Three-in-one vessel designed by Ulstein

Dutch design office Ulstein Sea of Solution has designed a new vessel capable of combining three offshore operating functions into one design.

The vessel, ordered by Romanian contractor GSP Drilling will be built at the Keppel Singmarine facility in Singapore, and will be able to carry out pipelay, heavy lift and tender assist drilling operations. ‘GSP Titan’ measures 161.5 metes long on a moulded beam of 37.8 metres. A total of six powerful 4,300kW engines give the vessel a transit speed of 13 knots. The vessel will be delivered in August 2011, and will be the first large pipelay / heavy lift vessel in the world that will be propelled by three Voith Schneider Propellers on the aft, which will also be used for roll damping. The customized 1,800-tonne Huisman heavy lift mast crane has been lowered and integrated in the starboard aft side enabling the vessel to pass Istanbul Strait underneath the Bosphorus bridge to enter the Black Sea.

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DP World profit may vrise on port network

DP World Ltd., the world’s fourth- largest port operator, may this week report first-half profit doubled on African acquisitions and greater handling capacity at its Dubai hub even as the world’s biggest economies slow.

 

The 45-terminal operator’s net income may reach $244.3 million when it reports August 28, according to the average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The Dubai state-controlled firm said its profit for the same period in 2007 was $111.2 million before separately disclosable items. “The company’s first-half growth is driven by an increase in cargo handling, especially in Jebel Ali, and acquisitions in Africa and Saudi Arabia,” analyst Muneeba Kayani at Morgan Stanley said. The Dubai-based analyst has an “equal-weight” recommendation on the stock. DP World’s $4.96 billion-public share sale in November, the Middle East’s largest, has left investors disappointed as its shares have dropped 35 per cent to $0.85 since listing on the Dubai International Financial Exchange Ltd. in November. DP World last month reported container volume jumped 21 per cent in the first half, helped by growth in India and the Middle East. In 2007 the company gained control of Egypt’s Sokhna Port at the southern entrance to the Suez Canal, its third on the Red Sea after Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Djibouti, East Africa. This year it plans to raise the capacity of its base at Jebel Ali port by more than a quarter.

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New oil discovery in Rio de Janeiro

State-owned Brazilian company Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) and Galp Energia have made an oil discovery.

The discovery was made on Block BM-S-11 in the presalt layers of the Santos basin off Brazil. Informally known as lara, the 1-BRSA-618-RJS discovery well, was drilled 230km off Rio de Janeiro in 2,230 metres of water.

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