KNOT Develops Business Relationship with the Repsol Group
January 24, 2013
On January 15, Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers AS (KNOT; headquarters: Haugesund, Norway), of which NYK has a 50 percent share, delivered Carmen Knutsen, a new 157,000 DWT offshore shuttle tanker built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, to Repsol S.A. (headquarters: Madrid, Spain) under time-charter contract for five years plus an option for crude oil transport off Brazil.
Furthermore, the KNOT Group has entered into a new time-charter contract with Repsol Sinopec Brasil S.A. (RSB; headquarters: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) a joint venture company between Repsol and Sinopec, for 10 years plus an option for a new built dynamic positioning 152,000 DWT offshore shuttle tanker* to service RSB for its Santos and Campos basin off Brazil. The vessel will be delivered to RSB in the third quarter of 2014.
The vessel will be built at COSCO in Zhoushan and equipped with a bow-loading system.** The tanker will also be a dynamic-positioning system class 2*** vessel.
The Knutsen and NYK Group will continue their efforts to provide stable and economical energy-transport services.
Related press release: “NYK's Offshore Shuttle Tanker Business Inks First Time-Charter Contract,” August 9, 2011, https://www.nyk.com/english/release/1414/NE_110809.html
*Shuttle tanker
Also called a “floating pipeline,” a shuttle tanker loads crude oil from floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) units in deepwater fields while maintaining a certain distance in the ocean, and then transports the oil to crude-oil storage units or petroleum storage stations on land.
**Bow-loading system
A system to carry out cargo operations along the bow of a shuttle tanker without contact between the tanker and the offloading unit (mainly FPSO units) in harsh sea conditions. Such a system also allows cargo hoses to be connected or disconnected from offloading units easier than usual so that the shuttle tanker may evacuate quickly in case of an emergency.
***Dynamic-positioning system class 2
A more redundant dynamic-positioning system that duplicates all equipment and wiring so that no single fault in an active system will cause the system to fail.
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