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Multraship Salvage has successfully refloated the Egyptian-flagged Al Shaymaa after the 5,744 gt, 1981-built general cargo vessel capsized in the southern Netherlands port of Moerdijk while discharging a cargo of steel coils. The vessel has now been safely redelivered to its owner.

Reports indicate that the vessel’s cargo started shifting during discharge, and Terneuzen-headquartered Multraship was engaged on a Lloyd’s Open Form of salvage agreement at around 0400hrs on August 14.

After the crew had been safely taken off, Multraship, working in co-operation with Belgian salvage specialist URS, discharged the Al Shaymaa’s remaining cargo of steel coils using mobile shore cranes, before ballasting the vessel and restoring it to an upright, stable position. The floating sheerlegs Amsterdam was stationed at the Al Shaymaa’s stern, and a double-strength salvage team comprising salvage officers, naval architects, divers, riggers and stevedores was on site throughout the operation, during which the salvage tugs Barracuda, Furie 3 and Zephyrus, all equipped with pumps and fire-fighting equipment, were on standby.

Multraship managing director Leendert Muller says, “Once again an incident with potentially serious consequences for both life and property has been attended swiftly and efficiently by professional salvors. These things often happen in the middle of the night, or in the early hours of the morning, but the salvage industry never sleeps. Also the good level of co-operation and communication between Multraship and the local port authorities was a factor in the success of the operation.”

source: Multraship

Tags: Multraship, salvage, Al Shaymaa

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A carefully rebuilt Viking ship, called the ‘Havhingsten fra Glendalough’ (”Sea Stallion from Glendalough”), arrived in Dublin last Tuesday after a 44-day journey from Roskilde, Denmark.

Up to 100.000 people had gathered at the quay, which was decorated with flags and banners, to welcome the ship and her 65 (!) crew members.

As their ancestors did centuries ago, todays crew could only rely on wind and muscle power to complete their six week journey.

The vessel is a Danish reconstruction of Skuldelev 2, one of the Skuldelev ships. The original ship was built around 1042 near Dublin. It was built at the shipyard of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde from 2000 to 2004.

On Friday, 17th August the National Museum of Ireland will open af big exhibition on the Vikings in Ireland in the Collins Barracks. The Sea Stallion is going to be a part of the exhibition.

source: De Tijd, Havhingsten fra Glendalough

Offshore workers were airlifted from a drilling rig in the North Sea following an engine fire.
A total of 32 of the 87 personnel were taken off the installation before the fire was brought under control on Tuesday night. No-one was injured.

The Ocean Guardian rig, which is owned by Diamond Offshore and has a potential drilling depth of 25,000ft, is located 120 miles north east of Aberdeen.

A spokesman for Diamond said the evacuation had been a precaution.
“We have had a fire in the engine room,” he said.
“As a precaution we began down-manning non-essential personnel.”

Damage assessment

The fire broke out at about 1900 BST on Tuesday.
The spokesman added: “The fire is out and there are no injuries, everyone is accounted for.
“There were two helicopters which lifted a total of 32 people off the rig, 19 were in one helicopter and 13 in the second.
“Fifty five people are still on board and the incident is at an end. We are in the process of assessing the damage.”
He said there was a fire suppression system in place which was activated when the fire broke out.

The Houston-based company described the Ocean Guardian as a semi-submersible drilling rig.

source: BBC NEWS

Tags : Diamond Offshore, Ocean Guardian, semisubmersible

SUBSEA 7 INC. announced today that it has been awarded a contract valued at upwards of US $ 80 million by BP Angola (Block 18) BV. The contract is for Life of Field support services in the Block 18 Greater Plutonio development.

Subsea 7 and its subsidiary Sevenseas Angola will be providing project management and engineering for the maintenance, repair and light construction work that is required in this deepwater field. The tie-ins of production flowlines and water injection lines to several Block 18 subsea wells are part of the work scope.

The 3 year contract which will start immediately, with an option for another 2 years, will also have Subsea 7 provide two Hercules ROV’s to work from BP’s deepwater support vessel. The two ROV’s are state of the art work class vehicles equipped with the latest tooling and inspection tools.

Jan Willem van der Graaf, Subsea 7’s Vice-President for the Africa region comments,

“In addition to our proven EPIC capability, it is a core part of Subsea 7’s strategy to provide our clients with long term maintenance and construction support during the operational phase of their fields. Subsea 7 has a proven track record in Life of Field type of business over many years in other parts of the globe. We are pleased that we can bring this expertise to the market in Africa. We look forward to working closely with our Angolan partners, BP Angola and all our subcontractors to make this project a success.”

source: subsea 7

Tags : subsea 7, ROV, Angola, Offshore

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The Finnish chartering and operations company Meriaura Oy Ltd will add into its fleet a new type of multipurpose deck cargo vessels ordered from a Polish shipyard, Remontowa S.A. The vessels are designed for especially heavy project cargoes on deck, and will be built according to the Finnish-Swedish ice class I A.

AURA (yard no. B 602/1), a new type of multipurpose deck cargo vessel, was launched on July 14, 2007 at Northern Shipyard, a member of Remontowa Group.

The main characteristics of the vessel are: length o.a. 101 m, beam 18.8 m, height 6.55 m and deadweight of 4600 tons. The operating speed is about 13 knots. The vessel is designed to carry heavy cargoes on deck and its main cargo will be to transport steel ship blocks for Aker Yards. Aker Yards and Meriaura Oy Ltd have signed a long-term transportation contract for transportation of the ship blocks.

In the design of the vessel concept special attention is paid to the overall safety and efficiency of the cargo transportation, the sea keeping performance and ice-going capabilities of the vessel. Transportation of ship blocks with this new type of vessel will considerably reduce the schedule risks due to weather and ice conditions. The capacity and flexibility of the new vessel concept will be much higher than with conventional barge transportations, and at the same time the transportation will be more economical. The sea fastening and securing of the ship blocks onto the deck will be carried out with specially designed equipment. The vessel concept includes several innovative and patented solutions.

The order holds a possibility of several additional vessels. The first vessel will be delivered in summer 2007 for Oy Gaiamare Ab, a part of the Meriaura Group. The investment budget is about 14 million Euros per vessel.

New type of multi-purpose vessel – the result of research, development and co-operation

The objective of Meriaura Oy Ltd is to become one of the leading transporters of heavy project cargoes around the Baltic Sea. Modern year-round tonnage for project cargo transports at the Baltic Sea and especially within the icy Finnish coast has never existed. With the development of this concept, the possibilities of transporting different kinds of specialised project cargoes around the Baltic Sea will be considerably increased.

The concept development has been made in co-operation with Aker Yards and with a network of Finnish maritime designers and suppliers. Among others Länsiviivain Oy, Foreship Oy, Wärtsilä Diesel, Rolls-Royce Aqua master and Bureau Veritas have been closely involved. The project has obtained R&D support from TEKES (the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation).
Design of the vessel enables a very flexible platform for different types of project cargoes, as well as conventional deck cargoes, e.g. timber or rock minerals. The deck of the vessel is strengthened for heavy cargoes. The concept offers also a version for oil recovery operations.

source: Meriaura Oy

Tags : heavy lift, Meriaura,Remontowa

The Government of Hong Kong says reconstruction of the seawall and dredging works at the southern side of the former Kai Tak Airport runway in Hong Kong are scheduled to begin in mid-2008 for completion by 2015 at the earliest.

The works, which will affect an area of about 86 hectares of foreshore and sea-bed at Victoria Harbour, involve:

- Demolishing the existing sea wall at the southern end of the former runway and rebuilding it within the existing land portion for the provision of new cruise-terminal berths.

- Dredging the foreshore and sea-bed at the southern side of the former Kai Tak Airport runway for safe berthing and manoeuvring of vessels.

The purpose of the project is to remove a section of existing seawall at the southern tip of the former runway of Kai Tak Airport to facilitate the construction of a quay deck structure for two berths in the future cruise terminal, and to dredge the seabed fronting the new quay to provide the necessary manoeuvring basin of adequate draught for cruise vessels.

A notice describing the extent of the area affected has been gazetted. The notice together with its related plan can be seen on notice boards posted near the site.

Editor’s note : On July 6, 1998, Kai Tak was finally retired as an airport. The new airport, Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok, took over HKG, Kai Tak’s IATA code.

source: Dredging News Online

Tags : Kai Tak, dredging

Great Offshore (GOL), Mumbai-based integrated offshore oilfield services company, has Norwegian oil rig company Scorpion Offshore on its radar for a complete buyout. The value of the proposed acquisition is estimated at between $500 million and $550 million. Motilal Oswal are advisors to GOL for the deal.

Scorpion Offshore, a US company listed in Norway, has five ultra-premium LeTourneau Super 116 jack-up rigs on order at Keppel AmFels, a Texas-based shipyard, and it has already taken delivery of one rig.

Great Offshore offers a broad spectrum of services to upstream oil and gas producers for E&P activities. The company has a fleet size of over 40 offshore vessels, including two exploratory rigs.

GOL Managing Director Vijay Sheth declined to comment on the proposed acquisition. Ashutosh Maheswari, head of investment banking, Motilal Oswal, also declined to comment.

Industry sources, however, pointed out that the company was yet to finalise a special funding pattern with leading banks for the acquisition. At a recent board meeting GOL had offered Exim Bank 15 lakh preference shares of Rs 1,000 each, optionally convertible into equity shares, at a price of Rs 875 a share.

According to industry sources negotiations for the acquisition were at an advanced stage.

Oil and gas exploration & production companies, among them Reliance Industries and ONGC, are facing a shortage of drilling rigs and rig construction yards are overbooked till 2011. Scorpion Offshore’s five rigs will, therefore, be a big asset for Great Offshore. Each rig can fetch $1,90,000 a day on a yearly contract. A five-year contract could get about $1,50,000 a day.

Meanwhile, the GOL scrip lost 2.57 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday, to close at Rs 794.30, from its previous close of Rs 815.25.

Great Offshore was formed by a demerger of Great Eastern Shipping Company’s offshore business. Leading rig services companies in the country include Aban Loyd, Greatship India (a subsidiary of GE Shipping), Mercator Lines and Jindal Offshore.

source: Business Standard

Tags : Great Offshore, Scorpion Offshore, oilfield, offshore

The planned merger of the two biggest offshore drillers of oil and gas has put a $15 billion spotlight on the massive back orders other companies in the sector have been generating.

Transocean Inc. and GlobalSantaFe Corp. said last month that they would form a single company, under the Transocean name, in a merger of equals. Shareholders will be paid $15 billion through a recapitalization that will reduce the size of their current stakes in the firms. The cash for the payment will come from a bridge loan from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Inc.

Analysts said the company can easily afford taking on the debt with its huge backlog of advance orders at a time of enormous growth in the oil services industry, raising the possibility that rival rig operators might also be poised to do something with their own mountains of back orders.

With “easy oil” on land increasingly tapped out or in the grip of national oil companies, international oil companies and some national firms are scrambling to find the next big fields offshore. To do it, they have hired virtually all of the world’s available rigs capable of drilling in water over 500 feet deep, at rapidly escalating prices. With new offshore provinces opening up everywhere from India to Brazil, producers are booking deepwater rigs years in advance.

In the combined Transocean, advance orders of $33 billion make it fairly simple to “monetize” the backlog by borrowing $15 billion to return to shareholders, said Roger Read, an analyst with Natexis Bleichroeder Inc. in Houston.

Backlogs are also approaching $10 billion at Noble Corp. and Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc., the next two largest drillers by market capitalization. Both Noble and Diamond are favored by analysts who see potential to convert those backlogs or cash accumulated in the past few years of heady profits into growth.

“Clearly, Noble is a company that wants to build; you have to think of them as acquisitive,” Read said. “But … it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they could be acquired as well.”

Noble officials have repeatedly come out against buying or selling to a rival but have left open the possibility of buying part of a competitor’s assets. “As we have said in the past, a leveraged recapitalization is not necessarily the best way for Noble to add value,” said spokesman John Breed. “Our superior execution and … margins are things we are doing today that we believe add that kind of value for our long-term shareholders.”

Industry observers agree that the drilling boom should extend at least through 2008 in shallower water and even longer for deepwater rigs. Some rigs are being booked into the next decade, offering increasing evidence that the good times will last well beyond 2009.

So Transocean, Noble and other drillers are putting much of their profits back into their fleets, either by upgrading assets to perform in more challenging environments or by building new rigs.

The latter approach has become so popular that Transocean and GlobalSantaFe merged in part to stay competitive in areas where they were losing ground.

Transocean, operator of the largest fleet of deepwater rigs by a wide margin, was falling behind in the market for shallow-water rigs, known as jackups. GlobalSantaFe, an international jackup powerhouse, owns a relatively small deepwater fleet.

Noble is building six rigs, including jackups and deepwater, while Diamond is building two jackups. Pride International Inc. is one notable new entrant into the premium offshore rig market, as it has taken steps to upgrade its deepwater fleet. The company announced this month that it will build or buy two new drillships, the type of rig capable of drilling in the deepest water, from a South Korean construction yard for delivery in 2010.

“They’re getting there,” Read said, adding that Pride “has a potential for committing a significant backlog that could then be monetized.”

But not everyone sees bigger as necessarily better. In a recent conference call with analysts, Diamond Offshore Chief Executive Larry Dickerson noted that everyone from Atwood Oceanics Inc., with 11 rigs, to the new Transocean, with 146, has recently found success. A merger therefore might not be mandatory to compete, he said.

“Certainly in this market, there’s such demand on the floating side for equipment that … a small competitor … does very well,” Dickerson said. “Everyone else does well. I think fewer participants, we’ve seen that in the past, leads to a more orderly bidding process, but ultimately the market does rule.”

Article by Brian Baskin | Dow Jones Newswires

Tags : offshore drilling, Transocean, GlobalSantaFe, Diamond Offshore Drilling