Russian Tanker on the Way to Nome, AK

From a US Coast Guard Press and Photo Release: o6 January 2012

Photo Release: Coast Guard icebreaker escorts tanker

BERING SEA - The Coast Guard Cutter Healy crew escorts the tanker Renda and crew from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to Nome Jan. 5, 2011. The 420-foot Seattle-based Healy is currently the Coast Guard's only operating Polar Icebreaker. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally. BERING SEA - A Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak HC-130 Hercules aircrew conducts an overflight of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy as it escorts the tanker Renda from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to Nome Jan. 5, 2012. The Healy crew is scheduled to break a path in the ice near Nome so the Renda crew can deliver critical fuel supplies to the city. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally. For more information contact Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis at 907-321-4501.

The Russians Are Coming to Nome, AK.

The following is the text of a press release issued by the U.S. Coast Guard:

(04 January 2012)

(DUTCH HARBOR, Alaska) -- Coast Guard inspectors completed a port state control exam on the double-hulled ice-classed Russian tanker Renda today in Dutch Harbor.

"The tanker vessel Renda met all applicable federal laws and regulations and can operate in U.S. waters following the successful completion of a required Coast Guard port state control examination," said Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander District 17. "Our daily discussions will continue with our federal, state, local, tribal partners, and the marine industry to ensure the highest standards of safety and compliance are in place to mitigate risks to the people of Nome, the crews of the vessels, and the environment."

The Renda will be escorted by the Coast Guard Cutter Healy and is expected to arrive in Nome on Jan. 8, 2012 if on scene weather conditions permit safe passage.

The Healy will lead the Renda through 300 miles of ice to within a half mile of the harbor entrance. "Upon arrival, the Renda will transit the remaining distance to stable ice close to the harbor entrance to transfer fuel via hose under approved procedures," said Capt. Craig Lloyd, District 17 chief of response who is coordinating the mission. "University of Alaska personnel are in Nome to assist in determining the thickness of the ice outside the harbor entrance. Due to a large ridge of ice at the harbor entrance, the Renda is unable to enter the actual harbor."

The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security approved a Jones Act Waiver Dec. 30, 2011 to Vitus Marine authorizing the foreign-flagged tanker to deliver gasoline from Dutch Harbor to Nome. Renda arrived in Dutch Harbor laden with diesel fuel that was on loaded in Asia. The Jones Act waiver was required since Renda could not load the gasoline cargo in Asia due to weather and scheduling constraints. The vessel is scheduled to take on additional cargo of gasoline in Dutch Harbor today.

The Healy's participation was contingent upon the following items: the Renda passed the port state control exam, there were no inordinate delays, the fuel transfer plans met federal and state requirements and on scene weather conditions permit safe passage.

Sitnasuak Native Corporation of Nome signed a contract with Vitus Marine LLC to deliver 1.3 million gallons of petroleum products to Nome via Renda around the second week of January. If successful, this will mark the first time that petroleum products have been delivered by sea to a Western Alaskan community through ice covered waters.

"This has been and continues to be a highly orchestrated effort between all stakeholders to ensure mission success" said Ostebo. "As we have done for more than 220 years, the Coast Guard is dedicated to ensuring the safe and secure transfer of maritime commerce. The Healy, our nation's only operating polar ice breaker, and its crew are committed to upholding our long history of service to the residents of Alaska."

The Healy is named after Capt. Mike Healy, an 19th century Coast Guard hero. As the commanding officer of numerous Coast Guard cutters, "Hell Roaring Mike", enforced federal law, provided search and rescue, and provided humanitarian assistance along Alaska's 20,000 mile coastline in the late 1800s. The cutter is 420-feet long and has extensive scientific capabilities. Homeported in Seattle, the cutter has a permanent crew of 80 and was originally scheduled to return home in mid December. The primary mission is scientific support but it is capable of other Coast Guard and defense operations such as search and rescue, domestic ice breaking, environmental protection and the enforcement of laws and treaties in the Polar Regions.

Bonga Platform Closes After Nigeria's Worst Spill in a Decade

From Bloomberg Business News

21 December 2011

By Eduard Gismatullin and Elisha Bala-Gbogbo

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, shut its 200,000 barrel-a-day Bonga field off Nigeria after a leak during a tanker loading caused what may be the country’s worst offshore spill in more than a decade.

An export line from the field’s floating production, storage and offloading vessel was probably the cause of the leak, estimated at below 40,000 barrels of crude, Shell said in a statement today. The oil flow has been halted, it said.

“We’re aware of the incident and we’re working hard with Shell to contain the spill,” Idris Musa at the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency said today from the capital.

The leak is expected to be the worst since a January 1998 Exxon Mobil Corp. spill dumped an estimated 40,000 barrels into the sea from its Idoho platform, with slicks reported as far west as Lagos. Shell, the largest foreign oil producer in Nigeria, has been criticized by some local people and foreign groups for spills of crude from its onshore fields.

The Anglo-Dutch company, operating in Nigeria since 1937, says most spills occur because of pipeline sabotage and oil theft and it has set up a website to disclose data on leaks.

“Spill response procedures have been initiated and emergency control and spill risk procedures are up and running,” Tony Okonedo, a Shell spokesman, said by phone from Lagos, the commercial capital. Shell is sorry for the leak, Mutiu Sunmonu, its Nigerian chairman, said in the statement.

Shares Advance

Bonga, Nigeria’s first deepwater discovery, produces almost 10 percent of the country’s crude 120 kilometers (75 miles) off the coast. Shell planned to export five cargoes of 1 million barrels each of Bonga crude every month from December to February, loading programs obtained by Bloomberg News show.

Shell pared an advance of as much as 1.4 percent in London trading to close the day up 0.4 percent at 2,288 pence. Shell’s American depositary receipts climbed 0.4 percent to $71.79 at the close in in New York.

“They averted a potentially much more serious situation, they figured it out very quickly,” Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, said in a telephone interview today. “I think the market is recognizing the responsiveness of the company.”

Gheit, who has an “outperform” rating on Shell’s American depositary receipts and owns some, said he’s glad “sanity prevailed” on the stock market. While the amount of oil spilled is substantial, he said, this isn’t a “runaway field” like what BP Plc dealt with in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

Yesterday Shell said a Gulf of Mexico drilling operation will stop for weeks after spilling 319 barrels of drilling fluid.

--With assistance from Sherry Su in London and Edward Klump in Houston. Editors: Tony Barrett, Charles Siler
To contact the reporters on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net; Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja at ebalagbogbo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net

Pacific Drilling Raises $46 Million in IPO

LUXEMBOURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pacific Drilling S.A. (NYSE:PACD - News) (NOTC:PDSA) (“Pacific Drilling” or the “Company”) announced that yesterday it closed its previously announced initial public offering of shares of common stock at a price of $8.25 per share. Pacific Drilling sold a total of 6,000,000 shares, resulting in net proceeds of approximately $46 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions. The underwriters have been granted a 30-day over-allotment option to purchase up to an additional 900,000 common shares.
Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank Securities acted as joint book-running managers for the offering. DnB NOR Markets, Howard Weil Incorporated, Pareto Securities AS and Simmons & Company International acted as co-managers.
This offering was made solely by means of a prospectus, copies of which may be obtained by contacting: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, telephone 1-866-718-1649 or by emailing prospectus@morganstanley.com or Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Prospectus Department, Harborside Financial Center, 100 Plaza One, Jersey City, NJ 07311-3988, telephone 1-800-503-4611 or by emailing prospectus.cpdg@db.com.
A registration statement relating to this offering was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on November 10, 2011. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
About Pacific Drilling
Pacific Drilling is an international ultra-deepwater offshore drilling company. Pacific Drilling’s fleet consists of six ultra-deepwater drillships. The Company currently operates three recently delivered drillships, expects delivery of its fourth drillship by end of 2011, and has two additional drillships on order at Samsung to be delivered in 2013.

Contact:

Pacific Drilling S.A.
Amy Roddy, Director, Investor Relations, 1-832-255-0502
Investor@pacificdrilling.com

What If Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Happened In Cuban Waters?

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–Several U.S. companies are asking the Obama administration for permission to respond to potential oil spills in Cuban waters, a top offshore drilling regulator said Wednesday, hoping to overcome embargo restrictions that currently limit their ability to do so.

The companies’ requests coincide with a growing concern among oil-industry experts who say the U.S. embargo on Cuba could cripple the ability of spill-containment companies to respond to potential spills that start in Cuban waters but then move to U.S. shores.

Speaking at a congressional hearing Wednesday, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich said several companies have asked the U.S. Commerce Department for licenses that would allow them to use subsea well containment systems and other types of equipment to respond to spills in Cuban waters.

Bromwich said he had “a high level of confidence” the Commerce Department would approve the licenses, in large part because it had already issued separate approvals for oil-spill containment systems and cleanup items. U.S. government agencies “are very much on alert, looking for the licenses [applications] as they come in and my understanding is that they’re giving them very rapid attention and they’re approving them as promptly as they can.”

The administration’s efforts are not without controversy. The chairman of the House Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R., Colo.), said Wednesday that he is concerned “this administration will weaken the U.S. embargo on Cuba.”

Earlier in the week, the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to do more to prevent Cuba’s oil-drilling plans. “This scheme endangers U.S. security and environmental interests, and will enrich the Cuban regime,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.), a Cuban-born American, said.

Many environmental and oil-industry experts have taken a different approach and have urged the administration to give broad flexibility to U.S. companies that are equipped to respond to spills.

They contend Cuba will pursue oil exploration, regardless of whether the U.S. disapproves, so the U.S. should simply prepare for possible accidents.

Cuba’s offshore drilling plans get under way in coming months when Spanish company Repsol YPF SA (REPYY, REP.MC) starts to conduct exploratory drilling off the country’s northern coast. Repsol is transporting a Chinese-built rig to be used for the exploration work.

Repsol has voluntarily agreed to allow U.S. officials to inspect the rig before it enters Cuban waters. The company has also agreed to comply with U.S. drilling standards.

-By Tennille Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires

British Petroleum is Back!

By Ryan Tracy And Angel Gonzalez, The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—BP PLC on Wednesday got permission to drill its first well in the Gulf of Mexico since the company’s massive oil spill there last year.

The decision was expected after the U.S. Interior Department approved the company’s broader plan for four exploratory wells in the Gulf late last week. It represents another milestone in the U.K. oil company’s efforts to return to the good graces of federal regulators since it lost control of a deep-water well after a blowout in April 2010. The incident killed 11 workers and caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The Interior Department said the company had met new safety requirements put in place since the spill and had adhered to voluntary standards that went beyond the agency’s requirements.

The approval comes a day after the U.K. oil company reported quarterly earnings of $5.3 billion, surpassing analyst expectations and boosting hopes that the company was emerging with renewed strength from one of the darkest—and costliest—periods of its history. The company had to shed billions of dollars in assets in order to pay for spill costs, while facing the wrath of U.S. legislators, environmental activists and the public.

“We have now reached a definite turning point,” Chief Executive Bob Dudley said in a statement Tuesday. “Our operations are regaining momentum and we are facing the future with great confidence.”

BP said Wednesday’s permit came “after several months of hard work developing and implementing our new drilling standards and sharing those standards with industry partners and regulators.”

The well is located about 246 miles south of Lafayette, La., and is part of BP’s Kaskida prospect. It will be drilled in 6,034 feet of water.

To demonstrate it could contain a blowout at the new well, BP contracted with the Marine Well Containment Co., an industry consortium formed after last year’s spill. The company maintains a “capping stack” that can be scrambled to the scene of a spill and is designed to contain an out-of-control well in deep water.

Environmental groups have questioned whether the new containment system can fulfill those claims, but federal regulators have endorsed it.

“This permit was approved only after thorough well design, blowout preventer, and containment capability reviews,” Michael Bromwich, director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said Wednesday.

BP, one of the largest leaseholders in the U.S. Gulf and until the spill one of the most successful wildcatters there, can now join the flock of big oil and gas companies returning to the oil-rich area. On Tuesday, Hess Corp. said it was moving forward with the $2.3 billion development of the Tubular Bells deep-water oil and gas project in the Gulf—the helm of which it took over from BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill.

The Interior Department said it has approved permits for 46 deep-water wells since February, when a company first demonstrated it could contain a deep-water spill.
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