Daily Times News

Senator Wesley Livsey Jones gave his name to the famous “Jones Act” governing U.S. domestic maritime trade. But what do really know about him? It turns out that he was much more than a leading merchant marine policy maker. (i)Jones had a long career in the U.S. House of Representatives before he was a Senator, was an effective legislator, an astute politician, one of the hardest working legislators of his era, and always viewed as honest and forthright. His many maritime legislative successes included the Merchant Marine Act…

Mark Goodall of Aker Solutions believes there is a future for N.Sea oil & gas despite the present focus on wind and nuclear energy power. Goodall explained that the low hanging fruit may have gone but there are still several significant new field developments coming on stream with others still in the planning and pre-development phases. We are also seeing the redevelopment of some existing fields with new investment in facilities upgrades to extend the viable operating field life. The North Sea is classified as a mature oil and gas region, which has passed peak production, however, as technology improves, operating companies are able to extract a far higher percentage of hydrocarbon from the reservoirs than was ever thought possible in the early years.

According to an April 8 report from Pakistan’s Daily Times, the residents of the federal capital are buying water from tankers of Capital Development Authority (CDA) to meet their water needs. (Source: Daily Times, Pakistan)

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was informed in late October of this year that the new Gwadar Port would be completed ahead of schedule with the first phase of the port to be opened in the first quarter of 2005. As reported in Pakistan Daily Times, Mr Aziz praised the work done by Chinese engineers in completing the work ahead of schedule and thanked the Chinese government for helping the Pakistani government in the port construction. Central to this success has been the role of the China Harbour Engineering Company.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was informed in late October of this year that the new Gwadar Port would be completed ahead of schedule with the first phase of the port to be opened in the first quarter of 2005. As reported in Pakistan Daily Times, Mr Aziz praised the work done by Chinese engineers in completing the work ahead of schedule and thanked the Chinese government for helping the Pakistani government in the port construction. Central to this success has been the role of the China Harbour Engineering Company. A part of their work was the supply of a pair of 2600 HP azimuthing drive docking tugs for the new port. The keels for these boats were laid at China’s PengLai BoHai Shipbuilding Company on January 8 this year.

After successful onshore oil and gas exploration, the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) will soon undertake offshore oil and gas exploration in the Arabian Sea, Managing Director of the Company, Arshad Nasar recently indicated. For this purpose, an exploration license with government holdings and petroleum production sharing agreement with OGDCL has been signed by the government over a block covering an area of 1,492 square kilometres located in the Arabian Sea. In an interview, the MD said the company will invest an amount of $1.14m during the first two years of the initial term of the license. Nasar said the company has succeeded to spud 50 wells last year and is 100 percent owner in 28 exploration blocks.

of Gloucester and sinking it in a commercial fishing area. United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Michael E. Agent in Charge of the Northeast Region of the U.S. Investigative Service, announced that THOMAS W. 47, of 121 Wheeler Street, Gloucester, was sentenced by U.S. violating the Refuse Act. the coast of Gloucester in approximately one hundred feet of water. pumped water into it using a bilge pump until it sank stern first. the expense. fishermen, thereby creating a navigational hazard. recommendation in the plea agreement filed in the case. serving one year of probation, LUKEGORD will pay a fine of $2,000. sinking. which equals the cost to the Coast Guard in responding to the sinking. newspapers of the two largest fishing ports in the region.

Gas and petroleum exploration company L&M Mining expects to launch its initial public offering to raise $23.2m this month. The plan is that the new company, floated on 20c shares, will be dual-listed on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges by the end of November. L&M is the largest and most aggressive of all the "junior" exploration companies in New Zealand, not only in oil and gas, but also in promoting the vast southern lignite resource as a potential petrochemical source. It has five permits covering Otago and Southland containing an estimated 2 billion tonnes of lignite, a separate venture from the proposed float. While juniors historically stake a prospect and undertake drilling to work up estimates of the target oil…

The inventory of Pakistan Navy is being strengthened while measures are being taken to make the navy a potent force, defense experts have said. Last year, the Pakistan Navy inked a deal with China for four state-of-the-art frigates besides inducting modern Agosta 90b submarines and enhancing the existing fleet of P-3C Orion surveillance aircrafts. The acquisition of four F-22P frigates would be an important step for the county’s maritime defence and experts hope that the first of the ships would be delivered in 2008. According to schedule, China State Shipbuilding Corporation would supply the ships from 2008 to 2013. The fourth warship would be built completely in Pakistan to transfer the technology.

Global tanker freight rates may be depressed for several more years as a stream of new vessels hit the market and shipowners refrain from scrapping older ships. However, a recovery is likely toward the end of the decade as more single-hulled tankers are taken off the market to meet regulations for safer ships. Tanker rates jumped to record highs in 2004 as a surge in oil trading and demand strained available fleet supply, but they have since retreated despite the still-booming markets for commodities such as oil, copper and sugar. The rate for a supertanker on the benchmark Middle East-Japan Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) reached a peak of about WorldScale 344 in November 2004, but has since fallen back to around W65, data from the Baltic Exchange showed.

Pirates had a field day with mechanical and electrical equipment from two out-of-order tugboats that were anchored off the coast of the Arabian Sea near Manora Island. On Feb 24, the Docks Police registered an FIR against four masked men, who robbed the two tugboats. The police said that FIR No 36/06 was registered on the complaint of Ahsan Ali, who is a manager with Old Port (Pvt) Ltd, the company, which owns the tugboats. The Daily Times reported that Ali informed the police that the four men approached his company's boats in two separate vessels. They took the guards stationed at the tugboats hostage and loaded the stuff into their boats. The names of the tugboats are Jawa and Jawa Bosar. The pirates took away motors, some tools and copper and scrap.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd will invest $3 billion next year to raise domestic production and is ready to spend $15 billion on overseas acquisitions to feed India’s energy needs. State-run ONGC, which produces more than 80 percent of India’s oil, plans to boost domestic output by about 12 percent to 30 million tons by 2009/10 through new exploration and improving yields from existing fields. ONGC, which is eyeing oil fields in Kazakhstan and Nigeria, had been investing $1 billion every year in its overseas operations in the last five years. ONGC has also lined up big-budget investments in oil retailing, power and petrochemicals, despite pressure from India’s oil ministry not to venture into non-core sectors.