North America News

Norwegian crane specialist Motus Technology has secured a contract to provide its cranes and handling equipment for National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Class B research vessels.Working in collaboration with Kongsberg Maritime, Motus’ new contract follows the equipment supply deal for NOAA’s Class A vessels in 2021.Motus will provide its CTD (Telescopic Deploy and Retrieval Arm), along with the MMC10 and MMC240 cranes.These systems are designed to operate effectively in tough marine environments…

Mobile, AL-based Blakeley BoatWorks has announced the completion and delivery of Hull 107, formally named M/V Claire Ellen, to Cooper Marine’s Louisiana operations.Designed by Farrell and Norton and built by Blakeley BoatWorks, the 70-foot long, 28-foot wide, 1,600 horsepower vessel is fully compliant with the latest United States Coast Guard Subchapter M regulatory requirements. The new pushboat is the sixth 70 foot workboat delivered by Blakeley to to Cooper Marine-Louisiana.

American Cruise Lines (ACL) today announced signed contracts with Chesapeake Shipbuilding for 4 more new ships, bringing the Line’s total orderbook with Chesapeake to 10 ships over the next 3 years. The newbuilds will serve the fast growing U.S. cruise market and will be Jones Act compliant. Active in the domestic cruise market for more than 50 years, the firm will eventually operate 21 small ships around the country.The 10 new ships from Chesapeake begin with the delivery of American Legend this week.

U.S. producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) boosted exports to Europe in September even as a plant outage kept overall shipments below the average for the first eight months of 2022, Refinitiv Eikon data showed on Monday.A June fire at the United States' second-largest exporter Freeport LNG has the country's output below its full processing capacity even as demand and prices for the superchilled gas soar on European buyers seeking alternatives to Russian gas.A total of 87 cargoes departed from U.S.

Numerous barges have run aground on the lower Mississippi River, and grain barge shipping rates are soaring to historic highs this week, as drought has dropped inland waterways to levels not seen in decades.And with little rain in the forecast, the low water levels are hampering already sluggish grain exports at the U.S. Gulf Coast, where some 60% of U.S. corn, soybean and wheat exports exit the country.The logistical snarls come as the Midwest harvest progresses and the busiest crop export season starts…

U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) developer Delfin LNG said it plans to make a final investment decision (FID) to go forward with its Gulf of Mexico floating LNG export project off Louisiana in 2022."This is the best macro-environment that the LNG business has ever seen," Delfin Chief Executive Dudley Poston told Reuters this week, noting he was "very confident" the company would make FID this year.Delfin is one of a dozen or so North American LNG export projects that delayed decisions…

The U.S. Interior Department will release a long-awaited report reviewing the environmental costs and economic benefits of the nation's federal oil and gas leasing program as early as Friday, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.President Joe Biden's administration launched the review earlier this year in what had been widely seen as a first step in delivering on a campaign promise to end new federal fossil fuel drilling to fight climate change.The report, however…

Energy companies worked to restore pipeline service and electricity after Tropical Storm Nicholas passed through on Tuesday, allowing them to return to repairing the significant damage caused by Hurricane Ida two weeks ago.Nicholas, downgraded to a tropical depression late Tuesday, caused rain, flooding, and power outages in Texas and Louisiana, where some refineries remained offline in the wake of Hurricane Ida. The earlier storm shuttered most U.S. Gulf offshore oil and gas production.Colonial Pipeline, the largest U.S.

U.S. Coast Guard rescued 15 mariners aboard the disabled 72-foot sailing vessel Lucky, 26-miles east of Makapu’u Point, Oahu, Hawaii, Saturday.The Lucky was adrift due to a disabled rudder and crews aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Berry (WPC 1124) and a Station Honolulu 45-foot Response Boat-Medium towed the vessel to Honolulu Harbor.“With any towing evolution there is risk involved," said Ensign Michael Meisenger, the operations officer aboard the Oliver Berry vessel.“Our crew trains constantly to ensure we are prepared when called upon. Last night that training paid off.

Union Pacific Corp container shipments from U.S. West Coast seaports to one of the railroad's major hubs in Chicago will restart early next week after a seven-day suspension, Chief Executive Lance Fritz told Reuters on Thursday.The railroad on Sunday night paused cargo shipments from the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and Tacoma to its Global IV facility in Chicago in a bid to clear "significant congestion.""We're starting to see containers clear, so I anticipate in the seven-day period ...

ExxonMobil on Monday floated a proposal for a public-private carbon storage project that would collect planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. petrochemical plants and bury them in reservoirs under the Gulf of Mexico.The plan would require “$100 billion or more” from companies and government agencies to store 50 million metric tons of CO2 by 2030 with capacity potentially doubling by 2040, Joe Blommaert, president of Exxon’s Low Carbon Solutions business said in an interview.Blommaert outlined the plan in a blog post on Monday, about two months after the largest U.S.