Final Equipment News

Norwegian supplier Hydroniq Coolers has won contracts from Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. (SHI) to deliver the cooling system for the engines of the six LNG-fuelled shuttle tankers the shipbuilder is constructing for Teekay Offshore.As per the contracts, Hydroniq Coolers – formerly named Sperre Coolers – will deliver its Hydroniq Rack seawater cooling solution that is integrated in the hull below the main engine room of the vessels. Marine cooling systems are utilised to reduce temperatures in the ships’ engines and other auxiliary systems through use of seawater.Hydroniq Coolers has not disclosed the value of the contracts.“Teekay Offshore and Samsung have chosen the industry’s most energy efficient and maintenance friendly efficient marine seawater cooler.

Netherlands-based Acta Marine announced that its next offshore wind farm installation vessel will be ready in next two months."‘Acta Centaurus will be completed and ready for construction support vessel (CSV)/service operation vessel (SOV) operation in a little more than two months," said a press release from the company.Acta Marine’s site team is following the vessel’s progress on a daily basis, such as the installation of the helideck on Sunday.“The main topside equipment, including tower, gangway and crane, has been installed and tested previously, the helideck was the final equipment installation to take place,” says Marcus de Greef…

Two Ro-Ro ferries owned by U.K.-based Condor Ferries are to be retrofitted with Wärtsilä's new AQUARIUS READY ballast water management system (BWMS) solution. The AQUARIUS READY concept has been developed by Wärtsilä to prepare vessels for the fitting of BWMS, while minimizing vessel downtime, thereby enabling more efficient operations. The contract was signed in February 2014 and the final equipment delivery will take place within 12 months from the ratification of the IMO Ballast Water Convention. Preparation work has already been undertaken onboard the ferries.

Tugs Fairmount Summit and Fairmount Alpine have delivered the very first “floating gas plant” in the world, the FSRU Toscana, safely offshore Livorno, Italy. The Toscana, a one of a kind unit, was towed from Dubai via Malta where final equipment was installed. After delivering the Toscana, both Fairmount tugs assisted in mooring the unit to her six pre installed anchors. The Toscana is a so-called floating, storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) which is now moored 12 miles offshore Livorno and will be used as a terminal and export point for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Sonardyne Sentinel deployed to protect high security Middle-Eastern facility. Maritime security company, Sonardyne International Ltd, has successfully completed the installation of an integrated intruder detection system for an undisclosed strategic waterside installation in the Middle East. The previously unannounced contract was awarded to Sonardyne in late 2011 and included the deployment of a network of the company’s Sentinel underwater sonars, seabed mounting systems, armoured fibre optic cabling, onshore equipment shelters and a centralised command and control system.

In the early evening hours twenty years ago in a shipyard in Brisbane, Australia the sleek hull of the 192 foot motor sailing yacht The Other Woman effortlessly slid down the launch ways into the Brisbane River. The Owner, Ed Cantor, told his guests as he watched his "Other Woman" hit the water "she looks so beautiful without the masts, do we really have to put them on?”. The evening and festivities went on with the question looming, was Ed Cantor serious? That question is now at rest. The 192 foot motor yacht Islander has emerged out of that statement, twenty years later.

Siemens Marine Solutions has been commissioned by the Spanish shipyard Navantia S.A. to equip two new multi-functional supply ships with pod propulsion units and power supply equipment. The final customer is the Australian navy which intends to use the two ships to improve the range of its amphibian deployment capabilities. To this end, the ships (LHDs - Landing Helicopter Docks) will be equipped with up to twelve helicopters. Both ships will be built in Ferrol in the north-west of Spain and the final equipment will be installed at the Tenix shipyard in Australia. The order is worth some $67.5m. Siemens is responsible for all the electrical propulsion and power supply equipment for the two ships.

Technical advances in the offshore industry and regulatory developments have spurred an update of the ABS Guide for Certification of Drilling Systems. First published in 1985 and last updated in 1990, the Guide references current standards and the recommendations of American Petroleum Institute (API). Importantly, the new Guide provides industry with an option for a “Safety Case” or risk-based analysis approach to certification, rather than applying the more traditional prescriptive rules reflected in the 1990 version of the Guide, says Merih Unuvar, ABS project leader and principal surveyor. “We’re offering drilling unit owners and builders a more streamlined approach to ABS classification, with the option of certifying the drilling system,” said Unuvar.