• Canary Islands and Norway seek to consolidate and deepen their relations

    On February 6th, the President of the Government of the Canary Islands Fernando Clavijo and the Minister of Economy, Industry, Trade and Knowledge, Pedro Ortega, held a working meeting with the Norwegian ambassador to Spain, Helge Skaara, to analyse the commercial, economic and social ties between the Canary archipelago and the Nordic country.

    It should be noted that Norway and the Canary Islands maintain a historical relationship in different areas, where the tourism was the forerunner of this relationship. Today, the Norwegian tourist sector in the Canary Islands registers about 400,000 tourists a year (10% of the country’s population), which is reinforced by the existence of direct flights between the two destinations. Also, the Canary Islands has a Norwegian community resident in the islands of about 3,000 Norwegian citizens who mainly live in the south of Gran Canaria.

    The commercial and economic relations between the Canary Islands and Norway are being fruitful, as Norwegian companies consider the Canary Islands as a business platform for West Africa for specific sectors and, on the other hand, an enormous potential in sectors such as tourism, energy Renewable and blue economy. Currently there are 16 Norwegian companies from different sectors and many of them operate under the Special Zone of the Canary Islands regime (ZEC) that offers important tax advantages for these companies.

    In the specific case of Norwegian companies operating in the offshore and oil and gas sectors, both the public administrations of the Canary Islands and the private sector for naval repair and auxiliary services for the extractive industry have joined forces to make the islands, and in particular, the Port of Las Palmas, stand as a strategic hub. This, together with the geographical proximity with the Gulf of Guinea, has aroused the interest of the Norwegian private sector specialized in the provision of technical assistance to this industry.

    This interest has materialized in the implementation of some Norwegian companies that seek alliances with the Canary Islands private sector to generate integration in the local business sector, synergies and mutual benefit. The alliance between Zamakona Yards and the prestigious Norwegian company Coast Center Base (CCB) is a clear example of these alliances. The resulting company CCB ZAMAKONA OFFSHORE SL will invest jointly 20 million euros for the development of a repair centre for oil platforms with a total area that occupies 6,000 square meters in the Port of Las Palmas where the first phase is already executed with the construction of the building that houses the main workshop, offices and storage areas.

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  • Ocean Marlin, our newbuilding 722 has been delivered to Atlantic Offshore

    Ocean Marlin is the second vessel of three signed with Atlantic Offshore with HY820 design. She is now sailing to Stavanger and her naming ceremony will be next Wednesday, 13th August.

     

    The vessel has been constructed in our Yard of Pasajes with the following main particulars:

     

    Type Emergency Rescue and Response Vessel with Firefighting and DP2
    Length over all 66.80 m
    Length b.p 60.60 m
    Breadth moulded 16.00 m
    Depth to main deck 6,00 m
    Draught 5,40 m
    Accommodation 21 persons
    Notation DnV: +1A1, E0, SF, OSV-Towing, DYNPOS AUTR, FIRE FIGHTER –II
    Flag NOR
    Deck area 380 m2

    The results on sea trials have been better than expected, highlighting the low level of vibration and noise:

     

    Bollard pull 68,3 tonnes
    Free running speed 14 knot

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  • Swire Pacific Offshore repairs in the Zamakona Yards

    For the past weeks, among the relevant jobs performed at Zamakona Yards in Canary Islands, there was the docking of the Pacific Wyvern.

     

    Pacific Wyvern is 68.9 m long AHTS Vessel that operates on the western coast of Africa. The vessel belongs to Singapore-based company Swire Pacific, that it is one of the leading marine service providers to the oil and gas industry. It operates more than 75 offshore support vessels which include a mix of anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels, platform supply vessels (PSV), ice breaking supply vessels (IBSV), anchor handling tugs (AHT), and seismic survey vessels, and windfarm installation vessels. SPO and its subsidiaries are fully equipped to support a wide range of offshore activities, including drilling, production, exploration, pipe-lay, subsea construction seismic, salvage and environmental response requirements, as well as windfarm installation and support.

     

    The works performed included cleaning, painting, grit blasting of the hull, cathodic protection, reconditioning and repairing the propeller, electrical works, thruster works, main engines general overhaul, rudder works, deck machinery repairs and rescue boat and crane 5 years inspection. Some minor jobs including valves, piping, chain cable, anchors …. were also included.

     

    We´ll keep you informed. Regards.

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  • Classifying Offshore Support Vessels (OSVs)

    As marine resource development is moving further offshore and into deep sea regions, there is an increasing demand for multi-purpose offshore support vessels, capable of not only transporting cargo to and from offshore floating facilities, but also covering mooring, installation, and fire fighting operations in a wide variety of offshore environments.

     

    All these matters require new generation offshore support vessels, generally more technically-advanced and with special features. OSV vessels are playing a vital role in different fields, including maintaining and supplying offshore oil and gas operations.

     

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