• Eitzen Maritime Services to acquire Dubai-based Seven Seas for $115 million.

Eitzen Maritime Services said it has agreed to acquire Dubai-based ship supply firm Seven Seas for $115 million.

• Australia Gets 2.5 Million Square Kilometers of New Offshore Rights.

Anyone still wondering what all the fuss is surrounding Canada’s bid to gain new seabed territory in the Arctic Ocean should look to Australia, where the country’s government is predicting a possible oil and gas “bonanza” after being granted a 2.5-million-square-kilometre expansion of its offshore jurisdiction.

• Salvage Operations Commence after Barge Accident in Kentucky.

The Coast Guard says salvage operations are to start after two barges carrying iron ore sank in the Ohio River near downtown Louisville, Ky.

• StatoilHydro to build first full scale offshore floating wind turbine.

StatoilHydro has decided to build the world’s first full scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, and test it over a two-year period offshore Karmøy. The The company is investing approximately 400 million NOK. Planned startup is autumn 2009.

• Huge boost for offshore wind power.

The Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) has announced plans for a huge increase in offshore wind power. Up to 7,000 new turbines could be built by 2020, producing up to 25 gigawatts of electricity.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

more information on the farshore windfarm on the Thornton Bank can be found at the C-Power website.

• Site for offshore windfarm study is Hurd’s Bank.

The site under study for the installation of offshore wind farms is Hurd’s Bank, The Malta Independent has learned.

• Offshore Runner vessel launched.

The ‘Offshore Runner’ vessel for Raj Shipping Agencies Ltd, Mumbai was successfully launched on February 11 at Dempo Shipbuilding and Engineering Pvt Ltd, Old Goa.

• Swire Pacific orders eight AHTS’s from Qingdao.

Swire Pacific Offshore Holdings Limited (SPO) has signed an agreement with Qingdao Qianjin Shipyard, Qingdao, to build eight new “P” Class Anchor Handling Tug Supply vessels (AHTS) for delivery in 2010 and 2011.