Lucius News

Shipowner Celsius Tankers announced it has ordered four new liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers from shipbuilder China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) (CMHI) for scheduled delivery in 2026 and 2027.Celsius has formed a joint venture with an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners (ArcLight), a middle-market infrastructure investor, to fund two of the LNG carriers. Commodities trading house Gunvor Group Ltd will have a significant equity interest in the other two newbuildings, the first for any independent LNG trading company, demonstrating the strength of Gunvor's global position in the LNG market. All four vessels will enter long…

Oil companies evacuate workers as storm takes aim at Texas. Royal Dutch Shell, Anadarko Petroleum and Exxon Mobil announced they were curbing some oil and gas output on Wednesday at facilities in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of a storm expected to hit the Texas coast later this week. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a hurricane watch Wednesday for much of the Texas coast, calling for slow-moving Tropical Depression Harvey to intensify as it nears landfall. Shell said it was evacuating all personnel from the roughly 100,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Perdido oil and gas production platform as a precaution. Anadarko said it had shut in production and was evacuating workers from its Boomvang, Gunnison, Lucius and Nansen platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

As part of the company's new vessel build program, Crowley Maritime Corp. christened the latest of its four tugboats in the ocean class series, Ocean Sun, today in Lake Charles. The ceremony served to formally welcome the fourth dynamic positioning 2 (DP2) tugboat to the company’s expanded ocean towing fleet, which has been involved in most of the major offshore oil production installations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico over the past 18 months. Todd Busch, senior vice president and general manager of Crowley’s solutions group, opened the ceremony to approximately 80 guests.

On the heels of the recent delivery of Olympus, the largest tension-leg platform ever to be developed for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Crowley has once again shown support for the domestic petroleum industry by providing ocean towing and positioning support services for the Lucius spar in the Gulf of Mexico for Anadarko Petroleum. Three of Crowley’s ocean class tugs, Ocean Wind, Ocean Wave and Ocean Sun, towed the 605-foot long, 110-foot wide spar from Corpus Christi, Texas, through the Ingleside Channel and out to Keathley Canyon Block 875 some 300 miles offshore.

The Boskalis subsidiary, Dockwise vessel 'Mighty Servant 1' has offloaded the 23,000 ton spar for the Lucius deepwater oil and natural gas project in the Gulf of Mexico. The Lucius truss spar, measuring 184 meters (605 feet) long and 34 meters (110 feet) in diameter, was loaded onto the Mighty Servant 1 by means of skid on operation at Pori, Finland. The spar was transported 7,700 nautical miles and discharged at Ingleside, Texas and delivered back to Technip. The Lucius Development…

Heerema Marine Contractor’s new Deepwater Construction Vessel Aegir arrived in Rotterdam’s Caland Canal after a journey of almost two months from the DSME shipyard in Okpo, South Korea where it was built. The 210m long and 46.2m wide vessel will move to the Huisman yard in Schiedam in April where the pipelay equipment will be installed. Aegir is scheduled to start work on its first installation project (Anadarko Lucius) in the Gulf of Mexico in the fourth quarter of 2013. Hereafter Aegir will move to Australia where she will install infield flowlines…

Caveats and some doubts remain. Marine companies along the Gulf of Mexico will be busy in 2013 producing offshore vessels to meet expected growth in the region’s deepwater drilling sector over the next several years. Vessel repairs will be active too. Worker training will be stepped up to address a skilled labor shortage. And nearly three years after BP’s spill off coastal Louisiana, safety will remain a priority. But with the nation teetering on a fiscal cliff – which may spur tax increases and government spending cuts – demand for official and military vessels could be affected…

McDermott International. Inc. The project is to deliver new junction facilities for Discovery’s Keathley Canyon Connector™ pipeline system with a 3,300-ton, four-leg platform in 350 feet of water. The unmanned platform will provide pipeline junction facilities for incoming deepwater pipelines from the Hadrian South and Lucius fields and for outgoing shallow-water pipelines to shore. Fabrication is expected to commence this summer at McDermott’s Morgan City facility in Louisiana. Offshore installation is expected to commence during the third quarter of 2013, and is intended to be ready for operational start-up before the end of the year. McDermott’s deepwater combination heavy lift and pipelay vessel DB50 is expected to perform the installation.

Tata Steel has been awarded a major contract worth more than £100 million to provide pipe for Discovery Producer Services L.L.C. (Discovery) gas pipeline in Keathley Canyon, Gulf of Mexico. Discovery is a 60:40 joint venture between Williams Partners L.P. and DCP Midstream Partners L.P. The company will supply Discovery’s Keathley Canyon ConnectorTM with 214 miles (345km) of 20-inch diameter submerged arc welded linepipe, weighing more than 110,000 metric tonnes. The pipe will be manufactured at Tata Steel’s 42-inch mill in Hartlepool, England.

Tata Steel has been awarded an eight-figure U.S. dollar contract to supply pipe for Enterprise Products Partners L.P.’s new crude oil export pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico’s Keathley Canyon area. The contract will see Tata Steel deliver more than 48,000 metric tons of steel pipe from its 42-inch mill in Hartlepool, England, for the Lucius Development Project, which has the capacity to produce in excess of 80,000 barrels of oil per day. Tata Steel will provide 105 miles (169 kilometres) of 18-inch diameter line pipe.

Technip was awarded a lump sum contract by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation for the development of  the Lucius field, located in the Keathley Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico, at a water depth of approximately 7,000 feet (2,130 meters). The contract covers installation of a flexible flow line, multiple flexible gas lift jumpers; main gas lift and infield umbilicals; subsea distribution units; electrical, fiber optic and hydraulic flying leads; • design and fabrication of the flexible flowline end termination; fabrication and installation of rigid jumpers; • burial of flow lines; • flooding and hydro-testing of the flowline system. Technip's operating center in Houston, Texas, will perform the overall project management.

First Subsea Awarded Lucius Spar Mooring Connector Contract. Deepwater mooring specialist, First Subsea Ltd has been awarded a contract by Technip USA Inc to supply the mooring line connectors for a new spar platform moored in 7,000ft (2,134 m) of water in the Lucius field, Keathley Canyon block 875 in the Gulf of Mexico. The Lucius spar will be moored by nine Ballgrab ball and taper mooring connectors attached to polyester mooring lines. The Ballgrab connector comprises a male connector and female receptacle. The Series III male connectors will comply with the new ABS Mooring Guide 2009.

Technip has been awarded a contract by Exxon Mobil Corporation for subsea equipment on the Hadrian South natural gas project in the Gulf of Mexico in approximately 7,500 feet (2,300 meters) of water. The project consists of a subsea tie-back to the planned Anadarko operated spar platform, Lucius(1). The contract covers project management, procurement and installation of two 7- mile-mile long flowlines(2) and associated jumpers, installation of a 9-mile umbilical(3), associated foundation and flying leads. Technip’s operating center, in Houston, Texas, will execute the contract. The flowlines will be welded at Technip’s spoolbase, located in Mobile, Alabama.

FMC Technologies Awarded Subsea Systems Contract from Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. FMC Technologies, Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) to provide subsea systems and life-of-field services for its Lucius project. The Lucius field is located approximately 275 miles southeast of Galveston in Keathley Canyon Block 875, in water depths of approximately 7,100 feet (2,160 meters). FMC’s scope of supply includes five subsea production trees and two manifolds. The equipment will be supplied from the Company’s operation in Houston and deliveries are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Technip was awarded a lump sum contract by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation for the engineering, construction and transport of a 23,000 ton truss Spar hull for their Lucius project in approximately 7,100 feet (2,165 meters) of water depth in the US Gulf of Mexico, with first oil being scheduled in 2014. Lucius will be the seventh Spar Technip has delivered to Anadarko.The Lucius truss Spar floating production facility will have a nameplate capacity of 80,000 barrels of  oil per day and 450 million cu. ft. of natural gas per day. Technip’s operating center in Houston, Texas, will provide the overall project management. The detailed hull design and fabrication will be carried out by Technip’s yard in Pori, Finland.

Anadarko Petroleum issued a Letter of Intent to Technip for the engineering, construction and transport of a 23,000 ton Truss Spar hull for their Lucius field development. This field is located in approximately 7,100 ft.(2,165 m) of water, in the US Gulf of Mexico. This Letter of Intent allows Technip to begin preliminary work on the project including purchase of long lead items for the hull in advance of the planned sanction date of December 2011. The Lucius Spar will have a capacity of more than 80,000 barrels of oil and 450 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.