• Hellenic National Advisory Committee considers key shipping industry issues.

Lloyd’s Register’s Hellenic National Advisory Committee considers key industry issues for shipping’s future and welcomes Lloyd’s Register’s strategy to establish a new marine headquarters in Southampton to develop a centre of maritime excellence for world shipping.

• Offshore wind costs set to soar.

The construction of offshore wind farms is becoming more costly, creating further problems for the European Union in meeting its renewable energy target, reports the Financial Times.

• Saipem scores Angola, Egypt deals.

Saipem has been awarded two new offshore contracts in Egypt and Angola worth a total value of about US$600 million.

• Van Oord awarded Yamal dredging and trenching contract.

Van Oord has been awarded a dredging and trenching project on the Yamal Peninsula in Northern Russia.

• GulfMark Offshore to acquire Rigdon Marine.

GulfMark Offshore, Inc. reports that it has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Rigdon Marine Corporation (RMC), in a deal that values Rigdon at upwards of $550 million, based on yesterday’s $63.56 per share closing price for GulfMark stock.

In this video we travel to Minneapolis to witness the 37th annual Kemps Milk Carton Boat Races. Started as a publicity stunt by a local dairy, every year teams build and race boats made almost entirely out of empty milk cartons as part of Minneapolis’ annual summer Aquatennial. With pirate galleons, floating tea parties and cow-themed entries all barely afloat on Lake Calhoun, the event is the epitome of Midwestern summer fun.

via: Cool Hunting

• Revision of TOWCON.

The Sub-committee held its third meeting on the revision of BIMCO’s International Ocean Towage Agreements TOWCON and TOWHIRE on 15 May at the offices of ITC (International Transport Contractors Management BV) in Heemstede, The Netherlands.

• Trailing suction hopper dredger CRESTWAY: a boost for the Boskalis fleet.

The CRESTWAY is the second of two medium-sized 5,600m³ hoppers that Boskalis is having built. Her sister ship, the SHOREWAY, is currently under construction at IHC Beaver Dredgers in Sliedrecht, where she was launched on 17 April of this year.

• Med Marine plans fourth shipyard.

MED Marine Group is not daunted by increased competition in the Turkish shipbuilding and repair market and is planning its fourth yard. The R. Hakan Sen-led group specialises in towage, pilotage, salvage/wreck removal, escort, chartering as well as shipbuilding.

• Landfall and Neptune join forces to form new outfit.

LANDFALL Transport & Towage BV and Neptune Marine Services BV recently announced that they have joined forces to form a new company to undertake international deepsea towage and offshore services. The new Dutch International Towage Co BV will operate initially with the existing tug Soliman Reys as well as the Neptun 9 and Neptune Mariner.

• Boskalis CEO says bid for entire Smit group out of the question.

Royal Boskalis Westminster NV chief executive officer Peter Berdowski said Thursday a bid for the entire Smit Internationale NV company is currently out of the question.

• Florida’s offshore drilling policy is outdated.

The economic prosperity and national security of our country dictates that the distortions and false assertions about offshore oil and gas production be challenged.

• Petrobras to lease 146 vessels for E&P unit.

Brazil’s federal energy company Petrobras will order 146 vessels for its offshore exploration and production (E&P) operations over the next six years, company president José Sérgio Gabrielli said.

• Scottish & Southern Energy To Proceed With 504MW Wind Farm.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) confirmed Wednesday that it will proceed with its investment in the 504MW (megawatt) Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm and said construction work will begin shortly.

• Liftboat salvage starts.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, Aqua Survey, Inc. has contracted Delmarva Salvage Company in conjunction with Tow Boat US to conduct a salvage operation on the research vessel Russell W. Peterson, a liftboat that grounded yesterday near Bethany Beach, Del.

• Fishing Vessel Submerged at Pier.

The Coast Guard is overseeing the salvage of a 70-foot fishing vessel that sank at the pier in Oceanside, N.Y. on Monday.

• Jaya to expand yards on buoyant offshore demand.

Offshore shipping and shipbuilding group Jaya Holdings plans to expand its shipyards in Indonesia and China to ride on what it sees as continued strong demand in the offshore shipping sector.

• Offshore Wind: How Europe Plans to Meet Clean Energy Goals.

The E.U. is serious about getting clean energy on the grid. The European Parliament has set a 25% target for renewable energy by 2020. About half of that target is projected to come from wind energy. A new report, “Pure Power - Wind Energy Scenarios up to 2030,” put out by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), shows that this is a feasible scenario, given current trends in the field.

• Smit ups divisional growth targets over five-year period.

Smit Internationale NV said Wednesday it is raising its divisional growth targets for the next five years. For the Harbour Towage operations, Smit said it is now targeting 50 percent growth in net profit between 2008 and 2012, after it said the target set in 2005 for growth in net profit was amply exceeded last year.

© Luc van Braekel

Heavy Lift Vessel ‘Rambiz’ transporting concrete wind turbine foundations to Thornton Bank. During transport the concrete structure is partially submerged to make it “float” on the water to diminish the load on the crane.

More pictures and video can be found here.

International Marine Consultancy sources support crafts for offshore wind farm projects.

• Dredging industry battles manpower, vessel shortage.

India has just 60 professionals to navigate dredgers, specialized ships used for deepening ports, even as harbours need their services to receive bigger vessels so that shipowners, exporters and importers can chase economies of scale and achieve lower costs.

• Giant British wind farm plans blown away.

The Scottish government has rejected plans to build one of Europe’s biggest onshore wind farms due what it said was the “significant adverse impacts” on the local environment.

• European Commission investigating the New Flame sinking and salvage.

The vice-president of the European Transport Commission, Jacque Barrot, has called for the wreck of the half sunken ‘New Flame’ cargo boat be removed from the Gibraltar Bay as soon as possible. He noted that the operation was underway with the arrival of the specialist ‘Big Foot’ salvage vessel, and would take some three months to complete.

• Jan de Nul awarded contracts worth in excess of Euros 1 billion.

Jan De Nul Group has recently been awarded several contracts around the world which together are worth in excess of Euros 1 billion. The projects will be executed in markets such as Peru, Trinidad and Brazil.

• Dockwise wins US$18 million deals.

Dockwise Shipping, a subsidiary of Dockwise Ltd., won five contracts worth close to US$18 million.

• Les Abeilles crew call off national strike.

French tug crews have called off their planned national strike following a surprise decision by the port of Le Havre authority to suspend the operating licence of local Kotug subsidiary SNRH.

• Companies Turning to Seafloor in Advance of Next Great Metals Rush.

Nautilus Minerals and Neptune Minerals are betting that the next great metals rush will take place more than 1,500 m (5,000 ft) below the sea. Nautilus is the first company to commercially explore the ocean floor for gold and copper seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits. Its main focus is the Solwara 1 Project, a polymetallic copper, gold, zinc, silver deposit that is under 1,600 m (5,200 ft) of water off the coast of Papua New Guinea in the western Pacific Oceans’ Rim of Fire.