Costa Cruises Invests $28m in Fleet

Costa Cruises, a tourism group based in Italy, announced that in the space of three months five Costa ships were dry-docked to carry out scheduled maintenance.

Costa Cruises has invested around $28m in this planned maintenance work. Operations were carried out on the Costa Serena, the Costa Europa, the Costa Atlantica (in Palermo), the Costa Romantica (in Genoa) and the Costa Concordia (in Trieste) from the end of October 2008 to the end of January 2009. In particular, the Costa Serena (114,500 gross tonnage and guest capacity of 3780), the company’s flagship, was the last Costa ship to be dry-docked from 28 January to 11 February 2009 in Fincantieri’s Palermo shipyard. Two of the key improvements being made on the Costa Serena are specific shipboard energy and fuel-saving measures. One involves the installation of special air conditioning regulators, a system already in use on the Costa Fortuna. These devices are designed to increase the efficiency of the air conditioning system in public areas. The airflow adjusts automatically according to the number of people in the room and based on the outside temperature. The other operation involves the application of a special ecological silicone-based coating that inhibits the growth of microorganisms on the hull’s surface without releasing toxic substances into the sea, thereby enhancing hydrodynamic performance while reducing environmental impact thanks to the subsequent decrease in fuel consumption.

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Sea-Cargo conducts upgrades and launches new service

Sea-Cargo, Norway, has launched a new twice-weekly service between Esbjerg and Amsterdam.

The company said that the service improvement was possible due to a major tonnage upgrade which included the introduction of a new 140-unit ro-ro vessel and the upgrade and lengthening of ‘Trans Carrier’, to increase the vessel’s capacity to over 100 trailers. The new large ro-ro vessel entered service on February 1, 2009.
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CNOOC investment climbs to $16.5bn

China offshore specialist China National Offshore Oil Company said it will increase total investments in this year to $16.5 billion, up 26% from last year, despite low prices that have forced some foreign firms to cut spending plans.

The company, parent of CNOOC Ltd, plans to produce 48.05 million tonnes (352.2 million barrels) of oil equivalent this year, 14% more than last year, general manager Fu Chengyu said. The targeted growth is sharply higher than its output gains in last year, when it produced 42.93 million tonnes (314.7 million barrels) of oil equivalent, 6% more than 2007. The company, an upstream producer, is expected to bring its first major refinery, the 240,000 barrels-per-day Huizhou plant, into operation early this year after months of delays. Most of CNOOC's key upstream assets are run by CNOOC Ltd., its listed arm.

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New diving support vessel delivered by Shipyard De Hoop

The ‘Don Amado’ is the first vessel of a series of three diving support vessels built by de Hoop Shipyard of Holland in collaboration with Oceanografia of Mexico.

The vessels are suitable for worldwide service in shallow and deepwater and will be engaged in construction and maintenance of offshore installations, surface and subsea crane operations, diving / ROV support, and standby-rescue activities. The low draft enables the vessel to enter very shallow offshore ports in Mexico. Above the waterline, the hull and superstructure are low-profile in order to reduce wind-forces as much a possible. The steelplated heli-deck is integrated in the vessel construction to reduce weight and cost and also to keep the helideck low, to reduce horizontal movements / accelerations as much as possible. The vessels are fitted with an environmental friendly diesel-electric propulsion plant. Four Caterpillar 3516B generators each rated at 1,825kW at 1,800rpm are fitted in the central engine room. The generators are connected to the main-switchboard, which is split in a port and starboard side for redundancy. A low tension system of 480 volts, was chosen in order to keep the cost down.

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HPH withdraws from Ecuador venture

Hong Kong: Hutchison Port Holdings said it will withdraw from an agreement to operate a port in Ecuador, because the nation's government unilaterally changed the terms of the pact.

The decision by Hutchison Port Holdings comes a month after Ecuador President Rafael Correa said his government might expel the company because it wasn't meeting a timetable for investments at Manta port. Hutchison signed a 30-year concession in 2006 for the modernization and operation of the port. The contract called for US$240 million in infrastructure investments, US$161 million in equipment and US$122 million for maintenance. Around 30% of the US$523 million investment was meant to be disbursed during the first six years. On January 7, the port authority of Manta said it gave Terminales Internacionales de Ecuador S.A., a 95%-owned unit of Hutchison, 90 days to fulfill its contract terms. Manta, which is a major city for Ecuador's tuna industry, is located in the westernmost part of Ecuador's Pacific coast.

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MSC Ships Deliver Military Cargo to Thailand

Two Military Sealift Command ships delivered hundreds of pieces of U.S. Marine Corps equipment and containerized supplies to Thai ports in late January as preparations ramped up for Exercise Cobra Gold 2009, the major multi-national exercise scheduled for Feb. 4 - 17 in Thailand.

Cobra Gold is a regularly scheduled joint and coalition multinational exercise hosted annually by the Kingdom of Thailand. Armed forces from Singapore, Japan, Indonesia and the United States are participating. Training will consist of computer-simulated command post exercise, field training exercises and humanitarian and civic assistance projects. USNS MAJ Stephen W. Pless, a U.S. government-owned ship used to preposition U.S. Marine Corps cargo at sea for rapid delivery ashore, offloaded 100 pieces of cargo in support of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force. Cargo included military assault vehicles, Humvees, trucks and other military vehicles, which were driven down the ship's massive stern ramp to the port of Laem Chabang. Prior to Pless' delivery, MV Cape Howe, a cargo ship under charter to MSC, delivered 248 pieces of rolling stock and 30 containers of supplies to Chuk Samet, Thailand, Jan. 23. A complex evolution, Pless' offload required close coordination between the ship's 28-person civilian crew who work for a private company under contract to MSC and Marines embarked on the ship.

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CMA CGM sells passenger arm of Moroccan subsidiary

French container group CMA CGM has reportedly sold off part of its Moroccan subsidiary, Comanav to a local Moroccan ferry operator, Comarit.

A mere 20 months after CMA CGM first acquired Comanav for US$272 million, it has now sold off the passenger arm of the company for US$102.6 million. Included in the sale were five ferries which operate services in Morocco, Italy and Spain. CMA CGM said it decided to sell the passenger arm so as to concentrate on developing the freight activities of Comanav

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