#offshore supply vessel

[ruddr]

Platform Supply Vessel (PSV) equipped with Dynamic Positioning (DP)System

[shipwreckguy]

AM Pride

Offshore Vessel AM Pride burnt; 15 rescued off South Africa; #sa #samsa #fire

On September 12, the 66 meter long, 2018 dwt offshore supply vessel AM Pride (IMO: 9359167) caught fire some 48 nautical miles south of Mossel Bay, South Africa. The fire started in the vessel’s galley and quickly got out of control. The vessel contacted its owner who relayed the distress call to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA). Authorities broadcasted an alert to nearby…

[dsiddhant]

The global Offshore Support Vessel Market is projected to reach USD 31.4 billion by 2028 from USD 22.6 billion in 2023 at a CAGR of 6.7% according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets™.

[poojagblog-blog]

Delray Beach, FL, Oct. 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global Offshore Support Vessel Market size is expected to grow from USD 25.6 billion in 2024 to USD 36.3 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 7.2% according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets™. An offshore support vessel (OSV) is specially designed to support offshore exploration, drilling, production, and construction activities in the oil & gas industry. These vessels provide a range of services, such as transportation of personnel, equipment and supplies, maintenance and repair, and oil spill response. OSVs are also used for specialized tasks such as platform installation, decommissioning, seismic surveying, providing firefighting, towing, and positioning of drilling rigs and other offshore structures, and subsea construction. These vessels are equipped with dynamic positioning systems to maintain their position in rough seas and are built to withstand harsh offshore conditions. Different types of offshore support vessels are used in offshore oil & gas and offshore wind applications. OSVs play a crucial role in offshore oil & gas and offshore wind farms by enabling safe and efficient operations.

[sayruq]

Biden will direct the U.S. military to undertake the mission alongside allies and humanitarian partners, a senior administration official said. The project will take “a number of weeks to plan and execute” and will involve forces already in the region or that will be there soon. Senior administration officials said the project will not require any U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza. Instead, the plan involves U.S. personnel on military vessels offshore who will not be required to go ashore to install the port. Initial shipments of supplies would come via Cyprus, enabled by the U.S. military and partners. Officials said the U.S. would work with the United Nations and other humanitarian partners to distribute aid across Gaza once it reaches the port.

There are thousands of aid trucks sitting at the Egyptian border that could be allowed in instead of this ridiculous convoluted plan which means

This is an excuse to officially send in US troops into Gaza where they will help the IDF continue their genocide in the name of aiding Palestinians

"The project will take “a number of weeks to plan and execute”" meaning there is no intention of ending the genocide any time soon

The last part is most important and the one that should scare us the most given the already horrific conditions of Northern Gaza

[thiziri]

The Princess Royal visits British Columbia, Canada.

As Commodore-in-Chief of the Canadian Fleet Pacific, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, accompanied by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, has been in British Columbia for a series of engagements with the Royal Canadian Navy.

Upon arrival in Canada on Friday 3rd May, The Princess Royal attended the Commissioning Ceremony for the HMCS Max Bernays – the Canadian Pacific Fleet’s first Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel. The Princess Royal also had an opportunity to tour the ship and meet some of its company.

The following day, on Saturday 4th May, Her Royal Highness laid a wreath at God’s Acre Cemetery as President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The historic cemetery, in Esquimalt, is the final resting place of more than 2,500 military personnel and their families.

Next, The Princess Royal visited the Maritime Museum of British Columbia Archive to view some of the items in its archival collection.

After learning that there was no naval museum during a visit to Esquimalt in 1951 by the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, Prince Philip contacted the Greenwich Maritime Museum and asked them to send some objects to British Columbia to start a new naval museum thus creating the Maritime Museum of British Columbia.

The Princess Royal also visited FED Urban Farm to hear about their work in providing home-based start up food gardens during the Pandemic which used simple and affordable supplies.

On Sunday 5th May, The Princess Royal and Sir Tim Laurence attended the Battle of the Atlantic Memorial Parade. The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous battle of the Second World War and the Parade commemorates the service and sacrifice of the thousands of Canadians who fought for control of the North Atlantic Ocean to supply the war effort from 1939 to 1945.

© Royal UK

[coreene]

Places in Faerun: Luskan (part 2)

Part 1 here

The City of Sails is a proud and dangerous place, and an important port of the North. It straddles the mouth of the river Mirar. Despite the unnavigable nature of its swift, icy, and rocky water, the port of Luskan is the main shipyard for the mineral wealth of Mirabar.

Luskan is supposedly ruled by five high captains: Taerl, Baram, Kurth, Suljack, and Rethnor. However, I suspect that the real power in Luskan is held by the Arcane Brotherhood, who dwell in a tower on an island at the mouth of the river.

The Brotherhood doesn't welcome visitors to this city of 16,000. In fact, anyone who doesn't appear to be pure human can expect to be slain on sight. Any humans who do enter the City of Sails are treated as thieves or spies. They are also followed constantly by agents of the Arcane Brotherhood. The Brotherhood usually assigns the task of following visitors to thieves and mages of little power but much ambition.

The seafaring merchants of Luskan have always been fierce, proud, and warlike. They carry on active, armed feuds with the inland city of Mirabar, the coastal city of Neverwinter, and the island realm of Ruathym. They sponsor pirates who prey on ships and ports up and down the Sword Coast. They also trade with Amn, Calimshan, and many other towns that prefer not to be associated with them, but will meet them on the neutral ground of offshore Mintarn.

Waterdeep's navy is constantly skirmishing with Luskanite ships because Luskan vessels have orders to harass any shipping that uses the ports of Neverwinter and Waterdeep, which Luskan regards as its chief trading rivals. When Luskan is officially at peace, its warships act as unsanctioned pirates. That is, the high captains supply, aid, and direct them, but pretend they're independent freebooters, acting in defiance of the law of Luskan. The pirate warships try to force all shippers to use Luskanite boats and to use Luskan as their only Sword Coast port of trade.

Luskan wages almost constant war against naval powers that the captains think they can defeat. They've been wrong in the past about Mintarn, Orlumbor, Gundarlun, Tuern, and Lantan. The latter was such a humiliating defeat that Luskanites won't speak of Lantan or even admit that it exists. Persistent talk of the Lantanna is likely to result in an attack from any Luskanite. However, Luskan did crush Ruathym. Only when faced by the combined fleets of all the Lords' Alliance did Luskan relinquish control of that plundered realm.

When patrolling enemies make coastal raids difficult, the warriors of Luskan turn inland, attacking the miners of Mirabar and any Uthgardt barbarians they can find. These actions are performed just to keep their neighbors weak and respectful.

There are persistent rumors of an alliance between Luskan and the Zhentarim, but no word or clear sign of this has ever come to light.

The city has a standing army of 300 spearmen, and a navy of 19 dragonships, each armed with 70 archers. It is building more dragonships as fast as it can and has armed hastily in recent years, fearing retaliation from Waterdeep for the war with Ruathym.

Luskan's traders, it is rightly said, always wear furs, haughty expressions, and ready swords. They can be found up and down the Sword Coast wherever trade is conducted in a port. They are dangerous folk, always alert and well armed. Their city remains the perennial trouble spot of the Sword Coast.

The Arcane Brotherhood keeps a close watch on visitors to the city. If one wishes to walk about freely, without spies in tow, it is advisable to enter by way of the sewers, in the hold of a Luskanite ship, or magically disguised.

Landmarks

The Mirar River divides the city into two major parts. The northern section is a walled enclave, consisting almost entirely of warehouses. The southern half of the city is much alder. This heavily fortified section of the city is surrounded by outlying walled caravan compounds.

There are three bridges that connect the two halves of the city. They are the Harbor Cross, Dalath's Span, and the Upstream Span. The Harbor Cross is broken into two spans, known as the Short and Long spans.

Five major islands crowd the mouth of the Mirar, and the three closest to the south bank are developed. I'm detailing these districts or islets separately for the convenience of travelers.

North Bank

This warehouse district includes a fortified compound known as the Mirabar District or the Mirabar Shield. The area is owned and guarded by mercantile companies operating out of Mirabar. Two places here should be avoided upon pain of capture, torture, and then death. The first is Luskan's main watertower, called the Throat. It rises out of a fenced grazing area for sheep destined for the tables of the five captains. Any intruder seen in the fenced pasture is assumed to be an enemy of Luskan trying to poison the city's water supply. Guards armed with crossbows that fire paralyzation-venomed bolts will try to capture the intruder for ungentle questioning. Defiantly painting the sheep various hues used to be something of a rite of passage among dwarves in Mirabar, but this practice was bloodily put down by the Luskanites.

The second area to avoid is crowded Whitesails Harbor. This is off limits to all except Luskanite naval personnel (and other pirates, as the joke goes in Neverwinter but don't repeat it here, if you value your head). Watchful garrisons in the towers at the end of the breakwater and at the upstream end of the northernmost island have instructions to shoot down any unauthorized people entering the harbor. They receive a bounty for each person struck, so they regularly shoot into the windows of the closest buildings in the fortified Mirabar District, hoping to make a little blood money.

The northernmost reach of the harbor, which is entirely unprotected against the full fury of sea storms, is called the Open Shore. It's the only place that foreign vessels are allowed to berth. The Open Shore docks are outside the city walls. Luskanites ignore brigand and monster raids there, but they don't bother firing at crew members, either.

The Mirabar District is situated between Whitesails Harbor and the rest of the mainland. It's firmly enclosed by high stone walls topped by iron spikes and thorns. Three major companies trade here: the Anvilfist Banner, Thalorin's Manymetals, and the Golden Hand. Between them, they can muster some 90 men at arms to guard the compound from Luskanite accidents. (If my tone leads you to suspect this city isn't a pleasant place to visit, you've reached the right conclusion.)

The rest continues to describe the city which I am skipping because it is a lot and will only mention a few more places that I find interesting.

The Ruins of Illusk

The remnants of the ancient city of Illusk stand on the southern shore of the Mirar, in the lee of Closeguard Island. All that remains to be seen of that once proud city are a few shattered towers and toppled statues enshrouded in creepers and choked with thick brush in the shade of a few old and gnarled trees. This small, thickly forested city block of half visible ruins is bounded to the north by Luskan's busy market and to the south by the city's noisy slums. The Ruins are bisected by the Darkwalk, the street that leads to the Dark Arch. The Darkwalk is named for the haunted reputation that clings to the ruins of Illusk.

...

Fear of the magical traps and guardian monsters, as well as the sleepless undead, has kept most of the buried dead and their treasure undisturbed. Spell books, scrolls, magical items, and rich gem caches have been recovered from the ruins. Almost all of the rich dead were buried in magical armor of one sort or another. The loss rate among graverobbers remains high, however. Luskanites have a saying: Only the most desperate try to rob the dead of Illusk. Outlanders invading Luskan and fugitives from the city's rough justice have tried to hide in the ruins, but they are usually driven out or slain by the undead in short order.

The edges of the overgrown ruins serve as a refuse dump for the market (mainly rotting produce) and the slums (mainly excrement and dead bodies). No known maps of the underground chambers and passages exist, and no Luskanite will admit to knowing their ways.

The Cutlass

Tavern/Inn/Festhall

This notorious pirate dive discreetly but dearly rents a few rooms. These are usually patronized by professional escorts and their clients, and by the extremely desperate or the extremely deaf, since the surroundings are usually a bedlam of rowdy, raucous violence from about noon to after dawn!

The Cutlass has a rough fieldstone street level, a raised entry porch, and clapboard sheathed upper floors. There are balconies overhanging Half Moon Street and extensive cellars. Except for kitchens, a jakes, and various stairs and secret climbing shafts, the entire ground floor is taken up by the tavern. This consists of a common room with a large corner bar. A wine rack and beer kegs crowd behind it, flanking a dumbwaiter large enough for folk to make hasty exits when Luskanite soldiers come in unexpectedly. The roof of the Cutlass is a mix of patched slate and cedar shakes, and is adorned with several trapdoors, swinging laundry poles, and scars where entire gables have been blown or burnt away in spell duels.

This place is always cheerfully noisy a sort of brawling fun house for pirates. If you want to hurl people into tables or punch them through stair rails to the floor below, this is the place to come and do it. Just watch out for all the others waiting to do it to you.

The fatalities recently grew so numerous that the high captains decreed a no weapons policy at the Cutlass. The intention was to drive it out of business, as no one would dare walk through the slums to get to it unarmed. The anonymous but numerous staff (including some mages) now takes any steel weapons you may have as you enter, keeping them behind the bar. Hatpins, garrotes, and small concealed daggers often get past them, but not much else. If you don't pay your bill at the Cutlass, you don't get your weapons back. In the event of soldiers arriving, the staff try to disarm them too, delaying them long enough for wanted patrons to get behind the bar, snatch up their weapons, and flee down into the cellars.

There's a tunnel that rises up from the cellars to the surface several alleys over, but it's guarded by a stone golem belonging to the Cutlass. The golem is large enough to block entry, which it will do unless a gold piece is put into its hand by each person who wishes to pass. The golem also prevents soldiers from coming into the cellars unannounced. Years ago, some wag dubbed this sentinel Captain Reaper, and the name has stuck.

Most of the time, the Cutlass is one long, boisterous party with uninhibited female escorts leading the singing, dancing, and other acrobatics.

There is more of course but the book is easy to find 🏴‍☠️ if you would like to read all of it but this is all I am going to add to this post as it had gone long enough.

Volo's Guide to the North pg. 111-130

[allthecanadianpolitics]

It will cost Canadian taxpayers upwards of $6.5 billion to acquire six Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships for the navy and two additional similar vessels for the coast guard, according to newly tabled documents and a statement from the federal government.

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) says a contract amendment has been signed with Irving Shipbuilding Inc. of Halifax, N.S. that allows for a top-up to the budget for the military ships and sets the contract price for the coast guard vessels.

The cost of the navy ships has now risen to $4.98 billion from an earlier projection of $4.3 billion. The contract for the coast guard vessels has been set at $1.6 billion — an increase of $100 million from the figures tabled before Parliament last spring. [...]

Both procurement services and the Department of National Defence blame the increases on the labour shortages and supply chain issues brought on by the pandemic — factors that PSPC said have, among other things, resulted in "higher shipping costs and higher costs for spare parts."

In a media statement, PSPC said it has undertaken a thorough review of the program's projected costs and has built a contingency fund into the planning process to cover "possible cost impacts due to higher than forecasted cost of materials."

But critics say the Liberal government has not provided much oversight of the shipbuilding program writ large and that costs continue to swell each year. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[mariacallous]

When turbine blades for the United States’ first offshore wind project left port in September 2023, headed for the Vineyard Wind 1 project off Massachusetts, they were traveling on a barge instead of a wind turbine installation vessel, or WTIV. These purpose-built vessels are common in other parts of the world and make the job much, much easier. A WTIV is a transportation and construction rig in one. Frequently equipped with a big crane, deployable legs, and a dynamic positioning system, WTIVs can support the installation of several humongous turbines per trip.

There are dozens of WTIVs plying the world’s waters. So, why were the Vineyard Wind 1 blades delivered on a barge? This expensive, inefficient workaround was necessary because of a century-old law known as the Jones Act.

Also known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, the Jones Act requires anyone transporting goods from one point in the United States to another to use an American ship. And by a modern interpretation of the old law, an offshore turbine counts as a point in the United States. The trouble is, the United States doesn’t have any WTIVs. And without the appropriate equipment, the country’s offshore wind efforts are being plagued by the need for repeated, smaller-capacity barge trips that have added costs to projects already beset by financial difficulties. Danish energy company Ørsted, for example, cited vessel delays when it canceled two planned projects off the New Jersey coast: Ocean Wind 1 and 2.

The country’s first Jones Act–compliant WTIV, the Charybdis, is currently under construction in Texas. While originally planned for completion in 2023, labor constraints have pushed the Charybdis’s launch back at least a year, possibly into 2025, says Dominion Energy, the vessel’s owner.

The Biden administration’s goal is to deploy offshore wind turbines capable of generating 30 gigawatts of power by 2030. That’s more than 2,000 turbines. To meet this target, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), part of the US Department of Energy, says there’s a need for four to six WTIVs. But as 2030 draws ever closer, the incomplete Charybdis remains the only one.

The Jones Act is tricky to navigate. For a vessel to be compliant, it must not only be built in the United States and running the country’s flag but also be owned and crewed by Americans. Consequently, US shipyards enjoy a monopoly, which allows them to demand massively inflated prices.

When finished, the 144-meter-long Charybdis will boast over 5,000 square meters of main deck area and accommodate up to 119 people, supported by on-board cabins, mess rooms, and shops, as well as a cinema, gym, and hospital. But the WTIV’s cost has climbed from US $500 million to $625 million. Meanwhile, the major shipyards in South Korea could have built a similar vessel in less time, for less money, and with a more powerful crane.

The reason for the Jones Act’s longevity, says Colin Grabow, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, is that while it tends to benefit only a few people and businesses, the act goes unnoticed because there are many payers sharing the increased costs.

The Jones Act is one in a string of protectionist laws—dating back to the Tariff Act of 1789—designed to bolster US marine industries. The Jones Act’s existence was meant to ensure a ready supply of ships and mariners in case of war. Its authors reasoned that protection from foreign competition would foster that.

“Your average American has no idea that the Jones Act even exists,” Grabow says. “It’s not life-changing for very many people,” he adds. But “all Americans are hurt by the Jones Act.” In this case, that’s by slowing down the United States’ ability to hit its own wind power targets.

Grabow says those most vocal about the law—the people who build, operate, or serve on compliant ships—usually want to keep it in place.

Of course, there’s more going on with the country’s slow rollout of offshore wind power than just a century-old shipping law. It took a slew of factors to sink New Jersey’s planned Ocean Wind installations, says Abraham Silverman, an expert on renewable energy at Columbia University in New York.

Ultimately, says Silverman, rising interest rates, inflation, and other macroeconomic factors caught New Jersey’s projects at their most vulnerable stage, inflating the construction costs after Ørsted had already locked in its financing.

Despite the setbacks, the potential for offshore wind power generation in the United States is massive. The NREL estimates that fixed-bottom offshore wind farms in the country could theoretically generate some 1,500 gigawatts of power—more than the United States is capable of generating today.

There’s a lot the United States can do to make its expansion into offshore wind more efficient. And that’s where the focus needs to be right now, says Matthew Shields, an engineer at NREL specializing in the economics and technology of wind energy.

“Whether we build 15 or 20 or 25 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, that probably doesn’t move the needle that much from a climate perspective,” says Shields. But if building those first few turbines sets the country up to then build 100 or 200 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2050, he says, then that makes a difference. “If we have ironed out all these issues and we feel good about our sustainable development moving forward, to me, I think that’s a real win.”

But today, some of the offshore wind industry’s issues stem, inescapably, from the Jones Act. Those inefficiencies mean lost dollars and, perhaps more importantly in the rush toward carbon neutrality, lost time.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil expected to demand more hybrid-propulsion offshore vessels

Brazil is expected to see an increase in the demand for hybrid-propulsion offshore support vessels in its oil and gas sector in the coming years to reduce diesel consumption and CO2 emissions. 

That is what Marcelo Martins, technical commercial director of shipowner Companhia Brasileira Offshore (CBO), told BNamericas. 

In 2022, the company signed a contract with Equinor to convert three platform supply vessels (PSVs) to use both stored electricity and diesel.

The expectation is that there will be a significant reduction in the use of diesel and, consequently, a decrease of up to 40% in the ships' CO2 emissions.

Continue reading.

[dsiddhant]

Jun 05, 2023 (AB Digital via COMTEX) -- The global Offshore Support Vessel Market is projected to reach USD 31.4 billion by 2028 from USD 22.6 billion in 2023 at a CAGR of 6.7% according...

[poojagblog-blog]

The global Offshore Support Vessel Market in terms of revenue was estimated to be worth $25.6 billion in 2024 and is poised to reach $36.3 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 7.2% from 2024 to 2029 according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets™. The global Offshore Support Vessel Market is anticipated to grow at a higher level. There are various drivers responsible for the growth of the market such as government policies and incentives and technological advancements among others. The rising global demand for energy, particularly from developing countries, pushes the need for increased offshore exploration and production, subsequently driving the OSV market.

[gujmargroup]

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