Terra News

Analysts and commentators are quick to point out that fossil fuels will power maritime equipment, and indeed dominate the fueling marketplace, well into the future. However, they will do so alongside new fuels, and new technologies, that will be introduced to the maritime sector in the coming years. In its September, 2023 report “Beyond the Horizon: View of the Emerging Energy Value Chains”, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) explains that, “During the recent 80th meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80)…

Ireland's new marine research vessel due to enter service in 2022 will be named the RV Tom Crean, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue announced. "I am delighted to announce the name of Ireland's new marine research vessel is the RV Tom Crean, acknowledging the contribution of a legendary Irish Explorer," McConalogue said.Tom Crean was a renowned seaman and explorer who undertook three major groundbreaking expeditions to the Antarctic in the early years of the 20th Century which sought to increase scientific knowledge and to explore unreached areas of the world…

A fire broke out on Saturday aboard Suncor Energy-operated Terra Nova FPSO offshore Canada, the offshore oil and gas regulator C-NLOPB said.Suncor told C-NLOPB that everyone onboard was accounted for and safe, and that the fire had been extinguished."There are no injuries and we await further information from Suncor as to the extent & their assessment of the cause," the C-NLOPB said Saturday. According to a report by CBC, there are 82 people aboard the FPSO.Per C-NLOPB, there is no gas or crude held onboard the FPSO which has been shut down for maintenance."The facility is not producing at this time,” CNLOPB tweeted on May 30.To remind…

There are studies and reports from classification societies, scientific organizations and governmental agencies assuring maritime industries that carbon-heavy fuel is peaking and will be replaced by 2050, if not by 2035, with zero carbon power alternatives. No question, they chorus, shipping can meet the IMO goals of a 50% reduction in 2008 levels of GHS by 2050.But as the hot breath of various deadlines bear down upon them, with the 2020 sulfur cap in the forefront, ship owners…

After becoming the first human to swim across the Atlantic in 1998, Ben Lecomte has taken on a new challenge: going from Tokyo to San Francisco, swimming 8 hours per day.Right this minute, Frenchman Ben Lecomte is hard at work on his second ocean crossing. After becoming the first human to swim across the Atlantic in 1998, he’s taken on a new challenge: going from Tokyo to San Francisco, churning his limbs eight hours a day in the cold Pacific for six months, accompanied by his team on the support boat. As the first expedition of its kind, The Swim is far more than just an extreme sport.Besides the gruelling physical challenge, Lecomte and his team will conduct scientific research in medicine and oceanography, led at a distance by NASA and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Survitec appointed Mark Baines as Global Vice President, Cruise. Based in Survitec’s Miami office, he will build a dedicated sales and operations team focused solely on partnering with cruise clients to achieve their safety and equipment reliability objectives. He joined Survitec on secondment from Survitec’s majority owners Onex in July 2017 and has been heavily involved in the development of Survitec’s go-to-market strategy. He will also retain his current role as Group Strategy Director, reporting to CEO Brian Stringer.

Exxon Mobil Corp is selling its entire stake in the Terra Nova oil project off the eastern coast of Canada, though the world's largest publicly traded oil producer said it was committed to remaining an investor in the region. The project, located about 217 miles (350 km) off Newfoundland and Labrador, produced about 5,000 barrels of oil per day in 2016. Exxon is selling all of its 19 percent stake in the project and initial bids are due March 30, according to data and a document from Schlumberger's oil and gas asset sale business.

Teekay Offshore said it has taken delivery of Beothuk Spirit, the first of three new shuttle tankers to serve East Coast Canada, built in Korea by Samsung Heavy Industries. Heritage Class sister vessels Norse Spirit and Dorset Spirit are scheduled for delivery in the first half of November 2017 and early-2018 respectively. The three Suezmax, DP2 shuttle tankers will provide crude transportation services to the Hibernia, Terra Nova, White Rose and Hebron offshore oil fields located in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador.

Teekay Offshore will be the sole supplier and operator of shuttle tankers sfor East Coast Canada(ECC), says Teekay Corporation. On February 15, the keel laying ceremony for Teekay’s first shuttle tanker newbuilding for ECC took place at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in Korea. This milestone marks the end of the block building period as well as the beginning of the next phase – to complete the newbuilding with all its systems. The shuttle tanker, the Beothuk Spirit, is expected to be delivered in August of 2017. This shuttle tanker is the first of three newbuildings to be provided for loading crude at Hibernia, Terra Nova, White Rose and Hebron offshore oil fields located in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation, the largest provider of dredging services in the U.S. and a major provider of remediation and geotechnical services, announced the completion of the sale of assets associated with the service lines of the Terra Contracting Services, LLC business for $6.1 million in cash.    GLDD Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Berger, commented, “This sale marks an important step in executing the company’s strategy of focusing on the environmental and iInfrastructure segment’s core strengths and divesting of nonstrategic services. I am pleased that we have successfully completed this transaction, and I am optimistic that we are well-positioned for the future success of this segment.”

The BoomVane is one of the most useful and interesting tools available to oil spill responders for shoreline and single vessel boom deployment. Maintaining an effective oil containment boom configuration with two vessels is difficult to coordinate. The Elastec BoomVane solves that problem. BoomVane can also tow heavier booms greater distances than an outrigger arm resulting in wider sweep swaths. Illinois-based Elastec is the manufacturer and owner of the proprietary BoomVane technology. Elastec offers four BoomVane sizes to accommodate various water depths.

While the matter of maritime piracy has seemingly subdued from its high profile peaks of a few years ago, Stuart Edmonston, Head of Loss Prevention at UK P&I Club, together with Hellenic War Risks and Terra Firma Risk Management, highlight the growth of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and considers the reasons behind the rise in kidnaps for ransom. “The Gulf of Guinea is understood to be the most dangerous region in the world for seafarers. A report by Oceans Beyond Piracy* revealed that there have been 32 kidnaps for ransom during 2016 in the Gulf of Guinea…

Herrenknecht and Ulstein are due to present their vision of the future of heavy well intervention at the Offshore Energy 2015 exhibition in Amsterdam this week. Germany’s Herrenknecht Vertical GmbH (HVG) and the Netherland’s Ulstein Design & Solutions B.V. (UDS BV) will present ULSTEIN DX105, a heavy well intervention vessel design for water depths up to 2,500m, featuring the HVG Terra Invader 750 drill tower. The integration of the Herrenknecht equipment resulted in a compact…

Beam Communications, leading global manufacturer of satellite communications equipment for Iridium and Inmarsat services has recently announced changes to the Oceana and Terra range of terminals. Going forward, all Oceana 400 and Oceana 800 terminals will be able to use any standard Inmarsat GSPS (for IsatPhone 2), IsatPhone Link or FleetPhone SIM cards, when previously they were only available for use with the FleetPhone service. Removing the profiling of the SIM will allow customers to utilise the Oceana terminals in different market sectors without restriction, and not just at sea. Reiny Gajewski, Vice President of Global Sales at Beam Communications said, ‘We want to assist the channel in making these products less confusing.

The mantra of recent times has been the worldwide trend to ‘mega’. Mega container ships created the need for mega ports which required mega dredging projects. These in turn demand mega dredging vessels. All this is true but disregards another development: the consolidation of the major dredging contractors into larger companies with long-term strategies that have resulted in diversification. Today’s major dredging contractors do more than dredge. They are partners in the development of a project.

A review of the ferry industry’s latest challenges and opportunities attracted a record 340 delegates to Vancouver last week for the 39th annual Interferry conference. The global trade association event exposed a string of concerns – notably over punitive safety and environmental regulations – but also highlighted the financial potential of new routes, onboard shopping incentives and the use of LNG fuel. Alongside sessions on the future of the industry, Canada-based CEO Len Roueche outlined a vision for maintaining Interferry’s influential lobbying role among politicians and regulators.

The United States' largest dredging services provider, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation has reported its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, mentioning that its Rivers & Lakes and Environmental & Remediation sectors backlog was at a record level. For the quarter ended March 31, 2014, Great Lakes reported Revenue of $174.4 million, Net loss from continuing operations of $2.5 million, and Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations of $12.0 million. Jon Berger, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “The dredging segment delivered $162.0 million in revenue and 12.9% gross profit margin in the first quarter of 2014.

Spend dollars up on dredging, cubic yards moved down. Combined with a reduction in the USACE federal budget, the situation threatens a perfect storm for domestic requirements. U.S. dredging this decade, measured in cubic yards, is only half as active as it was in the early 1960s, with maintenance down slightly since then and new work off considerably, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or USACE. The nation’s spending on dredging in unadjusted dollars has swelled tenfold since the 1960’s, however.

To help yacht owners navigate increasingly risky waters, XL Group is adding a Kidnap, Ransom & Extortion (KRE) Crisis endorsement to ShipShape, and ShipShape Plus, its recreational marine insurance coverages. "Crisis events like kidnapping, disappearance and hijack are increasingly real threats, especially on open seas," explained Denise Balan, Country Manager of XL's US Crisis Management business which developed the KRE endorsement. According to Rick Salway, Vice President of XL Group's Recreational Marine business, "Our ShipShape insurance pulls together the most relevant, comprehensive insurance coverages for yacht owners and other recreational watercrafts under one policy.

Singapore's Terra Weather say that Offshore planners and asset managers will now be able to plan critical offshore activities with greater confidence and accuracy, by taking advantage of a first ever cloud-based weather planning tool that allows users to get real-time, instant weather information any time, anywhere. An internet connectio is all that's needed. TerraWaves is a global online weather service that uses advanced multi-modeling statistical tools to provide time-critical weather information to businesses operating in the offshore industry…

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD) says it has signed an US$89 million contract with the City of Decatur (IL) to provide dredging services to increase the capacity of Lake Decatur. Lake Decatur, the largest lake on the Sangamon River, was created after the river was dammed in 1922. The reservoir serves as the primary raw water source for Decatur’s 76,000 residents and large industrial sector. In recent years, the city has been forced to enact water restrictions due to low water levels and drought conditions.

Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA suffered another setback in its effort to boost oil output last month when Italian contractor Saipem SpA dropped a 2.3 km steel pipe into the Atlantic Ocean. On March 16, the rigging used to wrangle the pipe into position on a floating oil platform failed, and the high-grade, metal-alloy tubes plunged about 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) to the seabed, a total, crumpled loss. The pipe itself was worth about $2 million but the cost of the accident will be much higher, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters. By setting back efforts to expand Roncador, Brazil's No. 2 oil field, by at least a month, Petrobras will lose tens of millions of dollars in oil output, salaries and equipment leases when it can least afford it.

Largest provider of dredging services in the United States, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD) informs it has completed the sale of NASDI, LLC and Yankee Environmental Services, LLC, its two subsidiaries that comprise the historical demolition business, to a privately owned demolition company located in the Midwest for US$5.3 million. GLDD points out that it retains the right to collect all outstanding accounts receivable and work in process at the date of close, as well as any outstanding claims, and retains certain obligations, including obligations related to performance bonds issued for existing projects. The Company also retained a significant remediation project that will be performed by its Terra subsidiary.