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SHIP REPAIR & CONVERSION FPSO And Cruise Ship Work Dominate Repair Market by Alan Thorpe, international editor Following lengthy discussions, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has final- ly obtained the neces- sary financial backing to move forward with contracting the lengthening of 39,217-grt cruise ves- sels Windward and Dreamward at Bremerhaven's Lloyd Werft. The financing for the project, believed to be worth in the region of $107 million, has been arranged with various German banks, KFW in Frankfurt being the leading institution. Both ships will be lengthened by the addition of a 131.2-ft. (40-m) midbody section. Windward is due in the yard on January 13 of next year, staying to March 15, and Dreamward is scheduled to arrive on March 11 and sail on May 10. Each vessel will have a new total length of 754.5 ft. (230 m) and the project will increase passenger capacity from 1,500 to 2,000. Both ships were built by French yard Chantiers de l'Atlantique during 1991/92. The first midbody section was started at Lloyd Werft during April. The first stage of the refit of cruise vessel Sagarose, formerly Cunard's Gripsholm, was completed by A&P Southampton on May 13 when the vessel left for a three-day shake-down cruise prior to loading its first passengers in Southampton on May 19. The cruise ship is due to return to A&P on October 21 for the remainder of an eight-week refit. The main outfitting contract for this ship has gone to Southampton-based CLC Marine. Another U.K. yard involved in passenger vessel refits is Belfast's Harland & Wolff (H&W), which has recently been awarded the conversion contract for 63,524-grt P&O cruise vessel, Arcadia, ex- Star Princess, which is due in the yard in November. This will be the first ship undertaken with H&W's new partnership with outfitting special- ist Mivan Marine Ltd. When completed, Arcadia will take over the sailing schedule from P&O's former flagship Canberra, which is being retired from service. Dubai Drydocks has won a contract from BP Shipping for the first docking of a series of four large LNG carriers owned by Abu Dhabi National Gas Co., built by Japan's Mitsui Shipbuilding & Engineering (two ships), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (one ship) and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (one ship), and managed by BP Shipping. The 71,931-dwt, Liberian-registered ships are: 1994-built Al Khaznah, which is due on May 10; 1995-built Ghasha; 1994-built Shahamah; and 1995-built Ish. There are another four sister ships in this fleet, all built by Kvaerner Masa-Yards, man- aged by Gotaas-Larsen and due for similar dry- docking operations next year. Following Bahrain-based Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard's (ASRY's) record year for ship repair revenues in 1996, the yard has announced a 20 percent increase in revenue for the first quarter of this year. This good start has been helped by an increase in the average value of repairs per vessel and two shuttle tanker con- versions. The most significant pro- jects carried out during this time involved the conversion of 131,584- dwt Petrobras tanker Jurupema and 140,905-dwt Red Band tanker Knock Taggart into FSO vessels. The latest projects at the yard involve 133,752-dwt, Petrobras- owned ore/oil carriers Mafra and Marau. The main work includes installation of bow loading systems, manufactured by Hitech Marine in compliance with the requirements of Lloyd's Register (LR). Other work involves relocation of mooring Marau is depicted leaving ASRY's graving dock. Sagarose at A&P Southampton. systems; forward main deck structural work; blasting and painting; installation of watch cabins, stowing tanks, air-cooler compart- ments, cargo and fire pipes on forward main decks; installation of hydraulic systems and pipes; and alteration of main switchboards. A major FPSO refit contract has gone to Portugal's Lisnave, the first such contract won by the yard. The project, which involves in excess of 900 tons of steel renewal, involves 79,313-dwt, Liberian-registered FPSO Ocean Producer, which is owned by U.S. company Oceaneering Inc. and located in the Kiabo field off the Angolan coast (West Africa). The unit was due to arrive in the yard during early June and was expected to stay for two and a half months. The vessel was formerly tanker Amoco Baltimore, converted for FPSO duties years ago. Chile's Asmar Shipbuilding & Docking Co. recently won a contract with an estimated value of $3.5 to 4 million from U.K.-based Furness Withy to carry out repairs on 47,000- dwt Bermudan LPG storage vessel Darwin, which has been anchored off Guayaquil, Ecquador, since September 1992 on a contract with PetroEcquador, the state-owned oil and gas company. The vessel was to arrive in Asmar's Talcahuana yard during early June and to stay in the yard for approximately five weeks. Darwin is the former BP Shipping- managed Gaz Enterprise. It was interesting to learn from Furness Withy that U.S. West Coast repair yards had refused to quote due to the complexity and vol- ume of the repair work required, and that devi- ation costs to take the ship to a yard across the Pacific Ocean to Southeast Asia left the owner with little choice but to use a yard located on South America's West Coast. Turkey's Tuzla Shipyard & Tourism Co., Istanbul, owned by Kahraman Sadikoglu, has recently been involved in two major conversion projects. FPSO Frenze left the yard in January after a year-long conversion from a convention- July, 1997 61
