NEWS
Shipyards STX Europe remains on
the market South Korean shipbuilder STX has said that its European subsidiary, STX Europe which is comprised of STX France and the Turku yard STX Finland, are still on the market. Earlier this year the company released a statement
confirming that the company was for sale. “STX Europe AS confirms that we as part of our ordinary course assessment of available strategies are exploring the viability of a sale of shares in the company,” said the statement. Te company has appointed JP Morgan Chase Bank
NA of Hong Kong and Standard Chartered Securities Korea Ltd to handle the share sale. However, the company stressed that there is no certainty that a sale of the shares in the subsidiary will take place. STX was said by some observers to have
over-extended itself when it used down payments for new vessels to invest in foreign yards, this leſt the company without the liquidity to build ships that were contracted. As a further consequence of the cash flow
difficulties the Dae-Gu factory that opened in 2009 to build pumps and turbochargers was also meant to have a precision casting plant attached, but “the money ran out” said an STX source.
CNG RINa in world’s first
maritime CNG project Indonesia’s electricity utility PT PLN (Persero) has appointed Italian classification society Registro
Italiano Navale (RINa) to help develop the world’s first maritime Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) project. The project is expected to deliver up to 6000
standard cubic feet (mscf) per day of CNG from the Indonesian island of Gresik which will then be transported to, Lombok (another Indonesian island), where it will power the Peaking power plant. Te first gas is expected in 2013. “RINa has already delivered the feasibility study,
and is now developing the Front End Engineering Design [FEED]. Tis will be followed by support during tendering and the provision of project management support during the Engineering Procurement and Construction [EPC] phase. Tendering will open in May 2012 and a number of different technologies are being considered,” said the class society. Te Gresik/ Lombok scheme is a pilot project
that will allow the use of cheaper natural gas in place of liquid fuel for power production. If the pilot is successful the marine CNG technology will be applied to other power plants across the country with similar or larger capacity. PLN has mapped out potential utilisation of CNG in Indonesia. CNG will come from low-capacity gas wells, marginal gas wells, gas flare and surplus gas as a result of a fluctuating gas absorption pattern. RINa says: “A number of technical solutions are
still being considered. Sources close to the project say the most likely option is a series of barges carrying road-transport type steel pressure vessels [for the transpotation of the CNG]. It is likely two tugs and four barges will be built to carry the gas vessels. Building the pressure vessels will take time, but entry into service is set for 2013.” In addition RINa will advise on the most logistical pattern, design of
appropriate Lombok Island CNG terminal where the Gresik CNG will be delivered. the compression and decompression terminals, and
8
The Naval Architect May 2012
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