Databank News

The offshore and onshore reliability data project by Norwegian Petroleum Directorate(NPD), OREDA goes digital with new collaboration to improve accessibility and efficiency for oil and gas industry reliability data, said DNV GL.Vast amounts of offshore and onshore reliability data are to be made available through Veracity as OREDA provides access to their new and updated electronic version through the marketplace on DNV GL’s data platform.For almost 40 years now, the OREDA consortium formed by several oil and gas majors and supermajors with worldwide operations has been collecting and exchanging offshore and onshore reliability data, with the main aim of improving safety, increasing availability and reducing maintenance costs.

Capt Pradeep Chawla, Managing Director QHSE & Training, Anglo-Eastern Ship Management Ltd., delivered a theme address at the World Maritime Day symposium on "Shipping's future needs people: Is global maritime education and training on course?". Following is the Edited Abstract of his paper which discusses the strategies and efforts of a Ship Management company, to enhance competence of the seafarers through a comprehensive company training program. Competence is generally defined as ‘the ability to do something successfully or efficiently’. It is generally accepted that both knowledge and skill are required to be competent. IMO is the guardian of the maritime industry and has tirelessly worked since 1978 to bring about one common standard of training of the seafarers worldwide.

A new report looks at opportunities in the developing Sino-European offshore wind energy market. Offshore wind is the means of a reliable, intensive and abundant renewable energy. This relatively new source of electricity generation, which is capable to meet much of the populated coastal areas need for power around the world, has been also stimulating the development of marine economies with thousands of new jobs. Recently, offshore wind power has been widely viewed as a feasible way to transform economies from oil reliance to sustainable growth not only to meet government obligations in cutting emissions, but to provide the fundament for a new economic sector.

Turner Designs is providing in situ and Laboratory Fluorometers specifically configured to detect Crude Oil for tracking the Gulf Oil spill.  Equipment being deployed includes the C3 Submersible Fluorometer, as specified in the USCG SMART protocol; the Cyclops-7 Submersible Crude Oil sensor with the DataBank, our handheld datalogger; and the Trilogy Laboratory Fluorometer for discrete sampling on shipboard.  With our standard leadtime of 1-2 weeks, Turner Designs’ fluorometers can be deployed quickly to start providing valuable spill tracking information. www.turnerdesigns.com

On February 27, 2002, the Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) released November 2001 official U.S. foreign waterborne transportation statistics. Year-to-date figures through November 2001 show an increase in volume of 3 percent for imports and a 5 percent decrease in volume for exports over the same time period for 2000. The figures are all derived from the Waterborne Databank, detailed public U.S. foreign waterborne transportation cargo files, which are now available from MARAD.

The examination of metallic materials and failure analysis for the sectors of ship operation systems, civil engineering, plant technology and machinery will now also be offered in Hamburg by GLP, the testing laboratory of Germanischer Lloyd. To complement the branches in Mülheim, Herne and Stuttgart, the operating area of materials testing and failure analysis is being expanded into the North German region. The service spectrum of routine materials testing includes destructive and non-destructive tests, metallography, corrosion examinations, chemical analyses as well as investigations employing light-optical and scanning electron microscopy.