International Maritime Associates (IMA) is a firm of business consultants specializing in market analysis and strategic planning for companies in the marine and offshore sectors.
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April 15, 2017
Jim McCaul -- Orders for production floaters have finally begun to flow. The break came early this year when contracts for a production semi for use in the GOM and an FPSO for use off Malaysia were awarded.
December 12, 2016
Jim McCaul -- Donald Trump’s presidential win and Republican sweep of the US government in November – along with OPEC’s oil production cuts in December -- have injected new dynamics into the US energy
April 28, 2016
Jim McCaul -- No question that the market for new floating production systems has taken a battering. The past 12 to 18 months have been a difficult period for everyone in the business sector. Absence ofThe excess crude inventory build between October 2014 and March 2017 has been eliminated.
Survey results by the US Energy Information Administration show a 26% decline in US crude inventory over the past seventeen months -- from 535 million bbls at the end of March 2017 to 394 million bbls as of 14 September 2018 (excluding stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve).
While the EIA inventory survey covers only the US market, the survey results are considered more reliable than international estimates and are often used as a surrogate for world crude inventory trends.
The EIA in its latest weekly report said "US crude oil inventories are about 3% below the five year average for this time of year.”
Looking ahead, in August the EIA said it expects average global liquid fuels inventories to be 0.2 million b/d lower in 2018 compared with 2017, followed by an increase of 0.3 million b/d in 2019. The EIA also said it expects average Brent crude oil prices to remain relatively stable between $70/b and $73/b from August 2018 through the end of 2019.
Brent as of 19 Sept is trading just under $80.
Jim is the founder and manager of IMA, a consulting firm providing market analysis, competitive benchmarking and business planning support in the maritime and offshore sectors. Over the past 40 years IMA has performed more than 350 business consulting assignments for 170+ clients in 40+ countries.
One of the firm’s specialties is analyzing requirements for floating production systems. IMA has published more than 60 reports since 1996 analyzing this business sector and has been engaged by numerous clients to assist in analyzing specific market opportunities in the floating production sector.
Jim is also the co-founder of IMA/World Energy Reports, a New York based business intelligence service for the floating production supply chain.
Underlying market fundamentals look very good. The global economy is on steroids – growing at 3.9%. Oil prices have climbed again into the high $70 and sanctions on Iran oil shipments are likely to send prices much higher over the next few months. Bottlenecks in the major US shale oil region have raised costs and slowed growth in shale oil production, providing incentive for deepwater investment. Concerns…
September 24, 2018
Exxon Mobil Corp , Royal Dutch Shell Plc and other companies will gather on Friday…
September 22, 2018
The exploration and production of deepwater pre-salt plays offshore Brazil have triggered…
September 22, 2018
BW Offshore has announced that first oil from the BW Adolo FPSO was safely achieved…
September 25, 2018
Russian natural gas producer Novatek has shipped its first LNG cargo to the Brazilian market with LNG produced from the Yamal…
September 25, 2018
Improving the environmental performance of the container shipping supply chain is a common goal shared by shipping lines…
September 24, 2018
Exxon Mobil Corp , Royal Dutch Shell Plc and other companies will gather on Friday in possibly their last crack at Brazil's…