Eas News

Ask the right government department in any G7 state and you’ll find funding to put battery power for your vessel. Beyond funds, new battery makers and system integrators are ironing out safety issues, and a growing number of giga-sized cell factories offer hope that costs will fall for marine energy storage, as ESS choice grows. Efforts are also underway to recycle rare earth elements and to augment or greenify staggeringly high plant electricity inputs. Apart from funding, the drivers of change include constraints on shipping in Emissions Free Areas like the fjords of Norway…

German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd is continuing to focus on the growing market in East Africa, where annual growth rates of approximately six percent lead the African continent.In April 2018 Hapag-Lloyd launched the East Africa Service (EAS), its first dedicated service to East Africa. The weekly service sails from Jeddah to Mombasa, and from there to Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania, and directly back to Jeddah. The service will be expanded in September with a weekly connection to and from Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Khor Fakkan, Jebel Ali, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.

Hapag-Lloyd celebrated the official opening of its new office in Tema, the most important port city in Ghana. Beginning immediately, Hapag-Lloyd will manage all its activities in West Africa from this location. “I’m very pleased that our enhanced presence in West Africa is showing initial signs of success,” said Anthony Firmin, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Hapag-Lloyd. “Our West Africa Express (WAX) service from and to West Africa has been operating with extraordinary success for several years and is very well received by customers. With our new East Africa Service (EAS), connecting Saudi Arabia with Kenya and Tanzania, we have entered another new trade. The GDP of West Africa has grown significantly in the last two years, rising by an average of 6 percent.

Ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd will commence a new weekly service between the Port of Jeddah and the east coast of Africa in April. With the East Africa Service (EAS), the liner shipping company will be calling at the ports of Mombasa (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) for the first time. These will be connected to Hapag-Lloyd’s existing global network via the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah, as the central hub of the region. Hapag-Lloyd will initially deploy four vessels, each with a capacity of 1,200 TEU, in the EAS. The fast-growing economies of countries in East Africa further inland from Kenya and Tanzania, which lack their own seaports, are also likely to benefit from this new offer, as it will give them improved access to the global market.

ShipConstructor Software Inc. (SSI) says it is excited to see that the Brazilian Government has funded training on SSI’s ShipConstructor software. Below is background to that decision. Brazilian shipyard Estaleiro Atlântico Sul (EAS) is one of a select group of bright lights in the Brazilian shipbuilding industry. With the downturn in oil prices and the impact of “Operation Car Wash” causing the cancellation of Petrobras projects, several Brazilian shipbuilding and offshore shipyards have shut down. However, Estaleiro Atlântico Sul has five projects in its portfolio and other shipyards and agencies also continue with work. That means they will continue to need skilled workers both in their own offices and in the associated supply chain.

When it comes to shipbuilding, the numbers are staggering: hundreds of millions of parts in one aircraft carrier. Billions of dollars proposed for Naval fleet development in the latest NDAA. Hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs in the U.S. alone. A 2015 MARAD report, for example, pegged the total economic impact associate with the industry at 400,000 jobs, $25 billion in labor income, and 37 billion in GDP (based on data from 2013). When the financing, jobs, technological developments and supply chain trade dedicated to shipbuilding around the world are added in…

Lessons learned from recent international search and rescue operations, including the ongoing search for MH370, were discussed during an East Asia Summit (EAS) seminar in Sydney this week. Co-chaired by Australia and Thailand, the EAS Rapid Disaster Response: Search and Rescue Lessons Learned Seminar considered the challenges of coordinating search and rescue operations in response to mass-casualty disasters, drawing on the experiences of EAS member states. The seminar focused on search and rescue operations requiring interagency and international coordination and cooperation, particularly those with joint civilian and military contributions.

Liquefied  Natural  Gas  Limited  announced the placement of 40 million fully paid ordinary shares in the capital of LNGL, which has raised A$174 million before costs (Placement).  Commencement of an Early Works program at the proposed 8 mtpa Magnolia LNG (MLNG) project following receipt of the timeline established in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Schedule of Environmental Review (SER) announced on 30 April 2015.  General corporate purposes. The Managing Director of LNGL, Maurice Brand, said “the capital raised will materially help us to progress the Magnolia LNG and Bear Head LNG projects under development in North America.

The growth trend continues in the Brazilian shipbuilding industry, a trend that has been relatively constant during the last five year. While shipbuilding is ‘ship shape,’ the reality of the Brazilian ship repair industry is somewhat muddled, populated by only a few dedicated repair yards as the focus has been squarely on newbuild. On the other hand, Brazil’s ship conversion industry has enjoyed steady growth, growth directly related to orders from Petrobras, mostly to convert VLCC tanker hulls to FPSOs. According to Ariovaldo Rocha, President of SINAVAL (Ship Construction, Repair and Offshore National Syndicate), the investments in the shipbuilding industry have reached around $56.5 billion in the last decade and since 2004 the industry growth has averaged 19.5% per year.

If and when Brazil gets its maritime act together, oh what a shipbuilding market force it could be. The modern Brazilian shipbuilding industry was established in the 1960s, induced by a broad and effective governmental policy. The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of the merchant marine and shipbuilding industry in Brazil. The creation of the “Merchant Marine Fund” and the “Tax for the Merchant Marine Renewal,” in 1958, together with other specific targets set by the government at that time, made investments available to the shipbuilding industry and for the development of the merchant marine in general. Counting on such incentives, new shipyards such as Ishibras and Verolme were built…

Cummins announced the latest addition to the C Power product line, the QSK60 C Power (CP) emergency generator set. Engineered by the Cummins Center of Excellence for the demands of offshore applications, the QSK60 C Power genset is driven by the QSK60 marine auxiliary engine with MCRS fuel system. This engine has been used in diesel electric propulsion and power generation since 2008. “With an expected growth of 17-20% over the next five years, the offshore market is one of the fastest growing and technically advanced segments in the commercial marine industry.

Petrobras announced that production platform P-62, one of the strategic projects of its 2014-2018 Business and Management Plan, started-up on this Monday, May 12, in Roncador field, Campos Basin. P-62, installed at a water depth of 1,600 meters, is an integral part of the Module 4 project of Roncador field. Twenty-two wells, 14 of them oil and gas production and eight water injection will be interconnected to the platform. The FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) unit has the capacity to process up to 180 thousand barrels of oil and 6 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. The platform will export oil via shuttle tankers and natural gas will be transferred via a gas pipeline connecting the platform to the gas distribution network of Campos Basin.

SSI and its representatives continue to engage with leaders of the shipbuilding and offshore industry to help increase productivity and solve business challenges. On April 23, Sincronia, SSI's representative for ShipConstructor software in Brazil, is sponsoring the first seminar focused on the shipbuilding and offshore construction cluster in the state of Pernambuco. Estaleiro Atlântico Sul (EAS) and the American Bureau of Shipping are cosponsors of this event which has been organized by SOBENA (Society of Brazilian Naval Engineers), in partnership with Petrobras, Transpetro, EAS, FIEPE and the Federal University of Pernambuco. The seminar…

Petrobras’ P-55 Floating Production Unit (FPU), the largest and the first of this kind entirely built in Brazil, is on its way to the Roncador Field, Campos Basin, where it will be installed in a water depth of 1,790 metres. The column stabilized semi-submersible has a capacity of 180,000 bopd and 6,000,000 cu m of gas. The unit is classed by Bureau Veritas. BV group companies also provided a wide range of verification and support services which made the major project possible.

On the sidelines at Norshipping 2013 in Oslo, Maritime Reporter caught up with Darren Larkins, a 14-year veteran of Ship Constructor, serving the last two years as CEO. The topic: the evolution of the company from that of an engineering tool supplier to a more consultative role, an evolution culminating in the changing of its name from Ship Constructor to SSI. Why the rebrand from Ship Constructor to SSI? Traditionally our core business has focused around ShipConstructor which is an engineering tool focused on the shipbuilding core disciplines.

MAN Diesel & Turbo representatives attended the delivery ceremony of the Suezmax tanker Zumbi dos Palmares. Powered by an MAN B&W 6S70ME-C type prime mover and three MAN 7L23/30H auxiliary engines, the vessel is the second ship built by Estaleiro Atlantico Sul (EAS) stemming from the Brazilian Government’s PROMEF shipbuilding program. The ceremony took place at the EAS shipyard in northeastern Brazil and was attended by the President of Brazil – Dilma Rouseff, President of Petrobras – Maria das Graças Silva Foster and President of Transpetro – Sergio Machado.

MAN Diesel & Turbo diesel engines power the tanker, the second PROMEF ship built by Estaleiro Atlantico Sul (EAS). Powered by an MAN B&W 6S70ME-C type prime mover and 3 × MAN 7L23/30H auxiliary engines, the delivery ceremony of the ‘Zumbi dos Palmares’ was attended by the President of Brazil – Dilma Rouseff, President of Petrobras – Maria das Graças Silva Foster, and President of Transpetro – Sergio Machado. “We are proud to participate in this new chapter of Brazilian shipbuilding history”…

In the last 12 months, GE has won contracts valued at more than $600 million to provide propulsion systems with customers in the pre-salt oilfield expansion off Brazil’s east coast. GE’s systems will power, propel, navigate, position and control drillships and also power and control the drilling process itself. Today, GE is in the process of building systems for 22 of the 29 drillships for the current phase of the Brazilian oil and gas exploration by Brazilian energy corporation Petrobras. “Our advanced power generation, propulsion technology, drilling drives, dynamic positioning (DP) and automation and control systems are being harnessed to improve today’s marine and offshore processes with cleaner…

As Brazil continues to emerge as a global offshore and shipbuilding powerhouse, are its local content laws hindering progress? Brazil’s Oil & Gas industry is in the midst of an unprecedented growth curve, with  major new reservoirs being found in deepwater, the so-called pre-salt. This growth in the O&G industry has had a major influence in the growth of the nation’s shipbuilding industry, which until only a few short years ago was stagnant. The main reason for this massive increase in shipbuilding and also in the construction of new shipyards is that the O&G industry demands various kinds of ships and support vessels in order to properly operate and maintain growth.

The recent growth of the Brazilian shipbuilding industry, with the construction of more than 20 new shipyards and efforts to modernize older shipyards, has highlighted the need for more efficient ship design and construction methods. With the increased reliance on production line automation, ship design software has become even more important. Maritime Reporter and Engineering News spoke with Mr. Bruno França,CEO of  Brazilian IT company Sincronia and ShipConstructor representative in Brazil, about the relevance of CAD based ship design software in the new Brazilian shipbuilding industry. Please tell us a little about yourself and your company (Sincronia)? My name if Bruno França, I am CEO of Sincronia.

Evac's complete wastewater system is onboard MT João Cândido, the first Suezmax tanker recently delivered by Atlântico Sul Shipyard (EAS) for Transpetro. Evac was selected for the first series of ten 160,0000 dwt Suezmax tankers and for the series of five 110,000 dwt Aframax tankers, also being built by Atlântico Sul Shipyard, the largest and most modern shipyard in Brazil. The delivery of MT João Cândido is a historical milestone for the shipbuilding industry in Brazil. Evac is proud to be a supplier for this vessel. All wastewater on the new tanker is handled and cleaned by Evac's latest water treatment technology. Evac provides a complete wastewater management solution…

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) today announced that public comment is invited with respect to four Environmental Assessments (EA) for Exploration Plans (EP). The EPs involve deepwater activity in the Gulf of Mexico and were completed in accordance with new safety and environmental standards implemented since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. Consistent with federal regulations, an EP is deemed “submitted” once all supporting materials and documentation has been provided. Once a plan is deemed submitted, BOEMRE has 30 calendar days to analyze and evaluate it. The 30-day time frame…

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) on May 6 announced that public comment is invited with respect to an Environmental Assessment (EA) for a Revised Development Operations Coordination Document (DOCD) submitted by BHP Billiton Petroleum (GOM) Inc. This Revised DOCD involves deepwater activity in the Gulf of Mexico and will be completed in accordance with new safety and environmental standards implemented since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. The Revised DOCD includes one proposed development well in approximately 4,230 feet water depth, approximately 120 miles offshore Louisiana. Consistent with federal regulations, a DOCD is deemed “submitted” once all supporting materials and documentation has been provided.