ISSUE 3, JULY 2022

Stephen Thorpe

Managing Director, Global Natural Resources

E: stephen.thorpe@charlestaylor.com

Welcome to the third edition of Elements Newsletter, sharing topical insights from our global Natural Resources team at Charles Taylor Adjusting.

We have a strong and proud history adjusting some of the largest and most complex losses around the world. Building on this success, and aligning with our clients focus, earlier this year we announced our core service lines will be led by three of our most experienced and skilled adjusters.

  1. International Onshore Energy and Mining – Hugh Sparks
  2. Green Energy – Chris Brown
  3. Upstream Energy – Mike McMahon

In addition, we are delighted to have Alan Morton join our team as Senior Client Director, based in London. Alan has a global reputation as one of the foremost claims’ professionals in recent decades, having worked closely with London and international reinsurance markets.

In this edition of Elements, we cover a diverse range of topics across the three service lines, including navigating cyber-attacks, development of green energy in the US, wind turbine blade failures, risks associated with battery storage systems, steel lazy wave risers, heap leach pads and the trends emerging from a review of the “Largest 100 losses” undertaken by Marsh.

We also profile two members of our team – Anthony Brown from Perth, Australia and Neil Armstrong, London, UK.

We hope you enjoy reading the articles and find them insightful.

To find out more about our services and key global contacts, please visit charlestaylor.com/naturalresources

Article 01

Navigating Cyber-attacks in the Natural Resources sector

Cyber is an emerging and fast-moving market where businesses are becoming increasingly aware of their potential liabilities, heightened risk of damage and the potential repercussions both financial and reputational, particularly following high profile incidents.
 

Article 02

Offshore Wind Projects in the US Create New Opportunities for the Insurance Market

President Biden issued an executive order to install enough offshore wind capacity off the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, to produce 30,000 MWs of energy. Currently, there are just seven offshore wind turbines in the US, operating off the coast of Rhode Island and Virginia.
 

Article 03

Replace or Repair? Exploring Wind Turbine Blade Failures

Critical blade defects leading to failure of blades can be caused by excessive force or fatigue damage. This poses a significant risk and creates extreme economic impact for a wind turbine owner. Therefore, it is important to ensure wind turbine blades (WTBs) last their full designed lifetime.
 

Article 04

Reviewing the 100 Largest Losses in the Hydrocarbon Industry

CTA Natural Resources (Middle East) Senior Adjuster Louis-Florent Daspre talked to Jack Wishart, VP Risk Engineer, Marsh Specialty, Dubai, to discuss the 27th edition of Marsh’s 100 Largest Losses document and his insights on the major energy property losses from the last two years. Jack is the author of the 26th and 27th editions of the 100 Largest Losses report.
 

Article 05

Battery Energy Storage Systems and Associated Risks

Energy storage has become a hot topic in the power and renewables industry, but why do we need it? Energy storage technologies allow us to store electricity for later and discharge it when there is too little generation or too much demand.
 

Article 06

Introduction to Steel Lazy Wave Risers

The production of hydrocarbons in deep and ultradeep water has necessitated the development of Floating Production Units (FPU), and in many cases storage capabilities are also required where Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units are used.
 

Article 07

Insurance Considerations for Heap Leach Pads

The average head grade of global copper mines has decreased 25% in the past 10 years (Calvo, 2016). To remain profitable, mines are utilising economies of scale to reduce operating costs. This results in the deployment of larger plant, higher capacity mills and in many copper and gold mines larger Heap Leach Pads (HLP).
 

Article 08

Spotlight Series

As part of our spotlight series we interview Anthony Brown, Senior Loss Adjuster Natural Resources, Perth, Australia and Neil Armstrong, Senior Adjuster, Natural Resources, London, United Kingdom to discuss their backgrounds and day-to-day lives.