Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. has introduced the HOS Centerline, a Jones Act qualified, 370′ multi-purpose support vessel (MPSV) to its fleet.  This HOS 370 design, with an 8,000+ deadweight-ton capacity represents the largest and most diverse DP-2 classed offshore supply vessel available today. The HOS Centerline is the only vessel in the world to have received certifications by the United States Coast Guard allowing operations as a supply vessel, industrial/construction vessel and as a petroleum and chemical tanker.

The HOS Centerline was added to Hornbeck’s fleet in February 2009 and achieved its multi-certifications under Subchapters “L’, “I”, “D” and “O” in October, 2009. Her sister-vessel, HOS Strongline will join the fleet in early 2010 and is expected to receive the same regulatory pedigree. Both vessels will be based at the company’s shore base facility, HOS Port, located in Port Fourchon, Louisiana. The company acquired the HOS Port facility and its heavy lift capabilities in order to accommodate its growing fleet of large dimension vessels, including the HOS Centerline and HOS Strongline. [Continue Reading →]

---

Related Posts:

STX Europe has entered into new contracts with Island Offshore, an affiliate of Edison Chouest Offshore for, the building of two Platform Supply Vessels. The vessels will be built at STX Europe in Brevik, and are based on the same design as Island Commander and Island Chieftain delivered from STX Europe earlier this year. The vessels are scheduled for delivery in Q4 2011 and Q1 2012. The total value of the contracts amounts to approximately NOK 800 million.

The vessels are of Rolls-Royce UT 776 CD design, and will be number five and six in this series delivered from STX Europe to Island Offshore.

The vessels are scheduled for delivery in Q4 2011 and Q1 2012. The hulls will be built at STX Europe in Romania, and outfitted at STX Europe in Norway.

Technical Information: [Continue Reading →]

---

Related Posts:

STX Europe has been awarded contracts with Siem Offshore for design and building of two dynamic positioning Platform Supply Vessels. The vessels are designed by STX Europe in Ålesund and will be built at STX Europe in Brazil. The vessels are scheduled for delivery in Q2 2012 and Q2 2013. The total value of the contracts amounts to approximately NOK 900 million. The contracts are signed with Siem Consub SA in Brazil, a subsidiary of Siem Offshore. [Continue Reading →]

---

Related Posts:

• What Jobs Are Done With Dynamic Positioning? – Pt.2

The application of diesel electric technology gives a remarkable flexibility to vessels in the larger offshore market. In November Singapore’s ASL Shipyard completed work on the 90 by 22-meter diving support vessel Mermaid Asiana. Destined for service in Mermaid’s extensive Thai fleet, the DP2 classed vessel has redundancies well beyond the basics.

With three Kawasaki bow thrusters the vessel could maintain DP2 status even if one thruster was down. This is but one example of the importance placed on maintaining position, as the ship’s primary function is to support and maintain the safety of divers working at maximum depth. Divers for situation diving descend up to 300 meters in a 6.3-cubic meter diving bell that is lowered through a mid-ship moon pool. After working a shift at depth they are brought up in the pressurized bell that is then attached via an air lock to one of two large accommodation pressure chambers. The chambers are equipped with bunks and other amenities to support up to 12 divers at pressure between dives. A third small decompression chamber is provided for bringing divers back to surface pressures when the job is completed.

With three bow thrusters, two Niigata azimuthing propulsion drives and massive electrical requirements for everything from cranes to accommodation, the need for flexibility and redundancy in the power supply is important. To meet these requirements, the vessel has six 1900 kW Cummins QSK60 (D) powered generators each capable of delivering 1600 kW into the main buss. In reality all electrical requirements can be met with only five generators so that one is always on standby. An additional Cummins KTA38-powered emergency genset is installed on a higher deck level. [Continue Reading →]

---

Related Posts:

This weeks interesting ship is the ULSTEIN A122 AHTS vessel, Olympic Hera, which was just recently delivered to Olympic Shipping by Ulstein Group.  Olympic Hera is the sister vessel of the Olympic Zeus, which has been highly attractive in the market since her delivery six months ago.

Ordered in December 2006, the Olympic Hera and Olympic Zeus are state-of-the-art AHTS/OCV designed for towing, anchor-handling, survey, crane, and ROV operations as well as general offshore construction work.  Along with their deep water capabilities, both vessels have excellent sea-keeping and performance characteristics ensuring good fuel economy and low emissions.

“From our experiences with Olympic Zeus in the North Sea we see that the vessel runs diesel-electric 80% of the time. Figures show that fuel consumption in these modes is about 50% lower than for most competing vessels due to the hybrid solution onboard,” says Olympic Shipping senior vice president Runar Stave. [Continue Reading →]

---

Related Posts:

• Skysails – Plus – Top 10 Green Ship Designs

This weeks incident photos are of the fire that was burning on Seadrill’s West Atlas jackup oil rig located in the Timor Sea between Australia and Indonesia.  BBC tells us:

An oil rig which has leaked thousands of barrels of oil into the Timor Sea over the last 10 weeks has been plugged, the rig’s operators have said.

A massive fire burning on the West Atlas rig has also largely been put out, said PTTEP Australia.

Experts plugged the leak on their fifth attempt by injecting thousands of barrels of mud into the well.

The oil leak, in the Timor Sea between Australia and Indonesia, has endangered marine life, environmentalists said.

PTTEP Australasia, said the fire broke out on Sunday as it made another attempt to plug a leak deep underwater at the West Atlas rig.

The company said it pumped nearly 3,500 barrels of mud into a relief well to plug the leak.

[Continue Reading →]

---

Related Posts:

• Incident Photo (and video) of The Week – Collision at Port of Constanta

This week’s interesting ship is the BW Pioneer, which Keppel Shipyard Limited (Keppel Shipyard) has just announced is on track to be delivered BW Pioneer Ltd, an affiliate of BW Offshore.  The vessel will be the first floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for the US Gulf of Mexico. Named today at Keppel Shipyard, the vessel BW Pioneer will be turret moored at a water depth of about 2,600 meters – by far the deepest for an FPSO.

The FPSO, which is nearing completion, has achieved an impressive safety record of more than 4 million incident-free man-hours to-date. BW Pioneer has been leased by Petrobras America Inc. to operate in the Cascade and Chinook fields of the US GoM, with production scheduled for the first quarter of 2010.

Designed to handle the harsh operating conditions in GoM, BW Pioneer is equipped with an internal disconnectable Submerged Turret Production (STP) mooring system and outfitted with advanced safety features to withstand environmental loads from currents, waves and wind. In the event of an approaching hurricane, this highly advanced safety feature will allow the FPSO to disengage from site and move on her own propulsion to seek sheltered waters.

BW Pioneer has a storage capacity of about 600,000 barrels of oil, a process capacity of 80,000 bopd and gas export facilities of 16 mmscfd.

Click HERE to read more from Keppel Corporation

---

Related Posts:

This weeks interesting ship is the M/V Seabed Worker, an 88 meter Multi Purpose Support Vessel that is very well equipped for Subsea operations. The M/V Seabed Worker was recently delivered in March 2009 by the Norwegian yard Fjellstrand AS to Seabed AS of Begen Norway.

The DP2 classed vessel has two 2500 kW stern-mounted Voith propulsion units, a Rolls Royce 1000-kW tunnel bow thruster and a Rolls Royce 1000-kW retractable azimuthing bow thruster. Power for these electrically driven propulsion motors is provided by four Cummins QSK60 DMI-driven 1800 kW generator sets. The 88.8 by 16-meter vessel is packed with sophisticated equipment including two hydro-acoustic positioning reference systems and very broad suits of navigation and communications systems.   [Continue Reading →]

---

Related Posts:

• Skysails – Plus – Top 10 Green Ship Designs

Transocean Ltd. has announced that its ultra-deepwater semisubmersible rig Deepwater Horizon recently drilled the deepest oil and gas well ever while working for BP and its co-owners on the Tiber well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Working with BP, the Transocean crews on the Deepwater Horizon drilled the well to 35,050 vertical depth and 35,055 feet measured depth (MD), or more than six miles, while operating in 4,130 feet of water.

These achievements are the latest in Transocean’s history of world and other records dating back to the 1950s. In 2005, the ultra-deepwater drillship Discoverer Spirit set the record for the longest Gulf of Mexico oil and gas well at 34,189 feet, MD. Most recently, the Transocean jackup GSF Rig 127 drilled the industry’s longest extended-reach well in 2008 while working for Maersk Oil Qatar AS at 40,320 feet MD with a 35,770-foot horizontal section. The well was drilled offshore Qatar in 36 days and was incident-free.

Transocean also holds the current world water-depth record of operating in 10,011 feet of water set while working for Chevron in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

The Deepwater Horizon, placed into service in 2001, is a dynamically positioned ultra-deepwater semisubmersible rig capable of working in water depths of up to 10,000 feet.

---

Related Posts:

Upon arrival in the office this morning, I had the following press release from about 4 people sitting in my inbox.  It reads:

The impact of proposed changes to the Jones Act and the use of foreign flagged vessels in the US offshore sector is already being felt by seafarers according to international shipping recruitment agency Faststream, with companies rushing to replace their non-US crews.

Should the proposals by the US Customs and Borders Protection (CBP) first issued in July 2009 be implemented, they would radically change the interpretations of rules for vessels transporting specialised equipment used by the offshore oil and gas industry and revoke foreign flag exemptions to the Jones Act including pipe and cable-laying, diving support work.

“Some of our offshore service companies that we work with are already making moves to man their vessels with US crews in anticipation of the proposed changes,” said Fort Lauderdale based Craig Johnson, President of Faststream’s US operations.

“Foreign crews are being shifted away from the US and replaced with American citizens. We think that around 70 vessels could be affected by these proposals, but there still remains a good deal of uncertainty as to how far these proposals will go. We haven’t as yet seen a jump in salary expectations from crews with salaries remaining relatively stable thus far.” [Continue Reading →]

---

Related Posts:

• Announcing – gCaptain Resume Services
• What Jobs Are Done With Dynamic Positioning? – Pt.2