 13 - 19 December 2000 |
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Malta Dry Docks wins first FPSO Conversion Contract Malta Dry Docks has been awarded a contract by Brovig-RDS of the UK, for the conversion of the M.T. Northia to a Floating Production Storage and Offloading unit to be based in the Isis field off the coast of Tunisia. The contract is the first major oil and gas industry project to be undertaken by the yard for nearly 20 years. MDD will be working with Kvaerner of the UK and Expro of Canada who have designed and built the top-sides oil and gas production plant. The work will commence on 1 February 2001. MDD has put together a group of international experts to assist in the preparation of the winning bid and who will now work with MDD to execute and deliver the project. These were Poseidon Maritime of Aberdeen Scotland and Petromaritime Consulting of Monaco. Joseph Bonnici, Minister of Economic Services, said This is a very important project for MDD. A new approach has been taken and has paid off, however the delivery of the project on time and on budget are the key items now and everyone, the workforce, unions and management have to pull together to ensure that this project is a success" John Cassar White Chairman of MDD explained, “This project marks a turning point for MDD and is immensely important for the future. MDD has beaten off competition from 32 shipyards to win this business so the eyes of our competition will be watching our performance with great interest. Everyone at the company has to be fully committed to the successful delivery of the project and I have assurances that the workforce will rise to the challenge and demonstrate that MDD can deliver.3" Chief Executive Peter Moore commented, “We are very pleased that Brovig-RDS have placed this contract with us. We successfully convinced them through the bidding process that MDD was capable of undertaking this type of work and that it will be executed on time and within budget. This project marks the first success in our new strategic approach to the oil and gas market and is a milestone in the history of MDD. We are well positioned to build on this success but everyone workforce unions management and government must continue to work together to ensure that we continue to improve performance and that MDD is viewed as serious competition in the international ship repair and conversion business." The vessel for conversion is the M.T. Northia which is an ex-Shell vessel operating in the North Sea as a shuttle tanker. She was built in 1971 and is 280 metres long 41 metres wide and is 133500 tonnes dead-weight. The conversion work will take place in Number 6 Dock between February and April 2001. | ||||||
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