Following seizure of the oil tanker ‘Grace 1’ on 27 June in Gibraltar, within European territorial waters, an oil tanker run by oil major BP is being kept inside the Persian Gulf in fear it could be seized by Iran for retaliation. The ship was sailing toward Iraq’s Basrah oil terminal.
BP Ventures announced an investment of $30 million in California-based start-up Calysta, Inc., that will use BP’s natural gas to produce protein for fish, livestock and pet feeds. This investment aligns with BP’s strategy of creating new markets in which gas can play a material role in delivering a more sustainable future.
Greenpeace ended a 12-day protest involving a Transocean drilling rig, which BP had contracted. The campaign came to an end after protesters had boarded the rig in the Cromarty Firth on June 9. The rig was heading to the Vorlich oil field east of Aberdeen.
Israel’s Oil Refineries have delivered its first cargo of compliant 0.5% sulphur content marine fuel, in line with IMO’s upcoming rules. Namely, the 197,000 barrel per day refinery loaded its first 30,000 tonne cargo of the low sulphur fuel. ORL now joins several other refiners that recently developed new marine fuels to comply with the new regulation.
A BP drilling rig heading to an oilfield in the British North Sea was to turn away two times during the last two days as a Greenpeace ship is protesting over climate change, and is trying to obstruct the rig’s progress. This chase is the latest chapter in Greenpeace’s nine-day effort to stop the 40,000 tonne Paul Loyd JNR rig from reaching the Vorlich oilfield to begin drilling operations.
BP published its 68th annual Statistical Review of World Energy, reporting that global primary energy consumption grew fast in 2018, driven by natural gas and renewables. However, carbon emissions grew at their highest rate for seven years.
After shutting down BP’s offices in London, Greenpeace activists boarded on an offshore drilling rig, which belongs to Transocean and planned to begin drilling operations for BP in the UK North Sea, in an attempt to stall BP’s oil plans.
Chevron announced that it will bring an IMO-compliant 0.5% sulphur shipping fuel blend to the market by the end of Q3. As Chevron Fuels Technologist Monique Vermeire commented to Reuters, ‘If the shipping company is willing to try it out now we can make it available, but not for continuous purchase.’
Brazilian Petrobras informed that it will carry out tests starting in June, aiming to evaluate the production of 2020 sulphur cap compliant fuel. As the company said, it does not know the exact viscosity, but it expects it to be lower. During April, Petrobras produced its first set of 0.5% sulphur fuel oil, from its Isaac Sabba refinery in Manaus. The fuel had 0.34% sulphur content, viscosity of 323cst at 50°C and density of 932.7 kg/m3 at 15°C.
During the annual general meetings of BP and Royal Dutch Shell this week, it was obvious that Europe’s two largest oil and gas majors are following different paths on fighting climate change and on finding ways to tackle carbon emissions, as the Financial Times report.
