Category Archives: Ingleside
America’s Crisis of Character :: Is something more required to ‘Make America Great Again’?
Submitted by: SL @SLandinSoCal
The MSM continues to disgust me. The MAJORITY of people affected by the disaster in Texas have NOT complained. They have been thankful and even smiling. Yet as I watch MSM, I see them repeatedly playing clips of 3 ungrateful women complaining about the conditions at the George R Brown shelter. ‘It stinks in here’, ‘I didn’t have a cot for me or my kids last night’, ‘the mayor said we didn’t have to evacuate, but he LIED’.
These people disgust me, but MSM disgusts me even more. As they have covered this catastrophic event, most likely the biggest disaster our country has experienced, they have made every attempt to politicize it and criticize the response. A challenging thing, since the response has been amazing.
The impact of this disaster is FAR greater than that of Katrina but there are very DRAMATIC contrasts both in handling the response/rescue and in the reaction of the victims.
I would love to see someone put together a video that highlights some of these differences because I think it reveals both a core strength and a core weakness that exists in our country.
The issue is that of PERSONAL CHARACTER! I believe that the majority of Americans have good character, if not great character, but there is a subset of Americans who lack good character and some who have a very poor character. My concern is that America is facing a CRISIS OF CHARACTER!
When you see neighbor helping neighbor, gratefulness in times of crisis, respect for others & others property which includes cleanliness so you don’t leave a mess for someone else, these are the results of GOOD CHARACTER.
When you see people taking advantage of others by looting, or lack of respect for others in they way they talk or by vandalizing property or leaving a mess for others to clean up, when you see ungratefulness, people expecting others to do something for them but not being willing to help others, you are seeing the results of POOR CHARACTER.
The character of the people of our country is being undermined. Good character development is no longer being taught, exampled or encourage for many. We see dramatic displays of deplorable character in the Alt Left groups of BLM and ANTIFA. They have no respect for for their fellow man. They have many negative character traits. To make matters worse, many including MSM and prominent politicians are condoning and encouraging that character. There is no positive future for a society built on poor character.
If we are truly going to “Make America Great Again”, it will take more than jobs, tax cuts and a thriving economy. It will require programs and commitment to teach and build GOOD CHARACTER in the people of our country. Each of us should strive to build the elements of good character within ourselves everyday and also to encourage others to strive for those characters within themselves.
Here’s a link to a list of good character traits to strive for: http://www.character-training.com/blog/list-of-character-traits/ …
Gulf of Mexico: Noble Energy Hires EMAS for Gunflint Project
EMAS, the operating brand of Ezra Holdings received a Letter of Agreement (LOA) from Noble Energy for the Gunflint Project in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM).
Under the terms of the agreement EMAS’s Subsea Services division, EMAS AMC has been nominated to perform the offshore installation of pipelines, umbilicals and ancillary equipment for the Gunflint Project in the Mississippi Canyon area of the US GoM in water depths in excess of 2,000 metres. The pipelines will be installed with EMAS AMC’s flagship vessel the Lewek Constellation while the EMAS Marine Base in Ingleside, Texas will be used to perform the pipe stalking and fabrication of various subsea structures.
Project preparation activities have already started and offshore works are scheduled to be carried out during 2015.
“I would like to express my sincerest appreciation to Noble Energy for their vote of confidence by awarding this important project to us,” said Mr Lionel Lee, EMAS’s Group CEO and Managing Director. “The Gunflint project is another significant milestone for us as it is a testament to the growth and current capabilities of EMAS AMC. It affirms that our combined engineering and asset capabilities, including our flagship construction vessel Lewek Constellation, are being endorsed by the industry to execute challenging subsea projects anywhere in the world. It is also the second major contract awarded to us by Noble Energy, following our successful work for the Noble Tamar Project and I look forward to working with Noble again and deliver a mutually successful outcome on Gunflint.”
The Group has secured more than US$300 million subsea contracts since the beginning of 2014, with the subsea backlog standing at more than US$1.4 billion to date.
Press Release, April 11, 2014
LEASE SALE DISPLAYS POWER OF THE GULF
A message from Executive Director Lori LeBlanc
The oil and gas industry demonstrated its confidence in the power of American energy during the federal government’s Central Gulf of Mexico lease sale held March 19 in New Orleans. In fact, a total of 50 companies submitted 380 bids, and the Department of Interior garnered $850 million in high bids for about 1.7 million acres off the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. This signals a continued strong business interest in offshore energy production.
It’s this confidence in the valuable resources of America’s Gulf that continues to drive our national and state economy, fund the U.S. government, employ hundreds of thousands of men and women across our country, and keep the lights on from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine. Here in Louisiana, we proudly serve as the gateway to the Gulf, the front door to the boundless energy potential miles off of our coast and thousands of feet under the water’s surface. We proudly do a job that other states refuse to do; a job that literally fuels America.
GEST is pleased to help promote this rebirth of the Gulf as America’s energy workhorse, as well as the thousands of men and women who go to work each day to provide power to our people.
Hats off to all of you!
Read More: Here
Shell’s Olympus on Its Way to U.S. GoM Mars Field
Shell’s massive Olympus tension leg platform (TLP) set sail from Ingleside, Texas on 14th July, for a 425 mile trek to its final home on the Mars Field in the Gulf of Mexico.
For 10 days, tugboats will transport the over 120,000 ton platform to the location where work will begin to secure the platform in place. The Olympus TLP will be moored to the seafloor by tendons grouped at each of the structure’s corners and will float in approximately 3000 feet of water.
The Olympus TLP is Shell’s sixth and largest tension leg platform and will provide process infrastructure for two of Shell’s deep water discoveries, West Boreas and South Deimos. The project also includes pipelines that will be routed through West Delta 143C, the recently installed shallow water platform.
The Olympus TLP is expected to start production in 2014, producing at a rate of 100k boe.
Heading for Ingleside,TX: Largest Heavy Transport Vessel for Largest Offshore Platform Hull
The Dockwise Vanguard, the world’s largest semisubmersible Heavy Transport Vessel (HTV) to date, safely completed its first ever float-on operation earlier this week.
The vessel, loaded with the World’s largest semisubmersible offshore platform hull, the Jack/St. Malo, is now on her maiden voyage carrying the near 56,000 metric ton hull on her deck.
The Dockwise Vanguard successfully executed the float-on exercise of the Jack/St. Malo platform hull at the Silli-Do deep hole near the Samsung Heavy Industries yard in Geoje, South Korea. “The float-on operation was precisely and safely executed as planned. It took no more than 4 hours before the cargo stood firm on her cribbing,” states Ronald Goetheer, Project Manager at Dockwise. After almost two days of sea fastening, the Dockwise Vanguard departed at sunrise on the 12th of February, and will navigate around Cape of Good Hope heading towards the Kiewit yard in Ingleside, Texas, USA, where it is expected to arrive mid-April.
Dockwise Vanguard
The Dockwise Vanguard is an innovative semisubmersible HTV that is redefining the limits of exceptional heavy marine transport. The vessel has been designed to enable operators and contractors consider opportunities for mega offshore units which were until now considered unthinkable. With the loading capacity of up to 110,000 tons, the vessel is designed to serve the top end market focusing on next generation offshore
Companies in the Oil & Gas industry can now specify much larger and heavier offshore structures, and these can be integrated at a single fabrication site. These mega structures can then be transported onboard the vessel to remote offshore locations, even in harsh climates where no commissioning facilities are available. This feature can help reduce costs and optimize the overall project. In essence, the new vessel will play an important role in the field development philosophy of Oil companies, since it will be capable of transporting fully integrated mega offshore units.
The vessel’s design is also expected to help operators and developers create value. With its capabilities, timely and risky phases of offshore projects can be managed prior to hookup and commissioning. Interface optimization, higher degree of risk mitigation, lower insurance premiums, improved schedule flexibility, and reduced time-to-production – as well as reduced offshore man-hours – are a few examples of opportunities. In addition, the vessel’s advanced technical capabilities enable it to offer a completely new service: offshore dry-docking.
Increasingly, FPSOs are being located in remote areas that lack support infrastructure. In this circumstance, an offshore dry-docking service can be specially valuable. The Dockwise Vanguard’s FPSO dry-docking capacity offers inspection, maintenance, and repair opportunities (amongst others) at different conditional modes. The FPSO could remain connected to its mooring and turret system while keeping the riser systems intact, with the possibility of continuing limited production. In this scenario, the FPSO will still be able to freely weathervane around the turret mooring, with controlled heading made possible by the vessel’s propulsion system. The vessels capabilities completely avoid or significantly reduce downtime.
Innovative Design
The vessel is specifically designed to exceed the Oil & Gas industry’s expectations. “From the drawing board, we decided to engineer a truly exceptional vessel unlike others in the market,” states Michel Seij, Manager Engineering at Dockwise.
The Dockwise Vanguard is engineered to surpass current heavy marine transport limitations. The vessel’s deck covers a surface of 275 m x 70 m (902 ft x 230 ft) and is equipped with movable casings. In addition, the accommodation block and navigation bridge are located on the extreme starboard side. The vessel has no bow, and this, along with other design features, gives the vessel a unique appearance.
In addition, the vessel has a dedicated design for ultra-heavy units weighing up to 110,000 metric tons. Optimized deck strength and extreme wide-load capabilities are at the heart of the design philosophy; as are the vessel’s stability characteristics. It is equipped with a 27 MW redundant propulsion system consisting of two fixed propellers at the aft and two retractable azimuth thrusters at the bow. These can reach a maximum transit speed of 14 knots, which translates to average service speeds of 11-13 knots with cargo. In addition, the vessel allows for 16 m (53 ft) water above deck, accommodating cargoes with a higher draft.
Largest Heavy Transport Vessel for Largest Offshore Platform Hull| Offshore Energy Today.
VIDEO: Shell’s Olympus TLP Arrival to Texas
After traveling more than 18,000 miles from South Korea to South Texas, Shell’s Olympus hull arrives safely in the U.S. Watch the arrival caught on film.
In the following video, see the Shell’s Olympus TLP hull arrive in Texas following the long journey from South Korea. The approximately 32,500 metric ton main body of the Olympus TLP, arrived in Texas two weeks ago.
The installation of the topsides will now take place before the TLP departs for its final location on the Mars Field in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Mars Field, owned by Shell (71.5%) and BP (28.5%), and operated by Shell, continues to contribute to the Gulf of Mexico’s position as a critical component of the US energy supply. Discovered in 1989 and brought onto production in 1996, the Mars Field is considered one of the largest resource basins in the Gulf of Mexico. The site for the Olympus TLP, known as the Mars B development, is located about 130-miles south of New Orleans in the Mississippi Canyon and lies in approximately 3000 feet of water.
The Olympus TLP, Shell’s sixth and largest tension leg platform, will also provide process infrastructure for two of Shell’s deep water discoveries, West Boreas and South Deimos.
VIDEO of Shell’s Olympus TLP Arrival to Texas| Offshore Energy Today.
USA: Pangea LNG Seeking Approvals for Corpus Christi Project
Pangea LNG Holdings announced that it has begun the process of seeking approvals necessary to build a liquefied natural gas export facility on Corpus Christi Bay in South Texas.
Pangea has filed an application with the U.S. Department of Energy seeking authority to export up to eight million metric tons per year of liquefied natural gas to all current and future countries with which the U.S. has a Free Trade Agreement and intends to quickly file a similar application for LNG exports to any country with which the U.S. does not have a Free Trade Agreement in effect.
The project is located in the city of Ingleside on the La Quinta Ship Channel which is part of the Port of Corpus Christi. The project will be known as South Texas LNG Export.
South Texas LNG Export will be located on a portion of a 550-acre site which includes half a mile of frontage on the federally-maintained deepwater ship channel. Pangea has had the site under option since June. A separate pipeline project would connect the LNG plant to the extensive interstate and intrastate natural gas transmission pipeline network in South Texas.
Pangea LNG is an energy project and investment company involved in the development of LNG liquefaction and storage projects around the globe including an offshore floating LNG liquefaction project in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
John Godbold, project director for Pangea LNG, said an intensive project feasibility and preliminary design process is now underway on the South Texas project. The assessment is being conducted by CB&I, a leading international engineering, procurement and construction company.
The South Texas LNG Export project will require federal, state and local regulatory approval. The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the lead agency in the permitting process. If this process moves forward on schedule the South Texas LNG terminal could be in operation by 2018.
Kathleen Eisbrenner, Pangea LNG’s chief executive officer, said, “We expect there to be several successful LNG export projects on the Texas Coast in the coming years because of the large new natural gas reserves in North America. Exporting LNG will help stabilize U.S. natural gas prices, sustain drilling and production jobs in South Texas, and stimulate investment in developing additional gas reserves.”
The South Texas project is the second LNG liquefaction project being developed by Pangea LNG companies. Levant LNG Marketing, a Pangea subsidiary, completed an extensive pre-FEED (preliminary front end engineering design), is finalizing commercial agreements and will start FEED engineering shortly on the Tamar Project which will export LNG from the Tamar and Dalit fields in the Eastern Mediterranean, 60 miles offshore from Israel.
That facility will be a permanently moored offshore floating natural gas liquefaction vessel with onboard LNG storage. The self-contained operation will be the first floating LNG export project in the Mediterranean basin. A final investment decision on the Tamar Project is expected by the second half of 2013.
USA: Pangea LNG Seeking Approvals for Corpus Christi Project LNG World News.
Ingleside,TX: Shell’s Olympus Hull Begins Journey to US Gulf Coast
Shell Offshore Inc.’s (Shell) Olympus hull, the approximately 32,500 metric ton main body of the Olympus TLP, departed from South Korea to begin its two month journey to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
After nearly 4 million man hours and a peak of approximately 1,300 workers on-site, construction of the Olympus hull was completed in November 2012. The hull will be transported from South Korea to Ingleside, TX on Dockwise’s world-class Blue Marlin marine vessel, a semi-submersible heavy lift ship specifically designed to transport larger equipment above the ship’s deck. The hull is expected to reach Ingleside, Texas in early 2013 where installation of the topsides will take place before the TLP departs for its final location on the Mars Field in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Mars Field, owned by Shell (71.5%) and BP (28.5%), and operated by Shell, continues to contribute to the Gulf of Mexico’s position as a critical component of the US energy supply. Discovered in 1989 and brought onto production in 1996, the Mars Field is considered one of the largest resource basins in the Gulf of Mexico. The site for the Olympus TLP, known as the Mars B development, is located about 130-miles south of New Orleans in the Mississippi Canyon and lies in approximately 3000 feet of water.
The Olympus TLP, Shell’s sixth and largest tension leg platform, will also provide process infrastructure for two of Shell’s deep water discoveries, West Boreas and South Deimos. The Mars B development is the first project of its kind to expand an existing deep water Gulf of Mexico oil field. A combination of factors produced this growth, including improved understanding of the reservoir and recovery potential due to advanced seismic and modeling technologies, and new discoveries in the Mars Field.
Subsea World News – Shell’s Olympus Hull Begins Journey to US Gulf Coast.
- Shell’s Olympus Hull on Its Way to U.S. Gulf Coast (worldmaritimenews.com)
- Canyon Offshore’s Olympic Triton Returns to the Gulf of Mexico (mb50.wordpress.com)
Continents of the World
Mb50's "Liquid Mud" Rant 