German Coast News

Italian subsea cable firm Prysmian Group said Thursday it has added a new vessel - Barbarossa I - to its fleet."After the debut of the state-of-the-art 170-meter Leonardo da Vinci [vessel] in August 2021, Prysmian Group’s fleet would seem to be complete. But with the addition of Barbarossa I, Prysmian Group becomes the first company in the sector that can provide the full range of submarine cable-laying solutions from the shallowest coastal waters in Northern Europe to the profoundest depths of the Mediterranean Sea.

German utility RWE has signed a deal with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to deliver liquefied natural gas to Europe's largest economy by the end of December, RWE announced on Sunday.Though the initial amount to be delivered is relatively small, it's a politically significant deal to shore up supplies of gas from outside of Russia as Chancellor Olaf Scholz seeks to deepen ties with the Gulf and find alternative energy sources.The deal, which includes a memorandum of understanding for multi-year supplies of LNG…

Boluda Towage's tug Bremen Fighter passed all administrative procedures and inspections to officially operate, as of February 21, its maritime salvage activity under the German flag.Bremen Fighter is displaying the official German coast guard colors, with a commitment to protect maritime safety in the eastern Baltic Sea, under the command of German Federal Waterway Authorities. Bremen Fighter, an offshore tug, is the most powerful tug in the Boluda Towage fleet.Earlier , the German…

Nord Stream 2 AG, Russia's Gazprom-led company building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, has been granted permission from the Danish authorities to use pipelaying vessels with anchors instead of the dynamic-positioning ones.The Danish Energy Agency has at the request of Nord Stream 2 AG made a decision to change the condition to use pipelaying vessels with self-positioning (DP pipe-laying vessels) in the construction permit for the Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which the Danish Energy Agency granted Nord Stream 2 AG on October 30…

Extension of broadband communication of key importance to digital change in maritime shipping, said shipowners and pilots in Germany’s coastline.Against the backdrop of the extension of mobile communications networks planned in Germany, the German Shipowners’ Association (Verband Deutscher Reeder – VDR) and the German Federal Chamber of Pilots (Bundeslotsenkammer – BLK) issued a joint communiqué calling for urgent improvement of mobile network coverage in German coastal waters.Maritime broadband communication in the North Sea and Baltic Sea was the topic of a symposium jointly held by the Maritime Cluster Northern Germany (Maritimes Cluster Norddeutschland e.

German shipping line Hapag Lloyd said on Friday that it was trying to extinguish a fire on its Yantian Express container vessel off Canada's east coast but was being hampered by bad weather.A spokesman for Hapag Lloyd said the fire broke out on Thursday in a container on deck and spread to some other containers on the vessel, but the cause was not yet known.The 7,519 twenty foot equivalent ship was on its way from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Halifax in Nova Scotia via the Suez Canal…

The offshore converter platform, BorWin gamma, has now safely set sail from Dubai and begun its journey to  its offshore site in the German part of the North Sea.Through the Gulf of Oman, the 18,000 ton ‘topside’ will pass into the Red Sea before going through the Suez Canal onto the Mediterranean and past Gibraltar. The journey then moves through the Bay of Biscay, to the English Channel and into the North Sea where it will be integrated with the ‘jacket’ nearly 130 kilometres off the German coast.Along with BorWin3, a 900-megawatt connection for two offshore wind farms will go into operation next year and be able to supply more than one million households.It will be one of the world’s heaviest and largest HVDC platforms…

The new pilot transfer tenders ‘Dithmarschen’ and ‘Steinburg’ were named in Brunsbüttel at the 3rd of July. Of a new type and identical design, these will be deployed by the Elbe and NOK I pilots’ associations in the heavily frequented entrance to the Kiel Canal. Around the clock and in all weather and all seas, these steel-hull craft with an aluminium superstructure ensure a rapid and safe transfer service. The shape of these ships has been adapted to the special conditions in their area of operations, e.g. short, high waves, as well as the special demands of the pilot transfer service in these pilotage waters. Among these are the short approach run to the vessel, safe running along the ship’s side, rapid casting off and turning away from ships served.

A consortium of western companies and Russia's Gazprom that is due to build the controversial subsea Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany said on Tuesday it was starting preparatory work in the Greifswald bay off Germany's Baltic coast."Five dredgers are now working on the trench for the two pipeline strings," the consortium, based in Switzerland's Zug, said in a press release. Nord Stream 2 will consist of two pipelines running in parallel."Preparatory works are in accordance with the Stralsund mining authority's planning approval," it said.

Ampelmann has opened its first office in Germany, in response to growing business in the offshore wind sector. The new base, located in Hamburg, will be led by Tim Börner, who has been appointed as Business Development Manager Offshore Wind Germany for Ampelmann. Mr Börner joins the company from Global Renewables Ship Brokers GmbH where he most recently held the role of Offshore Shipbroker for more than five years, focusing on the offshore wind market. “I am excited to be joining Ampelmann at such a pivotal moment…

ABB will optimize the safety and environmental credentials of a new Louis Dreyfus Armateurs wind farm Service Operation Vessel (SOV) by installing Onboard DC Grid power distribution to enable the cost-efficient integration of batteries. As an integral part of the power system, the Power and Energy Management System (PEMS) will ensure safe and efficient operation of the vessel. The hybrid system enables lean operation with fewer running generators without compromising on safety, meaning less maintenance and better fuel consumption over the long-term.

Louis Dreyfus Armateurs  Group (LDA) said it has ordered a wind farm service operation vessel (SOV) from Cemre shipyard in Turkey. The vessel will be delivered in Q4 2018 and chartered to DONG Energy Wind Power A/S for operations at four wind farms off the German coast (Borkum Riffgrund 1&2, Gode Wind 1&2). The vessel has been designed in cooperation with Salt Ship Design to enable technicians to perform maintenance on wind turbines. The ship has an accommodation capacity of a minimum of 60 technicians (in addition to the crew)…

The WSV (Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration) represented by the Waterways and Shipping Agency (WSA) Bremen, a branch of the German government, is transferring 67 ships into Lloyd’s Register (LR) class to support the seagoing fleet of vessels owned by the German Authorities. Following a successful tender for vessels under the departments of the Local Offices for Waterways and Shipping along the German Coast, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, Federal Police and the Federal Customs, Lloyd’s Register EMEA in Germany is to class the fleet from 1 January 2017 under a five year block fee arrangement. "The decision to make Hamburg the centre for Marine and Offshore in the North European area shows how important this market is for Lloyd’s Register…

DNV GL has been awarded a contract by COSCO Shipping Company Limited (COSCO SHIPPING) of China for the installation engineering services for the BorWin gamma high voltage direct current (HVDC) converter platform. The Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT is developing the offshore AC/DC converter platform BorWin gamma as part of the grid connection project BorWin3. The project will provide an essential renewable offshore resource to meet increasing energy demands in Germany, as part of the German Energiewende (Energy Transition) programme. A consortium of Siemens and Petrofac has been contracted by TenneT to design, build and install BorWin gamma.

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has successfully commissioned and handed over the DolWin1 offshore wind grid connection to the Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT. The 800 megawatts (MW) High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) link connects offshore wind farms around 75 kilometers off the German coast in the DolWin cluster, with the country’s transmission grid. The DolWin1 grid connection can integrate 800 MW of offshore wind power, enough to supply around one million households with clean energy. The DolWin1 grid connection is part of Germany’s ambitious energy transition roadmap, called “Energiewende”, which foresees the generation of more than 6.5 gigawatts (GW) from offshore wind by 2020 and 15 GW by 2030.

Drydocks World signed an agreement today with Petrofac to build the BorWin3 high voltage direct current (HVDC) converter platform in the North Sea, named BorWin gamma. When completed, this will provide an essential renewable offshore resource to meet increasing energy demands. Drydocks World has successfully secured the contract for the fabrication, commissioning and load out of the BorWin3 platform, which will transmit electricity from the connected offshore wind farms to the mainland of Germany. Scheduled to go online in 2019, the platform will be installed nearly 100km off the German coast in the North Sea, at a water depth of approximately 40m. The Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT ordered the HVDC link BorWin3 from a consortium comprising Petrofac and Siemens.

ABB has installed the world’s highest-voltage offshore converter station in the North Sea. Alternating current electricity generated in three wind farms off the coast of Germany will be converted on the platform into high-voltage direct current (HVDC) for transmission to the mainland. The 320 kilovolts converter station has an 800 megawatt power transmission capacity making it the world's most powerful installation of its kind. In a three-day operation, the 9,300 metric tonne platform (topside) including the converter station was transported offshore by barge around 75 km off the German coast.

Cargotec is supplying two MacGregor offshore deck cranes for installation on an offshore converter platform, BorWin beta, which will feed 800MW of renewable energy generated by two offshore windfarms into the German electricity grid. The power converter will begin test operation at the end of 2012. The MacGregor luffing cranes have an SWL of 10 tonne at 41m outreach and will be used to offload supply vessels, handle materials on BorWin beta's open deck areas and lower them to the decks below via hatches. They are also 'man-riding approved'.

MAN Diesel & Turbo SE, the global manufacturer of large diesel engines and turbo machinery based in Augsburg, has revamped and modernised its service centre on Hamburg's Hachmannkai. The service centre is one of the major ports of call on the German coast for ships requiring maintenance and repair. With the complete overhaul of the premises, which will be officially opened on 22nd March 2011, MAN Diesel & Turbo is investing in expanding and increasing the efficiency of its services for marine and power plant engines marketed under the MAN | PrimeServ brand.

Danish authorities said that half the oil from the tanker which collided with a freighter in the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Germany on Wednesday evening had hit the Danish coast. Around 1,000-1,500 tons of heavy heating oil had reached the shores of the southeastern Danish islands Moen and Bogoe, spreading pollution over approximately 30 km (19 miles), a police spokesman in charge of the clean-up operation told Reuters on Friday night. "We have the oil under control but the estimate for the amount of oil leaked has been increased and we intend to reinforce our clean-up efforts tomorrow," he said. Extra manpower and machinery would be brought to the site on Saturday, he added.

Massive oil slicks threatened to pollute the Danish coast on Thursday after a tanker collided with a freighter in the Baltic Sea, creating one of the biggest oil leaks ever to foul Danish waters. "The leak is one of the biggest we have seen. We are preparing to prevent oil pollution hitting the Danish coast," a coastguard spokesman said. Six ships from Denmark, Germany and Sweden were on their way to try to contain the oil, coastguards said. The tanker, en route to Gothenburg, Sweden with a cargo from Estonia, leaked more than 1,500 tons of heavy heating oil after the collision that occurred between Germany and Denmark, officials said.

Just two weeks after christening the first of three 216 ft. (66 m) Offshore Patrol Vessels, the German Coast Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz) ordered an extensive software and data package for Integrated Logistic Support (ILS) of the new " Bad Bramstedt"-class from Abeking & Rasmussen, designers and builders of the new vessels. The order consitsts of three on-board versions and one shore version of the new developed Virtual Ship Explorer (VSE). The logistic company Ocean Logistics GmbH, a subsidiary of Abeking & Rasmussen is responsible for the total system. With the on-board version the crew will be able to manage all documentation for on-board systems, including full spare parts logistic, i.e.