Marine Log - March 2008 - (Page 8)

Update Serious navigational accidents on the rise Over the past five years, there has been an alarming increase in serious navigational accidents in several shipping segments, says classification society DNV. DNV says this trend is confirmed by leading insurers. Among the factors cited for the rise in accidents are increasing commercial pressures, undersupply of crew and shortage of officers. Dr. Torkel Soma, Principal Safety Consultant in DNV Maritime, says: “DNV’s statistics show that a ship is twice as likely to be involved in a serious grounding, collision or contact accident today compared to only five years ago. In addition, estimates show that also the costs of these accidents have doubled. Since this is the general trend for the international commercial fleet, the maritime industry needs to act on this immediately.” INLAND • COASTAL • OFFSHORE • DEEPSEA Keppel converting VLCC to FPSO for U.S. Gulf ingapore’s Keppel Shipyard Limited won the contract for the conversion of the first Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The contract was awarded by BW Pioneer Ltd., an affiliate of BW Offshore, for the conversion of a 1981-built, 155,000 dwt tanker into an FPSO for operation in the deepwater Cascade and Chinook development, about 180 miles offshore of south Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. When completed in the third quarter of 2009, the FPSO will be turret moored at a water depth of around 2,600m—the deepest waters ever for an FPSO. The vessel will be equipped with APL disconnectable Submerged Turret Production Buoy (STP) including fluid swivel and the appurtenant mooring system. BW Offshore subsidiary APL will deliver a complete STP buoy and mooring system to the oil field. The APL STP will enable the FPSO to disconnect from its moorings and seek sheltered waters in a hurricane situation with minimum disruption to operations. This will be the deepest application to date for the STP system and the first APL turret and swivel delivery to a Petrobras-operated field. To be named BW Pioneer, the FPSO will have a storage capacity of about 600,000 bbl of oil, a process capacity of 80,000 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) and gas export facilities of 16 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD). This FPSO unit will be leased by Petrobras America Inc., and production on the S The BW Pioneer will be similar to the FPSO Berge Helene Cascade and Chinook fields is expected in the first quarter of 2010. BRAZILIAN CONTRACT It was one of two FPSO conversions recently announced by Keppel under contracts worth over S$215 million ($152 million). The other was awarded by Maersk Contractors, part of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, for the conversion of a new VLCC hull that is being built in China. Once completed, the FPSO will operate about 85 km offshore in a water depth of around 100 m at the Peregrino field in Brazil’s Campos basin, and will be capable of producing 100,000 BOPD with a storage capacity of 1.6 million bbls. The Peregrino field is being developed through a partnership between Norway’s StatoilHydro and Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum, which recently took over the operation of the field. Oman orders VLCCs from Daewoo Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has recently received new orders for five 318,000 dwt VLCCs valued at $770 million from Oman Shipping Company, S.A.O.C. The ships will be delivered by April 2012. The 333m x 60m crude carriers will be capable of carrying 2 million bbl of crude, with a speed of 16 knots. Spanish yard delivers offshore support and escort tug imorchiatori Riuninti, Genoa, Ital, has taken delivery of a new offshore support and escort tug, the Messico. Designed by Robert Allan Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., and constructed by Astilleros Armon in Navia, Spain, the vessel is classed by RINA and is suitable for habor towage, ship handling, coastal towing and salvage operations. It is also equipped for fire fighting and oil spill 8 MARINE LOG MARCH 2008 R response duties. The tug, with a length of 36.65 m, a beam of 13.6 m and a depth of 4 m can accommodate a crew of 14. Its main propulsion is comprised of two MaK 8M25 diesel engines, each rated 2,640 kW at 750 rating rev/min. 7,080hp www.marinelog.com http://www.marinelog.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Marine Log - March 2008

Marine Log - March 2008 Contents Editorial Second Thoughts Update Inside Washington Navy's Toughest Battle Building Future Fleet Less Fuel, Lower Emissions A New Generation of Mariners Training for the Future LNG Security: Resources Needed Models of Perfection Tech News Newsmakers Contracts Events Infodirect Website Directory ML Marketplace Opinion

Marine Log - March 2008

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