Tag Archives: Statoil
Not prepared – If there is ever a deepwater oil blowout, help could be weeks away
It could take weeks to get a disaster-stopping piece of equipment to Newfoundland and Labrador in the event of a subsea oil blowout, according to documents filed by Statoil, now known as Equinor, the company behind the province’s first foray into deepwater oil development. Documents filed by the company to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency in relation to an application for exploratory drilling projects in the Flemish Pass, near the newly-announced Bay du Nord project, indicate that if a well blew, a capping stack — a device used to reign in blowouts — would have to be shipped in from Norway or Brazil. >click to read<11:16
Washington must come to grips with offshore wind conflicts
Offshore wind energy developers have momentum building for them in East Coast waters. But other maritime industries want to ease up on the throttle. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management recently held another round of public meetings in New Jersey and New York, gathering information for what could be a future round of lease offerings in the New York Bight. Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke has promised to help fast track future permitting. .,,, Commercial fishermen have a case in federal court over the Statoil lease, and litigation seems certain to reignite. “We have the Magnuson Act (federal fisheries law) because we want to have American fishing grounds for American fishermen,” said Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for fishing company Seafreeze Ltd., North Kingstown, R.I. “BOEM is plowing ahead regardless. They have not slowed down.” >click to read<22:42
Fishing Industry Takes More Action Against New York Offshore Wind Lease
A group of fishing organizations, businesses and communities, led by the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), has taken more action to halt the lease of Statoil’s planned wind farm off the coast of New York. The suit, filed against the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is seeking summary judgment and requesting the court to invalidate the lease, which was awarded to Norwegian firm Statoil to develop the New York Wind Energy Area (NY WEA) late last year. click here to read the story 13:23
LI fishing grounds mapped as wind farm plans take shape
More than a dozen Montauk fishermen have met with state officials to mark off vital fishing areas on a map that will help determine the best places for the hundreds of offshore wind turbines anticipated for the waters off Long Island. Led by the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, the group included trawl-boat captains, lobstermen, gill netters and trappers, each determined to preserve their fishing grounds as plans for wind-energy farms take shape. New York State’s offshore wind plan foresees some 2,400 megawatts of wind-turbines in New York and surrounding waters. That is likely to translate to around 240 turbines. click here to read the story 18:49
Statoil: Fishermen lobby for new spot for proposed Long Island wind farm
In Joe Gilbert’s view, fishermen like him shouldn’t have to compete with wind farms for a piece of the ocean. “We’re not anti-wind farm,” Gilbert said this past week. “But we don’t want to trade one renewable resource — fish — for another one — wind. They can both exist.” Gilbert is the owner of Empire Fisheries, which has four scallop and squid fishing boats based at the Town Dock. He’s also a member of the board of the Fisheries Survival Fund, one of 12 fishermen groups from New England to New Jersey opposing the federal government’s recent approval of a provisional lease to a Norwegian company that proposes to develop a wind farm on 79,350 acres of ocean bottom about 13 miles south of Jones Beach in Hempstead, Long Island. “What we’re asking is that it be relocated,” said Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison with Sea Freeze, a squid wholesaler based in North Kingstown, R.I., that has joined the Fisheries Survival Fund in challenging the wind farm plan. The site of the proposed wind farm, fishermen say, is one of the most productive squid and scallop fishing areas in the North Atlantic. But the long trawling nets used by these fisheries could not maneuver within a “pinball machine of structures” that would constitute the wind farm, Lapp said. “It would be too dangerous.” Read the story here 09:01
Statoil Wins Offshore Wind Lease in NY for cheap money
With Statoil being the provisional victor, the Norwegian giant said it will now have the opportunity to explore the potential development of an offshore wind farm to provide New York City and Long Island with a significant, long-term source of renewable electricity. Statoil Winds U.S. LLC bid almost $42.5 million for the rights to almost 80,000 acres of water beginning 12 miles from the coast. Statoil subsidiary Statoil Wind US LLC must pass federal agency reviews before it can open a one-year preliminary lease – and a hearing in U.S. District Court, where a February 8 date has been set to hear commercial fishermen’s motion for an injunction against the lease. The auction covered 79,350 acres of ocean real estate – roughly 127 square miles – between the southern Long Island and northern New Jersey coasts, and as the saying goes, things accelerated fast: Statoil Wind’s winning bid of $42.46 million was a far cry from the $158,700 (roughly $2 per acre) opening bid required by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Read the rest here 08:27
Statoil surges ahead with NL plans
Offshore Newfoundland and Labrador (You know, where the fish are?) has today been named a core area of exploitation for Statoil, with the company prioritizing work in the province’s Flemish Pass Basin. Read more@thetelegram 09:56
Maine PUC to consider offshore wind project
The Maine Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to deliberate Thursday on the proposal to put four, three-megawatt wind turbines on floating spar-buoy structures tethered to the seabed in 460 feet of water off Boothbay Harbor.A spokeswoman for Statoil tells The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/WWlEjO ) that state approval is critical. Without it, the company may shift focus to Japan or Europe. Read more
