Kongsberg Maritime Inc News

Thrustmaster of Texas acquired the ICON Dynamic Positioning business from Rolls Royce earlier this year, a DP product addition to the Thrustmaster product portfolio. In addition to the rights to produce and sell future units of the DP products, Thrustmaster also has responsibility for the maintenance, service and upgrades of existing DP systems presently in operation. To support this addition, Thrustmaster has added Jon Holvik to the Thrustmaster team as the Executive Vice President for Business Development of Dynamic Positioning Systems.

Kongsberg Maritime Inc., the North American division of Norway headquartered marine and offshore technology company Kongsberg Maritime, and Houston headquartered Stress Engineering Services (SES) have formed a strategic alliance to better serve existing and new clients with cost effective engineering services and fully integrated technical solutions within offshore drilling and floating production systems. By combining Stress Engineering Services’ wide-ranging engineering expertise…

Kongsberg Maritime has purchased approximately 5.2 acres for new construction on an 82,980 sq ft office and training facility. Construction on the James Business Park property located on James Drive East in St. Rose, Louisiana is scheduled to begin this spring. Kongsberg Maritime moved its service department from Houston to Louisiana in 2003 establishing a small office in James Business Park with nine full-time employees. Growing together with local customers, the Louisiana office now has 110 employees occupying 35,000 sq ft of leased office space.

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding – Newport News, Newport News, Va., is being awarded a $12,000,000 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-08-C-2100) for emergent and supplemental work for the accomplishment of the fiscal year 2008 Extended Drydocking Selected Restricted Availability (EDSRA) of USS Enterprise (CVN 65). The CVN 65 FY08 EDSRA is a ship depot availability of approximately 16-month duration. EDSRAs are similar to overhauls in that they restore the ship, including all subsystems that affect combat capability and safety, to established performance standards. Additionally, an EDSRA provides an opportunity to perform hull inspections and recoating, and other maintenance related evolutions below the waterline that cannot be accomplished while the ship is waterborne.

Kongsberg Maritime, Inc., USA and Kongsberg Maritime, Norway have signed an agreement with C & C Technologies, Inc. for the sales and support of Hugin Autonomous Underwater Vehicles to the U.S. Government. C&C will complement Kongsberg’s existing U.S. capacity with additional support facilities, technical expertise, and operational experience obtained during three years and over 18,000 miles of commercial AUV mapping. In addition, C & C will work jointly with Kongsberg to develop Hugin variants to address the evolving needs of the U.S. Government. The alliance will focus upon sustaining the U.S. Naval dominance by the introduction of such innovative products as the Military Version Hugin 1000 AUV.

Stolt-Nielsen S.A. appointed Otto H. Fritzner as CEO of Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group (SNTG). Fritzner most recently served as Managing Director, Ship Owning at SNTG. He succeeds James B. Hurlock, who was named Interim CEO of SNTG in July 2003. • SNTG's global operations will be organized into three regions - the Americas, administered from Greenwich, Conn.; Asia-Pacific, administered from Singapore; and Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA), administered from Rotterdam, SNTG's corporate headquarters. • SNTG's Indian Ocean Service and the Europe-to-Asia Pacific Service will be operated out of Rotterdam. I.M. Skaugen ASA announced that Skaugen PetroTrans (SPT), its 50 percent owned joint venture company, has appointed Per Voie as its President.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the largest independent institution of its kind in the world, recently began developing a new piston corer for retrieving sediments from the ocean floor. Once complete in 2006, the deep-water coring system will be the largest in the U.S. and among the biggest in the world. The corer’s enormous weight — 25,000 pounds — coupled with the environmental demands associated with working in water up to 20,000 ft. deep presented major technical challenges to the system required to lower the corer to the sea floor then recover it, along with its ancient sediment samples. Located in Cape Cod, Mass.…

Kongsberg Maritime Inc. has been awarded a contract to supply the Class 2 Dynamic Positioning Systems for six Gulfcraft crewboats (hulls 462-467) currently in production at Gulfcraft Shipyard in Patterson La., for SEACOR Marine. Kongsberg Maritime will be supplying its latest K-POS 21 DP2 system with a back up joystick, 2 DGPS systems and a Radius 1000. Radius is the latest in relative positioning systems developed for operation in the harsh and demanding environments that crewboats operate in, utilizing radar technology. The crewboats will range in power and size with two 190 ft. vessels, two 175 ft. vessels, one 165 ft. vessel and a 165 ft. catamaran. They will be the first DP2 class crewboats and the first DP2 class catamaran crewboat delivered in the world.