Successful testing of a new unmanned energy-harvesting sailing vessel

USA: The John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) has developed an autonomous sailing vessel that can harvest energy.

‘The vessel, used for tactical ocean surveillance, is part of the Persistant Ocean Surveillance Program of the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Named the ‘Station-Keeping Buoy’, the vessel is capable of extracting wind, water turbine and solar energy from the local environment for long-term station keeping. The prototype testing of the ‘SKB’ was conducted on local rivers and in near-shore ocean environments. The systems and functionalities, which incorporated Iridium communications, solar energy harvesting, a wind-dumping sailing rig and an acoustic data processing and tone detection system all worked successfully, and the battery voltage was shown to increase over five hours, proving that it had successfully harvested solar energy.

Read More

PetroSA extends southern gas hunt

South African state-owned oil and gas company PetroSA will press ahead with appraisal and development work on the F-O field on offshore Block 9 as part of a 5 billion rand ($513,000) exploration programme seeking reserves for its gas-to-liquids at Mossel Bay.

‘The company said in its annual report that an appraisal well on F-O had been delayed due to other drilling and would now be drilled in mid-2009 as part of the Project Jabulani exploration initiative. The well would be designed to be re-entered as a development well if necessary, said Everton September, PetroSA’s vice president of upstream ventures, in the report. He said wells on the field, off the country’s southern coast, might require fracture stimulation to enhance flows. This would be the first use of hydraulic fracturing in South Africa and help potential to unlock other tight gas reserves off the country’s southern coast. September said first gas from F-O was expected in 2011. He said preliminary studies for the design and installation of subsea production systems and tie-backs to existing infrastructure were already underway. PetroSA’s Project Jabulani, announced in the past financial year, comprises an eight-well drilling programme aimed at extending the life of the Mossel Bay plant from 2010 to 2014.

Read More

France to build on maritime expertise by opening up ports

France, which has a long maritime tradition thanks to its extensive coastlines along the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Mediterranean, is now reforming its ports to improve its economic attractiveness and competitiveness.

‘With a combined volume of 384.7 million tons (101.6Mt for the ports of Le Havre and Rouen combined, and 100Mt for the port of Marseille), French ports have great development potential. They rank behind only the ports of Rotterdam in the Netherlands (430Mt), Antwerp in Belgium (200Mt), and Hamburg in Germany (140Mt) in terms of volume. Sea links, as well as recently established inter-European cabotage links, have contributed to French port development. Currently, 72% of France’s imports and exports are transported by sea. French shipping companies include Cetragpa, Marfret, Socatra, Bourbon, Louis Dreyfus, Geogas and Compagnie Maritime Nantaise. CMA CGM alone accounts for more than half of French tonnage. The ports of Le Havre (Port 2000 Le Havre) and Marseille (Fos 2 XL Marseille) have already made strategic investments in order to adapt to developments in maritime transport, i.e. the transport of bulk raw materials such as coal and iron ore, the widespread use of container transport, and the concentration of traffic within leading ports. These ports have become the main interface between maritime and terrestrial transport systems.

Read More