BW Offshore gets $36m in court case settlement

Energy News Beat

Floater specialist BW Offshore and Prio Comercializadora, previously known as Petro Rio, have settled an arbitration case dating back to 2021.

In September 2021, Prio, then Petro Rio, filed a request for arbitration concerning the charter and services agreement for the FPSO Polvo against BW Offshore.

At the time, the Brazilian firm claimed that it overpaid the hire and requested $31m as compensation, including arbitration costs and fees.

In October 2021, BW Offshore responded by filing counterclaims primarily for unpaid invoices and demobilisation costs for approximately $30m. Back in 2023, the company claimed that it expected a resolution to this case either before the end of 2024 or in early 2025.

In an Oslo Bors filing on Thursday, BW Offshore stated that the arbitration between the two was settled before the issuance of a final award.

The two agreed to settle the case, led before the London International Court of Arbitration, via a confidential settlement agreement. As a result, BW Offshore will be awarded approximately $36m, which includes the costs of the arbitration.

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TotalEnergies terminates Shelf Drilling jackup deal

Energy News Beat

United Arab Emirates-based jackup rig pure-play Shelf Drilling has received a contract termination from French giant TotalEnergies.

The company said it received a contract termination notice for the 2014-built Shelf Drilling Winner. The jackup was contracted to the Danish arm of the French major.

Under the notice and in accordance with the contract, the termination shall be effective in August 2025.  

The driller stated that the rig had “consistently delivered outstanding operational and safety performance while under contract with TotalEnergies”.

The rig’s contract was initially scheduled to conclude in August 2026, subject to two additional options to extend it further into late 2027.

However, following a thorough evaluation of the original schedule, TotalEnergies informed Shelf Drilling that the rig would be released in the summer of 2025 after the completion of the final scheduled well activities due to changes in the 2025 work program. Shelf Drilling will actively market the rig for future opportunities.

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U-Ming orders capsize brace in China

Energy News Beat

Taiwanese owner and operator U-Ming Marine Transport is expanding its fleet with a brace of capsize bulker newbuilds in China.

The subsidiary of the Far Eastern Group has signed up for 180,000 dwt vessels at Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding, with delivery expected in 2028.

U-Ming said it is paying between $75m and $79m per newbuild.

U-Ming owns and operates nearly 80 ships, including those under construction and joint ventures. Most of the fleet comprises bulkers, but the company also trades in the VLCC, LR1, cement carrier and crew transfer vessel segments.

Most recently, the company signed up for a pair of ultramax bulker newbuildings at Oshima Shipbuilding and up to four capes at Hengli Heavy Industry.

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Pankaj Khanna plots expansion as he rings Nasdaq closing bell

Energy News Beat

“Everything is on the table,” commented a pumped-upPankaj Khanna in conversation with Splash yesterday on expansion plans following his ringing of the closing bell at the Nasdaq in New York, sealing long-held dreams to get his company listed. 

The CEO of Heidmar Maritime Holdings Corp merged with lifestyle brand portfolio company MGO Global earlier this year in order to get listed. 

Heidmar, with more than 60 tankers and bulkers under commercial management, first tried to go public via a merger with Home Plate Acquisition Corporation but dropped these plans in October 2023.

The company’s second attempt at a stock market listing was announced last June with the business combination initially expected to close late in the third quarter of 2024.

Khanna said the plan now was to grow and to look at mergers and acquisitions. Asked if owning ships was a possibility, Khanna replied: “Why not? Everything is on the table.”

Khanna started out as a cadet aged 18. His work ashore has seen him take on c-suite roles with Alba, Excel, Dryships, Ocean Rig, Pioneer Marine as well as seven years with Teekay.

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Trump targets Russian interests moving stolen Ukrainian grain to fund the Houthis

Energy News Beat

The Trump administration has targeted Russian interests over grain theft from Ukraine used to support funding for the Houthis in Yemen. 

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) yesterday added additional persons and companies to its sanction list as these were identified as entities supplying weapons, sensitive goods and stolen Ukrainian grain via an Iranian network to the Houthis. This also includes sanctions on the bulk vessel Zafar also known as AM Theseus.

Secretary of the treasury Scott Bessent said the sanctions were part of ongoing plans to degrade the Houthis’ ability to threaten the Middle East. The US has also been bombing Houthi strongholds for the past few weeks.

According to Lars Jensen, a shipping consultant who has been providing daily coverage of the Houthi attacks on merchant shipping via LinkedIn, today marks the 500th day of the Red Sea shipping crisis. Red Sea transits are still running 70% below trend and the diversions are generating 3% additional demand for shipping, according to data from Clarksons Research.  

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Taiwan takes action against armada of cable cutters

Energy News Beat

Following reports of cable breakage and to strengthen the safety of Taiwan’s waters and key infrastructure, ships from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau are now required to go through longer port visit application processes to the island with the paperwork expected to take up to a month per vessel visit. Ships also flying the flags of Cameroon, Tanzania, Mongolia, Togo and Sierra Leone are also required to fill in the extra filings, many of which will be screened by Taiwanese security officials before being passed on to Taiwan’s Maritime and Port Administration.

Like in the Baltic, Taiwan has faced multiple attacks on its subsea infrastructure in recent months, largely from merchant ships dragging their anchors. 

The island blacklisted 52 Chinese-owned ships in January while Taiwan’s National Security Bureau has said ships which have previously been found to misreport information will be put on a list of ships for priority inspection at ports.

Moreover, if these ships enter within 24 nautical miles of Taiwan’s coast and are close to where undersea cables are, the coast guard will be dispatched to board them and investigate.

A ship accused at the end of February of damaging cables off Taiwan had a simple way of changing identity. 

The Togo-flagged Hongtai 68 was able to change its name many times as the crews simply replaced three steel plates (pictured) at its stern and on its bow whereby it has also recently traded as the Hongtai 58 and Shanmei 7.

The captain of the vessel – dubbed in local media as the ‘thousand faces ship’ – had on an earlier occasion been caught entering Taiwan with false documents.

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APM Terminals acquires the Panama Canal Railway Company

Energy News Beat

At a time when Panamanian transport infrastructure is making regular headlines, Maersk’s ports arm APM Terminals has acquired the Panama Canal Railway Company (PCRC) from Canadian Pacific Kansas City and the Lanco Group/Mi‑Jack for an unspecified sum. 

PCRC operates a 76 km single-line railway adjacent to the Panama Canal that mainly facilitates cargo movement between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 2024, the PCRC generated revenue of $77m and $36m in EBITDA with much business coming from Maersk who used the rail link during last year’s drought in Panama that stifled traffic along the country’s canal.

“The Panama Canal Railway Company represents an attractive infrastructure investment in the region aligned to our core services of intermodal container movement,” said Keith Svendsen, CEO, APM Terminals. “The company is highly regarded for its operational excellence and will provide a significant opportunity for us to offer a broader range of services to the global shipping customers we serve.”

Panama has been constantly in the news following Donald Trump’s return to power in the US, with the American president vowing to wrest back control of the Central American nation’s canal, while Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison has included two Panamanian ports in its planned $22.8bn sale of its non-Chinese ports to BlackRock and Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), a transaction China is keen to prevent. 

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Stena unveils roro concept design

Energy News Beat

Stena Line has unveiled a new concept roro vessel design. Dubbed the Stena Futuro, the vessel’s designers claim the ship can slash energy usage by at least 20%.

“The mission is to develop the most efficient and competitive vessel possible for a specific cargo capacity, using today’s available technology. The goal is for the vessel to have the lowest fuel consumption on the market,” said Nicolas Bathfield, project manager at Stena Teknik, who has been involved in developing the concept.

The sleek 240 m long vessel will have hybrid propulsion, batteries and engines with low fuel consumption that can run on several different fuels. Solar panels will also contribute to the ship’s electricity needs. The hull of Stena Futuro will also be equipped with an air lubrication system, where small air bubbles are released beneath the waterline to reduce friction between the vessel and the water. A waste heat recovery system will make it possible to reuse the hot exhaust gases from the ship’s engines to meet other onboard heating needs as well as supporting electric power generation.

The developed concept for Stena Futuro also includes four 40 m tall wing sails, which can be retracted when needed.

“We aim to help lead our industry in achieving the global climate goals. We work toward this every day in our ongoing operations, but we also need to be at the forefront in developing tomorrow’s vessels. The Stena Futuro concept is an important step in that direction,” said Niclas Mårtensson, CEO of Stena Line.

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After Spiking by 2,600% or Whatever, Newsmax Stock Plunges 80%, Straight into our Imploded Stocks, All in 3 Days

Energy News BeatPrice

For humans and AI trading the stock, it’s just a spectacularly fun video game. For observers, it proves this market is dangerously nuts.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

The craziness of this situation is hard to convey with a straight face. “Craziness” is probably the understatement of the year. It shows just how nuts this joint called the stock market is. It’s like whatever.

Newsmax [NMAX] went public via IPO on Monday March 31. At the IPO price of $10 a share, it raised $75 million, which seemed reasonable enough for an IPO of this type. Then out the gate, it started trading at over $14 a share, and that would have been a nice first-day pop of over 40%, but then some stock jockeys and AI got a hold of it, and WOOSH. By the end of the day, it was at $83 a share. Intraday on April 1 Fools Day, it spiked to $279 a share, up by 2,600% or whatever from the IPO price of $10 a share. And then it imploded.

It is currently trading at about $50 a share, down by over 80% from the all-time high yesterday and has thereby earned a place in our pantheon of Imploded Stocks. To make it into the Imploded Stocks, shares have to have plunged by 70% or more from the all-time high. Normally, it takes companies quite a while to accomplish this.

The Newsmax trade may be a record in terms of overall craziness, up 2,600% or whatever in less than two days, and then down by 80% in a little over one day, and straight from IPO into our Imploded Stocks in three days.

At the peak, the stock had a market capitalization of about $21 billion, which is unspeakably huge for a media company and purveyor of supplements and insurance products with $171 million in annual revenues.

By comparison, the media empire News Corp has a market cap of $16 billion, but it has annual revenues of $10 billion, about 58x more than Newsmax’ revenues. And it had $354 million in net income. It owns, among other things, the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, book publisher HarperCollins, some big UK publications, real estate publications including realtor.com, etc.

So pushing the share price of Newsmax to a market cap of $21 billion in no time shows the extent of this nuttiness. It’s really just like whatever. It’s just a video game. Have fun and go home.

Even at $50 a share, Newsmax is up by 440% from its IPO price, which is still huge, and still a huge market capitalization for a company like this.

Newsmax is not a big company. And it’s not profitable either. According to its annual report filed with the SEC on the day of the IPO:

  • 2024 revenues: $171 million; net loss $72 million.
  • 2023 revenues: $135 million; net loss $42 million.

Obviously, none of that mattered. The humans and AI that were trading it didn’t care one iota about the company, its puny revenues, or its losses. It was just a spectacularly fun video game. But for observers, it proved once again that this market is dangerously nuts.

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A Big Coal Plant Was Just Imploded to Make Way for an AI Data Center – WSJ

Energy News Beat

ENB Pub Note: Interesting article from the WSJ. They bring up some interesting points and confirm my bullish sentiment on natural gas. But what is missing is the bigger question of microgrids and how much natural gas will be diverted to the data centers over the normal grid production. Much like the “Stargate” data center in Abiline Texas, it has a dedicated natural gas power plant that could power 90,000 homes and will not backfill the grid. This migration may be the beginning of those who can afford a stable grid will put in their own supplies and contracts. 

There is also a looming shortage of natural gas turbines and power plant equipment unless an emergency effort is placed on getting them spun up. Currently, only the ERCOT grid segment appears to have the demand under control compared to new power plants coming online. We will be tracking these numbers. 


The owner of what was once Pennsylvania’s largest operating coal plant just imploded it to make way for a giant AI data-center campus that will be powered by natural gas instead.

The site in Homer City, Pa., about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, is expected to house what would be the country’s largest gas-fired power plant, according to owner Homer City Redevelopment.

At up to 4.5 gigawatts, the plant could nearly power Manhattan. Its output would more than double that of the original coal facility and be roughly equivalent to Georgia’s Vogtle plant, the country’s largest nuclear power site.

The race to build advanced training models for artificial intelligence requires massive amounts of electricity and land, which is sending the tech industry into rural America. Big Tech is a major backer of clean-energy projects, but the amount of round-the-clock power the companies need as quickly as possible has them leaning on new natural-gas projects to fuel their AI ambitions.

The power plant will rely on natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, a major natural-gas field that underlies parts of Pennsylvania and other states. New data centers are increasingly being built near some of the country’s largest oil and gas reserves for access to the city-sized amounts of power that they need to train large AI models.

“What makes this site very unique is that it checks all of the boxes you need for a data center,” said Andrew Shannahan, a partner at investment firm Knighthead Capital Management, the majority owner of Homer City Redevelopment.

Illustration of proposed site plans including seven gas-fired turbines.

Illustration of proposed site plans including seven gas-fired turbines. Photo: KiewiT

Power infrastructure and site preparation is expected to cost more than $10 billion. That sum includes the infrastructure to supply power to the grid and data centers, but not the building of the data centers themselves.

Tech companies, which are scouring the country for potential data-center locations, could build data centers on the site’s more than 3,200 acres.

The project has key equipment and services lined up, something that is growing increasingly difficult for project developers as the AI frenzy boosts U.S. power-demand forecasts. GE Vernova will provide seven gas-fired turbines, the first of which would be delivered next year. Kiewit Power Constructors will build the power plant and provide engineering and procurement services.

Workers guiding a large gas turbine into a final assembly stand.

A large gas turbine in production at a GE Vernova manufacturing facility. Photo: GE Vernova

At peak, around 3,500 construction workers would be on site for the power plant, Shannahan estimates. Construction on the plant could start this year, with power generation beginning in late 2027.

The coal-fired plant, the Homer City Generating Station, started operating in 1969, but like many others across the U.S., eventually struggled to compete against newer and more efficient natural-gas-fired plants. The combination of higher coal prices and cheap power prices led to its closure in 2023 and the start of redevelopment planning.

“The ability to put power to the grid was wildly undervalued, and that was the original premise of the investment in the plant,” Shannahan said. “It had the infrastructure and the ability to generate a lot of power.”

Cooling towers and three of four stacks of the Homer City Generating Station—some standing more than 1,000 feet—came down March 22 in dramatic fashion. The rest of the fourth stack will be imploded in the next two weeks.

People watching a coal-fired power plant being demolished.

Demolition day for the Homer City Generating Station. Photo: Gene J. Puskar/AP

The site can provide power to both the New York Independent System Operator and PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organization and electricity market serving Washington, D.C., and 13 states.

A capacity auction last year in PJM, the nation’s largest wholesale electricity market, signaled a shortage of power plants that can provide baseload supplies. The retirement of aging plants and increased electricity demand from new customers such as data centers are helping push prices higher.

The site has the ability to draw about 1 gigawatt of power from the grid in the near term, with more power becoming available for data centers and the grid as the plant is built.

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