Floating Production's Future: The 6 Things You Need to Know Now
No question that the market for new floating production systems has taken a battering. The past 12 to 18 months have been a difficult period for everyone in the business sector. Absence of new contracts has forced fabricators and equipment suppliers to make huge cutbacks in personnel and spending. But deepwater production will rebound – oil demand keeps growing -- and though the signs are mixed we see indications of the rebound starting. First some numbers about the state of the business.
Senator Wicker Calls For a Stronger U.S. Navy
U.S. “The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower convenes this afternoon to examine Navy shipbuilding programs. We welcome our three distinguished witnesses: The Honorable Sean J. Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition; Vice Admiral Joseph P. Mulloy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Integration of Capabilities and Resources; and Lieutenant General Robert S.
Korea's Doorae Shipping Fined $750K for Illegal Discharge
United States District Court Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi accepted the guilty plea of Doorae Shipping Co., LTD, a South Korean maritime operations company, and sentenced the company to pay a fine of $750,000, a community service payment of $200,000, and a term of two years of probation for the failure to maintain an accurate oil record book, in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, and making false statements to the U.S.
Lucion Awarded UK Bunker Testing Contract
Lucion Marine wins U.K. Hazardous material and risk management specialist Lucion Marine, part of the Lucion Services Group, has won a major contract with the U.K.’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to provide fuel oil sampling and testing services at ports across the U.K. and Northern Ireland. The contract runs until 2020 and involves the provision of a sampling and analysis service to test that fuel being used by vessels in U.K.
OML Joins InterManager
International trade association for in-house and third party ship managers InterManager has extended its membership from within the Middle Eastern shipping market…
North River Boats Thrives in a Challenging Build Market
North River Boats’ formula for success: anchored in a diverse portfolio and customer base. Tucked away in Roseburg, Ore., North River Boats began simply enough in…
Manage and Mitigate Risk on the Water
Early in the morning on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Golf Coast of the United States. Hurricane Katrina was the worst insured loss event in the history of insurance anywhere in the world. It was bigger than 9/11. It was bigger than the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were displaced from their homes. Barges were picked up by the waves and slammed onto shore…
New Container Service Starting in Houston
In anticipation of increased opportunities for inbound consumer goods and outbound industrial commodities, Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. have joined forces to operate a new direct all-water container service between the U.S Gulf and Asia. The new service by the 2M Alliance features the Lone Star Express by MSC and TP18 by Maersk. The first sailing is scheduled to depart Asia May 2, with Houston as the first U.S. inbound port call.
PDVSA to Receive US Crude Cargo from BP
Venezuela's PDVSA will discharge in the coming days its first cargo of U.S. crude bought from British BP, who along with China Oil was awarded a tender to supply…
US Ports Planning Big Investments -Survey
Survey shows U.S. In its just-released 2016-2020 Port Planned Infrastructure Investment Survey, the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) asked its U.S. member ports how much they and their private-sector partners plan to spend on port-related freight and passenger infrastructure over the next five years. The answer was a whopping $154.8 billion. AAPA then contrasted that number with what it believes is the “best-case” scenario for investments by the federal government into U.S.
MSC Cruises Orders Four More Ships from STX
French shipyard STX has secured an order for up to four more ships from MSC Cruises, in a 3.6 billion-euro ($4.1 billion) deal announced on Wednesday. MSC Cruises, part of privately owned shipping group MSC, has in recent years been the main customer for STX France, which is based at the Atlantic port of Saint-Nazaire. The two companies signed a letter of intent for the order at a ceremony on Wednesday at the Elysee palace in Paris…
Hapag-Lloyd Eyes Impact of New Grand Canal
The Panama Canal has linked the Pacific with the Atlantic for more than 100 years. It will soon be possible for significantly larger ships to pass through its locks. What will the expansion mean for Hapag-Lloyd? They’re still working in Panama, on one of the biggest construction sites in the world. Everything seems gigantic here. The lock gates alone, veritable monsters of grey steel: 16 in total, each of them 57 meters long…
Barge Breakaway on the Mississippi River
The U.S. Coast Guard said it is responding to an allision and barge breakaway on the Mississippi River at mile marker 43.7 near Thebes, Ill., Wednesday. Tow vessel Michael G.
Keppel Secures MODEC FPSO Project in Brazil
Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd, through subsidiary Keppel FELS Brasil SA's BrasFELS shipyard, has been awarded a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO)…
MAN 32/40 Package for Chinese Dredger
Jiangsu Haihong Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. has ordered four MAN 32/40 engines in connection with an order for two 8,000-cubic-meter trailing suction hopper dredgers. MAN’s scope of delivery covers two shipsets, each including a propulsion package consisting of two 9L32/40 engines, a MAN Alpha twin-screw VBS860 CP propeller, single marine reduction RSVL-800 gearboxes from Renk, plus a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system that enables the engines to fulfill Tier III in liquid mode.
March US-flag Lakes Cargoes Double from 2015
U.S.-flag Great Lakes freighters (lakers) moved 1,747,111 tons of cargo in March, more than double their total of a year ago, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association (LCA), who said the March float was also on pace with the month’s five-year average. Iron ore cargos totaled 1,362,768 tons, again more than double the volume of a year ago, while coal cargos totaled 133,155 tons, basically a repeat of a year ago.
Firmer Vessel Demand Pushes Up Baltic Index
The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, rose on Wednesday, boosted by steady rates across bigger vessels.
EC Pumps €7.5 Mln into the Maritime Sector
European Commission invests over €7.5 million under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund to boost innovation, growth and jobs in the marine and maritime sectors. The European Commission is investing over €7.5 million to boost innovation and create jobs in the marine and maritime sectors. The money is available under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and divided in calls for proposal focusing on the key areas where the European Union can have the biggest impact: skills…
Bulkers Squeezed Out
Behind the news of the multiple VLOCs being ordered to service the Brazil-China iron ore trade lies the reality that just two non-VLOC bulker contracts were placed in the first quarter of 2016, says Craig Jallal, VesselsValue's Senior Data Editor. The two non-VLOC orders of Q1 2016, which came from U-Ming Marine Transport, who signed a contract with Sumitomo Corp. and Oshima shipbuilding on February 15 for two 81…
AWT Earns ISO 9001:2008 Certification
Applied Weather Technology, Inc. (AWT), a StormGeo Company, announced it has earned approval of certification to international Quality Management System Standard…
