Angolan Coast News

Oliver Design will be showcasing some of its latest projects on its stand at the Navalia trade fair, which runs from May 22 to 24 , in Vigo, Spain.Recent projects from the Spanish firm, which specializes in naval design and architecture, include new state-of the-art vessels ranging from working vessels to luxury cruise ships. It has also carried out renovation on several existing vessels.The biannual Navalia is one of the top international fairs for the shipbuilding industry.

Two bodies, black box recovered from tanker before sinking; Iran says remaining 29 crew, passengers presumed dead. A stricken Iranian tanker that sank in the East China Sea on Sunday in the worst oil ship disaster in decades has produced a large oil slick, Chinese media and Japanese authorities said on Monday, as worries grew over damage to the marine ecosystem. The tanker Sanchi (IMO:9356608) had been adrift and ablaze after crashing into the freighter CF Crystal (IMO:9497050) on Jan. 6. Strong winds had pushed it away from the Chinese coast, where the incident happened, and into Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Japan Coast Guard said oil had spread over an area 13 km (8.1 miles) long and 11 km (6.8 miles) wide…

Strong winds, high waves and toxic gases are hindering dozens of rescue boats struggling to locate missing sailors from a stricken oil tanker in the East China Sea and to extinguish a fire that has burned for the past three days on the ship. The poor conditions, with rain and waves as high as 3 metres (10 feet), frustrated efforts to tame the fire and search for the 31 remaining tanker crew members, China's Ministry of Transport said in a statement on Tuesday. The flames were forcing the South Korean Coast Guard's search and rescue team to stay as far as 3 miles (4.8 km) away from the tanker, two South Korean officials told Reuters.

Body of crew member found on board; casualty might be worst tanker oil spill since 1991 and concerns grow that tanker may explode, sink. Rescue crews wrestled to bring a blaze on an Iranian oil tanker off China's east coast under control on Monday as fire raged for a second day following a collision with a grain ship, while the body of one of the 32 missing crew members was found on aboard. Concerns were growing that the tanker, which hit a freight ship on Saturday night in the East China Sea and burst into flames, may explode and sink, the official China Central Television (CCTV) said on Monday, citing experts on the rescue team. Poor weather continued to hamper the rescue work, Lu Kang, a spokesman at China's foreign ministry, told a regular news briefing.

Angolan state oil company Sonangol said it would buy oil and gas producer Cobalt International Energy Inc's 40 percent stake in two oil blocks offshore Angola for $1.75 billion.   Cobalt operates three blocks covering 3.4 million acres off the Angolan coast.     (Reporting by Anannya Pramanick; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Suspected pirate vessel off Angola. Dryad Maritime - a UK-based maritime intelligence firm - says situation has not changed since yesterday. Dryad Maritime is warning of the possible hijack of a Liberian flagged tanker MT Kerala. The vessel, owned by Dynacom Tankers, has been reported as missing off the coast of Angola, having last been sighted seven nautical miles NNW of Luanda. The tanker’s disappearance may represent a significant extension of maritime crime emanating from the Gulf of Guinea region, most probably from Nigerian criminal gangs.

All vessels coming from outside Angola must follow Angolan Executive Decree 12-05, article 10 regarding ballast water management. It appears to the Angolan authority that the relevant information has not been passed on to ships' master. ii. operations and the duration of the discharge. 2. The location of the sampling points. 3. The date when sediments were last cleaned. C) Proceed with exchanging ballast water at a distance of over 100 nautical miles from the Angolan coast.

The RWO Company is supplying a complete reverse osmosis plant for seawater desalination to the international oil and gas concern Total for its Girassol project. The Girassol, the world's biggest floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) ship, is stationed 150km off the coast of Angola in Block 17 of the oilfield. The Bremen company's desalination plant will be installed aboard the FPSO in the next few weeks and guarantee reliable and independent water supply. RWO, which specialises in water and wastewater treatment aboard ships and offshore platforms…

BP Plc reportedly posted a 53 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit as production rose, according to a Bloomberg report. Output rose for the first time since 2Q ‘05 because of new fields in Angola, Trinidad and the Gulf of Mexico. BP expects to raise extraction to more than 4 million BOE a day in 2009, which will rise to about 4.3 million barrels a day in 2012. BP in December started oil and gas exports from the Atlantis platform after a one-year delay. Pumping will reach plateau production, 200,000 barrels of oil and 180 million cubic feet of gas a day, by the end of 2008, the company said. It also plans to begin production at Thunder Horse by the end of 2008.

Dockwise has contracted SMIT Salvage to salvage the Mighty Servant 3. Dockwise has chosen Smit for their experience and the fact that they have equipment ready near the North Angolan coast where the vessel is resting at the sea bottom in approx. 203 ft. of water after it sank in December 2006. Over the last weeks SMIT Salvage already conducted a complete diving survey to investigate the situation and remove the vessel’s bunker oil and pollutants that were on board. Now all the bunker oil is removed, the salvage operation can start. The Mighty Servant 3 will be recovered with the aid of the sheerlegs cranebarge Taklift 7 and by pressurizing the various compartments with compressed air. The salvage operation will likely take a few weeks.