Keppel Verolme lands a double

Rotterdam-based Keppel Verolme, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine has won two contracts totaling S$160 million on the back of an upsurge of offshore activities in the North Sea.

Keppel had secured a repeat order for the outfitting of the floating production, storage and offloading facility Sevan Voyageur for Norway’s Sevan Production. Work is expected to be completed in the summer of 2008. This is the third cylindrical FPSO facility that Keppel Verolme is carrying for the same owner. The world’s first cylindrical FPSO facility, Sevan Piranema, was completed in Keppel Verolme in January 2007. Keppel had also won a contract for the drydocking of the Saipem 7000, a semi-submersible crane and pipelaying DP vessel for Italy’s Saipem. Saipem 7000 is the world’s second largest crane vessel with lifting capabilities of up to 14,000 tonnes.
Read More

Ship's record breaking trip to Arctic

A New Zealand-led ship has sailed further north than any other, after it was deliberately trapped in an Arctic ice floe for 15 months.

The ship Tara, led by Wellington researcher Grant Redvers, 34, used the theory of transpolar drift to make a remarkable journey that began in September last year. Tara is traveling high and dry on an ice pack, relying on a conveyor belt-like phenomenon that drives Arctic ice across the North Pole and down the east coast of Greenland. The journey began last year after the specially built ship with a thick aluminium hull was wedged into ice north of Russia. Tara was designed to overcome the crushing power of the ice by a shape that saw it rise up when caught between plates. Tara is expected to soon pop out of the ice floe and into the Fram Strait between Greenland and Norway's Svalbard archipelago.
Read More

Design and operation of LPG ships

Rina will be holding a new conference in January 2008 relating to the Design and Operation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas ships followed by the success of 2006 International conference.

LPG vessels may have pressurized, semi-pressurized or fully refrigerated cargo systems, able to trade from both pressure and refrigerated storages. Fully refrigerated ships will require a chiller to cool down LPG at the load port or a re-heater to warm LPG discharging into pressure storage. The problematic characteristics of LPG have made it a late developer. Seaborne trade in LPG was less than one million tonnes in 1960, reached 17 million tonnes by 1980 and was in excess of 47 million tonnes by the year 2000. With the great changes expected in the LPG industry, this conference will provide a forum for discussion and a means of professional development for those involved with the design, construction and operation of LPG ships.
Read More

Container Cranes Pass under Bridge with Feet to Spare

Two new container cranes from Japan were delivered to the Port of Los Angeles and carefully navigated under the Vincent Thomas Bridge on the way to the TraPac terminal.

The cranes came within five feet of the bridge's undercarriage but passed under without incident as television helicopters and film crews captured the scene. This delivery, precisely timed for the lowest tide possible, marks the first arrival of cranes under the bridge since 2002. The cranes were delivered on a barge that was lowered to the water line to allow bridge clearance. Upon arrival at the terminal, the barge was raised up to the dock level. The cranes will be rolled onto the terminal over the course of several days.
Read More

Call to press Japan on whaling

Whale-watching operators have joined environment groups in urging Australia to step up efforts to persuade Japan to give up its annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean.

The Federal Government is considering the deployment of a customs ship, armed with machine guns, as part of beefed-up monitoring of the Japanese whaling fleet.
Greenpeace and Australian whale-watching operators welcomed reports that the customs vessel, the 105m Oceanic Viking, may be sent to the Southern Ocean to monitor the upcoming whale hunt. Viking is a full-time contracted vessel, equipped with deck-mounted twin 50mm machine guns and a fully equipped medical centre. By observing, the hunt Australia will be able to gather evidence to take international legal action.
Read More

African migrants drown off Yemen

About 180 African migrants are believed to have died in the Red Sea in the last few days while trying to reach Yemen.

Two boats had capsized off the Yemeni coast. Earlier, the aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres said it had found the bodies of 56 Africans who had drowned as their boat approached Yemen's coast. Nearly 28,000 Somalis have crossed to Yemen this year, either to escape fighting in Somalia or to seek work. Almost 600 people are believed to have died and another 650 have gone missing, according to international aid agencies. The vessel capsized when the passengers rushed to one side during the ensuing panic.
Read More

Russia ships nuclear fuel to Iran’s plant

Russia has begun nuclear fuel shipments to Iran in a major breakthrough that opens the way for starting up the 1000-MW reactor it is building at the Bushehr atomic power plant in eight months time.

The Russian company building the Bushehr reactor, Atomstroiexport, said that the first batch of low-enriched uranium-235 fuel was delivered to the Bushehr plant on December 16 under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The rest of the 180 fuel pellets would be sent to Bushehr in the next two months. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the fuel is being supplied six months before the start-up date. This means Iran may generate its first electricity from a nuclear reactor next August. The fuel will be under IAEA safeguards and will be returned to Russia for reprocessing.

Read More

Dubai waterbus privatization

Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority is to privatize parts of its water transport provision.

The CEO of the Marine Transport Agency, Mohammed Obaid Al Mulla, said that the private sector's involvement would improve services. Tenders offered on a build, operate and transfer basis will be launched next year for both ferry and waterbus services; the agency will also introduce a fleet of high-speed water taxis next October.
Read More