Gas Pipes News

On Nov. 18, hours after two communication cables were severed in the Baltic Sea, 30 NATO vessels and 4,000 military staff took to the same body of water for one of northern Europe's largest naval exercises.The 12-day 'Freezing Winds' drill was part of a push to step up the transatlantic defence alliance's protection of infrastructure in waters that carry 15% of global shipping traffic and are seen as increasingly vulnerable to attack.The Baltic Sea is bordered by eight NATO countries and Russia.

The Netherlands plans to temporarily enlist additional personnel and equipment from private companies to strengthen security in its part of the North Sea, the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday, confirming media reports.The decision follows reports last year from Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD that Dutch North Sea infrastructure, such as gas pipes and windmills, is the target of Russian sabotage activities.

It will likely be difficult to determine who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia and Germany in the Baltic Sea last year, Sweden's prosecution authority, which is investigating the incident, said on Thursday. The Sept. 26 explosions at the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. The blast in the Swedish zone happened at a depth of 80 meters and the prosecutor said investigating it was complicated. "Our hope is to be able to confirm who has committed this crime…

Russia has in recent months tried to gain intelligence to sabotage critical infrastructure in the Dutch part of the North Sea, Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD said on Monday.A Russian ship has been detected at an offshore wind farm in the North Sea as it tried to map out energy infrastructure, MIVD head General Jan Swillens said at a news conference.The vessel was escorted out of the North Sea by Dutch marine and coast guard ships before any sabotage effort could become successful…

Indonesian authorities said on Monday it could take up to a month to free a crude oil tanker stuck in its waters, while the United States slapped sanctions on the vessel for alleged links to Hezbollah and a branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The Indonesian navy has been trying to free the Djibouti-registered vessel, Young Yong, which ran aground off Indonesia's Riau Islands on Oct. 26. The U.S. last week issued sanctions against an international oil smuggling network it said supports Hezbollah and Iran's Quds Force, targeting dozens of people, companies, and tankers as Washington sought to mount pressure on Tehran. The Young Yong was among the vessels sanctioned. U.S. embassy officials in Singapore and Jakarta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A Danish Baltic Sea island suffered a temporary power blackout on Monday as a local grid fault caused the transformer feeding electricity from Sweden to shut down, Energinet and E.ON said. Danish transmission system operator Energinet said the blackout had not been caused by damage to the subsea cable feeding the electricity from the transformer station, and power had returned to all consumers on Bornholm. "The fault which caused a power outage on Bornholm on Monday at (0549 GMT) was not directly related to the submarine cable between Bornholm and Sweden…

The Russia-led Nord Stream 2 consortium is expected to start laying gas pipes in Danish waters after construction was suspended for a year owing to the threat of sanctions from the United States, according to a Danish maritime regulator.Nord Stream 2, designed to double capacity of the existing undersea Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, has become a bone of contention between Moscow and Washington, with the United States seeking to cut Europe's reliance on Russian energy.The United States also plans to increase sales of its own sea-borne liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe.The Danish Maritime Authority has issued notification of pipe-laying works for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline on the Baltic Sea bed from Jan.

Baleària has begun retrofitting its Nápoles ferry to be powered by liquified natural gas (LNG)The ferry arrived at the  Gibdock shipyards for modification of the engines, and to install an LNG tank with the work expected to be completed by February 15.Thus, the two engines currently on the ship (MAN9L48/60) will become 9L51/60DF versions which are dual-fuel liquefied natural gas and diesel engines produced by the company MAN Energy Solutions. With this change in fuel, the ferry Nápoles is expected to reduce its CO2 emissions by 9…

The Indonesian government has scrapped the long-awaited Cilamaya port project in Karawang district, West Java province, and is seeking a better location in Subang or Indramayu. The Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who visited Cilamaya with several ministers, including Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Indroyono Susilo and Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan, said the new port would be built east of Cilamaya, either in Subang or Indramayu. The decision followed protest from state oil and gas company Pertamina that shipping activity would hamper oil surveys and operations in that area. Kalla said after a meeting at office of the Tanjungjaya village chief, the location has to be moved to better guarantee shipping safety and not to hamper Pertamina operation there.

The gigantic Nord Stream pipe, with two same-sized parallel ones, runs from Vyborg in Russia through the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea to Lumina in Germany. It will be able to secure supplies of electricity and heat to 26 million households in Europe for 50 years to come. The 1,224 kilometre-long pipe (approximately 760 miles) is currently located on the bottom in three lengths. Norwegian subsea expertise will be called upon to weld together the lengths of pipe on the seabed. The gas pipes’ diameters are 48 inches, thus making it larger than any other one placed on the seabed to date.

MAN Diesel & Turbo introduced its Liquid ME-GI (Liquid Gas Injection) engine. The Liquid ME-GI is powered by LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas), a smaller market than LNG but of significance in certain segments such as the small tankers that ply river traffic and coastal shipping routes. The Liquid ME-GI is a variant of MAN Diesel & Turbo‘s ME-GI engine, whose control and safety system is based on the experience gathered since the mid-1990s at working gas plants, including a 12K80MC-GI-S in Japan, and the development of a VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) engine in the late 1990s.

Construcciones Navales del Norte (La Naval de Sestao) of Spain’s Basque country delivered the Simon Stevin to Jan de Nul in February. Driven by a diesel-electric propulsion system comprising a series of MAN Diesel 32/40 engines, the new addition to the Belgian group’s fleet is claimed to be the world’s largest fall-pipe and rock-dumping vessel with a capacity of 19,500 m3. Construction of the ship lasted 26 months, with keel-laying taking place in April 2008 and launching in March 2009. The Simon Stevin recently departed for Australia for its first commercial projects. The Simon Stevin is powered by five MAN Diesel nine-cylinder 32/40 main engines. Each delivers 4,500 kW at 720 rpm and is manufactured by STX Engine Co., Ltd., MAN Diesel’s Korean licensee.

Aker Yards has entered into a contract with Farstad Shipping ASA for the building of one Construction Vessel with a value of approx $135m. Aker Yards, Langsten is to build a 398 x 85 ft. construction vessel for Farstad, based on the Rolls-Royce design; UT 761 CD. The Vessel is scheduled for delivery from Aker Yards, Langsten in the fourth quarter of 2008. The vessel will after delivery enter into a long term charter with Saipem UK Ltd. The vessel is specially designed for plough duties in connection with pipe laying of oil and gas pipes offshore. The vessel will have a Bollard Pull of more then 350 tons, and all equipment necessary to support the most challenging operations and environments world wide.