Pride of America $4.1 million refit completed

BAE completes drydocking of largest civil ship to use Pearl Harbor.

BAE Systems has successfully completed a $4.1 million two-week drydocking of NCL America’s (NCLA’s) Pride of America cruise ship May 9 at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. The work, which began on April 26, is an important step in generating ship refurbishment and maintenance work in Hawaii. Pearl Harbor Naval Ship Yard entered into a “Private-Public Partnership” agreement with BAE Systems Hawaii Shipyards and NCLA to utilize the Navy’s facilities at Pearl Harbor to drydock the 921 foot-long, 81,000-ton ship, the largest private ship ever to be docked at Pearl Harbor. The Pride of America returned to service May 10 with a seven-day Hawaii itinerary. “With the shipyard capacity at Pearl, and our central location, it makes sense for Hawaii to take a larger role in repairing both military and civilian ships,” said Roger Kubischta, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems Hawaii Shipyards. BAE Systems Hawaii Shipyards is a business area of BAE Systems Ship Repair, the United States’ leading non-nuclear ship repair, modernization and conversion company. BAE Systems is also a member of the Ship Repair Association of Hawaii, which represents 800 personnel in the local marine industry. BAE Systems has more than 800 employees across a number of locations, making it the largest aerospace / defense contractor, and private sector ship repair company in Hawaii.

Read More

Thailand and Myanmar ink agreement to jointly develop deepsea port

Foreign ministers of Thailand and Myanmar have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop Myanmar's Tavoy deepsea port and related infrastructure projects designed for facilitating goods transport from Europe and the Middle East in Singapore.

The MoU was signed by Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama and his Myanmar counterpart Nyan Win on the sidelines of a special meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Mr. Noppadon told after the signing of the MoU that both countries would help develop Tavoy deepsea port, construct a 130-kilometre road from the port to Thailand and develop other related projects. Upon completion, the port would facilitate goods transportation from Europe and the Middle East to Thailand's Laem Chabang port and cargoes could be easily transported to Laos and southern China from there. Transportation could be reduced by more than 10 days, according to the Thai foreign minister. The project fits very well with the West-East Economic Corridor, Mr. Noppadon explained, adding that China is also interested in building a dual rail track with trains traveling at a speed of nearly 200 kilometres per hour. The site construction survey is expected to be completed by the end of this year and construction is expected to take about six years, he added. Terminal giant DP World is also reportedly eyeing a port concession in the far south of Thailand.

Read More

Petrobras new sub-salt oil discovery

Brazilian state player Petrobras has confirmed the presence of oil in pre-salt reservoirs on Block BM-S-8 in the Santos basin.

Petrobras said in a statement that a formation test had proved the presence of oil in well 1-PRSA-532A-SPS. The company said preliminary analyses shows oil gravity to be between 25 and 28 API grade, comparable to that of the other pre-salt oils found in the Santos basin. The well, the first on the block, lies in 2139 metres of water about 250 kilometres off Brazil's Sao Paulo state. The well was drilled to total depth of about 6773 metres, tapping oil accumulations at about 6000 metres. Petrobras is operator of block BM-S-8 while Shell holds a 20% stake and Portugal's Galp Energia holds a 14% stake. The consortium was preparing an evaluation of the find to be presented to Brazilian energy regulator ANP, Petrobras said. However, the company provided no reserves estimates. It is not clear whether the find, and other recent sub-salt discoveries in the so-called Sugarloaf region, are part of a single structure. The new oilfield is close to Petrobras's giant Tupi find of last year, estimated at between 5 billion and 10 billion barrels, and one of the biggest oil discoveries in the last 20 years.
Read More

The largest ship built so far in Taiwan, ‘YM Uberty', successfully launched on May 9.

The ship will join its owner, Yang Ming Line's service, on the Europe-Asia route. The launching ceremony was held at Kaohsiung Shipyard. At 333.2 metres long and 42.8 metres wide, ‘Uberty' is able to carry 8,240TEU. The ship took a year to build, about three months earlier than scheduled. The contract price was US$100 million and is the first in a nine-vessel series.
Read More

Largest Taiwan-made ship launched

The largest ship built so far in Taiwan, ‘YM Uberty', successfully launched on May 9.

The ship will join its owner, Yang Ming Line's service, on the Europe-Asia route. The launching ceremony was held at Kaohsiung Shipyard. At 333.2 metres long and 42.8 metres wide, ‘Uberty' is able to carry 8,240TEU. The ship took a year to build, about three months earlier than scheduled. The contract price was US$100 million and is the first in a nine-vessel series.
Read More

Maersk Line enhances the Europe to Middle East service

Denmark's Maersk Line has announced plans to enhance its ME3 service between Europe and the Middle East.

Maersk Line will phase in larger ships on the service, substituting the present 5,500TEU vessels with 6,250TEU vessels. The upgrade will commence on June 7, 2008 with the ‘Maersk Kensington' departing from Algeciras. The phase-in period is scheduled over four weeks. To further improve the schedule reliability of the ME3 service, an additional vessel will be added in order to provide sufficient buffering in the schedule for operational contingencies. The port rotation remains the same, except for the addition of a call at Tangiers, Morocco.
Read More