Get ready—the world’s largest semi-submersible crane vessel (SSCV) is about to hit the high seas. Sleipnir, which is named after the Norse god Odin’s eight-legged stallion, is ready for sea trials, and will enter into service for Heerema Marine Contractors soon afterward. The SSCV, which was recently completed at Sembcorp Marine’s Tuas Boulevard Yard in… Read more »
Production of “West Texas Light” is surging, and now the Permian Basin’s newest kind of oil is headed overseas. As production exceeds the demand of US refiners, exports are expected to jump. Oil companies have sought to separate lighter and less sulfurous crude from West Texas and New Mexico wells, in order to maintain the… Read more »
Earlier this month, Kobelco Cranes unveiled an impressive new crawler crane in their hometown of Houston. The CK 3300G-2 crane, which was developed in three variants for the company’s American and overseas markets, is now the largest model in Kobelco’s multi-purpose crawler crane series. Company officials say this crane should look pretty familiar to operators… Read more »
In June of last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking which notified employers of several impending changes to its rules governing crane operator certifications. After weighing feedback from industry stakeholders, OSHA published its final ruling a few months later in November. Under the terms of its… Read more »
With oil production in the Permian Basin booming at an unprecedented pace, several different companies are competing to build the much-needed pipelines that will carry all that crude oil to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The San Antonio-based company Epic Midstream Holdings, for example, was formed in 2017 with the express purpose of building and… Read more »
Construction on the future home of the Texas Rangers reached an important milestone last month, when the largest American-made conventional crawler crane ever built was erected in the infield of Globe Life Field. The Manitowac 31,000—a crane weighing 3,000 tons that is capable of lifting 5 million pounds—will be tasked with installing the new stadium’s… Read more »
With recent estimates from the United States Geological Survey suggesting there are more than 46 billion barrels of oil buried in the shale formations of the Permian Basin, there’s no end to the region’s historic oil boom in sight. And while the stunning increase in oil production has been great for energy companies, it has… Read more »
Earlier this week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation will award $1.5 billion in grant funding for 91 infrastructure projects in 49 states and the District of Columbia. The grant funding is being provided through the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) program, which was formerly known… Read more »
Business is booming in the oil fields of the Permian Basin, and construction crews in Texas are working hard to expand the state’s oil transportation infrastructure in response to the surge in production. There are at least three new pipelines under construction that will carry crude oil from the Permian Basin to refineries on the… Read more »
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) has invested heavily in the state’s highway infrastructure in recent years, and now it will receive some financial assistance for further improvements from Washington. After exhausting its annual allotment of federal funding toward highway construction projects, the DOTD is slated to receive an additional $80 million in… Read more »
