Line-Handler M/T Brage Shipped North
Sanmar Marine’s modern, custom built yard in Turkey has completed the construction of a new design of RAscal class, the 1500, for Norwegian owner operator, Buksér og Berging AS. This compact class of tug is a series of high-performance but relatively straight forward smaller tugs, all less than 24m in length. Designed exclusively by Robert Allan Ltd, to address the challenges of modern, high-performance Z-drive line-handling and smaller ship-handling tugs, the RAscal hull form has been carefully developed…
Johan Sverdrup Field Concept Selected
Statoil and the partners in the Johan Sverdrup field have decided on a concept for the first development phase. The partners have agreed on a field center consisting of four installations and power from shore. The partners have decided on power from shore for the Johan Sverdrup field in the first phase, which will reduce total CO2 emissions from the Utsira High area by 60-70%. “This is historic. We have not made a concept selection for a field this size since the 1980s,” says Arne Sigve Nylund, executive vice president for development and production in Norway.
Environmental Activists Protest President Bush's Kyoto Pact Veto
Greenpeace activists boarded an oil tanker in Norway on Tuesday in a bid to stop it sailing for the United States, in their second such protest this week against President George W. Bush's rejection of the Kyoto pact on cutting greenhouse gases. Fifteen protesters boarded the Greek-registered tanker Cosmic from the dock before it could leave the Statoil Mongstad terminal in Norway for a Sunoco terminal on the U.S. East Coast, the Amsterdam-based environmental group said. Activists perched on two of the ship's anchors hanging above the water line while four inflatables surrounded the ship, according to a Greenpeace campaigner. The group also hung a banner reading "Stop oil to Bush - ratify Kyoto".
Strike Forces Statoil To Cut Off Supply
Norway's state oil firm Statoil said on Friday that a strike by private sector workers would probably start cutting its oil and gas output towards the end of next week. According to company officials, production is going on as usual as the strike by 85,000 private sector workers, including about 1,000 in the oil sector, gripped Norway for a third day. Officials added that crude exports were still blocked at Statoil's 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) Mongstad terminal. The strikes have also prevented loadings from Norsk Hydro's 430,000 bpd Sture terminal and from its gas facility at Kaarstoe. Oil normally exported is going into storage tanks because tugboat operators are on strike, preventing tankers from docking to load as normal.
