Attacks on large commercial vessels such as the Sirius Star, a Saudi oil supertanker that was released in January, almost two months after it was hijacked with a cargo of 2 million barrels of oil, have spurred premiums and demand for coverage. Piracy “is a pretty challenging piece of risk to underwrite,” Marcus Baker, head of marine insurance at Marsh in London, said in a telephone interview. “These pirates are attacking up to 700 miles off shore.” The European Union extended its anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia by a year last week, warning of a “serious threat” to ships in the sea corridor that handles a tenth of the world’s trade. Armed gangs have seized at least 29 merchant ships this year and carried out 114 attacks, more than in all of 2008, according to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “We had ships that were quoted at 0.05 percent on their value for a trip through the Gulf of Aden in the middle of last year, and we have had other ships recently quoted at 0.1 percent for the same trip,” Baker said.
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Friday, June 26, 2009
Somali Pirate Attacks Boost Shipping Insurance Rates
The cost of piracy insurance has increased as much as 20-fold after attacks on shipping off the Horn of Africa doubled in the first quarter, insurance broker Marsh said.
Petrobras, Vale Join Forces to Explore Offshore Brazil
Petrobras has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Vale S.A. which establishes the framework for a partnership to explore and produce oil and natural gas in part of BM-ES-22 concession, located off the northern coast of the state of Espírito Santo.
This concession is formed by ES-M-466, ES-M-468, ES-M-527 and ES-M-523 blocks, acquired by Petrobras at National Petroleum Agency (ANP) sixth bidding round. The blocks are situated at water depths of between one and two thousand meters and exploration is focused on the post-salt section. The object of the Memorandum is to establish the basis to negotiate the transfer of 25% working interest in the blocks ES-M 466, ES-M-468 and ES-M-527 to Vale and assure the exclusive right to Vale to acquire the participation of theses blocks during the tenor of the Memorandum. The final conditions of the negotiation have to be submitted for the approval of the ANP.
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Sailors Use Improved Navy Lighterage System
Sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion (ACB) 2 had the opportunity to test the Improved Navy Lighterage System (INLS) during the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) exercise June 15-21.
The JLOTS exercise was a test of the military's ability to move equipment and sustainment supplies to specific areas without the benefit of a fixed port facility. The exercise increased interoperability and improved military readiness by alleviating situational sustainment issues.INLS played a large role in the JLOTS mission by acting as a floating pier, or causeway system, which is comprised of powered and non-powered floating platforms.
New tug ‘Horcon’ for LNG terminal in Chile
The new LNG tug ‘Horcon’, delivered this week to Ultratug Santiago from the ASENAV shipyard, will be stationed at the new LNG terminal in Quintero, Chile.
With a length of 32.5 metres, a beam of eleven metres and a draught of 4.9 metres, the vessel achieves a 64-tonne bollard pull. The tug features a JonRie Series 250 LNG Escort Winch, with a 75-tonne line pull at a 20-metre/minute line speed. The winch also features a line date chart recorder, Scope indicator and three tension metres and a foot control for the winch.
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Yards fight for Great Offshore acquisition
Mumbai: Yesterday saw a large scale bidding war between two Indian shipyards kick off for the acquisition of Great Offshore.
Earlier this month, Bharati Shipyard (pictured) offered INR 344 (US$7.10) to acquire some 7.83 million shares of Great Offshore, or about a 20 percent interest. Bharati Shipyard already held over 5.53 million shares in Great Offshore. Yesterday, however, ABG Shipyard offered INR 375 (US$7.74) per share for about a 34 percent stake in Great Offshore. ABG already holds a small interest in Great Offshore.Yesterday’s offer prompted Bharati Shipyard Managing Director P.C. Kapoor to say, "We will be making another revised offer, the timing will be a few days hence, and what the price will be I cannot say right now."
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Shipbuilding - a challenge for the entire industry
What happens in the shipbuilding sector will play a fundamental role in shaping the fortunes of the wider shipping market for the next decade.
There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the state of world shipbuilding, but much of the commentary has been based on supposition, gut instinct or pure guesswork. There has been little rigorous assessment of the likely cancellation risk associated with the current bulging orderbook. Do commentators know the likely level of future shipbuilding demand, or the shipping demand that drives it? Do they know how many orders have been cancelled, and how many “cancelled” ships will be built anyway? Do they know what shipbuilding capacity really is? How much of today’s order slippage is the result of a planned slowdown in production and how much is a measure of shipyards’ over-optimism? Now, in a new 200-page report, Drewry Shipping Consultants analyses the facts and explodes some of the myths surrounding the future of this crucial sector. The lack of knowledge has led to some assessments that are cock-eyed or just plain wrong – sometimes dangerously so. But several things can be stated without equivocation.Read More
There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the state of world shipbuilding, but much of the commentary has been based on supposition, gut instinct or pure guesswork. There has been little rigorous assessment of the likely cancellation risk associated with the current bulging orderbook. Do commentators know the likely level of future shipbuilding demand, or the shipping demand that drives it? Do they know how many orders have been cancelled, and how many “cancelled” ships will be built anyway? Do they know what shipbuilding capacity really is? How much of today’s order slippage is the result of a planned slowdown in production and how much is a measure of shipyards’ over-optimism? Now, in a new 200-page report, Drewry Shipping Consultants analyses the facts and explodes some of the myths surrounding the future of this crucial sector. The lack of knowledge has led to some assessments that are cock-eyed or just plain wrong – sometimes dangerously so. But several things can be stated without equivocation.
Anadarko Strikes Oil at Samurai Prospect in Gulf of Mexico
Anadarko announced a Miocene discovery at the Samurai prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico in Green Canyon block 432.
The discovery well, located approximately 12 miles north of the Marco Polo platform, encountered more than 120 feet of net oil pay in several high-quality sands.” Samurai marks our third discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico this year," said Bob Daniels, Anadarko Sr. Vice President, Worldwide Exploration. "We are very pleased with the results of this initial well, which is located in close proximity to existing infrastructure, demonstrating the value of our hub-and-spoke approach. We look forward to drilling a sidetrack appraisal well within the next year. The continued success of our worldwide exploration program reinforces our expectations of discovering approximately 350 million BOE (barrels of oil equivalent) of net resources in 2009, which is a 50-percent increase from the expectations we communicated at our investor conference in March of this year."Read More
The discovery well, located approximately 12 miles north of the Marco Polo platform, encountered more than 120 feet of net oil pay in several high-quality sands.” Samurai marks our third discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico this year," said Bob Daniels, Anadarko Sr. Vice President, Worldwide Exploration. "We are very pleased with the results of this initial well, which is located in close proximity to existing infrastructure, demonstrating the value of our hub-and-spoke approach. We look forward to drilling a sidetrack appraisal well within the next year. The continued success of our worldwide exploration program reinforces our expectations of discovering approximately 350 million BOE (barrels of oil equivalent) of net resources in 2009, which is a 50-percent increase from the expectations we communicated at our investor conference in March of this year."
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