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14 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News delivered to the customer in Norway during the years 2007 and 2008.

Alstom Power Conversion Becomes

Converteam

The company formerly knows as ALSTOM Power

Conversion is now Converteam. Converteam operates in tjree core markets (marine and offshore, particularly with electrical propulsion systems for civil and military vessels, oil and gas and process industries) and addresses several other markets (renewables and wind, test benches, power generation).

Converteam, since November 10, 2005, is a stand-alone com- pany held by Barclays Private Equity France (BPEF), and employs over 3,300 people around the world. The new web- site will be www.converteam.com.

New Maritime Law Firm Formed

Frederick B.

Goldsmith and E.

Richard Ogrodowski have formed

Goldsmith &

Ogrodowski, LLC, based in Pittsburgh, which will focus on admiralty and maritime, insurance coverage, personal injury defense, and commercial litigation on the Western Rivers and Great Lakes. Heather L.

Trainer joins the firm as legal assistant. See www.golawllc.com.

PetroCom Offers Guaranteed

Information Rates on new VSAT

PetroCom's new Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite communication system is structured around private communication networks that guarantee around-the-clock connection speeds. "Instead of introducing an off-the-shelf solution, we careful- ly specified and selected the best equipment and software that allows customers unequalled tune-ability, committed informa- tion rates (CIR) and less time division multiplexing over IP," said PetroCom President Ken Wright. "Data transmits at the speed the customer expects and there is no waiting for dial tone." Recently, PetroCom signed agreements to provide

VSAT voice and data services for Onyx Special Services,

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Crowley Christens ATB

Crowley Maritime Corp. christened the first of six new 185,000-barrel Articulated Tug-Barge (ATB) tank vessels that the company will take delivery of over the next two and half years. The vessels chris- tened were the 9,280 hp-tug Pacific Reliance and barge 650-1.

At ceremonies held at the Mobile Convention Center on South Water Street, Constance Crowley

Peabody, aunt of Tom Crowley Jr., company chairman, president and CEO, christened the Pacific

Reliance, while Janet Bishop from ConocoPhillips, christened barge 650-1.

Crowley's Petroleum Services group will charter the VT Halter Marine-built ATB from Crowley's ves- sel construction and naval architecture subsidiary, Vessel Management Services, and operate it for

ConocoPhillips under a three-year agreement. Crowley already has four, 155,000-barrel ATBs operating on the U.S. West Coast. "We are thrilled to be expanding our ATB fleet with these new, larger, state-of-the-art vessels," said

Crowley. "Our existing ATBs have performed extremely well for our petroleum customers and we're con- fident that this new ATB will provide ConocoPhillips with many years of safe, reliable and efficient transportation for their products."

Crowley and VT Halter Marine jointly designed the

ATB tank vessel. The barge 650-1 was built at

Halter's shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., and the

Pacific Reliance at its shipyard, in Moss Point, Miss.

The new ATBs feature the latest systems technolo- gy and double-hull construction for maximum safety and reliability. Not only does the unit have the capa- bility of transporting refined products, but it can also carry heated cargoes and easy chemicals, which require special arrangements of vents, stripping sys- tems, pump components and tank coatings above that normally required for product carriers.

All of Crowley's ATBs are built under the ABS SafeHull program for environmental protection. This program puts the vessel design through an exhaustive review to identify structural loads and strengthen the vessel structure. The 650-Class barges will be 27,000 dwt, 587 ft. long, 74 ft. in breadth and 40 ft. in depth. The fully loaded draft will be 30 ft.

There is an electric cargo pump in each of the 14 cargo tanks to assure maximum cargo integrity and segregation flexibility; two anchor windlasses and associated equipment to enable the vessel to accom- modate offshore mooring operations; and a vacuum system with three retention tanks to easily handle cargo changes. There is also a dual mode inert gas system and vapor collection system for maximum safety. A layer of inert gas covers products in the tanks to make the atmosphere too lean for combustion.

An enhanced mooring system features 1,000-ft. Spectra-type lines on split drums with a high-speed recovery rate of 100 feet per minute.

These six new ATBs will join a fleet of four, 155,000-barrel Crowley ATBs already in service. The Sea

Reliance/550-1, Sound Reliance/550-2, Ocean Reliance /550-3 and Coastal Reliance/550-4 have each made over 100 successful voyages. The ATB fleet has moved over 65 million barrels of product with zero spills and only two Lost Time Incidents (LTI) in three and a half years, averaging approximately 20 million barrels moved a year.

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