Sapuracrest News

Danilo Souza Baptista, OSX’s Director of Naval Construction, sat with MR Contributing Editor Claudio Paschoa at EBX Group’s new HQ in downtown Rio de Janeiro, in a meeting room overlooking Guanabara Bay with Sugar Loaf Mountain as a backdrop, to discuss its ambitious yet realistic vision to create one of the largest, most efficient shipyards in the Americas, as well as its Integrated Service Solution to the meet offshore O&G needs. OSX is a relatively new company, founded by the EBX Group in 2009. The EBX Group, is a holding composed of several companies active in different industries such as mining, oil & gas, logistics, real estate, among others.

IHC Merwede’s expanding portfolio has helped it to record increased revenue and profit figures for 2011, and to maintain its strong order book for 2012 and beyond. In the past year, IHC Merwede’s revenue has increased by four per cent to reach € 1.05 billion. The company’s net profit has also increased to € 103 million with a solvency ratio of 40 percent, demonstrating that IHC Merwede is in strong financial health and able to implement its growth strategy. With sales amounting to € 1.057 billion, IHC Merwede assured itself of a substantial order book of € 1.18 billion – the equivalent of more than one year’s workload. Internationalization continues to be an important priority for IHC Merwede, as it succeeds in reducing costs and meeting the needs of its markets.

Cargotec has received an order to supply a total of twenty 150-ton electric MacGregor winches for two pipe-laying heavy-lift offshore construction vessels (N448 & N449) which are currently being constructed  at Cosco (Nantong) Shipyard Co Ltd. in China. The vessels are being built for Malaysian offshore installation and maintenance specialist TL Offshore Sdn. Bhd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of SapuraCrest Petroleum Bhd. Each MacGregor mooring system includes ten electric mooring winches, wire rope leading sheaves and accessories. “The mooring winch system is designed to maintain its designed limit of movement in all anticipated sea and weather condition,” said Ilpo Heikkilä, Vice President for winches at Cargotec.

A ceremony for the largest ever working capital guarantee issued by Atradius Dutch State Business – on behalf of the Dutch Government – took place on April 5, 2012 at IHC Merwede’s shipyard in Krimpen aan den IJssel. With this finance agreement in place, IHC Merwede will start work on the construction of two pipe-laying vessels for its Malaysian customer SapuraCrest. The ships are part of a recent offshore order worth €450 million and will install flexible pipelines in Brazilian waters, where large quantities of oil have been discovered. The delivery dates for the vessels, which will be built in The Netherlands, have been set for May and August, 2014, respectively.

IHC Merwede will exhibit a broad range of its innovative vessels, advanced equipment and lifecycle support activities at stand number 2625 at the forthcoming Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) 2012, which runs from April 30 to May 3 in Houston. As a supplier of custom-built vessels and equipment for the offshore market, IHC Merwede is renowned for focusing on the development of integrated solutions, as highlighted by its position as “the technology innovator.”  To underline this position a model will be shown of the two identical new 550-tonne pipelaying vessels IHC Merwede is building for SapuraCrest. IHC Engineering Business and IHC Drives & Automation are supplying and engineering the critical mission equipment for these vessels.

IHC Offshore & Marine, part of IHC Merwede, and SapuraCrest have signed two contracts for the design, engineering and construction of two new 550t pipelaying vessels. A third contract has been signed with OSX Construção Naval S.A. Brazil for the design and engineering of a 300t pipelaying vessel, as well as a large equipment package, supplied by IHC Engineering Business, among others. The orders have a total value of €450million. All three ships will install flexible pipelines in Brazilian waters…

OSX was hired by Sapura Navegação Marítima S/A for the construction of one PLSV (Pipe-Laying Support Vessel), for a total amount of approximately US$ 263 million, to be built and delivered by OSX at the Açu Shipbuilding Unit, in the north of the State of Rio de Janeiro. A PLSV is used for laying and installing flexible pipelines on the seabed. Sapura is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seabras Sapura Participações S/A, which is currently wholly owned by SapuraCrest Petroleum Berhad, a company based in Malaysia, where it holds a leading position in engineering and offshore transportation & installation services for the oil and gas industry.

Sapor Shipbuilding Industries Sdn Bnd. kept busy though 2010 delivering a range of new vessels including the geotechnical vessel, Teknik Wira, from the boards of Wartsila Ship Design Singapore Pte Ltd. With her raised fo’c’sle and well-proportioned housework she presents a powerful presence that is supported by her particulars. With a 52.5-ft beam carried on an overall length of 201 ft, the vessel has impressive capabilities. Her large aft deck has a moon pool and a derrick rig as well as a five-ton crane.

The Larsen & Toubro/SapuraCrest Petroleum joint venture has ordered a new-generation heavy-lift/pipelay vessel designed by Sea of Solutions, part of the Offshore Ship Designers Group. Sea of Solutions was responsible for both the concept design and basic design of the $138m vessel, which will enter service in 2009. The S2500 pipelay vessel will be built by ASL Marine, Singapore. The S2500 design is a customized version of the Sea of Solutions’ Seabarge 3000 design, featuring a more shipshape hull with bulbous bow, increasing transit speed and generating additional space for the mooring system without consequences for DP lay-out. The S2500 has a 10-point mooring system and can be upgraded to DP.

Two oil and gas players, SapuraCrest Petroleum Bhd and Ramunia Holdings Bhd, announced major contracts related to the industry worth $120 million and $24 million respectively. SapuraCrest said its 51%-owned unit Tioman Drilling Co Sdn Bhd had been awarded a contract from Carigali-Triton Operating Co Sdn Bhd (CTOC) for the provision of two drilling units– Teknik Berkat and a new mobile drilling vessel, known as T-10 – to CTOC. Tioman is a joint venture between SapuraCrest and Norway's Smedvig group. SapuraCrest, through its 51%-owned subsidiary Crest Tender Rigs Pte Ltd, has awarded a contract worth $48.8 million to Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd to construct T-10.