Offshore Oil & Gas

 

U.S. Offshore Energy Producers Brace For Hurricane Zeta Impact. According to Reuters, “Energy firms and ports along the U.S. Gulf Coast prepared on Tuesday for another test as Hurricane Zeta, the 11th hurricane of the season, entered the Gulf of Mexico. BP BP.L, Chevron CVX.N and Royal Dutch Shell RDSa.L, among others, evacuated 157 offshore facilities and sharply cut production from the offshore region. Pipeline operator Enbridge ENB.TO evacuated two platforms and removed workers from a Louisiana natural gas processing plant. Some oil producers were pulling staff for at least the sixth time since June, a process made more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic with workers required to be tested for the virus before returning to work. Energy producers on Tuesday shut nearly half the region’s oil output, or 914,811 barrels per day (bpd), and 1.5 billion cubic feet per day, or more than half its natural gas output, the U.S. offshore energy regulator said. U.S. Gulf of Mexico offshore oil production accounts for about 17% of total U.S. crude oil output and 5% of total U.S. dry natural gas production. Zeta’s winds decreased to 65 miles per hour (100 kph) after sweeping across the Yucatan Peninsula early Tuesday but are forecast to restrengthen to 85 mph as its churns over the central Gulf of Mexico, the NHC said in a mid-day update. On Monday, it became the 11th hurricane of the Atlantic season, which on average has six.” [Reuters, 10/27/20 (=)]

 

Marine Renewable Energy

 

RI Set To Double Down On Offshore Wind Power. According to The Providence Journal, “Rhode Island is set to double down on its commitment to offshore wind power. The Ocean State became home to the first offshore wind farm in the nation with the completion of the 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm in 2016 and followed up last year with a contract for another 400 megawatts of capacity from the proposed Revolution Wind project to be built southwest of Martha’s Vineyard. Now, Gov. Gina Raimondo is looking to procure as much as 600 more megawatts of power generated by towering wind turbines that would rise up out of the ocean waters off southern New England. Her administration announced on Tuesday that National Grid, the state’s main energy utility, is working on a request for proposals from offshore wind developers that is on track to be released early next year. The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources is overseeing the drafting of the RFP, which is expected to be submitted for approval to the state Public Utilities Commission this fall. Any contracts that result from the bidding would also have to go before the commission for final approval. The announcement follows Raimondo’s executive order in January that aims to get all of Rhode Island’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030 — one of the most aggressive climate goals in the country.” [The Providence Journal, 10/27/20 (=)]

 

Entrepreneurs See Hope — And Profit — In Floating Turbines . According to E&E News, “A second phase of offshore wind development is about to get underway in the U.S., starting in Maine, a state that sees its energy future built on a new type of wind turbine. It is one that can float in deeper waters and that may be built more cheaply than existing wind turbines being constructed or planned along most of the U.S. East Coast. One of the main beneficiaries of what are called ‘floaters’ — turbines that are held by mooring lines attached to anchors in waters deeper than 160 feet — will likely be the U.S. West Coast, where California and Hawaii are planning wind farms and Oregon and Washington are expected to follow. ‘This will be a global industry,’ predicted Walter Musial, the leading expert on offshore wind for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. At the moment, the business is in its infancy, but he noted that 80% of the world’s offshore waters suitable for wind turbines near major population centers are deep. The major type of offshore turbines built in Europe and just beginning to rise along the East Coast are installed in shallower waters on fixed foundations that may be too expensive to build in deeper waters. But floaters, which have the added cost-saving advantage of being assembled in nearby ports and then towed out to sea, Musial predicted, will be ‘close to or near to being cost competitive’ with them by 2024.” [E&E News, 10/28/20 (=)]

 

BP Signals Imminent Hydrogen And Offshore Wind Plays. According to Greentech Media, “BP is readying offshore wind bids during the next six months with heightened hydrogen activity also in the pipeline, the oil major’s CEO, Bernard Looney, said Tuesday. During the company’s Q3 results call, Bernard Looney said BP would ‘probably’ bid in offshore wind auctions that are scheduled in the next six months. The firm revealed a U.S.-focused partnership with Equinor in September, its first foray into offshore wind. Looney said bidding in auctions over the next six months would also be carried out in partnerships rather than independently. In its home market in the U.K., there are active seabed leasing rounds. Denmark’s 800 MW to 1,000 MW Thor project closes to bids on March 15. The Netherlands’ Hollandse Kust (west) project, which could be as large as 1,400 MW, is scheduled to tender in Q2 2021. BP is targeting 20 gigawatts of renewables by 2025 and 50 GW by 2030. It currently has around 10 GW completed or in the works and options on another 20 GW. Most of its early successes have come via its 50 percent stake in solar developer Lightsource BP.” [Greentech Media, 10/27/20 (=)]

 

Fisheries & Marine Life

 

AP | Population Of North Atlantic Right Whales Dips. According to E&E News, “The population of North Atlantic right whales, an endangered species that has been the focus of conservation efforts for decades, has dipped to fewer than 370, officials said. The whales number only 366, NOAA said yesterday in an estimate that reflects the population as of January 2019. The previous estimate, which reflected January 2018, was 412. The whales have struggled with poor reproduction and high mortality over the last decade, especially the last few years. They’re vulnerable to ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear. The population was more than 480 in 2011, the Portland Press Herald reported. A NOAA team is working on a plan designed to reduce the risk the whales face due to fishing gear. Conservation groups sounded the alarm about the drop in population yesterday. Erica Fuller, an attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, said, ‘The outlook is grim if we do not act today.’ The population of North Atlantic right whales was devastated during the commercial whaling era. They’ve been a federally protected species since 1972.” [E&E News, 10/27/20 (=)]

 

Estimate Shows 11% Decline In North Atlantic Right Whale Population In A Year. According to Lewiston Sun Journal, “A new population estimate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the already endangered population of North Atlantic right whales declined about 11 percent in 2018, even more than originally believed. The estimated population dropped from 412 right whales in January 2018 to 366 in January 2019. The numbers, which should be finalized in late 2021 or early 2022, were released Monday ahead of the annual meeting of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. The North Atlantic right whale – one of the world’s most endangered large whale species – has been in decline since 2011. However, the numbers reported Monday represent a larger than anticipated loss, according to an email from NOAA Fisheries to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, a group that is helping develop plans to mitigate fishing gear’s risk to marine mammals. In part, the lower-than-expected numbers are because an ongoing ‘unusual mortality event,’ which started in 2017 and has killed 42 whales since then, has been worse than previously thought, according to the email. As a result, NOAA has revised the original January 2018 estimate down from 412 whales to 388.” [Lewiston Sun Journal, 10/26/20 (=)]

 

Fish That Eat Microplastics Take More Risks And Die Younger, Study Shows. According to The Guardian, “Microplastics can alter the behaviour of fish, with those that ingest the pollutants likely to be bolder, more active and swim in risky areas where they die en masse, according to a new study. The survival risk posed by microplastics is also exacerbated by degrading coral reefs, as dying corals make particularly younger fish more desperate to find nutrition and shelter, and to venture into waters where they are more likely to be taken by predators themselves. In a joint study conducted by Australia’s James Cook University as well as other institutions including the University of Cambridge, marine ecologists pulse fed groups of juvenile ambon damselfish, housed across several tanks, a diet of brine shrimp. In addition to the shrimp, researchers also added fine microplastics, including polystyrene spherical beads about 200 microns (0.2mm) thick, into some of the tanks, in an effort to simulate the dietary choices fishes encounter in the environment. Researchers found the microplastics were mostly eaten.” [The Guardian, 10/28/20 (+)]

 

AP | Laboratory Developing Test To Find Toxins In Mussels. According to E&E News, “A Maine lab is set to receive about $900,000 in federal funding to research a new method of detecting potentially harmful toxins in mussels. NOAA and the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science awarded the money to Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. Maine Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent, said the project will allow Bigelow’s scientists to research a 3-in-1 test for toxins that accumulate in mussels. The senators said the new tests would protect the state’s mussel-growing industry. Maine fishermen harvested nearly 2 million pounds of blue mussels last year. They’re also grown in aquaculture operations.” [E&E News, 10/27/20 (=)]

 

Sea-Level Rise & Arctic Climate

 

Warmer Climate And Arctic Sea Ice In A Veritable Suicide Pact. According to Yale Climate Connections, “Scientists refer to Earth’s surface reflectivity as its ‘albedo,’ and to the vicious Arctic melting-warming cycle as a ‘feedback.’ One action precipitates and reinforces another, in this case with Arctic warming and ice loss each accelerating the other. As a result, the Arctic is warming three times faster than the global average and its sea ice is quickly melting away. In summers between 1979 and 2012, Arctic sea ice had lost half its surface area and three-quarters of its volume. Some climate scientists described this rapid decline as the ‘Arctic sea ice death spiral.’ But then came the unexpected – the ice death spiral froze. The years 2014 through 2020 have been the seven hottest ever recorded on Earth, with the resulting heat fueling monster hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and record wildfires in the western U.S. and Australia. ‘Ever since the record-smashing summer of 2012, Arctic scientists have watched melt seasons unfold with bated breath: Will this year break the record again? Will this year bring the long-anticipated sea-ice-free summer?’ said climate scientist Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center. ‘And almost every August, the rate of ice loss came to a screeching halt, averting a new record minimum. But why?’ Defying both the heat and scientists’ expectations, the record minimum set in September 2012 still stands, as illustrated in graphic artist Andy Lee Robinson’s video, below.” [Yale Climate Connections, 10/27/20 (+)]

 

First Drone Goes Flying To The North Pole On A Climate Mission. According to Bloomberg, “Roberta Pirazzini set out an Arctic expedition to do something no one had ever tried before: fly a drone near the North Pole. Sensors on the drone would assess sunlight reflected from the ice. This measurement, known as surface albedo, is key to understanding how much solar radiation is absorbed by the Earth and how much is reflected back into the atmosphere. It’s one of the scientific puzzles that can help predict how fast sea ice will melt. But flying a drone over the planet’s northernmost reaches is no simple feat. Pirazzini and a colleague, Henna-Reetta Hannula, spent months learning to fly at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, where both are on staff as scientists. Technicians designed and built a sophisticated navigation system capable of handling extreme weather. The scientists and their drones then joined the largest Arctic expedition in history aboard the Polarstern, an icebreaker carrying dozens of researchers on a year-long mission. The pair had also brought along a smaller practice drone that could fly inside their tiny cabin, the only chance they’d have to keep their skills sharp in the weeks of sailing before finally stepping onto the ice.” [Bloomberg, 10/27/20 (=)]

 

Ocean Health & Management

 

Op-Ed: You Can't Address Climate By Ignoring 71 Percent Of The Planet. According to The Hill, “In 2020 Climate became a serious national election issue. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, House Democrats on the Natural Resources Committee introduced an ‘Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act,’ the first bill ever aimed at using ocean and coastal resources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while helping coastal communities equitably adapt to climate change impacts. It’s an overdue corrective not only to 50 years of inadequate U.S. climate policy, but also to the Green New Deal framework of 2019, which proposed a full blown progressive agenda for a clean energy revolution, but failed to address our ocean. The new ocean climate bill will, among other things, halt new offshore oil drilling, promote offshore wind and expand efforts to protect coastal ecosystems for carbon sequestration, improved wildlife habitat and coastal storm protection. ‘Climate proposals have ignored the ocean for far too long,’ noted House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) in a video news conference, a sentiment echoed by former NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, who called the bill, ‘a booming wake-up call to the climate community.’ The lack of focus on our public seas and coastlines in addressing climate change has been particularly egregious given that the ocean economy is worth $373 billion and that 127 million Americans live in coastal counties increasingly impacted by rising, warming, acidifying ocean waters.” [The Hill, 10/27/20 (+)]

 

 

Please do not respond to this email.

If you have questions or comments please contact mitch@beehivedc.com