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ENERGY NEWS
ENERGY NEWS
Europe
Energy Review By Tsvetana Paraskova
By Tsvetana Paraskova
Europe’s energy and gas supply ahead of the winter, concerns about the security of energy infrastructure in Western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer, Norway, and renewable energy developments featured in the European energy news flow this past month.
Oil & Gas At the beginning of October, Norway posted soldiers from its Home Guard to protect energy infrastructure as it increased security following the suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea at the end of September. Norway has also been investigating flyover of drones close to oil and gas assets in the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Europe and the UK continue to warn of a difficult winter ahead, which could result in rolling blackouts and gas rationing in case of a colder than usual winter and shortages of natural gas. Europe’s gas storage sites were more than 93% full as of late October, giving the market
www.ogv.energy I November 2022
and governments some comfort about the early months of the coming winter. Another comforting sign is the influx of LNG cargoes to Europe with tankers waiting to unload at ports.
In company news Equinor awarded contracts for six platform supply vessels to Simon Møkster Shipping AS, Island Offshore Management AS, Eidesvik AS, Remøy Shipping AS, and P/F Skansi Offshore. The contracts will take effect before the end of 2022, and have a three-year firm period and three one-year options. The vessels will support Equinor’s activities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Equinor also issued a complementary assessment for the Wisting development in the Barents Sea for public consultation. The field is proposed to be powered from shore. “The work on technical studies and detailing of plans for the development of the project will continue towards the planned investment decision at the end of 2022,” said Trond Bokn, Equinor’s senior vice president for project management control. In Italy, authorities in the Tuscany region gave the go-ahead to the regasification site at Piombino, with works expected to begin shortly so that LNG could be used in the national gas network as soon as next April. The plan for the LNG regasification terminal has sparked controversy among local communities and the mayor of Piombino, Francesco Ferrari, said the town would appeal the decision in court.
Low Carbon Energy The UK’s renewable industry urged the UK’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to scale up on clean power. “We need a wide range of power sources to get us to net zero as fast as possible, including floating wind, tidal energy and green hydrogen – and the UK is a world leader in all of these technologies,” RenewableUK’s Chief Executive Dan McGrail said in a statement on 24 October. “But to seize these opportunities we’re urging Mr Sunak to reassess some of the Conservatives’ recent measures which risk undermining confidence among investors, such as the energy price cap which could skew investment towards fossil fuels. We also need to see a reform of our system of clean power auctions to increase the volume of new capacity we secure each year,” McGrail added. “And we need a new remit for Ofgem so that it can start investing in vital new grid infrastructure ahead of time so that we can reach net zero as fast as possible”. The Crown Estate has updated developers on the design of the tender process for seabed leasing for floating wind energy in the Celtic Sea. The Celtic Sea programme is intended to provide 4 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2035. The region is assessed to have the economic potential to accommodate up to an additional 20 GW by 2045.
