Offshore Oil Platform News

More than 80 migrants were saved, but two died and three were missing following two sea rescue operations in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said on Sunday.MSF's vessel Geo Barents picked up over 60 people late on Saturday from a rubber dinghy in distress in international waters off Libya. It also recovered one body, and one of the migrants taken on board died shortly after the rescue.Another 19 people were picked up from a nearby abandoned Tunisian offshore oil platform, MSF said.

Two workers died and another remained missing after a raging fire broke out early on Friday morning at an offshore platform run by Mexican state oil company Pemex just off the southern edge of the Gulf of Mexico.In posts on Twitter, Pemex said it had accounted for all other workers and said oil production had taken a major hit from the blaze.Video circulating on social media showed the massive platform and its tangle of pipelines engulfed in flames as nearby boats sought to douse the fire with hoses.The platform operates in the company's Cantarell Field…

The U.S. Coast Guard said Sunday it had rescued three boaters from an offshore oil platform after their vessel sank near Freeport, Texas, Sunday."Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston watchstanders received a report at approximately 3 a.m. from Matagorda County Sheriff's Office that three men were stranded on an offshore oil rig platform with no position after their vessel began taking on water," the U.S. Coast Guard said.Watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast…

Thordon Bearings said Monday that its water-lubricated elastomeric polymer bearings have been  installed to well pumps aboard an undisclosed offshore oil platform operated by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).Five KSB three-stage mixed flow impeller-type pumps were each retrofitted  with Thordon pump bearings - 13 SXL intermediate bearings, four Composite bearings and a single SXL throttle bearing -  replacing the  original silicon carbide bushes, the company said.Dubai-based engineering firm Ocean Power International (OPI)…

Energy companies worked to restore pipeline service and electricity after Tropical Storm Nicholas passed through on Tuesday, allowing them to return to repairing the significant damage caused by Hurricane Ida two weeks ago.Nicholas, downgraded to a tropical depression late Tuesday, caused rain, flooding, and power outages in Texas and Louisiana, where some refineries remained offline in the wake of Hurricane Ida. The earlier storm shuttered most U.S. Gulf offshore oil and gas production.Colonial Pipeline, the largest U.S.

Hurricane Nicholas on Tuesday took another swipe at U.S. Gulf Coast energy facilities, cutting offshore oil and gas output gradually recovering from the last storm and disrupting power to onshore pipeline, gas and chemical plants.Royal Dutch Shell halted production its Perdido offshore oil platform due to heavy winds, and U.S. liquefied natural gas producer Freeport LNG said processing at its Texas coast facility was halted, likely due to a power outage.Power losses briefly cut Colonial Pipeline's main gasoline and diesel lines out of Houston…

BP's behemoth Argos offshore oil platform, the centerpiece of the company's $9 billion Mad Dog 2 project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, has arrived in the U.S. after a 16,000-mile journey from South Korea.The platform, loaded onboard Boskalis' BOKA Vanguard heavy transport vessel, had left South Korea on February 3, and it has this week arrived in the Kiewit Offshore Services fabrication yard in Ingleside, Texas."The arrival of the new floating production unit is a major milestone towards the completion of Mad Dog 2.

A Corpus Christi crew boat runs with renewed power and graceMiss Vivian has a commanding presence while plying the waters off the Texas Gulf Coast.Hardworking crew boat Miss Vivian serves offshore oil platforms and large ships moored in Corpus Christi Harbor. Owned by Sea Level Marine, Inc., in Aransas Pass, Texas, the 28-meter (91-foot) welded aluminum vessel is U.S. Coast Guard-approved for 50 passengers, and its 15x5-meter (50x15-foot) deck offers ample space to transport food provisions, equipment, and other supplies to offshore locations.There’s a rather heroic side to Miss Vivian, too.

Today, a team of eight students from West Side High School in Houston emerged victorious from the first annual High School Offshore and Technology Stars Challenge, which was co-hosted by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the Ocean Energy Safety Institute (OESI) at the University of Houston. Other participating schools include Energy Institute High School, Charles H. Milby High School and Young Women’s Preparatory Academy. BSEE Director Brian Salerno welcomed the students to the Technology Challenge, with a strong message of encouragement for the young competitors. “Experts have projected that there will be a workforce need of one million additional science, math and engineering graduates by 2022,” said Salerno.

Forty two workers have been rescued from an offshore oil platform that caught fire in Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian Sea, Azeri independent TV ANS said on Friday. Azeri state energy company SOCAR was not immediately available to comment. SOCAR said earlier that the fire started after a gas pipeline on the platform was damaged in heavy wind. It said the rescue attempt was being complicated by a heavy storm. One of the workers called a Reuters correspondent from the platform and said there were 84 people trapped. The worker did not want to be named. SOCAR also said earlier that workers were missing after an accident at another offshore oil platform during the storm. A search-and-rescue operation was underway, it added.

Three workers are missing after an accident at an offshore oil platform in the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, Azeri state energy company SOCAR said on Friday.   SOCAR said a small cabin, where workers were living, was washed into the sea from the platform during a heavy storm.   "The accident did not affect the oil production process," the SOCAR spokesman, Nizameddin Guliyev, told reporters.   He said that a search-and-rescue operation was underway.   Four workers were killed and one went missing after a fire broke out on SOCAR's other oil and gas platform in the Caspian Sea in Oct. 2014. (Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; writing by Margarita Antidze; editing by Jane Merriman)

Two workers died at a construction project at a Brazilian oil terminal operated by state-run Petrobras on Tuesday, adding to a string of fatal and life-threatening accidents, a union representing oil workers said in a statement. The workers drowned after scaffolding they were erecting collapsed at the end of a pier operated by Transpetro, Petrobras' pipeline and shipping unit, the union, known as FUP, said. The pier was at Transpetro's Barra do Riacho Terminal in Espirito Santo state. The employees were wearing security belts even though work authorizations recommended that the employees only use life-jackets, FUP said. Locked to the scaffolding by the belts, they were dragged under water when the scaffolding fell.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi visited Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), seeking increased partnership between the India’s shipbuilding industry and HHI. HHI is reportedly the only Korean company the prime minister visits during his two-day stay in the country. In a meeting at the HHI headquarters in Ulsan, Modi and HHI management discussed ways to expand cooperation on naval defense, LNG carrier construction and shipbuilding technology. The prime minister displayed particular interest in HHI’s range of naval vessels as well as high value vessels such as LNG carriers.

Losses associated with a deadly explosion on an offshore oil platform owned by Mexican state-run company Pemex will total as much as $780 million, a source close to the discussions said on Tuesday. The fire that engulfed the Abkatun A-Permanente platform on the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico earlier this month killed four workers and provoked the evacuation of over 300 others as ships sought to douse the flames. Pemex has informed its insurers that losses from the accident will likely total between $670 million and $780 million, the source said. London-based trade publication Insurance Insider first published the range of losses, noting that the total insured value of the Abkatun Pol Chuc complex, of which the Abkatun A-Permanente platform is a part, reaches $1.3 billion.

Suppose the Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers used for your vessel, offshore oil platform, or port facility could not generate position data needed for your operations. How would your crew or staff respond? Initial troubleshooting efforts may indicate equipment failures, antenna masking, or possibly human error. Additionally, the lack of position data will likely force your crew or staff to resort to secondary means to obtain position information. If position data cannot be regained, then the receivers may have lost GPS due to intentional or unintentional interference.

Under a settlement agreement with the United States, ATP Infrastructure Partners, LP (ATP-IP) will pay a $1 million civil penalty and perform corrective measures to resolve claims by the U.S. under the Clean Water Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) of unauthorized discharges of oil and chemicals from an oil platform into the Gulf of Mexico, announced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). This is the first joint judicial enforcement action involving EPA and BSEE claims in response to alleged violations of both the Clean Water Act and OCSLA. The United States’ complaint, which was filed in February 2013, in the U.S.

Ever since man has taken vessels onto the seas, mariners have reported encounters with monstrous waves that seem to arise out of nowhere from an otherwise average sea state. On his third voyage to the New World in 1498, Christopher Columbus recorded in his logbook that a giant wave lifted up his vessels as they transited the waterway between the Paria Peninsula of Venezuela and the island of Trinidad, a waterway he then named Bocas del Dragón (the Mouths of the Dragon). In 1853…

1806  - Spring pole cable drilling developed in US. 1844  - Fluid circulating rotary well drilling patented in England. 1845  - Circulated fluid used to remove drill cuttings for first time. 1860  - Fluid circulation rotary diamond coring drill developed in France. 1869 – T homas Fitch Rowland  patents  a “submarine drilling apparatus,” a fixed, working platform for drilling offshore to a depth of almost 50 feet. The anchored tower had telescoping legs, similar to modern offshore platforms. 1878  - First bulk oil tanker begins operation in the Caspian Sea. 1891  - First ocean-going tanker launched. 1897  - Wells drilled off piers in Summerland, Calif. 1905 – Oil discovered in the Caddo Pine Island field in Lousiana. 1911  -  Gulf Refining Co.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA resumed production on Monday from offshore oil platform P-20 in the Campos Basin, the state-run oil company known as Petrobras said in a securities filing. In December, a fire at the platform injured two workers and knocked it out of service. The rig's potential output is around 20,000 barrels of oil per day.   Reporting by Anna Flavia Rochas; Brad Haynes

The company informs that the notes were issued for an equal principal amount of 8 7/8% First Preferred Ship Mortgage Notes due 2021, that are registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and expired on January 24, 2014 at 5 p.m. Ultrapetrol add that as of the Expiration Time, holders of $25.0 million aggregate principal amount of the Notes have participated in the Exchange Offer, representing 100% percent of the Notes eligible for exchange. under a registration rights agreement entered into by and among the Company and the initial purchasers of the outstanding notes.

Providers of heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling systems, Alfa Laval says it has won an order to supply equipment to an offshore oil platform in the North Sea. The order has a value of approximately SEK 50 million and delivery is scheduled for 2014. The equipment supplied by Alfa Laval will be part of the important auxiliary system on the platform. “This is the third large oil and gas order within a month, reflecting the good activity level in the sector. It confirms our strong position as a reliable supplier,” says Lars Renström, President and CEO of the Alfa Laval Group.

The security drill was the first since the rollout of the Port’s new Maritime Advanced Systems and Technology Lab (MAST) program and involved an Offshore Platform Security Threat Awareness and Response Program exercise (OPSTAR) conducted by the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Asymmetric Warfare and the U.S. Coast Guard. The half day OPSTAR exercise called for a simulated attack and occupation of an Off Shore Oil Platform within the Santa Barbara Channel and included a no…

Kongsberg Maritime has completed the installation and commissioning of an integrated bridge and automation solution during a large-scale retrofit of the Saipem 7000, an advanced Semi-submersible crane and pipelaying (J-lay) DP3 vessel. The Saipem 7000 retrofit was a ‘Full Picture’ project for Kongsberg Maritime, which featured replacement of several key systems including Automation, Thruster control, Dynamic Positioning, Ballast control and Integrated Bridge System. Kongsberg Maritime installed a significant package consisting of the latest generation of its offshore product line…