Thanks for a great year!
Cheers,
Michael
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Armed guards contract takes shape
Preliminary discussions took place on 6th December to agree the format for a new standard contract for the employment of armed guards on vessels, co-ordinated by BIMCO.
The new contract, which will be known as GUARDCON, will offer shipowners a well thought through agreement crafted by a team of shipowners, lawyers, underwriters and P&I Club personnel, all of whom have considerable experience developing and working with this type of agreement, the Danish-based organisation claimed.
Two major law firms are involved in the project - Ince & Co and Holman Fenwick Willan, both of whom have experience representing security firms and shipowners in these types of contracts.
At the top of the agenda are the insurance aspects and the underwriting and P&I club input is invaluable, BIMCO said.
BIMCO also said that its ultimate objective in developing this standard contract is to provide an agreement that clearly sets out the responsibilities and liabilities of the parties involved, particularly in respect of the potential use of lethal force on board the vessel.
It is essential that shipowners should have the comfort of a standard contract that they can use safe in the knowledge that it will not prejudice their P&I cover and that it provides for the security company to carry adequate liability insurance.
Rules on the use of force will form an important integral part of the new agreement and will be based on IMO Guidelines 1405/1406, BIMCO said.
A first draft is currently being prepared for review by the sub-committee at its next meeting on 6th January.
It is hoped that the project can be completed towards the end of January.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Kolskaya Sinks: Russian Oil Drilling Rig Capsizes, Leaving 49 Missing
MOSCOW, Dec 18 - An oil drilling rig with 67 crew on board capsized and sank off the Russian Far East island of Sakhalin on Sunday when it ran into a storm while being towed, leaving 49 of the crew unaccounted for, the regional Emergencies Ministry said.
Fourteen crew members were rescued alive from the 'Kolskaya' jack-up rig, operated by Russian offshore exploration company Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka (AMNGR), and four bodies were recovered. The rest of the crew were missing.
"The floating drilling rig capsized 200 kilometers (125 miles) off the coast of Sakhalin island at 12.45 local time (0145 GMT)," the Emergencies Ministry said in a statement on its website.
The statement said a rescue craft and helicopters had been sent to the site to scour the waters for survivors, but Russian news agencies said rescue work had been halted until Monday morning as night fell in the far eastern region.
The 'Neftegaz-55' tugboat that had been towing the Kolskaya rig and had taken part in the search effort, pulled out after suffering hull damage near its engine room. An icebreaker, the 'Magadan', was at the scene.
Most of the missing crew were from the Russian far eastern town of Magadan, said a spokesman for AMNGR, a unit of state-owned Zarubezhneft. The company, based in the northern port of Murmansk, flew out counsellors to offer support to relatives.
RIG WAS WORKING FOR GAZPROM
The rig had been doing work in the Sea of Okhotsk for a unit of state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom, the company said.
It was heading to the port city of Kholmsk on the western side of Sakhalin island from the eastern peninsula of Kamchatka when strong winds and high waves capsized the vessel.
Russia's prize offshore gas and oil fields lie to the northeast of the island.
No oil spill was likely, but the disaster will deal a blow to efforts by Russia, the world's largest energy producer, to step up offshore oil and gas exploration to offset a long-term production decline at its onshore production sites.
Russia has two major offshore projects that are already producing oil and gas off Sakhalin - Sakhalin-1, operated by Exxonmobil and Sakhalin-2, operated by Royal Dutch Shell and in which in which Gazprom has a controlling stake.
The disaster is unlikely to seriously affect oil or gas production.
Gazprom said the vessel was no longer under contract when it sank, a spokesman for the company told Interfax.
Operating conditions at the Sakhalin fields, explored by Soviet geologists in the 1960s and 1970s, are among the harshest for Russian energy companies.
OFFSHORE DRILLING
The jack-up rig, which has support legs that can be extended to reach the ocean floor while its hull floats on the ocean surface, was overturned while in the stormy winter conditions. Waves in the waters were reportedly 5-6 metres high.
"The violation of safety rules during the towing of the drilling rig, as well as towing without consideration of the weather conditions, in so far as the rig was being towed in strong storm conditions, is believed to be the cause of the (disaster)," investigators said, state news agency RIA reported.
Winter often lasts 220-240 days in the waters off Sakhalin, where the main companies operating are ExxonMobil, Gazprom, and Royal Dutch Shell, who produce oil and gas, sometimes in icebound conditions, for export largely to Asian markets.
The Sakhalin-2 project run by Shell, Gazprom and Mitsui , produces 10 million tonnes per year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Russia's only LNG plant in the southeastern port of Prigorodnoye for export to Asia, much of it to Japan.
Each tanker of crude oil produced by at the 160,000 barrels-per-day Sakhalin-1 project, operated by ExxonMobil, is escorted by two icebreakers when ice thickness reaches 60 centimeters.
State-controlled Rosneft this year reached a major deal with Exxon to explore for oil and gas in the Kara Sea, to the north of the Russian mainland, a largely unexplored region estimated to hold over 100 billion barrels of oil.
A combination of poor infrastructure and chronic corner cutting has dealt the country its share of sea disasters, noteably the 2000 sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea in August 2000, killing all 118 aboard and prompting criticism of the sluggish response.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Gold Sheds 'Can't Lose' Status: Now, No One Wants It
By: John Melloy
Executive Producer, Fast Money & Halftime
In just three months, gold [XAU= 1569.70 Executive Producer, Fast Money & Halftime
-4.49 (-0.29%) 
] has gone from the trade that works in every kind of market to the trade that doesn’t work in any market. |
| Tom Grill | Iconica | Getty Images |
![[cnbc explains]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vQ4-MaF8mMNKzbk8C2_uS2djnC0KIq89nR1UwsKHlSWi8r9HuoPYN2nzdZt30GWfLqy8Cms10RBbQNOfPWEgaoLt2ekO6o4SjtOSh31RTnLWJO-9SOucM98AirMdXKzItgttK6TjErQ_7wWSJg7En0aL5EhCDjKaECqwjOAWX5n_cfjcyPSt1yYqAiOCqfTg=s0-d){kind=small}
and sovereign funds sell the metal to raise funds and the strong U.S. dollar [.DXY 80.32 -0.26 (-0.33%) ] strips it of its safe haven status.For a time, gold rose with stocks and other assets as central banks added liquidity to stem off a global financial crisis. It also climbed in down equity markets as investors crowded into the trade for its traditional status as a store of value in tough times.
“Gold was a safe haven, a hedge and a speculative trade all at the same time,” said Michael Murphy, CEO of Rosecliff Capital, a hedge fund. “Long gold has been a winning trade for years. We expect the selloff in gold to gain momentum into 2012. Traders are finding better hedges, better safe havens, and better speculative commodity plays than long gold.”
Gold was up more than 25 percent in 2011 through early September. The market value of leading gold exchange-traded fund , the SPDR Gold Trust [GLD 152.804 -0.086 (-0.06%) ] , ballooned to $73 billion in November as investors poured more money into gold funds than any other asset class. In just four days, the gold sell-off has turned violent, plummeting more than $100 to breach the $1,600 level. On Wednesday gold fell with stocks. The next day, the metal fell even as the equity market rose.
, the SPDR Gold Trust [GLD 152.804 -0.086 (-0.06%) ] , ballooned to $73 billion in November as investors poured more money into gold funds than any other asset class. In just four days, the gold sell-off has turned violent, plummeting more than $100 to breach the $1,600 level. On Wednesday gold fell with stocks. The next day, the metal fell even as the equity market rose.“When an asset is thought to work in any market, that is the surest sign of a bubble,” said Stephen Weiss of Short Hills Capital. “I believe we will hear about massive central bank selling to put currency in markets.”
Gold gained some notable backers along its bull run, which only added to the speculative fervor. Most notably, hedge fund manager John Paulson has made the SPDR Gold Trust ETF his firm’s single largest holding.
The flagship fund run by Paulson, who’s received more accolades than anyone for profiting from the housing bust, is down more than 40 percent for 2011 at last count. With the recent drop in gold, it’s likely down even more, if he isn’t selling.
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To be sure, gold has always been a volatile trade that can turn on a dime. Unlike a stock, there are no earnings behind the metal. It’s only worth as much as what the next guy will pay for it. That dynamic has been skewed by the ETF and other retail money flowing into the trade this year, say long-term gold bulls.
“Bull markets climb a wall of worry,” said Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital “These sharp drops shake out the speculators and keep other would-be buyers on the sidelines. Once the weak longs are cleared out, the trip to $2,000 and beyond will resume unencumbered by excess baggage.”
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For the best market insight, catch 'Fast Money' each night at 5pm ET, and the ‘Halftime Report’ each afternoon at 12:00 ET on CNBC. Follow @CNBCMelloy on Twitter.
______________________________________________________
John Melloy is the Executive Producer of Fast Money. Before joining CNBC, he was an editor for Bloomberg News, overseeing the U.S. Stock Market coverage team. Click here to see his full bio.
John Melloy is the Executive Producer of Fast Money. Before joining CNBC, he was an editor for Bloomberg News, overseeing the U.S. Stock Market coverage team. Click here to see his full bio._________________________________________________
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