Middle East Ship Repair Yards Remain Center Stage
In the 45 years since the Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard (ASRY) opened on reclaimed land in Bahrain, the Middle East has become one of the world’s ship repair hotspots. A broad range of shipyards now service both regional and global markets.Regional yards have a ready market, with hundreds of offshore rigs working across the region together with the service ships that support them. Then there are thousands of tankers and gas carriers that arrive each year to load energy cargoes for far-flung destinations.
DOF Subsea to Help VAALCO with FPSO/FSO Swap Offshore Gabon
Oil and gas company VAALCO Energy has hired DOF Subsea to perform subsea construction and installation services offshore Gabon, where the company operates the Etame field.The contract is for the support of the subsea reconfiguration associated with the replacement of the existing Floating Production, Storage and Offloading unit (“FPSO”) with a Floating Storage and Offloading vessel (“FSO”) at the offshore field.VAALCO in 2021 said it had struck a charter deal with the FSO owner World Carrier Offshore Services Corp for the Cap Diamant, a double-hull crude tanker built in 2001, which will be converted to an FSO for operations at the Etame field.By deploying the FSO at the field…
Siemens Launches Scalable Electric Drive
Siemens is expanding its portfolio of green ship propulsion systems by adding a new member to the Siship BlueDrive Family: Siship BlueDrive Eco. Besides by integrating battery systems produced in-house, the company is now able to offer a scalable and flexible solution to cover every propulsion requirement, with different power graduations for small to medium-sized propulsion systems from 5 kilowatts (kW) in auxiliary mode up to 5.5 megawatts (MW) for the main drive – from Siship BlueDrive Eco through to Siship BlueDrive PlusC. The solutions can be configured to individual customer specifications and are based on practically tested standardized components such as Sinamics converters.
ASRY Woos Back Greek Major Owner
ASRY has successfully brought one of the European tanker market’s biggest tanker fleet owners back to the yard. Euronav, the Greece-base owner, operator and manager of a fleet of 53 modern large tankers, chose ASRY for the recent repair of ‘Cap Diamant’, a Suezmax tanker, which successfully completed the dry-docking in early September at ASRY. “Euronav is a leader in its field,” commented ASRY Ship Repair General Manager, Charles Maher, “so it was naturally very satisfying that they chose to return to ASRY after a 7-year hiatus.” The last vessel Euronav docked with ASRY was ‘Felicity’ in 2009. They currently have a fleet of 53 vessels mainly VLCC’s & Suezmax’s with many trading in the Arabian Gulf region regularly.
Total Names Refining Boss to Replace de Margerie
French oil company Total has appointed refining boss Patrick Pouyanne as chief executive to succeed Christophe de Margerie who was killed in a plane crash in Moscow this week. Pouyanne, 51, head of refining, had been considered as possible candidate to succeed de Margerie in the past and has a reputation as a shrewd cost-cutter. The world's fourth largest oil company also named Thierry Desmarest, a former Total CEO, as non-executive chairman. The appointments came less than 48 hours after de Margerie's death.
MN 100: Total Lubmarine
Total Lubmarine is a global business unit of the oil major Total Group specialized and dedicated to marine lubricants and greases. Providing marine lubricants since 1952, Total Lubmarine is fully integrated from product development, supply chain, marketing and sales. Lubmarine offers a complete range of marine lubricants to meet the needs of the international shipping industry, based on technologies developed by the Total Research Center at Solaize, tested and approved by all the major marine engine manufacturers.
Aberdeen Celebrates Successful Cruise Season
Aberdeen Harbor has bid a fond farewell to another successful cruise season, with the arrival of the final vessel of the season, Hebridean Princess, a small luxury liner making its maiden voyage to the port.Carrying just 50 passengers and a crew of 38, the vessel’s ‘East Coast Adventure’ saw it berth at the harbour overnight before heading to Dundee, the East Neuk of Fife and Leith.The Princess is one of nine vessels that have called into Aberdeen Harbour since the cruise season began in May, with the MS Silver Cloud, Le Diamant and Europa also making their first visits to the port.
First Cruise Ship Of The Season Arrives At Aberdeen Harbour
Aberdeen Harbour will welcome ten cruise calls this summer, with four vessels making their first ever visit to the port. The arrival of Noble Caledonia’s MS Quest, a small expedition liner carrying up to 50 passengers, heralded the start of the cruise season on Friday (May 6). A unique small vessel weighing in at 1268 tonnes, she spent the day in Aberdeen before leaving to explore the Copinsay Islands off Orkney, Isle of Lewis, St Kilda and Oban amongst other destinations. Other liners to visit the port over the summer include the MS Silver Cloud…
Euronav Orders Two VLCCs
Euronav nv signed a contract with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI) of Korea to build two double hull 318,000 dwt Very Large Crude Carriers to be delivered in the first quarter of 2009. The construction price for each ship is $120 million. Euronav already owns, fully or in joint venture, 4 ships that were built at HHI: TI Hellas (2005–318,934 dwt), Ardenne Venture (2004-318,000 dwt), TI Topaz (2002-319,430 dwt), all on the same design as the current order, and Cap Diamant (2001–164,044 dwt).
Littoral Combat Ship: It’s Down to 3
The multi-billion contract to build a new family of Navy ships took one giant step last month with the awarding of development contracts to three industry teams. The fight to win the contract to design and build the family of Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) is sure to be fierce, as the deal to build up to 60 of the vessels will help feed the corporate coffers of the successful team for decades to come. LCS is indicative of the Navy's transformation from a deepwater fleet leftover from the Cold War threat of only one other credible super power, to the reality of today's multi-faceted threat environment: small, hard to find and diverse groups around the globe.
UK Prosecutes Master for Violating Collision Regulations
According to the U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) the master of the high speed ferry, Diamant, was convicted of failing to keep a proper lookout and failing to conduct his vessel appropriately in fog. The Diamant collided with freight ferry Northern Merchant off the port of Dover on January 6, 2002. The master was fined £1500 each for the two offences and assessed costs of another £1500. Source: HK Law
