The German Federal Maritime and Hydrological Agency on Monday granted a permit for a 19-mile section of the pipeline. Germany on Dec. 22 granted its first Nord Stream permit for a 31-mile offshore leg.

That leaves Finland the only nation that has not granted approval for the natural gas pipeline. Matthias Warnig, the managing director of the Nord Stream pipeline consortium, said the project was still on schedule, Germany’s Deutsche Welle news agency reports.

“We are firmly on schedule to start construction of the pipeline in spring 2010 and to start transporting gas in 2011,” the director said.

Denmark, Sweden and Russia already backed the project formally.

The Monday permit is the final step for Germany to move forward with the $10.8 billion pipeline project.

Nord Stream will stretch 745 miles through the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea to Germany. The project, along with South Stream, is part of an effort by Russia to diversify its European transit options away from Ukraine.

Europe gets about 25 percent of its gas from Russia, though 80 percent of that volume travels through Soviet-era pipelines in Ukraine.

Kiev, along with Warsaw, said they were concerned Nord Stream would strip transit revenue away from their government coffers.

Russian gas giant Gazprom leads the Nord Stream consortium along with Germany’s E.ON Ruhrgas and BASF-Wintershall.

Oil and gas discoveries were made in deepwater offshore Angola with the Chissonga prospect, in the UK North Sea with the Hobby and Pink wells, and in the US with the Buckskin discovery. Other wells were also drilled in Kazakhstan, Oman.

More drilling is underway too: “At the end of the first half year of 2009, exploratory drilling[s] were underway in Angola, the USA and Great Britain,” the Danish-based group said.

Total exploration costs for the first half of 2009 were US $303 m, compared with $302 m in the first half last year.

In Denmark Maersk has said development work on the Halfdan field is 50% complete with the installation of a new process platform. Production from Denmark in the first half this year was 17 m bbl, 4% down on the same period last year. “Gas production was approximately 30% lower than in the same period of 2008, mainly due to lower customer take,” the group said in its half-year income statement.

Group oil and gas production in the first half was 81 m bbl, down 8% from 2008 (source: www.offshore.247.com)

The new Global Perspective Subsea Market Update is being launched at Subsea 09 in Aberdeen on Feb.11-12 and at PennWell’s Subsea Tieback Forum & Exhibition in San Antonio March 3-5 (source: www.offshore-mag.com).

Now he is to take the helm as manager of the new Emirates International Maritime Academy and his aim is to reconnect his country with its nautical heritage.

As an Emirati sailor, Capt al Hayyas ranks as something of a rarity these days, with few of his fellow countrymen looking to the high seas for a career.
He hopes the impending launch of the maritime academy will help change this.

“The UAE is a coastal state. Seafaring is nothing new to the country, but now people go to oil and gas and the police. We want to bring them back.”

He admits that much of the romance has been lost from seafaring over the decades. In today’s hi-tech world of quick turnarounds, time ashore is virtually non-existent.

“Things have changed,” says Capt al Hayyas, who during his 13 years at sea has served on a series of oil tankers for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and British Petroleum.
“Before, ships spent a long time in port and the sailors enjoyed themselves. Discharging the cargo took time. Now you only spend hours in port and you stay on board. You don’t get the chance to leave the ship and most ports are in industrial areas.”

Instead, the internet and satellite TV are now usually available on board, wages are generous and shipping companies give long periods off work to compensate for time way from home.
“Before it was six months at sea, now it’s two to three months and then you get two months off,” he says. And employment conditions are likely to improve because there is a worldwide dearth of maritime officers. Capt al Hayyas believes the shortage will total 30,000 over the next decade.

The maritime academy will be part of the Dubai Maritime City Campus, which Capt al Hayyas will also manage, and which will include branch campuses of up to half a dozen overseas marine training institutions.
The campus will be within Dubai Maritime City, an ambitious industrial, office, residential and marina development on reclaimed land that is described as the world’s first purpose-built maritime centre.

The scheme, partly completed, is sandwiched between Dubai Drydocks, where huge tankers undergo maintenance, and Port Rashid, a stop-off for cruise ships and now home of the Queen Elizabeth 2, due to be converted into a hotel and based at the Palm Jumeirah.
According to Capt Jaafar bin Sidin, the director of both the academy and campus, the benefits of becoming a seafarer extend beyond a maritime career. Many sailors eventually decide to return to shore and find they are much in demand.

“A ship is like a floating city – what a city needs, you need on board ship. Chief engineers, you find them in hotels. You can get captains in many different industries – some ex-seafarers become airline pilots,” says the 55-year-old Singaporean.
The opportunities for Emiratis and other GCC citizens are great, according Capt bin Sidin.

“The industry is expanding, so in terms of a career it’s something they should be going into now if they want to be holding the key positions in future,” says Capt bin Sidin.

While European and Singaporean ships now employ women, in the Middle East seagoing careers remain the preserve of men, says Capt bin Sidin. But on shore there are just as many opportunities for women.
“A shipping executive can be female, if you’re doing marine insurance you can be female.”

There are a wealth of maritime-related careers on land, in areas such as chartering, brokerage and logistics – jobs most people would not necessarily connect with the sea.

“The moment you mention maritime people think ships, but that’s only one side,” says Capt bin Sidin. “And now it’s up for grabs. There is scope for young people to make a good career from this.”
Among the courses to be offered at the campus will be ones leading to certificates of competency essential for professional licences required in seagoing careers. In addition, there will be non-seafaring academic courses, such as degrees in ship management and naval architecture. There will also be short courses in subjects such as ship safety that an on-board masseuse or singer may need to take. Finally, the campus is expected to offer training in recreational maritime activities such as jet ski operations.
Although several overseas institutions are likely to be based at DMCC, officials insist these will be strictly regulated to prevent duplication of courses.

“A lot of people are approaching us. We could fill the campus easily, but we’re looking at our partners carefully. We will only bring the best of the best,” Capt al Hayyas says.

Having such a specialised centre will reduce the need for shipping companies to send people overseas for training.
“If you want to renew a certificate, at the moment you have to travel to Singapore or Australia or Europe. We’re solving this problem.”

The maritime academy is ultimately funded by the Dubai Government.

“There is a commitment from the Government,” says Capt al Hayyas. “They have given us a piece of land in one of the most expensive developments.”

Courses are likely to start in July at the Port Rashid passenger terminal, which is being converted into a temporary college. The maritime academy is scheduled for completion by late 2011. By the time it reaches full capacity in 2016 it will have about 1,000 students.
Capt al Hayyas was trained under Adnoc sponsorship and at 18 he was sent as a student to Tyneside on England’s north-east coast.

“As soon as I arrived in Britain I spent a week in a sailing boat going to Swansea, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. It was my first time at sea. They were testing me,” he says (source: www.thenational.ae).

www.MaritimeJobSearch.com | Shipping, Transportation, and Engineering Jobs

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).

Petrobras, a Brazilian international energy company, announces that its Board of Directors has approved the Business Plan for 2009-2013 period.

This Business Plan is based on the fundamental strategies of the Strategic Plan 2020. The Plan has been revised and up-dated to take into account the changes in the international macroeconomic scenario and its impacts on oil and oil products market. The Plan did not incorporate potential cost reductions as a consequence of the drop in the international oil price although the Company recognizes that the decline in oil should create the opportunity for cost reductions and will make its best efforts to lower the cost of its investments.

Maintaining its commitment to sustainable development, the Company intends to continue expanding its activities in target markets for oil, oil products, petrochemicals, gas and energy, biofuels and distribution, being a benchmark to the integrated oil industry.

The Company’s Vision to become one of the five largest integrated energy companies in the world has been maintained, based on the pillars of profitability, social and environmental responsibility, and integrated growth.

Targets for the international business also reflect the Company’s integrated growth and the production of oil and gas is projected to reach 341 thousand boed in 2013. The projected combined output of oil and gas in Brazil and overseas for 2013 is 3,651 thousand boed.

In comparison with the Business Plan 2008-12, the most significant increase was in Exploration and Production, with a growth of 71% in investments equivalent to US$ 92 billion, or 53% of the US$ 174.4 billion for the 2009-13 period. The Downstream segment, with a 27% share of the investment planned, has also seen investments increased to US$ 46.9 billion, or a 46% rise in relation to the preceding plan.

It also should be highlighted the 139% increase of investments in Gas and Energy, albeit representing only 6% of the total. In the International segment, investments are to continue to be concentrated in Exploration and Production with a focus on Latin America, West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico. A total of US$ 2.4 billion will be invested in the biofuels segment through the new Petrobras Biocombustível subsidiary.

The addition to total projected capital costs is composed of: US$ 47.9 billion for new projects, US$ 17 billion due to increase in costs and US$ 2.9 billion due to changes in foreign exchange rate assumptions. The remaining amount is due to other factors such as changes in projects scope, engineering design, etc (source: www.maritimeandenergy.com).