The overall development consists currently of 49 subsea wells connected via subsea production, injection lines and risers to a spread moored FPSO. This FPSO will have a processing capacity of 200,000 barrels of oil per day and can store two million barrels, bringing the installed production capacity on block 17 to over 700,000 barrels per day.

The FPSO is currently under construction at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co.Ltd (DSME) in Korea and will have a length of 325 metres, a beam of 61 metres.

DSME awarded the contract to tow the PAZFLOR FPSO from Korea to Angola to Fairmount Marine as well as the contract for providing mooring services upon arrival of the FPSO in the field. The project will be executed towards the end of 2010.

Albert de Heer, Managing Director of Fairmount, and leader of the project team with Operations Director Leo Leusink, Commercial Manager Paul Mulder and Project Manager Ger Leepel commented “We are honoured to be awarded with this very important towage contract by DMSE, after DALIA and UNITY the third recent major FPSO operation in which Total is involved. Fairmount is committed to provide the offshore oil & gas industry with a first class towage service deploying our new fleet of 200 tonnes bollard pull tugs; we are delighted that this commitment and investment is rewarded by the industry with prestigious orders such as PAZFLOR.. More than ever our focus is on delivering top quality complying with the highest standards for Health, Safety and Environment Protection” (source: www.fairmount.nl).

Tangguh Jaya is one of a fleet of seven LNG carriers being built in Korea for the carriage of LNG from the new Tangguh LNG export plant in Indonesia’s Papua province for carriage to customers in China, Korea and the west coast of North America. Jaya is the name of a mountain in Papua. The seven-ship fleet comprises two 145,700m3 LNG carriers built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for Sovcomflot/NYK, two 155,000m3 vessels from Hyundai Heavy Industries for Teekay and three 155,000m3 ships from SHI for K Line. The LNG carriers are being delivered over the November 2008-May 2009 period and Indonesian shipping lines hold minority stakes in the vessels. The Tangguh LNG plant is scheduled to commence operations in the second quarter of 2009.

There are a further 89 LNG carriers on order worldwide for delivery through 2011, according to LNG World Shipping. The pace of LNG carrier ordering has slowed in recent years due to delays in final investment decisions for further new LNG export projects. As a result, the pace of LNG carrier construction that has taken place over the last 30 months is unlikely to be equalled for some considerable time.

The global LNGC fleet has experienced a period of not only rapid growth, but also change. For example, while Maersk Qatar is powered by a steam turbine propulsion system traditionally favoured by LNG carrier owners, Tangguh Jaya has a dual-fuel diesel-electric propulsion (DFDE) system. The vast majority of conventional size LNG carriers ordered during the past three years have been specified with DFDE systems (source: shippingtimes.co.uk).

According to Brian Uhlmer, research analyst with Pritchard Capital Partners LLC, Scorpion already had invested about $74 million into it.

“It was contracted with Petrobras and it could not get financed,” he says. “So even with a contract, a well-known yard, a company that—although relatively new has been around a few years now, and has got jackups actually working so they have some operational experience and some cash flows—but they couldn’t get financed.”

Scorpion blames the “continuing turmoil in the global credit market” for its inability to get financing. The company says it has reached amicable agreements with Keppel FELS and third party vendors to terminate the construction contact and equipment orders on “mutually acceptable terms.”

Seadrill also announced today that it has amended its agreements with PPL Shipyard and Keppel FELS for the construction of four new jackups—postponing payments. Seadrill has issued corporate guarantees for the remaining installments on the first two units; no guarantees were made for payments on the second units at the yards.

“But they’re also trying to buy Scorpion which has seven jackups—so they had to make a decision and they realized it would be cheaper to average in and buy all of Scorpion,” Uhlmer says (prior to the official announcement from Seadrill).

In Pride International’s latest monthly fleet update, the company announced its jackup Pride Nevada, which contract ended in December, has been cold stacked. Pride Mississippi was cold stacked after its contract was up in October. Earlier in the year, Pride Alabama and Pride Colorado took the same path (Pride Utah in 2007).

Hercules Offshore has no fewer than nine vessels warm stacked and six cold stacked.
ODS Petrodata reported Hercules 252 and Hercules 250 jackups also have been released and stacked. The company said it expects an additional two Gulf of Mexico jackups stacked as well in the coming weeks.

The US GoM contracted offshore rig fleet utilization rate was at 75.8% at the end of December, with 94 of the 124 offshore rigs deployed. Worldwide offshore rig fleet utilization was at 87.9% (source: offshore-mag.com).

Giant vessels are so sophisticated that they require only a handful of crew members. But the ships still burn a thick, dirty sludge called bunker fuel while at sea and slurp diesel to keep the lights and air conditioning running while in port.

Inefficient yard tractors and cranes guzzle fuel and spew exhaust as they stack containers. And tugboats, pound for pound the most powerful vessels on the water, waste most of that idling or cruising.Now, as seaports try to raise their environmental standards, some companies are finding business opportunities.

Foss Maritime, of Seattle, for instance, has developed the Prius of tugboats, which consumes less diesel and generates less pollution by using batteries for all the vessel’s low-power needs.

Foss calls it the world’s first hybrid tug and expects to deliver it to the Port of Los Angeles later this month. The tugboat currently is undergoing testing, said Foss spokesman Dave Hill.

The tugboat, which is being built at the Foss shipyard in Rainier, Ore., across the Columbia River from Longview, will be based at Southern California’s twin ports for five years in exchange for the funding help.

Outwardly, it looks much like other tugboats. Inside, the tug is so different that it will be able to operate like a regular work boat while using less fuel and expelling less exhaust.

The stakes are high for the Port of Los Angeles, said William Lyte, co-founder of Technoplex Group in Los Angeles, a consulting company that helps entrepreneurs market new technology.

“The ports have about $5 billion in expansion projects they want to do, and they can’t do it without mitigating the impact of pollution. Green systems will have to be in place to get these projects approved,” Lyte said. “Companies from all over the world will be trying to sell that kind of technology here, so California businesses have to be prepared to compete.”

Those companies will discover what Foss learned. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest cargo-container ports in the nation, are willing to serve as testing grounds, business incubators and venture capitalists. About $1.35 million in development costs for the Foss hybrid tug came from the two ports and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

“We asked for help to offset the increased capital costs of doing this,” said Susan Hayman, vice president of environmental and corporate development for Foss.

Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said she hoped other businesses would bring their best ideas to the busy harbor.

“The concept of a hybrid tug really gets to the heart of our technology advancement program, where both ports have set aside a funding pool for the development of clean-technology applications in a maritime environment,” she said of the $15 million, five-year program. “So it’s very exciting for us to see this concept that Foss brought to us come to fruition.”

Ruminating on idea

The idea had been kicking around Foss’ offices since 2006, based on the knowledge that tugboats tend to run on full power only 7 percent of the time and waste their 5,000-plus horsepower by idling 50 percent of the time. Knowing that railroads were moving to electric propulsion, Foss initially looked at switching locomotives, which are used to move trains inside rail yards.

There was one big problem.

“The batteries were too heavy. They would have sunk the boat,” Foss Chief Engineer Rick McKenna said.

The solution came from the oil industry.

Canada’s Aspin Kemp & Associates had expertise with “ultra-deep-water” drilling rigs that are held in position with “dynamic positioning thrusters” instead of anchors. The thrusters have to power up quickly to keep the rig in place.

New design

The engineering company designed a way to run the diesel engine and the electrical motor generator through the same drive shaft, McKenna said, enabling Foss to switch to smaller batteries and smaller diesel engines.

“It drives like a normal tug,” McKenna said. The system’s design would enable most existing tugboats to switch to the diesel-battery setup through a retrofit. Foss is hoping that will be a key selling point.

Tests have raised expectations that turning hybrid would cut a tug’s particulate and nitrogen-oxide emissions as much as 44 percent. That’s enough to impress environmental groups that have been some of the ports’ harshest critics.

“Moving the ports’ tugboat fleet toward hybrid technology is a benefit to both local residents and companies who do business at the ports,” said Jessica Lass, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It shows it’s entirely possible to move the ports toward greener, hybrid technology that cuts down on toxic greenhouse emissions and diesel fuel that fouls our local waterways and bodies.”

Foss has been in the tugboat business since 1889. But Heather Tomley, senior environmental specialist at the Port of Long Beach, said companies don’t have to have a maritime background to gain the ports’ attention.

Yorba Linda, Calif.-based Vycon has developed a flywheel technology that attaches to yard cranes. The flywheel system collects energy as cargo containers are lowered and then releases it, helping lift containers. That reduces the power the diesel engine has to supply, cutting fuel consumption and the release of pollutants.

Tomley said Vycon achieved more than a 25 percent reduction in particulate emissions in California Air Resources Board testing.

Vycon has been watching sales of the $150,000 devices grow. “This year we have sold 38 machines,” said Louis Romo, vice president of sales. “We sold five during all of 2007, so that is a nice jump for us.” (source: seattletimes.nwsource.com).

Auriga Leader, a freighter developed by shipping line Nippon Yusen K.K. and oil distributor Nippon Oil Corp., took off from a shipyard in the western city of Kobe, officials of the two firms said.

The huge freighter capable of carrying 6,400 automobiles is equipped with 328 solar panels at a cost of 150 million yen (1.68 million dollars), the officials said.

The ship will initially transport vehicles being sent for sale overseas by Japan’s top automaker Toyota Motor Corp. The project was conceived before the global economic crisis, which has forced automakers to drastically cut production as sales dwindle.

Company officials said the 60,213-tonne, 200-metre (660-foot) long ship is the first large vessel in the world with a solar-based propulsion system. So far solar energy has been limited to supporting lighting and crew’s living quarters.

The solar power system can generate 40 kilowatts, which would initially cover only 0.2 percent of the ship’s energy consumption for propulsion, but company officials said they hoped to raise the ratio.

The shipping industry has come under growing pressure to take part in efforts to curb global warming, which is blamed on carbon emissions.

Estimates say maritime transport accounts for anything from 1.4 percent to 4.5 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. But the industry remains largely unregulated due to its international nature.

Nippon Yusen, Japan’s largest shipping company, has set a goal of halving its fuel consumption and carbon-dioxide emissions by 2010.

Resource-poor Japan has been looking for ways to reduce its dependency on foreign oil (source: news.yahoo.com).

“Generating at full power is an important milestone for the company, and in particular our in-house engineering team. We are very pleased with SeaGen’s performance during commissioning,” said Martin Wright, Managing Director of Marine Current Turbines (MCT). “It demonstrates, for the first time, the commercial potential of tidal energy as a viable alternative source of renewable energy.”

According to company officials, now that SeaGen has reached full power it will move towards full-operating mode for periods of up to 22 hours a day, with regular inspections and performance testing undertaken as part of the project’s development program.

“Marine Current Turbines has pioneered the development of tidal current turbines. As the first mover in tidal stream turbine development, we have a significant technical lead over all rival tidal technologies that are under development,” rightfully boasted Wright. “There are no other tidal turbines of truly commercial scale; all the competitive systems so far tested at sea are quite small, most being less than 10% the rotor area of SeaGen.”

Drawing on its experience at Strangford Lough, MCT’s next project is a joint initiative with npower renewables to build a 10.5MW project using seven SeaGen turbines off the coast of north Wales. That project is scheduled to come online in late 2011/early 2012.

The company is also investigating the potential for tidal energy schemes in other parts of the UK and Ireland, and in North America (source: cleantechnica.com).

The 10-foot-tall buoy has two levers that rise and fall with waves and generate electricity by flexing bendable slabs of rubber-like material. The generator currently produces 20 joules per second and the team is at least five years away from producing a larger commercial version of the device.

The generator will either conduct power to shore via underground cables or produce hydrogen that would run through a pipe, although researches remain uncertain as to which method is more efficient.Experts estimate that wave power can supply up to 6.5 percent of our nations total energy needs. Because waves are a reliable form of energy that are close to the most highly populated areas that in turn require the most power, I would not be the least bit surprised to see a larger version of the electricity generating buoys off our coast lines in years to come.

It would also be interesting to see if the buoy generator could be coupled with deep water wind turbines that are already based on a floating foundation (source: cleantechnica.com).

In addition to alternative energy sources, the Hornblower Hybrid will also feature clean, fuel-efficient marine diesel engines.Of course, the vessel isn’t much more than a publicity stunt if riders aren’t given information about its energy use. Let’s hope that Alcatraz Cruises takes the time to educate the school groups and visitors from around the world that take trips to Alcatraz every day (source: cleantechnica.com).

The recent completion of the world’s first Q-Max LNG carrier, named ‘Mozah,’ marks a step change in LNG shipping by reducing transportation cost, while improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions. The innovative Q-Max ships carry up to 80 percent more cargo, yet require approximately 40 percent less energy per unit of cargo than conventional LNG carriers due to economies of scale and efficiency of the engines.

“The Q-Max carriers break the LNG shipping mold in nearly every way,” said Neil Duffin, President, ExxonMobil Development Company. “The same technology capability that drove us to develop a new class of LNG carrier is driving innovation in all aspects of the LNG value chain.”

The large LNG ship technologies, developed in conjunction with joint venture partner Qatar Petroleum, include a number of industry breakthroughs and significant enhancements, including increased ship size, onboard reliquefaction units, slow-speed diesel engines, twin propellers and rudders, largest ship-board LNG tanks ever built, the latest in hull antifouling protection and improved fire-protection systems. The end result of these new generation ships is a 20-30 percent reduction in transportation cost.

“Qatar Petroleum, with ExxonMobil, led a major technical effort to enable this groundbreaking enhancement in the LNG shipping industry,” said Mr. Faisal Al Suwaidi, Qatargas Chief Executive Officer. “Shipping is a critical link in the LNG value chain that extends from Qatar’s North Field, the largest non-associated gas field in the world with recoverable resources of more than 900 trillion cubic feet, to homes in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. With our innovative technology, we have effectively transformed the LNG business and opened up more of the world for Qatar LNG,” said Al Suwaidi. Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil are shareholders in a Qatar joint venture, Qatargas, that will charter the Mozah and five other Q-Max carriers to supply LNG from new liquefaction trains in Qatar.

For more than 30 years the size of LNG ships remained virtually unchanged with capacity of about 140,000 cubic meters. Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil’s ship operators, hydrodynamicists, naval architects and structural engineers worked closely to develop and rigorously test the larger Q-Max cargo tank designs. Comprehensive evaluation of cargo sloshing was performed to prove that the larger systems were feasible and reliable. The resulting Q-Max carriers are longer than three football fields, tower twenty stories tall from keel to masthead and are equipped with the largest membrane containment tanks ever built. With a total capacity of up to 266,000 cubic meters, each ship carries enough natural gas to meet the energy needs of 70,000 U.S. homes for one year.

In addition to increasing the size of the ship, a major initiative was undertaken to design, test and implement the on-board reliquefaction plant that re-liquefies natural gas that is vaporized during transit, re-injecting it as liquid into the cargo tanks rather than using it as vaporized gas to power the tanker itself – allowing for delivery of nearly 100 percent of the cargo. This is particularly beneficial for the long-haul voyages from Qatar to Europe and the Americas. The on-board reliquefaction facilities created an opportunity to shift from steam boilers and turbines used for propulsion by conventional LNG ships to highly efficient slow-speed diesel engines. The Q-Max ships are equipped with two diesel engines driving twin propellers and rudders. This leads to more energy efficient, reliable and maneuverable ships, reducing fuel consumption by up to one-third.

Recognized by industry veterans as a pioneer in LNG production and technology innovation, ExxonMobil’s joint ventures in Qatar will see the advent of more industry firsts over the next 18 months. In addition to pioneering the industry’s largest vessels to carry LNG to market, ExxonMobil in partnership with Qatar Petroleum is employing new technology in Qatar to build four of the largest LNG production facilities in the world and is participating in the development of LNG regasification terminal projects in Italy, UK and the US (source: marinenorway.no).

Speaking at the Deep Offshore Technology Conference in Perth, Australia, today, John Westwood, chairman of Douglas-Westwood said, “Although we expect some small decline in 2009, thereafter, the deepwater oil and gas industry is set for renewed growth, with annual capex reaching nearly $31 billion in 2011. This is a 45% growth for the 2009-2013 period compared with the previous five years. Deepwater currently accounts for over 15% of total offshore oil production, but over the next few years its relative share will rise to over 20%.

“Africa is expected to be the leading deepwater development area by far, accounting for nearly 40% of the global spend. Since the first deepwater ‘elephants’, Africa has emerged as perhaps the most significant deepwater region in the world, with some stunning successes in recent years, such as Girassol, Xikomba, and Kizomba.

“Latin America’s deepwater activity is dominated by Brazil with its national operator Petrobras who has pioneering the use of innovative technology to achieve production from tremendous water depths. Overall, the region is expected to account for nearly 20% of world deepwater development spend over the 2009-2013 period. Beyond 2013, we expect Brazilian spend to reach new heights as the recently discovered ‘pre-salt’ giant fields are developed.

“Over the next five years, North America is expected to attract a similar share to Latin America. With a few notable exceptions, deepwater fields in the US Gulf of Mexico tend to be smaller than those in other deepwater ‘hotspots’ such as Brazil or West Africa. The region’s extensive offshore infrastructure and the relative proximity of supply and service centers have a significant positive influence on E&P activity, turning otherwise marginal prospects into viable commercial propositions.

“The ‘Golden Triangle’ of Africa, Gulf of Mexico, and Brazil will account for three-quarters of global deepwater expenditure over the forecast period. However, the emergence of Asia as a significant deepwater region should not be overlooked. Indonesia, Malaysia and India all have development prospects on screen for the 2009-2013 period and the region should account for nearly 10% of deepwater capex. Western Europe, will maintain its market share but growing activity will see actual expenditure increasing over 30%.

“In terms of hardware, floating production systems will grow from 22% of historic spend to 28% over the forecast period. Surface wells’ share is set to decrease from 4% to 1%, with all other components, including subsea wells remaining stable. Combined, subsea wells and platforms, at $92 billion, are forecast to represent 67% of expenditure.” (source: offshore-mag.com).