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Expected to generate up to $1.8 billion in revenue. Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. announced that a subsidiary of the Company has entered into two term drilling contracts with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation.The contracts, which will utilize Diamond Offshore's two new-build drillships now on order, are expected to generate combined maximum total revenue of approximately $1.8 billion and represent 10 years of contract drilling backlog. In addition, Anadarko and Diamond have mutually agreed to dismiss all claims related to the Ocean Monarch.The dynamically positioned, ultra-deepwater drillships, Ocean BlackHawk and Ocean BlackHornet, are each contracted for five years commencing in late 2013 and early 2014, respectively. As previously reported, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. is currently preparing to commence construction of the two drillships at its South Korean shipyard.Diamond Offshore President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Dickerson said: "We are pleased to place our newest rigs under contract with Anadarko, with whom we have had a successful long-term relationship.We look forward to contributing to Anadarko's exploration and development efforts, working to bring to market energy resources for the world's increasing demand. A first class customer, two state of the art rigs and Diamond Offshore's high operational standards are all part of a formula...

Successful conclusion of a historic shipbuilding program that began in April 2005 Aker Philadelphia Shipyard (Oslo: AKPS), a leading U.S. commercial shipyard, delivered to American Shipping Company (Oslo: AMSC) the shipyard's twelfth Veteran Class MT-46 product tanker.The 46,000 dwt vessel, named the Overseas Tampa, will leave the shipyard in the coming days under the operation of Overseas Shipping Group (OSG) to transport petroleum products.The on schedule delivery of this ship marks the successful conclusion of a historic shipbuilding program that began in April 2005. The twelve ship program was one of the largest commercial ship construction efforts since World War II and has contributed towards making the U.S. Fleet more environmentally friendly with the vessel's double hull design and cleaner engines.Aker Philadelphia Shipyard is building two additional product tankers. The first vessel is underconstruction and production activities for the second tanker are scheduled to begin this summer. Both vessels are scheduled to be completed by first quarter of 2013.Source: Aker Philadelphia

Aims to reduce the dministrative burden on the short sea shipping sector The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has launched its 'blue belt' pilot project, designed to reduce the dministrative burden on the short sea shipping sector.The aim of the blue belt pilot project is to explore new ways to promote and to facilitate short sea shipping in the European Union by reducing the administrative burden for intra-community trade.The project uses information on maritime traffic provided by the EMSA-operated SafeSeaNet European vessel traffic monitoring system to monitor vessel movements, and sends an automatic notification to customs authorities before the vessel's arrival at port.The information authorities are provided with includes current and previous voyages, expected or actual arrival and departure times, previous and next ports of call, and other pertinent voyage information.Consequently the authorities can ensure that a vessel declaring intra-EU goods has only visited EU ports, i.e. that it has stayed within the 'blue belt'.Upon successful assessment of the pilot project, due at the beginning of 2012, existing procedures may be reviewed and adjusted in favour of a permanent blue belt reporting system."The blue belt pilot project, by sharing existing information on maritime traffic among different user communities, has a...

Aims to reduce cost routing and to coordinate file transfers, e-mail, and internet access Maersk Tankers is to install the CommBox communications management system from KVH aboard 70 vessels.This group of 70 ships is in addition to 50 existing CommBox-equipped vessels that joined the Maersk fleet following its acquisition of Broström tankers in 2010.The system will be used on the 120 vessels for least cost routing and to coordinate file transfers, e-mail, and internet access for both business and crew use."Maersk Tankers is the largest product tanker owner in the world, and as such, they recognise the need for dynamic network management onboard commercial vessels," said Morten Aasen, managing director of KVH Norway AS."The CommBox is the right solution for these vessels - it will allow Maersk captains and IT managers to closely monitor use of each vessel's onboard satellite communications systems, ensuring good performance at a reduced cost.""With the CommBox QuickWeb and QuickCrew software modules, internet access increases, which benefits crews in their leisure time. In addition, crews get floating e-mail accounts that will travel with them even if they switch vessels."KVH says that CommBox technology is now in use on more than 900 vessels worldwide.Source: Digital ship

Interest rate subsidies and other financial measures Russia will prepare a law to support shipbuilding industry in Far East by next week, Vice Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov said Sunday while inspecting the construction of maritime terminal on Kunashir Island.According to the RIA Novosti report, the document will include a number of measures aimed at economical support of the sector, among them interest rate subsidies and other financial measures.Besides, the law will make provisions for measures aimed at ship owner's advantages in building ships at domestic shipyards.Meanwhile, Ivanov also said geothermal energy development is necessary for the region."We need to develop geothermal stations. New stations have to be built here," Invanov said at a conference on the islands on "Social and Economic Development of the Kuril Islands 2007-2015" under Russia's Federal Target Program.Ivanov noted that the main purpose of his visit to the Islands is to check the progress on the federal target program for Russia's Far East, with an aim to tackle three major problems of the region -- transport infrastructure, energy and social services.The financing for the program will amount to 15 billion rubles (0.54 billion U.S. dollars) till 2015, which will not be affected despite the financial crisis.Ivanov...

Orders increased 95.9 percent in fiscal 2010 Japanese export ship orders made a strong recovery in fiscal 2010, which ended on March 31, after sinking at their fastest pace in 17 years in the previous fiscal year.According to figures released by the Japan Ship Exporters' Association, orders swelled 95.9 percent in fiscal 2010 to 12,421,600 gross tons, compared with 6,340,591 gross tons in fiscal 2009.Japanese shipbuilders received orders for 302 ships -- 282 bulk carriers, 12 oil tankers and eight general cargo vessels -- in fiscal 2010, compared with 119 ships in fiscal 2009.Early in 2010, Japan started providing official financial support through the government-affiliated Japan Bank for International Cooperation to shore up slumping vessel exports driven down by the global recession.Ship orders rose for the 16th consecutive month in March on a year-on-year basis, increasing 10.9 percent to 1,029,340 gross tons for 25 ships. But the year-on-year pace of growth slowed for the second month in a row.An official at JSEA told The Journal of Commerce last month that the earthquake and tsunami that hit the northeastern part of the country on March 11 "will have no impact on future export ship orders at all."The official explained at the...

Three top Korean shipbuilders are expected to surpass $48 billion in orders this yea Korea's three largest shipbuilders have seen their new orders soar, almost reaching the level of the last industry boom in 2007.According to data released by the industry on Wednesday.Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries have won a combined US$21.7 billion in orders so far this year. That's nearly four times the $5.2 billion won by the Chinese shipbuilding industry during the period.According to a forecast by Daishin Securities, the three Korean companies are expected to surpass $48 billion in orders this year, comparable to the $57.5 billion of 2007.Despite being distant to a full recovery of the global shipbuilding industry, Korean shipbuilders' strong performance can be attributed to orders for large-sized container ships, drillships and LNG vessels, where Korean companies have taken the technological lead compared to China. Korean companies have won 17 out of 24 orders for drillships worldwide so far this year.Source: English Chosun

Construction of its Inmarsat-5 Ka-band satellite network Inmarsat has announced the signing of a US$700 million, 12.5-year direct financing agreement with the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) to fund the construction of its Inmarsat-5 Ka-band satellite network.The financing agreement will enable Inmarsat to proceed with the contract they signed with the Boeing Group for the delivery of three 702HP Ka-band satellites in August 2010, as well as covering certain other related capital items.This is part of a total $1.2bn estimated investment in the next generation satellite network through which Inmarsat aims to provide a global high speed mobile broadband service with download speeds of up to 50 megabits per second (Mbps).The Inmarsat-5 satellites are to form the backbone of Global Xpress, a service that the company hopes will be more than 100 times faster than its current global L-band offering.Under the financing agreement Inmarsat may borrow up to $700 million. The facility will have a total availability period of 4 years and then be repayable in equal instalments over a further 8.5 years.Drawings under the facility will incur interest at a fixed interest rate for the life of the loan.Source: Digital Ship

At a cost of around $95 million each Costamare has announced the conclusion of shipbuilding contracts and charter agreements for five newbuild containerships of about 8,800 TEU capacity, to be built at Sungdong Shipyard in Korea.The Post-Panamax sized vessels are expected to be delivered between the first and the third quarters of 2013. The value of the contract was not disclosed, but the unit cost was said by the company to be similar to three 9,000TEU vessels ordered in China, at a cost of around $95 million each. On delivery, the five newbuilds will be chartered to Evergreen Group companies.Costamare says that it has additionally secured finance from a major European financial institution for two newbuilding container ship contracts with Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering which were entered into in January 2011.The two newbuild containerships are expected to be delivered by the end of 2012, and will be chartered to Mediterranean Shipping Company for a 10-year period.Source: Motorship

Easier to see how routeing and weather affect vessel safety and fuel-economy A fleet management system has incorporated Google Earth technology to make it easier for owners to see at a glance how routeing and weather affect crew and vessel safety and fuel-economy.Applied Weather Technology (AWT),a specialist software developer has announced the launch of GlobalView, a fleet-management system that combines ship-routeing services and software with Google Earth technology.The combination, AWT said,can provide fleet managers with a more visual, easy-to-use system and in so doing can enhance vessel and crew safety, reduce fuel consumption and emissions.