Çiçek Shipyard to Launch First of Four Tankers

The Turkish shipbuilder Çiçek Shipyard will launch the first of four 3,150 dwt chemical tankers that were originally under construction to the yard’s own account.

Subsequently sold to Maltese investors, the first is due for delivery in November 2008 while the remaining three ships will be delivered at four-monthly intervals in 2009. To be classed by Bureau Veritas and constructed to meet Ice B standards, they will be capable of worldwide trading, transporting oil products, chemicals (IMO type II) and vegetable, animal and fish oils. MarineLine coatings have been selected by Çiçek to give the ability to carry a wide range of cargoes while high manoeuvrability is guaranteed by the choice of twin azimuthing propellers and a bow thruster.

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Wartsila offshore designs for China and India

Helsinki: Wartsila Ship Design has received major orders from customers in China and India, including a Deepwater Engineering Survey Vessel design for China Oilfield Services Ltd.

This is a 105-metre, 4,300dwt vessel capable of drilling operating at deep water for geotechnical surveys and geophysical surveys: to date, most of China's oil exploration has been in relatively shallow waters, but there is now a need to probe deeper. In addition, the Chinese state-owned Shanghai Salvage Company has ordered a 123-metre Multi-Purpose Support Vessel design from Wärtsilä in order to carry out year-round tasks along the coastline of China. The key requirement is for multi-purpose flexibility since the vessel will be required to carry out a multitude of different operations, including salvage, offshore engineering services, diving and ROV operations, fire-fighting, anchor handling, ship supply, environmental protection, and route clearing. In India, a 110-metre, 4,500dwt Diving Support Vessel design has been ordered by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), and will provide a stable platform for saturation and air-diving operations. The Wärtsilä Ship Design unit was set up recently following the acquisitions of the ship design companies Vik-Sandvik and Schiffko. The latest acquisition, the Singaporean based Conan Wu & Associates will also be part of the Ship Design unit.

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GL snaffles contract for seven 13,100teu megaboxships

Hamburg: Hyundai Heavy Industries has awarded classification of seven 13,100teu seven ultra-large container vessels ordered by German shipowner MPC Capital to Germanischer Lloyd.

Mr. DY Han, Senior Executive Vice President of HHI and Member of GL's Korean Shipbuilding Committee, signed the contract with Dr Hermann J. Klein, Germanischer Lloyd's Member of the Executive Board, at the opening of the shipbuilding trade fair SMM in Hamburg. Steel cutting for the first vessel will begin in November 2010 at HHI's yard in Ulsan, Korea. With a construction time of nine months per vessel, the final ship will be delivered in June 2012.
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First oil strike for Philippines in 14 years

Australian independent Nido Petroleum and joint venture partner Kairiki Energy have shored up the presence of an oil column at the Yakal-1 well in the north-west Palawan basin off the Philippines.

This is the country’s first oil discovery in 14 years. Evaluation of wireline logs, pressure data and samples confirm an oil column to a minimum of 78 metres in height and maximum possible height of 93 metres in Service Contract 54. As well as the Yakal-1 and Tindalo-1, the next well on schedule, there are in excess of 20 additional prospects in the SC54 inboard area covered by 3D seismic data. Following the suspension of the Yakal-1 well for future re-entry, the WilBoss jack-up drilling rig will mobilize to the Tindalo-1 well site, about 5.5 kilometres to the north-east of Yakal-1, for the second well in the drilling campaign.
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Mitsubishi delivers 'Toyofuji Maru 2'

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan has recently delivered ‘Toyofuji Maru 2’, a car and general cargo carrier, to its owner Toyofuji Shipping.

The vessel measures 165 metres in length, 27.6 metres in beam, with a 6.5-metre draught and a depth of 24.15 metres. The 6,090DWT tonne vessel was delivered in late August and is driven by one 11,935kW Mistubishi-UE 7UEC52LSE running at 127rpm. ‘Toyofuji Maru 2’ has a cruising speed of 21 knots and can carry 2,003 cars and 22 crew. In the design stage of the vessel, special attention was paid to reduce environmental load. The newly developed hull form, high performance propeller with HVFC (Hub Vortex Free Cap) and the latest model of main engine (Mitsubishi-UE diesel engine) achieve good propulsive performance to save the fuel oil consumption and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore, the fuel conditioner enhances the complete combustion in the main engine, and the exhaust gas filters in the funnel prevent air pollution by the dust and/or mist.
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CMA CGM and FESCO establish new Baltic Sea feeder service

France’s CMA CGM and Russia’s FESCO have established a new, large volume, Baltic Sea feeder service between Hamburg, Germany, and St. Petersburg, Russia.

In the weekly service, two 1A ice-class ships are in use, the ‘Emotion’ with a capacity of 1,440TEU as well as the 1,730TEU, newly built ‘CMA CGM Volga’ (alias ‘FESCO Vitim’). The ‘CMA CGM Volga’, built by Polish shipbuilders Stocznia Szczecinska, is 184.7 metres long, 25.3 metres wide and has 250 connections for reefer containers. This makes ‘CMA CGM Volga’ the largest container ship that regularly calls at the Port of St. Petersburg. With a load-bearing capacity of 22,500 tonnes, the ship reaches a maximum draught of 9.9 metres and has a service speed of 19.7 knots. St. Petersburg is the largest Russian port on the Baltic Sea. In the past five years, container traffic between Hamburg and St. Petersburg increased fourfold. Container traffic achieved growth of 22 percent in 2007 and reached a volume of 730,000 TEU. On the average, there are 30 weekly departures in the direction of Russian Baltic Sea ports starting in Hamburg from 14 different feeder companies. The high departure density makes it possible for export loads to also be transported via Hamburg to Russia several times a day.
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