Keppel Singmarine first Asian yard to build icebreakers

Singapore: Keppel Singmarine yesterday conducted a naming ceremony for Asia’s first two icebreakers, built for owner LUKOIL-Kaliningradmorneft.

The vessels, named Varandey and Toboy, have both been classed by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping. They are designed to work in the harshest environments, cutting through solid ice over 1.7m thick, equivalent to the height of a grown man, and operating in extreme temperatures as low as -45oC. “This is the first time that icebreakers meant for the Arctic region are built in the tropics,” said Charles Foo, Keppel Singmarine. “It also marks Keppel Singmarine’s entry into the flourishing oil and gas market in the Arctic region. The increasing oil and gas exploration and production activities in the Arctic present tremendous opportunities for specialised and robust vessels such as the icebreaking vessels.” “This is a milestone for Keppel especially since we had secured the contract amidst strong competition from European yards, which have a long tradition in and strong infrastructure of related arctic technology,” he added. The vessels will be deployed to the Barents Sea of Russia where they will help forge passages through the ice for oil tankers plying the Varandey Terminal. According to the latest United States Geological Survey, it is estimated that the Arctic may hold as much as 90bn barrels of undiscovered oil reserves and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This is equivalent to as much as 13% and 30% of the world’s total undiscovered oil and natural gas respectively.

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Devon and Chevron exchange assets

Devon Energy and Chevron have completed an asset exchange whereby Devon transferred 14.2 million shares of Chevron common stock back to Chevron and Devon received Chevron’s interest in the Drunkard’s Wash field as well as $280 million in cash.

Devon has held shares in Chevron since Devon bought PennzEnergy in 1999. In August, Devon retired exchangeable debentures originally issued by PennzEnergy that were associated with the Chevron shares. After retiring the exchangeable debentures, Devon was able to enter into this exchange transaction with Chevron. In the exchange, Devon acquired a 44% working interest in the Drunkard’s Wash field. The field is about 51,000 net acres with current net production of about 40 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day.

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Fincantieri to upgrade two vessels for Kenya Navy

Italy: Fincantieri has announced that the company has gained an order from the Kenya Ministry of the Defence at the Euronaval international exhibition.

The order is to carry out “mid-life” refitting of two of the Navy’s vessels, the  ‘Nyayo’ and the ‘Umoja’. The contract will involve 12 months of work at the company’s yard in Muggiano, Northern Italy. The ‘Nyay’” and the ‘Umoja’, both classified as “fast attack craft”, are currently the only two vessels in operation for the Kenyan Navy and will be tasked with patrolling the coast and intervening against smuggling and piracy. The two 56.7 metre-long vessels have a displacement of 450 tonnes, can reach a maximum speed of 40 knots and accommodate a crew of 40. Currently, the African market is characterised by a substantial increase in demand for new vessels for navies and coast guards, in response to the need to increase patrolling and combat acts of terrorism against maritime traffic.

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