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SHIP REPAIR & CONVERSION Lisnave Continues To Set Trends By Alan Thorpe, International Editor Despite the intended reorganiza- tion of Lisnave, which will eventu- ally lead to the closure of the large Margueira shipyard near Lisbon, business at Lisnave has continued to set trends. The company has won contracts from shipowners located in 26 different countries — Norway, U.K. and U.S. being the most dominant — and the Margueira yard is boasting in excess of 90 percent drydock occu- pancy so far this year. The most significant contract still at the yard involves the 137,159- dwt storage unit Serepca 1. Owned by Elf Exploration (Cameroon), part of Elf Aquataine, she is at the yard for drydocking, which com- prises 800 tons of steel renewal and general repairs. She arrived at the yard during mid-May after being towed from Cameroon to Lisnave and is expected to leave during early-October 1998. Previous to the ship docking at Lisnave, yard workers carried out voyage repairs before she entered drydock. The aim of this repair operation is to extend Serepca Vs life as a storage vessel for an additional seven years. With regards to the repair work, it was originally esti- mated that some 40 tons of steel was needed to be replaced in the ballast tanks, but on further inspection, the owners and classifi- cation society decided to renew 800 tons in the cargo tanks. Lisnave carried out internal tank cleaning, followed by 17-day de-slopping and gas-freeing operations at a clean- ing station. This change in repair work extended the vessel's visit at Lisnave from 34 days to approxi- mately five months. The vessel was converted to a FPSO 14-years ago and since then has been operating off the west coast of Africa for Elf. Lisnave's Mitrena yard is presently dedicated to offshore platform repairs and conversion of bulk carriers into drilling vessels for Houston-based offshore compa- ny Falcon Drilling. These conver- sions include the Peregrine VI and the Peregrine VIII, which will be able to drill to depths of 10,500 ft. (3,200 m). This yard is also carry- ing out a conversion of a drilling platform, the PX, for Brazilian oil major Petrobras, doubling the ves- sel's deep drilling capacity from 1,970 ft. (600 m) to 3,937 ft. (1,200 m). Wilton Fijenoord Takeover Imminent There have been some further developments with the proposed takeover of the Wilton Fijenoord (WF) repair facility in Schiedam. Both yards' workers councils are expected to agree terms which includes a promise from YVC that there will be no redundancies at the time of the amalgamation, which is expected to take place during the first half of 1999. There are currently 145 workers employed at YVC's Bolnes shiprepair yard and a further 275 at WF. RDM Technology Holding The CoastaI Golden, which is being converted to a drillship for Falcon Drilling at Lisnave's Mitrena Shipyard. m® w® [Lit @®w (ggwlteir HM