Bender Shipbuilding And ENSCO Drilling Christen Drilling Barge

Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co., Inc. joined ENSCO Drilling Company (EDC) for a christening ceremony for the ENSCO X, the second of two drill rigs constructed by Bender for oil exploration on Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. The two drill rigs are Bender's first drill rig construction projects and represent an expansion by the Mobile-based shipbuilder into a new market of international ship construction.

The ENSCO X is one of two drilling barges built by Bender for EDC, a division of Energy Service Company, Inc. (ENSCO) of Dallas, Texas. The barges are part of a four-barge construction program begun by ENSCO last May. The additional two barges are being built by a Texas shipyard. Financing of approximately $65 million for the four barges is being provided by Nissho Iwai Corporation of Japan.

The new barges represent a significant expansion of ENSCO's international contract drilling operations.

The four new barges will Donna S. Spearman christens the ENSCO X. join two other EDC barge rigs, the ENSCO V and ENSCO VI, and two Lagoven-owned rigs operated by EDC under labor contracts, all of which are already working on Lake Maracaibo for Lagoven under longterm contracts.

The 200 x 85 x 14-foot ENSCO X drilling barge is specifically designed and constructed for oil exploration in the shallow waters of Lake Maracaibo, and is equipped for exploratory and production drilling in water depths ranging from 25 feet to 120 feet.

The barge includes living quarters and accomodations for a crew of 16, a helicopter deck and a derrick rising 147 feet from the drilling floor. Bender Shipbuilding is a leading builder of marine products for domestic and foreign clients.

With nine shipbuilding facilities and four dry docks, Bender has extensive new construction and repair capabilities.

For more on Bender Shipbuilding & Repair, Circle 94 on Reader Service Card Saab Marine Finds Business In Retrofit Market; Lands Huge Japan Deal Due to growing environmental concern, higher quality demands from both crews and charterers as well as new legislation, there is a current need for owners to upgrade their tonnage. Capitalizing, Saab Marine Electronics has recently received several retrofit project orders for its radar-based level gauging system, Saab TankRadar.

The most recent retrofit order was from the French shipowner Compagnie General Maritime, for the retrofitting of two 2,400-dwt chemical carriers. The order covers the supply of radar level gauging and temperature monitoring for the ship's 12 cargo tanks. Another order was from Mobil Shipping Co.

Ltd. in London for level gauging systems on three of its older tankers. But Saab has found success in more than the retrofit business. At the recent Nor-Shipping show, the company announced an order to supply its radar-based level gauging system, Saab TankRadar, for a floating storage tank terminal located off Shirashima Island in Japan.

The plant consists of eight huge floating vessels, each 700,000- dwt. The tanks are built like vessels with a double hull and each vessel is divided into seven tanks. The delivery from Saab Marine Electronics includes level gauging in all seven tanks on each vessel, and each tank will have two gauges installed with individual Tank Display Units for display of ullage. The total number of gauges will be 112. In 1992, Saab Marine Electronics became the first company in the world to be awarded an ISO 9001 international quality assurance certificate for development, design and manufacturing of radar-based level gauging systems. Saab Marine Electronics is a member of Saab-Scanias high technology Combitech Group.

For more information on Saab Marine Electronic.