Starts Work News

BIMCO has established a subcommittee to work on a global standard contract for the transport and installation of offshore wind turbines. The project has been launched to support the offshore wind industry as the global demand for more renewable sources of energy increases.Work on the contract, WINDSEACON, was initiated through a series of consultations with about 65 key market players. Following consultation, a dedicated subcommittee and a large sounding board composed of a broad…

When asked about the top issues facing shipbuilders, executives at the Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA) listed a number of topics and concerns. SCA is the only national trade association representing U.S. shipyards engaged in the building and repairing of military and other government and commercial vessels, and companies providing goods and services to the shipbuilding industry.Shutdowns have consequencesMatthew Paxton and Paula Zorensky are, respectively, SCA President and Vice President. Their top federal concern at the end of September? A U.S.

Dubai's Drydocks World has begun work on a part of a turret mooring system for Jotun FPSO, for Bluewater Energy, with the end client being Var Energi in Norway.Namely, Drydocks said Wednesday it had held a steel-cutting ceremony to mark the start of production of the turntable project for the FPSO.According to the company, this turntable is part of a Turret Mooring System (TMS) for the Jotun A FPSO, which will be permanently moored and operated at the Balder field in the Norwegian Sector of the North Sea.The turntable is 24 meters in diameter and 10 meters high, weighing around 925 tons.

The steel cutting ceremony of the seventh ship which Fincantieri is building for Viking took place  at the shipyard in Ancona, Italy.The new unit, whose delivery is scheduled in 2021, will be placed in the small cruise ship segment. As its sister ships, she will have a gross tonnage of about 47,800 tons, 465 cabins with accommodation for 930 passengers.The first of the series, “Viking Star”, has been built at the shipyard in Marghera and delivered in 2015. The other units, “Viking Sea”…

As the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 71) concluded  on last Friday, the Clean Arctic Alliance welcomed the support from Member States for a proposal to identify measures which will mitigate the risks posed by the use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in Arctic waters, and called on the IMO to work towards a swift conclusion of the work. The proposal, Measures to Reduce Risks of Use and Carriage of Heavy Fuel Oil as Fuel by Ships in Arctic Waters was proposed by Canada, Finland, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway and the US, and supported this week by the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Poland, Singapore, Spain and Sweden.

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division officially started fabrication of the Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) destroyer Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123) on Wednesday. The start of fabrication signifies that the first 100 tons of steel have been cut. “Starting fabrication on another destroyer is a great way to start the year,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias said. “Ingalls has delivered 29 of these ships to the U.S. Navy, and our hot production line continues to improve the construction process. The ship is named in honor of Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee, the first woman to receive the Navy Cross. Higbee joined the U.S.

International engineering and project management consultancy firm Royal HaskoningDHV is leading a multi-disciplinary team in developing a sustainable coastal protection strategy to reduce flood risks for the cities of Tacloban and adjacent Palo in the Philippines. Tacloban is an important strategic location for the prosperity of the Philippines. It is a regional trading hub and a centre for commerce, industry and education. Until Typhoon Haiyan struck in 2013, Tacloban was the fastest growing city in the Philippines, with a daily population of 1.2 million. The typhoon killed thousands of people and brought devastation on a massive scale to homes, businesses and infrastructure. Even for a typhoon unusually hard winds of up to 378 km/hr and storm surges of 4-6 m high battered the area.

Tanzania started construction work on a $10 billion port and special economic zone on Friday, a project backed by China and Oman that aims to transform the East African country into a regional trade and transport hub. The port, which will be Tanzania's biggest, is being built at Bagamoyo, 75 km (47 miles) north of Dar es Salaam - the commercial capital that is currently the site of the country's main port, which is operating beyond its capacity with limited space for expansion. President Jakaya Kikwete attended a groundbreaking ceremony and said construction of phase I of the project would take three years. "The construction of the Bagamoyo port and a special economic zone is aimed at realising the government's goal of bringing about an industrial revolution in Tanzania," he said.

Severn Offshore Services announced that its new vessel Severn Provider has commenced operations in the German sector of the North Sea. The 26-meter Damen Twin Axe crew transfer vessel Severn Provider was recently christened at Damen Shipyards, Gorinchem and mobilized immediately to her first job earlier this month. She is now transporting personnel and equipment to and from the Meerwind Offshore Wind Farm. Managing Director of Severn Offshore Services, Ryan Hopkins, explained…

General Dynamics NASSCO signaled the start of construction of a third "ECO" tanker to be built for American Petroleum Tankers at a steel cutting ceremony at NASSCO's San Diego-based shipyard. As part of a five-tanker contract, the new ECO tankers solidify a mutual commitment between General Dynamics NASSCO and American Petroleum Tankers to design, build and operate innovative and increased energy efficient and fuel-saving products. Each of the five 50,000 deadweight ton product carriers to be constructed by NASSCO will be LNG-conversion ready and will carry 330,000 barrels of cargo. With a specialized ECO design, the tankers are more energy efficient and incorporate environmental protection features, including a Ballast Water Treatment System. "This is an exciting time in the U.S.

Leading ship supplier Hutton’s Group says it has strengthened its Aberdeen logistics team with the appointment of a new Branch Manager, Kirstene Wilson, who starts work at the firm’s Sinclair Road depot, having completed a week’s induction training at Hutton’s head office in Hull. Hutton’s Managing Director Alex Taylor said: “I am pleased to welcome Kirstene to the Hutton’s Group and believe her knowledge of the Aberdeen shipping sector will be a great asset to our busy branch, which specialises particularly in supplying the growing offshore industry.” The Company adds that Ms Wilson brings to her new role years of experience in both the retail, wholesale and logistics sectors, having worked previously for Makro and Strachan’s.

Maps of Indian and Japanese ports paper the walls of a Dominion Resources Inc conference room in a small Maryland town, population 1,835, known more for crabbing and bird watching than global trade and the U.S. natural gas revolution. Dominion, an American energy company long focused on U.S. markets, hopes to begin an expansion worth billions of dollars at its Cove Point complex on Chesapeake Bay later this year. As part of the plan, compressors fired by a new power plant would cool gas to -260 degrees F (-162 C) until it becomes the hot global commodity known as liquefied natural gas, or LNG. But if environmentalists, including a group that has led the charge against TransCanada Corp's long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline, get their way, Dominion won't soon be shipping anything anywhere.

CTruk has utilized the performance statistics and operational feedback gained during its composite SWATH workboat CWind Astute’s first year at sea to fine tune the design for the next build. The Brightlingsea yard has recently started work on a 20m SWATH OWSV for Dungeness-based Technical Marine Support and CWind under the latter’s boat share scheme. The use of waterjets is the main difference on the new SWATH (small waterplane area twin hull) workboat. Rolls-Royce Kamewa FF41…

TGS has commenced acquisition of a 3D multi-client survey, Sunfish, which covers up to 7,800 km2 of highly prospective acreage in the Harper Basin, offshore Liberia. "This survey provides excellent data coverage for the source prone, syn-rift and early post-rift sequences, in this highly prospective area offshore Liberia. TGS has been active in acquiring data over the West Africa Transform margin for the past decade and this survey demonstrates TGS' ongoing commitment to grow the seismic data library in Africa," commented Stein Ove Isaksen, Senior VP Eastern Hemisphere for TGS. TGS has chartered the 12 streamer Polarcus Asima for this survey. The charter will last for approximately six months.

Calecore opened office in Stavanger, Norway. The office is located on the quayside in the city centre with many of Calecore´s Oil and Gas clients within easy walking distance. In addition to serving as a meeting facility for clients, the office will also serve the crucial role of local presence to further strengthen Calecore´s position in the Norwegian market and involvement in the push towards the Barents Sea and the Arctic. “After completing a number of highly successful Norwegian contracts in 2012…

Gary Thirkettle starts work with Calecore. Calecore is pleased to announce the appointment of Gary Thirkettle as Sales Manager. Gary, who read Geophysics and Mathematics at Reading, also holds an MBA, has over 20 years of Management and Senior Management success in the offshore Sector. The appointment comes after three years of growth and operations on five continents; and further underwrites our commitment to our clients and operations outside of EMEA. “I am excited to be joining…

Huntington Ingalls Industries starts work on the 29th 'Arleigh Burke'-class destroyer to be built at its Ingalls Shipbuilding Division. The start of fabrication milestone signifies that 100 tons of steel have been cut for DDG 113. Ingalls uses state-of-the-art robotic cutting machines to ensure the steel is cut and fabricated to exact Navy specifications. John Finn is expected to be delivered to the Navy in the third quarter of 2016. Ingalls also has a contract to build a 30th destroyer, Ralph Johnson (DDG 114), with start of fabrication scheduled for 2013.

Chevron Corporation announced that the Pacific Santa Ana, a deepwater drillship built to Chevron's specifications, has arrived in the Gulf of Mexico to work for Chevron under a five-year contract with a subsidiary of Pacific Drilling S.A. It is the first drillship designed with the capacity to perform dual gradient drilling (DGD). Unlike conventional deepwater drilling, which uses a single drilling fluid weight in the borehole, dual gradient drilling employs two weights of drilling fluid – one above the seabed, another below. This allows drillers to more closely match the pressures presented by nature and effectively eliminates water depth as a consideration in well design.

In extending its adherence to delivering cost-efficient and safety driven technologies, DNV has introduced a new means of quickly and accurately determining steel thickness can speed ship surveys. It is especially valuable in inspecting old and corroded steelwork. Present-day methods, based on ultrasonic thickness measurements, are said to have dubious reliability on heavily corroded plates, and for large vessels are also considered too slow. The basic technological challenge was to transmit 100 percent of the signal energy through corroded steel plates, and receive and interpret the reflected signal to give an accurate thickness measurement. The basic principles of the new measuring method (half-wave resonance) have been known for 40 years.

Emissions control and alternative fuels will be among the headline topics at Interferry’s 36th annual conference – providing a high-profile platform for the trade association’s newly appointed specialist on maritime policy and regulations. The conference takes place in Barcelona from October 3-6, just a month after Stena group director of sustainability Johan Roos starts work as Interferry’s executive director of European Union and IMO affairs. Up to 300 top-rank delegates are…

Tony Allen has taken over the management of the North of England P&I club's successful Greek office. He replaces Mike Salthouse, who set up the office three years ago and has now returned to the club's headquarters in Newcastle upon Tyne, England as a Greek area director. Allen (42) started work in the Greek office last year. He formerly worked in Piraeus on P&I and FD&D matters with international maritime law firm Norton Rose before moving to the North of England in 1998, becoming involved with a wide range of P&I issues including container operations, cargo claims and oil pollution matters. He originally trained in the insurance and marine law litigation department of London law firm Simmons and Simmons.

Coflexip Stena Offshore reported that its new deepwater pipelay and subsea construction vessel, the CSO Deep Blue, has commenced operations for the Williams Banjo/Seahawk project in the Gulf of Mexico after successful completion of her first mobilization at CSO's new spoolbase in Mobile, Ala. The vessel is to install the Boomvang and Nansen fields deepwater export pipelines. The CSO Deep Blue is to undertake the installation contract of the export pipelines from the Boomvang and Nansen fields, located in 3,600 ft. (1,100 m) water depth in the East Breaks blocks 643 and 602, to a platform located in 365 ft. (110 m) water depth in the Galveston area, block 244.

Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) has begun work on the first of two steel landing craft being built for the Royal Bahrain Naval Forces. The contract for the 137.8 ft vessels was won against stiff competition from international shipyards, further confirming ADSB’s position as the region’s leading provider of support services to GCC navies. It is ADSB’s first new building contract for Bahrain and also includes two 62.5 ft Sea keeper landing craft constructed in composite materials.