India May OK Rig Holiday for Oil Cos Next Week

India is likely to give more time to oil and gas exploration companies for drilling in their deepwater blocks as a shortage of rigs has delayed production schedules, an oil ministry official said Friday.

"The drilling moratorium issue is likely to come up in the next Cabinet meeting," the official told reporters.The government has been considering a rig holiday as the companies haven't been able to adhere to the timeline written into their production sharing contracts with the government, mainly due to a shortage of rigs.The extension is expected to give companies such as Oil & Natural Gas Corp., Reliance Industries Ltd. and Italy's ENI SpA three more years to develop some of the blocks they have been awarded under the government's new exploration licensing policy.

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Topaz Launches Crew Boat, Kanoo 40

Topaz Energy and Marine Ltd. through its subsidiary Nico Craft has launched a 98.4 ft crew boat named Kanoo 40 for Kanoo Shipping.

The crew boat was designed by Technicraft, New Zealand and all the engineering and construction work was undertaken by Nico Craft in Fujairah. Nico Craft forms a part of Topaz Engineering, the newly formed engineering division of Topaz Energy and Marine. Kanoo 40 is a medium speed catamaran vessel designed to service vessels within a distance of 50 nautical miles from port. The boat is constructed using welded seawater resistant aluminium alloy and the hull is a semi-planning type. The Kanoo 40 has a moulded beam of 32.8 ft and a draught of 3.9 ft.The crew boat has a deck cargo capacity of 376.7 sq ft and can carry a crew of 5 and upto 35 passengers at a speed of 27 knots. The vessel has been built under the Bureau Veritas Certification.

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CPC to ramp up supertanker ownership

Taipei: Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) of Taiwan is planning boosting its VLCC fleet dramatically.

The energy giant is in talks with both Chinese Maritime and U-Ming Marine Transport about a joint venture which could initially order seven 300,000-dwt VLCCs and one 80,000-dwt tanker. CPC wants to build up a 35-strong VLCC fleet eventually.

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The world is swimming in oil

Oil tankers are anchored off the Dutch coast, unable to deliver their cargo to the port of Rotterdam because its oil facilities are filled to capacity, but also because it is more profitable.

Last Friday, a total of eight supertankers - very large crude carriers (VLCC) – had anchored off the Dutch coast, half of them fully loaded. Each of them can carry up to 2 million barrels of crude oil, enough to fill up 6 million small cars. These supertankers could reach the port of Rotterdam, Europe's biggest oil refining and trade centre, in less than an hour. But they don't. There just isn't enough room, says Jeroen Kortsmit, commercial manager at Royal Dirkzwager, a maritime advisory company. "The port of Rotterdam is filled to capacity." Rotterdam is being flooded with crude oil, which has become superfluous because of the economic slowdown. The port can normally hold up to 12.8 million cubic metres of crude oil. That's 80 million barrels, or enough to supply all 27 member states of the European Union for five days. Now the Rotterdam port is full and companies active in oil shortage, like Vopak, Oiltanking and Eurotank, are doing good business these days.

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