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.
We provide
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 global oil market has been tightening as excess crude inventory built up over the past several years disappears. Here's how the International Energy Agency sees the situation in its March oil market report.
”Market re-balancing is clearly moving ahead with key indicators - supply and demand becoming more closely aligned, OECD stocks falling close to average levels, the forward price curve in backwardation at prices that increasingly appear to be sustainable - pointing in that direction.”
Anecdotal information from SE Asia supports the view that crude stocks are falling. Recent data indicate that 15 VLCCs are currently being employed for storage offshore Singapore/Malaysia, around half the number of storage VLCCs in mid-2017. Land storage tanks in the region also have greater availability.
The weekly inventory survey by the US Energy Information Administration also shows a 20% decline in US crude inventory over the past twelve months -- from 535 million bbls at the end of March 2017 to 429 million bbls as of 6 April 2018 (excluding stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve).
Despite a small increase over the past two months -- driven many by seasonal refinery maintenance -- the EIA says "U.S. crude oil inventories are in the lower half of the average range for this time of year."
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.
In the March 2018 WER report we revisit the five year forecast of production floater orders made last October. As detailed in the March report, some of the assumptions underlying the forecast have been impacted – mostly positively -- by developments over the past six months. They include a strengthening global economy, oil market rebalancing, uptick in crude pricing, signs of a revival in deepwater E&P and strong reemergence of Petrobras as a buyer of production floaters.
April 17, 2018
Chevron Corp said on Tuesday two of its executives were arrested in Venezuela, a…April 17, 2018
ConocoPhillips announced it has concluded its 2018 winter exploration and appraisal…April 17, 2018
UK-based TechnipFMC has been awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract…April 18, 2018
April 18, 2018
Lightsource BP and Indian private equity fund Everstone Group announced on Wednesday the creation of a 500 million pound…
April 18, 2018
Dutch energy company Eneco is working with investment bank Citi to advise on its privatisation, which should kick off soon…