New ships will boost economy

The Canadian government is going to require more than 100 new ships over the next quarter century to take care of critical assignments overseas and along Canada’s coasts.

Canadian government needs a national strategy to ensure that they have a viable Canadian shipbuilding industry. Formulating that strategy is going to be essential to Canadian’s maritime security and vital to Canada’s economy. Parliament should legislate a plan and develop institutional support for this strategy. Canada is going to need about 133 new vessels of a significant size over the next 25 years, plus refits. The Department of National Defense is probably going to need at least 45 ships, including the modernization of 12 frigates and their future replacement, as well as four new destroyers, eight arctic/offshore patrol vessels and refits for four submarines. A secure shipbuilding industry could play a big part in Canada’s economic future.

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Petrobras’ FPSO P-54 begins Roncador production

Petrobras’ floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) P-54 went online Dec. 11 on the Roncador field in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil. 

Designed to produce 180,000 b/d of oil at peak production, the FPSO will increase the field’s installed capacity to 460,000 b/d. Built from the conversion of tanker Barão de Mauá, which belonged to Petrobras’ fleet; P-54 is capable of compressing 211.9 MMcf/d of natural gas and storing up to 2 million barrels of oil.  The new platform is an addition in the Roncador field to the P-52, which kicked off production in November and is also capable of lifting 180,000 b/d, as well as FPSO Brazil, which lifts 100,000 b/d.P-54 is anchored in 4,593 feet (1,400 m) of water, and will be connected to 17 wells, 11 of which oil and gas producers, while the other six are water injectors.  The new platform is expected to reach peak production in the second half of 2008.

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Dec. 14, 1962: Mariner 2 Reaches Venus, an Interplanetary First

1962: Mariner 2 passes to within 21,000 miles of Venus and begins transmitting data back to Earth, making it the first successful interplanetary spacecraft.

The spacecraft was the second in NASA’s Mariner series, a program designed for conducting planetary exploration by gathering as much data as possible in the course of a carefully choreographed flyby. Mariner 1 failed shortly after launch on July 22, 1962, when its rocket veered off course and the craft was deliberately destroyed. Mariner 2, launched a month later at Cape Canaveral atop an identical Atlas-Agena rocket, took three-and-a-half months to reach Venus. During its voyage to Earth’s closest neighbor, Mariner 2 conducted experiments to measure the density and velocity of the solar winds emitted by the sun. The data sent back helped establish that solar winds stream continuously in interplanetary space. The spacecraft, more accurately described as a probe, was a small, hexagonally shaped box with an array of panels and an antenna attached.

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