American offshore rig count is unchanged again this week. With 83 of the region's 109 offshore rigs remaining under contract, fleet utilization is 76.1 percent.

The number of rigs under contract in European waters and the Mediterranean Sea also is unchanged. With 101 of 107 mobile offshore rigs under contract, the area's fleet utilization rate is 94.4 percent.

The West Africa offshore rig count is also unchanged. This week, of the 59 mobile offshore drilling units in the region, 44 are under contract. Fleet utilization is 74.6 percent.

The Middle East contracted offshore rig count fell by two rigs, and is now at 83. One rig joined the region's fleet, which now numbers 107 rigs. Fleet utilization is 77.6 percent.

The contracted offshore rig count in the Asia/Australia market is unchanged at 102, and the area's offshore rig fleet size remains at 121. The region's offshore rig fleet utilization rate is 84.3 percent this week.
source: www.energycurrent.com

Offshore gas, oil drilling won't damage Fla. beaches

Saturday, June 27, 2009

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has gone too far this time with his off-the-wall rhetoric about offshore oil and gas drilling.

Last week, he said in Tallahassee that pursuing energy independence by allowing drilling off the Florida coast would convert our world-class beaches into "industrial waste zones." How ridiculous and inflammatory. Oil and gas production has been occurring safely for decades in the central and western Gulf of Mexico.

The fact is that our state badly needs oil and natural gas to maintain our way of life and to keep providing the resources to bring the tourists to Florida. I doubt that Sen. Nelson rode a bicycle from Washington, D.C., to take his anti-oil tour of Florida. The irony is while railing against oil, he used gasoline and jet fuel to make the trip. And to keep him and our tourists cool, electricity produced largely from natural gas provided the air conditioning.

ell all of your elected representatives you know oil and gas production in the gulf can occur in a safe and responsible way, and you want it to happen now.

DAVID BATT, director

Consumer Energy Alliance of Florida

Tallahassee

Editor's note: The Consumer Energy Alliance of Florida includes companies related to drilling for oil and natural gas.

Firefighters should live within their means

In response to the Palm Beach County firefighter who wrote that a sales-tax increase to pay for fire-rescue is a win-win ("Sales tax a win-win for all who need safety services," May 31):

He failed to mention that if the sales-tax revenues fell below the fire-rescue's budget, the county commissioners would need to raise property taxes to cover it. We know that would happen because the commission has had little stomach to take on their union.

He also failed to mention that the county commissioners are trying to increase our current property tax 15 percent for next year's budget, as they are giving the county firefighters a 3.1'percent budget increase.

How about the county firefighters live within their means, as do the average taxpayers? I believe that they should be treated fairly, and if you read their contract, boy, are they ever. I also believe that the same fairness should be afforded the taxpayer.

RON ESPOSITO

Lake Worth

Editor's note: Gov. Crist signed Senate Bill 1000, which allows counties to hold a vote on increasing the sales tax to pay for fire-rescue services.

Lawmakers penny-wise on public education

Since we can't depend on the legislative or executive branches to protect Florida's children (or the state constitution), I guess we'll have to rely on the judiciary.

I propose a constitutional amendment that would define the state's financial obligation to local school districts as follows: The amount spent per elementary, middle school and high school student should be what it was in 2008 plus 20 percent (to make up for what they've stolen from students in the past few years) plus an annual adjustment for inflation using the federal Consumer Price Index. After this passes, we'll work on a similar amendment for college students.

The financing of public education seems to be the area of public interest in which our "fearless leaders" in Tallahassee are most penny-wise and pound foolish.

LARRY LITTLE

Royal Palm Beach

Medicare increase will cut overall benefits

You have reported that Social Security benefits are not expected to increase in 2010 and 2011. Wouldn't it be fairer if you let your readers know that for about one-fourth of Social Security recipients, the amount they receive will go down in 2010 as their Part B Medicare premiums rise, and then go down again in 2011 as Part B goes up again? Meanwhile, the other recipients' payments may not increase, but would not go down, at least.

INGE LYNCH

Boca Raton

Constant criticism of president is sickening

I am neither an economist, a war strategist nor a political analyst. Neither is 90 percent of the population of the United States. We elect those in power to be the experts. I see a nation of people who are perched to criticize everything our new president does. No president in my lifetime was as hated and disrespected as George W. Bush. Now, second verse, same as the first.

President Obama is ripped apart on a daily basis, from how he handles the economy to how he extends his hand for a handshake. His wife's choice of clothing and what china she uses for a tea party is up for scrutiny. We have become a nation of bullies and tabloidmongers. It is sickening.
source:

Feds Issue First Offshore Wind Energy Leases

For the first time, the federal government has issued offshore wind leases to explore the potential of the energy source.

The New York Times reports the five leases will be for areas 6 to 18 miles off the New Jersey and Delaware coasts:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has made offshore wind energy a priority, acknowledged that the United States was playing catch-up to European countries, like Denmark or the Netherlands, which have long focused on alternative energy.

A variety of local and political hurdles have so far prevented wind farms from being built off American coasts.

“Other nations have been using offshore wind energy for more than a decade,” Mr. Salazar said in a statement. “The technology is proven, effective and available and can create new jobs for Americans while reducing our expensive and dangerous dependence on foreign oil.”

The leases were granted to Bluewater Wind New Jersey Energy; Fishermen’s Energy of New Jersey; Deepwater Wind, and Bluewater Wind Delaware.

Some estimates say that the wind could provide 20 percent of the country’s energy needs by 2030, and offshore wind power generation could play a significant role in that number.
source:

MacGREGOR develops fiber rope deepwater lifting system

Offshore staff

HELSINKI -- MacGREGOR has developed an ultra deepwater lifting system using fiber rope technology.

The new ultra deepwater lifting system uses a side-mounted frame fixed onto a vessel. This allows the crane to lower a load to a depth of 1,000 m (3,281 ft), after which the load is transferred to a straight fiber rope; the crane hook is returned to the surface, reattached to the upper end of the fiber rope, and then a new length of up to 1,000 m (3,281 ft) is deployed. This hook-moving sequence can be repeated until the desired depth is reached. As landing heave compensation is enabled through a winch operation using traditional steel cable, spooling, and bending the critical fiber rope is avoided.

The new lifting solution is available as 150-metric-ton (165-ton) capacity or 250-metric-ton (276-ton) capacity systems and can be supplied ready for various lengths of fiber rope.

"As the system does not weaken the fiber rope or present any challenges related to spooling the full load, MacGREGOR is confident that it can now offer a safe and reliable solution for ultra deepwater load handling," says Svein Erik Halvorsen, R&D director for MacGREGOR's Offshore division.

source: www.offshore-mag.com

AMEC Wins Front End Engineering Design Job In W Australia

LONDON (Dow Jones)--AMEC announced Thursday the award by INPEX of a contract for a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for the Ichthys Field, offshore Western Australia.

The contract includes FEED for the offshore gas and condensate production facilities and an export pipeline more than 850 kilometres to the Ichthys LNG Plant in Darwin, it said.

AMEC will now be responsible for providing project management, engineering and other resources necessary to produce the FEED for a large semi-submersible gas production facility, a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading facility (FPSO), Umbilicals, Risers and Flowlines (URF), and a gas export pipeline, it said.

source: online.wsj.com

Offshore engineers start work on EMEC marine energy cables

A Barnstaple-based offshore engineering firm has been appointed to carry out works on the subsea cables at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in the Orkney Isles.

J+S, which also has offices in Aberdeen, will provide and install its sub-sea connections to cables at the site, upgrading the facilities being used by wave and tidal power developers trialling their devices at EMEC.

The upgrades should make it easier or devices to connect to the EMEC power export cables and deliver power to the grid.

The contract represents a coup for oil and gas specialists J+S, which only recently established a renewable energy division in the past two years.

J+S's managing director, David Jeffries, said: "This is a major breakthrough for our company and vindication of our strategy of diversification from our core naval support and oil and gas markets into the rapidly emerging wave and tidal sectors of the marine renewables energy market."

Work has already begun at the site in Orkney, with J+S hoping to complete the work by the end of the summer.

Installation

The firm will be installing its own connectors, which it has designed and manufactured from scratch, and which have not yet been installed at any other location.

But Chris Napier, who has led J+S' new renewables division for the past six months, told New Energy Focus yesterday that the firm is also working with the South West Regional Development Agency to install the connectors at the Wave Hub project being planned for a location off the coast at Hayle, Cornwall.

The renewables division at J+S accounts for 5% of the business so far, but Mr Napier also confirmed that the company is hoping to diversify into the offshore wind sector, and is currently working with wave and tidal power developers.

J + S is installing new connectors for the EMEC power cables

EMEC managing director Neil Kermode, said: "We are pleased to be working with J+S on this prestigious contract. I am confident that J+S's many years' experience in marinising in-water electrical connections for naval and oil and gas applications will be successfully developed to provide high voltage connection capabilities for our sites."

J+S operates from sites at Barnstaple and Aberdeen, employing 120 people in a range of engineering and production activities, primarily in naval support and sub-sea asset management for the North Sea oil and gas exploration markets.

EMEC is the first wave and tidal test site of its kind in the world.

source: newenergyfocus.com

N.L. offshore oil regulator to launch probe into worker safety in chopper crash

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The agency that regulates the offshore oil industry in Newfoundland will do its own inquiry into a helicopter crash that killed 17 people, but said Wednesday it won't deal with mechanical issues surrounding the aircraft.

The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board said its inquiry will focus on the issue of "worker safety" and won't include the technical reasons on why the Sikorsky S-92A crashed into the ocean on March 12.

Mechanical problems, such as the shearing of bolts that held an oil filter to the main gearbox, will be left to an investigation by the Transportation Safety Board, said a spokesman for the agency.

"That's not a mandated area for our organization," Sean Kelly said from the agency's St. John's office. "For us, we would look at other issues but which are related in some way."

The safety board hasn't determined the cause of the accident, but the pilot did report a loss of oil in the gearbox as they descended towards the ocean.

Kelly said a yet-to-be-appointed commissioner will look at issues such as the survival suits, which some offshore oil workers have complained fit poorly, and the question of why emergency beacons weren't detected after the helicopter crashed and sank.

Sheldon Peddle, a union leader who represents about 700 offshore oil workers, said he's disappointed the regulator isn't going further into aircraft safety.

"From my perspective, they do have a little more jurisdiction and leeway to at least do some review of the safety record of the aircraft and of incidents elsewhere in the world," said Peddle, president of Local 2121 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union.

He said the board could hire experts to look at issues such as the flotation pontoons that are supposed to prevent a helicopter from sinking after ditching in the ocean.

The Cougar Helicopters chopper sank about 20 minutes after it crashed at high speed off Newfoundland.

Peddle said his concern over the S-92A's safety grew after learning last week that it was certified by a European aviation authority, even though the main gearbox failed to pass a test to determine if it could run for 30 minutes without oil.

The gearbox passed the safety standard despite failing this "depleted oil test" because Sikorsky was able to demonstrate to the agencies that the chances of oil leaking out of the gearbox were "extremely remote," according to documents filed with the Joint Aviation Authorities.

Peddle argued that logic is flawed because crash investigators have determined the oil leaked out due to the broken studs on the attached filter. Civil aviation authorities in Norway and Australia have also reported other incidents of oil leaks.

However, the union leader said questions over the certification process are resulting in a more in-depth review of the aircraft by a committee of offshore operators that are considering whether the S-92A flights by Cougar Helicopters should resume to the platforms.

Peddle was invited to a briefing Wednesday of the committee, which includes representatives from Hibernia Development Management Co. , Husky Energy (TSX:HSE) and Petro-Canada (TSX:PCA) .

Peddle said in meetings last week, before issues about certification emerged in the media, that the companies were focusing too narrowly on the shearing of the titanium studs.

He said that's changing and that the companies are getting into more depth and hiring international experts due to the half-hour oil test issue.

"That's what is making them re-evaluate what the goal of this whole review is," he said.

Officials from Hibernia Management Development Corp. and Husky Energy were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Sikorsky spokesman Paul Jackson declined comment.

"I will not get into details while the (Transportation Safety Board) investigation remains ongoing," he said in an email. "We are assisting with that investigation and are committed to protecting its confidentiality and integrity."

Meanwhile, the RCMP said the sole survivor of the accident, Robert Decker, had spoken to officers and given "a full account" of what he recalls about the crash.

"The information given by Decker will be provided to Transportation Safety Board investigators for their ongoing investigation into the helicopter crash. ... The RCMP will not be in a position to recount his story."

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
source:

Interior, FERC agree on offshore energy

By H. JOSEF HEBERT – 4 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — A squabble between two government agencies that delayed offshore wind energy development has been settled.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Jon Wellingham, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, signed an agreement Thursday that divides federal approval responsibilities for offshore renewable energy projects.

The dispute goes back two years and had stalled new regulations by Interior's Minerals Management Service for offshore wind projects.

The Minerals Management Service now will control offshore wind and solar projects and issue leases and easements for wave and ocean current energy development.

The energy regulatory agency will issue licenses for building and operating wave and ocean current projects.
source:

Tankers Storing Oil Products Offshore Europe

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Between 15-20 oil tankers are being used to store oil products off the coasts of the U.K. and the oil hub of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp, shipping brokers based in London said Thursday.

The ships being used as floating storage are thought to be carrying gasoil and jet fuel and are part of a growing trend in the oil industry - encouraged by low demand and cheap tanker rates - to store crude and oil products at sea.

The types of vessels being used for floating storage are thought to be Long Range 1, or LR1, and LR2 product tankers, which can carry about 60,000 and 80,000 metric tons of oil products respectively, a shipping broker said. A steep contango price structure for gasoil futures - where near-term futures contracts trade at a discount to those months in the future - has also raised demand for floating storage, a shipping broker in London said.

Anemic oil demand, which has reduced price volatility, means traders are having a hard time making deals for prompt barrels, the broker said. Vitol Holding BV, Mercuria and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) are believed to have booked clean tankers for floating storage, he said. At least eight of the ships used for offshore storage are thought to be anchored off the coast of Devon, England, at Lyme Bay.

An unprecedented number of 10 large vessels have anchored off Lyme bay in recent days, eight of which are thought to be holding cargoes of crude or oil product, Kevin Mowat a Harbour Master at neighboring Torbay said.

No ship-to-ship transfers of crude or oil products have taken place between the anchored vessels in question, he added.

Freight rates for the type of clean tankers being used as storage are between $15,000 to $18,000 a day, the shipping broker added.

The increased bookings of clean tankers has done little to alleviate low tanker rates, due to low demand for oil products and ample supply of vessels, the shipping broker said.

Rates for oil tankers in general are about 50% lower compared to levels last year, the broker added.
source: online.wsj.com

Tenaris to exhibit its tubular technologies at the OTC

Tenaris has announced that it will once again participate in the Offshore Technology Conference, which will take place from May 4th 2009 to May 7th 2009 at the Reliant Center in Houston, Texas.

The Tenaris booth will feature information on Tenaris's integral products and services package, with solutions for every customer's operations. Tenaris technology on hand will include:

1. TenarisHydril premium connections: outstanding connection design and technology available worldwide.

2. Coiled tubing: solutions for both sub sea and down hole applications in complex drilling environments.

3. Deepwater risers and flow lines: special steel grades for high pressure and extreme temperature deepwater operations.

4. Premium sucker rods: for special service conditions such as high loads, corrosive environments, and excessive friction conditions, among others.

Tenaris experts will be on hand for technical presentations and to answer questions.

More than 70,000 industry professionals are expected to attend the OTC this year.
source: steelguru.com

Germans develop new jack-up ships to build offshore windparks

Apr 9, 2009, 10:25 GMT

Bremen, Germany - German companies said Thursday they are to order four new high-technology ships which will be able to lower stilts 50 metres to the seabed and jack themselves up.

Cranes on the vessels may need only about a week to assemble an offshore wind turbine, according to details from civil-engineering company Hochtief in Bremen. The windmills will be built on concrete artificial islands.

The new fleet, operated jointly with the Beluga shipping company of Bremen, would be able to erect 160 wind turbines a year.

Hochtief already operates such a ship, the 4-year-old Odin, which has been contracted to put in place a 45-metre high foundation for a transformer in the middle of the Alpha Ventus wind farm in German coastal waters of the North Sea.

A Beluga spokeswoman said a contract would be signed next week to spend 800 million euros (1.07 billion dollars) on the new-technology ships, with all four to be in operation by 2012.

Each will have four stilts and will take all the components out to the watery building sites and accommodate all the workers.

Beluga chief executive Niels Stolberg told the newspaper Weser Kurier that no competitor in the world would offer as much. A Hochtief executive, Martin Rahtge, said there were currently fewer than 10 ships in the world with this capability.

Faced with complaints that wind turbines spoil scenery on land, Germany has licensed 21 wind farms offshore, but the engineering problems of building the masts in up to 40 metres of water have held the business back.

Hochtief dumps crushed rock on the seabed, then assembles hollow towers of prefabricated concrete as a base. Above the water line, the wind-turbine masts are bolted to the concrete. The cranes then place the rotors and generators on top.
source: www.monstersandcritics.com

Stage Set for Offshore Wind Energy in the U.S.

by Graham Jesmer, Staff Writer
Boston, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]

Proponents of U.S. offshore wind projects like Cape Wind in Massachusetts and Bluewater Wind's project for Delmarva Power in Delaware have had their hopes buoyed in recent months by new U.S. policy framework, including commitments from the Department of the Interior, the Minerals Management Service and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, that encourage the development of offshore wind energy generation capacity.

Against this backdrop, the MIT Energy Club las week brought leaders from across the wind space together to Boston to discuss the hurdles that have been cleared and those that still exist to implementing offshore wind technology in the U.S.

The day started with a presentation from an offshore wind developer. Peter Mandelstam CEO of Bluewater Wind told the 200 attendees that while the new federal commitments will go a long way to putting projects in the water, ultimately what developers need to do is work with communities and local officials to make them comfortable with offshore wind energy, which is exactly what Bluewater did in Delaware.

"Policy makers don't always get it right but they've got it right now," Mandelstam said in his presentation. "We got everyone on board from Vice President Joe Biden down to local mayors. We worked very hard to get this right to spend the time in meetings like this. Openness, transparency, everything on the record, everything on the website. This, I argue is the right way to do energy development."

Currently, more than 1,100 megawatts of offshore wind capacity have been installed in Europe. It's estimated that more than 250 gigawatts of capacity exist on the outer continental shelf (OCS) of the U.S., however siting wind farms to take advantage of those resources is something that still needs to be better addressed. Dr. Bruce Bailey, president and CEO of AWS Truewind talked about the progress that is being made on that front as well as in wind modeling/forecasting for offshore farms on both the OCS and in the great lakes region.

"The offshore environment is one where there are fewer data points on current wind conditions, sea surface temperatures and the like. So models need to work with fewer input data parameters," Bailey said. "Offshore wind really needs measurements that are well above the surface. Most weather buoys are three to five meters above the ocean, but most wind turbine hub heights are 80-, 90-, even 100-meters above the surface and the blades on those turbines extend even higher. So we really need to have some tall meteorological towers installed to collect wind and temperature and humidity data to really better understand that environment and to validate models."

Dr. Jon McGowan, professor of engineering at UMass Amherst has been working on offshore wind energy technology for the better part of the last 40 years. He gave the crowd a look back in time and said he is amazed with the progress that has been made by the industry hopes its here to stay.

"I've seen this go from a classroom idea, the nutty professors we were once called, to a commercial product and that's pretty exciting," McGowan said. "We've seen the wind turbines go from people saying they'd never make them bigger than 100 kilowatts to five to ten megawatts. So we've seen size go up, reliability's gotten better. There's a lot of excitement and my hope is that we do half the power in the country with wind."

Dan McGahn, senior vice president and general manager at AMSC Superconductors and Asia Pacific on the other hand gave the crowd a look ahead at some of the new technologies that are on the horizon for offshore wind energy.

McGahn said that AMSC's superconductor generator technology, which was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense and is set to power the next generation of destroyers class vessels, could will help move the industry away from gearboxes, cutting down on maintenance and down time for individual turbines. The technology relies on high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire to transmit power from turbine rotors to substations. The company says that using HTS wire takes two-thirds of the weight out of a turbine generator.

"Currently for land based wind you have a doubly fed induction machine. That's really the workhorse of the market today. It has very good cost to weight ratio. It has very good performance. They're geared systems and the thing that tends to fail is the gear," he said. "The market onshore and eventually for offshore wants to move to direct drive systems, gearless systems. The challenge there is now you've increased the cost and you've increased the weight. So ultimately with an HTS Superconductor generator in a wind turbine you should be able to have the cost the performance of a doubly fed machine with those benefits, but also the reliability and the efficiency of maintenance of a direct drive machine."
source: renewableenergyworld.com