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SHIP REPAIR & CONVERSION Offshore Continues To Drive Repair Business Around The World by Alan Thorpe, international editor 44 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News Japanese offshore engineering company Mitsui Ocean Development (MODEC) has been awarded contracts worth $300 mil- lion (Y35 billion) for four FPSO/FSU units. Three companies have awarded the contracts: Australia's BHP Petroleum; Mexico's state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex); and Marathon Petroleum Gabon (two contracts), an affiliate of Marathon Oil. MODEC has slated three of the conversion projects with Jurong Shipyard Ltd. (JSL). The compa- nies have cooperated on several FPSO conversions, which is a key consideration in light of the spate of technical-related delays which have recently surrounded this sec- tor. The Pemex contract involves 357,600-dwt tanker Juno, to be arranged with a 2.2-million barrel storage capacity as a floating stor- age unit (FSU). For BHP Petroleum, JSL will upgrade FSU Shua Venture 1 — which on com- pletion will be renamed Modec Venture 1 — to full FPSO status, with the installation of additional processing modules. The vessel is expected to be ready for service by next spring. Regarding the Marathon Petroleum Gabon contracts, an additional two projects have been secured by MODEC in conjunction with Japanese trading house Nissho Iwai Corp. The first involves the conversion of 138,540-dwt tanker Anitra into a one million barrel FSU. This project is also to be carried out by JSL. The second project calls on U.S. conversion specialist Texas Drydock Inc. (TDI), recently bought by Halter Marine, for the conversion of the drilling platform Ocean Ruler to a jack-up produc- tion unit. Both projects are expect- ed to be completed by the end of 1997. Spain's Astilleros Espanoles (AESA), Cadiz, has been awarded another contract from the Brazilian offshore market — a $145 million contract to convert a VLCC into a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit. The 300,000-dwt tanker, which has not yet been specified (but is expected to be one of the Petrobras fleet), will be converted at the AESA's Cadiz yard. Awarded by Esmeril, which will operate the converted unit on behalf of Brazil's state-owned Petrobras, the vessel will be redelivered in November 1998. After delivery, the vessel will be moored in waters 3,300 ft. (1,000 m) deep on Petrobras' Roncador offshore field. Late in the spring of 1997, the Cadiz yard delivered converted FPSO Petrobras 32, which was formerly VLCC Cairu, six months ahead of schedule. Later this year, the yard will also deliver Petrobras 26, a pro- duction platform being converted from drilling rig Iliad. Singapore's Hitachi Zosen has become the latest large yard from the Republic to win an FPSO con- version contract, with the conver- sion of the 1978-built conventional tanker, the 131,484-dwt Proster (formerly the Enalios Ethra) which was due to arrive at the yard this month. The conversion project is to be carried out for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), which, in a joint venture with Switzerland's SBM Inc., has a contract with Japan Vietnam Petroleum Co. (JVPC) to supply a FPSO for the Rang Dong Field off the Vietnamese coast. Recently completed at Singapore's Keppel Shipyard (Tuas) was the conversion/refit of the 59,642-dwt St. Vincent-regis- tered conventional tanker Red Teal, which will be renamed Armada Pekasa for its new role as a FPSO off the Malaysian coast for Malaysian oil giant Petronas. The $12 million contract, which saw the vessel being converted to a FPSO, was completed in late-June, after three months of work. Houston's Falcon Drilling has awarded the $60 million conver- sion of 129,077-dwt bulk/oil carrier Coastal Golden — the project to be named Peregrine VI — to the new Blohm + Voss (B+V)/Lisnave joint venture. Negotiations for the contract, which will see the vessel converted into a drilling ship, were originally started between Falcon and Hamburg's (B+V). At that time, Lisnave and B+V were negotiating a partnership, which, under the restructuring plan for the new Lisnave, has paved the way for the present situation where Thyssen Visby is shown undergoing refurbishment at Lloyd Werft. Pictured is a Falcon Drilling-owned hull, to be completed as a drillship by Keppel.
