Member Info for slicksandwets

This comes as part of the airline’s Fly Responsibly campaign that encourages airline solidarity to combat the issue of aircraft sustainability and urges airlines to join a corporate biofuel program.
http://www.travelweekly.com.au/article/airline-encourages-passengers-not-to-fly/

The first step is to identify where ships pollute needlessly, or rather where they burn fossil fuels and produce harmful gasses when cleaner alternatives are available.

Do we know of any cleaner alternatives:-

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikehughes1/2019/06/27/the-voyage-to-curb-marine-pollution/#7129828763e1

“environmental considerations at the heart of expansion.”

https://www.itv.com/news/2019-06-17/consultation-on-heathrow-airport-expansion-launched/

Can we expect biofuels will be a key consideration in these expansion plans?

https://www.marinelog.com/news/matson-to-retrofit-six-more-ships-with-scrubbers/

Just need those Matson ships running on MSAR to have the complete environmental & commercial package.

Carnival cruise ships more polluting than all of Europe’s cars:-

https://www.ft.com/content/8bceef94-86cd-11e9-a028-86cea8523dc2

The sooner they switch to MSAR the cleaner the air we breath.

Samm - Sorry for your loss. When her 7k becomes 70k you will have a cracking holiday thanks to your mum although I'm sure you'd rather have mum than the holiday. Best of luck.

Barcelona worst hit:-

"NGO´s study of 50 of the most contaminated port cities found that Barcelona receives the highest rate of pollution from cruise ships."

https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2019/06/05/cruise-ship-pollution-barcelona-tops-the-european-worst-list/#.XPfxe4hKjyQ

"According to the State of Global Air Report 2019, exposure to PM2.5 is extremely high in the Middle East, with Qatar ranking the highest, followed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq and Kuwait. Average pollution exposure in these countries is well above average levels in China.

Myllyvirta points to fossil fuel burning — particularly the burning of heavy oil in power plants, refineries and factories as the leading cause of air pollution in the Gulf."

Any ideas how they can eliminate that extremely high PM2.5?

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1506476/middle-east

Fyoz, I guess what I took from the shoddy journalism as you put it was the potential exposure on fuel pricing and potential hikes in prices for these Islands unless their fuel is hedged via freepoint.

With the mention of the refinery also, there has also been speculation that MSAR might be produced there from the residues. Locally produced msar might just be price compelling for HFO customers in that region.

Prepa and Wepa have a contract for the supply of the residual fuel oil with trading firm Freepoint Commodities, which imported all of the residual fuel oil to the US Virgin Islands and nearly all of the residual fuel oil to Puerto Rico. Freepoint is part-owner in Limetree Bay Ventures. Limetree secured financing in December 2018 to restart about 200,000 b/d of capacity at its mothballed 350,000 b/d St Croix refinery in the US Virgin Islands. As of December, the restart was planned for the end of 2019. The company envisages it starting up a crude unit, a delayed coker, hydrotreaters and a reformer. The refinery will produce, among other things, distillates suitable for the shipping sector. It is not yet clear if the refiner will be making 0.5pc sulphur residual fuel oil, which could soften the blow for Wapa from the expected residual fuel oil spike in 2020.

https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/1911797-us-caribbean-utilities-positioned-poorly-for-imo-2020

The POWER Interview: GE Unleashing a Hydrogen Gas Power Future:-

https://www.powermag.com/the-power-interview-ge-unleashing-a-hydrogen-gas-power-future/

Can you feel it. Its coming.....delighted.

Under the MOA we see a clear pathway to completing the Proof of Concept project that was originally planned and the wider commercial adoption of MSAR® to reduce energy costs, in conjunction with exciting IKTVA projects to maximise local content to the benefit of KSA's economy."

Could this be associated with the recent Chinese RNS:-

"The overall goal is to reduce emissions of sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by over 15 percent and the ambient concentration of particulate matter (PM) 2.5 by over 18 percent for cities failing to meet emissions standards, compared to 2015 levels. In 2017, although all met the above goals, only three of the nine coastal provincial-level administrative regions reached the national PM2.5 standard of 35 micrograms per cubic meter. These coastal provinces could be further protected by an ECA system."

https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/curbing-deadly-ship-emissions

Hydrogen as a fuel has been drawing a lot of attention ever since the world decided to start weaning itself off fossil fuels. However, after years of research, hydrogen fuelled vehicles remain a niche market due to one main problem: the price of the fuel system. Now, a team of researchers claims they have solved this problem and we could see hydrogen vehicles cheaper than EVs.

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Fuel-Cells/Hydrogen-Fuel-Tech-Just-Got-A-Major-Boost.html

In the Gulf Coast, dwindling heavy oil supplies have suppressed refining margins, while Midwest refiners may not reach the high run rates seen last summer. Gulf Coast profits from coking -- a process where heavy crude is broken down into fuels such as gasoline and diesel -- are already at their lowest levels in nearly a decade, according to data from Oil Analytics Ltd.

https://www.worldoil.com/news/2019/5/26/heavy-oil-shortage-hinders-us-refiners-just-as-summer-driving-begins

Colin - I think we've moved on from the the lekki bill terminology and henceforth has been renamed as the bottleneck. The bottleneck we are led to believe may or may not have been associated with RAFID Group who are no longer in the framework as rolled out in the recent RNS.

QFI, we are told are working to secure partners and influence to de-bottle neck the shelved project.

Looks like the case for KSA MSAR is stacking up:-

1/ During the summer months, Saudi Arabia typically experiences an increase in electricity consumption as domestic demand for air conditioning rises. Saudi Arabia relies on crude oil and other fossil fuels, such as petroleum products and natural gas, for power generation. Saudi Arabia's direct crude burn reached a record high during the summer of 2015, averaging 0.9 million b/d from June to August. In comparison, direct crude burn in the summer of 2018 was 41% lower at 0.5 million b/d.

2/In Saudi Arabia, however, fuel oil consumption rose 25% between 2015 and 2018 to 0.5 million b/d on average, according to JODI data. Some trade press reports indicate that one potential side effect of the upcoming changes to the sulfur limits in marine fuels in 2020 is that the stranded high-sulfur fuel oil could be sent to Saudi Arabia to further replace crude oil in power generation.

3/ Exports of petroleum products more than quadrupled between 2009 and 2018, from 0.4 million b/d to 2.0 million b/d. Saudi Arabia exports more diesel than any other petroleum product, averaging 0.8 million b/d in 2018.

4/Furthermore, Saudi Arabia has been cutting production beyond its agreed-upon target, meaning that as Saudi Arabia's crude oil production falls, production of associated natural gas will also decline. Declines in associated natural gas production could result in an increased need for crude oil used for power generation.

https://oilvoice.com/Opinion/31702/Saudi-Arabia-has-significantly-reduced-the-amount-of-crude-oil-used-for-power-generation

"A new network of air pollution monitors has been installed to record emissions from cruise ships docking in Greenwich."

https://airqualitynews.com/2019/05/09/thames-network-to-monitor-air-pollution-from-cruise-ships/

Cruise Ship Pollution Is Causing Serious Health And Environmental Problems:-

"in the United Kingdom, local environmental groups have demonstrated that a single cruise ship can emit as much pollution as 700 trucks and as much particulate matter as a million cars. It has been estimated that between 40,000 and 100,000 Britons die prematurely every year as a result of emissions from the shipping and cruise industries, with major port-cities such as Southampton, Grimsby and Liverpool particularly affected. In recent years there have been several moves towards reducing the amount of pollution being emitted by ships, however, half the UK seashore lacks the legal protection of maritime pollution laws."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/04/26/cruise-ship-pollution-is-causing-serious-health-and-environmental-problems/#2afd975c37db

Great potential in Bangladesh for MSAR, lets hope their all over it:-

The contract signing ceremony held on 3rd May, 2018 in the Board Room of Biddut Bhaban. The Power Purchase agreement (PPA) signed between the Bangladesh Power Development Board and EPV Thakurgaon Limited and also the Implementation Agreement (IA) signed between the Power Grid Company Limited, Biddut Divission and EPV Thakurgaon Limited.

http://www.epvl.com.bd/epv-thakurgaon-ltd/