Nigel Smith News

Nigel Smith, inaugural International Registrar of the London-headquartered St Kitts & Nevis International Ship Registry (SKANReg), is retiring in May after 47 years in the shipping industry. Smith, 62, is a former seagoing engineer officer, technical superintendent, shipyard agent and marine consultant. He has also served on various bodies of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology, which includes being a member of the ruling Council since 2005. In the late 1990’s…

After four groundbreaking years as head of the UK Ship Register (UKSR), Debasis Mazumdar is moving on to become CEO of the London-headquartered St Kitts & Nevis International Ship Registry (SKANReg), with a mission to drive further growth for the ambitious ten-year-old Caribbean flag state. He succeeds Nigel Smith in the role from August 10 and will also take over from him as International Registrar after a familiarization period of three months. Smith, who conceived the SKANReg business plan in 2004 and has led the operation since it became active a year later…

Following a three-year record of improved results from Port State Control (PSC) inspections, the London-headquartered St Kitts & Nevis International Ship Registry (SKANReg) has moved up to Grey List ranking on the Paris MoU performance lists covering Europe and the North Atlantic. With 24 detentions from 307 inspections in the period 2011-2013, the registry now sits midway in a spectrum ranging from White List flags – those with a consistently low detention record – to poorly performing Black List flags.

St Kitts & Nevis has become the latest of five flag state signatories to the Washington declaration condemning acts of violence against seafarers - joining Bahamas, Liberia, Marshall Islands and Panama. The move underpins major quality initiatives by the London-based St Kitts & Nevis International Ship Registry (SKANReg), which has achieved further improvements in Port State Control (PSC) performance and is now preparing for the Voluntary IMO Member State Audit Scheme (VIMSAS). Meanwhile, in another milestone, the St Kitts & Nevis department of maritime affairs has just hosted the annual meeting of the Caribbean Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (CMOU). The Washington declaration was signed by the Hon.

Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) has reported  consistent growth and increased market awareness over the last few years for its world-leading portfolio of  Marine Products in New Zealand, according to Nigel Smith, WSS General Manager for New Zealand and Pacific Islands. Recently relocated from central city offices to a new warehouse complex, WSS New Zealand is now able to concentrate on delivering a stronger mix of marine products, as well as new initiatives such as the innovative LRE (Liferaft Exchange Program).

Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) New Zealand has announced the signing of its first Liferaft Exchange Program (LRE) contract with Neptune Pacific Line. “When we introduced them to the LRE concept they were extremely interested to see how it could work for their business," says Nigel Smith, General Manager WSS New Zealand and Pacific Islands. WSS New Zealand’s first assignment for Neptune Pacific was an exchange in Shanghai, where the crew were working to a very tight schedule with little more than 24 hours to deliver the complete set of five liferafts before the vessel sailed for Australia. According to Smith, the smooth exchange was carried…

Oceanic Research and Recovery Inc. (PINKSHEETS: ORRV), and Deep Marine Salvage Inc, today announced that they have agreed upon  their first intended “cluster” of 5 commodity based salvage targets. These targets have been selected from our vast portfolio of shipwrecks lost in northern hemisphere waters. The combined manifested value of these cargos is a minimum of $2 billion at current commodity prices, and consists of platinum, gold, silver, copper and zinc. “This cluster has been selected not only because the wrecks are close to each other but because they also lie at shallow depths”,  said Scott Heimdal, CEO of ORRV. “On the water time is money, the faster you can put it on the deck the higher your margins”, continued Mr. Heimdal. “Working depth is a big factor in feasibility planning.

Houston-based BHP Billiton Petroleum reported two company-operated drilling vessels set new benchmarks for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico recently. While working on a development well on the Shenzi oil and gas field, the GSF C.R. Luigs achieved a record low average of 1.52 days per 1,000 feet from spud to total depth. The well was drilled to a total depth of about 29,600 feet in only 33 days, while operating in water depths of nearly 4,300 feet in Green Canyon Block 654. The achievement matches a similar milestone earlier in the year in the Neptune development, when the GSF Development Driller I averaged 1.5 days per 1,000 feet for a new hole drilled.