Cover Story oceanic If space is the final frontier, then the Arctic is the toughest
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n 1969, Apollo 11 travelled to the moon’s Sea of Tranquility and safely returned to Earth. The same year, the icebreaking tanker SS Manhattan traveled the Northwest Passage to the Beaufort Sea, took on one barrel of oil and returned to the Atlantic. Last month, commercial transportation to the International Space Station began. Other than northern resupply, commercial transportation of offshore oil in the Arctic has yet to start. It might not be rocket science, but it is through innovation, research and development of new Arctic technologies that safe, sustainable exploration, exploitation and transportation of resources in the Arctic will be realized.
Icebreaker experiments by Oceanic Oceanic Consulting Corporation has been on the front line of that work since the start. Founded in 1993, the company aimed to take advantage of the facilities available in St. John’s to provide contract research to the international marketplace on how marine structures perform in their environments. One of its earliest projects was to help Saint John Shipbuilding Limited to develop an icebreaking navigational aids tender for the Canadian Coast Guard. Now nearing the end of its twentieth year providing contract research, Oceanic has helped develop icebreaking drillships for the high Arctic, ice protection structures for the Beaufort and Caspian Seas, offloading systems for operations in ice off the coast of Russia’s Sakhalin Island, moorings in ice for Bohai Bay in China and many other challenging project technologies. 2
With a business relationship that spans nearly twenty years, Oceanic was acquired by the J.D. Irving, Limited, Group of Companies in June of 2011. Oceanic is now the starting point of a value chain that will see innovative research and development become technological realities both within the family of Irving companies and through its international clientele.
Fleetway designed Fogo Island Ferry Oceanic may be the start of the innovation chain, however it is not the end. Oceanic’s parent company, Fleetway Inc., is Canada’s largest naval architecture firm. No stranger to the challenges of ice, Fleetway has a history of innovative design. Growing out of Saint John Naval Systems, the firm has in its portfolio the design of the Canadian Patrol Frigate and its current modernization program as well as the conversion engineering of the scientific research vessel CCG Amundsen. Closer to home, Fleetway has recently completed the design of the new Fogo Island ferry. With research support from Oceanic, the ferry is designed to operate year round on the northeast coast in ice and open water. Irving Shipbuilding Inc., another company along the innovation sea route, is Canada’s largest shipbuilding company. Building a
Module installation at Irving Shipbuilding broad range of ships for both Government and the private sector, it continues to play a pivotal role in Canada’s Arctic. As an integrator, drawing on the innovations of companies within the group and from outside, Irving Shipbuilding will be building Canada’s Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships, an essential part of protecting Canada’s sovereignty in the North. Irving Shipbuilding is no stranger to building innovative ships for the harsh conditions of Canada’s Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Offshore support vessels like Atlantic Hawk and Atlantic Eagle were built by Irving Shipbuilding for Atlantic Towing Limited, another J.D. Irving company. Atlantic Towing knows first-hand the need for innovative research and development of Arctic technology. Tasked with ice management, including towing icebergs weighing hundreds of thousands of tonnes, these are the people that bring innovation to reality and reality to innovation because what doesn’t work for Atlantic Towing is the next starting point for Oceanic. Innovation in the Arctic is like the Northwest Passage – it’s a journey, not a destination and when you get to the end, you start it all over again. But it’s not rocket science. It is far more challenging.
Ice management on the Atlantic Hawk November 2012
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