E J Hebert News

U.S. shipbuilding company Vigor has selected ABB to supply the hybrid-electric propulsion and energy storage systems for the newest additions to the Washington State Ferry fleet, setting the largest U.S. ferry system on course to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fuel use.The new Olympic Class ferries, each with a capacity of 144 cars and 1,500 passengers, with the planned addition of charging capability at terminals, would reduce fuel consumption by up to 95%. Upon delivery in 2024…

Subsea services company Canyon Offshore said it has entered into an agreement with vessel owner Otto Candies for the charter of the Jones Act-compliant inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) vessel Ross Candies.The charter will commence in July 2019 upon completion of a previously scheduled regulatory dry dock. Canyon, the robotics division of Helix Energy Solutions Group, said it expects the vessel to support IMR operations for clients operating in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.Jeremiah Hebert…

Captain Pat Folan outlines the way forward, especially for the smaller towboat firms. It’s not rocket science, but it does involve common sense. July 20, 2018 came and went, and we are all still here – mostly. The reality of Sub M has begun to sink in and for some it signals the end of a business and career. The AWO RCP members, oil movers and early adopters are going to make it. But for some of the ‘Mom & Pops,’ this is looking like a bridge too far.And some of this group are the ones that needed to be weeded out.

The Coast Guard is warning mariners to use caution and avoid the North and South Boston Main Channels after a barge carrying construction equipment capsized and possibly sank Sunday night approximately two miles southeast of Nahant.The captain of tug boat Big Jake notified the Coast Guard at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Sunday that two of five barges they were towing had broken free and were adrift. Crew members from Coast Guard Station Point Allerton and Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo responded to the scene along with the tug boats Smith Predator, Justice, and Kendall J. Hebert.While Big Jake was being escorted to Hull two more barges broke free bringing the total number of adrift barges to four.The three tug boats each located a barge and brought them to safe havens.

There is more to SubM than just attention to safety. Protect yourself accordingly. In today’s environment, safety management systems for brown water marine operators are standard industry practice, whether they come in the form of the American Waterways Operators (AWO) Responsible Carrier Program (RCP) or the Tanker Safety Management Assessment (TSMA) framework developed by the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) for liquid carriers. However, with the full-fledged implementation of Subchapter M on the horizon…

When industry players say “the handwriting is on the wall,” they aren’t just talking about the pending Subchapter M regulations, but also about the already existing demand for safety management systems (SMS) in general for the domestic towing industry. While the U.S. Coast Guard and Homeland Security work to finalize Subchapter M requirements, operators are already finding it harder to win bids without some level of a Towing Safety Management System (TSMS) and ensuing proof of compliance. The oil majors, Mexico and many clients already insist on adherence to safety standards, and in some cases they are aggressively conducting their own audits of contractors and reminding them to use JSAs. That has spurred companies like McAllister Towing and Transportation Co., Inc.

The perennial “Year of Subchapter M” has been kicked forward again, this time to February 2016. That means that the clock is now ticking loudly for those towing operations that have yet to climb onboard the safety train. Quality operators see standardized safety practices as a way of leveling the playing field, integral to maintaining the health and profitability of their fleets, and key to winning business from quality customers. Subchapter M will be a phased-in over a period of years. It’s not as much time as you think.

A former minister in President Nicolas Maduro's government denied in an interview published on Friday accusations of corruption during the purchase of three ferries from Spain and said he was being hounded for denouncing currency crimes. Local media said an arrest warrant was issued earlier this month for Hebert Garcia, a general who served as transportation and food minister for Maduro, on charges of embezzlement in the 50 million euro ($54 million) purchase in 2013. Maduro, elected to replace the late Hugo Chavez two years ago, has vowed this week to step up a crackdown on corruption, be it from opponents or within his ruling Socialist Party. But foes accuse him of protecting the worst offenders.

Chet Morrison Contractors has developed a subsea cutter that they say offers improvement over existing technologies. SHARC (Subsea Hydraulic Abrasive Rotating Cutter) was developed to make subsea P&A work safer for divers by eliminating the need for hand jetting and reducing the time divers spend under water performing. In addition, the manufacturer claims that SHARC reduces overall job time by 60 percent and can be deployed by Chet Morrison’s 240-foot, four-point DSV Joanne Morrison, thus avoiding the higher cost of larger spreads.

Braemar Seascope said it is strengthening its ship broking activities by opening a new division within the group’s Houston offices focusing on the large crude and products tanker trades. The new operation will launch following the employment of four tanker brokers: Nelson Hebert, Clint DeAtley, Chip Kelman and John Anderson have all come across town to the Braemar office. They will be joined by ex-MJLF broker and past Tanker Pacific chartering executive, Lynne Rutherford.

Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition (LAGCOE), one of the world's pioneer oil and gas expositions, recently announced the creation of the LAGCOE Education Fund, a fund at Community Foundation of Acadiana (CFA), according to Angela Cring, Executive Director of LAGCOE. Contributions to the newly instituted fund, managed by CFA, are tax deductible. “LAGCOE has been serving the industry and our community for nearly 60 years through various industry-related, educational and philanthropic avenues.

Company officials announced that Maxim Evaporators has signed a distributor agreement with Green Marine & Industrial Equipment Co. for the U.S. Gulf Coast market. Green Marine was founded in 1961 and today is a well diversified sales and service organization. Green Marine serves clients in Marine, Offshore & Shipbuilding Industries. Green Marine is strategically located in the center of the Gulf of Mexico region with offices in New Orleans and Houston. This allows them to offer quick response to equipment sales and service needs. Maxim Evaporators was originally founded in the 1940’s for the purpose of manufacturing water purification equipment utilizing evaporative technology. Maxim manufactures a series of standard fresh water makers that can be used in numerous applications.

The California State University Board of Trustees will begin the search next month for a new president of the California Maritime Academy to succeed  President William B. Eisenhardt, who is retiring after serving as president of the university since 2001. The first meeting of the search committee will be held in an open forum from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, March 7 at the Rizza Auditorium on the Cal Maritime campus, followed by a closed meeting of the committee at 1 p.m. This is the only meeting of the committee that is an open meeting. CSU Trustee Peter Mehas will chair the Trustees’ Committee for the Selection of the President. The other trustee members of the selection committee include Steven Glazer, Bob Linscheid and Henry Mendoza, as well as Trustee Chair Herbert L.

On Friday, January 9, 2009, Quality shipyards launched its Hull 1271, the M/V Terrel Tide, a 266 ft by 56 ft by 19 ft 6 inch Offshore Oilfield Supply Vessel. The M/V Terrel Tide is being constructed for Tidewater Marine and is named for Terrel Hebert, Vice President of Production and a 38 year veteran of Quality Shipyards.

When Global Industries contacted Thrustmaster of Texas to help upgrade the Titan 2 heavy lift vessel for dynamic positioning (DP), the Louisiana-based company found more benefits than expected. Although not one of the original goals, a result of the conversion was a vessel that can maintain station for at least 30 minutes during a complete blackout. With the self-reliant thrusters used in this upgrade, said Keith Hebert, DP group operations supervisor, the Titan 2 will not drift during a 30-minute blackout. The Titan 2 was self-propelled with two main Z-drives of 2,200 hp each, and two tunnel thrusters at 200 hp each. The Thrustmaster conversion added eight 1,000 hp hydraulic azimuthing thrusters and eight self contained Hydraulic Power Units (HPU's) to the heavy lift vessel.

1956: Elvis released his first album; the film debut of Invasion of the Body Snatchers was frightening American audiences; My Fair Lady opened on Broadway; and J. Ray McDermott began operations at the offshore industry's first dedicated steel fabrication yard near Morgan City, Louisiana. Among the major events of early 1956, many are now trivia, but the Morgan City "fab yard" continues to have a profound and lasting effect on the region and the world. Since its humble beginnings on April 1, 1956, J. Ray's Morgan City fabrication facility has built more offshore structures than any other fabrication facility and has served as the model for new offshore fabrication yards around the globe.

Training is literally the lifeblood of a boat owner's company. That is especially true of that company is Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) owner and operator of over 100 vessels in the Gulf of Mexico. The Galliano, La based company first established a training center in early 1999 using space in the company's main office building. By the end of 1999 the training center was in its own two-story building adjacent to the main office building. "Our training center operates year around offering a wide variety of courses, typically lasting five days a week from 8:00am to 5:00pm," said Warren Sanamo, Jr. director of the training center. The courses are free for all Chouest employees and include a daily complimentary lunch for all participants.

Mud, Mud, Mud. Liquid mud is the name of the game in the design of today's offshore service vessels. The drilling rigs not only want huge volumes of mud, but they want the vessels that serve them to be able to carry several different types of liquid mud. That means two or three separate piping and pumping systems to keep the mud from cross contamination. That also increases demands for automated control and alarm systems, many of which utilize touch screen controls. The rigs also need dry bulk cement, barite and other such products, so dry bulk tanks with 6,000 or so cu. ft. of capacity would be desired. Many rig owners would also like the vessels to carry methanol and…

With over 550 vessels in service, Tidewater, Inc., is by far the world's largest offshore oil service operator. Headquartered in New Orleans, La., Tidewater operates wherever offshore oil and gas is found. While the industry has undergone a slow down in 2002-03, Tidewater is confident that current trends indicate business will improve and the company has been upgrading its fleet of vessels to meet customer needs. "We have a very strong balance sheet," said Stephen Dick, Executive Vice President of operations for North America, North Sea and West Africa for the company. "We have been moving aggressively in the area of new vessel construction, especially U.S. flagged supply boats and crew/supply vessels," Dick added.

The inclusion of dynamic positioning systems has become a standard and necessary system on supply boats and many crew/supply vessels. In their simplest form, dynamic positioning systems allow an offshore vessel to "moor" adjacent to a rig or platform without the traditional mooring lines being attached to structure or the use of anchors. Instead thrusters both in the bow and the stern keep the vessel on station. The development of dynamic positioning systems and the use of them on every new supply vessel being built has a lot to do with the oil companies who own the structures being serviced by the vessels. These companies, with billion…