Assurance Services News

Global energy and marine consultancy ABL has partnered up with Egypt’s Petroleum Marine Services (PMS) to introduce a unified rig moving service in the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez, with the support of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).This milestone initiative supports Egypt’s strategic direction to enhance offshore operational efficiency, reduce downtime, and elevate the standards of marine and drilling logistics across two of the country’s most dynamic offshore basins.The new integrated service from PMS and ABL…

Lloyd's Register (LR) has announced a milestone in its naval assurance services, having secured a 12-month in-service submarine support contract from the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) through the Aurora Framework.Under the new contract, LR will provide experienced surveyors to His Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde, providing expert support to the Royal Navy’s submarines. In parallel, LR will offer technical consultancy from MOD Abbey Wood, delivering strategic advice. This dual-location presence ensures responsive…

Briggs Marine, a leading provider of marine services, has been awarded a contract with the UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) to supply and maintain Authority Moorings, Markers, and Targets over the next eight years with a forecast revenue of USD$244 million (£182 million).The successful bid is the largest defense contract to be awarded to the Fife-based company to date and forms part of the MoD’s ‘next generation of marine services’ program. It will see Briggs deliver a scheduled maintenance…

Ocean energy company Global OTEC unveiled the OTEC Power Module concept, a system that employs ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) technology to provide clean power for remote offshore platforms and wells.Designed as an alternative to traditional long subsea tiebacks, the OTEC Power Module could provide clean baseload electricity and flow assurance services without the need for cables and hydraulics, which typically limit reach to 35 km.Building on Global OTEC’s experience…

Richard Murphy has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of BPA Worldwide, a leading global assurance provider of media, technology, events, and sustainability compliance. He replaces Glenn Hansen, who has announced his intent to retire in June 2023. In the interim, Hansen has been named Executive Strategic Advisor to focus on BPA iCompli Sustainability and Event Audit practices.Murphy brings 30 years of experience with BPA to this position. He was formerly Executive Vice President…

Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen Marine has been awarded Digital Safe Security certification from classification society Lloyd’s Register (LR) for its latest 12,000 TEU containership, Ever Forward, which was built by South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and delivered on Monday.SHI used its smart ship solution, SVESSEL, to develop the digital ship system onboard Ever Forward. This solution provides operators and shore-based staff with instant access to operating data from onboard systems for monitoring and diagnostics through the cloud…

Technology group Wärtsilä and classification society DNV GL say they will work together to contribute to the marine industry’s ongoing digital transformation. In particular, the two companies aim to to further explore the potential use of digital technologies, collaborative data sharing and standardization to enhance existing products and services, and to develop new ones.Among focus areas will be collaboration on digital technologies and big data in classification and the requirements for their use.

The international oil & gas advisory and classification society DNV GL has won a major contract to provide independent verification services for the Danish transmission system operator Energinet’s section of the Baltic Pipe project, offshore Denmark.The Baltic Pipe project aims to enable the transport of gas from Norway from a tie-in to the existing Europipe II in the Danish North Sea to the export facility in Zealand. The pipeline in the Baltic Sea towards Poland is not included in the contract. The Baltic Pipe project is planned to be fully operational by 1 October 2022.DNV GL’s contract scope includes independent verification and submarine pipeline certification to the DNV GL certification regime DNVGL-SE-0475.

Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute has been granted approval in principle (AiP) by Lloyd’s Register (LR) for a J-lay heavy lift vessel concept design.The vessel’s primary function will be deep-water pipe-laying, subsea installation and heavy lifting in deep sea, said a press release from the provider of professional assurance services and management certification.This J-lay heavy lift vessel concept design has been purposely designed for a Chinese oil major, in support of the rapid growth of offshore demand in the local market.It will provide more opportunities to oil majors in the Shanghai region who can now develop deep water oil fields.

Star Bulk Carriers announced that it has entered into a $310 million loan agreement, which includes a $70 million tranche (Green Loan Tranche) that will exclusively finance the procurement and retrofitting of scrubbers for up to approx. 50 vessels in Star Bulk’s fleet. According to a press release from the global shipping company focusing on the transportation of dry bulk cargoes, DNB Bank, acted as the Mandated Lead Arranger, Facility Agent and Coordinator, along with ABN AMRO Bank, BNP Paribas, Danish Ship Finance and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken as Mandated Lead Arrangers.The remaining $240 million were drawn on September 28, 2018 and refinanced in full a group of 26 vessels…

Bureau Veritas announced the launch of a newly branded and separate family of experts, ‘Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine & Offshore’ (BV Solutions M&O).Aimed at the marine and offshore markets, BV Solutions M&O brings together services and people from within Bureau Veritas to create a proactive and dedicated capability, offering value to clients through technical services and solutions.BV Solutions M&O is focused on four service lines: Engineering & Risk Solutions, Asset Management Solutions…

Maritime Assurance & Consulting (MAC), a Bureau Veritas company, has won a contract from Chrysaor for marine assurance services. The contract also includes engineering, DP assurance, marine warranty surveying (MWS), project assurance and compliance services. Chrysaor is focused on the development and commercialization of dormant oil and gas discoveries and incremental reserves. The company acquired stakes in 10 North Sea fields from Shell last year and was recently granted acreage in the UK’s 30th licensing round.

UK-based energy services company Wood Group has been awarded a new contract by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to support the Lingshui 17-2 gas development in the Qiongdongnan basin of the South China Sea. Subsea and flow assurance services will be provided under the contract, which is effective immediately and will be supported by Wood Group’s offices in Perth, Australia and London. An independent review for the development’s subsea production system design and a special study and design for its gas export pipeline will be delivered. Bob MacDonald, CEO of Wood Group’s Specialist Technical Solutions business, said: “We are ideally positioned to support this significant Asia Pacific development with our global deepwater expertise and broad subsea capabilities.

An Aberdeen-based maritime specialist has launched 500m Zone Management training courses to address concerns raised around offshore installation safety zones. Seacroft Marine Consultants is aiming to raise awareness of the need to control marine operations inside the 500m zone as the HSE highlights worries around the control and monitoring of vessels attending installations. With 97 percent of collisions occurring within the 500m zone involving vessels there on legitimate business…

The first ships to be classed with Lloyd’s Register’s cyber notations have been delivered to Global United in Korea. Built by Hanjin Heavy Industries, in collaboration with Alpha Ori Technology, the ships have been awarded the notation Cyber (AL-SAFE) certifying the autonomous systems onboard as safe. This is the first real example of the digital transformation in shipping – the ships will operate in an autonomous mode for selected functions using cutting edge digital technology. The new cyber-enabled features allow crew to operate ships more efficiently. This is also the first example of a ship certified to stream data into a big data platform.

Management software: vendors, consultants, class strive to provide turnkey service. Unless you’ve been lost at sea for the last few years, you know about Subchapter M. You know the June publication of the U.S. Coast Guard’s regulations for ensuring minimum safety standards on tows and tugs, which will extend inspection requirements to the majority of these vessels for the first time, moved the long-awaited, and in some cases, dreaded program from the haze of eventually out into the cold light of day.

Bureau Veritas (BV) acquired Maritime Assurance & Consulting (MAC). Based in Aberdeen, MAC was established in 2010 and now has 30 employees as well as more than 40 associates. This transaction is in line with BV’s recent developments in the North Sea offshore sector, where it has reaffirmed ambition to strengthen its local presence and increase its service provision capabilities for clients in spite of challenging market conditions. MAC’s capabilities will be a great enabler to further develop Maritime Assurance services for BV clients worldwide, in particular in the offshore sector. Commenting on the acquisition, Paul Shrieve, BV Regional CEO North Sea Offshore Operations, said: "We are delighted to welcome the MAC team to the BV family.

After undergoing extensive assessments, classification society ClassNK has received accreditation from the UK-based national accreditation body UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) as an EU MRV verifier, effective as of March 1, 2017. EU MRV is an EU regulation on the monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from vessels, which first entered into force on July 1, 2015. This regulation lays down rules for developing Monitoring Plans and for…

South Carolina Ports Authority reported fiscal year-over-year growth through February, with 4.4 percent gains in container volume since the 2016 fiscal year began in July. SCPA handled 157,962 twenty foot-equivalent units (TEUs) in February, an increase of 3.3 percent over February 2015. SCPA's total fiscal year-to-date container volume reached nearly 1.28 million TEUs last month, compared to 1.23 TEUs handled during the same period last year. Pier container volume, or boxes handled, totaled 88,643 containers in February. Fiscal year to date, 721,810 total containers have moved across the docks of SCPA's two container terminals. "February volumes showed modest increases over last year…

Arun Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director, head of IRClass, discusses advances at the classification society as it celebrates 40 years. Indian Register of Shipping (IRClass) is India’s “National” Ship Classification Society, formed to fill the need for having an Indian ship classification society due to the increase in Indian flagged commercial shipping tonnage, post-independence. Accordingly, Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar first proposed to set up a National Classification Society. In response the Ministry of Shipping & Transport convened a meeting in Delhi on May 29…

Project, breakbulk and heavylift cargo transporter Intermarine, LLC reports it has promoted Chad Call to Director of Corporate Finance. Call will continue to report to Michael Dumas, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In this new role, Call will be responsible for managing the company’s banking relationships, corporate financial analysis, forecasting and financial reporting. Call joined Intermarine in 2010, where he previously served as Intermarine’s Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis.

Global Diving & Salvage has announced the addition of Global Technical Services (GTS) to its three core services: marine construction, marine casualty response and offshore support. GTS is offering a wide range of Non Destructive Testing (NDT) instruction services to industry clients in coordination with Alaska Technical. Courses will offered to energy company, aviation, rail and infrastructure clients and will include visual, magnetic particle, dye penetrant, ultrasonic, radiography, radiographic film interpretation and eddy current courses.

To meet the growing demand in the region, DNV GL opened a new office in Malaysia. The official opening of the office coincided with the company’s celebration of a double milestone: 150 years of history as a world leader in classification and technical assurance services and its first year as a newly merged company. "According to the OECD, growth in the Emerging Asian economies (South East Asia, China and India) is expected to be a robust 6.9% for the 2014-18 period. Registering a 6.4% growth in Q2 of 2014, Malaysia has a well-diversified economy, with major contributors coming from export-driven service and manufacturing industries as well as the mining and agricultural sectors. The country is a key driver of offshore investments and is building substantial offshore infrastructure.