5 ENERO-2014.-AEMC.-NEWS FROM AFRICA
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- Published on Sunday, 05 January 2014 08:19
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1 January 2014
Contract awarded for removal of shipwrecked SMART
The coal ship SMART after going aground and breaking her back on the shoals outside the Port of Richards Bay in August last year. Soon afterwards the stern section, clearly visible here, was towed away for scuttling, leaving the forward section of the fully laden ship to await a scond salvage contract, which has just been awarded. Picture by Trevor Jones
SAMSA (South African Maritime Safety Authority) has announced the removal operations for the forward and mid sections of the bulk ship SMART, which went aground outside Richards Bay harbour on 19 August 2013.
The wreck removal contract has been awarded to Titan Maritime LLC and T&T Salvage LLC but SMASA says that extensive use will be made of local contractors and resources to perform one of the largest and most challenging wreck removal operations in South African history.
The fuel and stern section have already been successfully removed under a separate contract performed by Smit Marine South Africa Pty Ltd and Subtech Pty Ltd but the removal of the remainder of the wreck presented unique challenges which have benefitted from a comprehensive tender process conducted on behalf of the owners and their underwriters.
The MV SMART laden with 150,000 tons of coal from Richards Bay ran aground after encountering a heavy swell on 19 August 2013 shortly after it had left the port and immediately broke into two sections. All the crew was safely evacuated by helicopter.
Following the loss of the vessel the South African Maritime Authority (SAMSA) required the owner to prioritise the removal of the bunkers to neutralise any environmental hazard before tackling the remainder of the wreck. Bunker removal operations were completed on 2 September 2013 a mere two weeks after the loss of the vessel, following which salvors took the opportunity to cut and tow the stern section to a place at which it could be safely scuttled on 5 October 2013.
The forward section of the vessel subsequently broke into two parts due to severe weather and sea conditions causing some of the cargo to spill onto the seabed. Only the forward section of the vessel has been visible since that time.
In September, the owner tendered for the removal of the remaining sections of the vessel and the cargo and in December a joint venture of two US based salvage companies, TITAN Maritime LLC from Miami and T&T Salvage LLC of Galveston, was selected after a detailed technical and commercial evaluation of the five participating bids. Following approval by SAMSA of the methodology, the wreck removal contract was signed by the owners of the MV Smart on 11 December 2013.
The wreck removal operation will commence with the removal of the remaining cargo of coal from holds 1, 2 and 3, and disposal in an approved offshore location, under the supervision of the South African Environmental Authorities (DEA). Thereafter it is anticipated that the bow section comprising of the cargo holds 1, 2 and part of 3 will be refloated and scuttled in an approved deep water location. The remaining section of the vessel between holds 4 and 7, which is completely submersed and heavily damaged, will be removed by cutting into smaller parts and taken away piece by piece.
Titan Maritime and T&T Salvage have awarded Subtech of Durban a contract to supply a tug and barge with a dredge pump and a dive team.
The wreck removal operation is scheduled to take approximately 550 days to complete. It is recognised that prevailing weather and sea conditions will limit the available working days. Nevertheless it is anticipated that work on the bow section will be completed by May 2014 before the onset of winter following which operations will be suspended until the summer when work to remove the mid section can be safely resumed. All wreck removal operations should then be complete by November 2015.
All works will be closely monitored by the owners in consultation with the various departments of the South African Authorities including SAMSA, the Department of Environment Affairs and the Richards Bay Port Authority.
First View: NADESHIKO GAS
ANGOLA TO PRODUCE 2 MILLION BARRELS OF OIL PER DAY BY 2015
The Paenal shipyard and FPSO CLOV at Porto Ambroim in Angola
Angola’s oil production is expected to reach 2 million barrels per day in 2015, the chairman of state oil company Sonangol, Francisco Lemos said in Porto Amboim on Monday.
After the naming ceremony for the CLOV floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, Lemos said that his projections already took into account investments carried out and projects that are underway.
In relation to projects that are underway, the Sonangol chairman said the target would be reached once the CLOV FPSO unit and others such as POLO ESTE and MAFUMEIRA SUL start operating, the components for which will be built at the Porto Amboim Shipyard (Paenal).
The CLOV FPSO unit is one of the largest floating production, storage and offloading units in the world and is due to start operating on 14 January, off the coast of Angola 140 kilometres to the northeast of Luanda.
Angola is currently the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria, with a daily production of around 1.7 million barrels. source – macauhub
CFM TO TAKE DELIVERY OF 10 NEW LOCOMOTIVES
Locomotives working a train on the Nacala railway linking that port with Malawi in the west. The two sets of tracks are not indicative of a double-track railway but rather that this train is leaving a station along the line.
State-owned rail and port company, Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) says that in order to improve CFM’s transport and cargo handling capacity, an order for 15 new diesel-electric locomotives has been placed with US company, General Electric (GE).
The first loco is expected this month and by the end of the first quarter of 2014 another four will have been delivered.
Speaking during the visit to CFM of the Minister of Transport, Gabriel Muthisse, the President of CFM’s Administrative Council, Rosário Mualeia said that the new locomotives are intended to improve capacity and productivity in the south of the country.
Mualeia said that another ten locomotives have been ordered which will be allocated to CFM-Centre and deployed to a region depending on where the demand is greatest.
“The main objective behind the purchases is to move CFM away from its reliance on South African and Indian rented locomotives, and additionally improve its productivity,” he said, adding that the cost of renting locomotives was not less than $800 per day.
Transport Minister Muthisse confirmed that new railway lines are to be built in the Centre and North regions of Mozambique. It was necessary for CFM to grow at the same rate as the private sector, the minister said.
Improvements to the Sena Railway in the Centre region will allow for traffic volumes to be increased from 6 million tonnes a year to 20mt a year.
BUMI ARMADA SECURES TWO-YEAR EXTENSION FOR NIGERIA FPSO
Malaysia-based international offshore oilfield services provider, Bumi Armada Berhad announced this week that Afren Energy Resources Limited has extended its contracts with Armada Floating Solutions Limited and Bumi Armada (Singapore) Pte Ltd for the bareboat charter and the operations & maintenance respectively of the FPSO ARMADA PERKASA for another two years, with effect from 1 July 2014.
The extension of the contracts for the Armada Perkasa, which has been operating offshore of Nigeria in the Okoro-Setu field, is estimated at approximately RM 221 million (US$ 68m) in total.
“Our Armada Perkasa, has been operating for Afren since 2008 with more than 98% uptime,” said Hassan Basma, Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of Bumi Armada.
“The extension of the two-year contract by Afren is for the second and third optional extension years and underscores the quality of the asset and the operations and maintenance services provided by BAB Group,” he said.
The Armada Perkasa, which is 211m long and has a deadweight of 58,557 tonnes (dwt), has a production capacity of 27,000 bbls/day* of liquids and storage capacity for 360,000 barrels. To date, the FPSO has lifted over 32 million barrels of oil.
The original contracts were first awarded in 2007, to take effect from 1 July 2008, for a fixed term of five years with five one-year extension options thereafter. The initial optional extension of the contracts was extended in October 2012, for a one year period with effect from 1 July 2013.
The extension of these contracts is expected to contribute positively to Bumi Armada’s revenue and earnings from 2014 through to 2016.
* bbls/day – barrels per day
GULF OF GUINEA: THE NEW FLASHPOINT OF AFRICAN PIRACY?
Luba Freeport in Equatorial Guinea acts as a logistics centre for the burgeoning oil and gas industries in the Gulf of Guinea. Picture by Lonrho.com
by Alex Benkenstein
South African Institute of International Affairs (Johannesburg)
Somalia-based piracy attacks have decreased significantly in the course of 2013.
As international efforts to combat Somali-based piracy begin to deliver results, however, there is growing concern over the marked increase in piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea, particularly targeted at the region's oil and gas sector.
The international response to Somalia-based piracy has been comprehensive, including political efforts through the United Nations Security Council and the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), best practice guidelines developed by the shipping industry, operational and intelligence cooperation among numerous naval forces, and the increasing role of private security firms in protecting vessels from attack.
Counter-piracy maritime forces from the European Union (Atlanta), NATO (Ocean Shield) and the Combined Maritime Forces (Combined Task Force 151), as well as naval counter-piracy missions from several individual states such as India, China, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan and Russia have cooperated in the West Indian Ocean.
During 2012 there were between 21 and 30 vessels engaged in counter-piracy efforts off the coast of east Africa and the adjoining areas at any given time.
Efforts have also increasingly focused on addressing the illicit financial flows associated with piracy, the prosecution of captured pirates, and the targeting of alleged pirate kingpins such as Mohamed Abdi Hassan, who was arrested by Belgian police in a sting operation in October 2013.
The decline in attacks has been dramatic: during the first nine months of 2012, 99 attacks took place, while during the first nine months of 2013 only 17 attacks occurred.
The last large commercial vessel to be successfully hijacked by Somali pirates was the MT Smyrni, captured in May 2012.
In the Gulf of Guinea, however, piracy attacks have increased significantly.
In 2012, West African piracy attacks for the first time exceeded those off the Horn of Africa, with 966 sailors attacked in West Africa against 851 off the Somali coast. The tactics employed by pirates in West Africa differ from those of Somalia-based pirates.
The term piracy covers a range of illicit activities perpetrated in domestic and international waters, ranging from 'robbery at sea' targeting equipment and the personal valuables of crew members to hijacking for ransom and the theft of high-value cargo.
It should be noted that, according to international law and the definition of piracy provided by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the term "piracy" relates only to criminal acts committed on the high seas; when such acts are perpetrated within a state's territorial waters they are referred to as armed robbery against ships.
This article, however, employs the wider definition of piracy formulated by the International Maritime Bureau which includes acts that fit the UNCLOS definition of piracy even if they occur in territorial waters.
The vast majority of attacks by Somalia-based pirates have targeted yachts and large commercial vessels with the aim of securing ransom payments. Attacks generally take place while vessels are underway and may occur a great distance from shore, up to 1500 nautical miles.
Such attacks are made possible through the use of larger supply vessels or 'mother ships', which are used as a base from which smaller crafts can attack passing vessels.
While the crews of captured vessels may be ill-treated and forced to endure difficult conditions, serious injury or murder of crew members is rare as pirates rely on the vessel's crew to navigate the ship to a port on the Somali coast, while crewmembers also represent an opportunity to extract further ransom payments.
Incidents of kidnapping and hijacking of vessels for ransom do occur in the Gulf of Guinea, but the recent surge in attacks has largely been driven by efforts to secure valuable cargoes of refined petroleum products.
Such attacks generally take place within 120 miles from shore, within the territorial waters of West African states, and rely on the extensive illicit networks that have developed around land-based illegal oil bunkering, particularly in the Niger Delta. In 2012 seven incidents of oil theft by pirates were reported, with $2-$6 million of refined petroleum products stolen during each incident.
The rise of West African piracy underlines the challenges faced in the development of Africa's "blue economy". In her opening address at the recent Mo Ibrahim Foundation Forum, African Union Chairperson Dr. Dlamini Zuma argued that "to the Green Economy, we must add the Blue Economy, namely maritime resources and all the economy around the maritime industry."
The concept includes not only shipping and marine oil and gas reserves, but also fisheries, conservation, tourism and emerging industries such as seabed mining.
In December 2012 African Ministers in charge of maritime affairs adopted the 2050 Africa's Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS), which seeks to establish a platform for a coordinated response to the challenges and opportunities presented by Africa's blue economy.
The AIMS includes an assessment of threats and vulnerabilities in Africa's maritime domain which highlights a range of transnational organised crimes that occur in Africa's territorial waters and the adjoining high seas, including money laundering, illegal arms and drug trafficking, piracy and armed robbery at sea, illegal oil bunkering/crude oil theft, maritime terrorism and human trafficking.
A key aspect of the AIM strategy is strengthening Africa's capacity to address maritime security concerns within its maritime domain. While the response to Somali piracy has been led by international institutions and various global powers, there has been a strong regional approach to addressing piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
West African heads of state gathered in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in June 2013 for a summit on maritime safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea.
The summit agreed on the establishment of an Inter-regional Coordination Centre on Maritime Safety and Security for Central and West Africa to be headquartered in Yaoundé, and the adoption of a Code of Conduct on the repression of piracy, armed robbery and other illicit maritime activities in West and Central Africa. West African states are also currently developing an ECOWAS Integrated Maritime Strategy, aligned with the AIMS.
Nigeria and Benin, the two West African states most affected by piracy, have signed a bilateral agreement for combined patrols.
The Nigerian navy recently took delivery of four new patrol craft and has reported that 14 vessels have been apprehended in the past ten months while engaged directly or indirectly in acts of piracy.
Despite the progress made in combating piracy in both the West Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Guinea, significant challenges remain.
A recent World Bank study noted that Somali-based pirates are estimated to have received between $339 million and $413 million in ransom payments during the period 2005-2012. "Considering the amounts already collected by pirate financiers until the end of 2012, pirates' capacities to conduct operations are probably far from declining," the report observes.
"In that sense, the declining activity of pirates at sea may well be only a temporary break." Emmanuel Ogbor, the Chief of Policy and Planning of the Nigerian Navy, noted at the recent Maritime and Coastal Security Africa conference that West Africa also continues to face challenges in its efforts to curb piracy, particularly the lack of capacity to gather timely intelligence about pirate or other illegal activities in the maritime domain and the lack of information sharing and inter-operability amongst countries in the region.
The increasing role of private security firms in protecting vessels from pirate attacks has also raised concerns regarding rules of engagement on the use of force at sea.
Anti-piracy efforts in Africa's territorial waters and adjoining high seas should be led by the African Union, African regional bodies such as ECOWAS, and national African naval forces.
However, mounting an effective African response to maritime security concerns will require not only the strengthening of African naval capability but also increased cooperation with regards to information sharing and protocols for joint operations.
Alex Benkenstein is senior research with SAIIA's Governance of Africa's Resources Programme.
GABON DRAWS UP NEW OIL LAWS
A new oil law will come into play in Gabon in early 2015. The new law will be more transparent and more rigid than the West African country’s previous law. “We are committed to a new and transparent direction,” said Etienne Ngoubou, Gabon’s oil minister.
The minister hinted that that companies that do not respect their contractual obligations could have their concessions revoked. The government revoked the Obangue license of Sinopec subsidiary Addax after an alleged breach of contract. Addax has denied the allegations against it and the case went before the International Chamber of Commerce’s arbitration court. In September the court rejected a request by Addax to resume operations on the field. “If other companies don’t respect their obligations, they will also risk losing their contracts,” Ngoubou said.
The new law was expected to be enacted this year but will now take effect on contracts from 2015. No reason was given for the delay and that is making some firms operating in the country nervous. In a Reuters report a source at Total said the new 2015 target date for the law was unsettling, as it left more time for current government thinking to change. “The fact that the government has delayed the publication is making us nervous,” the source said.
Gabon is hoping to see its production, which has been declining, make a turnaround through new exploration and there is hope that recent pre-salt discoveries will aid in that. In October, 13 oil and gas blocks were awarded to 11 companies as part of a major deepwater licensing round. source – Petroleum Africa
EXPECTED SHIP ARRIVALS and SHIPS IN PORT
Ports & Ships publishes regularly updated SHIP MOVEMENT reports including ETAs and Ships in Port for ports extending from West Africa to South Africa to East Africa and including Port Louis in Mauritius.
In the case of South Africa’s container ports of Durban, Ngqura, Ports Elizabeth and Cape Town links to Stack dates are also available.
You can access this information, including the list of ports covered, by going HERE - remember to use your BACKSPACE to return to this page.
PICS OF THE DAY – NESA 7 and MSC RITA
An interesting conversion is taking place in Cape Town harbour involving the former long liner, TAIYO MARU 78, which is being transformed as an offshore supply vessel to operate in Angolan waters. She is renamed NESA 7 (482-dwt, built 1986) and was built at the Miho Shipyard Shizuoka in Japan. Her current owner/manager is Satomi Universal of Cape Town. Picture is by Aad Noorland
The 8,089-TEU container ship MSC RITA (100,870-dwt, built 2005) seen arriving in the port of Cape Town, bringing down the curtain on another year of reporting from the ports of Africa. Picture by Aad Noorland
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