ShipCrunch

New online maritime advertising gallery

Intelligence for maritime advertisers is golden; learn who advertises where, and how!

By Ryan Skinner (email)  

Maritime companies wanting a quick and easy tool to see who is advertising in the business, where, and what messaging is being used, look no further!

A new gallery on flickr provides a tagged-up gallery of hundreds of advertisements from shipping publications, newsletters and web-sites. Search the photostream for dates, titles, competitors' names, service areas...whatever!

This gallery will only grow over time. Currently, it is available freely to users of flickr (search for People "bigbluereports").

New energy means tilting at jurisdictional windmills, in America

"The United States is the most regulated environment in the world," said a project manager for an   LNG upstream company

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Port Dolphin off of Tampa finally got the green light, this time from federal authorities. The floating offshore LNG regasification project will be able to bring as much as 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas to a fuel-hungry Florida, starting in 2013.

I'd interviewed the guy responsible for getting all of the necessary permits (and there are a lot), and felt satisfied that he had, at last, succeeded. Here are extracts from the interview last year:

How long is the schedule for Port Dolphin's deepwater port license?

"Port Dolphin filed the deepwater port license application with the US Coast Guard in April 2007, and we are aiming to get it approved in summer 2009, after just over two years."

So who at the federal level approves this, and why?

"The federal government has exclusive jurisdiction offshore, where the buoy and pipeline begin. Here the US Coast Guard, the US Maritime Administration, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Mineral Management Service, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanographic Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service all need to review the application and study the project's impact on their area of jurisdiction."

Being seen to be doing something: OMSA at the gates

Sometimes a press release is an end in itself, as a recent OMSA press release displays

By Ryan Skinner (email)

A few weeks ago I wrote a mildly controversial rebuke of the IMO's passive approach to the media, arguing that its failure to get in front of the news cycle was costing it jurisdictional authority. If the IMO isn't seen to be in control, others will leap to control.

Now OMSA, the US Offshore Marine Services Association, displays exactly what I was talking about. In a recent press release, OMSA "applauds" US government efforts to pursue foreign shipowners for tax violations.

This message is not intended for the IRS, nor for the foreign shipowners themselves (though it will not escape their notice), nor the general public, who - more often than not - could care less. This press release lets OMSA's stakeholders know that OMSA is on top of the situation, and even suggests OMSA is responsible for the government's intensified controls.

This press release required little effort of OMSA, but it reminds all of its stakeholders that the organization is in control. The IMO would do well to take notice.

Most dangerous? Integrated operations or robot journalists?

A simple technology story gets no better as it passes through newsrooms.  

By Ryan Skinner (email)

"Hackers can take over oil platforms!"

Over the past month, a string of Norwegian publications (including the national broadcaster, a leading tabloid and a leading engineering magazine) grabbed the headline above from the public-interest magazine of a Norwegian engineering school.

God knows what some dork-Bluebeard might do with control of a massive, mind-bogglingly complex industrial production platform hundreds of miles to sea? (Come to think of it, what would he do? And why would he do it, given juicier and more visible military, and land-based, targets?)

The purported bogeyman here is integrated operations (IO), or e-fields.

Bourbon Dolphin drama ends with rules changes

North Sea accident is translated into a sheaf of new rules to anchor handlers.

By Ryan Skinner (email)

The report issued by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police in March 2008 on the loss of Bourbon Dolphin makes suspenseful reading. The Norwegian Maritime Directorate recently followed that up (at the behest of the Ministry of Trade and Industry) with a list of recommendations for anchor handling vessel design and operation (see more on this below).

First, the background: Bourbon Dolphin capsized 12 April 2007 during an anchor-handling operation in the North Sea. It was placing an anchor for the Chevron-chartered drilling rig Transocean Rather. Another anchor handler, Highland Valour, is also in the picture, as it attempted to relieve Bourbon Dolphin before the fatal accident.

Extracts from the Ministry of Justice and the Police report (translated roughly by yours truly):

"Highland Valour, when it lost its grip on the chain, drifted rapidly towards Bourbon Dolphin, and a collision seemed inavoidable. In a later explanation to the commission, the first officer has changed this, saying it was surely Bourbon Dolphin drifting to stern when Highland Valour lost the chain..."

The other Gulf war: Coast Guard has a new Jones Act ally

By Ryan Skinner (email)

America's offshore industry has had enough of non-US flagged ships working in the Gulf of Mexico. They are fighting back against what they see as gross breaches of the Jones Act. The US Coast Guard, though, is overstretched, and oil companies clamor for more and cheaper work boats.

Things may change soon. With lower oil prices easing the pressure on work boat rates and availability, US-flagged supply ships can better meet demand. And a recent agreement between the US Coast Guard and industry association Offshore Marine Service Association gives the authorities a determined private-sector partner in Jones Act enforcement.

Not surprisingly, most of the non-US flagged supply ships have suspiciously Nordic names.

Deep Cygnus left at the altar

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Dagens Næringsliv brings a curious story of the recession, yard cancellations and jilted partners.

It began as an arranged marriage between Norwegian offshore ship owners Deepocean and Volstad Maritime. The two ordered a newbuilding subsea service ship, called Deep Cygnus, together (51 and 49 per cent respectively).

Culture difference, but why?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Today I met a guy who has worked in the offshore supply boat business both in the US and in Norway. If I wasn't used to it, I would have been shocked by how he characterised the show stateside.