Page 13: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 1982)

It IKONGSBERG

The Kongsberg group, one of Norway's largest industrial organizations, has in- stalled advanced electronics on board more than 50,000 vessels, advanced ARPA's, in- strumentation and automation aboard more than 800.

This wealth of experience comes from an exceptionally broad background in design, engineering, quality control, manufactur- ing and distribution. Kongsberg has pioneered in development of shipboard systems such as weapons control for the

Norwegian navy, dynamic positioning and maritime training simulators.

NORCONTROL

Navigation, automation, instrumentation and training systems. DataBridge® in- cludes collision avoidance, navigational, steering and load calculating systems.

Complete instrumentation for unattended machinery spaces, control alarm systems, tank level and draft gauging systems.

Maritime simulators for maneuvering and navigation, liquid cargo handling and ship propulsion plants. Complete Vessel Traffic

Management systems for harbors and off- shore platforms.

ROBERTSON

Steering systems ranging from simple yacht autopilots to the most complex, gyrocompass controlled modular steering stands. The SKR-80 gyrocompass features unique electronic design with servo control to provide extremely short alignment time and minimum error.

KONGSBERG MARITIME

Supports the offshore petroleum industry, providing a range of horizontal positioning reference and data processing and plotting services. Developed the Albatross series of dynamic positioning systems for virtually any type of offshore vessel and any con- figuration of power and thruster.

This, then, is the Kongsberg group.

Specialists in turning high technology into practical, problem-solving systems for mariners the world over.

Kongsberg North America, Inc.

Maritime Division 135 Fort Lee Road, Leonia, NJ 07605

Telephone 201-947-6788/Telex 135-115

Jackup Griffin-Alexander VII

Outfitted, Starts Drilling

In Gulf Of Mexico

The Griffin-Alexander VII under way from its outfitting location at Sabine Pass, Texas, headed for the coast of Louisiana where it will begin drilling for Shell Oil

Company.

The mobile offshore drilling unit Griffin-

Alexander VII departed from its final out- fitting location at Sabine Pass, Texas, re- cently and went to its first drilling site off the Louisiana coast in Vermillion Block

Number 292 to drill for Shell Oil Company.

The rig is the seventh Bethlehem Steel

Corporation mat-type cantilevered mobile offshore drilling rig to be delivered to Griffin-

Alexander Drilling Company in the past 16 months. The Griffin-Alexander VII was chris- tened by its sponsor, Mrs. Jo Ann Black- burn, wife of Charles Blackburn, executive vice president of Shell Oil Company, prior to its being moved to Sabine Pass for final outfitting.

The Griffin-Alexander VII was delivered 32 days ahead of schedule by Bethlehem's

Beaumont, Texas, yard.

Loy D. Griffin, chairman of Griffin-Alex- ander, said that with the financing of Griffin-

Alexander VII, his company has successfully completed in excess of $250 million in equity and debt financing in the 31 months since the construction contract for Griffin Alex- ander I was signed with Bethlehem in De- cember 1979. Industry sources indicated that this is a record for an offshore drilling com- pany less than three years old. Major par- ticipants in these financial arrangements were investment bankers Jones, Loyd and

Webster; First City National Bank of Hous- ton ; Det Norske Creditbank; and Shearson-

American Express, Inc.

Headquarters for Griffin-Alexander Drill- ing Company's worldwide operations are in

Houston and recently were relocated to the new Benchmark Building on Northwest

Freeway and Tidwell where the company became the first tenant of the building.

Griffin-Alexander's main operations office is in Lafayette, La., with field offices in Ara- caju, Brazil, and Bombay, India.

In addition to Mr. Griffin, the principal officers of Griffin-Alexander are J.W. Alex- ander, president: R.B. Linke, vice president, operations; and William A. Elmer, vice pres- ident, finance.

The Griffin-Alexander VII is the first of a new series of Bethlehem 250-foot water depth, cantilevered, mat-supported rigs.

It has been designed to solve "footprint" problems; the mat of the rig has been spe- cially strengthened so that the holes, or "footprints" left by other rigs next to a platform will not interfere with its position.

The rig can work more than 75 percent of the areas of all known and anticipated oil reserves in the continental shelves of the world, and 90 percent of the total world jackup territory.

On location the rig has a total variable load capacity of 4.5 million pounds, which includes a maximum drilling load of 1 mil- lion pounds. At the rig's maximum canti- lever reach of 45 feet, the drilling load ca- pacity is 750,000 pounds at the rig centerline.

Jacksonville Shipyards Orders 30,000-Ton Floating Dock

From GHH Sterkrade

M.A.N.-GHH Sterkrade, Oberhausen, Ger- many, recently received an order from Jack- sonville Shipyards for a floating dock with a lifting capacity of 30,000 tons.

The dock has been ordered under a $35- million extension investment program at the

Jacksonville, Fla., yard.

Principal dimensions of the floating dock are: lifting capacity 30,000 tons; length 227 meters; width 42 meters; and height 18.20 meters.

M.A.N.-GHH Sterkrade had built a 33,000- ton dock for Jacksonville Shipyards in 1973.

The new floating dock is scheduled for de- livery to Jacksonville Shipyards in May 1983. 80-Ton Floating Crane

Delivered To Great Southern \ it

Clyde model 24 Whirley mounted on Bergeron-built barge.

Great Southern Derrick Barge Company has taken delivery of a $3-million 80-ton floating crane to enhance their operations in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area.

Mounted on a 125 by 52-foot barge built by Bergeron Industries, Inc., St. Bernard,

La., the crane is a newly constructed Clyde model 24 Whirley with a 120-foot boom out- reach and is specially designed for fast duty cycle work. It is presently equipped with a 15-yard bucket for discharging dry materi- als at a rate of up to 800 tons per hour.

The crane will be equipped to handle any type of dry material, dredging and salvage work, as well as scrap metals, containers, and heavy lifts.

Great Southern is a recently formed joint venture of Standard Gypsum Company of

Ft. Lauderdale and Peraco Chartering Cor- poration of New York. Standard Gypsum, a shipping and trading company, and their affiliate, Bulk Stevedores, Inc., operate dry bulk terminal facilities in the Port of Tampa and Port Everglades.

Paul D. deMariano, president of Great

Southern and Standard Gypsum, announced that the crane has been stationed in Tampa to accommodate imported dry materials in a manner more commonly associated with major ports on the Mississippi River and in the New York/New Jersey/Baltimore area.

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