Third Spill From Venezuelan Refinery Contaminates Golfo Triste

File image courtesy Hugo Londono / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Published Aug 18, 2024 11:50 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

Venezuela's petroleum sector has become notorious for oil spills, especially over the last ten years of economic decline. The latest release from an aging refinery appears to have contaminated a large swathe of Venezuela's coastal waters and fouled beaches near a well-known nature reserve. 

Satellite imaging appears to show that the slick covers about 90 square miles of the Golfe Triste, an embayment about 80 nautical miles to the west of Caracas. It extends near the boundaries of Parque Nacional Morrocoy, a well-known stretch of pristine mangrove shoreline. 

The origin appears to be PDVSA's El Palito refinery, on the southern edge of the bay. The release was first reported in the English-speaking press by Reuters, which drew on an analysis by biologist Eduardo Klein and secured confirmation of the spill from multiple sources. 

El Palito was built in the 1950s and has a capacity of about 150,000 barrels a day. According to the GlobalData Oil & Gas Intelligence Center, it had 14 shutdown incidents from 2017-22, the overwhelming majority of which were unplanned. It was shut down for nearly a year in 2022-23 for repairs and improvements, with assistance from the  Iranian National Company of Petroleum Refining and Distribution (NIORDC). Iran - which is largely immune to U.S. sanctions on Venezuela - has supplied PDVSA with parts and services for the petroleum and refining sector since 2020. According to Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji, El Palito receives and refines about 100,000 barrels per day of imported Iranian crude (along with Venezuelan heavy oil).

El Palito's last major spill was in December 2023, when heavy rains caused waste lagoons to overflow and send sludge flowing into the ocean. The previous spill, in July 2020, contaminated Parque Nacional Morrocoy with tarry crude oil. The damage from that event could take 50 years or longer to fade away, biologist Julia Alvarez told reporters at the time. 

Copernicus / Sentinel-1

Top image: Hugo Londono / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0   

 

Maine Awarded First License for Floating Offshore Wind Research Project

Maine receive the first license for a floating offshore wind research project (file photo)

Published Aug 19, 2024 5:32 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

A research effort to develop possibly the first floating offshore wind project in the United States received a research lease today from the U.S. Department of the Interior. It comes almost three years after Maine first filed for the research license to further research projects undertaken by the University of Maine. Maine as a state has moved to bar nearby coastal wind energy instead encouraging it to move further out into the gulf away from its fishing and tourism industries.

The first floating offshore wind lease provides for about 10,000 acres located 28 nautical miles off the coast of Maine on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. It is about 45 miles from Portland, Maine. When the state proposed the site, it called the project the next step in research ongoing for more than a decade at the University of Maine to develop floating concrete hull technology for offshore wind turbines.

As a research lease, Maine or its designated operator will propose and conduct research regarding the environmental and engineering aspects of the proposed project. This information will be made public and used to inform future planning, permitting, and construction of commercial-scale floating offshore wind projects in the region. The research lease also allows for the state, fishing community, wildlife experts, and others to conduct in-depth studies and thoroughly evaluate floating offshore wind as a renewable energy source in the region. Information gathered from the research lease the department says will inform commercial floating offshore wind development in the future.

“Floating wind opens up opportunities to produce renewable energy in deeper water farther offshore,” said Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Elizabeth Klein. “Signing the Gulf of Maine research lease demonstrates the commitment by both BOEM and the State of Maine to promote a clean energy future for the nation.”

Maine proposed placing up to 12 floating turbines as part of the project. It would have a capacity based on current designs for up to 144 MW of electricity. Construction activity on the research array is not likely to occur for several years. The lessee is first required to submit a Research Activities Plan to BOEM, which will undergo environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. 

Today’s action comes as BOEM has proposed the development of offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine. BOEM outlined an area in a range between 23 and 92 miles off the coast in April 2024 as the first target in the Gulf of Maine. It ranges from Maine to Massachusetts and New Hampshire and they estimate it has a capacity to provide up to 32 GW.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration mapped out the next phase of proposed lease auctions for the offshore wind power industry. This included the Gulf of Maine with a total of 12 additional lease sales planned by 2028. The Department has approved the first nine commercial-scale offshore wind projects with 13 GW of capacity. 

The Department of the Interior announced a goal to deploy 15 GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2035. The administration is providing support for various research efforts designed to lower the cost of deploying floating wind projects.

Crowley Starts Salem Wind Port Project as Massachusetts Expands Wind Ports

Vineyard Wind 1 staging materials at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal (MassCEC)

Published Aug 15, 2024 8:05 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

Massachusetts is pushing forward with plans to expand its wind port capacities both to support the state's renewable energy plans as well as to make the state a homeport for regional wind energy projects. Efforts kicked off in Salem led by Crowley Wind Services to develop the state’s second dedicated wind port while yesterday MassCEC, the state's clean energy agency, announced plans to expand the current wind port facilities in New Bedford.

The state’s governor and officials are strongly supportive of the wind energy sector. Massachusetts is currently home to projects including the staging for Vineyard Wind 1 as well as other large wind farms. The state however has also found itself the unwelcome recipient of media attention as it works to deal with the debris washing ashore from the blade that fractured in July at the under-development Vineyard Wind 1.

Both New Bedford and Salem are supporting the emerging wind farm industry while plans continue to develop the port capabilities. MassCEC (Massachusetts Clean Energy Center) signed a deal in February 2024 with Crowley Wind Services and the City of Salem which called for the transformation of a former oil- and coal-fired power plant into the Salem Wind Terminal. A ceremonial groundbreaking took place today, August 15, for the project.

“The Salem Wind Terminal will be a historic achievement, and we appreciate the trust and partnership by the City of Salem, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the U.S. Maritime Administration to create a world-class wind terminal that reliably and safely serves the supply chain needs of the wind energy industry,” said Tom Crowley, Chairman and CEO, Crowley Corporation. “This public-private partnership in Salem can be a model for communities and the industry to follow to achieve our commitments to create renewable, sustainable power.”

 

Rendering by Crowley Wind Services of the planned Salem Wind Terminal

 

The terminal will be one of the few locations capable of supporting the construction and installation of New England’s fixed bottom and future floating offshore wind projects planned for the Gulf of Maine. Crowley will be responsible for redeveloping and operating the terminal. It signed a lease with MassCEC to use the site as an offshore wind marshaling port, with a focus on projects for Massachusetts. The City of Salem has also leased a berth and surrounding land for this purpose. Crowley’s Wind Services will improve the site by adding infrastructure for heavy equipment, constructing a new ship berth, upgrading the city’s existing berth, and dredging the harbor channel. The wind port is expected to begin operating in 2026.

“Coming on the heels of $389 million in federal funds for offshore wind transmission in Somerset, the expansion of the port in New Bedford, and now the groundbreaking in Salem, Massachusetts is well-positioned to support the growing offshore wind industry,” said Governor Maura Healey.

MassCEC also announced plans for the expansion and improvement of the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, a 30-acre facility that is being used for the construction, assembly, and deployment of offshore wind projects. According to officials of MassCEC, the facility is being expanded to support the anticipated increased demand for port facilities that can deploy the larger, heavier turbine parts.

Informed by a strategic planning process and with specific input from offshore wind project developers, wind turbine manufacturers, global marine transportation and installation companies, and port engineering consultants, the project includes the acquisition by MassCEC of four abutting properties, the redevelopment of an existing legacy bulkhead with a new high bearing capacity quayside, and the relocation and construction of a new office and warehouse building. When completed the project will expand the available heavy-lift storage area by a quarter (five acres) to a total of 26 contiguous acres. The project increases the total heavy-lift quayside available at the terminal to 1,200 linear feet and will provide additional office and warehouse space and functionality for terminal tenants

The commonwealth through its Massachusetts Ports Investment Challenge, launched in 2022, made a $180 million investment in a portfolio of offshore wind port redevelopment projects, including funding for the Marine Commerce Terminal expansion project. In total, seven awards were made for projects in New Bedford, Salem, and Somerset, including $45 million for the Marine Commerce Terminal, $75 million for the Salem Offshore Wind Terminal, and funding for Prysmian marine high voltage cables manufacturing facility/terminal and Gladding Hearn Shipbuilding in Somerset. It also aided the North Terminal, Foss Marine Terminal, and Shoreline Marine Terminals in New Bedford.

The efforts are being coordinated to position Massachusetts as a leader in supporting the industry. 

 

Mozambique Leases a Port Terminal to Landlocked Malawi

Port of Nacala, Mozambique, is about 450 miles by road from landlocked Malawi (JICA file image)

Published Aug 18, 2024 9:41 PM by Brian Gicheru Kinyua

 

 

In a rare move, Mozambique is planning to lease part of its northern port of Nacala to neighboring landlocked Malawi. The deal seeks to boost trade ties between the two countries. To formalize the initiative, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and his Malawian counterpart, Lazarus Chakwera, last week signed initial agreements of the concession deal.

This will see Mozambique carve out a space at the Port of Nacala, which Malawi can develop into a terminal for its goods.

“The agreements will benefit both countries, since they are instruments that aim to enable initiatives that are already underway such as the Mozambique-Malawi joint electrification project called MOMA,” explained Nyusi.

The Port of Nacala is part of the Nacala Development Corridor, which is being developed jointly by Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. The goal is facilitating regional connectivity and sea access for the landlocked Malawi and Zambia. The corridor comprises a total of 722 miles of road network, railway rehabilitation connecting to Malawi’s capital of Lilongwe and one-stop border posts (OSBP) among the involved countries.

Specifically, the Port of Nacala has proved competitive to Malawian national economic interests. The National Oil Company of Malawi (NOCMA) has recently started to import around 15 million liters of fuel through Nacala, using rail transport. With this shipment possible, Malawi will gradually reduce its dependence on the ports of Beira (Mozambique), Durban (South Africa) and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, where import costs are high due to use of road transport.

“I am pleased that we will soon be able to reduce the overland costs of fuel transport, which translate into lower fuel prices in Malawi,” said President Chakwera.

Since 2018, the port of Nacala has been undergoing modernization thanks to $300 million in financing from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The upgrades include dredging to a terminal depth of 14 meters and new equipment for  cargo handling.

This expansion has started to pay off, and Nacala is emerging as a key dry bulk export port in Africa. In the past year, close to 14 million tons of coal were transported from the Moatize mine in Tete province to the port of Nacala via Malawi. In addition, the port handled 3.1 million tons of general cargo last year, representing 103 percent of what the port had projected. The figure is expected to rise to 3.5 million tons by December of this year, according to the port’s director of infrastructure, Nelmo Induna.

 

High Speed Led to Vintage Ferry Hitting a Dock in Toronto

Sam McBride at her berth in downtown Toronto (TSB)

Published Aug 20, 2024 8:30 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

After analyzing a ferry casualty that injured 20 people in 2022, Canada's Transportation Safety Board has called for more thorough regulation and monitoring of passenger-vessel emergency preparedness. 

Exactly two years ago Tuesday, the 1939-built passenger ferry Sam McBride allided with its dock at a terminal in downtown Toronto, Ontario. The force of the impact caused many passengers to fall down, including some who were on or near ladderways at the time of contact. 20 were injured, and six were taken to a hospital for further evaluation and treatment. The vessel suffered minor damage, and the dock required several months of repairs.  

Sam McBride was running at full capacity and was behind schedule that day, and the crews were in the habit of speeding up operations under such circumstances, according to TSB. The vessel approached the dock at a speed of about five knots, based on video footage analysis - two knots faster than normal.

Only the aft propeller of the double-ended ferry was turning, and it did not have enough power on its own to reduce speed in time to avert hard contact. The reason for the forward propeller's failure to engage was impossible to determine; the engines were newly-replaced in 2011, and the TSB found no evidence of mechanical failure or control system fault codes, at least on the day of the casualty. The engine OEM found throttle control fault codes dating to June 18, two months before the allision, but none in the timeframe just before the accident. The vessel's systems all functioned as designed in post-casualty sea trials, including in tests designed to simulate the conditions at the time of the allision. 

The exact proximate cause of the casualty was not determined, beyond the operational pressures of a busy day and the deck officer's decision to approach at higher-than-normal speed. 

In the course of its investigation, TSB reviewed unrelated safety practices aboard Sam McBride, and it found room for improvement. The agency concluded that the abandon-ship plan for Sam McBride was under-staffed: including the captain and engineer, the vessel had only six crewmembers to handle emergency-response duties, launch life rafts and safely disembark 900 passengers. In 2008, Transport Canada had revised the minimum allowable crewing for Sam McBride from 12 down to six at the request of the operator, the City of Toronto. "If the crew complement specified on a vessel’s safe manning document is insufficient to respond to an emergency, there is an increased risk to the safety of the vessel’s crew and passengers," concluded TSB. 

Further, "the investigation found no evidence that an exercise including a large number of people representing the vessel’s maximum passenger complement was ever performed," though regular simulated abandon-ship drills were held. 

"If passenger evacuation procedures are not validated through a realistic exercise with a representative number of participants, a vessel’s crew will be insufficiently prepared for an emergency and passengers will be at an elevated risk of injury or death," cautioned TSB. 

TSB also noted that at the time, the City of Toronto did not have an SMS for its ferry operating division, nor a written procedure for docking maneuvers. Passenger counts were estimated by the crew and were approximate, creating uncertainty about whether all onboard personnel would be accounted for in the event of a casualty.

 

Labor Dispute Could Shut Down Canada's Biggest Rail Lines

File image courtesy CN

Published Aug 20, 2024 9:23 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

A new Canadian labor dispute could upend trade for shipping interests across North America. Canada's largest rail union faces a lockout on Wednesday night, potentially impacting businesses from Vancouver to the U.S. Midwest and beyond. Rail freight is essential for Canadian shippers, especially for commodities and for intermodal transport, and a shutdown would have an immediate effect.

Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) are negotiating with Teamsters Canada Rail and its 9,000-plus members on terms for a new collective bargaining contract, and the talks have been contentious. According to the Teamsters, CN and CPKC are demanding more flexibility for worker scheduling and fatigue management, as well as the ability to require workers to relocate for long periods as needed. "If the companies get their way, train crews would be forced to stay awake even longer, raising the risk of derailments and other accidents," warned the Teamsters in a statement. CN and CPKC say that their proposed work rules are fully compliant with all regulations and do not compromise safety. 

In early August, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board confirmed the Teamsters' right to stage a walkout, and Canada's labor minister turned down a request from the rail lines to force the union into binding arbitration. After further negotiations failed, CN and CPKC notified the Teamsters that they would initiate a lockout at 0001 hours on August 22. Both sides blamed the other for the impasse.

"Despite negotiations over the weekend, no meaningful progress has occurred, and the parties remain very far apart," said CN in a statement. "Unless there is an immediate and definite resolution to the labor conflict, CN will have no choice but to continue the phased and progressive shutdown of its network which would culminate in a lockout."

The Teamsters have instructed members to treat the lockout as the equivalent of a strike.

In Canada, business associations for retailers, restaurants, meat producers, farmers and other sectors all warned that a rail strike would cut into margins and impact customers' pocketbooks. U.S. businesses are also worried, since Canadian rail lines carry about 15 percent of all trade across the northern border. U.S. rail line Union Pacific warned Monday that a shutdown would affect cross-border transport of 2,500 UP rail cars per day.  

The U.S. and Canadian Chambers of Commerce issued a joint statement Monday, warning of "devastating" effects on business. "The government of Canada must take action to ensure goods continue to move reliably between our two countries," the chambers said. 

The looming rail lockout could overlap with a worsening labor dispute between the International Longshore Association (ILA) and the employers' association for U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports. Talks between the union and terminal operators have been difficult, and if negotiations fail, a walkout could begin as early as October - effectively shutting down half of America's container port capacity. 

87% Of CEOs Think AI Benefits The Workplace. Here's 2 Reasons Why

Julian Hayes II
Contributor
FORBES

Aug 20, 2024,


CEOs are fully onboard with AI and its potential.getty

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly expanding, becoming increasingly integral to the everyday operations of businesses at all levels. From improving the workplace wellness experience to automating rudimentary tasks, AI's influence and impacts are being felt. That said, historically, when disruptive trends and forces such as AI have emerged, mass adoption has been slow due to the risk-averse nature of many business leaders.

However, AI is proving to be an exception, as CEOs have overwhelmingly embraced AI's potential. One notable example is the widespread adoption of ChatGPT, one of the most popular generative AI tools. In the first half of 2023, 75% of CEOs reported using ChatGPT, with 44% incorporating it into their daily work. This rapid adoption is comparable only to the early enthusiasm for the iPad, which saw a 40% usage rate among CEOs within its first six months.

This trend is further supported by the annual Gartner CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey, which revealed that 87% of CEOs believe the benefits of AI outweigh its risks. This sentiment and outlook are strongly echoed in a separate Accenture report, where 84% of executives stated that they don't think they can achieve their growth objectives without scaling AI, and 75% fear going out of business within five years if they fail to do so. While enthusiasm for AI is high, the specific strategies for leveraging it to drive revenue growth remain murky. However, CEOs highlighted numerous potential areas in the survey, with these two areas standing out as key opportunities for most organizations


Improved Customer Experience

For CEOs, making optimal decisions that drive the business forward hinges on delivering an exceptional and consistent customer experience. In today's fast-paced world, where technology is continually more embedded in our daily lives, a company's reputation can spread rapidly—good or bad. A brand's reputation is only as strong as the experience it delivers to its customers. Therefore, it's no surprise that improving customer experience tops the list of potential benefits of AI. According to Deloitte:


62% of customers spend more after a good customer experience.
Experience-driven businesses grow revenue 1.4 times faster and increase customer lifetime value 1.6 times more than other companies.
Improving the customer journey can lower operational costs by up to 20%.
After a positive experience, 83% of customers would happily provide a referral if asked.

When leveraging AI to elevate the customer experience, it's crucial to consider tools supporting the organization's people. Employees often serve as the first point of contact, as companies such as Starbucks and Best Buy are learning, and their well-being directly impacts the quality of those customer interactions.

Better Productivity Through Improved Analysis

According to Goldman Sachs, AI has the potential to raise the global GDP by 7% (nearly $7 trillion) and productivity growth by 1.5 percentage points over the next decade. There are numerous ways that AI can potentially grow revenue. AI can reduce burnout and overwhelm for team members by taking over routine, repetitive tasks, thus allowing team members to focus on more fulfilling aspects of their jobs.
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This subtle shift can benefit job satisfaction and, by extension, improve mental and emotional well-being. For CEOs, AI's ability to handle and analyze large volumes of data can significantly reduce CEO's workload and stress, thus freeing them to focus on more strategic (and rewarding) tasks. Predictive analytics, in particular, allows CEOs to make data-driven decisions, spot past mistakes, identify important trends, and forecast the future with greater precision.

In business, there's a never-ending pursuit of growth, efficiency, and a way to create industry separation. CEOs are excited about AI's potential, as the varying possibilities it presents could fundamentally transform how businesses operate, from innovation and productivity to the customer experience.

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Julian Hayes IIFollow
Julian Hayes II writes about the intersection of wellness, business, and leadership. His articles have been published in Inc., Entrepreneur, SUCCESS

 

Writers’ lawsuit against Anthropic highlights tensions between AI developers & artists

By Webb Wright, NY Reporter

August 20, 2024 | 

A proposed class action lawsuit threatens to tarnish Anthropic’s reputation as a beacon of safety and responsibility in an industry mired in controversy.

Anthropic launched its Claude 3 family of models earlier this year. / Adobe Stock

Amazon-backed AI developer Anthropic is being sued by a trio of authors who claim that the AI company has illegally used pirated and copyrighted materials to train its Claude chatbot.

Filed yesterday in San Francisco by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson, the proposed class action lawsuit accuses Anthropic of training Claude using pirated copies of books gathered from an open source training dataset called The Pile.

It also argues that Anthropic is depriving authors of revenue by enabling the creation of AI-generated lookalikes of their books. The rise of large language models (LLMs) has made it "easier than ever to generate rip-offs of copyrighted books that compete with the original, or at a minimum dilute the market for the original copyrighted work," the complaint states. "Claude in particular has been used to generate cheap book content ... [and it] could not generate this kind of long-form content if it were not trained on a large quantity of books, books for which Anthropic paid authors nothing. In short, the success and profitability of Anthropic is predicated on mass copyright infringement without a word of permission from or a nickel of compensation to copyright owners, including Plaintiffs here."

It’s the first time that Anthropic has been sued by writers, though the company is facing another legal challeng from a group of music publishers, including Concord Music Group and Universal Music Group. In a lawsuit lodged last fall, the groups allege that the company trained Claude with copyrighted lyrics, which the chatbot then illegally distributed through its outputs.

Anthropic released its Claude 3 family of models in March, shortly before Amazon completed a $4bn investment in the company.

The new case arrives at a historic moment of reckoning between the AI and publishing industries. The rise of popular generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have caused many online publishers to fear that the technology could undermine their flow of web traffic. Meanwhile, a growing chorus of actors, musicians, illustrators and other artists are calling for legal protections against what they’ve come to view as a predatory AI industry built upon their creative output without compensating or often even crediting them.

As Motti Peer, chairman and co-CEO of PR agency ReBlonde, puts it: “This legal challenge is emblematic of a broader struggle between traditional content creators and the emerging generative AI technology that threatens the relevance of quite a few long-standing professions.”

He notes that this dilemma “is not ... specific to Anthropic.”

In fact, thus far, OpenAI has been the primary target of the creative industry’s AI ire. The company – along with Microsoft, its primary financial backer – has been sued by a fleet of newspapers, including The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune, who claim that their copyrighted materials were used illegally to train AI models. Copyright infringement lawsuits have also been filed against both OpenAI and Microsoft by prominent authors like George R.R. Martin, Jonathan Franzen and Jodi Picoult.

In the midst of those legal battles, OpenAI has sought to position itself as an ally to publishers. The company has inked content licensing deals with publishing companies including Axel Springer, The Associated Press and, as of Tuesday, Condé Nast, giving them the right to use their content to train models while linking back to their articles in responses generated by ChatGPT, among other perks.

Other AI developers, like Perplexity, have also debuted new initiatives this year designed to mitigate publisher concerns.

But both Anthropic and OpenAI have argued that their use of publisher content is permissible according to the ’fair use’ doctrine, a US law that allows for the repurposing of copyrighted materials without the permission of their original creators in certain cases.

Anthropic would do well to frame its response to the allegation within the broader discourse about ”how society should integrate transformative technologies in a way that balances progress with the preservation of existing cultural and professional paradigms,” according to Peer. He advises treading “carefully” and says the company should ”[respect] the legal process while simultaneously advocating for a broader discussion on the principles and potential of AI.”

Anthropic has not yet replied to The Drum’s request for comment.

The new lawsuit raises key questions about Anthropic’s ethics and governance practices. Founded by ex-OpenAI staffers, the company has positioned itself as an ethical counterbalance to OpenAI – one that can be trusted to responsibly build artificial general intelligence, or AGI, that will benefit humanity. Since its founding in 2021, Anthropic has continued to attract a steady stream of former OpenAI engineers and researchers who worry that the Sam Altman-led company is prioritizing commercial growth over safety (the highest-profile being Jan Leike, who headed AI safety efforts at OpenAI).

The future of Anthropic’s reputation may hinge in part on the company’s willingness to collaborate on the creation of state and federal regulation of the AI industry, suggests Andrew Graham, founder of PR firm Bread & Law. “Being available and engaged in the lawmaking and regulatory process is a great way for a company in a controversial industry to boost its reputation and attract deeper levels of trust from the stakeholders that matter most,” he says. “This is the core mistake that crypto firms made back a handful of years ago.”

Anthropic has already signaled its willingness to collaborate with policymakers: The company recently helped to amend California’s controversial AI bill, SB 1047, designed to establish increase accountability for AI companies and mitigate some of the dangers posed by the most advanced AI systems.

The company might bolster its reputation as the conscientious, responsible force within the AI community that it markets itself as by engaging directlywith artists, authors and the other professionals whose work is being used to train Claude and other chatbots. Such an approach could turn the negative press surrounding Monday’s lawsuit “into an opportunity,” according to Andrew Koneschusky, a PR and crisis communications expert and founder of the AI Impact Group, an AI-focused consultancy firm.

He suggests that the company has the chance to set a positive standard for similar debacles in the future, saying, “If the rules for training AI models are ambiguous, as the responsible and ethical AI company, Anthropic should take the lead in defining what responsible and ethical training entails.”

China Builds the World’s Largest Oil Platform

By Irina Slav - Aug 15, 2024

China has built the world's largest offshore oil platform for Saudi Arabia's Marjan field.

Chevron's new high-pressure extraction technology signals continued investment in oil exploration.

Despite the push for renewable energy, these developments indicate strong long-term demand for oil.


China, the world’s biggest maker of solar panels, EVs, and wind turbines, has built the world’s largest offshore oil platform that will be used at the Marjan field in Saudi Arabia.

The structure, according to Chinese media, represents a breakthrough in the country’s development of large-scale offshore energy infrastructure. It also signals that there is enough demand for oil to motivate the investment in such a massive structure.

Indeed, the parameters of the platform are impressive. At 24 stories high, the platform weighs over 17,000 tons, has a deck the size of 15 basketball courts, and has an annual capacity for 24 million tons of crude oil, which is about 176 million barrels, and 7.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

The platform will now travel to Saudi Arabia where it will be installed at the Marjan field, which is currently undergoing an expansion aimed at boosting production. The program will cost $12 billion and add 300,000 barrels daily to the field’s capacity, bringing the total to 800,000 bpd. It would also add another 360,000 bpd in ethane and natural gas liquids production. The gas production capacity of the field is set to rise by 2.5 billion cu ft per day.

All this is happening while the International Energy Agency forecasts peak oil demand before 2030. It seems that with or without that peak, there will be plenty of demand for new production capacity, even as Saudi Arabia canceled its broader production capacity expansion program amid falling oil prices.

The completion of the Chinese mega platform also coincided with another breakthrough, this time from Chevron. The company announced last week it had successfully tested a new high-pressure extraction technology at a deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico. The success of the technology means more resources could become recoverable.

“The Anchor project represents a breakthrough for the energy industry,” a senior Chevron executive said. “Application of this industry-first deepwater technology allows us to unlock previously difficult-to-access resources and will enable similar deepwater high-pressure developments for the industry.”

Energy analyst David Blackmon commented on the news in an opinion piece for The Telegraph, noting that the two stories—the Chinese platform and the Chevron technology—were evidence that offshore drilling was in full swing again, undermining predictions that the energy transition was slowly killing the oil industry.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency issued its new monthly oil report, keeping its forecast for oil demand growth at less than 1 million barrels daily both for this year and next. Yet investments such as the Marjan platform and the Chevron high-pressure technology are not of the short-term variety. These are investments betting on the sustained long-term demand for hydrocarbons. And it looks like a certain bet—even if growth peaks in less than 10 years.

The biggest killer of oil demand, according to all forecasts, would be the electrification of transport. This electrification is faster and more ambitious in China. And yet, while EV sales rise, China is working to boost its domestic oil production to reduce its reliance on imports. Incidentally, the rise in EV sales includes a massive jump in hybrid sales, which added 70% in the first seven months of the year.

Oil demand is very far from dying, and news such as the completion of the Marjan platform and Chevron’s high-pressure extraction technology is hard proof of that. However much governments spend on transition technology, it is the market that ultimately decides what energy source will live and what will die. For now, it looks like oil and gas are quite healthy, even with the state-sponsored proliferation of alternatives such as wind, solar, and EVs.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry.

Why Hedge Funds Are Pouring into Energy Right Now

By Alex Kimani - Aug 20, 2024

Goldman Sachs: Hedge funds are selling industrial equities and buying energy equities at the fastest pace since December.

Energy is now at its highest proportion in hedge fund portfolios since the beginning of the year.

Signs of demand weakness in China aren’t strong enough to discourage hedge funds from taking positions in energy.


Energy markets have kicked off the new week on the backfoot after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted a cease-fire proposal to stop the war in Gaza. Blinken made the revelation on Monday after meeting with top Israeli officials in Jerusalem, and markets have lately been having a knee-jerk reaction to any news coming out of the Middle East, with oil prices tanking every time ceasefire talks are underway, only to reverse when they fail.

Crude oil futures have declined by the biggest margin in two weeks after reports suggesting that a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza could be closer. Earlier, Iran had suggested a willingness to at least delay a retaliatory attack on Israel following the July 31 killing in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh if Israel and Hamas agreed to a permanent ceasefire. Brent crude for October delivery was quoted at $77.11 per barrel at 12:45 hrs ET in Tuesday's intraday session, down from $81.20/barrel a week ago, while WTI crude for September delivery was trading at $73.94 per barrel compared to $78.85/barrel a week ago.

On Tuesday, Iran helped further solidify the downward trend in oil prices when a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guards said an attack on Israel could be delayed for some time, noting that time is in Tehran’s “favor”.

Signs of demand weakness in the pivotal Chinese market are not helping matters, either. The prospect of weak demand in China is offsetting any gains from risks to supply, with government data showing that crude demand in the country fell 8% Y/Y in July.

However, the oil markets might be able to regain some momentum if the latest spate of buying by money managers continues. According to a Goldman Sachs note via Reuters, hedge funds sold industrial stocks at the fastest pace since December, while buying energy stocks for the fourth straight week last week. Energy is now at its highest proportion in hedge fund portfolios since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, traders have been betting against passenger airlines as well as companies offering professional services, ground transportation and machinery. The latest pivot into energy stocks comes amid expectations of an interest rate cut in September.

"Global growth will be better than expected if the Fed manages to engineer a soft landing and that's probably why these traders are making the switch," Paul O'Neill, chief investment officer at wealth management firm, Bentley Reid, told Reuters.

Trump Trade

It appears that the so-called ‘‘Trump Trade’’ is still alive and well despite U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris surging in the polls ever since she replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate a month ago. Many institutional investors still give Trump the inside track, and are examining how a second Trump administration could impact everything from inflation and monetary policy to consumer spending. Investors are also betting that Trump's return to the White House would mean less regulation, a potential tailwind for heavily regulated sectors such as energy and banking.

On the contrary, Trump's recent comments about jacking up tariffs on China and requiring Taiwan to pay for U.S. military protection triggered a sell-off in semiconductor, AI and Big Tech stocks, with even heavyweights like Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) taking a tumble.

However, Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth, has sounded a cautionary note, "The things that get said and proposed on the campaign trail are often difficult to put into place once you get to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," he said.

To be fair, the Oil & Gas sector will probably do just as well under a Harris presidency, especially since she is likely to continue pushing Biden’s policies. After all, under most key metrics, the U.S. oil and gas industry has flourished under the Biden administration despite its push towards a carbon-free future, proving that not even Washington has sufficient power to single-handedly sway large, globally interconnected markets like oil and gas. Republicans have repeatedly railed against Biden’s climate policies, blaming them for compromising U.S. “energy independence” by limiting U.S. oil and gas production and raising fuel prices. Meanwhile, Trump has promised to “drill baby, drill” and restore America's energy independence.

However, Trump will have his work cut out: U.S. crude and natural gas production have both hit all-time highs under the Biden administration. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), crude oil production in the United States, including condensate, averaged 12.9 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2023, breaking the previous U.S. and global record of 12.3 million b/d, set in 2019. Average monthly crude oil production set a new monthly record high in December 2023 at more than 13.3 million b/d. Ironically, the current administration issued a total of 10,070 onshore drilling permits during its first three years in office compared to 9,892 under Trump over a similar period

Fossil fuel investors have hardly been complaining under Biden: energy shares have jumped 124% so far since Biden took over at the Oval Office vs.-65% decline for the comparable period under Trump.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

Alex Kimani is a veteran finance writer, investor, engineer and researcher for Safehaven.com

CAPITAL $TRIKE

North Sea Oil Producers Warn of Mass Exodus

By Irina Slav - Aug 20, 2024, 

• UK oil and gas producers like Serica Energy are considering moving operations to countries with more stable tax regimes, such as Norway.
• The UK government's increased windfall profit taxes and removal of tax incentives are driving this exodus.
• This shift could lead to significant job losses and decreased energy security for the UK, as it becomes more reliant on energy imports.

The UK’s oil industry has had a tough few years. The future does not promise a change in a positive direction, either. It seems all hope for this has been lost, and some oil drillers are looking at other jurisdictions for their future survival.

This is certainly the case for Serica Energy, one of the biggest suppliers of oil and gas to the UK, operating fields in the North Sea. Once upon a time, the North Sea was one of the biggest oil- and gas-producing regions in the world.

Serica Energy chairman David Latin recently dropped what should have been a giant bomb for any government concerned with energy security. “The UK is now fiscally more unstable than almost anywhere else on the planet,” he said, as quoted by the Telegraph. “That means we are looking for new places to invest our money. And Norway is a place where potentially we could recreate our business model.”

The statement by Latin is nothing but a confirmation that a Labour government fixated on boosting the amount of wind and solar capacity in the country and funding this boost with oil and gas tax money is driving the industry away. Plans to further increase windfall profit taxes on the industry and the removal of a tax incentive that kept producers at home until the Keir Starmer government took over might prove the last nudge out the door.

There is also uncertainty about future energy policies that make North Sea oil and gas operators reluctant to invest in local production. 

“[Policy uncertainty] reduces our willingness to spend money to do things quickly because if we spend and the policy changes, then we have to start all over again,” the chairman of one relatively small producer, Ping Petroleum, told the Financial Times this week. “People are walking away from fields with significant reserves,” Robert Fisher said.

As Serica’s chairman suggests, those who are walking away from the British North Sea will probably find other places to invest their money. The British government, however, would be hard-placed to find another industry it could fleece that deeply and get away with it. And this is a big problem because Labour has promised a fast and ambitious transition to wind, solar, and hydrogen. And fast and ambitious costs more money than just one or the other.

The Financial Times reported that tax income from the oil and gas industry had reached close to 10 billion pounds last year, but the amount is set to drop off a cliff over the next five years to just above 2 billion pounds in 2028. This will not be enough to fund what the Labour government calls Great British Energy—the state-owned transition vehicle for financing the transition.

“If the government implements the kind of windfall taxes they are talking about, then you end up with a cliff edge in UK energy production because the industry will be taxed into uncompetitiveness,” Stifel analyst Chris Wheaton told the Financial Times. “That is going to cause a very dramatic decline in investment and therefore production and jobs, and a big hit to energy security.”

In other words, if oil and gas producers currently operating in the British section of the North Sea want to ensure their long-term survival, they’d better look for opportunities abroad. For Serica, Norway is the no-brainer destination. If it doesn’t work there, the company will look elsewhere, per its chairman. The important bit is that it will no longer supply oil and gas to the UK. And if others follow, there will be thousands of jobs lost, and the UK will, rather ironically, become even more dependent on energy imports.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com