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Letters Of Intent Totaling $760 Million For 8 Ships To Todd And Newport News Todd Shipyards Corporation has received a letter of intent to build six oil tankers valued at $570 million for a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Co. of London. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., a Tenneco Inc. unit, has also received a letter of intent from Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America, a Peoples Gas Co. unit, to build two liquefied natural gas carriers. The Todd contracts are subject to approval of applications for Federal shipbuilding sub- sidies that have been filed by six companies. The companies were established by a Burmah Oil unit especially to carry out the program, a spokesman for the Maritime Administration said. Natural Gas Pipeline said in a prepared statement that the ''best estimate of the price of the two ships is approximately $194 million." The final price will be determined when de- tailed plans and specifications are completed and construction contracts executed. The cost will also depend on the amount of construction subsidy, if any, granted by the Maritime Ad- ministration, the company said. Each of the new tankers Todd is to build would be 380,000 deadweight tons—too large to serve any present U.S. commercial port. So Burmah said it plans to build a terminal in the Bahamas, from which point smaller tankers could ship oil to the United States. A new shipbuilding yard would also have to be built by Todd to construct tankers of this size. Todd said it will build the new facility at Galveston, Texas, if the contracts on the tankers are completed. Federal laws require that only U.S. concerns may order ocean vessels in U.S. yards with U.S. shipbuilding subsidies. Also, such vessels must use U.S. crews. The six new concerns formed to own the six new proposed tankers are Dundee Shipping Inc., Perth Shipping Inc., Glasgow Transport Inc., Montrose Shipping Inc., Inverness Ship- ping Inc. and Aberdeen Shipping Inc. The president of each of these companies, ac- cording to the Maritime Administration, is Hans H. Angermueller, a New York lawyer. He and three associates listed as principals in the new companies are U.S. citizens. According to the application, the six com- panies are subsidiaries of Burmah Oil Inc., a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Co. The tankers would be leased for 25 years to yet another Burmah Oil subsidiary, Burmah Oil Tankers Ltd. Bermuda. When Natural Gas Pipeline announced last February that it had joined with Amoco In- ternational Oil Co., a unit of Standard Oil Co. (Indiana), in a project to ship natural gas from Trinidad, plans called for three liquefied na- tural gas tankers to be built for about $180 million. In its release, the company also said that de- liveries from the project aren't expected to start before 1977, while in its earlier statement it said deliveries would begin in 1976, with shipments that year reaching an average daily rate of 200 million cubic feet, increasing to 300 million cubic feet in 1977 and 400 million in 1978. A company spokesman declined comment on the revised prices and schedule, citing restric- tions related to registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission on a $50-million stock offering- The two proposed tankers would have a ca- pacity of 125,000 cubic meters of LNG, the company said. They are intended for use in transporting LNG from Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies to a terminal port in the Texas Gulf Coast area. There it will be regasi- fied and injected into Natural Gas Pipeline's system for delivery to Chicago and other Mid- western markets, the company said. NASSCO Awarded Contract For Replenishment Oiler At Cost Of $51 Million National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO), San Diego, Calif., has been awarded a $51,500,000 contract by the United States Navy for the construction of a new re- plenishment oiler (AOR-7). The new ship will have an overall length of 658 feet 2 inches; a maximum molded breadth of 96 feet; a draft of 33 feet; a full-load dis- placement of 37,000 tons, and will be capable of speeds up to 20 knots. The "Wichita Class" AOR will be fitted with a helicopter platform that can accommodate two helicopters. The ship's mission will be to provide rapid replenishment at sea of petrole- um products, ammunition, provisions, and fleet freight to task forces. She will carry a total complement of 402 officers and enlisted per- sonnel. AOR-7 will also be equipped with a dual channel Nato Seasparrow surface missile sys- tem and two 20 mm MK 68 gun mounts. The keel of AOR-7 will be laid January 26, 1974; launch is scheduled for February 1, 1975, and delivery is scheduled for October 7, 1975. NASSCO is equally owned by Kaiser Indus- tries Corporation and Morrison-Knudsen Com- pany, Inc., and managed by Kaiser Engineers. REPAIR AT DUNKIRK BELIARD,CRIGHTON FINEST HEAVY ENGINEERING WORK 24 HOUR PIERSIDE SERVICE BELIARD, CRIGHTON & CIE Routes des Docks—59 Dunkirk, France U.S.A. REPRESENTATIVE: JACKSON MARINE CORPORATION ROBERT M. CATHARINE 11 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10004 (212) 944-6050 10 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News
