� International Marine Consultancy

� International Marine Consultancy

The company has been chosen to raise two trawlers which sank off Hook Head with the loss of seven men and work is due to get underway in October.

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey last week announced that Irish Diving Contractors Ltd. have been awarded the contract to raise the Pere Charles and the Maggie B.

The remains of Duncormick’s Pat Coady, Tom and Pat Hennessy, Billy O’Connor and Andriy Dyrin have never been recovered following the sinking of the Pere Charles two miles south east of Hook Head on January 10 last.

Glen Cott and his crewmate Jan Sankowski were lost when the Maggie B sank on March 29, 2006. It currently lies 50 metres below the surface around five miles south of Hook Head.

The successful company, Irish Diving Contractors Ltd, is based in Lusk, north Co. Dublin.

It is expected that the vessels, once raised, will be brought to Arklow, where they will be examined by surveyors of the Department of Transport,’ said a spokesperson for the Department of Transport.

Subject to suitable weather and sea conditions, the vessels are expected in Arklow in October,’ she added.

Junior Minister John Browne said that the raising of the vessels would take place as soon as possible, weather permitting. He said he hoped that it would bring some closure to the families involved following a very traumatic time in their lives.

We are all very conscious of recent tragedies in the fishing sector which have led to the tragic loss of lives at sea,’ said Transport Minister Noel Dempsey.

The safety of fishing vessels is a high priority for me and the raising of these two trawlers will allow us to learn if any further improvements are necessary in the specified standards for the seaworthiness of fishing vessels. We must do all we can to prevent similar tragedies in the future,’ he said.

The decision to raise the boats followed a campaign by the family members of the five men lost when the Pere Charles sank.

They commissioned reports from commercial divers and salvage consultants, which suggest the methods used to search the boat by naval divers, who used underwater cameras - as they did with the Maggie B - mean it is impossible to be absolutely sure there are no bodies on board.

source: Wexfordpeople

Tags : salvage, trawler

In September Siemens signed a reservation agreement with Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds Ltd. (GGOWL) for the construction of the world’s largest offshore wind farm off the British coast.

The agreement, by far the largest ever reached for offshore wind turbines, involves 140 Siemens 3.6-MW turbines for delivery in 2009 and 2010.

Once connected to the power grid, the Greater Gabbard Offshore wind farm, located 25 km off the coast of Suffolk in the Outer Thames estuary, will produce green electricity with a maximum capacity of more than 500 MW. It will be the first UK offshore wind farm to be built outside territorial waters and will provide power for more than 415,000 homes.

Since the acquisition of Danish wind-turbine manufacturer Bonus Energy at the end of 2004, the Siemens wind business has been growing rapidly. The total employee headcount of the Siemens Wind Division has quadrupled to more than 3,200 employees worldwide today. The number of its wind turbine installations has tripled since 2004. In 2007 Siemens expects to install 1,500 MW of new capacity worldwide, of which 200 MW will be offshore.

Offshore wind energy plays a key role in the Siemens strategy and the company can look back on many years of experience within this sector. In 1991, the first offshore wind farm in the world was installed by Siemens in Denmark. The 165 MW Nysted wind farm, erected by Siemens in the Baltic Sea in Denmark in 2003, is still the largest offshore wind farm in the world.

In the future the importance of offshore wind power will increase even more for Siemens. In 2007 alone, the company is realising two major offshore projects. In July, Siemens successfully completed installation of 25 wind turbines for the Burbo Offshore Wind Farm in Liverpool Bay. The turbines, with a capacity of 3.6 MW each, were erected in less than 1.5 months, well ahead of schedule. Commercial operation will commence at the end of the year.

The Burbo Offshore Wind Farm has a total capacity of 90 MW and will be operated by SeaScape Energy Ltd., a company owned by the Danish utility DONG energy A/S.

Burbo is the first offshore project using the Siemens SWT-3.6-107 turbine, the largest serial wind turbine available on the market for offshore applications.

The SWT-3.6-107 was specifically designed for offshore applications, but works equally well onshore. A rugged, conservative structural design, automatic lubrication systems with ample supplies, climate control of the internal environment, and a simple generator system without slip rings provide maximum reliability with long service intervals.

Power conversion is implemented with Siemens’ NetConverter system, ensuring compliance with all relevant grid codes and offering high flexibility in the turbine response to voltage and frequency control, fault ride-through and output adjustment.

The 52m blades are made of fibreglass-reinforced epoxy in Siemens’ proprietary IntergalBlade manufacturing process. In this process, the blades are cast in one piece, leaving no weak points at glue joints and providing optimum quality. Major components, such as the rotor hub, the main shaft, the gearbox and the yaw system are all of particularly heavy dimensions and the safety systems are fail-safe.

The installation of the Siemens 3.6-MW wind turbines at the Burbo Offshore Wind Farm was not only a technical but also a logistical challenge. For onshore operations, Siemens leased a 45,000 square-metre area in the Port of Mostyn, located in North Wales.

The 65 m high steel towers of the wind turbines were assembled upright and all internal and electrical systems were tested before they were loaded onto the installation vessel. The purpose-built vessel carried towers, nacelles, hubs and blades for three turbines per trip to the site area, which is located approximately 12kms from shore. At the site, each wind turbine was erected in five heavy lifts with a maximum weight of approximately 185 tons. The average erection time per turbine, weighing almost 500 tons each, was less than half a day.

The Burbo Wind Farm is the first in a series of offshore projects to be built by Siemens. In August, erection of 48 turbines of the SWT-2.3-93 type commenced offshore at Lillgrund near the Swedish city of Malm�. With a capacity of 110 MW, this will be the largest wind farm in Sweden. The Lillgrund project will be operated by the utility company Vattenfall.

In 2008, Siemens will start erection of the Lynn and Inner Dowsing Offshore Wind Farm on the East Coast of Great Britain. The project comprises 54 SWT-3.6-107 wind turbines and will have a maximum capacity of 180 MW. The wind farm will be operated by the British gas provider Centrica. Once finalised, the Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farm will be the largest offshore project in the world - until the Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm goes into operation two years later.

In 2009, Siemens will also install and commission 25 of its STW-3.6-107 type turbines for the Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm off the Welsh Coast. The customer is RWE npower plc, the UK arm of RWE AG.

source: Engineer Live

Tags: Siemens, Greater Gabbard, wind farm

� Someecards.com

Someecards.com has a great collection of funny ecards. Head on over there and surprise your boss, wife or friends.

In a statement issued by Vroon Offshore it was confirmed that the three crew members airlifted to Hull Royal Infirmary earlier this afternoon from the Viking Islay are dead.

Their families have been informed and Vroon Offshore Services can now confirm their details.

The able seamen were coxswains Finlay MacFadyen (46) from Aberdeen and Robert O’Brien (59) from Leven in Fife; and boatman Robert Ebertowski (40) from Gydnia, Poland.

The Viking Islay, a 53 metre The Viking Islay is an 1986 built Emergency Rescue and Response Vessels/ Safety Standby Vessels, was supporting the Ensco 92 drilling rig on BP’s Amethyst Field in the Southern North Sea when the accident occurred. She has now returned to port in Immingham where a full investigation will be carried out by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB).

Graham Philip, chief executive of Vroon Offshore Services Limited said: “This is a tragic incident which has shocked everyone at Vroon. Our heart-felt condolences go out to the family and friends of our colleagues and we are doing everything we can as an organisation to support them at this time.

“All three men were valued and dedicated seafarers and between them had over sixty years experience at sea.”

“The details of the incident are still to be established but it would appear that the men were undertaking an operation to secure an anchor chain in a storage area in the bow of the vessel.

“We are doing, and will continue to do, all we can to find out what happened. Our own investigation team has travelled to Immingham to work with the MAIB, the police and other relevant parties to carry out a full and transparent investigation.”

Vroon Offshore Services Limited is a UK company based in Aberdeen. It owns and operates 32 vessels ranging from purpose built cargo-carrying field support vessels to towing vessels and conventional emergency response and rescue vessels.

source: Vroon Offshore

Tags : Viking Islay, Vroon Offshore

© International Marine Consultancy

The hull of the Floating Production Unit ‘Petrobras 53′ (P-53) arrived off the coast of Rio Grande (state of Rio Grande do Sul) last September 4 and was berthed to the QUIP´s Quay (Port of Rio Grande) this Thursday (09/20). Hundreds of people, among whom Rio Grande and neighboring town residents, witnessed the vessel’s arrival. For safety reasons, the local power utility, the Companhia Estadual de Energia Elétrica (CEEE), interrupted power supply to the city of São José do Norte during the P-53’s passage under the aerial cables that supply the town.

The platform’s entrance in the port’s channel, initially scheduled for September 10, was postponed for a few days due to operational problems of tugs during the hull-towage arrangement maneuverability tests and, also, because of the adverse weather conditions in this region. Tugboat device and entrance procedure reassessment led to the addition of two more tugboats - brought from the Itajaí (Santa Catarina) and Paranaguá (Paraná) ports - to the formation. Tests and simulations done with this new 7-tugboat arrangement and new procedures guaranteed a smooth, successful operation, carried out in compliance with the Petrobras safety guidelines.

P-53’s capacity will include processing up to 180,000 (barrels of oil per day (bopd), a gas compression capability of 6 million cubic metre of per day and a water injection capability of 39,0000 cubic metre per day (cmpd).

The P-53’s hull left Singapore towards Brazil on July 2, and was towed by three tugboats. Before setting sail, the vessel had left the Keppel shipyard to undergo sea testing and to be prepared for transportation. After its arrival in Rio Grande, the modules built in Niterói (RJ), Rio Grande, and Singapore will be lifted and integrated to the platform.

The P-53 will be capable of producing 180,000 barrels of oil and six million cubic meters of gas per day, in addition to power generation of 92 megawatts. The platform will be installed at the Marlim Leste field, in the Campos Basin, in Rio de Janeiro, at a water depth of 1,080 meters.

The hull (ex-oil tanker Settebello) had been at the shipyard since March 2005, where it was converted and received the world’s biggest turret (tower that receives the flexible production, injection, and control lines and the mooring lines); engine and pump room systems; full paints scheme; structural reinforcements for production; facility, accommodation, and office modules; three lifeboat stations; a helideck (platform where helicopters land on the rig), the telecommunication tower; and the flare (gas burner).

Tags : Petrobras, P-35, Floating Production Unit

© International Marine Consultancy

The Economic Times of India reports that India’s largest dredging project is set to get underway at the Rewas Port, which is owned by Reliance group. The report said the size of the project is such that it will surpass even the Sethusamudram Canal project in volume.

Global bids are scheduled to be called next month for the project, which received environmental clearance in May this year.

“The current draft during the tidal window is about 4-5m, and otherwise it’s only 2.5m. To allow big ships to come into the port, we will be dredging to attain a draft of 14.5m in the first phase and 20m in the second,” said KV Natarajan, president, Rewas Ports Ltd.

The project will be even bigger project than Sethusamudram in terms of the quantity of material to be dredged - more than 120 million cubic metres of material will be dredged in the Amba River at Rewas.

The report said Reliance has “been in touch” with all of the world’s major dredging companies so that they can participate in the global tender when it is floated.

The successful bidder will have to start dredging operations in January 2008 and complete the work within 30 months, said the report.

source: Dredging News Online

Tags : Rewas Port, dredging, Sethusamudram

© International Marine Consultancy