The Arkutun Dagi Jack Up

We thought you would be interested in the latest video of the record breaking Jack-up of the Arkutun Dagi topside in Korea.

The fascinating video shows exactly how ALE used the innovative Mega Jack to lift the record breaking weight to a height of 24m. The topside was lifted and additional assembly work was carried out which added the additional weight to the structure that on its completion weighed 43,475t.

The design of the Mega Jack keeps working at height and worker / machinery interaction to an absolute minimum, and enables any readings and adjustments to be made via a control hub.

Exxon Neftegas Limited awarded ALE ‘Contractor of the Year' for 'Excellence in Safety Performance’ on the project. The award was presented at the annual Sakhalin 1 Contractor SSHE Forum in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia last September.

The piece will become part of the Arkutun Dagi field off the east coast of Russia; the development is expected to be the largest oil and gas production platform in Russia. The first oil is scheduled to be produced later this year.

Kees Claasen said,

“With safety at the core of what we do at ALE, we are honored to have received this award. Gaining recognition for our safe working, particularly on a record breaking project shows the value the team put on safety. As with everything we do at ALE, it is a team effort, and with a strong team we can achieve great things.”

For more information on this project and other projects ALE are involved with please see the website

New North Sea coal could power Britain for centuries

There’s been some good news from the North Sea - scientists have announced that they’ve found enough coal under the sea to potentially power Britain for centuries to come.

Dermot Roddy, former professor of energy at Newcastle University, told the Sunday Times that scientists believe there could be between three trillion and 23 trillion tonnes of coal buried under the North Sea, an amount that’s thousands of times greater than all the oil and gas we have taken out so far.

“If we could extract just a few per cent of that coal it would be enough to power the UK for decades or centuries," he said.

The first exploratory boreholes are expected to be sunk by the end of 2014.

Experts believe that this discovery could be ‘game changing’ – and Richard Selley , Professor of petroleum exploration at Imperial College London is one of them.

"A decade ago the talk was all about peak oil and gas but that has gone out of the window," he said.
"The big game-changer is seismic imaging, which has become so sensitive that we can now pinpoint the 'sweet spots' where shale gas, oil and coal are to be found.

"There have also been huge improvements in horizontal drilling . . . and in hydraulic fracturing [fracking], which lets us get the gas and oil out of rock. If we put aside the green issues, then in perhaps 10 years we could be self-sufficient in gas and possibly oil too."

At T Ward Shipping, we think this is exciting news...watch this space!