p15-19.qxd 09/05/2006 10:37 Page 4 NORWAY Gemak skins-up for Eitzen tanker Turkish repair yard Gemak is to provide Norwegian shipowner Camillo Eitzen (CECO) with another skin for its 1993-built chemical carrier Tour Margaux. The single hulled vessel will drydock at the yard near Istanbul, in July, where she will be converted into a double hulled vessel. Tour Margaux is the only single hulled vessel within the Navale Francaise fleet of six ships, which trade as part of Eitzen Chemical. The ship is fitted with 11 Avesta 2205 duplex stainless centre tanks, one slop tank and 10 epoxy coated wing tanks on either side. She carries wine from Mediterranean ports to West Africa, among other cargoes. The maintenance of these small tanks is of interest; although this would not be impacted by the change to Marpol Annex II, which enters into force in 2007. The return leg for this trade is essentially palm oil and vegetable oils, which would be cost of freight." With its large fleet of LPG carriers, Bergesen is able to offer customers a flexible freighting solution that allows them to load at their chosen time and place. The challenge of logistics is left to Bergesen to handle. "A fleet of vessels positioned around the world allows us to provide this solution. Bergesen presently controls 38 VLGCs and the availability of these permits the owner to offer the COA concept with the optimal mix of reliability, flexibility, lower waiting time and reduced exposure to product price movements than they would have with time chartered vessels", explained Staunton. LNG growth In addition to the LPG newbuildings, BW GAS is looking to expand its LNG fleet with four new vessels. However, these ships, like other LNGCs in the fleet, will operate on 20-year timecharter as Bergesen thought a spot market will take some time to develop In October last year, BW Gas signed two 20-year timecharter contracts with Suez LNG Trading in Luxembourg on the seriously impacted if no action was taken. Under Marpol Annex I, the phase out for the vessel would be 2010. However, It will take 85 days to convert the Tour Margaux given the ship's age and its general standard, CECO considered that the investment of some $4 mill, which includes loss of revenue for the extended repair period, was more commercially beneficial than scrapping the ship; this, despite losing 1,700 cu m of cargo volume. New double hull ballast tanks will be 1.2 m, which meets the requirements for both Annex I & II and the new continuous longitudinal bulkhead and framing represents an additional 200 tonnes of steel. Also included is the recoating of wing tanks and the newly created ballast spaces. An inert gas generator is also under consideration for retrofitting on board, in order to give the vessel more flexibility should it in the future consider products cargoes. Work is expected to take 85 days. The project will be managed by Athens-based Bery Maritime in association with the technical office of Navale Francaise, based in St Malo. Bery Maritime is site supervisor for the series of 13,000 dwt coated chemical tankers currently under construction through to 2007 for Eitzen Chemical. • same day it signed shipbuilding contracts with Daewoo for two 156,100 cu m dual fuel, diesel electric LNGCs for delivery May 2009. The vessels are to serve the US market and will be able to call at Suez' LNG terminal in Boston. Although these vessels are considerably larger than the traditional Boston- max vessel, this has been made possible by special arrangements introduced by BW Gas and Daewoo. A record number of LNG projects are to be launched throughout this year and next with production starting from 2009/10. These include: NLNG Train 7 (Nigeria); OK LNG (Nigeria);various Qatari projects; Brass River LNG (Nigeria);Damietta Train 2 (Egypt); Gorgon LNG (Australia); Angola LNG; Pluto LNG (Australia); Peru LNG and Gassi Touil (Algeria).Cedigaz forecasts LNG trade to grow by 6.9% per annum. between 2005 and 2020, reports BW Gas. Norway's electronic cartographer C- MAP is set to revolutionise the way in which navigational charts are produced, distributed and updated with the development of a raft of products aimed at simplifying vessel navigation. The scope of the Nautical Information Service project, which C-MAP hopes will bear fruit in 2007, is to provide four main modules: nautical management; enhanced chart data and display technology; largest portfolio of official ENCs and metrological information. The nautical management software would be used by shipboard personnel to ensure that the vessel has the most updated information available on board, both with regard to electronic chart data, paper charts, books and publications required by national international authorities. C-MAP will also enhance its navigation chart database with global terrestrial information. This, together with new high level 3-D display modules, will allow the navigator to use virtual reality display of coastal regions. The company, a pioneer in the development of ECDIS applications, with the world's largest portfolio of official ENC data, is authorised to supply official ENCs produced and issued by hydrographic offices around the world and this will form a major part of the Nautical Information Service. Weather data is also critical and the project aims to present updated and complex weather information to navigators in a simple manner enabling them to make optimum navigational decisions. The project is sponsored by Innovation Norway - a government organisation that took over the tasks of the Norwegian industrial and Regional Development Fund, the Norwegian trade Council, the Government Consulate Office for Inventors and the Norwegian Tourist board in 2004. Innovation Norway is to provide 25% of development costs incurred by C-MAP, but a condition of the agreement is that at the end of the project, due in mid-2007, new products and services must be launched and marketed. TO <strong>Tanker</strong><strong>Operator</strong> May/June 2006 page 18
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