Lamor NewsReel 1/2012
Lamor NewsReel 1/2012 has been published in English and is available in pdf format online. To receive a hardcopy of the magazine, please send an email to: info@lamor.com. NewsReel 1/2012 will be available in Turkish in late February.
Lamor NewsReel can be downloaded from our NewsRoom.
Black Tide in Bay of Plenty – M/V Rena
10 February 2012 – 11.00 AM Good progress continues to be made on container salvage operations. However, this is slow, labor-intensive work that involves the cutting and grinding of containers and removal of the contents by hand. This means an average of one container and its contents are being removed per day. To date, 479 containers have been removed from Rena, with an additional 70 recovered from the water.
On January 7, severe weather broke MSC M/V Rena in two with the bow section firmly wedged on the reef. By January 10, the stern section stayed perched on the edge of the Astrolabe Reef with about 95% submerged, including the bridge, and a few days later slid off the reef and submerged totally. Aerial observation flights confirmed on January 12 a dark metallic sheen of around 600m by 200m within a larger lighter sheen stretching for about ten kms from the wreck. Observers noted these patches of oil appeared to be breaking down naturally in the swells and churning seas. The oil trajectory modelling predicted it was likely to reach beaches at Little Waihi and Pukehina that said, these modelling predictions change with the currents and weather conditions.
Three months earlier, on October 5, 2011 at 02:20, the M/V Rena struck the Astrolabe Reef whilst sailing from the New Zealand’s North Island port city of Napier to Tauranga. Onboard the stricken vessel was 1,368 containers of which twenty contained hazardous materials such as cryolite, a toxic chemical used as a pesticide, insecticide etc. and is a colorless material that disappears in water due to the proximity of their refractive indices. The M/V Rena also was carrying 1,700 tons heavy fuel-oil and over 200 tons of marine diesel fuel. The initial accident revealed that the vessel had sustained significant damage with large cracks in the hull that eventually split the vessel in two.
The weather in early October continued to hamper rescue and oil spill clean-up operations and a large, approx. five km, oil slick was visible. Six days later, on October 11, New Zealand’s Minister for the Environment and Minister Responsible for Climate Change Issues, Hon. Dr. Nick Smith declared the M/V Rena to be New Zealand’s worst ever maritime environment disaster. On January 8, the vessel split in two, leaving a separation distance of approx. 30 meters between the fore and aft of the vessel, the water surrounding was murky due to powder milk being spilled from a container.
Maritime New Zealand (MNZ), formerly Maritime Safety Authority, is the lead agency for the coordination of clean-up efforts and salvage in the M/V Rena grounding and subsequent spill. Overall MNZ’s responsibilities include maritime safety, security and marine environment protection for the country.
MNZ alerted all rescue, salvage and clean-up operators in the area including the New Zealand Defence Forces. Support also came from Australia (AMSA) and Singapore to name a few. Lamor was the only oil spill equipment supplier on-scene in Tauranga to assist MNZ and the many outside agencies that responded to this incident.
Lamor’s VP Global Business, Steve Reilly, was on scene and filed this report:
”We were there soon after it happened and worked with the various responders on the water in Tauranga harbor and in the staging areas to ensure all the Lamor equipment and vessels were ready to go. The weather was very difficult for the first week and the response was focused on several key areas and along the beautiful beaches of Bay of Plenty. Two of the Lamor JBF 420 vessels that MNZ acquired several years ago were in great condition and worked mostly in the harbor area every day.” (READ FULL ARTICLE IN NEWSREEL 1/2012)
Lamor Delivers New Vessel to Gazprom Neft Shelf in Russia
In late 2011, Lamor delivered to Gazprom Neft Shelf a 19m multipurpose vessel that will ultimately be used for the company’s oil spill response operations in the Barents Sea. The new vessel has been christened ‘Krab’ (Russian for crab).
The oil recovery vessel with the built-in oil recovery system LORS on both sides was designed and custom built specifically for Gazprom Neft Shelf, a full owned member company of Russian giant Gazprom. The multi-purpose vessel Krab will stay over winter in the docks in St.Petersburg and in the spring 2012 venture to its final destination, the Prirazlomnoye offshore oil field in the Barents Sea.
“In addition to oil recovery, our vessel can also be used as a multi-purpose vessel for boom deployment, dispersant spraying, service tasks and as a safety patrol boat,” explains Lamor’s Nikolai Kildishov, VP Russia & CIS.
Kildishov highlights some of the vessel’s benefits: “The vessel has hull mounted brush packs, which enables recovered oil to be delivered directly to the recovered oil storage tanks in the mid-ship without the need of using oil transfer pumps,” he says.
“Another great advantage is that the brush conveyors are in direct connection with the oil on the water surface which notably improves the high viscous oil and debris collection capabilities, but also collecting of light oils in Arctic conditions. Moreover, the vessel is built according to ice class Ice 2 and certified by the Russian Maritime Register of Sippng (RMRS),” Kildishov highlights enthusiastically.
In addition to the oil recovery vessel, Lamor also delivered earlier to Gazprom Neft Shelf two Landing Crafts LC9000 with cabins and a rubber inflatable boat as well as Bow Collectors to be fitted on already existing workboats. “We also provided four kms of oil containment booms and a boom washing machine,” explains Kildishov.
Qatar’s Organized Responders to OSR
In the State of Qatar the principal organization for oil spill response is Qatar Petroleum’s (QP) Oil Spill & Emergency Response Department (OS&ERD). It is responsible for state wide oil spill response operations including but not limited to oil spill preparedness, combat and recovery operations for Qatar Petroleum, and the areas assigned under responsibility of the State of Qatar.
That said, in the event of an oil spill in Doha Port, the Doha Port Management Company is responsible for responding to an oil spill and clean-up operation. OS&ERD monitors the operations and provides necessary support when needed.
During Q1 2011 Qatar Petroleum issued a tender for the supply of skilled personnel, services including supervision, management, in the form oil spill manpower support. The requirement stipulated that the winning bidder would be responsible for operating and maintaining all of OS&ERD oil spill recovery equipment. In cooperation with its local partner, IECO Petroleum Services, Lamor Corporation was the successful bidder for the three year contract.
In its scope of work Lamor has delivered management, supervisors, senior oil spill responders, oil spill responders and maintenance staff who will work in cooperation with OS&ERD staff. During any future oil spill incident, Lamor personnel will be involved directly as a part of the OS&ERD operation.
The OS&ERD is responsible for all offshore oil recovery and clean-up operations, which include Halul Island and various QP platforms coupled with the North Field. In addition to covering offshore assets OS&ERD must also respond to land based oil spill recovery and clean-up operations at the following locations: Dukhan operational area, Ras Laffan Industrial City, Mesaieed Industrial City, QP Refinery and any area affected by an oil spill incident.
Text: Geraint Richards
The Christmas Pine Oil Slick
A pine oil slick was heading towards Finland from Sweden across the Gulf of Bothnia. Shortly before Christmas approx. 800 mᵌ of pine oil spilled into the Baltic Sea from the Arizona Chemicals refinery on the eastern coast of Sweden in Sandarne. The Swedish Coast Guard (SCG) deployed their OSR vessels, equipment and personnel and in a single day approx. 140 mᵌ of pine oil was recovered. SCG spokesperson stated that Lamor’s in-built brush skimmers (LORS) fitted on SCG’s vessel KBV 002 were well suited also for this type of oil recovery operations.
An approx. two km long and 600 m wide pine oil slick was heading towards Finland’s western coast. The Finnish Coast Guard deployed YAG Louhi and Linja to tackle the oil slick. YAG Louhi is Finland’s newest OSR vessel equipped with Lamor’s LORS in-built oil recovery system. That said, operations were halted when the OSR vessels encountered hurricane strength winds and heavy seas in the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Bothnia. After the storms subsided, the oil slick had dispersed and air surveillance is searching the western coast of Finland for any remnants or signs of the slick.
Pine oil has not been analyzed thoroughly about the risks, but when spilled in these quantities it can threaten eco-systems and wildlife. The oil is used in aromatherapy, as bath scent oils, in cleaning products, etc. The oil is acquired by steam distillation of needles, twigs and cones from a variety of species of pine at refineries such as the Arizona Chemicals refinery in Sandarne which is the largest pine oil refinery in the world.
Text: Thomas Barbieri
Swedish Coast Guard: Operation Kyrkesund
On September 15 the Swedish Coast Guard (SCG) received the first alert of oil contaminated shores on the south west coast of Sweden. It immediately led to activation of OSR actions in the area and Operation Kyrkesund was triggered to immediate responders. Initially it was unclear where the oil came from, but the priority was to contain and recover any oil affecting the archipelago.
Danish authorities had informed SCG the day before that there had been a ship collision outside the Danish west coast and that one of the ships was leaking oil. That said, the collision between the cargo vessel from Malta and a Belgian fishing boat had occurred a few days earlier, but had not been reported to authorities since damage seemed minor at the time, until oil began to leak. The harsh weather conditions in the area complicated and hampered OSR operations and the Danish authorities were able to recover approx. 60 mᵌ of oil.
Hurricane winds and choppy seas carried the oil slick to the Swedish coast which was deemed thereafter to be one of the worst to affect the area in over 20 years. The Swedish Coast Guard worked in close cooperation with the local rescue service and the Swedish Sea Rescue Society (SSRS) also contributing by means of ships, booms and personnel.
In Operation Kyrkesund, SCG’s response vessels, oil recovery vessels for shallow waters and skimmers were deployed coupled with a large amount of booms to contain the oil. Moreover, OSR vessel KBV 050, which belongs to SCG, was also deployed to the area. KBV 050 is fitted with Lamor in-built oil recovery systems, LORS, as well as several of the workboats used in Operation Kyrkesund were equipped with Lamor Bow Collectors. The OSR responders effectively and efficiently recovered a total of 644 mᵌ of oil.
NewsReel 1/2012
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Jury at Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE Nominates Winner
Porvoo, Finland (October 12, 2011) – Close to 400 companies entered the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE, and from these entries the judging panel selected Lamor as one of the top ten finalists. On October 11, the results of the rigorous testing procedures at Ohmsett were publicized and award ceremonies took place in New York. Lamor placed sixth when overall data was compiled, Team Elastec won the grand purse of US$1 million and the runners-up were awarded US$300,000.
The ten finalists began on July 22 their testing at Ohmsett, The National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility in Leonardo, NJ, which has the largest outdoor saltwater wave/tow facility in North America.
“Winning is not everything, but the effort to win is! I want to thank the Wendy Schmidt X CHALLENGE for providing the inspiration for us to demonstrate, in a competitive arena, what we do best; tackling oil spill cleanup operations. Moreover, I want to thank Ohmsett for providing the venue with their amazing testing facilities here in New Jersey. That said, Team Lamor is proud to have been part in this Challenge, and we are equally proud and privileged to have gotten to know personally the other teams involved. The teams certainly demonstrated excellent team spirit coupled with equipment,” says Team Lamor Leader, Jari Ahoranta.
“We entered this X Prize Challenge with a continued focus on our long-term research and development goals, now known as Lamor’s “Next Generation” recovery systems and did not deter from this goal to solely design a system for this competition. Our R&D goal is to enhance our proven heavy oil recovery system to also be effective in light oils, which we have proven within this Challenge as well,” Ahoranta continues.
“Collectively we need to continue to invest in and develop new and effective oil spill clean-up equipment, services and training. Corporations and governments need to have transparent dialogue and prepare for the worst case scenario to minimize the long lasting impacts of oil spills on the environment and eco-systems,” he says.
It is common knowledge that once oil spill incidents at sea occur, the oil changes and is affected by the weather conditions and sun. “What we have achieved in these tests is only part of the solution. Oil becomes thicker and more viscous when exposed to the elements at
sea and moreover, waves create an additional toss and spin to the spilled oil that eventually solidifies into tar balls. We need to continue to develop technologically advanced solutions; we are responsible to ensure that we can provide the best available technology to support oil spill clean-ups around the world. In April 2012, we will be back at Ohmsett to test our Next Generation Skimmers.”
“At Lamor, we have developed our expertise to tackle these accidents in any scenario and on any terrain. New oil deposits are being explored in more difficult conditions such as the Arctic Ocean and deep offshore, e.g. Brazil. Again, I encourage everyone involved in this business to focus on the trends and invest in solutions that will reduce long-term impacts of oil spills. Let us continue to unlock and release our full potential and do what we do best! Future generations depend on us,” Ahoranta concludes.
For further information, please contact:
Mr. Jari Ahoranta, Strategic R & D Manager, Lamor Corporation, tel: +358 40 730 0637, jari.ahoranta@lamor.com
http://www.iprizecleanoceans.org/competition-details/competition-results
NewsReel 3/2011
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Slickbar’s website routed to Lamor
As of June 21, 2011 Lamor Slickbar was renamed Lamor USA with immediate effect. Slickbar will be merged into Lamor’s global model of operations, which is mainly based on a supplier network. In this way it will increase competitiveness and flexibility on the US market. Slickbar was acquired by Lamor Corporation in 2008 and has operated as an independent unit with good results.
In line with Lamor’s strategic operational plans, the intention is to integrate and merge all its activities under the Lamor Corporation umbrella worldwide. The objective is to ensure that its clients and stakeholders recognize Lamor Corporation as a unified company with a large portfolio of offerings, services and solutions.