MY SPACE, MY PLACE

Mr. Bush called on Congress Wednesday to end a longstanding federal ban on offshore drilling and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration, arguing that the steps were needed to lower gasoline prices and bolster national security. But even as oil trades at more than $135 a barrel — up from $68 a year ago — the world’s existing drill-ships are booked solid for the next five years. Some oil companies have been forced to postpone exploration while waiting for a drilling rig, executives and analysts said.

Demand is so high that shipbuilders, the biggest of whom are in Asia, have raised prices since last year by as much as $100 million a vessel to about half a billion dollars.

“The crunch on rigs is everywhere,” said Alberto Guimaraes, a senior executive at Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company that has discovered some of the most promising offshore oil but has been unable to get at it.

“Almost 100 percent of the oil companies are constrained in their investment program because there is no rig available,” he said.

As a result, drilling costs for some of the newest deepwater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico — the nation’s top source of domestic oil and natural gas supplies — have reached about $600,000 a day, compared with $150,000 a day in 2002.

These record prices have spurred a new wave of drill-ship construction. This boom could lead to renewed offshore oil exploration that would eventually bring more supplies to the oil market, and push down prices.

Already, 16 new drill-ships are scheduled to be delivered to oil companies this year — more than double the number delivered over the last six years combined. In fact, 75 ultra-deepwater rigs should be delivered from 2008 to 2011, according to ODS-Petrodata, a firm that tracks drilling rigs.

Shipyards from South Korea to Norway are working overtime to meet a huge influx of orders.

Robert L. Long, the chief executive office of Transocean, the world’s largest drilling company, said he has nine deepwater rigs under construction, eight of which are already under contract for periods ranging from four to seven years once they leave the shipyards. He expects to receive the ships between the beginning of 2009 and the end of 2010.

Transocean believes the deepwater market will continue to be constrained until at least 2012. Over three-quarters of the drill-ships currently under construction have already been contracted to oil companies eager to benefit from triple-digit oil prices, Mr. Long said.

Petrobras, whose full name is Petróleo Brasileiro, is expected to drive much of the growth in the booming new market. The company has outlined an aggressive program to increase its drilling capacity, and plans to contract or build 69 deepwater drill-ships by 2017.

Brazil stunned the oil world when it announced the discovery of a vast oil field 200 miles south of Rio de Janeiro last November, turning the country’s deep blue waters into the world’s most exciting oil frontier. Energy experts said the field could turn out to be just a small part of the largest oil discovery in 30 years.

But seven months later, the problem is still how to retrieve it. Petrobras has only three rigs capable of drilling in waters that exceed 6,500 feet, like the sites of the new fields.

But drilling constraints are not the only problem facing international oil companies, which are seeking to expand at a furious pace after a decade of underinvestment in the 1990s. They have also had to contend with a doubling of development costs across the industry in the last five years, more acute competition for energy resources, shortages in steel, engineering and manufacturing capacity, and pressures posed by an aging work force.

Also, gaining access to countries that hold oil reserves is becoming tougher as many oil-rich governments see fewer incentives to raise production as they reap the benefits of higher prices.

As a result, explorers are scouring ever-more remote corners of the globe in their hunt for hydrocarbons. That quest has found petroleum reserves off the shores of Africa and Brazil, and opened up promising exploration regions in the South China Sea, off the shore of India, and around the coast of Australia. But those sites will remain largely off limits until the new drill-ships arrive.

“The market for offshore exploration is now the hottest sector in the global shipbuilding industry,” said Lee Jae-kyu, shipbuilding analyst at Mirae Asset Securities in Seoul.

At Samsung’s sprawling shipyard on the southern Korean island of Geoje, next to the gigantic hulls of half-finished supertankers, cranes and dry docks work overtime to construct odd-looking drill-ships like the West Polaris.

At 62,400 tons, the West Polaris, due for delivery this month, is larger than a World War II aircraft carrier. The pipes and steel scaffolding of its drill loom over the other ships lining the construction yard, like cars in an oversize parking lot.

The shipyard and its 25,000 workers bustle with activity, emitting a cacophony of clanging construction sounds, the roar of motors and short musical ditties that warn of moving cranes. These sounds echo in the emerald hills behind the yard, which stretches across one side of a deep blue bay.

“The oil reserves that were easy to reach are all drying up,” said Harris S. Lee, vice president in charge of Samsung’s offshore drilling rig business. “The future is in exploring the deep seas and harsh environments.”

A big challenge in deep-sea drilling is to stay over the same spot on the sea floor even as the vessel is buffeted by strong winds, currents and waves. Because water depths can reach up to 10,000 feet, far too deep for traditional rigs that are moored to the seafloor, ships like the West Polaris rely on high-speed computers that use global-positioning satellites to control an array of six swiveling propellers on the hull’s bottom.

The ship was ordered by Seadrill, a Bermuda-based offshore exploration company, for $453 million.

Last month, Samsung announced it had received a $942 million contract to build an even hardier type of drill-ship made specifically for Arctic conditions. The vessel, ordered by Stena Offshore, a Swedish company, will have a hull strong enough to break through ice, withstand 50-foot waves and insulate the men and machinery inside from outside temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero. Samsung’s sales of all types of offshore drilling vessels jumped to $7.8 billion last year, up from $1.5 billion in 2005.

Despite the construction frenzy, constraints in the rig market could last several more years.

The last such boom in orders came in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when exploration rose after the 1970s oil shocks. In the 1990s, low oil prices and overflowing oil supplies led oil companies to cut back on exploration drastically.

“It will certainly mean more drilling activity and more discoveries in the deepwater side,” said Tom Kellock, the head of consulting and research at ODS-Petrodata.

Well,  when I read this news, It really makes me excited, cause I'll take up this field in the future. This news brings me a good future. I think offshore & marine engineering will have great development, it's possible that I would have a great chance of my occupation development. 

Excited!

            The summer is coming. The flowers and grass have been bottle-green. I smells the special breath in this season. The June is the special month. I'll graduate! Yep :o) I enjoy this feeling. Three years ago, I just came this campus. Everything was quite stranger, new students, new teachers and new environment. But fortunately,  I met some good teachers and friends.  Yep~ there're lucky things for me. It made me spend three happy years.  At present, I'll leave this place where I stay in. Actually, I have learnt much more.

 

 

Being well liked is what most people want in relationships. The benefits are obvious. You will get the help you need at the time you need it. People will give you information about new opportunities you didn’t know before. Above all, they will really care and love you.

But how could you get other people to like you? How could you become a well liked person? There is actually just one simple rule to follow: you should like other people before they like you. When people realize that you like them, it’s very likely that they will also like you.

Regarding this, I believe that there is one and just one message you need to deliver in your relationships. Delivering this message is the key to strong relationships, and here it is:

You are important to me.

That’s it. No more, no less. Not “your money” nor “your knowledge”, but “you” - as a person - are important to me. Anything you should do in relationships stems from this message. There more you succeed in delivering this message, the more people will like you.

So here I’d like to share 33 tips on how to deliver this message in your relationships. Consequently, these are also tips to become a well liked person. Here they are:

1.Give your contacts a big smile when you meet them. Make them feel that you are really happy to meet them.

2.Give your full attention to the people you converse with as if nothing else is important.

3. When they ask for your attention, leave whatever you are doing.

4.When they call you, greet them with enthusiasm as if you are longing for their call.

5.Don’t make them wait.

6.Print the list of your contacts and look at it in your spare time. It will remind you of whom to touch base.

7.Always reply your contacts’ emails and text messages.

8.Reply their emails and text messages in the first chance you get.

9.Shake their hands with enthusiasm.

10.Praise them sincerely when they do something good. Make them feel that you are proud of them.

11.Always return their calls.

12.Send a message to them on their birthdays. Even better, call them.

13.Drop your old contacts quick emails or text messages to ask how they are doing.

14.Remember their names and achievements.

15.Remember important facts about them, especially the things they really care about (you may want to write them down).

16.Introduce them to the people in your contact who may help them out.

17.Actively find the deepest needs they may have (without waiting for them to explicitly tell you).

18.Take initiative to give them the solutions they need.

19.Give thanks for them in your session of gratitude.

20.Mention their names in your prayer.

21.Talk with them about their life.

22.Ask them specific questions about things they care about. They will realize that you care enough to remember their facts.

23.Give them something precious you have. Time is a good candidate.

24.Go eat with them. Even better, treat them.

25.When you meet them, don’t look at your watch as if you have something more important to do.

26.When you talk to them, don’t look over their shoulder as if you are looking for someone more important to talk to.

27.Send them quick tips or articles you just found which may benefit them.

28.Message them encouraging words or quotes.

29.Lend them the best books or DVDs you have.

30.Talk to them about how you like your other friends. They will think that you may talk the same way about them.

31.Don’t talk negatively to them about how you don’t like your other friends. They will think that you may also talk the same way about them.

32.Occasionally mention their names in your conversation with them.

32.Be creative to give them small surprises every now and then.

           Last night, I attended a big dinner with my classmates, you know, it's the last dinner before we graduate. But strangely, I don't care about that. Perhaps, I'm really old and don't have enthusiasm, I haven't been interested in these matters. Why? Crystal, are u lazy or tired of that? I couldn't describe this feeling. Maybe this feeling has gone. I never forgot the scene when I graduated from university in 2005. My eyes are full of sentimental and parting tears. Don't I  just have this once?

           I don't feel setimental. The graduation doesn't touch my string at all. Aren't u ironhearted, Crystal?  I can't taste in this big dinner. The friendship among the classmates? NO, NO! I know, I don't found the people who are missed.

           I had read this book-Marley & Me. I'm a person who likes having pets. When I read it, this book is so funny and affectted. I love Marley so much. He has tons of  shortcomings, but he's still cute, pute, loyal and funny. Marley is just a naughty dog, but his behavior brings endless happiness to us. If you wanna know Marley's story, read this book, I can pledge you must learn much more, his kindness and simplicity affect us deeply.