Ship Seizures Broaden Piracy Challenge

Two ship seizures in the Indian Ocean in recent days appear to indicate that pirates have broadened their focus beyond the heavily patrolled Gulf of Aden.

Pirates hijacked two chemical tankers: the Bahamian-flagged, Norwegian-owned vessel Bowasir March 25 and the Panamanian-flagged, Greek-owned Nipayia March 26, a Navy spokesman confirmed. Bowasir and its 23-member crew were operating more than 380 nautical miles southeast of Kismayo, Somalia. Nipayia and its 19 merchant mariners were pirated 490 nautical miles east of Mogadishu, the official said. The seizures were the farthest yet from the Gulf of Aden, where the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet and the international community stepped up patrols after piracy soared last year. "This appears to be a new round of attacks well off the east coast of Somalia vs. in the Gulf of Aden where we had seen the majority of attacks last year and in 2009 to date," the official said. The latest hijackings expand the pirates' operating area, creating what the official called "a monumental challenge" to those working to prevent piracy. "To put the challenge into geographic perspective, the area involved off the coast of Somalia and Kenya as well as the Gulf of Aden equals more than 1.1 million square miles," he said. "That is roughly four times the size of the U.S. state of Texas or the size of the Mediterranean and Red Seas combined."

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ExxonMobil cheers Bass Strait flows

ExxonMobil will next month celebrate 40 years of oil and gas production from the Bass Strait off the Australian state of Victoria.

It has been four decades since the first gas from Bass Strait was piped to homes and businesses in Melbourne via the company’s processing plant at Longford.Now, almost four billion barrels of crude and seven trillion cubic feet of natural gas have been produced since the first well was drilled in the Strait. “The future remains bright for ExxonMobil’s Bass Strait operations, its dedicated workforce and the Victorian community with the multi-billion dollar Kipper and Turrum projects set to begin in 2011,” the company said today.

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Ultra deepwater drilling rig named ‘Ensco 8501’

Keppel FELS Limited, Singapore, has named an ultra-deepwater semisubmersible ‘Ensco 8501’.

This is the second in a series of seven deepwater semis to be constructed by Keppel FELS for Ensco International Incorporated (Ensco), USA. ‘Ensco 8501’ will be chartered by Noble Energy (Noble) and Nexen Petroleum (Nexen). The first deepwater rig, ‘Ensco 8500’, was delivered in June 2008.‘Ensco 8501’ was named in the presence of Senior Minister of State (SMS) for National Development, Grace Fu, by Lanita C Weisinger, wife of Don Weisinger, Drilling Manager (Southern Region) at Noble Energy.“Despite the global financial turmoil and volatile oil prices, the long-term outlook for the oil and gas industry remains good, with sustained energy demand coming from both developed and emerging economies,” said SMS Fu. “For this reason, national and international oil companies are continuing with their exploration and production investments to boost future reserves. However, competition is expected to be very stiff. To thrive, offshore companies…have to stay focused on managing the market changes with flexible and innovative measures.”

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CSCL joins the fray in cutting capacity

Shanghai: China Shipping Container Lines Company will cut capacity for the first time this year as sea-cargo slows amid the global recession, Bloomberg reports.

China's second-biggest container carrier plans to reduce capacity by four per cent by returning leased vessels, Chairman Li Shaode said. The shipping line slumped to its first half-year loss since listing in 2004 in the second half as US and European consumers pared spending on Asian-made goods amid the recession. The company's expects sales this year to fall 15 per cent, it said in a Shanghai stock exchange statement Friday."2009 is a critical year," Li said. "Whether we can walk out from the bottom of this valley depends on the global economy and trade.”The company plans to raise rates from next month to pare losses, managing director Huang Xiaowen said.

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Aker to deliver work-over system for Kristin field

OSLO: Aker Solutions has been awarded a contract by StatoilHydro for the delivery of a complete work-over system for subsea trees at the high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) Kristin field in the Norwegian Sea.

The contract value is approximately NOK 330 million (US$48.64 million). The contract party is Aker Solutions subsidiary Aker Subsea AS.The work scope includes engineering, procurement, manufacturing and testing of a complete work-over intervention system, including tools. The system equipment will be engineered and manufactured out of Aker Solutions' facilities at Fornebu and Tranby, Norway. Deliveries of the equipment are scheduled to be finalized in May 2010.The contract is a call-off from the frame agreement signed between StatoilHydro and Aker Solutions in the third quarter of 2007. The delivery is for StatoilHydro's Kristin Tool Pool & Exploration and Production North unit. This is the third work-over system Aker Solutions will be delivering to StatoilHydro's Kristin field, which is a HP/HT field with temperatures up to 180 degrees Celsius and pressures up to 15,000 psi.

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