Fortnigthly maritime news for the industry and the PortXL community.
Boskalis scores $515m offshore wind contract
Dutch offshore contractor Boskalis has been awarded a contract worth around €450m ($515m) to transport and install the monopile foundations and substations for an undisclosed offshore wind farm development.
According to Boskalis, the contract ties up one year of crane vessel utilisation days in addition to the equivalent of two years of heavy transport vessels. Engineering and pre-construction work has already commenced, and project execution is scheduled to commence in 2023.
Investors lap up Maersk’s green pitch on methanol newbuilds
A.P. Moller – Maersk has launched what it describes as its Green Finance Framework designed to allow the company to issue a variety of sustainable financing instruments which may include bonds, loans, project finance and other instruments. “Issuing green financing instruments is a further step to integrating sustainability into our financing operations,” said Patrick Jany, CFO at A.P. Moller – Maersk. “With this green bond, we aim at diversifying our investor base by reaching out to new investors and increasing the transparency of our ESG ambitions and performance even further towards our stakeholders.”
Shell plans to become 100% British and move its headquarters to the UK
Shell says that by simplifying its structure, it will be able to react more quickly and more flexibly. ‘The simplification is designed to strengthen Shell’s competitiveness and accelerate both shareholder distributions and the delivery of its strategy to become a net-zero emissions business,’ the company said. Shell has been incorporated in the UK with Dutch tax residence and a dual share structure since 2005 but its origins as a dual company date back to 1907 when Koninklijke Olie merged with Shell Transport and Trading.
Covid congestion sees dramatic spike in shipping emissions at major gateways
Covid-19 is killing people living near ports, a new study has shown today, with stretched supply chains to blame. The extreme congestion that has built up at major ports during the pandemic has seen shipping emissions soar at key gateways, research from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) shows. Researchers from NTU have modelled pollutant emissions from the shipping sector at four major ports in three continents. The research team’s computations of pollutant emissions were from July 2020 to July 2021. The findings were compared to the whole of 2019, the year before the pandemic and also the year before the global sulphur cap kicked in.
Shoreham Port to go zero-emission thanks to green hydrogen
The English seaport has partnered with H2 Green to set up the Clean Energy Hub to remove emissions from its forklift truck and heavy goods vehicle (HGVs) fleet. The Clean Energy Hub will be integrated with offshore wind and solar power generation. The plans also include an ammonia import facility, with ammonia used as a hydrogen carrier.
Shipping singled out again for its lack of diversity in leadership positions
Barely one in four c-suite positions in shipping are held by women, a major new study reveals this week. The Diversity Study Group’s latest shipping survey polled more than 3,000 people across the world covering many strands of the business including owners, operators, managers and charterers. The survey confirms a significant lack of ethnic and female representation at senior levels of the sector. The data showed 27% of C-suite positions are currently held by women, dropping to 14% for the heads of department level. However, this gender imbalance is not reflected at junior and trainee level, where the split is 63% female and 35% male.
Ammonia fuel cell MoU
Eidesvik Offshore, Aker BP and Alma have partnered to investigate retrofitting two offshore support vessels with ammonia fuel cells. The parties intend to install Alma’s solution onboard Eidesvik’s Viking Lady and Aker BP’s NS Frayja (currently under Eidesvik’s management). The memorandum of understanding includes an option to retrofit other vessels. The agreement is part of Eidesvik and Aker BP’s technology project Retrofit to reduce emissions from existing supply vessels.
