Safety And Security News

The crew of Panama-flagged cargo ship MV ISA STAR have been rescued in the Red Sea after sending a distress signal, the EU's Aspides naval mission said."All crew members aboard the MV ISA STAR have been rescued and will be transported to Djibouti, the nearest safe port of call," Aspides said in a statement posted on Facebook.The vessel had reported flooding in the engine room and the master requested assistance, it said, as its crew of 20 were forced to abandon it.One maritime…

A few months after the announcement of the acquisition of REVERE Survival in Jacksonville, LALIZAS announced the establishment of LALIZAS Canada, effectively enhancing the company’s presence in the Americas.Miguel Norato has been appointed as the Country Manager of LALIZAS Canada.LALIZAS, a family owned company, has the vision to produce high quality products that ensure safety at sea, and distribute them in international markets. It currently owns 10 branches in Spain, Italy…

Spanish police said on Friday they had seized four metric tons of cocaine hidden in rice sacks at Barcelona's port, breaking up a crime ring that operated in Spain, Paraguay and Britain.The drug smugglers processed the drugs into powder in Asuncion, Paraguay, and then put them plastic bags which were hidden inside sacks of rice sewn by hand before shipping them to Europe, the statement said.The containers arrived at Barcelona's port earlier this year but the haul of cocaine was only discovered in July when the smugglers moved the containers, police said.Authorities in Paraguay and Britain seiz

American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (ARC) has selected Swedish safety technology company LifeFinder for the supply of personal locator system that will be installed on its MV Patriot vessel.ARC recently completed the initial stage of a two-stage pilot program with LifeFinder, testing its personal locator technology.Based on the promising results from the first stage, ARC has committed to the second stage of the pilot which includes the full installation and operation of LifeFinder’s…

The crew of U.K. Royal Navy’s offshore patrol vessel HMS Trent has seized over $250 million worth of cocaine in the latest drugs bust in the Caribbean Sea, bringing the total drugs seized by the vessel so far to over $640 million.The latest bust came after HMS Trent was alerted to potential smugglers by a United States maritime patrol aircraft and used her powerful radars to track down the suspicious vessel.With the Royal Navy ship closing in, the vessel started throwing bales of cocaine into the sea to try and evade capture.The crew of HMS Trent then had to recover the drugs thrown overboard…

A Malta-flagged container ship was reportedly targeted with three missiles while on route from Djibouti to the Saudi city of Jeddah, British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Monday.The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said it was informed by the Company Security Officer of an explosion in close proximity to a merchant vessel.UKMTO added that the vessel and its crew were safe and authorities are investigating the incident.Iran-backed Houthi militants have repeatedly launched drones and missiles against international commercial shipping in the Red Sea region since mid

Maersk hopes international interventions and a larger naval presence in the Red Sea will eventually lead to maritime commerce to resume through the strait, it said on Friday, following U.S-British strikes overnight against Houthi military targets in Yemen."We hope that these interventions and a larger naval presence will eventually lead to a lowered threat environment allowing maritime commerce to transit through the Red Sea and once again return to using the Suez Canal as a gateway," Maersk said in an emailed statement.Shipping companies have redirected vessels away from the Red Sea around Af

U.S. and British strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen were a limited act of self defense and London does not immediately plan any further missions, its junior defense minister said on Friday.The two countries launched strikes from the air and sea against Houthi military targets in Yemen in response to the movement's attacks on ships in the Red Sea since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October.British Armed Forces minister James Heappey said the strikes were a proportionate response…

Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria signed an agreement on Thursday on a joint plan to clear mines floating in the Black Sea as a result of the war in Ukraine, following months of talks between the NATO allies.Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler, his Romanian counterpart Angel Tilvar and Bulgaria's Deputy Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov signed a memorandum of understanding in Istanbul to form a trilateral initiative to clear the explosives."With the start of the war, a threat of floating mines in the Black Sea has arisen. To combat it ...

As Europe turns to renewable sources to diversify energy supplies away from Russian oil and gas, a peaceful marine scene conceals a billion-dollar security headache.Rising above the Baltic Sea less than 10 km (6 miles) off the coast of Denmark, 161 wind turbines spin slowly. They supply around 4% of the country's power, sent to shore through two cable connections.The turbines have no barriers or surveillance."Our technicians are only here until five o'clock in the afternoon, then they go home…

The United Nations on Thursday fell far short of raising the money it needs for an operation to salvage 1.1 million barrels of oil from a decaying vessel moored off Yemen's coast and avert an environmental disaster.U.N. officials have been warning for years that the Red Sea and Yemen's coastline was at risk as the Safer tanker could spill four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.The war in Yemen suspended maintenance operations on the Safer in 2015. The U.N. has warned its structural integrity has significantly deteriorated and it is at risk of exploding.Deputy U.N.

The European Union wants to hold joint naval exercises as part of plans to step up its efforts to protect critical infrastructure at sea, the EU environment policy chief said.Concerns about security threats to Europe's maritime infrastructure were heightened by attacks in September on the Nord Stream pipelines, which left them spewing natural gas into the Baltic Sea.The EU is set to publish an updated maritime security strategy on Friday, outlining plans to hold an annual EU naval exercise and coordinate countries' national efforts to protect gas pipelines…

The Coast Guard called off its search for four passengers onboard a downed helicopter about 10 miles off the coast of Southwest Pass, Louisiana, at 6:15 p.m. Thursday.At around 8:40 a.m., Coast Guard District Eight watchstanders got a call from Rotorcraft Leasing Company personnel indicating that a company helicopter with four people aboard had gone down in the Gulf of Mexico while departing an oil platform.Sector New Orleans watchstanders coordinated the launch of a Coast Guard…

Seahaven Advanced Evacuation System , developed by the UK-based marine safety and survival solutions provider Survitec, has successfully passed heavy weather sea trials (HWST), deployed from the offshore support vessel EDT Jane.According to Survitec, the test was carried out in line with the SOLAS requirements for Novel Appliances which requires the test to be performed in conditions that do not drop below six on the Beaufort Scale.Representatives from classification society Lloyd’s Register were in attendance…

The Dutch coastguard rescued 18 crew members from a ship that collided with another vessel in the North Sea on Monday during a storm off the coast of the Netherlands.The vessel, the Maltese registered Julietta D. cargo ship, bound for Amsterdam from Germany, collided with an oil and chemicals tanker, the coastguard said in a statement.After an hour-long rescue operation with helicopters, the coastguard reported that all 18 crew members were taken off the vessel.The Julietta D. is rudderless and taking in water. The situation on the oil tanker is stable, it added.Rescue efforts were made more challenging by storm Corrie, which is causing wind gusts of up to 120 kph (75 mph) in the North Sea.(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Edmund Blair and Alison Williams)

Indian oil and gas explorer ONGC said Monday it had, together with Coast Guard, helped avert a possible disaster relating to an empty LPG Tanker ‘Gas Yodla’ which went adrift after engine failure in the Arabian Sea on  July 24, 2021. "At 6:35 PM on that day, the LPG tanker reported engine failure and started drifting in the Sea, around 20 nautical miles (nm) from ONGC’s D1 field," ONGC said.The vessel, owned by Dubai-based Shield Marine, was on its way to Fujairah, UAE from Mongla, Bangladesh.

Naval vessels and aircraft scoured the waters off India's west coast late on Wednesday after the most powerful cyclone in more than two decades battered the region, sinking an oilfield accommodation barge and killing 26 aboard, authorities said.Cyclone Tauktae unleashed waves of up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) offshore before it hit the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat over the past two days, leaving a trail of destruction that killed 62 others, authorities said.Naval ships and aircraft…

Indian navy ships and aircraft scoured waters off the financial capital Mumbai on Wednesday for 77 workers missing from a barge that sank after a powerful cyclone barrelled into the country's west coast this week.Driving waves of up to 25 feet on the high seas, cyclone Tauktae rammed into the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat over the past two days, killing at least 29 people and leaving a trail of destruction, authorities said.The storm smashed into the Bombay High oilfield near Mumbai…

Kidnappings rose by 40% in the Gulf of Guinea in the first nine months of this year, and the region off West Africa's coast now accounts for 95% of global maritime kidnappings, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Wednesday.Eighty seafarers were taken in the Gulf of Guinea, a 2.3 million sq km (888,000 sq m) area bordering more than a dozen countries, sharply up from the same period in 2019, and the pirates are attacking further out to sea than before, the IMB said.Pirates…

The United States has assured Italian oil company Eni SpA that efforts to prevent a spill at a floating crude facility in Venezuela would not run afoul of sanctions, the company, and the U.S. State Department said on Monday.Images in recent months showing the Nabarima floating storage and offloading facility (FSO), part of the Petrosucre joint venture between Eni and Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, tilting to its side have raised concerns of a potential environmental…

The death toll from this month's Beirut port blast has risen to 190 with more than 6,500 injured and three people missing, Lebanon's caretaker government said in a report dated Sunday.Lebanese authorities are probing what caused highly explosive material stored unsafely for years to detonate in a mushroom cloud, wrecking swathes of the city and fuelling anger at a political class already blamed for the country's economic meltdown.The army said on Saturday that seven people were still missing - three Lebanese, three Syrians and one Egyptian.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) suspended tanker offloading at its offshore marine terminal on Sunday because of Tropical Storm Sally, the company said in a statement posted on-line.The LOOP is the nation's only oil port able to receive the largest crude oil tankers. Its onshore storage facilities continued to operate as Sally, forecast to become a hurricane, threatened the Louisiana coast, the company said. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

U.S. energy companies were returning workers and restarting operations at storm-swept production facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday, two days after Hurricane Delta barreled through the area.Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BHP Group were returning workers to production platforms in the U.S.-regulated northern Gulf of Mexico, the companies said.BHP expect[ed] to complete the return of workers to its Shenzi and Neptune production platforms on Sunday, spokeswoman Judy Dane said…