It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, December 26, 2021
A South Korean Company Said a Natural Gas Project Was ‘CO2-Free.’ It’s Being Accused of ‘Greenwashing’
South Korea’s largest private gas provider SK E&S Co. is facing legal action from a climate activist group alleging that it falsely advertised the green credentials of a project in Australia.
Solutions for Our Climate said it’s bringing a claim against SK for labeling liquefied natural gas from its Barossa project off the northern coast of Australia as “CO2-free.” While SK claims to capture greenhouse gases produced while making LNG, it’s only partially removing emissions from the process and not doing anything about CO2 released when the gas is burned, which is where the vast majority of emissions come from, the group said.
SK will use carbon capture and sequestration to eliminate 60% of its share of the emissions from the project, which amounts to 4 million tons a year, and will grow forests to offset the rest, Kim Hyejin, communications executive officer at SK E&S, said by phone.
“As a major LNG supplier in South Korea, we’re trying our best to stay responsible by actively investing in clean technology such as CCS to help reduce emissions and be part of the transition toward net zero,” Kim said.
As environmentalists all over the globe increasingly resort to legal remedies against fossil fuel providers, this is the first South Korean claim against any company regarding its emission. Earlier this year, Royal Dutch Shell Plc was ordered to cut emissions faster than planned, while Australia’s Santos Ltd. was challenged by an activist group for making a misleading net-zero pledge.
“There is no such thing as ‘CO2-free LNG,’” Oh Dongjae, a researcher at SFOC, said in the statement. “SK E&S has oversold its CCS technology as a silver bullet.”
Seoul-based SFOC said it’s taking the case to the Korea Fair Trade Commission and the Ministry of Environment, which will decide whether to go forward with an investigation.
SK will spend $1.4B to develop the Barossa Caldita gas fields, where it holds a 37.5% interest. According to SK, it plans to make 1.3 Million Tons of LNG each year for the next 20 years starting in 2025. The company also stated that carbon-capture technology will be used to extract CO2 from its LNG plants and inject it into an adjacent marine waste gas field.
The technology will reduce emissions by about 2.1million tons per year if it works. It said that 11.4 million tonnes more of carbon dioxide will be released each year, mostly due to the burning and transporting fuel across oceans.
2021 Arctic Report Card: Warming, Disruption and Extreme Weather
[By Matthew Druckenmiller, Rick Thoman and Twila Moon]
The Arctic has long been portrayed as a distant end-of-the-Earth place, disconnected from everyday common experience. But as the planet rapidly warms, what happens in this icy region, where temperatures are rising twice as fast as the rest of the globe, increasingly affects lives around the world.
On Dec. 14, 2021, a team of 111 scientists from 12 countries released the 16th annual Arctic Report Card, a yearly update on the state of the Arctic system. We are Arctic scientists and the editors of this peer-reviewed assessment. In the report, we take a diverse look across the region’s interconnected physical, ecological and human components.
Like an annual checkup with a physician, the report assesses the Arctic’s vital signs – including surface air temperatures, sea surface temperatures, sea ice, snow cover, the Greenland ice sheet, greening of the tundra, and photosynthesis rates by ocean algae – while inquiring into other indicators of health and emerging factors that shed light on the trajectory of Arctic changes.
As the report describes, rapid and pronounced human-caused warming continues to drive most of the changes, and ultimately is paving the way for disruptions that affect ecosystems and communities far and wide.
Continued loss of ice
Arctic Sea ice – a central vital sign and one of the most iconic indicators of global climate change – is continuing to shrink under warming temperatures.
Including data from 2021, 15 of the lowest summer sea ice extents – the point when the ice is at its minimum reach for the year – have all occurred in the last 15 years, within a record dating back to 1979 when satellites began regularly monitoring the region.
The sea ice is also thinning at an alarming rate as the Arctic’s oldest and thickest multi-year ice disappears. This loss of sea ice diminishes the Arctic’s ability to cool the global climate. It can also alter lower latitude weather systems to an extent that makes previously rare and impactful weather events, like droughts, heat waves and extreme winter storms, more likely.
Similarly, the persistent melting of the Greenland ice sheet and other land-based ice is raising seas worldwide, exacerbating the severity and exposure to coastal flooding, disruptions to drinking and waste water systems, and coastal erosion for more communities around the planet.
NOAA Climate.gov/NSIDC
A warmer, wetter Arctic
This transition from ice to water and its effects are evident across the Arctic system.
The eight major Arctic rivers are discharging more freshwater into the Arctic Ocean, reflecting an Arctic-wide increase in water coming from land as a result of precipitation, permafrost thaw and ice melt. Remarkably, the summit of the Greenland ice sheet – over 10,000 feet above sea level – experienced its first-ever observed rainfall during summer 2021.
These developments point to a changed and more variable Arctic today. They also give credence to new modeling studies that show the potential for the Arctic to transition from a snow-dominated to rain-dominated system in summer and autumn by the time global temperatures rise to only 1.5 degrees Celisus (2.7 F) above pre-industrial times. The world has already warmed by 1.2 C (2.2 F).
Such a shift to more rain and less snow would further transform landscapes, fueling faster glacier retreat and permafrost loss. The thaw of permafrost not only affects ecosystems but also further adds to climate warming by allowing previously once-frozen plant and animal remains to decompose, releasing additional greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
This year’s report highlights how retreating glaciers and deteriorating permafrost are also posing growing threats to human life through abrupt and localized flooding and landslides. It urges coordinated international efforts to identify these hazards. More rain in the Arctic will further multiply these threats.
NOAA Climate.gov/CS ERA5
Rising human impact
Observed changes and disruptions in the Arctic have bearing on everyday lives and actions worldwide, either directly or as stark reminders of a range of human-caused harm to climate and ecosystems.
An Arctic Report Card essay on beavers expanding northward into Arctic tundra to exploit newly favorable conditions is a case study for how species around the world are on the move as habitats respond to climate shifts, and the need for new forms of collaborative monitoring to assess the scale of the resulting ecological transformations.
An essay on marine garbage from shipping washing ashore on the Bering Sea coast, posing an immediate threat to food security in the region, reminds us that the threat of both micro- and macro-plastics in our oceans is a preeminent challenge of our time.
A report on shipping noise increasingly infiltrating the Arctic’s underwater marine soundscape, to the detriment of marine mammals, is a call to conserve the integrity of natural soundscapes worldwide. For example, a recent unrelated study found that noise caused by human activities and biodiversity loss are deteriorating the spring songbird soundscapes in North America and Europe.
Yet, an Arctic Report Card essay from members of the Indigenous Foods Knowledges Network highlights how, despite the continued climate threats to Arctic food systems, Alaska Indigenous communities weathered early pandemic disruptions to food security through their cultural values for sharing and “community-first” approaches.
Their cooperation and ability to adapt offer an important lesson for similarly struggling communities worldwide, while reminding everyone that the Arctic itself is a homeland; a place where large-scale disruptions are not new to its over 1 million Indigenous Peoples, and where solutions have long been found in practices of reciprocity.
An Arctic connected to the rest of the world
The Arctic Report Card compiles observations from across the circumpolar North, analyzing them within a polar projection of our planet. This puts the Arctic at the center, with all meridians extending outward to the rest of the world.
In this view, the Arctic is tethered to societies worldwide through a myriad of exchanges – the natural circulation of air, ocean and contaminants, the migration of animals and invasive species, as well as human-driven transport of people, pollution, goods and natural resources. The warming of the Arctic is also allowing for greater marine access as sea ice loss permits ships to move deeper into Arctic waters and for longer periods of time.
These realities illuminate the importance for increased international cooperation in conservation, hazard mitigation and scientific research.
The Arctic has already undergone unprecedented rapid environmental and social changes. A warmer and more accessible Arctic results in a world only tethered more tightly together.
Matthew Druckenmiller is a Research Scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder.
Rick Thoman is an Alaska Climate Specialist at University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Twila Moon is a Deputy Lead Scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder.
This article appears courtesy of The Conversation and may be found in its original form here.
Russia's Northern Sea Route Posts Record Year for Traffic Volume
Despite an early freeze-up that briefly trapped multiple merchant vessels, Russia's Northern Sea Route posted its busiest navigation season ever in 2021.
Total traffic reached 33.5 million tonnes as of mid-December, compared to 33.0 million tonnes in all of 2020. The figure for the full year is expected to exceed 34 million tonnes - an increase of 350 percent over the past five years. This is one of the many signs of economic growth in Russia's Arctic, particularly in the oil and gas industry. Liquefied natural gas and oil tankers make up the majority of total traffic on the route.
Transit traffic (passing through the region) came to more than two million tonnes by mid-December, compared to 1.3 million tonnes in 2020. This marks the third year in a row of through-traffic growth on the NSR, which has seen its popularity as a through route increase by more than 300 percent since 2018.
"In 2021, 79 of the 92 vessels that transited the NSR were non-Russian, demonstrating how international partners are increasingly viewing the NSR as a viable transport corridor," said Maxim Kulinko, the deputy director of Rosatom's Northern Sea Route Directorate. "As we expand seaport capacity along the route, we expect this growth trajectory to continue for many years to come."
Russia's ambitious goal is to achieve total yearly traffic of 80 million tonnes by 2024 and 110 million tonnes by 2030. A warming Arctic is opening up new economic opportunities for the region, as the extent of average ice cover retreats and the average ice thickness declines. However, the high latitudes still hold unique risks for shipping, as shown by the sudden ice-up along the NSR in late November. Multiple ships became stuck in earlier-than-expected ice along the route, prompting Atomflot to dispatch several icebreakers to conduct a record-setting escort operation.
Chinese Companies Are Combining Offshore Wind With Fish Farms
As offshore wind booms in China, could combined wind and fish farms support more sustainable aquaculture?
Last year, China installed more offshore wind capacity than any other nation for the third year running. This year it is set to overtake the UK as the largest offshore wind market. With the sector booming, some are looking at opportunities beneath the turbines. Could their bases be turned into aquaculture farms or “marine ranches” – habitats where marine life can live, breed and be harvested for human consumption?
So far, no mixed wind power and marine ranching projects have been completed in China. Projects are being built in provinces including Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. If successful, they could enable more efficient use of limited space at sea, help develop fishery resources, and support more sustainable development.
But it is too soon to talk of a large-scale roll-out. There are currently no China-specific research findings on how the wind and seafood elements affect each other, and many questions remain to be answered. How, for example, will the noise of building and operating a wind farm affect marine life?
The advantages
Most of China’s offshore wind power potential is concentrated around the southeastern coast and nearby islands, where the water is between 5 and 50 meters deep, according to the 2019 China Renewable Energy Development Report. Some of this area is suitable for marine ranching.
Aquaculture operations that need to leave the coast for environmental reasons have been moving offshore, freeing up coastal areas for restoration or sustainable development (Image: Liu Yuyang/China Dialogue)
China’s marine aquaculture is already relocating from coasts and shallow waters out into deeper waters. Aquaculture takes up large expanses of shallows and wetlands, and intensive operations pollute the ocean. Central government has therefore ordered a clean-up, meaning aquaculture will be pushed further offshore, into wind power territory.
‘Aquaculture’ vs ‘ranching’
Marine aquaculture involves farming sea life in enclosures, and relies on continued input of materials such as feed and fingerlings. Marine ranching, by contrast, involves creating environments suitable for life, allowing it to grow naturally and then harvesting the resulting seafood. Some marine ranching projects involve rehabilitating damaged habitats using artificial reefs.
Marine ranching is being seen as way to upgrade the sector and even help restore the ocean environment. Wang Songlin, president and founder of the Qingdao Marine Conservation Society, told China Dialogue that most aquaculture farms and marine ranches are found near the coast, in waters up to 20 meters deep. There are some ranches in waters 40 meters deep near islands, but none deeper than 55 meters.
Combining wind power with aquaculture or ranching could benefit companies on both sides. Aquaculture firms can use the turbine bases to anchor fish cages or rope-and-raft systems for growing shellfish and kelp. The base itself could be turned into an artificial reef for fish, oysters or kelp, and any power needed to run the aquaculture farm or marine ranch could be drawn directly from the turbines.
For the wind power firms, making fuller use of the site would reduce maintenance costs and they could sell some of the power they generate to the aquaculture firms.
The combination could also help China make better use of its ocean. He Guangshun, director of the National Marine Data and Information Service, wrote in a 2019 research paper that “the ocean is three-dimensional, with differing geographical and environmental conditions across the air, water and seabed. A single site can be suitable for energy, shipping and fishing.” Combining these activities would allow for more intensive use of space.
Global and domestic practice
Bidding for the chance to construct China’s first purpose-built offshore wind and marine ranching project began in 2019, with a 300-megawatt (MW) project in Shandong’s Laizhou Bay. In 2020, construction started on a pilot project in Yangxi county, Guangdong. Meanwhile, in the city of Dongfang, Hainan bids were solicited to do feasibility studies for a similar 500 MW project. Of these three, construction of the first two is expected to finish in 2024. It is not yet known when the third will be done.
Graphic: Ed Harrison / China Dialogue
Currently, the only completed project claiming to combine offshore wind with marine ranching is in Pingtan, Fujian province. It was initiated by CGN New Energy, with participation from the Fujian Fisheries Research Institute and a local aquaculture firm. That firm placed metal cages containing 1,500 juvenile fish near the base of one of the turbines, 28 meters down. The fish are regularly fed and checked up on. Mussels and abalone are also raised on the concrete base the cages are attached to.
But an expert familiar with aquaculture and ranching says marine ranches are about creating or restoring good underwater environments for aquatic life to prosper, with the primary aim of sustainable production without the need for inputs. “The term ‘marine ranch’ is a stretch if you are using cages and providing feed.”
The mixed wind power and aquaculture model is more common overseas. European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway started trialling it in 2000, fixing fish cages and shellfish and kelp rafts to turbine bases, as Yang Hongsheng, deputy head of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Oceanology, explained in a 2019 article. Asian countries, such as South Korea, got started in 2016, finding that valuable seafoods such as kelp, mussels and scallops increased around offshore wind farms.
Increases in marine organisms like kelp can be one of the benefits of projects like these. “Kelp fixes carbon and provides a habitat for small fish and shrimp,” said the aquaculture expert. That could mean it is possible to use aquaculture as a basis for promoting the development of more eco-friendly marine ranches.
Hopes and concerns
Turbine bases attract fish, much like artificial reefs, said Yue Weizhong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Oceanology, in an interview with the journal Fishing and Fisheries. When ocean currents meet turbine bases and semi-submerged platforms, water is diverted upwards, taking seabed nutrients with it. That encourages growth of phytoplankton, or microalgae, which attracts other ocean life. On the other side of the base, eddies form where water flows more slowly, which suits certain fish. The eddies can also bring together phytoplankton and crustaceans with fish.
An example in the Netherlands has demonstrated the potential of offshore turbines to attract marine life. Biodiversity has increased at the Egmond aan Zee offshore wind farm, with new or larger populations of oysters, sea anemones and crabs appearing at the turbine base and nearby rocks, according to a two-year study.
The key factor in those changes may in fact be the lack of human activity, coupled with changes to the seabed. On the busy Dutch coast, a wind farm is a relative oasis of peace and quiet, free from commercial fishing, oil extraction and shipping. The turbine bases also offer the kind of solid habitat shellfish prefer attaching to, when compared to the softer seabed found locally.
But with little research or practice to refer to, many questions still hang over the offshore wind and marine ranching model. In his 2019 paper, Yang Hongsheng raised several issues: Do turbine bases really attract marine life in the same way artificial reefs do? How should the management of the ranch and the wind farm be coordinated? What effect will the noise, vibration and electromagnetic fields produced during construction and operation of the wind farm have on marine life? According to his paper, wind farm noise can be sensed by cod and herring four kilometers away, and by flounder and salmon a kilometer away, and those noises may affect fish behavior and biology.
The government is not currently pushing ahead with integrated offshore wind and marine ranching development. In a response to a comment from a National People’s Representative, the Ministry of Agriculture said academics are studying how the two operations could work together, but there are no findings yet. “Establishing the impact of wind farms on the fishery resources in marine ranches will require long-term monitoring and evaluation. It is too early for the state to put the necessary policies and plans in place,” its statement said.
It may come down to the success of the local trials. The ministry is to continue monitoring these and will, in partnership with the National Energy Administration, carry out research into how the turbines and ranches interact. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources is looking into managing usage rights at different ocean levels, to allow for more precise management of marine resources.
Gao Baiyu is a researcher on China Dialogue's Beijing editorial team. She has a master’s degree in computational journalism from Syracuse University.
This article appears courtesy of China Dialogue Ocean and may be found in its original form here.
First power was achieved at the Hornsea 2 wind farm, located approximately 55 miles east of the U.K.’s coast south of Newcastle, is slated to become the world’s largest operating offshore wind farm with a capability of generating 1.32 GW of electricity. The project which is being led by Orsted, completed the installation of its offshore substation and reactive compensation station as it works to commission and energize the wind farm in preparation for its anticipated operational date next year.
Construction on Hornsea 2 began in 2020, with the first of the turbines going into place in May 2021. When fully operational, Hornsea 2’s will consist of 165 8 MW Siemens Gamesa wind turbines. It takes the title of the largest operating wind farm from the first phase of the project which was completed in 2020 and has a capacity to generate 1.2 GW.
“Achieving first power is an important milestone for the project and a proud moment for the whole team. Constructing a project of this size and scale is only possible through strong collaboration, hard work, and dedication,” said Patrick Harnett, Programme Director for Hornsea 2. “From here, we have the finishing line in sight as we install the remaining turbines and continue testing, commissioning, and energizing our wind farm into the new year.”
Hornsea 2’s title as the world’s largest wind farm however is likely to be short-lived as the industry continues its rapid growth. Two further phases for the Hornsea Zone are also moving forward with Hornsea 3 having received a Development Consent Order in December 2020 for a project designed to generate 2.4 GW and Hornsea 4 is currently going through the planning process.
While other projects currently having reached the construction phase are all smaller than the massive Hornsea phases, longer-term proposals and project in earlier development phases promise to eclipse both Hornsea 2 and later 3. There are UK projects that call for capacity of 3.1 and 4.1 GW while in South Korea a project has been proposed for 8.2 GW that could be operating by 2030.
X-Press Pearl's Insurer Releases $2.5M for Environmental Cleanup
Partially-burned plastic beads on a beach near Colombo (Asha de Vos / WHOI / Oceanswell)
The insurer of the X-Press Pearl has agreed to pay an additional $2.5 million in compensation for environmental harm in connection to the vessel's sinking off Colombo, Sri Lanka in May.
Sri Lanka's Marine Environment Protection Authority announced Wednesday that the insurer will be compensating the government for some of its cleanup expenses. The payment applies to costs incurred in June, July and August, and covers most - but not all - of the government's claims for the period. MEPA chairperson Dharshani Lahandapura told local media that the total expenditures come to $3.9 million, but more documentation is required first.
The new payment is in addition to a previous tranche of $3.6 million, which covered the cost of the government's initial salvage and environmental response. Separate talks are under way on compensation for fishermen, who were affected by a closure in the affected coastal area. According to Colombo Page, the discussions are proceeding well and the insurer is receptive to the claim.
X-Press Pearl spilled an unknown quantity of chemical cargo into the water when she went down, along with about 1,500 tonnes of plastic nurdles - the small bead-shaped bulk commodity used to make everyday plastic items. It was the largest "plastic spill" on record, according to the UN Environment Programme, and tonnes of this waste have been recovered from nearby beaches.
In a recent study published in the journal ACS Environmental Au, WHOI scientist Anna Michel and Sri Lankan conservationist Asha de Vos reported that the cleanup has a unique challenge. The plastic cargo from X-Press Pearl was released after a raging fire, and a substantial portion of the waste is in a partially-burned state. This makes the assessment and cleanup effort more complex, as the burned particles are variable and harder to spot. Some "don't even look like plastic anymore," according to the authors, and the impact on the environment is not fully known.
"The burnt nurdles span a continuum of colors, shapes, sizes, and densities with high variability that could impact clean-up efforts, alter transport in the ocean, and potentially affect wildlife," the study cautioned.
Taylor Energy Liquidates All Assets to Settle Suit Over Giant Spill
Oil sheen coming from the former Taylor site in the Gulf of Mexico (file image courtesy USCG)
The U.S. Department of Justice announced a proposed resolution to lawsuits related to the country’s longest-running oil spill, which began in 2004 and continues to leak oil to this day. The United States filed a civil complaint against Taylor Energy in the U.S. District Court in New Orleans in 2020 seeking removal costs, civil penalties, and natural resource damages under the Oil Pollution and Clean Water Acts arising from the discharge of oil from the company’s former oil production facility offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. The proposed settlement would resolve that case as well as several brought by Taylor Energy.
Under the proposed consent decree, Taylor Energy will transfer to the Department of the Interior (DOI) a $432 million trust fund dedicated to plugging the subsea oil wells, permanently decommissioning the facility, and remediating contaminated soil. The consent decree further requires Taylor Energy to pay over $43 million for civil penalties, removal costs, and natural resource damages (NRD). The State of Louisiana is a co-trustee for natural resources impacted by the spill and the NRD money is a joint recovery by the federal and state trustees.
“Offshore operators cannot allow oil to spill into our nation’s waters,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “If an oil spill occurs, the responsible party must cooperate with the government to timely address the problem and pay for the cleanup. Holding offshore operators to account is vital to protecting our environment and ensuring a level industry playing field.”
The spill began in 2004, when a Taylor Energy production platform located in the Gulf of Mexico about 10 miles off the coast of Louisiana collapsed during Hurricane Ivan, resulting in an ongoing oil discharge that continues to this day. Since April 2019, the vast majority of the leaking oil has been successfully captured by a containment system installed and operated by the U.S. Coast Guard through a contractor.
“For the last three years, the Coast Guard, along with our federal partners, have committed to the challenging mission of containing and removing more than 800,000 gallons of oil discharging into the Gulf of Mexico,” said Captain Will Watson, Sector Commander of the Coast Guard New Orleans. “This settlement will provide significant financial resources for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Coast Guard to permanently secure the wells.”
Under the settlement, Taylor Energy will pay over $43 million — all the company’s available remaining assets — allocated as follows: $15 million as a civil penalty, $16.5 million for NRD, and over $12 million for Coast Guard removal costs. Taylor Energy also will transfer to DOI’s Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) $432 million currently held in a trust for decommissioning the Mississippi Canyon (MC)-20 site, and the company will be barred from interfering in any way with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s (BSEE’s) decommissioning work.
The settlement also requires the company to dismiss three lawsuits it filed against the United States. Between 2016 and 2020, Taylor Energy filed several lawsuits against the United States, including challenging the Coast Guard’s decision to install a spill containment system and appealing the Coast Guard’s denial of Taylor Energy’s $353 million spill-cost reimbursement claim submitted to the U.S. Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. The settlement resolves the United States’ environmental enforcement claims against Taylor Energy and requires the company to drop its remaining lawsuits against the United States.
In addition, Taylor Energy may not interfere with the Coast Guard’s oil containment and removal actions. Taylor Energy will turn over to DOI and the Coast Guard all documents relating to the site to assist in the decommissioning and response efforts. When Taylor Energy liquidates after court approval of the settlement, it will make a final payment to the United States of the value of its remaining assets.
Rystad: 2021 May be Worst Year Since 1946 for Oil & Gas Discoveries
Promising offshore finds like the PTTEP/Petronas Nangka-1 well have cushioned the decline (PTTEP image)
Reflecting reduced investment in E&P in the COVID-19 era, the global energy industry is on track to record its worst year for new oil and gas discoveries since 1946, according to the analysts at Rystad Energy.
“Although some of the highly ranked prospects are scheduled to be drilled before the end of the year, even a substantial discovery may not be able to contribute towards 2021 discovered volumes as these wells may not be completed in this calendar year. Therefore, the cumulative discovered volume for 2021 is on course to be its lowest in decades,” says Palzor Shenga, vice president of upstream research at Rystad Energy.
No big discoveries have been announced yet in December, and over the course of the year through November, only 4.7 billion boe worth of newly discovered volumes have been reported worldwide. This puts the industry on track to report less than half of last year's total, when - despite the pandemic and a sharp drop in oil prices - oil and gas firms announced 12.5 billion boe worth of new discoveries.
The monthly average for the year has been low, at about 425 million boe. November was particularly quiet, with just 220 million boe announced, and December has been nearly silent so far. Offshore finds have been the largest source in recent months: Lukoil discovered 75 million boe of oil and gas off Mexico; Thailand's PTTEP and Malaysia's Petronas discovered a promising gas reservoir in shallow water off Baram Province, Malaysia; and Norway continues to yield a steady flow of smaller offshore finds with tieback development potential.
Rystad chalked up the low overall results to an absence of big discoveries. Large individual finds typically make up an outsize portion of the annual total. Worldwide, just 900 giant oil and gas fields account for 40 percent of all petroleum ever discovered, and each new giant adds 500 million boe or more to the annual total.
According to Rystad, the global oil and gas industry reacted to the pandemic-induced price crash of 2020 by cutting upstream spending by more than a quarter. That translated to an investment reduction of $145 billion in 2020 and a projected reduction of $140 billion in 2021, and the firm predicts that upstream investments will remain well below previous levels for years to come. For 2022, a healthy share of producers' capex budget increases may simply go to covering the effects of inflation, not drilling extra wells, according to S&P.
NGO Sues UK, French Coast Guards Over Fatal Migrant Boat Sinking
British and French rescues services were named in the lawsuit (file photo)
A French humanitarian group announced that it has filed a criminal lawsuit against the British and French coast guards and various authorities responsible for shipping in the English Channel over an incident on November 24 during which 27 migrants drowned. At the time, authorities blamed an unnamed containership for causing the inflatable dingy the migrants were in to deflate.
“We must learn the lessons and consequences, including on the criminal level of the sinking of November 24, 2021, so that, never again, do these tragedies happen,” said the charity Utopia 56. They said the goal was to have a full investigation into the circumstances that caused the tragedy and the response by the British and French authorities.
Among the parties named in their legal action are Her Majesty’s Coastguard, the French maritime chief for the English Channel, and the French regional coastguard on charges of “involuntary manslaughter,” and a “failure to help people in need.” They also said the suit would include any other accomplices to the tragedy.
The two survivors from the incident told the authorities that they had set out in a small inflatable dingy from near Calais, France. The dingy was designed to hold a maximum of 10 people but it was believed that there were at least 30 adults and children who were being smuggled across the Channel. They said a large ship hit their dingy causing it to deflate. Media reports at the time said the first response came from a fishing boat that came upon the bodies in the English Channel.
According to the charity, the two survivors said their group made emergency calls asking for assistance from the British and French rescue services when their boat began to deflate. Utopia 56 alleges that this is not the first instance in which the rescue services ignored calls for assistance from migrants in the English Channel. Four days before the November 24 incident they said another group called for assistance and was told by the British that they needed to call the French and got a similar response from the French who said it was the British responsibility. “Both are laughing at us,” the charity said reporting the experience of the migrants in the Channel.
After the incident, which was reported as possibly the single largest loss of migrants in the Channel, both the British and French reported a crackdown on the smugglers seeking payment from the migrants camping on the French coast and seeking a way to reach Britain. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the French demanding a crackdown or suggesting England send its forces on to the French beaches. France arrested individuals that it said were involved in the smuggling operations.
Utopia 56 further accuses the British authorities of failing to start a broader investigation into the allegations and the loss of the migrants. They also said that France is only focusing on the smugglers and not investigating the circumstances that led to the loss of the migrants. They reported that 27 bodies were retrieved from the Channel including three children. Media reports indicated the individuals had been identified as being from Iraqi Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and Somalia.
A British law firm has also reportedly filed paper work with the UK Home Office on behalf of one of the two survivors. They are calling for public inquiry into the tragedy.
The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it was not appropriate for it to comment on the incident due to the legal action. They, however, reported that they received over 90 alerts and emergency calls that day alone from the English Channel and investigate each one and sent search and rescue teams when it was deemed appropriate.
BC
Second Fire Breaks Out Aboard Boxship Zim Kingston
Zim Kingston at anchor after the first fire, October 2021 (Transport Canada)
Two months after a container fire broke out aboard the boxship Zim Kingston in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a second blaze started during salvage efforts at a pier in nearby Port of Nanaimo.
According to local CHEK News, a fire started at about 1300 hours on Tuesday while the vessel was alongside at the port's Duke Point breakbulk terminal. The Zim Kingston is in port for salvage and cargo offloading, and the Nanaimo Port Authority told Nanaimo News Bulletin that the blaze was started in insulation in a damaged container. Photos from the scene showed smoke emanating from a container stack near the stern, far away from the location of the first fire.
Port authority president Ian Marr told the Bulletin that it is believed that sparks from hot work got into the damaged container, setting off the fire. It took about 90 minutes for the salvors and first responders to put out the blaze, and it did not spread. An investigation into the cause is under way.
According to the port, the process of unloading damaged cargo from the boxship is very carefully controlled. A safety assessment is conducted for each lift, and salvors are only making about 8-10 lifts per day. Once the work is finished, Zim Kingston will transit to another port to finish unloading the undamaged portion of her cargo.
Zim Kingston lost 109 containers over the side in a storm off the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca on October 22. After reporting the cargo loss, she transited into the strait to a safe anchorage.
Once she had reached calm water and dropped anchor, a stack of damaged containers on her foredeck caught fire and began to burn vigorously. Several tugs responded and provided boundary cooling, preventing the fire from spreading, and the crew abandoned ship. The last hot-spots took days to extinguish but the vessel and the majority of the cargo were saved.
A small number of lost containers from Zim Kingston washed up on the northwestern shore of Vancouver Island, along with a quantity of spilled cargo. A beach cleanup effort alleviated the worst of the litter, and the stray containers were removed.
NOAA Climate.gov/NSIDC
Aquaculture operations that need to leave the coast for environmental reasons have been moving offshore, freeing up coastal areas for restoration or sustainable development (Image: Liu Yuyang/China Dialogue)
Graphic: Ed Harrison / China Dialogue
