Dredger maneuvering from imc brokers on Vimeo.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Buildup of sand sinks Harbor ferry.

Tourists looking for a scenic shortcut between Westport and Ocean Shores this summer are out of luck. The buildup of sand and silt in the Ocean Shores Marina has caused the passenger ferry linking the two cities to close.

• Clipper Windpower to sell offshore wind turbine prototype to UK Crown Estate.

Clipper Windpower Plc has agreed to sell its prototype of the world’s largest offshore wind turbine to the UK Crown Estate as part of the United Kingdom government’s push to develop more offshore wind.

• German industry finds offshore wind energy targets unrealistic.

German utilities and wind turbine manufacturers have expressed concerns over the government’s offshore wind energy target capacity of 15,000MW by 2020, deeming it technologically and economically unrealistic.

• Dredger bottoms up for Lerwick Harbour.

Work will begin next week on the largest single capital project undertaken at Lerwick Harbour, with £12m being spent providing improved vessel access and deeper berths in the Shetland base.

• Tugboat company to invest €70m on new boats.

Rimorchiatori Malta Ltd has announced an investment of over €70 million on an expanded tugboat fleet in Malta.

• California – bill introduced re tug escort requirement.

A bill has been introduced in the California Assembly that would, if enacted into law, mandate use of tug escorts not only by tank ships and tank barges (as currently required), but also by vessels carrying hazardous materials.

• Van Oord reviews developments in key markets.

Dutch dredging contractor Van Oord says turnover from the market in The Netherlands in 2007 amounted to Euros 146 million.

• Technip Gets EU190 Million Offshore Canadian Order From Husky.

Technip SA, Europe’s second-largest oilfield-services provider, won a contract from Husky Energy Inc. for work on the Canadian oil company’s White Rose field off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

• Dredging International Awarded Expansion Contract to Dredge Pacific Sea Entrance.

Paving the way for construction, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) awarded the third and largest expansion contract Tuesday to dredge the Pacific sea entrance. The ACP kicked off this next phase of expansion awarding the contract to Dredging International.
The dredging of the Pacific sea entrance is essential to provide enough draft and width for longer, wider ships to pass and enter the new locks.

• E.ON submits plan for largest UK offshore wind farm.

E.ON, one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies, has submitted a planning application to build a £700 million offshore wind facility off the East Yorkshire coast – despite objections from the Ministry of Defence.

• Dredging Policy — Charting a wider course.

This policy, which revises the earlier guidelines, states that the ports may ensure that pre-qualification criteria are fixed in advance and that they should not be so stringent as to restrict entry of certain potential Indian bidders.

• Windfarm platform on its way to North Wales.

One of Europe’s largest construction vessels enters Welsh waters next week to work on npower renewables’ Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm.

• Foss Maritime Sells Selected Assets to Tidewater.

Foss Maritime Company announced today that it has agreed to sell selected assets, including two tugs and twenty barges currently operating on the Columbia Snake River system, to Vancouver, WA-based Tidewater Barge Lines.

• Major dredging project for Yangtze.

The mouth of Yangtze River will be dredged to a depth of 12.5 meters by next September to allow safe passage for about 30 percent more cargo ships, the project authority said Thursday morning.

• China to stop illegal sand dredging.

China will continue to combat the illegal dredging of the Yangtze River to protect the fragile banks of the world’s third longest river, a senior official has said.

• Boskalis, Rezayat to pursue Smit merger.

A consortium involving Royal Boskalis Westminster and Saudi group Rezayat said it would pursue a merger with the terminals division of Smit Internationale which rejected their $300 million offer.

• Great Offshore Sells AHTS ‘Malaviya Nine’.

Great Offshore Ltd has announced that the sale of vessel, “Malaviya Nine”, a 1983 built Anchor Handling Tug - Supply Vessel (AHTSV). With this sale, the current fleet of Offshore Vessels of the Company stands at 40.

• Van Oord starts work on Indonesian project.

Dutch dredging and marine contractor Van Oord reports that it has started dredging operations for the access channel to Banjarmassin on the island of Kalimantan, Indonesia.

• Work begins on E.ON’s wind farm.

E.ON has set up its base in the Port of Workington in preparation for the offshore wind farm it is generating nearby.

• Asia Pacific maritime show kicks off in Singapore.

The biennial Asia Pacific maritime show kicked off here Wednesday, featuring 841 exhibiting companies from 52 countries, 650 of which are from abroad.

• Hercules Offshore announces Saudi contracts.

US-based Hercules Offshore announced today it has signed contracts to provide Saudi Aramco with two jackup drilling rigs for three-year terms plus one-year fixed price options at the same rate. The Hercules 300 and Hercules 261, currently known as the High Island I and High Island VIII, respectively, will fulfill the contract commitments.

• Decision still to be made on whether to salvage abandoned yacht.

A decision is yet to be made on whether a delivery yacht abandoned at sea can be salvaged. The four crew on board the Air Apparence abandoned the yacht in rising seas 80 nautical miles off Kaipara Harbour.

• Salvage Or Sink: Alien Boat Lodged On Reef.

Authorities may opt to sink a boat that was found abandoned off Urunao yesterday. It appeared to have been deliberately run aground while some 10 illegal aliens made their way into Guam yesterday morning.

• ABB to transmit offshore wind for Germany.

The automation and power engineering major ABB will link offshore wind to Germany’s power grid. ABB will provide the technology to connect the self-proclaimed world’s largest offshore wind farm to the German power grid in a contract worth more than $400 million.