Marine Log - September 2008 - (Page 8)

Update Mitsui launches huge iron ore carrier Mitsui OSK Lines, Ltd. (MOL), Japan, launched one of the world’s largest iron ore carriers last month. Built by Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., the 320,000 dwt Tubarao Maru measures 340m x 60m and has a draft of 21.13m. It will go into service in Brazil, where it will load iron ore at the Tubarao and Bonta De Madila ports for transport to Japan. MOL is the first Japanese company to operate a 300,000 dwt class very large iron ore carrier (VLOC). It launched the world’s largest iron ore carrier, the Brasil Maru, last December. The company expects to have five VLOC’s by next year. INLAND • COASTAL • OFFSHORE • DEEPSEA ENSCO increases deepwater fleet E NSCO International, Dallas, Tex., has contracted Singapore’s Keppel FELS Limited to build a seventh ENSCO 8500 Series deepwater semisubmersible. With ENSCOspecified equipment, the Delivery of Pearl Seas cruise ship delayed The date for delivery of Pearl Sea Cruises’ new ship, the Pearl Mist, has been pushed back until early 2009. Expected to be delivered this past May, the 214 passenger ship is currently under construction at Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Irving Shipbuilding reportedly attributes the delays to Pearl Sea Cruises in providing engineering and design instruction. While Pearl Sea Cruises states that delays are caused by lack of manpower at the shipyard. U.S.-based Pearl Sea Cruises has not exercised an option for a second sister vessel. value of the order is $560 million. “Our $3.1 billion investment in the ENSCO 8500 Series rigs,” says ENSCO chairman, president and CEO DanielW. Rabun, “demonstrates our commitment to playing a meaningful The first ENSCO 8500 series semi role in the growis due for delivery in the third ing deepwater quarter market. Only two other companies will have ultra-deepwater semisubmersible rig fleets equal to the size of the ENSCO fleet.” The first of the seven 8500 Series semis was contracted in 2005 and is due for delivery in the third quarter of this year. It has been chartered to Anadarko and ENI for operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Three others in the series have also been contracted. This latest order, the ENSCO 8506, is set to be delivered in the second half of 2012. The contract follows shortly after the award this past June of the sixth semi, ENSCO 8505. The ENSCO 8506 will be capable of drilling in up to 8,500 ft of water. It will have a two million pound quad derrick, offline pipe handling capability, 35,000 ft drilling capacity, 150-person living quarters, and station keeping capabilities meeting DP2 requirements. DDG 1000: Back to three? Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) seems to have succeeded in her efforts to get the Secretary of Defense to intervene in the Navy’s decision to limit the DDG-1000 program to just two ships. According to published reports, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England has written Collins a letter that says: “The Navy has been directed to ensure that its proposed plan will complete construction of the DDG-1000 ships currently under contract and conform to the president’s (fiscal year 2009) budget submission by executing the third DDG-1000.” One of the two DDG1000’s under contract will be built in Maine at Bath Iron Works. http://www.eagle.org

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

Marine Log - September 2008 Editorial Second Thoughts Update Contents Inside Washington Slick Cleanup The Women of WISTA Keeping Ships at Sea Connected Shipbuilding Shakeup Newsmakers Tech News Contracts Events Website Directory ML Buyer's Guide ML Marketplace Letters Marine Salvage

Marine Log - September 2008

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