EU approves STX control of Norway's Aker Yards

South Korea's STX Shipbuilding won permission from the European Commission to take a controlling interest in Norway's Aker Yards in an $800 million acquisition.

STX bought a 39.2 percent stake in Aker Yards in October, making it the biggest shareholder. "After an in-depth investigation, launched in December 2007, the Commission concluded that effective competition on the shipbuilding markets would not be significantly impeded as a result of the proposed transaction," the Commission, executive arm of the European Union, said in a statement. Aker Yards builds cruise ships, ferries, merchant vessels and offshore vessels. It is one of the three main players on the global market for the construction of cruise ships, together with Fincantieri of Italy and Meyer Werft of Germany. STX builds various types of cargo vessels, such as container ships and gas tankers, the Commission said. Until now, it has not built cruise ships or ferries. The Commission said its in-depth investigation had focused on concerns that the proposed merger might in particular, remove STX as a potential new market entrant into a concentrated cruise ship manufacturing market. But "the Commission found that by itself STX was still far from close to becoming an effective competitive constraint on the existing cruise ship construction market", it said. Daewoo and Samsung are understood to be in advanced discussions with MSC Cruises and Royal Caribbean respectively to enter the cruise market, the last shipbuilding sector that the Europeans have not relinquished control to Asia yet.
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Al-Baraka wins Egypt ribbon

United Arab Emirates-based private player Dana Gas said its Al-Baraka well in southern Egypt had won a prize for “Best New Concept” from the Egyptian Petroleum Exploration Society.

The prize, for the well on the Komombo concession on the western bank of the Nile, was given at the society’s recent awards ceremony, Dana said. First oil from the well flowed in December last year, four months after the initial discovery. The company said in a statement that the award recognized its important discoveries in southern Egypt, which it said had boosted development of the area’s resources. “Southern Egypt is incredibly important to the country’s oil and gas industry,” said Hany Elsharkawi, Dana’s Egypt country director. “Dana Gas’s achievement in the area as the first to discover oil in commercial quantities in southern Egypt paves the way for discovery of more reserves,” he said. Dana, headquartered in the emirate of Sharjah, produced 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Egypt at the end of last year, it said, including flows from new discoveries in the Nile Delta. The company plans to drill 19 wells in Egypt in 2008, including 15 exploration wells and four development wells.
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Australia: Fellowship to boost marine ecosystem research

Australian research into how marine ecosystems are affected by a combination of environmental change, human activity and management decisions, received a boost recently with the award of a Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO) CEO's Science Leader Fellowship to marine scientist, Dr Beth Fulton.

The Fellowship recognizes Dr. Fulton's exceptional leadership of marine ecosystem modelling research at CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research in Hobart. It follows Dr Fulton's award last year of the Science Minister's Prize for Life Scientist of the Year part of the Prime Minister's Prizes for her world leading work and its influence on managing the impacts of fishing and understanding climate change. Dr Fulton's Atlantis computer model, the only one to give equal attention to the biophysical components of marine ecosystems, and the impacts and economic benefits of human use was rated the "world's best" model for strategic evaluation of marine fisheries management issues by the United Nations Food and Agriculture organization last year. Together with colleagues, Dr Fulton also developed InVitro ecosystem modelling software that allows users to explore the impacts and management of the myriad pressures exerted on marine and coastal environments by major industries such as tourism, mining, fishing and shipping.

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Greatship orders two MPSVs/ROV Support Vessels

Greatship (India) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Great Eastern Shipping ordered two construction support vessels on Colombo Dockyard for delivery in September 2010 and January 2011.

The state-of-the-art MPSVs/ROV Support Vessels are designed both for operating as advanced PSVs, with enhanced accommodation (50 pax), DP2 capability, as well as ROV Support Vessels, and are prepared for 50T Active Heave Compensated cranes, 50T A-frames and helidecks. GIL currently owns and operates three PSVs, two in India and one in the North Sea, and two AHTSV, one in India, and one in the Middle East. GIL and its subsidiaries also have an order book of sixteen vessels and one rig under construction - two PSVs in Norway, two AHTSVs in Sri Lanka, four AHTSVs in Batam, four MPSVs in Singapore, two MSVs in India, two MPSVs in Sri Lanka, and a premium 350 jack up rig in Singapore.

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Pacific Titan starts Tasmania sweep

Melbourne-based Bass Strait Oil said the survey vessel Pacific Titan had kicked off the first stage of the 1110-kilometre Targa survey on its permits T/42P and T/43P off Tasmania’s north coast.

Bass Strait holds a 100% stake in both permits, in the Durroon area of the Bass basin. The Targa survey is one of four being shot by the Pacific Titan in the Bass Strait as part of a multi-client sweep. Bass Strait said the vessel would shoot the first part of the survey before a port call, after which it would shoot another client’s survey before returning to the Targa sweep.
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New passenger/vehicle/container vessel design for Transport Desgagnés

Deltamarin has developed a new passenger/vehicle/container vessel design for the Canadian shipowner and cargo and tanker operator Transport Desgagnés to operate on the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Deltamarin's task was to develop a design capable to operate year-round in the harsh environment with high capacity and good ice-going capabilities and with excellent maneuverability in limited harbors. Limited main dimensions due to harbour restrictions led to a demanding design task, said a Deltamarin statement. A short and full hull was required with good performance and adequate course stability. The hull form incorporates a special type of bulbous bow for open water and ice operations, a streamlined bow to reduce wave making, smooth transition areas, and a long centre skeg in the aft of the ship to improve course stability. Two azimuthing propulsion units (Z-drives) and two bow thrusters will improve maneuverability for the vessel against heavy winds in narrow and congested routes and harbors.
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World's longest sea-bridge links Shanghai and Ningbo

China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge, linking Shanghai with the booming port city of Ningbo.

There are no cars yet but the world's longest cross-sea bridge is open. The cable-styled structure spans Hangzhou Bay and is 36 kilometres long. It will cut journey times between Shanghai and Ningbo from four to two and half hours. The bridge is China's first major public project to attract private finance - almost a third of the 1.7 billion dollars needed to build the structure came from the private sector.

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