Support Ships conference 2019

7th Jan 2019

SeaQuest will be a major sponsor of the Support Ships Conference 2019 in London from February 19 to 21: the only dedicated forum for the naval support and logistics community.

SeaQuest shall be present in the event's exhibition space and its senior management will be available to meet our friends, existing navy clients and potential new navy clients to share our expertise in the naval support ship newbuilding supervision: SeaQuest has recently supervised the construction of four Tide-Class vessels for UK RFA and HNoMS Maud for Norway’s NDMA built at Daewoo, South Korea, and is presently in charge of plan approval and supervision of the Maritime Sustainment Capability vessel under construction at Hyundai for the New Zealand Defence Force.

 

SeaQuest performance in 2018

1st Jan 2019

The year 2018 has been very challenging for the marine industry but, thanks to strategic vision, foresight and sterling reputation for hard work and service to clients, SeaQuest was able to tide over such difficult times, venturing in new fields and technologically advanced novel projects, undertaking pioneering work for future sustainability, entering a niche market and creating reputation for itself as a unique Marine Project Consultancy firm.

SeaQuest had the vision to enter the Naval Vessels Construction Supervision market in early 2012, much before the advent of the crisis in the commercial shipbuilding and marine sector.
We started working on the four Military Approach Reach & Sustainability (MARS) tankers for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) of MoD UK in August 2013, with 3D design review, and over a period of 5 years, by 31 May 2018, all the four vessels have been delivered and are now being progressively inducted in service, after undergoing extensive test and trials within the UK Navy Auxiliary Fleet. The entire project took nearly 8 million manhours and was completed with no major safety incident.

On 16 November 2018, we also delivered the Logistic Support Vessel to the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA). The project started in 2015 and was completed in 4 years and 2.2 million manhours, including extensive sea trials, with an impeccable safety record. The NDMA handed over the vessel to the Royal Norwegian Navy in occasion of the Acceptance Off Contract.

In 2017 we started the Plan Approval of the Military Sustainment Capability, Enhanced Polar Class Naval Ship for the New Zealand Navy. The steel cutting took place in January 2018, the construction in HHI yard is progressing very well and the vessel is scheduled to be launched in April 2019.

The steel cutting of the 1,800 RoPax Ferry for Algerie Ferries (ENTMV) took place on 20 November 2018 and SeaQuest site office was officially opened on the same day. The Plan Approval of more than 50% of drawings was done in less than 8 weeks to allow the yard to meet the targeted steel cutting date.

The year 2018 has also seen the opening of the SeaQuest site offices for the two Minicape, Polar Code compliant, ice-class bulk carriers for the Estonian shipowner Platano Eesti, under construction at Shanghai Shipyard Chongming and Changzing facilities, and for the eight Newcastlemax bulk carriers for the Norwegian owners 2020 Bulkers built at New Times Shipyard.
In both cases, SeaQuest had been selected to do the plan approval as well, and for the Newcastlemax project we also carried out the technical contractual negotiations.

On the Gas market segment, SeaQuest has been selected to provide its marine project management services for 200 MMscf CNG Carrier, the Global Energy Ventures (GEV) Compressed Natural Gas shipbuilding project. GEV’s Optimum Ship is the next generation of Marine CNG storage and the result of two decades of development. Optimum ship design maximizes the amount of CNG that can be stored within the hull of a ship.
Following the basic design completion, the prototype testing and the shipyard shortlisting, GEV has appointed SeaQuest to assist in finalizing the technical specification and to perform the plan approval. During the first quarter of 2019, the team will finalize all technical and commercial discussions and the project schedule, based on a firm four CNG 200 Optimum ships order with options for two+two ships.

SeaQuest has forged ahead with the StandShip 95k DWT Post Panamax bulk carrier specification, design, model testing and from 2019 we are ready to offer our clients a best-suited product.

In 2018 we delivered 7 ships and expect to deliver 11 ships in 2019: while the number of delivered ships has reduced from previous years, we have succeeded in entering new markets and opened new vistas for our company.

On the QA side, we upgraded our certification from ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001:2015: we are among the very few top-notch marine consulting firms to acquire this certification.
The dedication of our professional staff and the vision and drive of SeaQuest's management will ensure that we will come out very strong in the future and thrive even in difficult market conditions.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all SQ members for the hard work and dedication and wish better prospects in the coming years.

At the helm….
Jan Andersson
CEO/Managing Director