Oil Spill Equipment News

When it came time to replace their 50-year-old station vessel New York, the Sandy Hook Pilots Association thought long and hard, weighing their options to determine the best possible solution. They traveled the country, to Houston, San Francisco and up to the Columbia River, and even to Europe—the Elbe River in Germany and Rotterdam in the Netherlands—to ride with other pilots in search of an answer.“We looked at everything from SWATH (small-waterplane-area twin hull) boats to helicopters to big boats in Europe…

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.

Last month we were offered an in-depth discussion on marine salvage with Captain Gregg W. Baumann, U.S. Navy, Director of Ocean Engineering, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving. Captain Baumann and his team have a long history regarding difficult missions accomplished, including most recently the location and filming of the lost TOTE containership El Faro. What is the scope of the responsibility of the Supervisor of Salvage & Diving; Director of Ocean Engineering? The responsibilities of the Supervisor of Salvage & Diving…

OPV Turva, the Finnish Border Guard's new 314 foot (95.9 meter) offshore patrol vessel, will be outfitted for oil spill response just seven months after its launch. UK-based Vikoma International Ltd and Mobimar Ltd of Finland will provide the vessel with oil spill response equipment, including 800m of Vikoma oil containment boom, four Vikoma boom reels, and Mobimar's in-hull integrated recovery system, along with other oil recovery systems. The equipment will provide a recovery capacity of over 1000m3.

Elastec/American Marine say that quality and dependability made all the difference when the state oil company of Ecuador decided recently to purchase its oil spill response equipment. PetroEcuador recently acquired two ELASTEC TDS136G grooved drum skimmers, two ELASTEC SeaSkater weir skimmers, a PACS1000-770, two ELASTEC BoomVane™ units, 60 sections of oil containment boom and ten QuickTanks. The oil spill response equipment will be used at PetroEcuador’s Esmeraldas facility, the country’s largest and most important refinery. Elastec skimmers have been in service there for over six years, and that track record, Elastec’s grooved drum…

When Elastec/American Marine managed the controlled burn operation in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the response operation was more efficient when aerial surveillance was available. Fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters were frequently employed in the search for oil, but those alternatives proved costly and were also unavailable at night. In other scenarios, limitations such as fog, heavy rains or snow may make flying impractical and unsafe for the flight crew. Valuable time may be lost preparing and filing flight plans…

BC Ferries cut time loss injuries in half; it reduced serious injuries by two-thirds; it slashed annual insurance claims costs by more than three-quarters. What are you waiting for? Can a vessel operator completely reshape its safety culture? Can it transform communications, training, operational practices and even employee engagement? And most importantly, if an operator is able to make such sweeping changes, what measurable difference will it make? It turns out it can make a huge difference to almost every meaningful key performance indicator…

Oil spill equipment manufacturer Elastec brings new and sophisticated tools to a market in need of better, faster, more efficient and environmentally sound tactics. Just what the doctor ordered. Elastec/American Marine may well be the largest manufacturer of oil spill and environmental equipment in North America, but it is technology and innovation that are quickly propelling the firm to the top of the markets. With six U.S. locations, three foreign offices and a network of global dealers, ISO 9001 certified-Elastec produces a range of products that includes oil spill equipment (skimmers, containment boom, fire boom, dispersant application equipment), incinerators, vacuum systems, portable tanks, pumps and a dozen more entries.

Alnmaritec Limited, which is recognised as one of the UK's leading specialist boat builders, has recently delivered two new oil pollution control boats for operation in Asia. The new ‘Wave Skimmer’ class boats were delivered by Alnmaritec earlier this year to Elastec American Marine who also supplied all of the oil recovery and storage equipments on board. These boats follow on from the successful Wave Provider class boat that was delivered by Alnmaritec to Elastec (a major manufacturer of oil spill equipment) in 2010, also for operations in Asia.

Alnmaritec Limited, a UK boat builders, has two new boats delivered in 2010 to in the oil spill response/pollution control vessel market. The most recent delivery was a boom deployment and spill response boat which was delivered to the Barbados National Terminal Company Ltd. for operation on their oil export facility at Oistins Bay on the South Coast of the island. The new vessel Responder 1 is based upon the successful Wave Worker class from Alnmaritec and she is a 39.3 ft long by 17.4 ft wide displacement catamaran design providing a very stable and seaworthy platform.

Two technical experts from Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) have flown to the U.S. at the invitation of one of the oil spill response companies assisting with the clean-up of the Gulf of Mexico spill. An oil spill equipment technician and a response planning officer from MNZ’s Marine Pollution Response Service (MPRS) have been seconded to support the Deepwater Horizon spill response. They will be working for Oil Spill Response Ltd (OSR), a company contracted to assist the US Government in its management of the spill. OSR, a United Kingdom-based organization, is part of the wider oil spill response network Global Alliance. MPRS Group Manager Nick Quinn said the pair would be tasked with supporting the spill response effort…

At about 6:10am on 25 May 2010, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) received a report that a Malaysian-registered tanker, MT Bunga Kelana 3 and a St Vincents and The Grenadines-registered bulk carrier, MV Waily had collided in the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) of the Singapore Strait. The incident location is about 13 kilometres southeast of Changi East. Both vessels are currently anchored in the Singapore Strait. MV Waily is currently about 11 kilometres southeast of Changi East and MT Bunga Kelana 3 is about 7 kilometres south of Changi East. MPA's Port Operations Control Centre has issued navigational broadcasts to ships transiting the TSS to keep clear of the anchored vessels. Traffic in the TSS remains unaffected. There was no report of injury to crew members.

Shipping companies and oil-handling facilities should take immediate steps to increase the number of boats available to respond to oil spills in Puget Sound and along Washington's coast, according to Ecology Director Jay Manning. A newly released study commissioned by the Department of Ecology (Ecology) found that there are not enough vessels available to simultaneously deploy oil booms, transport oil-spill equipment and supplies, and provide other spill-response assistance needed during a major oil spill. "With as much shipping and tanker traffic as we have in Washington's waters, a significant oil spill is a very real threat, and we have to be able to stage a rapid and aggressive response effort," said Manning.