Work for Suppliers

 With the lack of offshore oil and gas activity off Nova Scotia there has been no call for supply ships in the area. There were several boats laid up here earlier in the year, but they had all been redeployed to Europe, and it seemed unlikely that we would see any more.

However there have now been two visits. First was the return of Atlantic Condor after delivering two Canadian Coast Guard lifeboats to British Columbia.

See: New Gig and Lifting On

After off loading the boats in Victoria, Atlantic Condor was then used to assist in oil removal from an old shipwreck working with Resolve Marine Group and using an ROV to hot tap the hull and remove fuel.

See: Schiedyk wreck

Atlantic Condor arrived back in Halifax July 27 and after a short period at the IEL dock in Dartmouth returned to sea August 14 on an ROV survey far offshore. 

Today, August 16, saw another arrival, Siem Pilot from St.John's. One of the few remaining members of Siem's Canadian subsidiary Secunda Canada LP, the ship entered layup at the COVE dock in Dartmouth.

It is a 5,000 gt supply and pipe carrier. Construction started in 2007 at UMO, KD-Eregli in Turkey but was completed by Eidsvik, Uskedalen, in Norway in 2010. Fully equipped for standby and firefighting it is also DP2 with diesel electric drive and ROV support. Although not a tug, it has a bollard pull of 70 tonnes.

With its arrival in Halifax, possibly for layup, Siem/Secunda is left with Avalon Sea working off Newfoundland on the Hebron field.

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All aboard

 After drydocking in St.John's Atlantic Condor returned to Halifax February 8 and tied up at the IEL pier.  Yesterday, February 12, the operation began to lift on the two lifeboats Cadboro Bay and Florencia Bay.

See yesterday's Shipfax

By this morning  both boats were sitting happily on deck while workers completed lashing and securing the deck load.

As yet there is no departure time posted.

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New Gig for the Atlantic Condor

 The Atlantic Condor has been mobilized from layup in Stephenville, NL to carry out an interesting contract.

After drydocking at Newdock in St.John's for renewal of classification and certificates, I hear that the supplier will proceed to Halifax where it will load two Canadian Coast Guard  lifeboats as deck cargo and transport  them to Victoria, BC. Atlantic Towing Ltd won the contract with a $3,449,999.00 bid, and must deliver the boats by April 30, 2021.

The two boat were built in 2020  - CCGC Cadboro Bay by Chantier Naval Forillon in Gaspé, QC and CCGC Florencia Bay by Hike Metal Products in Wheatley, ON. At present Cadboro Bay is based in Sambro, NS filling in while the regular boat is in refit and Florencia Bay is at the Bedford Institute.

Each boat weighs close to 53 tonnes*, so will require shore based cranes to load and offload. The contract also requires provision of cradles, spreaders and rigging as required for safe transport. Each boat is valued at $ 8 million, so great care will be required.

Atlantic Condor was built by Halifax Shipyard in  2011 and is a UT755LN class cargo vessel, of 2334 gt, 3240 dwt to serve an extendable ten year contract with Encana to support the Deep Panuke gas field. That installation has been capped and removed in 2020, and Atlantic Condor has been without work.

I do not know if the ship will return to this coast on completion of the delivery. However more new CCG lifeboats are under construction - these two are number 7 and 8 of an order of 20, so the ship may find similar work in the future.

* [ Despite the CCG's web site that asserts that the boats "weigh 75 gross tonnes" the tender documents give the weights of the boats as 52.93 tonnes and 52.336 tonnes. Actual weight at time of lift will depend on what fuel, water, stores, etc., may be on board. 

[A gross ton is a non-linear measure of volume (not weight), where traditionally 100 cu.ft = 1 gross ton. Gross tonnage is now determined by international protocol and is the product of the ship's internal volume in cubic meters, multiplied by a variable logarithmic amplification factor, or sliding scale, and is thus not solely a direct measurement. However as a relative comparative term it is still useful in describing ships sizes.]

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Comings and goings in the offshore

On February 22 the supplier Atlantic Condor sailed from Halifax for St.John's, NL where it went into drydock. Word has it that the boat will be working from St.John's. This has not been confirmed officially but I have heard it from more than one source, totally unconnected to each other.

Atlantic Condor is a UT 755 LN type supplier, built with extra methanol carrying capacity.

The vessel was built by Halifax Shipyard and completed in 2011 to service a ten year extendable contract with Encana for the Deep Panuke gas field south of Sable Island. In May 2018 Encana announced the premature shut down of the project, after the gas was found to be heavily saturated. The project had been expected to produce for 13 years. Now that it will be decommissioned different types of support vessels will be needed.

Supply vessels from the United Starters are rare in Halifax these days, so the arrival on March 3 of the HOS Renaissance was a bit unusual. Out of Port Fourchon, LA, the boat is one of the HOS MAX 300 class and normally works in the Gulf of Mexico.

This may be the first time that HOS Renaissance has been in ice and snow. If so it got a real taste of winter, passing through one storm on the way and arriving in time for another today.

 

Its call in Halifax is apparently to load deck gear to enable it to carry fibreoptic cable. A sister boat HOS Red Dawn called in Halifax in 2015 for the same reason.

Typical of the offshore supply vessel industry world wide, HOS (Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC) has not been able to find traditional offshore work for all its boats, so is taking on other types of work. HOS reported at year end 2018 a fleet of 80 boats, of which 38 were stacked. They expected no improvement in that situation in the near future.

A more detailed account of much the same material can be found in Shipfax March 3, 2019

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Atlantic Tern

Another veteran vessel working the offshore from Halifax is Atlantic Tern. It works in concert with the much newer Atlantic Condor to supply and standby the Encana's Deep Panuke gas field. Production was halted at the field May 2018, but work goes on to decommission the platform and ready it for removal.

Atlantic Tern was built in 1975 as the anchor handling tug supply vessel (AHTS)  Canmar Supplier II by Vito Steel Boat and Barge Construction Ltd of Delta, BC. First owners Dome Petroleum, through their offshore subsidiary Canmar Drilling used the boat in the Beaufort Sea. Amoco took over the debt-ridden Dome and Canmar, and eventually closed down their arctic operations. By that time the boat had been renamed Supplier II but became Canmar Supplier II again (twice) until finally sold in 1998 to the Norwegian company Remoy. They renamed it REM Supporter until selling it to the Faroe Islands operator Thor p/f in 2005.
It then became  Thor Supplier. During this time it was extensively modified with the addition of an aft facing bridge structure and raised forecastle.

In 2012 Atlantic Towing Ltd acquired the boat and renamed it Atlantic Birch II. Initially it worked as a support vessel for seismic work off Greenland, but by 2013 it was back under Canadian flag and registered as Atlantic Tern. Paired with Atlantic Condor the boats are constantly shuttling to and from the Deep Panuke site, about 250 km southeast of Halifax. Atlantic Tern appears to spend more time in the standby role, leaving Condor for the heavier loads.

Atlantic Condor was built in 2010 by Halifax Shipyard for a ten year contract with Encana. Atlantic Tern may be working on similar terms. With the shutdown of the Deep Panuke field and its 175 km long  pipeline to shore, it is expected to take until 2021 to plug the wells, and remove the topsides production structure. The pipeline will be abandoned in place. So it seems there will be work for Atlantic Tern for a few more years.

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Gas and Oil problems

Looking at Pier 9C one would be excused for thinking that all those suppliers mean a lot of activity in the oil and gas sector.

The Shell Oil offshore drilling program, expected to start up in September, is still not underway due to permit delays. Three suppliers are idle in Halifax waiting for the drill ship Stena IceMAX to arrive from the Gulf of Mexico.

 Farthest from the camera Jones Tide, then Skandi Flora are awaiting Shell's start up. Scotian Sea in the foreground is awaiting its next assignment. At right Atlantic Condor sails for Deep Panuke.

 
The third Shell supplier, Breaux Tide, is tied up at the Mobil dock in Dartmouth, so the suppliers that usually use that dock are now using Pier 9C.

Jones Tide doing trials on October 3.

All is not well off Sable Island where the two gas projects are winding down well before the end of their expected life spans.

Sable Offshore Energy Project (Exxon Mobil, Shell Canada, Imperial Oil, Mosbacher and Pengrwouth) is talking of decommissioning to start in 2017. It will be a major project to dismantle the well and production platform, and lead partner Exxon is considering Point Tupper as the base for that work.
First gas was in 1999 with an expected life of 25 years, but production has been diminishing for several years.

Meanwhile at nearby Deep Panuke, production has been off and on recently due to large quantities of water. Its first gas was in 2013 and instead of 13 years of production, the field may only have two years left. Operator Encana is now said to be considering selling the project (but who would buy it with that prognosis?)

Supply boats will still be needed for several years no matter what happens to the gas fields, but it seems unlikely that there will be actual development in oil fields beyond exploration drilling unless the price of oil goes up again.

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Atlantic Condor trials

1. Atlantic Condor returns to pier 9B this afternoon following day long trials in Bedford Basin.

2. At pier 9 B on Friday, the ship shows off her blue coloured davit.

The new supplier Atlantic Condor ran trials in Bedford Basin today. Since she was completed by Halifax Shipyard earlier this year she has had some specialized equipment fitted, including a large blue davit, in preparation for work on the Deep Panuke gas field.

Originally intended strictly as a supply vessel, it now appears he will be doing some installation work too.

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