Opinion – Page 10

  • The Rolls-Royce UT777 is one of the new Well Intervention Vessels that aim to bring down overall costs by adding extras like top-hole drilling: it was also built at KHI in Japan
    News

    2014 Support Sector Review: A changing game

    2014-12-31T23:00:00Z

    Will people remember 2014 as the year the game changed? If they are in the oil and gas support sector, then that’s quite likely... writes Stevie Knight

  • Emissions – united action needed
    News

    Shipping still undecided on emissions legislation

    2014-12-31T23:00:00Z

    By the time this issue appears in print, ships in ECAs will be mandated to cut sulphur emissions to 0.1% fuel content, or take equivalent appropriate measures, while the global 0.5% limit edges closer, and attention is turning to carbon emissions. Yet even with such a short time scale, there ...

  • LNG – have falling oil prices and the still-uncertain infrastructure questions caused the bubble to burst?
    News

    An industry driven by uncertainty

    2014-12-30T18:00:00Z

    2014 was a year in which our industry largely stood still, awaiting the uncertain outcome of new fuel regulations and the still-unresolved ballast water question, while oversupply of tonnage and economic woes bedevilled Far Eastern shipbuilding.

  • ‘Norman Atlantic’, as ‘Scintu’ in 2013 (Wikimedia, Eustace Bagge)
    News

    Italian ferry fire prompts safety concerns

    2014-12-30T14:15:00Z

    Safety of passenger ships in the Mediterranean is likely to once again come under the spotlight following a fire onboard Italian-flagged ferry ‘Norman Atlantic’ during the early hours of 28 December.

  • Sergei Ivanov: corruption was behind the dismissal of a number of high-ranking officials (www.kremlin.ru)
    News

    Russia fights corruption in national shipbuilding

    2014-12-30T14:14:00Z

    The Russian government is planning to tighten its fight against corruption in its national shipbuilding and marine equipment industries, writes Eugene Gerden.

  • News

    2015 and the price of oil

    2014-12-27T05:00:00Z

    January 2015 is a significant date in that it sees the start of the chain of international regulations that will effectively phase out the heavy oil that has driven our industry for many years.

  • Sweden’s largest – ‘Sovereign Clipper’ pioneered electronic control of its large-bore 12-cylinder engine
    News

    An automated future

    2014-12-10T12:12:00Z

    Proof that, 50 years ago, Britain still regarded its shipbuilding industry as significant was evident in a full-page message in a prominent position in the January 1965 issue of The Motor Ship, from the Rt Hon Roy Mason, government minister responsible for shipbuilding and shipping (in that order, believe it ...

  • ‘Methane Princess’ – first LNG carrier in regular international service
    News

    First regular LNG traffic begins

    2014-12-01T09:17:00Z

    Although, as we know, transport by sea of gaseous cargoes is far from new, it may seem surprising that commercial international shipping of LNG began exactly 50 years ago.

  • Pieter van Oossanen: “When we actually measured a substantial forward thrust on the dynamometer I remember the people scratching their heads and going away with their notes...”
    News

    Pieter van Oossanen: Design on the wing

    2014-12-01T08:59:00Z

    “When it comes to hull forms, many assume that there is ‘nothing more to be found’, but I believe there’s going to be even greater changes in the years to come,” Pieter van Oossanen, founder of Van Oossanen Naval Architects, tells Stevie Knight.

  • Murky past: ex GDR state yacht 'Vineta' (ex 'A Koebis') is up for grabs
    News

    Historic GDR boat goes to highest bidder

    2014-11-23T15:58:00Z

    A piece of modern German history goes under the hammer in Rostock soon when the state yacht and conference boat once used by East Germany’s Communist leaders is sold at auction, writes Tom Todd.

  • News

    Doug Woodyard

    2014-11-21T14:25:00Z

    It is with great regret that we learned this week of the passing of Doug Woodyard. He had been in poor health for a number of years, but following a recovery he continued to work until the illness returned this year.

  • News

    Russia may resume imports of banned ship equipment and technologies

    2014-11-07T15:03:00Z

    The Russian government may legalise parallel imports of some shipboard equipment and components, with the aim of averting shortages in the national shipbuilding industry, writes Eugene Gerden.

  • News

    The gas bubble bursts

    2014-10-17T09:21:00Z

    It came as something of a shock, especially in the run-up to the Motorship Gas Fuelled Ships conference (which takes place in Stavanger, Norway, on 25-27 November) that one major LNG fuelled ship project had been put on hold.

  • LNG carrier, 1964 vintage, the ‘Jules Verne’
    News

    Sulzer to the fore

    2014-10-08T09:29:00Z

    Big news back in October 1964 was that the first licence for building high power Diesel engines in the US had been awarded by Sulzer Bros to Nordberg Manufacturing.

  • Lucas Zaat: How we respond will set the path for the future. One thing for sure is, we can’t be afford to be afraid
    News

    Lucas Zaat: Less protection, more innovation

    2014-10-08T09:25:00Z

    Running stability calculations for a salvage company in the middle 80s, “was intense – like being involved in a big rescue operation” but Lucas Zaat admits he never knew exactly how any mobilisation was going to work out.

  • News

    Ukranian shipbuilding faces serious crisis

    2014-10-08T09:24:00Z

    Ukranian shipbuilding is on the verge of a serious crisis, due to the breakdown in relations with Russia and termination of the $4 billion contract between the two sides, writes Eugene Gerden.

  • The venue – Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center
    News

    Seawork looks towards the Chinese marketplace

    2014-09-23T12:13:00Z

    After 16 years of running the flourishing Seawork exhibition in Southampton, UK, Mercator Media is expecting to repeat the success with the first Seawork Asia event.

  • ‘Ville de Bordeaux’ employed a high level of machinery automation and relied on automatic filters for main engine fuel purification rather than centrifugal separators, allowing a 25% cut in manpower
    News

    US embraces Diesel power at last

    2014-08-19T10:12:00Z

    The September 1964 issue of The Motor Ship led with news that a US company was to build a European-designed large marine Diesel engine. This may not seem a particularly newsworthy story in a magazine devoted to large Diesel-powered ships, but as the US had resolutely stuck to steam turbines ...

  • The 2004 Japanese-built ‘Lalla Fatma N'Soumer’ LNG carrier has a storage capacity of 145,000m3 in four spherical tanks.
    News

    50 years of LNG transport

    2014-08-06T11:38:00Z

    The current focus on liquefied natural gas fuel for ships has its origins in LNG transport which began half a century ago: Dag Pike traces the history of LNG afloat.

  • Greg Atkinson: There’s been no room for fuzzy thinking, we take everything stepwise, proving at each stage that it will work
    News

    Greg Atkinson: Innovation and autonomy

    2014-08-04T11:38:00Z

    The potential presented by driverless vehicles, whether cars or aerial drones, is beginning to capture both headlines and imagination so Greg Atkinson of Eco Marine Power tells Stevie Knight that he knew the topic of unmanned ships would not be far away.