Daily Archives: February 16, 2020

2/14/2020

LONDON - The BorWin3 offshore wind grid connection project in the German North Sea has been successfully handed over to the German/Dutch transmission grid operator TenneT.

The 900 MW project converts three-phase electric power generated by offshore wind farms into direct current and transmits it 160 kilometers to shore into the German national grid, from where it will now supply more than one million of the countrys households with clean electricity from wind power.

Petrofac, in consortium with Siemens, were awarded the project contract in 2014, with responsibility for the engineering, procurement, construction, transport and installation of the platform offshore. The platform was installed in October 2018 and started to transmit power in August 2019.

Petrofac has an expanding track record in offshore wind. In addition to the BorWin3 offshore grid connection, other projects include the Hollandse Kust Zuid (HKZ) Alpha and Beta platforms in the Dutch North Sea and a turnkey power system for the Galloper offshore wind farm off the coast of Suffolk. A Preferred Supplier Agreement was also recently announced with SSE Renewables for the Seagreen wind farm project, which once constructed will be the largest in Scotland.

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Petrofac hands over BorWin3 offshore wind grid connection project to TenneT - WorldOil

The wind industry put on a brave face yesterday as the Trump administration disclosed it wouldn't complete permitting for the nation's first offshore wind farm until after the 2020 election a delay of a year and a half from earlier targets.

The American Wind Energy Association praised the administration for offering "clarity" to the industry. So did Vineyard Wind LLC, the developer behind the 84-turbine proposal off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Mass., even though it will now miss its most optimistic operation target of 2022.

"Any delay is a challenge," said Laura Morton, senior director of policy and regulatory affairs for offshore at AWEA. But she said having a schedule in place albeit one that the industry hopes will accelerate before the end of the year is important.

Still, some were skeptical about the extended delay given the Trump administration's mixed messaging on the wind sector.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management acknowledged Monday in the president's budget proposal a need for more funding to meet the demands on its renewable energy shop as proposed offshore wind projects continue to stack up.

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The Business Network for Offshore Wind later called the move an encouraging sign that the White House values the offshore wind sector.

But President Trump in a speech Monday in New Hampshire repeated his belief that "windmills" kill too many birds.

"There is almost never a unified voice coming from the administration," said Anthony Logan, senior wind analyst at Wood Mackenzie.

The "true intentions" of the administration, he added, remain murky.

The Trump administration appeared gung-ho on offshore wind when Secretary Ryan Zinke helmed the Interior Department, but his replacement, David Bernhardt, has been far more restrained.

Vineyard Wind's Massachusetts project was expected to be the first to secure federal permitting last July. But BOEM stalled the final environmental review, saying a study of the cumulative impacts on fisheries from a potentially extensive wind industry was needed before Vineyard could move forward (Greenwire, July 18, 2019).

Vineyard Wind lease area. Vineyard wind

BOEM acting chief Walter Cruickshank later shushed fears of political opposition to wind, saying the administration had continued to be supportive of an all-of-the-above energy approach.

Cruickshank told the offshore wind industry at a conference in October that a draft of the cumulative analysis should be done by early 2020 and that it would smooth the way for future projects (Climatewire, Oct. 23, 2019).

Concerns about the study linger.

It was late in the game for the agency to realize that the many offshore projects in the pipeline would have a cumulative impact, said Logan of Wood Mackenzie.

"The idea that they have to go back and do this raises some serious questions of intent and competence," he said.

And given the level of expertise and experience at BOEM, the issue doesn't seem to be one of competence, he added.

Tracey Moriarty, a spokeswoman for BOEM, said the new timeline for Vineyard represents the agency's desire to take a "robust" look at the impacts from wind energy and incorporate new information, such as additional state offshore wind targets.

Interior spokeswoman Carol Danko did not directly answer a question about pushing the Vineyard decision until after the presidential election. She noted that an expanded cumulative analysis is a direct response to stakeholder input. It would incorporate changes that Vineyard has made to its construction plans, such as an intention to build larger turbines than were first proposed.

Aside from political questions, developers have lined up to fill a new market created by state commitments to buy offshore wind. And BOEM's new schedule inspired scolding from those concerned about the pipeline of projects affected by delays.

Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, called the delay "disappointing."

"Regulatory delays especially of a new industry could open the door to unexpected and unintended bottlenecks and holdups," Milito said.

But Milito also nodded to the "complexity" of BOEM's undertaking and the need for an environmental review that could stand up to litigation "filed in an attempt to block the ascendant offshore wind industry."

Logan of Wood Mackenzie said projections for the Vineyard project remain positive despite the delay.

"It's more challenging, but they have a very talented team over there," he said.

The company should be able to hold on to industrial tax credits and will benefit from the continually falling costs of development.

Vineyard had initially signaled that the permitting delay could threaten its project but has since walked back on that concern. It continues to seek offshore wind opportunities in the Northeast and recently won an offshore wind contract with Connecticut.

The wider market also retains a positive outlook, said Jeff Grybowski, former CEO of Deepwater Wind, the company that built the Block Island pilot project, the first U.S. offshore wind installment.

Grybowski said he has yet to see anything from the Trump administration that would make him think the market was at risk, a point of view he called somewhat "contrarian."

BOEM appears to be trying to proceed with caution, he said.

"It's better to make some early compromises that might cost you time or money," Grybowski said, "if it increases your chances of success in the long run."

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RENEWABLE ENERGY: Offshore wind: What are Trump's 'true intentions'? - E&E News

2/11/2020

HOUSTON BP has awarded Oceaneering a contract to provide comprehensive riserless light well intervention (RLWI) services offshore Angola in Blocks 18 and 31. In connection with this contract, Oceaneering has agreed to provide personnel and equipment related to its RLWI services, ROVs, survey services, and communication services integrated onto a chartered multi-purpose vessel. These services are contracted to support a multi-well campaign designed to include mechanical well interventions, well stimulations, and tree change-outs. Oceaneering's work scope also includes project management, engineering, systems integration, offshore management, and project crews. Offshore operations are scheduled to begin in the second quarter, with completion anticipated in the late fall of 2020.

This contract follows a successful intervention campaign by Oceaneering in the same region in late 2018 and early 2019 for this supermajor and its co-developers. Jim O'Leary, VP Wells, Africa and Middle East, BP, stated, "Oceaneering has a proven track record of providing us with a much-needed RLWI rapid response solution to help restore and improve production in Angola. We look forward to working with Oceaneering on this campaign."

Rod Larson, president and CEO of Oceaneering, stated, "We appreciate BP's continued trust in our ability to provide them with reliable, cost effective, ultra-deepwater intervention solutions in Angola. The award of this project reinforces Oceaneering's position as a leading RLWI service provider in deepwater environments. This is the latest example that performing RLWI from a multi-purpose vessel is a viable, more efficient alternative for production enhancement compared to performing similar services from a rig or purpose-built intervention vessel."

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BP awards Oceaneering two light well intervention projects offshore Angola - WorldOil

The test site of the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) will be one of the scenarios for the development of a project to develop predictive maintenance in offshore wind farms.

The project, Operation & Maintenance tools integrating accurate structural health in offshore energy (WATEREYE), is expected to allow wind farm operators to accurately predict future needs for operations and maintenance to reduce costs, and increase the annual offshore wind energy production through accurate structural health monitoring and smart control of the offshore wind farms.

The project can lead to cost reductions of up to 30% of the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE), PLOCAN said.

The project partners are CEIT, project coordinator and leader of the work package which is in charge of smart sensors, communications and mobile platform; Delft Dynamics, who will develop a mobile platform (drone) for the data acquisition; and Semantic Web Company, who will monitor the date use, by optimising the acquisition, storage and access.

Furthermore, the following partners are involved in the project: TuDelft, which is the work package leader in charge of structural health monitor, diagnostic, prognostic and turbine control tools, and will develop and simulate load-limiting fault-tolerant control algorithms at wind tower; and Sintef Energy Research, who will lead the wind farm control and management as well as the integration of wind turbine control tools into wind farm management and will also lead the wind farm operation and maintenance validation. On the other side, Sintef industry will perform corrosion tests and develop the advanced corrosion models.

Flanders Make will contribute with the development of a 3D map of the wall thickness loss features and the development and validation of diagnosis, prognosis algorithms for wind turbine structure; Cobra will lead the definition of the use cases, requirements and system architecture and will contribute in the integration and validation of the developed tools and leading the exploitation plan; and PLOCAN will lead the integration and validation of the developed innovations in a real sea conditions site, the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands, besides being the responsible of project communication and dissemination of the results.

WATEREYE is funded through the European Unions Horizon 2020 programme.

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Offshore Wind Predicitive Maintenance Project Kicks Off - Offshore WIND

SINGAPORE - Keppel Corp said on Friday (Feb 14) that its associate company Floatel International and Oslo-listed Prosafe have dropped their bid to merge in a combination that would have created the world's largest offshore accommodation provider.

The decision comes after Norway competition authorities blocked the proposed merger in October 2019. Keppel had said then said that Floatel and Prosafe were assessing whether to appeal the decision.

In a regulatory update on Thursday (Feb 13), Keppel said Floatel and Prosafe "were of the view that any near-term completion of a value-enhancing merger was unlikely".

The merger would have combined Prosafe's existing nine semi-submersible vessels, and options for two newbuild semi-submersible vessels with Floatel's five semi-submersible vessels, Prosafe said in an announcement at the time.

Keppel said the discontinuation of the proposed deal is not expected to have a material impact on its net tangible assets or earnings per share for the current financial year.

Keppel Offshore & Marine, a unit of the Keppel Corp, owns a 49.92 per cent stake in Floatel via its wholly-owned subsidiary Fels Offshore.

Fels Offshore's resultant shareholding in the post-merger Prosafe would have been about 22 per cent.

Keppel shares were trading up one cent or 0.15 per cent at $6.74 at 10:30am on Friday.

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Keppel associate drops merger bid to create offshore housing giant - The Straits Times

GROTON Years before the Connecticut Port Authority approved a $157 million deal to redevelop State Pier in New London as a staging area for offshore wind, and before a $22 billion submarine contract was awarded to Groton-based Electric Boat, a growing ecosystem of smaller companies have been setting up shop in the region, hoping to service the wind and maritime industries.

Were a bunch of guys who started a company based on maritime [technology and data]. Many of us are former submariners and we sought to do things with autonomous vehicles that we used to do with submarines with the idea that if we did it right we could save 99 percent of the cost of things that we used to do, said Mike Connor, chief executive officer of ThayerMahan, during a roughly ninety minute conversation at their offices in Groton on February 3.

The brainchild of two retired submariners one, Richard Hine, the chief operating-financial officer, with significant business experience outside of the Navy, and the other, Connor, a thirty-five year Navy veteran and former Commander of Submarine Forces ThayerMahan was started just over four years ago.

The two founders started the company in a spare bedroom in Mystic creating undersea solar-powered monitoring systems that could collect and transmit data.

Basically we tow sensors around the ocean. Some of them are electronic, some are acoustic. These [host platforms] are energy-harvesting vehicles. They get propulsion from wave action, said Connor. In my old world, the tow vehicle was a $3 billion submarine. [Our system] doesnt require any food. It doesnt require any repair parts. No one gets sick. No one has a family emergency and has to go back to port. It goes out there on the ocean for 90 days at a time.

The company expanded, first into a two-room space in Mystic and then, almost two and a half years ago, into its current 14,000-square-foot warehouse and lab near the airport in Groton. A further expansion is planned for this spring.

In the meantime, with the offshore wind industry dropping into the region, Connor and Hine recognized a new market for ThayerMahan technology.

On January 30, just a few days before our visit to ThayerMahan, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with rsted and Eversource to provide a wide variety of possible services everything from environmental monitoring and seabed surveys, to offshore operations and maintenance, to real estate and construction consulting.

The agreement represents a kind of starting line, a marker, for onshore small businesses that want to work with offshore wind, said Connor, in a press release.

This MOU is yet another commitment, in writing, that offshore wind will grow Connecticuts economy and that the joint venture is truly interested in working with our local developers and inventors, he said.

I retired from the Navy out of Norfolk in fall 2015. Rich was living in the Norfolk area. We decided [start a business] in the summer of 2015. I knew I was going to retire from the Navy and had to decide to do something or nothing and I decided to do something, said Connor. Rich had spent decades in real estate development and was looking for a change, so basically over a golf weekend, we decided to go into business together. Weve been friends for 30-plus years.

We served together on our first submarine the U.S.S. Pittsburgh in the 1980s, added Hine.

So, when I retired from the Navy, my wife said, youve been dragging me around the world for 35 years. I want to live in Mystic when we retire. So we did . But it turns out, as far as the state, as far as the details of going from that to setting up shop here, the state was very helpful with some incentives and loans. Rich is an expert in working with the state, said Connor.

The two worked with Connecticut Innovations, the states venture capital arm, as well as Connecticut Small Business Express and CTNext, which provided start-up and equipment loans and grants.

The states been a wonderful asset for us. We joke, everyone says Connecticuts a terrible place to do business, you should think about Alabama, Mississippi or South Carolina, but for us in terms of local infrastructure and organizations that are related to the sub-sea domain, and state support for what were doing, its been a fantastic place to locate, said Hine.

Connor said the talent base in southeastern Connecticut is deep due to the presence of Electric Boat and other maritime-related organizations.

[Electric Boat] brings in top flight engineers from all over the country and they have 22,000 employees and 6,000-7,000 engineers and, just out of a body of engineers that size and just sort of normal churn, theres a lot of people. And they just happen to understand maritime things, sonar things, communications because thats all part of what weve been doing, he said.

The robotics industry is kind of centered in southeastern New England if you take from Boston to Groton to Woods Hole and make a triangle, theres a lot of assets and organizations, the Coast Guard R&D center, UWDC [Undersea Warfighting Development Center], the sub base, Electric Boat, UConn, URI, Woods Hole. So its a great place to draw people from, Hine said.

Revolution Wind, the first announced project by rsted and Eversource a 304-megawatt wind farm planned halfway between Long Island and Marthas Vineyard is scheduled to come online in 2023.

Its just one of many planned and plausible projects and business opportunities related to energy, security, fisheries and the environment along the east coast from New England to South Carolina, which could be based out of Connecticut.

According to a 2019 report by the University of Delawares Special Initiative on Offshore Wind, over the next decade energy production alone off of the northeast of the United States could be worth $70 billion dollars (20 gigawatts) In the long-term for offshore wind energy, according to the analysis, considering shipping lanes, bird flyways, and other sensitive ocean areas, there are 330 gigawatts of developable resource more than enough to supply all the electricity needs of the East Coast.

Before Connor and Hine knew offshore wind would take a significant role in their future business, they marketed their systems to the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Offshore wind opened up new uses for ThayerMahan systems, including monitoring endangered sea mammals and ship activity during turbine construction and maintenance, which Connor said could have the side benefit of increased productivity.

We would basically alert them there are whales in the area, which changes the way they operate the ship, generally they have to slow to five knots, however if we can certify that there are no mammals in the area, everybody gets to operate at normal speed, which saves money, said Connor. In the case of the mammals, it should allow work year-round or at least year-round subject to mammals, and there are things too like weather what it does is it gives better information so they can make better decisions.

The passive acoustic sensors used by ThayerMahan can listen at long range and identify the direction of a sound, a big advantage over a conventional moored hydrophone, said Connor.

Say were five miles away and we know theyre on the seaward side of us, then that probably allows [the developer] to continue construction and we would just monitor for that situation to change, he said. [Because] were not moored means that we can do the monitoring without becoming an entanglement threat, which is an issue with lobster pots and other things where you have mooring.

Each device weighs about 600 pounds and looks kind of like a surfboard with solar panels attached on top and a propulsion fins suspended below. The technology isnt exactly new, explained Connor.

Were a systems integrator, said Hine.

This technology has been around for a decade. We make it do useful things. It started out with a bunch of Silicon-Valley millionaires who had houses on the Big Island in Hawaii and they wanted to listen to whale noises from their offices in San Francisco but they wanted it to be live and so they designed this thing to communicate by radio to their office in San Francisco, he said.

what we wanted to do is just change the whole approach from small numbers of exquisite, but very expensive things, to large numbers of relatively inexpensive things so we could be in more places at one time

Connor said he came across the idea while he was still in the Navy and just tried to think of something to do with it.

One of the issues I had in the Navy I ran the U.S. nuclear submarine force and realized that we could only put things in so many places at one time, he said.

In an email, Connor later said that with a limited submarine force and a growing list of missions, the U.S. can only put so many submarines on station around the world in so many places and that one of the companys goals is to support the effectiveness of U.S. submarine fleets.

The traditional way to overcome that would be to ask for more money for submarines so what we wanted to do is just change the whole approach from small numbers of exquisite, but very expensive things, to large numbers of relatively inexpensive things so we could be in more places at one time, he said.

The systems move at about two knots, said Connor. We cant rush from place to place in these things but we can be in places for long periods of time, understanding what goes on there because we always have a sensor that we can talk to and then we can move.

The engineers who program the systems at ThayerMahan are in their twenties and thirties, said Connor.

Theyre the experts, which is pretty cool. We say its sobering for us because we decide what it is we want to accomplish, we know what the needs are because weve been out there and we spend a lot of time drawing boxes on white boards and saying you need to write some software that will do this and, [they say,] yeah, I can do that, and they do it, said Connor. These are 21st-century skills that they have. I really think this industry the maritime sensing industry is migrating in these 21st century techniques.

The first vehicle the company developed was named Alfred, after historian Alfred Thayer Mahan, the companys namesake who wrote Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 16601783, and inspired the building of Teddy Roosevelts Great White Fleet a generational change in military maritime thinking.

Were rather presumptuous, but were saying this approach is going to set strategy for the next century and decided to take a historic name and apply it to the company. People in the business understand who Alfred Thayer Mahan is and its a good place to start talking when we first meet, Connor said.

We didnt think Hine Connor merged together, Hine laughed.

Connor is ambitious about the companys potential, especially for the field of national security.

[Our systems] give us a greater understanding of marine life, period whether its rising ocean temperatures, shipping patterns or whatever. We should all get smarter

Our vision is, were going to help industry, like offshore wind, academia, like our friends at Woods Hole and Scripps and other places and UConn and URI, and we can also work on the national security with the U.S. and allies. We can do it by having more sensors in more places for less money and therefore better awareness, he said.

The collected data can also be used to increase transparency and cooperation among offshore industries and activities, he said.

Offshore space is increasingly a shared space. Youve got commercial, youve got wild-catch fishing, youve got fish farms, youve got offshore wind shipping is up 400 percent in the last 15 years so were all sharing this very valuable resource and the idea is our equipment will help create a more transparent environment so that we can share this resource more responsibly, Connor said.

ThayerMahan systems can survey and transmit in real time sonar images to a resolution of three square centimeters, and can be used to understand the long-term impact of offshore development whether wind energy or other human activities on marine life, said Connor.

[Our systems] give us a greater understanding of marine life, period whether its rising ocean temperatures, shipping patterns or whatever. We should all get smarter, he said.

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Groton Startup ThayerMahan Grows to Capture Offshore Wind and Electric Boat Opportunities - CT Examiner

]]> Boston Dynamics-built quadruped robot Spot is one of the robots involved in the initiative. Credit: Aker BP.

Norwegian oil exploration and development firm Aker BP has formed a strategic partnership with global industrial artificial intelligence (AI) software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm Cognite to explore the potential of robotics in the offshore oil and gas platform.

The two firms will focus on the use of robotics systems to carry out safer, more efficient and sustainable offshore operations.

According to Aker BP, Cognites Cloud-based industrial data operations and intelligence platform Cognite Data Fusion (CDF) will serve as the data infrastructure for the initiative.

The CDF software platform will provide open and unified industrial data model. This allows for easy access to enable analytical operations and data-driven decisions.

The two firms will conduct several tests using robots and drones on the Aker BP-operated Skarv installation in the Norwegian Sea this year.

Aker BP said that it will test the robotics systems for their performance in autonomous inspection and high-quality data capture. Other testing tasks may include the systems response to leaks and gauge the performance in automatic report generation.

Aker BP CEO Karl Johnny Hersvik said: Digitalisation will be one of the differentiators between the oil companies of the world, in order to be able to deliver low cost and low emissions. Exploring the potential of robotics offshore underpin our digital journey.

Boston Dynamics-built quadruped robot Spot and other robots have involvement in the initiative.

Cognite and Aker have already tested Spots mobility in simulated oil and gas environments. This ensures that the system can operate in locations in the facilities that are difficult to access through traditional automation.

Cognite CEO John Markus Lervik said: The key to Aker BP and Cognites robotics initiative is that it combines industry-leading hardware and software.

By ingesting data collected by robots into Cognite Data Fusion, Aker BP engineers will be able to see it in context with data from across the companys operations and make data-driven decisions that improve efficiency and safety.

In August 2018, Aker BP signed a smart service contract with Cognite and Framo Services to digitalise its Ivar Aasen platform in the North Sea.

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Cognite and Aker BP to explore robotics in oil and gas operations - Offshore Technology

The German Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) has filed an objection against the building permit for the Gennaker offshore wind project.

NABU states that installing the projects 103 turbines some10km north of Dar will result in massive environmental damage as the units will be located in the middle of a bird migration corridor.

Unfortunately, Gennaker reveals the total failure of the regional wind power planning.Despite massive conservation concerns and a lack of grid connection, the wind farm was approved.It would cut off one of the most important bird migration lines in the southern Baltic Sea, said NABU President Jrg-Andreas Krger.

NABU added that there are shortcomings in the approval, including incomplete procedural documents, however the incompatibility of the project with the adjacent bird sanctuaries is particularly critical.

According to the organization, although current studies show that seabirds avoid turbines with a radius of over 10km, the Gennaker project takes into consideration only 2km, which massively underestimates the loss of habitat in two EU bird protection areas.

There is hardly a more unsuitable place for a wind farm.The Rgen-Schonen line is the central flight corridor for millions of migratory and resting birds, including cranes, mourning and iron ducks and countless songbirds, said Stefan Schwill, State Chairman of NABU Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The expected number of collisions and loss of habitat are not compatible with nature and species protection law.The approval is illegal.

To remind, in May 2019, the state ofMecklenburg-Vorpommern granted a license toOWP Gennaker GmbH, a subsidiary of wpd, to build and operate the 865.2MW offshore wind farm.

The project will feature Siemens Gamesa 8MW turbines with a rated output of 8.4MW, two offshore substations and the inter-array cables.

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NABU Objects to Gennaker Offshore Wind Project - Offshore WIND

SIHANOUKVILLE, CAMBODIA - A frightening weeklong odyssey is nearing an end for almost 1,500 passengers on board the cruise shipMSWesterdam, which had been turned away from ports in four virus-wary countries before being allowed to anchor this week in Cambodia.

Officials said passengers would be permitted to disembark Friday in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville provided a health check showedtheywere free of COVID-19, the deadly, fast-spreading coronavirus first reported inWuhan, China.

The government of Cambodia, which has strong ties to Beijing, finally allowed the stranded cruise liner to anchor off itscoastThursday morning. The vessel, with 1,455 passengers and 802 crew on board, had previously been turned awaybyJapan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Thailand.

Another cruise ship, theDiamond Princess, has been off the coast of Yokohama, Japan, for 10 days, with at least 218 passengers infected by the coronavirus.

TheMSWesterdamarrived off Preah Sihanouk provinces Sihanoukville town about 7 a.m. local time Thursday, according to provincial authorities, but passengers have not been allowed off the ship, which is owned by U.S.-based Holland America Line. The ship left Hong Kong on February 1.

'It is taking time'

Holland America posted on its Facebook page Thursday morning, Inspection and clearance procedures are proceeding. Given the number of organizations involved in supporting todays complex operations, it is taking time. We are grateful to everyone in Cambodia who are helping and welcoming us.

Local Cambodian authorities said the passengers could disembark only after clearing a health check, and if they had confirmed flight bookings from Sihanoukville International Airport. Passengers who meet these requirements are expected to come ashore on Friday, according to the provincial governor, Kuoch Chamroeun.

Lou Kim Chhun, director general of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, said the cruise ship would remain anchored 2.5 kilometers offshore and cleared passengers would be taken by buses to the airport on Friday.

A fleet of buses with Welcome to Cambodia signs was parked on shore all day Thursday.

In a statement emailed on Thursday, Holland America said It is expected that a full disembarkation will take a few days given the charter flight schedule. During this time, guests will remain comfortably on board with full service in operation.

The line has given each passenger a 100% refund of their cruise fare, plus an additional 100% future cruise credit. Passengers and crew are receiving complimentary onboard internet and phone access, the statement continued to guests and crew to stay in contact with loved ones.

They will be able to leave if they have the flight tickets to go back. If they have a ticket, we will help coordinate, said Kuoch Chamroeun.

The provincial governor added that some 80 health workers performed health checks on the passengers Thursday and had found some passengers to be unwell, but did not provide additional details.

20 ill, but no coronavirus

Or Vandine, a Health Ministry spokesperson, said 20 passengers showed symptoms of the flu, diarrhea and stomachaches. She said these passengers underwent tests for COVID-19 and samples had been flown to Phnom Penhs Pasteur Institute.

We have received the information that there are people whose health is not normal. But there is no case of COVID-19 so far, she said.

Mam Bunheng, Cambodiashealthminister,said later Thursday that 20 ill passengershadtested negative for thecoronavirus.

We did the test and the result is negative, he said. It is done, he added when askedif there wouldbe more tests.

Christina Kerby, a passenger onboard theMSWesterdamwho has been tweetingabout the ships wanderings, said the captain hadtoldpassengers the clearance process was proceeding butwastaking longer than anticipated.

U.S.Embassy spokesperson Emily Zeeberg told VOA Khmer therewere more than 600 U.S. citizens on theMSWesterdamcruise ship.

The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh is working closely with the government of Cambodia to help facilitate the docking and a safe disembarkation, she said.

Zeeburgsaid thataU.S.Embassy team was assisting U.S. citizens transiting to theirdestinations.

It remainedunclear if countries that had refused to allow the ship to dock wouldnow allow passengers who passed Cambodias health screening to transit through their airports.

However,The Nationnewspaper in Thailand quoted an immigration official Thursday who said that the passengers wouldbe allowed to travel to other countries, including Thailand.

We have requested the Cambodian government to submit the list of any passengers who want to enter Thailand as well as their health examination results, said ArchayonKraithong, commander of Immigration Police Division 3.

Hun Sen downplays risks

Cambodias Prime Minister Hun Sen has downplayed the risks from the COVID-19 outbreak by refusing to restrict air and sea connections with China, even encouraging Chinese nationals to continue to travel to Cambodia.

He balked at evacuating Cambodian students from Wuhan, saying it was more important to show solidarity with the Chinese people.

The prime minister and Cambodia have received praise, though, for allowing the cruise liner to dock at Sihanoukville.

Cambodia wants to show that Cambodia doesnt only cooperate with China, but we cooperate with all nations because this has become a global concern, Hun Sensaidin an interview with local media on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Hun Sen posted on his Facebook page that he would go to welcome [the passengers] in Sihanoukville as the host country which has solidarity and responsibility.

'Welcome act of solidarity'

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, praised Cambodia on Twitter, a tweet that was quickly postedbythe ChineseEmbassy in Phnom Penh.

This is a welcome act of solidarity at a time when the world has a window of opportunity to stop COVID-19 and avoid stigma and fear, Ghebreyesustweeted.

Since the outbreak, Cambodian authorities have confirmed only one case of COVID-19. The Chinese nationals case was confirmed on January 27. He tested negative three times and was released from a Sihanoukville hospital earlier this week, according to a Ministry of Health spokesperson.

Holland Americas statement also said, The future voyage plan between cruises is still being finalized. The Feb. 15 Westerdam cruise scheduled to embark in Yokohama has been canceled.

In another statement issued Thursday, the cruise line said, We hope that guests on this voyage will join us again and sincerely thank them for the many compliments we have received for our crew and the acknowledgements that this situation was out of our control.

Manilene Ek of VOAs Khmer Service contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

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Cruise Ship Welcomed by Cambodia Is Anchored Offshore Pending Coronavirus Check - Voice of America