Stampede News

Divers on Friday pulled the last four bodies from the wreckage of a "duck boat" that sank in a storm in a Missouri lake, killing 17 people in one of the deadliest U.S. tourist incidents in recent years.The World War Two-style amphibious vehicle was filled with 31 passengers including children when a microburst storm hit Table Rock Lake outside the tourist city of Branson, Missouri, on Thursday. A video of the incident showed it battered by waves.Wendy Doucey, an office manager at the Stone County sheriff's office, said that divers had recovered the four bodies from the sunken duck boat. The vehicle was 80 feet (24 m) under water."It's important that we find out for sure what events did occur," Governor Michael Parson said at a Friday morning news conference.

At least 13 people including children drowned after a tourist "duck boat" sank during a storm on a lake in Missouri, and authorities were set to resume a search on Friday for other missing victims, Missouri Governor Michael Parson said.The sinking of vehicle, inspired by the amphibious landing craft used during D-Day in World War Two, marked one of the deadliest incidents at a U.S. tourist destination in recent history. Divers were still searching Table Rock Lake, a large reservoir outside the town of Branson, for missing passengers.Video of the incident showed the hull of the vessel submerging into choppy waters."Just a terrible, horrific tragic accident has occurred," Parson told CNN on Friday, noting that 13 people had been confirmed dead.

Crowley Maritime Corp.’s ocean class tugboats and 455-series high-deck strength barges recently played an integral role in the tow-out and installation of Hess’ Stampede tension-leg platform (TLP) in the deep waters of the U.S. Gulf. Demonstrating both nearshore and offshore capabilities, six Crowley vessels worked together alongside other third-party assets to deliver the oversized, overweight platform, tendons and other equipment from the Kiewit facility in Ingleside, Texas, to the site of the Stampede floating production facility, about 150 miles offshore in 3,400 feet of water.

BMT Scientific Marine Services (BMT), an international maritime design, engineering and risk management consultancy, has been selected by Hess Corporation to supply an Integrated Marine Monitoring System (IMMS) for the Stampede Tension Leg Platform (TLP) in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The system includes instrumentation to measure the environmental conditions impacting the TLP and the platform dynamic responses. The IMMS displays real-time sensor data in an easy to understand format to support platform marine operators, as well as collecting detailed data sets to support long term integrity asset monitoring. The Stampede TLP is another addition to the long list of floating production facilities that BMT has instrumented and serviced in the Gulf of Mexico over the past 15 years.

Statoil together with co-owners in the Stampede development in the Gulf of Mexicohas sanctioned the Stampede project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Statoil said it will invest $1.5 billion in the Stampede development, which is expected to begin production in 2018. Statoil owns 25% of Stampede, which is operated by Hess. Stampede, a new project named from unitizing the former discoveries of Knotty Head and Pony, is located approximately 350 kilometers (215 miles) from New Orleans, Louisiana at a water depth of more than 1,000 meters (3,500 feet). The reservoir depth is 9,100 meters (30,000 feet).

Chevron Corporation announced today that its subsidiary, Union Oil Company of California (Union), has reached a final investment decision to proceed with the development of the Hess Corporation-operated Stampede project in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Stampede is a deepwater subsea development, which will be tied-back to a newly constructed Tension Leg Platform. The project design capacity will be 80,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Project cost is expected to be approximately $6 billion. The drilling program includes a total of six production and four water injection wells. Drilling is planned to commence in the fourth quarter 2015 with first production expected in 2018.

The giant corn harvest about to hit full stride in America's Midwest looks set to overwhelm storage and pile up outdoors, grain industry sources said, raising quality issues and making it hard to keep supplies moving. This year's record corn crop of 14.4 billion bushels alone would fill up 60 percent of the country's grain storage of 24 billion bushels. In total, with a record soybean crop too and hefty harvests of other grains including spring wheat, there will be about 20 billion bushels of new crops looking for storage. That would be on top of the 3.5 billion bushels reported in storage as of Sept. 1 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The Carnival Glory is the first of 73 cruise ships that are expected to make a stop in Saint John this summer, informs CBC News. More than 187,000 passengers are expected to visit Saint John between now and the end of October. Clive Douthwright, a greeter in the city, said he looks forward to the stampede of passengers coming off the ships.

Comtech EF Data Corporation announce that its Advanced VSAT Solutions received the 2011 Product of the Year Award from Satellite Spotlight, a leading website delivering satellite technology news, operated by TMC. The Advanced VSAT Solutions portfolio provides high-performance satellite-based communication solutions for a diverse range of applications, including mobile backhaul with RAN optimization, IP trunking and backhaul, maritime and offshore networks, corporate and enterprise networks, emergency and disaster recovery. Incorporating advanced technologies developed by Comtech EF Data, AHA Products Group, Memotec and Stampede, the solutions provide unmatched performance, industry-leading bandwidth efficiencies and network optimization, while minimizing total cost of ownership.

Bloated oil freight charges could surge yet higher this year, adding to the already inflated cost of world oil imports, shippers said. Tanker brokers are predicting a mid-November stampede to ship crude from the Middle East, pushing charter rates to new peaks amid a perceived shortage of quality vessels. In January, very large crude carriers (VLCCs) sailing from the Gulf to Japan were fetching a price of worldscale 49, equivalent to 75 cents a barrel. The rate since has more than trebled and now stands at WS 165, $2.50 a barrel. For a 250,000 ton, or 1.8 million barrel shipment, that means an increased freight charge of $3 million on a $50 million cargo of crude. "Eastern charterers have been paying higher rates," said one VLCC broker. Rates for a 280,000 tonner to the U.S.

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While many facets of the maritime market remain stuck in the doldrums, the passenger vessel end of the market is one which should continue to expand robustly through the coming year and far beyond. The cruise ship market continues its stampede forward, with 13 new ships and more than 16,000 berths coming on line in 1999 and 14 ships and more than 18,600 new berths scheduled to be delivered in 2000. On the smaller passenger vessel side, a significant development occurred last month when Australia’s Austal Ships announced its new partnership with Bender Shipbuilding to construct a new facility in the Mobile area and vigorously pursue both passenger vessel and government contracts.