Liftboats News

Two crewmembers were medecaved on Sunday after being injured in a fire aboard a U.S.-registered liftboat in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard said.At approximately 7:53 p.m. Coast Guard District Eight watchstanders received a notification from the Laredo Offshore Services' liftboat Brazos that two men needed medical attention following a fire on board.The Coast Guard coordinated the launch of a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew from Air Station New Orleans to conduct the medevac approximately 40 miles offshore from Marsh Island…

JUB Pacific, a Singapore-based provider of specialized offshore liftboat services, has acquired one of the largest liftboats in Africa, said to be perfectly suited for servicing major players in the oil and gas sector within the Africa region.JUB Pacific acquired the Caracal Pioneer liftboat, which shall be renamed to JUB Pioneer, in a strategic move to extend the company’s global reach and solidify its position as one of the leading liftboat players.The unit is well-equipped to support a diverse range of offshore operations which is highly required by large oil companies in Africa…

Gale-force winds and high waves from a storm led to the listing of an elevated liftboat in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Wednesday. Damage to the vessel and cargo was estimated at $6.9 million.On November 20, 2022, the liftboat L/B Robert was reported to be listing alongside a stationary oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico about 80 miles southeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana. The crew had evacuated two days prior due to forecasted adverse weather in the area, leaving the vessel elevated out of the water and unattended.

An ailing crewmember was medevaced from a liftboat approximately three miles south of Pecan Island, La., Saturday morning, the U.S. Coast Guard said.The Coast Guard said its watchstanders at Sector New Orleans received a call at approximately 1:12 a.m. from the captain of the vessel requesting assistance to medevac a 42-year-old man on board reportedly having heart-attack-like symptoms.The watchstanders then coordinated the launch of a Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew to assist.Once on scene…

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday said workers who use cranes attached to boats to load equipment onto offshore oil rigs are not "seamen" exempt from overtime pay under federal wage law, reviving a collective action against liftboat operator All Coast LLC.The full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 15-2 to deny en banc review to All Coast and reinstated a three-judge panel's unanimous February ruling that said the workers were engaged in industrial activities that had no bearing…

The U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board on Friday wrapped up the formal public hearing proceedings into the sinking of the liftboat Seacor Power and the death of 13 of its 19 crewmembers in the Gulf of Mexico.The Seacor Power capsized in heavy winds and seas on April 13, 2021, about seven miles south of Port Fourchon, La. Six crewmembers were initially rescued, and six were recovered unresponsive during the course of the response.Over the course of the nearly two-week-long hearing…

Salvors have raised the bow section of the liftboat Seacor Power, which overturned in heavy seas in the Gulf of Mexico in April.The Donjon-SMIT salvage team lifted the bow section to the surface of the water and transported it by barge on Saturday to the Modern American Recycling Services, Inc. (M.A.R.S.) facility in Houma, La.Meanwhile, salvage work continues at the wreck site, where crews recently conducted more acoustic surveys of the stern and accommodation sections. The updated surveys will be used to complete the rigging configuration to prepare the stern section for removal.

Salvage crews have removed all diesel fuel from the tanks of capsized liftboat Seacor Power in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday.Salvors removed approximately 20,363 gallons of diesel fuel from the overturned vessel using the hot tapping method, which involves drilling into the fuel tanks, making a hose connection, and transferring the fuel to portable tanks, the Coast Guard said.Approximately 4,500 gallons of hydraulic fluid still on board will need to be removed after the vessel is raised as the tanks are currently inaccessible…

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Tuesday published a preliminary report as part of its ongoing investigation into the fatal capsizing of the liftboat Seacor Power last month near Port Fourchon, La.There were 19 people on board when the U.S.-flagged Seacor Power overturned in extreme weather conditions in the Gulf of Mexico. Six people were rescued by the Coast Guard and Good Samaritan vessels, six people died in the accident and seven remain missing.According to the NTSB, the vessel departed Port Fourchon at about 1:30 p.m.

Salvors have started removing fuel from the tanks of a lift boat that capsized in the Gulf of Mexico last month, the U.S. Coast Guard said.The 234-foot Seacor Power could have been carrying up to 35,000 gallons of fuel, lube oil, hydraulic and waste oil when it overturned in rough weather on April 13, about eight miles south of Port Fourchon, La., according to the Coast Guard. No spills have been reported.Salvage crews arrived at the wreck site over the weekend and began lightering operations on Monday using a method called hot tapping…

New Jersey-based Northstar Marine announced Wednesday it is gearing up to support emerging offshore wind development projects in the Northeast U.S., having recently acquired a pair of specialized support vessels and formed a partnership with with Laredo Offshore Services, based in Belle Chasse, La.The marine services provider announced Wednesday it has acquired a 145-foot class liftboat, the Northstar Voyager, currently undergoing a refit and USCG recertification in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of its first project in the Northeast in mid-April of this year.

An inadequate preload procedure was found to have led to the overturning of a liftboat in the Gulf of Mexico in September 2019, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed in an accident brief report on Tuesday.The accident occurred while the self-propelled, self-elevating, liftboat Kristin Faye was elevated above the sea surface to provide service to an oil production platform in 35-feet of water in Main Pass Block 64, located about 18 nautical miles east of Venice, La.

Singapore’s troubled liftboat operator Ezion Holdings has signed a memorandum of agreement to sell its offshore vessel Teras Genesis to the offshore and maritime chartering and brokerage company Astro Offshore.Ezion, in an attempt to reduce cash burn and shift focus to liftboats, has agreed to sell the vessel for cash consideration of US$2.25 million.The sale is expected to generate a gain of US$858,000 for Ezion, based on the vessel's US$1.39 million carrying value as at end-September.Ezion will use the sale proceeds to repay its secured bank loans. The mortgage over the vessel will be discharged after the sale.The debt-stricken offshore…

SAL Heavy Lift, a carrier specialized in sea transport of heavy lift and project cargo, has installed a Fly-Jib crane boom extension on MV Lone which will be used on an offshore wind project in Taiwan.The Hamburg-based company said in a press release that the Fly-Jib extends the crane hook to the height of some 70 metres and can be installed to each of the main crane booms of SAL’s Type 183 vessels.With the much greater lifting height and further outreach, SAL’s new Fly-Jib can meet clients demands when units become ever bigger and where one faces requirements to lift long components vertically – e.g. with offshore wind equipment. A challenge SAL faces just now with an offshore piling project.Sune Thorleifsson…

The heavy lift shipping and offshore transportation & installation contractor Jumbo Maritime has recently completed two shipments of two giant ship unloaders from Gdynia Port, Poland to Djen Djen Port in Algeria for Fagioli.The ship unloaders are intended for unloading bulk cargo from vessels on the quayside.The first lift and shipment was made last December 2018. The MV Fairmaster and her crew lifted the 1400t, 60 metres high ship unloader. The team then sailed through Egersund and Rotterdam before arriving in Algeria for discharging in Djen Djen.The second shipment was made in February 2019. The two shiploaders can now be seen on the quayside in Djen Djen port."Jumbo would like to thank to all the teams involved for the successful completion of both lifts and transportation…

The safety statistics released by the National Workboat Association (NWA) demonstrate progressive improvement in the Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) safety performance of workboat crews and operators, with a considerable drop in the rate of incidents between 2014 and 2017.This four-year statistical summary has been compiled using annual accident data submitted by the NWA’s membership of workboat owners and operators, working in a range of maritime sectors including offshore wind, towage, aquaculture and construction support.Given the critical role vessel support plays across many maritime industries, crews and operators in the expanding workboat sector face a number of common challenges…

South African Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) builder Gemini Marine has announced Berthon as its sole UK & Ireland dealer for its range of military, rescue, commercial and leisure RIBs.Gemini Marine designs and manufactures comprehensive range of cabin and open RIBs for many of the world’s military, rescue and commercial operators, as well as supplying RIBs into the leisure, expedition and adventure sectors. "As one of the UK’s established marine sales and service brands, Berthon will give Gemini customers the highest quality product and the most reliable after-sales care and in-service support. From its Lymington base, Berthon will be promoting sales of Gemini RIBS throughout the UK and Ireland into all market sectors…

China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) Jiangsu shipyard has undocked OOS Serooskerke, OOS International's newest semi-submersible crane vessel (SSCV)."The undocking operation was complex because of the limited water depth in the dry dock," said a press release from the company.The close comradery between CMHI and OOS proved to be a winning formula to devising an efficient and safe method to undock the vessel, it said. The planning of the undocking operation started as early as January 2018 and ran through several iterations before the team arrived at the final plan.Due to the lack of water depth within the dry dock, three barges (stacked on top of one another) were floated underneath the OOS Serooskerke, between the pontoons.

This month Happy Star’s two Heavy Lift Mast Cranes were upgraded to 1,100 mt lifting capacity each at the Huisman Service & Assembly location in Schiedam, the Netherlands.After a thorough testing program, Happy Star will depart for Porto Maghera, Italy, tomorrow to load two 1,500 mt reactors – the first commercial cargo to be lifted with her upgraded cranes.BigLift has noticed a growing demand for heavy lift vessels with lifting capacities of over 2,000 mt. With the crane upgrade of Happy Star…

Kongsberg Maritime has secured a contract worth approximately $13 million to equip a new heavy lift crane vessel for Offshore Heavy Transport (OHT) with an innovative technology suite. The vessel, a customized Ulstein Design & Solutions BV design, marks the entry of the Norway-based Offshore Heavy Transport (OHT) into the offshore renewables and installation market. Options exist for a further three vessels, but the first is currently under construction by China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) and is scheduled to enter service in 2021.The 216.3m…

The vessels of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ACSC) have successfully completed their mission at the “Filanovski” oilfield  in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea.A press statement from ACSC said that the towing vessel “Yarnega”, owned by Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company and lift vessel “Gurban Abbasov” expolited by Shipping Company in alliance with Caspian Marine Services (CMS) successfully completed their missions in “Filanovski” oil field in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea, where they have been involved in the second stage of the works under contract with the company “Voltar Marine”.Within this project, lift vessel "Gurban Abbasov" with a safe load capacity of 600 tons will be involved in the installation of platform jacket in the field…

Qatar-based maritime and logistics conglomerate Milaha said its liftboat Milaha Explorer has been deployed off the coast of West Africa as part of a long-term charter with a major international oil company.Milaha’s President and CEO, Abdulrahman Essa Al-Mannai, said, “Over the past few months, we have been significantly ramping up our operations, and I am pleased to announce further growth in our geographic footprint and operational portfolio with this long-term deployment, which marks our entry into Africa.

Below-the-hook equipment manufacturer Modulift and Siemens Heat Transfer Technology B.V. combined forces to design a special rig for lifting modules that weighed nearly 200t apiece. Modulift sent two rigs for on- and off-load in Korea and Thailand respectively—a total of 16 no. 34t capacity MOD 34 beams in addition to slings, shackles, tie-plates and other rigging gear.The two vertical Benson-type Heat Recovery Steam Generators (or HRSGs) first needed to be lifted aboard a vessel for transportation to the 1…