Offshore SeisNews©


••• 06.12.21 - GC Rieber Shipping: further extension of the option agreement with Kleven Maritime.
Reference is made by GC Rieber Shipping to the stock exchange announcements dated 13 February 2013 and 2 September 2013, regarding an agreement between GC Rieber Shipping ASA and Kleven Maritime AS about building a 3D high capacity seismic vessel with ice-class 1A*.
The agreement was entered with an option for one additional vessel of the same type.
The parties have today entered a new supplementary agreement of extending the option to the end of January 2014.
Source: GC Rieber Shipping

••• 06.12.21 - Shell plans 2014 Alaska drill with Discoverer.
Shell intends to restart drilling off Alaska in 2014 with an upgraded Noble Discoverer drillship, with Transocean's Polar Pioneer semisubmersible on standby if a relief well is needed, according documents filed with regulators. Shell told regulators that the 1975-built drillship had undergone a raft of repairs and improvements ahead of plans to drill the company's Burger prospect in the Chukchi sea between July and October or November of next year.
The Discoverer had headed to Asia for a major refit and possible engine replacement after a setback-ridden season in 2012 that saw the rig flunk 16 items on a Coast Guard inspection and nearly run aground after slipping its moorings.
"Improvements in the scope of work include modifications based on lessons learned during the 2012 season as well as maintenance items to preserve the ship’s operability and reliability in preparation for further work in Alaskan offshore waters," Shell said in an Integrated Operations Plan (IOP) filed with the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). "This program has included work to the hull, as well as to major ship systems with a focus on improving safety and environmental performance and operational efficiency."
The plan remains pending as the BOEM has already requested more information.
Upstream previously reported that the supermajor picked up Transocean's harsh-environment Polar Pioneer on a three-year term with Transocean at a day rate of $620,000.
Absent from Shell's plan was the Kulluk drilling barge, which slipped mooring lines in rough seas and ran aground in 2012, causing the company embarassment and a price tag of at least $90 million.
The Discoverer is presently in Korea but its contract with Shell runs out in February 2014, according to Noble's November fleet status report. That contract, which kicked off in March 2012, is at day rate of $244,000, according to the company's data.
Shell has also honed in on improving its logistics operation, due to begin advance work in the February-June period. That effort includes a flotilla of nearly two dozen vessels as well as helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to support operations out of Barrow, Anchorage and Dutch Harbor.
Shell has also reinforced the Arctic Challenger containment system which famously crumpled during testing, it said in the plan.
Source: Upstreamonline

••• 05.12.21 - Greenpeace to ask Russia Investigators to let Activists Go Home.
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace said Wednesday it is seeking to obtain documents allowing its foreign activists being prosecuted by the Russian authorities to return home to their families for Christmas.
Twenty-six of the 30-member international crew of the icebreaker Arctic Sunrise, detained by Russian border guards in the Arctic in September and bailed last month, plan to leave the country pending trial as soon as they receive the proper permits, the organization said.
"They were not planning to come to Russia, so they don’t have any visas," Mikhail Kreindlin, a representative of Greenpeace Russia, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
The activists have been registered by the Federal Migration Service at a St. Petersburg hotel where they are staying. They have their passports, but no documents that would allow them to cross the Russian border, Kreindlin said. Read more...
Source: RIA Novosti

••• 04.12.21 - Polarcus expands multi-client footprint ahead of UK 28th Round.
Polarcus Limited announced the imminent commencement of a new multi-client program in the UK North Sea comprising two high density 3D broadband surveys. The program, supported by industry funding, will be acquired by Polarcus Naila utilizing the Company's RIGHTBAND(TM) geophysical approach and incorporating deep tow streamers to extend the acquisition weather window and provide an optimized signal-to-noise ratio over the whole desired frequency spectrum.
The first survey will cover the Halibut Horst in the Moray Firth and encompasses both the new Liberator oil discovery announced 22 November 2013 by Dana Petroleum and the existing Blake and Ross oilfields. The second survey is an extension to the Breagh - Ravenspurn 3D multi-client program acquired in 2013 in the Southern Gas Basin, and aims to further identify and map structural leads at Base Permian level into drillable prospects. Both surveys incorporate multiple open and recently relinquished blocks that will be available for licensing in the upcoming UK 28th Round.
The multi-client program further provides for the optimal placement of Polarcus Naila for the previously announced yard stay to upgrade the vessel's propulsion.
The upgrade, to take place at Shipdock B.V. in Amsterdam, will commence late February and is scheduled to take six weeks. During the yard stay certain modifications will additionally be made to the deflector handling systems to enable the vessel to tow a full 12 streamer spread.
Source: Polarcus

••• 04.12.21 - EMGS signs multi-client contract worth USD 4 million.
Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA (EMGS) has signed a data licensing agreement with OMV Norge AS worth around USD 4 million for the provision of 3D EM data from EMGS's multi-client data library in the Hoop area in the Barents Sea. In addition, the agreement contains an uplift model whereby EMGS will receive an undisclosed sum if the customer is awarded blocks in future licensing rounds in Norway.
"Following the Wisting discovery in September we have experienced an increased interest in our data from the Barents Sea," says Roar Bekker, CEO of EMGS.
EMGS's data library in the Barents Sea now covers more than 30,000 km2, including approximately 110 blocks of which 57 are open blocks.
Source: EMGS

••• 03.12.21 - Japan finds Methane Hydrate in Sea of Japan.
Japan has discovered methane hydrate lying over a large area in the Sea of Japan in northwestern Japan, in addition to previously discovered areas in the Pacific Ocean, the trade ministry said.
The government plans to spend the next three years trying to determine the nation's reserves of methane hydrate - a frozen gas known as "flammable ice" - as part of its goal to achieve commercial production within six years.
A geological survey in June and July confirmed 225 "gas chimney" structures off Joetsu and Noto Peninsula, which likely contain methane hydrate, the ministry said. The survey also confirmed shallow methane ice forming over a large area within one of the structures.
In March, Japan succeeded in producing 120,000 cubic meters of gas over six days from a test tapping of methane hydrate in the Pacific Ocean off Aichi Prefecture in central Japan.
Since 2001, Japan, which imports nearly all of its energy needs, has invested several hundred million dollars in developing technology to tap methane hydrate reserves that are estimated to be equal to about 11 years of its gas consumption.
Source: Rigzone

••• 02.12.21 - Japanese ship giants place LNG orders.
Japan’s major shipping companies will order approximately 90 new liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers worth approximately US$ 17.61 billion by 2020, as part of a plan to increase the volume of exports from North America and Australia.
The expansion plans reflect a rising demand for LNG in Japan, which uses the gas to generate electricity. Global LNG trading volume is expected to grow to 400 million t in 2020 from 250 million t in 2012.
Nippon Yusen KK, the leading shipper in Japan, plans to increase the number of LNG carriers from 70 to 100 by 2020.
Mitsui O. S. K. Lines Ltd, Japan’s second largest shipping company, plans to increase the number of its LNG tankers to 110 by 2020, up from approximately 70 now, according to a company spokesman.
The third largest shipping company, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd aims to order approximately 20 new tankers by 2020.
A spokesman from Mitsui O. S. K explained that the company "will place an order only after we sign a long-term contract with our LNG customers who could be producers or buyers".
One LNG tanker usually costs approximately 20 billion yen, according to industry sources. A Singapore-based shipbroker expected the deal to be financed by Japanese banks, and Japanese shipyards are to be favoured for the orders.
Source: Maritime-connector

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