Saturno News

One of South America’s leading push boat operators is on its way to completing a fleet-wide retrofit to Thordon’s water lubricated tailshaft and rudder bearings.In 2014, Argentinian owner Atria Logistics UABL, which operates a fleet of workboats on the Paraná River, installed Thordon’s RiverTough tailshaft bearings to its first push boat, the 135-foot-long Concepcion. In 2020, six more vessels in the company’s 26-strong fleet were converted.Egnard Bernal, Thordon Bearing’s Business Development Manager…

Sellers returned to the window on Monday to entice buyers spooked by high freight rates due to Washington's sanctions on subsidiaries of a major Chinese shipping firm at the end of September.Long-haul rates to Asia have risen sharply prompting refiners to shed some cargoes.China's Unipec offered four cargoes in the window for a third session all November loading on a fob basis. These were Angolan Saturno at dated Brent plus 35 cents, Dalia at dated Brent plus $1.90, Mostarda at…

Nigerian crude sells into tenders, while Angolan trades more quickly on spot. * ExxonMobil had purchased two of the three Olombendo cargoes sold this week, traders said. * All three are likely to sail to the Mediterranean or the United States rather than China, the usual destination. * Angola's Sonangol sold its cargo of Dalia, which it had been offering at dated Brent minus 70 cents a barrel. The buyer was not clear, but traders said it was a western company rather than Asian. * Statoil had also sold a cargo of Angola's Saturno. * Sonangol was still offering another cargo of Dalia at dated Brent minus 70 cents a barrel and a cargo of Saxi at dated Brent plus 75 cents a barrel. * Nigerian crude cargoes Erha and Forcados were selling into tenders, but spot trade was limited.

Angola is set to export 1.77 million barrels per day of crude oil in January, up from 1.60 mln bpd in December, a provisional shipping list showed on Tuesday. The oil from the OPEC member, and Africa's second largest exporter, will be shipped on 57 vessels, the shipping list showed. Exports of Cabinda, Girassol, Palanca, Saturno, Hungo, and Plutonio were set to be higher in January than December, while Dalia exports were lower. Stronger supply of West African crude oil will put further pressure on crude oil futures prices at a time of ample global supply and fragile demand growth. Traders are awaiting Nigerian crude oil exports lists for January, expected to start emerging this week.

Angolan cargoes for October loading are so far finding buyers slowly, traders said on Friday, while there were further signs that an overhang of September-loading Nigerian cargoes is being absorbed. Most buyers have baulked at the initial offers of Angolan crude, which a trader said were $1 a barrel or so higher than previously traded prices. Business has focused on term cargoes and only one spot trade has come to light. The overhang of September Nigerian cargoes is showing signs of easing as a drop in differentials, contango in the Brent market and wider refinery margins have helped cargoes to find buyers. "Most are now sold," said one. Total sold a cargo of Pazflor, a trader said, in the first known spot trade for October.

Technip wins important 5-year contract for engineering & modification services on FPSO units offshore Angola, SW Africa. The BP Angola contract is for work concerning the existing Greater Plutonio and Plutao, Saturno, Venus and Marte (PSVM) floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) units, located in Blocks 18 and 31 offshore Angola. This contract follows the successful completion of a previous five-year contract for engineering services for the Greater Plutonio FPSO. This new award covers two FPSOs and involves not only engineering, but also procurement and management of offshore and onshore construction activities. Technip’s operating center in Luanda, Angola will carry out the contract, which is scheduled for completion at the end of 2017.

MODEC Offshore Production Systems (Singapore) Pte Ltd. awarded Aker Solutions' wholly-owned subsidiary Aker Marine Contractors a mooring installation contract for hook-up of the Bourgogne FPSO offshore Angola. Contract value is approximately $30m. MODEC will supply the PSVM FPSO to BP for the oil company's PSVM (Plutão, Saturno, Vênus and Marte) development in Block 31 offshore Angola. The FPSO will be installed in approximately 2 000 meters water depth and have production capacity of 157,000 barrels per day. "This contract represents another significant step forward in our relationship with MODEC," says Erik Wiik, President - Subsea North America, Aker Solutions.