Latvia coast guard begins evacuation of stranded cruise ship

Latvia's coast guard started evacuating a stranded cruise ship with nearly 1,000 people on board after tug boats failed to pull the luxury liner off an underwater sand bank in the Baltic Sea.

The 651 passengers, most of them elderly Germans, were being transferred from the Mona Lisa onto two naval ships, which would take them to Ventspils, a port city in northeastern Latvia, the coast guard said. The passengers were descending ladders from the liner to the naval ship, it said. Rescuers also planned to remove most of the 327 crew members and six crew interns from the ship, which ran aground early on Sunday about 17 kilometres off Latvia's coast. "The operation is proceeding smoothly and the passengers are fine," coast guard officer Ruslans Kulesovs told, adding that the weather conditions were "nearly perfect." Officials could not say how long the evacuation would take, nor could they specify how many crew would remain on board the Bahamas-registered vessel. The Mona Lisa's captain agreed to evacuate the ship after unsuccessful efforts to free it from the sand bank. The 201-metre-long Mona Lisa was on its way from Kiel, Germany, to Riga with 984 people on board when it ran aground, officials said.
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Eni makes significant discovery off Angola

Eni has made an important oil discovery in deepwater Block 15/06 offshore Angola.

Drilled by Transocean semi M.G. Hulme Jr. in 4,265 feet (1,299 m) of water to a total depth of 10,967 feet (3,343 m), the Sangos 1 exploration well encountered an oil mineralization column 417 feet (127 m) high, within sands from the Miocenic Age with high permeability. According to Milan-based Eni, field dimensions and results are better than estimated. During production tests, the well produced excellent quality oil (over 30 API degrees) in greater quantities than expected. Sangos 1 is the first exploration well drilled in Block 15/06. Eni is operator with 35 percent working interest. Sonangol E&P is the licensee.
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GE to Power Offshore Platform Supply Vessels

GE Marine announces that it will supply IML Power, Lomagna, Italy, with eight V228 medium-speed diesel engines.

The 16-cylinder engines will power four new, UT755L-type offshore platform supply vessels. IML Power is an authorized distributor of GE diesel engines and services in Italy. The vessels will be constructed by Rosetti Marino S.p.A. at its shipyard in Ravenna, Italy, for owner Fratelli D’Amato Via dei Fiorentini, Napoli, Italy. Each of the four new ships will be powered by two 16V228 engines, each rated at 2790 kilowatts (kW) at 955 rpm. The engines will be manufactured at GE’s state-of-the-art Grove City, Pa., facility. The engines will be configured to operate in compliance with Engine International Air Pollution Prevention certification. GE will deliver engines from July 2009 through June 2010. Installation, commissioning and operation will follow approximately eight months after engine delivery.
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Germanischer Lloyd unveils CO2-index

Germanischer Lloyd has launched a prototype CO2-index, based on MEPC/Circ.471.

The index is available for all GL classed ships. Each ship owner and management company can check the complete survey status of their GL-classed fleet. The CO2 emission will be measured on the basis of installed power, consumed fuel and transported cargo. Computed index values can be compared to other ships' indices and eventually be used to minimize emissions from transport. The CO2-index tool by GL can be used to record fuel consumption, transported cargo and distance between two consecutive ports. With carbon emission factors specified by IMO, the CO2-index is calculated for each voyage and later averaged for a still to be defined period (a year might be practical). At the end of the period, a GL surveyor will check the recorded data and eventually issues a certified CO2-index on behalf of a flag state, which is then valid for the next period. If data for more than one vessel is entered into the online tool a comparison of CO2-indices across a fleet is possible. With certified CO2-index values becoming public, the transport industry can actively further minimize emissions. Ships with a low index will transport more cargo and improve their index even further.

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Bollinger: Building Around Inflation

With steel prices jumping by the week it has become increasingly difficult for shipyards to do effective costing in a contact to build a vessel that will take several months or even a year to build.

At Bollinger Shipyard’s Lockport facility they have just delivered Slap Shot, number eight of Rigdons diesel electric series. The next two are well along and will deliver shortly. Although yards are busy and demand for OSV type vessels is high, the next series of boats that Bollinger is undertaking will be built on spec. Usually the sign of slowing times in the industry, these spec boats are building for quite a different reason. With steel prices rising weekly, Bollinger's Robert Socha explained recently, it is virtually impossible to predict what it will cost to build a vessel at the outset of the project. So this set of spec boats will not be sold until they are nearly completed and the materials cost are firmed. The company has two designs under construction. A Gulf of Mexico class 193x40x15-foot DP1 OSV and a full internationally classed SOLAS DP2 210x56x18 OSV. Both vessels will use all Cummins Tier 2 engines. The two 193-footers will have a pair of Cummins KTA50 mains rated 1600 HP each at 1800 RPM and turning 78x66-inch propellers through Twin Disc MGX5600 gears with 5.76:1 ratios. A Tier 2 Cummins QSK19 engine will power the single 600 hp Schottel bow thruster for the DP1 boat. Two Tier 2 Cummins QSM11 engines will power a pair of 250 kW generators and an additional QSK19 will power the Crane Demming fire pump for the 1,900 GPM Stang monitor. The six 210-foot vessels will be powered by a pair of Tier 2 Cummins QSK60 engines rated 2000 hp at 180 RPM and turning 80x72-inch propellers through Twin Disc MG5600 gears with 5.76:1 ratios.

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