Vela International News

Sembcorp Marine has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Saudi Aramco and the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri), with the objective of preparing a detailed feasibility assessment for the development of a world-class maritime yard in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The intended maritime yard will provide engineering, manufacturing & repair services related to rigs, platforms, commercial vessels and offshore service vessels. Saudi Aramco is committed to leveraging its current and future business needs to actively promote economic development in the Kingdom and to ensuring local availability of world class services to support its growing national and international portfolio.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest state-owned oil company, said a new very large crude carrier entered service with its tanker-operating subsidiary Vela International Marine Ltd. The Homam Star is Vela’s fourth double-hulled VLCC to be built by South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. (Source: Bloomberg)

A Liberian-flagged very large crude tanker, Sirius Star, was attacked more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, Nov. 15. The ship is owned by the Saudi Arabian-based Saudi Aramco and is operated by Vela International. The crew of 25 includes citizens of: Croatia, Great Britain, Republic of the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia. This attack comes amid a decrease in the rate of successful pirate attacks on merchant vessels off the coast of Somalia. Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) data analysis has shown that the combination of both military and civilian involvement in the area has reduced the percentage of successful piracy attacks from 53 percent in August to 31 percent in October.

"The high oil price has created a boom market for offshore support vessels and we expect the oil market will remain high for the foreseeable future,” said Eivind Grostad, DNV’s Senior Vice President & Regional Manager for DNV Maritime. According to the classification society, DNV Maritime has captured 50% of the Middle East and Indian market in classification of new vessels on order or being built. This figure represents 39% of the total tonnage of vessels currently operating in the region.

Industries Co., Ltd. For many years now, contracts for ships and floating units to operate in an offshore environment have been much-prized value-added goals at Samsung. These include not only shuttle but drill ships, floating storage and offloading units (FSOs), with their derivative production types (FPSOs), crane ships, and various types of floating and fixed platforms. Some of the more interesting ships that have been created here have included a trio of deepwater drill ships for Reading & Bates capable of working in water depths down to 3000m, the 312,500 dwt FPSO Bonga for operating off Nigeria, and the Saibos FDS, a pipelayer/crane vessel with a jib capacity of 600tonnes.

Vela International Marine, the shipping arm of Saudi Aramco, reportedly has awarded Hyundai Heavy Industries a contract to build four very large crude carriers (VLCCs). The 300,000-dwt VLCCs would each be able to transport two million barrels of crude oil to customers in Europe, the Far East and North America, SPA said. The new tankers, to be delivered between 2002 and 2003, would replace old tankers due to be put out of service. Vela's fleet consists of 15 vessels.

Following on from the earlier success of the first half of this year, Bahrain’s ASRY, has turned in a successful third quarter series of results with an increase in business and sales, which were up some 7% on the previous quarter. In all some 28 vessels were in the yard for repairs and refurbishment, with 30 percent being in the tanker class with the majority being ULCCs and VLCCs. The yard was also kept extremely busy with other classes of vessels ranging from lpg carriers, livestock carriers through to RoRos, dredgers and general cargo. During this third quarter over a hundred specifications were received from owners around the world with a contact award success rate of 26%.

There are currently three large tankers under repair at Bahrain’s Asry – the 284,889 dwt VLCC Al Samidoon and the 285,117 dwt VLCC Al Shuhadaa, both owned by Kuwait Oil Tanker Co (KOTC), the 305,783 dwt ULCC Orion Star, owned by Vela International, and the 238,898 dwt VLCC Progress, owned by Greece’s Dynacom. Other ship currently under repair include the 13,143 dwt tanker UVO XX, PNSC’s 99,358 dwt tanker Shalamar, Odfjell’s 37,221 dwt tanker Bow Clipper, the 44,954 dwt tanker QUDS B7, owned by Bakri, Belden Shipmanagement’s 16,960 dwt cement carrier Mariana III and the 1,235 dwt vessel SD Severn.

Tiny alien invaders transported in ballast water star as the villains in a new documentary film on harmful organisms in ships’ ballast water launched on March 23 by IMO, the United Nations agency responsible for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships, and BBC Worldwide. The documentary film, “Invaders from the Sea”, which will be broadcasted/distributed on television worldwide, shows that harmful organisms transported in ballast water by ships have caused biological and economic havoc around the world, largely due to the expanded sea trade and traffic volume over the last few decades. The…

Schat-Harding has won an order to replace the winches on the lifeboat stations of 17 VLCCs owned by Vela International Marine Ltd, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco. Since the implementation of the 1996 SOLAS amendments, there has been an increased focus by the authorities on survival equipment on all ships, although maintenance programs and special tests have sadly not reduced the number of incidents involving lifeboat drills and lifeboat equipment. As a demonstration of its ongoing commitment to the very highest standards of safety and crew confidence, Vela International Marine, in addition to introducing an upgraded training and maintenance program, has invested in two replacement lifeboat winches for each of the seventeen tankers.