D Processing Capability News

COVID-19 will continue to skew the floating production systems market for the coming 24 months, while buying power for a large portion of FPSO contracts will be centered in Brazil and Guyana/Suriname. These two areas are expected to account for more than 60% of the FPSO contracts awarded between 2021 and 2025.These are the findings shared in a recent floating production outlook report produced by International Maritime Associates (IMA) and World Energy Reports (WER).The 100+ page…

Tropical Storm Cindy is likely to hit the Gulf Coast near the Texas-Louisiana border on Wednesday night, threatening to bring flash floods from Texas to Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center. Cindy was located about 165 miles (265 km) south of Morgan City, Louisiana, early on Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of 60 miles (95 km) per hour, the NHC said. The storm was moving northwest at nearly 8 miles (13 km) per hour, and forecasters said they expected this motion to continue until it hits the coast.

Oil traders from Texas to Louisiana braced on Tuesday for supply disruptions as Tropical Storm Cindy, formed in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, threatened to hit refining and production centers with wind and rain later this week. Cindy was located about 265 miles (430 km) south of Morgan City, Louisiana with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles (75 km) per hour. It is expected to approach the coast of southwest Louisiana late Wednesday or Wednesday night, and move inland over western Louisiana and eastern Texas on Thursday, the NHC said. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the largest privately owned crude storage terminal in the United States…

The start of every year calls for time to reflect on the last. The offshore and marine industry can look back on 2016 as one of the most bruising in recent memory. The downturn has been tough and drawn out, with increased divestment, more stringent environmental regulations and a prolonged shipbuilding cycle that has resulted in overcapacity. However, challenges can be harnessed as a force for progress. The downcycle has pushed the industry to reshape its competitive landscape, probably a change that has been overdue.

GE and Maersk Drilling have partnered for a data analytic-driven pilot project that aims to increase Maersk’s drilling vessels’ productivity and reduce maintenance costs by up to 20 percent. The two companies have collaborated to deploy SeaStream Insight, GE’s latest innovation in marine asset performance management, powered by Predix. The pilot project will be carried out on one of Maersk Drilling’s XLE rigs and will last for 12 months. Currently, the project has reached its first milestone, with data collected from the rig currently being processed and analyzed online.

Pilots in the Port of Brisbane, one of Australia’s fastest growing container ports, are using the word “unmatched” when describing the performance of new navigational equipment from electronic navigation specialist Simrad, a brand within the Navico group. Installed during the recent refit of the pilot boat Amity, the equipment installations include an NSS12 evo2, 12-inch chart-plotter and multifunction display with GPS positioning, supported by a Simrad GS25 GPS antenna, as well as the recently-launched Simrad Halo 3ft Radar operating with the latest Pulse Compression technology.

HydroComp is releasing a major upgrade for its NavCad software tool, the company announced today. NavCad has been used for resistance and propulsion prediction for nearly three decades, and a "Premium Edition" is now available for users wanting a greater level of analytical capability. New features include a scripting (macro) API. This includes an easy-to-use scripting language that provides batch processing capability. Premium users will also be able to run NavCad from third-party software, including spreadsheets or simulation tools, as a calculation engine (i.e., coupled solver).

As the Panama Canal prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary, insurers are warning of the increased risks that will arise from its plan to double the cargo-carrying capacity of ships transiting one of the world’s most important waterways. In a new report entitled Panama Canal 100: Shipping Safety and Future Risks leading marine insurer, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) identifies that the value of insured goods transiting the canal zone may increase by more than $1 billion per day following completion of the Third Set of Locks Project…

Robert Allan Ltd. Naval Architects said it will soon multiply its Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computing power by a factor of six with the purchase of a new dedicated High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster. “Needless to say, this represents a major advancement in our processing capability,” said Bart Stock dill who heads the CFD group at Robert Allan Ltd. Indeed, the last four years has seen CFD’s role within the company evolve from basic flow and resistance predictions to highly sophisticated propeller analysis, wake wash studies and predictions for tug escort performance.

Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras moved to check years of missed targets, soaring costs and rising debt by scaling back near-term investments and setting a limit on long-term growth. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, cut its five-year investment outlook for the 2014-2018 period to $221 billion, 6.8 percent less than its previous 2013-2017 plan, after reporting a 19 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit late on Tuesday. The company said production would still more than double to 5.2 million barrels of oil and natural gas a day (bpd) in 2020…

Today, 319 oil/gas floating production units are now in service, on order or available for reuse on another field. FPSOs account for 65% of the existing systems, 74% of systems on order. Another 25 floating LNG processing systems are in service or on order. Liquefaction floaters account for 12%, regasification floaters 88%. No liquefaction floaters are yet in service – all three are on order. In addition, 101 floating storage units are in service, on order or available. The number of production units off field and available for redeployment continues to grow.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has completed core capability development of the Nationwide Automatic Identification System (AIS) and delivered it to the U.S. Coast Guard to begin formal government testing prior to deployment. Nationwide AIS will provide a more comprehensive view of vessels bound for and navigating within U.S. ports and waterways to improve efficiency, safety and security. Northrop Grumman developed the necessary shore-side communications, network and processing capability to ensure the effective exchange of AIS information. Nationwide AIS will field a network infrastructure that collects, stores, processes and disseminates AIS data.

The U.S. Coast Guard's Acquisition Directorate announced the award of a contract to Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corp. to deliver the core Nationwide Automatic Identification System data exchange capability. Under the contract, valued at about $12m, Northrop Grumman will provide the necessary shore-side communications, network and processing capability to ensure the effective exchange of Automatic Identification System information between AIS-equipped vessels, aircraft, aids to navigation and shore stations within all major U.S. ports, waterways and coastal zones as well as from AIS-equipped vessels bound for the U.S. The core data exchange capability consists of all the system components and functionality…