Limited Offshore

Expanded Offshore Drilling: Challenges Ahead

“You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.” • Yogi Berra Each rise in the price of oil and its companion hike in gasoline prices moves us further and further into uncharted territory.   What was once an academic argument over peak oil and how long our oil and gas would last is now front page news.   There is now a very public debate raging over whether new areas of 's coastline should be opened to exploration.  It seems likely that new areas will be leased.  But from there the crystal ball gets a little murky.  What areas might be opened and when? How long will it take to do the initial surveys of these undersea areas and what will we find?  For the workboat industry and its customers, this period of uncertainty will bring its own questions.  Can the existing fleet handle the potential expansion of offshore exploration or will the industry need to build more boats?   What kind of boats and how large?  Will they need to operate 30 miles off the coast of or 170 miles off the coast of ? To some extent that is putting the cart before the horse.  The ban on offshore drilling would have to be lifted for east coast states.  Significant surveying work must be done.  The Mineral Management Service would need to set up lease sales.  Offshore operators would need to develop their drilling plans

Atwood Oceanics Announces Vicksburg Contract

Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (a Houston based International Offshore Drilling Contractor) said that the VICKSBURG (owned and operated by its wholly owned subsidiary Atwood Oceanics Pacific Limited) has been awarded a two-year contract by Chevron Overseas Petroleum (Thailand) Limited ("Chevron") which will immediately follow Chevron's current eight (8) month drilling commitment offshore Cambodia. The VICKSBURG is presently working in Malaysia under drilling commitments with dayrates of $82,000 to $87

Keppel FELS Will Build TLP for Atlantia Offshore

Keppel FELS Limited (KFELS), the offshore arm of the Keppel Group, has secured a contract from Atlantia Offshore Limited to build a Tension Leg Platform (TLP) hull structure. The $22 million contract involves the construction of the hull structure of Atlantia’s Seastar TLP System, which supports a self-contained topside with full production, work over, utility and accommodation capabilities. The 84 feet diameter column hull structure, to be built in KFELS’ Pioneer Yard

Keppel Strengthens Safety with Leadership Training Initiative

Keppel Shipyard Limited, the shiprepair unit of Keppel Corporation Limited through its wholly owned subsidiary, Keppel Offshore & Marine Limited (Keppel O&M), has launched a Safety Leadership Program. Aimed at ensuring that safety practices are built into everyday work processes, this new program is the latest initiative by the yard to achieve an incident-free work environment. The program reinforces and promotes safe work behavior through effective observation and intervention by

Keppel Terminates MPU Heavy Lifter Project

Further to the announcement on 1 July 2008, Keppel Verolme BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore and Marine Limited, has decided, after evaluating all possible options, to terminate the MPU Heavy Lifter project and commence the scrapping process of the concrete hull. Keppel Verolme has secured the necessary rights and endorsements from third parties to dismantle and dispose of the concrete hull which has no commercial value

Offshore Systems Signs Contract with Royal Danish Navy

Offshore Systems Ltd. announced that it has secured a contract valued at approximately $750,000 with the Royal Danish Navy to provide an upgrade to their world leading ECPINS warship navigation software, in addition to a limited hardware upgrade. This will upgrade the Royal Danish Navy systems to the latest version of ECPINS and more significantly to a common software baseline across their Fleet and shore establishments.

Report: Deepwater Development Will Outpace Equipment Supply

The booming global deepwater oil industry is on course to outpace supply of offshore development hardware in the next two years, according to an analysts' report. "Deepwater construction capacity will be insufficient to handle anticipated demand requirements in 2002 and particularly 2003-04," said an oilfield and equipment services report by Schroder Salomon Smith Barney. "We believe a rush of field development plans will be sanctioned in 2001

Sea Jack Reserved for Thanet Offshore Wind Project

Thanet Offshore Wind Limited (TOW) has signed a Reservation Agreement with A2SEA A/S for the long term use of the vessel the SEA JACK for the main construction periods for the Thanet project. Starting in autumn 2008 the Sea Jack will be used to install the wind turbine foundations and will then continue with the erection of the turbines in the summer and autumn of 2009. Sea Jack was specifically built to service the growing offshore wind market

Goa Shipyard Hands Over India Naval OSPV

The first of the new 105 meter class of Naval Offshore Patrol Vessel to be commissioned  INS Saryu' handed over to the Indian Navy. The new vessel, indigenously designed in-house and built by Goa Shipyard Ltd. was handed over in a simple ceremony in Goa by RAdm (Retd) Vineet Bakhshi, Chairman & Managing Director, Goa Shipyard Limited to Cdr Amanpreet Singh, Commanding Officer Designate, INS SARYU. Cmde R. Sreenivas, Commodore Superintendent, NSRY (Port Blair), Shri R

Subsea South Africa ExxonMobile Exploration

Exxon Mobil Corporation affiliate ExxonMobil Exploration & Production South Africa Limited, soon to start search for oil & gas deposits. The Tugela South Exploration Right covers approximately 2.8 million acres offshore Durban on the east coast of South Africa with water depths extending from the coastline to approximately 6,500 feet. The future exploration rights cover an additional 16 million acres offshore with water depths extending from the coastline to approximately 9,800 feet