Recession catches up with Hellas' ports

The management of the country’s largest port in Piraeus has reasons to be wary of the port’s future, at least for the container handling Pier I, which will remain under the current management, even after Cosco’s assuming control of the remaining two piers.

Under the $1.1 billion deal due to start in November, Cosco will invest a further $300 million to expand the port's annual capacity to 3.7 million TEUs. In a recent speech towards dockworkers, the Port Authority’s CEO, Mr. Nikos Anastasopoulos highlighted the risks in stall, should the Union’s work stoppages continue. “I urge you to prove yourselves worthy of the circumstances, especially during this difficult period, by actively stopping any form of action and return to normal working rhythm, in order for the port to regain its credibility” he said, indicating that anything turning against OLP (Port Authority of Piraeus) ultimately is in favor of the “neighbor”, i.e. Cosco. His remarks came after the concession agreement was recently voted by the Parliament to become law, which according to Mr. Anastasopoulos is the best argument against any form of mobilizations.

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Petrovietnam to join Nicaragua in offshore oil search

HANOI: The Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) said it has signed an overall oil and gas cooperation agreement and a deal with Petroleum of Nicaragua, or Petronic, to jointly assess some oil fields located offshore Nicaragua.

Once reserves are discovered, the two companies will negotiate and sign oil production contracts, PetroVietnam said. The inked agreement is an important foundation for the two sides to step up bilateral cooperation in energy, particularly in oil and gas, and other related services, the group added. PetroVietnam has pursued a strategy to explore investment opportunities in America, where it already signed a number of oil and gas contracts with its partners from Cuba, Venezuela and Peru.

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StatoilHydro finds more oil near Vigdis

STAVANGER, NORWAY: StatoilHydro has struck oil during the drilling of an exploration well and a sidetrack north of the Vigdis East field in the North Sea offshore Norway in production license 089.

The proven recoverable resources are estimated at about 25 million barrels of oil. The well confirmed the existence of a 919-foot (280-m) oil column in rocks with good reservoir properties. The discovery will be developed towards either the Tordis or Vigdis fields.The exploration well, 34/7-34, was drilled into the Vigdis North-East prospect, located 1.9 miles (3 km) south of the Snorre field. The purpose of the well was to confirm the existence of hydrocarbons in Lower Jurassic reservoir rocks belonging to the Statfjord group. The purpose of the sidetrack, 34/7-34 A, was to get a better overview of the resource potential.While operating in 958 feet (292 m) of water, Dolphin Drilling semisubmersible Borgland Dolphin drilled well 34/7-34 to a total vertical depth of 8,760 feet (2,670 m) and the sidetrack to a total depth of 8,898 feet (2,712 m). Both well trajectories were completed in Upper Triassic rocks belonging to the Lunde formation. Data acquisition and sampling took place during the drilling operation and now the well will be permanently plugged and abandoned. Borgland Dolphin will continue operations in production license 089 drilling well 34/7-G 4 H.

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Iron ore pricing delayed

Negotiations on the annual benchmark prices for iron ore imports are not likely to conclude before April 1, when a new annual agreement usually comes into effect, according to analysts.

Ma Tao, analyst, Bohai Securities said talks between miners and Chinese steelmakers might drag on for a longer time than last year as negotiations are more complicated this year. Last year the agreement was inked in June with steel makers accepting a record increase of 96.5 percent."Neither side is in a hurry. Suppliers are waiting for demand to recover in the second quarter, while the Chinese side is seeking lower prices," he said.As the world's largest iron ore consumer China expects to have a bigger say in its negotiations with the three major suppliers, Rio Tinto, BHP and Vale, amid the global economic downturn.Baosteel, which is leading the negotiations, is asking for an over 40 percent cut in iron ore prices this year, which will be the first drop in seven years. Some analysts have even forecast a decline of up to 50 percent.However, suppliers are in no mood to accept such a price even though they admit that iron ore prices are "certain to fall" this year due to declining industrial activities. Sam Walsh, head of Rio's iron ore division, was quoted by Reuters yesterday as saying that forecasts for a price cut of as much as 50 percent were too steep given a brightening demand outlook and indications from the spot ore market.Rio, the world's second largest iron ore producer, is reportedly postponing the negotiations with Chinese mills claiming "markets are volatile and it's difficult to see what a steady state means at the moment".

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Thales signs submarine partnering agreement

Thales UK's naval business has signed a submarine Performance Partnering Arrangement (PPA) with BAE Systems.

This arrangement will see both companies cooperate on future submarine programs. The aim of both parties is that the PPA will significantly contribute to providing an affordable and sustainable common combat system across the UK's submarine flotilla.Under the PPA, Thales will be the preferred contractor for submarine sonar work in support of BAE Systems' submarine build and combat system design work. This will include providing sonar functional integration services for BAE Systems. Thales will also continue to be a key contributor to the combat system Design Evolution Team managed by BAE Systems on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence.

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ExxonMobil criticized on single-hull tankers

On the twentieth anniversary of the ExxonValdez disaster in Alaska, ExxonMobil is drawing fire for continuing to use single-hulled tankers to transport crude.

After 79% of the world supertanker fleet has been replaced by craft with two hulls, ExxonMobil remains the biggest Western user of the older designs, though companies in Asia still use them almost exclusively. But ExxonMobil hired more of the tankers last year than the rest of the 10 biggest companies by market value combined, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ExxonMobil has kept using tankers with one hull even as 151 countries have decided two are better than one for preventing oil spills and pledged to ban single-hull vessels by 2015. UK supermajor BP says it won’t hire them because of the risk of leaking. On 6 March, a tanker BP hired, the double-hull SKS Satilla, struck the Ensco 74 jack-up 65 miles from Galveston, Texas, which had been lost during Hurricane Ike. The incident, which caused “multiple punctures” along a 60-metre (197-foot) by 12-metre section of the ship, didn’t leak any oil, Coast Guard spokesman Tim Tilghman said.

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LM500 Gas Turbines for Republic of Korea Navy

GE Marine reports that it will supply Samsung Techwin, Republic of Korea (ROK), with LM500 gas turbines to power PK(X) patrol boats to be built as part of phase two of this ROK Navy fast patrol boat program.

The first PK(X) Yoon Young-ha has already been launched at Hanjin Heavy Industries’ Busan, ROK shipyard.“We are delighted that the ROK Navy selected LM500 propulsion system commonality for the next PK(X) patrol boats,” said Brien Bolsinger, general manager, GE Marine, Evendale, Ohio. Each of the PK(X) patrol boats will use LM500 gas turbines, rated at approximately 5,600 shaft horsepower, in a Combined diesel and gas turbine (CODAG) arrangement, with diesel engines. Samsung Techwin, a GE Marine System Supplier, will provide the shipyard with the LM500 propulsion modules. In addition, GE will provide ongoing support to Samsung Techwin, the shipyard, and the ROK Navy throughout installation, sea trials, and commissioning. A third and final production run of PK(X) vessels is currently under study by the ROK Navy.

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