Quip News

The world of dredging is defined by the vast diversity of each assignment that contractors perform on any given day. Fortunately, DSC’s standard lineup of dredge equipment can be modified and customized to meet just about any job that needs doing. It wasn’t too long ago that retired U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Jim Loy told me, “If you’ve seen one port, well, you’ve seen one port.” That now-famous declaration was made in reference to port security in a post-9/11 world, but the quip is as valid now as it was when he said it during his tenure as Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. Similarly, it can also be said that if you’ve seen one dredging operation, well, then you’ve seen one dredging operation.

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.

From countries across the globe, including Australia, Canada, the U.S. and Europe, more than 500 exhibitors will be at Seawork International, the commercial marine exhibition and conference, opening on Tuesday, June 10 for its annual three-day run in the ABP Port of Southampton, U.K. More than 7,000 visitors are expected to attend Seawork, which will feature products and services relevant to every sector of the commercial marine industry, including offshore wind farm construction and maintenance…

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.

Since the beginning of this year, orders have been placed for 17 floating production systems. The combined value of the fabrication contracts exceeds $16 billion. By year end there will likely be another five to eight contracts awarded and the overall contract value for the year will exceed $20 billion. Stated in terms of conventional ships, fabrication of floating production systems in 2013 will equate to orders for 220 VLCCs, 360 Suezmax tankers or 800 Panamax bulk carriers. In other words, it is a big market. Yet relatively few shipbuilders are active in this sector.

Petrobas's FPSO P-63 has left the Quip/Honório Bicalho shipyard in the city of Rio Grande (RS) after the modules were integrated and the platform commissioned. With a capacity to process 140,000 barrels of oil/day and compress one million m3 of gas /day, the unit is going to the Papa-Terra field in the post-salt Campos Basin, operated by Petrobras (62.5%) in partnership with Chevron (37.5%). The P-63 was converted into an FPSO from the tanker BW Nisa, at the Cosco Shipyard in China. The unit arrived in Brazil in January this year for its final construction stages. Altogether 23 process plant modules were installed and interconnected.

The new P-63 Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) is powered with Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines which passed load tests. This FPSO is the first such ship to utilize gas engines to produce more than 100 MWe of power. The tests were carried out at the Cosco shipyard in Dalian, China and the vessel will commence operations in Brazil’s offshore oil fields in 2013. Wärtsilä was contracted by the Brazilian industrial group QUIP, to provide a turnkey package for this vessel.

The abundance of deepwater O&G prospects, combined with the lack of oil transportation infrastructure in Brazil, has increasingly favored FPSOs as a production solution. Petrobras presently has more than 25 FPSOs in operation and this number is expected to double during the next decade. BW Offshore is a leader in FPSOs and FPSO operations. Although it has been quoting for jobs in Brazil for some years, the company finally established a local office in 2008. BW Offshore currently has three FPSOs operating in the Brazilian offshore and has another one slated to be delivered by the end of the year. The Rio de Janeiro office is headed by General Manager Jon Harald Kilde M.S.c., who shared with Maritime Reporter´s correspondent in Brazil, Claudio Paschoa, the company’s strategy and outlook.

The rise and fall of the Brazilian shipbuilding market is well-known, having plummeted from the top of the world list in the early 1980s to the bottom by 1999. Today, Brazil is storming back, an amazing revival of the nearly defunct shipbuilding industry driven by the sudden influx of orders from major offshore oil & gas players, namely Petrobras. Today the shipbuilding market in Brazil has in excess of 100 firm orders for ships in a variety of shapes and sizes, in addition to a large number of drill rigs and production unit orders. In addition, companies from around the globe are flocking to Brazil to set-up shop and engage in the industry’s renaissance.

evidence are due to Board 6/30.

Dril-Quip, Inc. (NYSE:DRQ) announced net income of $25.7 million, or $0.64 per diluted share for the three months ended March 31, 2010, versus net income of $24.7 million, or $0.63 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2009. The first quarter 2010 results include an after-tax charge of $3.9 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, related to the settlement of pending assessments, dating back to 2007, regarding state tax on the importation of goods into the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Total revenues were $142.5 million during the quarter ended March 31, 2010 as compared to $127.5 million for the same period in 2009. The increase…

Dril-Quip, Inc. (NYSE:DRQ) announced net income of $28.7 million, or $0.72 per diluted share for the three months ended December 31, 2009, versus net income of $25.0 million, or $0.64 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2008. Total revenues increased to $141.3 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2009 from $135.5 million for the same period in 2008. The increase in revenues resulted from increases of $15.6 million in subsea equipment revenues and $0.7 million in service revenues, offset by decreases of $8.2 million in revenues related to offshore rig equipment and $2.3 million in surface equipment revenues. Operating income was $36.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to $33.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2008.

AMEC announced that it has been selected by Brazilian company QUIP to perform basic engineering services for the topsides of the P-63 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, to be operated on behalf of Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company. The contract, the value of which has not been announced, begins immediately and will run until mid-2010. The P63 FPSO will develop the Papa Terra heavy oil field in the Campos Basin, offshore Brazil. The field is located about 68 miles (110 kilometers) off Rio de Janeiro in water depths of up to 3,940 feet (1,200 meters). “We are very pleased to continue our collaboration with QUIP and Petrobras,” said Terri Ivers, president of AMEC’s Houston-based oil and gas business.

Noble Denton, global offshore engineering and marine services company, announced its move into a new office facility in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The new 850 square meter facility is located at Rua Araujo Porto Alegre, 36, 5th Floor, in downtown Rio. Noble Denton currently employs 28 in Brazil, and the company has aggressive plans for growth. It expects to employ 40 to 45 people by the end of 2009, and to reach 80 full-time employees in the next three years. "Noble Denton has been growing rapidly in Brazil over the past few years, and this office move is a part of our plan to increase our presence in Latin America,” said Andrew Theophanatos, Brazil Country Manager, Noble Denton.

Dril-Quip, Inc. (NYSE:DRQ), manufacturer of offshore drilling and production equipment, announced that its Board of Directors has adopted a Stockholder Rights Plan designed to protect the company's stockholders from coercive or unfair takeover techniques. Terms of the Rights Plan provide for a dividend distribution of one right for each outstanding share of common stock to holders of record at the close of business on December 5, 2008. The Rights Plan would be triggered if an acquiring party accumulates 15 percent or more of the company's common stock and would entitle holders of the rights to purchase either shares of the company's stock or shares in an acquiring entity at half of market value.

There are 2,511 identified pending, probable and possible subsea production wells forecast (base case) worldwide over the next six years. Some 18 percent of these subsea completions will be installed in North America, 30 percent in Africa/Mediterranean, eight percent in Asia-Pacific, 26 percent in the North Sea and 18 percent in Brazil. These subsea projects are in various development stages, including: 23 percent at the pending/construction stage, 11 percent bidding, 9 percent in detailed engineering, 16 percent at the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage, 16 percent of the wells probable and 26 percent possible indicating possible development in the future.