Arctic Oil Exploration to Reverse Decline in Norwegian Production
An Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) poll reveals industry professionals see Arctic exploration as viable solution for Norway. The Industry Snapshot Poll was conducted at ONS by global independent technical advisor, GL Noble Denton. Senior professionals from across the industry also took part in the survey online. 74% of participants said that the development of sizeable reserves in Arctic waters offshore Norway could reverse the country’s diminishing North Sea production rates by 2030. By contrast, only 26% of participants felt Norway would not be able to abate the decline through Arctic exploration. Lutz Wittenberg, GL Noble Denton’s Executive Vice President for Europe, said: “The remote Arctic region is becoming more attractive to the industry as a whole.
GL Gets Greek Authority
Germanischer Lloyd has been granted full authorization by the Greek maritime administration with immediate effect. The authorization enables the classification society to perform, on behalf of the administration, all survey and certification duties related to the assessment of the safety and the condition of ships sailing under the Greek flag. These statutory duties encompass attending to all types of ships, including passenger ships greater than 1,500 gt and high speed craft; the execution of International Safety Management (ISM) Code renewal audits, with the issuance of certificates; and surveying and issuance of certificates according to the requirements of IMO’s recently agreed Anti-Fouling Convention.
GL Announces Managment Changes
Rainer Schöndube, Member of the Executive Board at Germanischer Lloyd AG, will resign from office leaving the management on September 300. He will, however, stay affiliated with Germanischer Lloyd as adviser. With his retirement Schöndube, who has been responsible for the commercial field and the Industrial Services at Germanischer Lloyd, gives way for a change in the Executive Board. On September 1, 2007 the Executive Board of Germanischer Lloyd will be extended by Dr Joachim Segatz. Dr Segatz will take over Mr Schöndube's finance division. Dr Segatz studied Mechanical Engineering with emphasis on aircraft construction and fluid mechanics at the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany.
The New Knowledge Brokers?
Increasing commercial pressures and structural changes in the maritime industries call for new approaches to better ensure vessel and equipment quality and improved safety, believes Lutz Wittenberg, Germanischer Lloyd's divisional director of projects and marketing. In a bold presentation likely to spark controversy within a sector, which tends to have very set ideas about its function, Wittenberg indicated that classification societies needed to become technical knowledge providers over the life of a ship, rather than simply rule enforcers. While also advocating greater emphasis on continuous appraisal, rather than focusing on traditional annual inspection and the attendant cyclic peaking of vessel condition…
Editor's Note
Quality, quality, quality. Ship and boat owners seeking to build a long-term profitable marine business are making this factor the cornerstone of decision making. Whether it be mandated by new legislation, or simply chosen as a marketable competitive advantage, companies that own and operate vessels should be demanding that everything — from vessel design, to equipment and systems, to personnel training techniques — are of the highest quality, or more accurately, the highest quality within the company’s budget. Marine companies in 2001 and beyond are seemingly in a perpetual battle to prove that their company, their industry, is a quality run operation, and an operation that is the most cost-effective, environmentally sound method of moving cargo, as compared to air, road, and rail.
