Page 100: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2003)

Vessels

KMY Helps Breaks the Ice in Russia

Following evaluation by ExxonMobil, operator of the Sakhalin-1 project in

Russia, Kvaerner Masa-Yards Inc.,

Finland, and Far-Eastern Shipping

Company PLC (FESCO), Russia, signed contracts for the design and construction of two icebreaking stand-by and supply vessels for the Sakhalin-1 project. The contracts are still subject to approval by the Central Bank of Russia and to issues related to post-delivery financing.

With the contract for the second ship to be confirmed by early November 2003, both Kvaerner Masa-Yards and

FESCO have agreed not to publish the value of either of the contracts at this stage. The contracts will not be recorded to Kvaerner Masa-Yards' order reserve until all approvals and financing have been confirmed. The vessels, which will measure 328 ft. (100 m) overall and a imp 4,000 dwt, are due for delivery in 2005 and will be operating in the harsh

Okhotsk Sea environment in the

Sakhalin area in Far-East Russia. Their shaft power is 13 MW and they will each be fitted with two azimuthing rud- der propellers. These ships are based on the "double-acting" concept for ice- breakers, which was developed by the

Arctic Technology Center (MARC), part of Kvaerner Masa-Yards Inc.

In this concept the vessel meets the most difficult ice conditions moving with the ship's stern first, using azimuthing electric propulsion. By this, less power is needed and the ship's bow can be optimized for efficient open water operation. The operating condi- tions in the Sakhalin area are demanding with freezing temperatures down to - 40°C and difficult ice conditions with ice ridges up to 20 m deep and solid ice exceeding 1.5 m in thickness.

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Astander Completes CSO Deep Pioneer Upgrade

The work carried out on the 11,564 grt multipur- pose subsea installation vessel CSO Deep Pioneer included the installation of two new ROV Launch &

Recovery Systems and eight new two-cabin modular accomodation modules to take in the new crew requirements. Three new 1,360 kW generators were also installed to support the new power demand onboard as a result of all the new equipment in a new purpose-built generator room. All new installations were located aft of the existing accomodation block, the ship structure.being strengthened previously.

The whole program was completed after a 67-day stay of the vessel at the yard only. This contract for

Technip, follows another succesful upgrading project completed at Astander last winter for another U.K.- based customer: Global Marine Systems on its cable layer Wave Sentinel on which, another new ROV system was fitted.

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A major upgrading project has been recently completed by

Astilleros de Santander, S.A. (Astander) for Aberdeen-based

Technip.

Rickmers Singapore

Christened

Rickmers Singapore, one of nine new

Superflex Heavy Multi-Purpose Container (MPC) vessels being built in China for

Rickmers-Linie, Hamburg, was christened in its namesake city. Rickmers Singapore is employed on Rickmers1 Round-The-

World Pearl String Service having been delivered to the company in March 2003.

The ship has since proven its reliability and is now performing its second cir- cumnavigation.

On its christening call, the vessel dis- charged among other cargo 12 modules, each of which had a unit weight between 130 and 145 tons. Karin Ganger, wife of

Ulf Ganger, former Director of the

Hamburgische Landesbank (now HSH

Nordbank), acted as the vessel's god- mother. Subsequent to the ceremony, guests hopped aboard for a closer look at the latest technology in ship design and, in particular, heavy cargo handling equipment. Rickmers Singapore and sis- terships boast adjustable tweendecks, a heavy-lift capacity of up to 640 tons and dehumidifying devices in all holds. All told, Rickmers-Linie ordered nine ves- sels, of which the seventh — Rickmers

New Orleans — was just delivered in July 2003.

The new fleet will be complete when the deliveries of Rickmers Jakarta and

Rickmers Genoa occur in November 2003 and early 2004, respectively.

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