Page 68: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 1999)

Spanish Maritime Report sion technology with the recent re-deliv- ery of a crude carrier adapted for a North

Sea offshore role as the 150,000-dwt

Catherine Knutsen.

Undertaken on behalf of Haugesund- based Knutsen OAS Shipping, a promi- nent customer of Spanish yards in the 1990s, the project entailed the extensive rebuild of the former deepsea oil tanker

Tanana for a new role lifting crude from offshore fields to terminals on the North

Sea rim under charter to Norwegian energy group Statoil.

The work undertaken at AES A's Cadiz conversion and repair yard included the installation of a bow loading system, remodeling of the shaft line and fitting of a new, controllable pitch propeller. So as to meet the standards set by Dynpos

Class 1 requirements, the tanker has been equipped with station-keeping capabilities encompassing a dynamic positioning system (DPS) enhanced with a hydroacoustic positioning radar (HPR) system, and including two bow and two stern thrusters and two dedicat- ed gensets.

Also entailing the fitting of an Artemis system on the bridge and some 550 tons of new steel, the contract was the third shuttle tanker conversion carried out for the Norwegian owner at Cadiz. The ear- lier jobs had entailed the Tove Knutsen in 1992 and the Dicto Knutsen in 1994, the latter having been the first tanker worldwide to be installed with a sub- merged turret loading (STL) system.

Significantly, both AESA and Knutsen have provided an input to ARCO Marine in connection with the U.S. company's bold program for a mold-breaking series of tankers to serve continuous-cycle

We can build your vessel

Germanischer Lloyd (gICI Certification GmbH

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NAVAL GIJON, S.A. Shipyard, located in the North of Spain, has one of the widest drydocks in its rank: 187 x 35 m.

This fact, together with its modem facilities and qualified workmanship, makes it able to cope with the most sophisticated and demanding newbuildings.

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Naval Gijon Mariano Pola. 34 • 33212 GIJON (SPAIN) Phone 34 - 98 - 532 90 11

Fax 34-98-531 23 19

Telex 87489 NGIJ E http://www. navalgijon. es shipments of Alaskan North Slope crude to west coast refineries. Certain parallels were perceived between the demands of the long-term North American coastwise shipping requirement and the intensive nature of North Sea shuttle tanker oper- ations, since the latter demands the clos- est attention to factors of ship maneu- verability, system redundancy and envi- ronmental protection.

Return To Private Sector

After forming part of state-controlled

AESA for nearly a quarter of a century,

Astilleros Barreras returned to the pri- vate domain in June 1998 with the com- pletion of the sale to a group of Spanish businessmen in conjunction with the yard's management. The move has put added momentum behind the commer- cial endeavors of the Vigo yard, which has a solid reputation in the field of spe- cialized tonnage.

Production through 1998 has con- firmed both the versatility and contrac- tual performance of the company, locat- ed in the magnificent natural harbor of

Vigo, in Galicia, the country's north- west region. Output during that mile- stone year has comprised three widely differing newbuilds, in the shape of a 977-TEU containership for a Madrid shipowner, an 8,300-dwt chemtanker to

French account, and a 12,300-gt train ferry for New Zealand.

The 13,300-dwt boxship Fernando M.

Perez, commissioned during the six- month spell between government approval being granted for the sale of the yard and the legal change of owner- ship, was phased into service with

Naviera del Odiel, one of the new share- holders in the Barreras enterprise.

Another longstanding client of the ship- builder, the Albacora Group, is one of the participants in the new owning con- sortium, along with locally-based indus- trial firm Garofa Costas.

The participation of the existing ship- yard management in the ownership structure has better ensured continuity and motivation, as demonstrated by pos- itive results to date against a backcloth of a difficult shipbuilding market. The reconstitution within the private sector was also made with the organization in good shape in terms of its operating pro- cedures as well as workload, since the hand-over of the Fernando M Perez had been accompanied by the award to the yard of ISO 14001 certification, issued through Lloyd's Register Quality

Assurance (LRQA).

The second completion in 1998 was the 9,800-cu m oil and chemical tanker

Alexander, built to meet the trading requirements of Marseilles-based

Fouquet-Sacop Maritime. Strengthened to Ice Class C stipulations laid down by

Bureau Veritas, and equipped for IMO

Class 2 chemical cargoes, Alexander has been design for rapid and efficient turn- arounds through the adoption of a 290- cu m per hour cargo pump in each of the 10 main cargo spaces.

The subsequent delivery of an innova- tive train/RoRo ferry for New Zealand's

Tranz Rail provided a first-rate example of the shipbuilding skills available in the

Galicia region. In the face of an increas- ingly wide-ranging competition from yards in the Far East, it also confirmed the capacity of Western Europe's mar- itime sector to design, engineer and pro- duce newbuild solutions tailored to spe- cific needs.

The 1999 delivery program re-empha- sizes the propensity of the Vigo yard for higher-value vessel types and for a diversified production output, since it encompasses another tuna fishing new- build of record-breaking size and capac- ity, a pair of 18,800-gt vehicle carriers for Lineas Suardiaz, and the conversion of a RoRo for subsea work. Ordered by the Albacora Group, the tuna catcher approaching completion at the time of writing is the latest symbol of the yard's prowess in a highly specialized category, in which it has broken new bounds through the 1990s with fast, sleek new ships over 328 ft. (100 m) length overall.

The latest vessel is 380.5 ft. (116 m) long, and her 5,850-kW main engine of

Wartsila 8R46 type offers a speed of 19 knots.

Given several export orders, 'super seiners' from Barreras in recent years have bolstered French as well as Spanish catching capacity. The yard is under- stood to have contracts in hand for a fur- ther three tuna catchers, to Spanish account. The private sectors' far-reach- ing expertise in fishing vessels is also demonstrated by a project at another

Vigo yard for a 466 ft. (142 m) freezer stern trawler, one of the largest in the world. The "supertrawler" ordered by a

Dutch shipowner from Construcciones

Navales P Freire is of 9,000-dwt, and has been designed to catch and load the equivalent of 5,200 pallets of pelagic species of fish.

Chemical Tanker

Production

As a contributor to Spanish success in niche shipbuilding markets, Naval

Gijon's distinctly export-based work load takes its chemical tanker construc tion program through 2000. The Gijo company holds great store by its organi zation, processes and carefully hone 68 Circle 243 on Reader Service Card Maritime Reporter/Engineering News