Energy Review 08-2019
03 September 2019
Just imagine you are taking part in an important sporting event; the final whistle or chequered flag is coming closer and closer and you are not in the leading position. Through a series of poor decisions and weak leadership you have lost the advantage, then the team leader is forced to quit. A replacement comes along with apparent personality, verve and vision and there is a renewed positive sense that we may yet achieve our goal. This is what is happening in the United Kingdom as Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister. With gusto, bold promises and his ability to engage with the media, the possibility of Brexit happening in less than two months’ time is again gathering momentum. However, the final hurdles are looking higher and higher, the goalposts seem to be shifting and some of your support players look like they are running out of gas – even though they only recently came on as substitutions.
There are two juries out there: the British public, who, according to the latest polls, do not want the Brexit team to win, and the European Union, who is not going to lower the bar when confronted with a new team at the negotiation table.
A recent study of seven EU countries posts a dismal view of the impact on them when a chaotic no-deal Brexit takes place: the loss of jobs in the automobile industry alone will cost Germany and Spain billions, and the sale of oil and gas in and outside UK waters to and from other EU countries has not been revealed – for fear of publicising the amount involved. Whilst the Netherlands is viewed as the best prepared of all EU countries for no-deal, the impact, according to the government, will cost its economy €10 billion.
Britain is also facing the prospect of its new Prime Minister being voted out of office but refusing to leave and that prospect will send the pound sterling plummeting against the dollar and the euro. What will the cost of oil look like when Brent and WTI try and sell a barrel of it? There will be some winners but a lot of losers.
The deal offered by the EU, accepted by Mrs May but turned down by the House of Commons, kept the Customs Union and the Single Market open but not for Financial Services. Now, with all the uncertainty about what form Brexit could take, it looks like banking and insurance have done quite a bit to weather the storm whatever form it takes. In the past we have doubted the way insurance companies, especially, have prepared for Brexit and they must have been listening. New career opportunities are arising for postings abroad and there is still more than enough talent in the City for some of it to depart and develop fresh contacts and experience in another country.
While for many Brexit seems to be dominating the limelight, events in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz are worrying. Iran is finding it easy to hijack oil tankers, with US- and Royal Navy warships being out-manoeuvred by Iranian speedboats. While falling over the past decade, the Middle East still accounts for one in five barrels of US imports. Around 20% of the world’s consumed oil passes through this point. A major event in the area could triple oil prices or worse.
Other news we have relates to the high number of energy casualties last month: fires, explosions, oil leaks and earthquakes all serve to prove that the oil and gas industry is inherently dangerous and the most environmentally sensitive. That is why we need to be aware of risks and exposures as well as the wide range of solutions at our disposal.
We look forward to discussing these with all our readers and clients.
Energy Casualties
Oil spills from Hibernia platform offshore Canada
Approximately 12,000 litres of oil (75.48 barrels) is estimated to have been spilled this week from the Hibernia oil platform offshore Newfoundland.
The oil and gas safety body the C-NLOPB said on 18th July that it had been notified by the Hibernia Management and Development Company Ltd. (HMDC) of an oil slick observed on the water near the Hibernia platform, located 315 kilometres from St John’s, Newfoundland.
HMDC is an ExxonMobil-led consortium operating the Gravity Base Structure platform.
“All workers are safe and HMDC has undertaken a controlled shut-in of production operations. To date, no affected marine life or seabirds have been seen by government or industry observers in the vicinity of the spill and its trajectory,” the C-NLOPB said.
“The C-NLOPB has been in continuous contact with HMDC as well as partnering government agencies, including the National Environmental Emergencies Centre of Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) in monitoring the operator’s response and the deployment of resources related to oil recovery.
“The C-NLOPB is the lead regulatory authority as per the Atlantic Accord Implementation Acts. The response to the incident is the responsibility of HMDC,” the C-NLOPB said.
According to the safety body, the initial slick size was estimated by HMDC to be 900 metres x 20 metres.
A picture taken by a Canada Coast Guard (CCG) observer on an overflight on 17th July showed an image of the slick, estimated to be approximately 4.6 kilometres at its widest part.
Based on visual observations from the overflight of the area conducted on 17th July, the preliminary estimate of the amount of oil expressed on the water could be in the order of 12,000 litres.
“Satellite imagery taken as of approximately 9 am NST on the 18th July, shows two slicks: the first being 1.71 square kilometres and 3.27 kilometres in length and the second being 6.64 square kilometres and 3.78 kilometres in length.
“A second surveillance flight was deployed later in the day. HMDC and the C-NLOPB are awaiting results from this and other sources of information to verify the estimated size of the release,” the C-NLOPB said.
“HMDC is investigating the cause of the spill, which along with the confirmed amount, will be communicated publicly. The C-NLOPB will determine its next steps as more information becomes available. The safety of workers and environmental protection continue to be our priorities,” the C-NLOPB added.
SVSS vessel deployed
In a separate statement on 18th July, Hibernia Management and Development Company said the discharge, a mix of water and oil, occurred during routine activities related to removing water from one of the storage cells.
“A single vessel side sweep (SVSS) has been deployed from a response vessel in the area. SVSS is a boom-type system deployed over the side of a vessel to collect oil from the water.
“A skimmer is then used to collect the oil from the SVSS and store it on the vessel for disposal in accordance with waste management regulations. Other response activities have included mechanical dispersion, deploying sorbent boom, deploying a tracking buoy, and surveillance flights,” HDMC said.
NTSB probes Texas Eastern Kentucky blast
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating an explosion which occurred on 1st August on the Texas Eastern natural gas pipeline system near Danville, Kentucky, which killed a woman and injured at least five other people while setting fire to several houses.
Canadian energy company Enbridge Inc., which owns the system, described the event as a rupture in a 30-inch OD section, which is now isolated.
Enbridge said it was working on a plan to put in service a couple of pipelines adjacent to the Texas Eastern natural gas pipeline in Kentucky.
The company did not say when the two pipes would return to service, but it told customers it expected they would remain shut at least through to 12th August.
The blast, near Danville, Kentucky, was the second so far this year on the Texas Eastern system following an explosion in Ohio in January that injured at least two people.
It was also the third big blast for Enbridge in less than a year following an explosion in British Columbia on its Westcoast system in October.
Enbridge said Texas Eastern has three lines between its Danville and Tompkinsville compressors in Kentucky that make up its 30-inch (76-centimetre) system. The lines are Line 10, 15 and 25. The blast occurred on Line 15.
Traders noted the Kentucky incident had only a temporary impact on production in the Appalachia region, which returned to record levels the following week.
At the time of the blast, about 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas (bcfd) was flowing south from the Marcellus and Utica shale basins in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia through the damaged section of pipe toward the Gulf Coast, according to data from analytics firm Refinitiv.
That represents about 2% of the 90 bcfd of all the gas produced in the Lower 48 US states. One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply about five million US homes for a day.
Fire burns at Exxon plant in Baytown
Exxon emergency crews were working to isolate and contain a fire at its plant in Baytown, Texas.
Firefighters were working to put out a fire that began on 31st July at an ExxonMobil plant in Baytown, Texas.
Exxon first posted on Twitter that a fire had occurred at the company’s Baytown Olefins Plant and the company’s fire team was working to extinguish the fire.
Exxon said that the fire was in the unit containing polypropylene material. The unit which was affected processed light hydrocarbons including propane and propylene.
During an afternoon press conference, an Exxon spokesperson said 37 people sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the fire, which he described as minor, first-degree burns.
The company was also working to shut down units to isolate the source of the fire.
Exxon, the City of Baytown and other agencies were conducting air monitoring. At the time, there were no adverse or environmental effects from the fire, Exxon said.
“The duration and magnitude of the market impact will be determined by the extent of the damage and what units and chemical value chains are affected.”
Wood Mackenzie estimates about 45% of ExxonMobil’s installed USA chemical capacity is in Baytown.
Wind could spread oil leak from Pertamina’s undersea well in Indonesia
Wind is threatening to spread a growing 52-mile (84-kilometre) oil sheen in Indonesia from an undersea well which began leaking about two weeks ago into the Java Sea.
State crude producer PT Pertamina plans to install more booms in the south and east of the offshore oil platform to prevent the spread of the oil, spokeswoman Fajriyah Usman said in a text message on 29th July.
The flow of crude from the damaged well offshore Karawang, West Java, has declined to below 3,000 barrels per day, she said.
The spill has contaminated beaches in at least ten villages mostly to the west of the offshore platform, the energy ministry said. Company officials have said it may take about eight weeks before the leaking well can be fully shut.
The leak so far appears to be much smaller than BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The blowout and explosion off the coast of Louisiana killed 11 workers and sent millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf and surrounding wetlands. BP officials publicly stated that 5,000 barrels of oil a day was flowing into the Gulf. Experts concluded later that the figure was more than 60,000 barrels a day, the US Government said.
Pertamina said on 28th July it had intensified clean-up efforts by installing five high-speed water skimmers to suck the fuel from the sea surface and put up a static oil boom stretching 2,000 metres around the YY platform to contain the spill.
Pertamina has mobilised and alerted 32 vessels for oil-spill combat and firefighting among other measures. A total of 800 people and more than 100 military personnel were also involved in cleaning up oil spills on the beach.
The company said on 27th July that it had set up four health posts at coastal villages in Java.
Well stopped after central Oklahoma hit with 3.1 magnitude quake
An oil well operator has stopped operations following a small earthquake in central Oklahoma, the fourth such earthquake in less than three weeks.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission said Newfield/Encana paused a well completion operation after a magnitude 3.1 temblor was recorded at 04:39 a.m. on 25th July near Kingfisher, about 40 miles (64 kilometres) north-west of Oklahoma City.
Regulators say the company ceased all drilling after the US Geological Survey (USGS) recorded several more earthquakes in the area while operations were paused.
The USGS says another 3.1 magnitude quake and two 2.6 magnitude quakes were recorded in the same area, all on 9th July. No injuries or damage have been reported.
Hazardous chemical incident on Terra Nova field FPSO
A staff member onboard the Suncor Energy-operated Terra Nova FPSO offshore Newfoundland was exposed to hazardous contents of a slop tank last month.
According to the Canada-Newfoundland & Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB), the contents included hydrogen sulphide and benzene.
Immediately after the incident, the slop tank work scope was halted, and the individual was checked for potential exposure to harmful substances but was subsequently cleared to resume regular duties.
Following further investigation by Suncor, the C-NLOPB has classified the incident as Near Miss with Potential for Fatality.
The C-NLOPB is monitoring Suncor’s continued investigation and follow-up in response to the incident.
Millions of gallons of waste created by Texas petrochemical fire
The clean-up of millions of gallons of waste and polluted water is far from over four months after a large fire burned for days at a Houston-area petrochemical storage site.
Intercontinental Terminals Company, the facility’s owner, must abide by a 31-page management plan which dictates how waste must be sampled and identified, stored and discarded, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The detailed plan orders how the waste is transported and where it can go. But specific information regarding the status of the work at the Deer Park facility and where the waste will end up are difficult to find.
“Hazardous waste laws are so demanding. If you are trying to dispose of hazardous waste, you have to send it to a facility which has all sorts of protections to avoid contamination,” said Rena Steinzor, a professor at the University of Maryland Law School.
“That is why companies should be more careful of disposing their waste, and the real question is why they are not?”
The fire in Deer Park on 17th March, about 20 miles (32 kilometres) south-east of Houston, caused no injuries but triggered air quality warnings. More than 21 million gallons of potentially hazardous waste and contaminated water have since been collected from the tank farm and Houston Ship Channel.
It is all considered to be dangerous until tested and determined otherwise.
“One of the problems is that xylenes continue to vaporise from the water unless removed,” said Jack Matson, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Engineering at Penn State University.
“A boom across the impacted area will not prevent continued volatilisation, and some of the chemicals are dissolved and enter the ship channel.”
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office filed water pollution charges in April against Intercontinental Terminals Company, alleging the fire caused chemicals to flow into a nearby waterway.
Abandoned oil tanker off Yemen thought to be explosion and oil spill risk by UN experts
An oil storage vessel moored off the coast of Yemen caught between both factions in the country’s civil war is corroding rapidly and without urgent maintenance could explode and create an environmental disaster in the Red Sea, according to United Nations (UN) experts.
The ‘SAFER’ floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel, a converted 400,000 tonne displacement supertanker used as the marine terminal for a pipeline from Yemen’s Marib onshore oilfield since 1988, is moored seven kilometres outside the Red Sea port of Ras Isa, north of Hodeidah.
In 2015 the area was captured from the UN- and Saudi-backed Yemen Government by Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, and since then the FSO, with a cargo of over one million barrels of oil, has not been maintained or inspected. The main fear is that gases which have built up in the vessel’s storage tanks could explode, releasing huge quantities of crude into the Red Sea.
The Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS), which has been monitoring the unfolding story, said that in August 2018, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) posted a tender for a project to assess the safety of the vessel. The background documentation for the tender provided worrying insights into its condition, CEOBS said.
As the FSO’s diesel fuel had run out, its boilers had stopped producing inert gas. FSOs and tankers produce inert gas to fill the voids above the oil in their storage tanks. This is to reduce the risk of explosion from the volatile gases released from the oil they carry. Without replacement, it was thought likely that the tanks would have a significant volume of potentially explosive gases inside.
The note also drew attention to the general lack of maintenance, and with it a deterioration in the vessel, its machinery and in its floating oil export hose.
Mark Lowcock, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, told the UN security council in June that an inspection team had again been refused permissions by Houthis to visit the vessel.
Mr Lowcock said: “If the tanker ruptures or explodes, we could see the coastline polluted all along the Red Sea. Depending on the time of year and water currents, the spill could reach from Bab-el-Mandeb to the Suez Canal, and potentially as far as the strait of Hormuz.”
With restricted water circulation and delicate marine ecosystems, the Red Sea, home of corals and 600 species of fish and invertebrates, is seen as particularly vulnerable to oil pollution.
The two sides in the conflict blame each other for failing to reach a solution about what to do about the ship and its valuable cargo.
The Houthis want guarantees that they will be able to control the revenues from the oil on the ship, valued at US$80 million, which the UN-recognised Yemen Government has vetoed.
The latter have suggested towing the vessel to Bahrain for repairs, which the Houthis will not allow.
Insurance News
While ships in Persian Gulf turn off transponders to avoid seizure, collision risks rise
Following weeks of mounting tensions in the Persian Gulf, where vessels have been attacked and an oil tanker has been seized, recent news reports reveal that shipowners are trying to minimise risk – by turning off their transponders and changing their routes in order to avoid detection by the Iranians. But other risks – collision risks – are rising, warns a legal expert.
“With the escalating tensions in the Gulf, shipowners are looking to boost safety measures when navigating the shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz and the adjacent waters,” said Richard Gunn, Master Mariner and Partner in Reed Smith’s global Transportation Industry Group.
Reed Smith is a London-based law firm which advises the transportation industry.
“With the naval choke point consisting of territorial sea of either Iran or Oman, it seems that a number of shipowners have attempted to reduce the risk of seizure by avoiding Iran’s waters all together and some have resorted to turning off transponders to avoid detection.”
He noted that avoiding Iran’s waters present its own problems. “To do this, they would need to sail across the outbound lanes when heading into the Persian Gulf, but this route can be hazardous due to the sheer volume of traffic passing through,” he explained.
In addition, such a route change is a breach of an international convention which requires a vessel to keep to the direction of traffic flow in its lane, he said.
“Ships heading out to the Gulf of Oman would need to hug the Omani coast to stay in Omani waters; in previous disputes the Omani Government tended to require vessels transiting the straits to keep a safe distance from their coast,” Mr Gunn said.
“There is a concern that, at the very least, avoidance of Iran’s waters in this way could congest an already busy channel, increase collision risks particularly with a lack of AIS data for transiting vessels, and slow the travel time through the area,” he said. (The automatic identification system, or AIS, is the system which uses transponders to track vessels.)
Market sources have indicated insurance premium increases are a “near certainty” for shipping in the region of the strait of Hormuz after Iran seized UK-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero on Friday 19th July.
Lloyd’s six bold initiatives receive ‘outstanding’ support from market participants and stakeholders
Lloyd’s has received “widespread backing” from its market participants and stakeholders on its recently-launched strategic plan of transformational initiatives, including simplifying market access and lowering costs, to ensure the 333-year-old marketplace can thrive in an increasingly challenging environment.
The specialist insurance and reinsurance market launched its “bold new strategy” for the future on 1st May, which was followed by wide-ranging consultation involving Lloyd’s ecosystem of market participants, customers and other stakeholders, on the transformational initiatives outlined in the prospectus.
The consultation, which has now closed, generated more than 4,000 insights over a ten-week period, including almost 500 online survey respondents and 300 interviews involving more than 600 people.
Lloyd’s said it has started building the blueprints, which are expected to be published on 30th September. At the same time, it has started work on building and delivering prototypes, with some solutions operational in early 2020.
The recently-announced Global and London advisory committees have also had their initial meetings, with both committees playing an important role in providing guidance and advice as the blueprint for the Future at Lloyd’s begins development and implementation.
“The outstanding level of support we have received so far through our open and extensive consultation demonstrates that the Future at Lloyd’s goals and proposals offer a compelling and relevant foundation on which we can begin building a blueprint,” said John Neal, Lloyd’s CEO.
“The reimagining of the Lloyd’s platform, through a set of plug-and-play ideas which could revolutionise the way we do things, offers our market an incredible chance to create the most customer-centric digital insurance platform in the world,” he added.
Jon Hancock, Lloyd’s Performance Management Director, added: “The feedback we have received over the past ten weeks has been instrumental in helping us shape the ideas and next steps for the Future at Lloyd’s, and demonstrates the value of the bottom-up approach we have taken from the outset.
“As we begin creating the blueprint, we will continue to work with all of our stakeholders to refine and develop the proposals, ensuring that they are representative of the feedback and help us plan and prioritise.”
Lloyd’s has put forward six fresh ideas in its Future at Lloyd’s prospectus.
These include: a digital platform for complex risk which makes doing business easier for the most difficult-to-cover risks; the creation of Lloyd’s Risk Exchange which will handle less complex risks, so they can be placed in minutes and at a fraction of today’s costs; flexible capital which can access a diverse set of insurance risks on the Lloyd’s platform; a syndicate-in-a-box, which offers a streamlined opportunity for innovators to bring new products and business into the market; a next generation claims service to improve customer experience and increase trust by speeding up claims pay-outs; an ecosystem of services which helps all market participants develop new business and provide outstanding service to their customers.
After fires and spills, study of lightning strikes in North Dakota oil patch proposed
North Dakota is considering whether to study lightning strikes at saltwater disposal sites after lightning hit state facilities at least four times since June, triggering fires and spills of oil and brine.
People familiar with the facilities said tanks made of fibreglass can be particularly vulnerable to fires when lightning strikes, the Bismarck Tribune reported.
North Dakota’s Oil and Gas Research Council has decided to seek requests for a proposal in an effort to commission a study. The council, which consists of state officials and representatives from the energy industry, pinpoints oil- and gas-related research projects to pursue.
The projects are funded by up to US$10 million in oil taxes each biennium.
The state’s Industrial Commission, chaired by Governor Doug Burgum, will need to grant approval before the council can proceed.
Karlene Fine, Executive of the Industrial Commission, said the authorisation could happen at a meeting on 28th August.
Ron Day, a member of the research council who works for Marathon Petroleum, said lightning-related fires at disposal sites present a safety concern in the oil fields and added he supports additional studies.
“It’s really just to try to understand, is there a connection to fibreglass tanks, is there a way to lightning-proof or reduce the threat of lightning to those facilities?” he said.
The Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota is drafting up a plan for an initial study to present to the Industrial Commission, which includes a cost estimate for the state and timeframe.
John Harju, the research centre’s Vice President for Strategic Partnerships, noted a more comprehensive study could come down the road.
“Maybe there are definitive works out there and guidelines which could be augmented or drawn upon,” Mr Harju said. “I think that would guide any subsequent, directed research.”
Lightning-related incidents at saltwater disposal sites can be difficult on rural fire departments which have to monitor and extinguish the ensuing fires, according to first responders in the Bakken.
North Dakota does not require disposal sites to install lightning protection equipment, although some facilities do so willingly.
Record US$2.7 million fine for company causing oil spill in BC
Kirby Offshore Marine Operating LLC was recently sentenced in the Provincial Court of British Columbia, in Bella Bella, after pleading guilty to three charges of violating federal legislation, in connection with a spill from the vessel Nathan E. Stewart into Seaforth Channel near Bella Bella, British Columbia, on 13th October 2016.
The company was sentenced to pay the following penalties:
- US$2.7 million for the offence of depositing a deleterious substance into water frequented by fish, in violation of the Fisheries Act;
- US$200,000 for the offence of depositing a substance harmful to migratory birds, in violation of the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994; and
- US$5,000 for the offence of failing to comply with the pilotage requirements under the Pilotage Act.
The US$2.7 million penalty imposed under the Fisheries Act is the largest fine for the deposit of a deleterious substance into water frequented by fish from a single spill. This penalty will be directed to the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund and is recommended to be used toward the conservation of fish and fish habitat in the Central Coast region of British Columbia.
The $200,000 penalty for the offence under the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994 will also be directed to the Fund.
On 13th October 2016, the tugboat Nathan E. Stewart ran aground at Edge Reef near Bella Bella, British Columbia, resulting in the release of approximately 107,552 litres (28,412 gallons) of diesel fuel and 2,240 litres (591 gallons) of lubricants. Both substances are deleterious to fish and migratory birds.
Kirby Offshore Marine Operating LLC owned the Nathan E. Stewart.
The articulated tug-barge combo was on its way back to Vancouver from Alaska at the time of the incident. The fuel barge was empty, but the tug quickly began leaking diesel into the water.
Seven crew members were on board, but no one was injured.
Kirby Offshore Marine is the largest United States operator of coastal tank barges and towing vessels participating in the regional distribution of refined petroleum products, black oil and petrochemicals. Kirby’s coastal fleet operates along the US coastal network and calls on ports along the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts, as well as ports in Alaska, Hawaii and on the Great Lakes.
Husky Oil fined US$2.7 million for oil spill into the North Saskatchewan River
Husky Oil Operations Limited recently pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Canadian Fisheries Act and one count of violating the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994 in a Saskatchewan court.
The company was ordered to pay a fine of US$2.5 million for violating the Fisheries Act and a fine of US$200,000 for violating the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994.
The fines will be directed to the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund and will be used to support projects within the North Saskatchewan and/or Saskatchewan River and their associated watersheds related to the conservation and protection of fish and migratory birds.
The charges related to an incident which occurred between 20th and 21st July 2016, when an estimated 225,000 litres of blended heavy crude oil leaked from a Husky Oil Operations Limited pipeline.
Approximately 90,000 litres of the oil entered the North Saskatchewan River near Maidstone, Saskatchewan. The oil was found to be deleterious, or harmful, to fish and migratory birds.
Environment and Climate Change Canada’s National Environmental Emergencies Centre (NEEC) responded to the July 2016 spill. Environmental emergency officers were onsite from 22nd July 2016 until early October 2016 to provide regulatory oversight and guide efforts to protect the environment.
A year after the spill, in 2017, and once again in 2018, the NEEC’s Shoreline Clean-up Assessment Team returned to the North Saskatchewan River to assess the water and shorelines following the spring ice breakup.
The spill resulted in a number of communities having to stop taking water from the North Saskatchewan River for drinking water purposes. The cities had to shut off their intakes and find alternate water sources after the oil plume from a Husky Energy pipeline spill moved downstream.
The cities of North Battleford, Prince Albert and Melfort were ordered by Saskatchewan’s Water Security Agency to stop taking water from the river.
In addition to pleading guilty to offences under federal legislation, Husky Oil Operations Limited has pleaded guilty to one count under the provincial Environmental Management and Protection Act, 2010.
People on the Move
Markel appoints Nunn as energy underwriter
Markel has appointed Mark Nunn as an energy underwriter in Singapore, succeeding Tim Foister who returns to the energy team in London after three years in Asia.
Chaucer creates new head of underwriting role for Dublin-based company
Specialty re/insurer Chaucer has appointed Jonathan Sutcliffe to the newly-created role of Head of Underwriting at Chaucer Insurance Company DAC in Ireland, which trades as Chaucer Dublin.
Markel hires AIG’s Burgess to lead cyber
Markel has appointed Chris Burgess to head up its cyber team in London.
ArgoGlobal appoints new active underwriter for Lloyd’s Syndicate 1200
Lloyd’s insurer and member of Argo Group, ArgoGlobal, has appointed John Moffatt to serve as Active Underwriter for Syndicate 1200, replacing Steve Eccles.
Liberty Specialty Markets appoints first chief cyber officer
Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM) has named Jon Rigby to the newly-created position of Chief Cyber Officer.
Based in London, he will report to Peter Smith, Executive Underwriting Officer.
Mr Rigby’s last role with the Royal Air Force was in the rank of Air Vice-Marshal within Joint Forces Command, where his responsibilities included leadership of Defence’s cyber operations and programmes.
He will drive the LSM Cyber ‘Centre of Excellence’, interfacing with their insurance and reinsurance underwriting functions led by Matthew Hogg (Head of Cyber Insurance) and Ivonne Staisch (Head of Cyber Reinsurance).