Fourth 4000 Class PSV, ‘GRAND SLAM’ christened and delivered

Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Rigdon Marine Corporation (RMC), Billy Guice,  announced the ‘GRAND SLAM,’ the fourth in the series of ten 4000 Class PVS was delivered by Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana.

Mrs. Karen Whitley, wife of RMC’s Director of Technical Services, Jim Whitley, christened the hull of the vessel with the traditional bottle of champagne the day before the Rigdon 4000 Class PSVs was named a ‘Significant Boat of 2007′ at the WorkBoat Trade Show in New Orleans, Louisiana. The ‘GRAND SLAM,’ is a 58-metre x 14-metre x 5.5-metre, diesel electric, DP-2 PSV, which features a capacity of 4,000 barrels of liquid mud in an oval, self cleaning, segregated tank system. The PSV will also include three x Z-Drives and two x large forward tunnel thrusters. The Rigdon 4000 Class PSVs are capable of serving a wide array of marine applications in all water depths. The remaining six Rigdon 4000 class PSVs will be delivered in approximate forty-five day intervals through the third quarter of 2008.

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Swift flies NZ nest

US independent Swift Energy would sell the bulk of its New Zealand assets to Australia’s Origin Energy and its local unit Contact Energy for about $87.8 million as part of plans to end its operations in the country.

Swift said the deal was effective 1 December this year, with plans to sell of its remaining assets in New Zealand expected to be closed by early next year. Origin and Contact said separately today that they stood to gain Swift’s main producing areas in the onshore Taranaki basin, including the Tariki, Ahuroa, Waihapa and Ngaere fields and the Rimu, Kauri and Manutahi fields, as well as associated production facilities. Swift expects to reap about $100 million to $110 million from the sale of its New Zealand assets. It said the move would result in a non-cash book loss of about $115 million to $120 million. Origin would take over its offices in Wellington and New Plymouth and would offer to employ its local staff.

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Ministry raises pitch for 20% shipbuilding subsidy

The Shipping Ministry is pitching for about 20 per cent subsidy levels for the shipbuilding sector and has floated a Cabinet note with the proposal.

Until mid-August this year, the ship-manufacturing sector used to receive 30 per cent subsidy under the shipbuilding subsidy scheme. The Ministry has proposed continuation of the subsidy for 10 years with review after five years. It has called for maintaining subsidy levels ”in the range of 20 per cent”. Additionally, the shipbuilders may also get subsidies for large vessels only with the Ministry batting for a ”level playing field between domestic and export orders”. In the earlier subsidy regime, if ships were manufactured for exports, all types of ships were eligible for the subsidy provided the Indian firms won orders by meeting certain norms like global competitive bidding process. However, if they were manufactured for the domestic market, the subsidy was restricted to ocean-going merchant vessels that were over 80 metres in length. Thus even if ships are manufactured for the export market, a subsidy would be extended only if the ships are larger than 80 metres.

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