Australia Orders Another Patrol Boat from Austal
Australian shipbuilding group Austal Limited announced that the Australian Government has ordered an additional Guardian-class Patrol Boat from Austal Australia for A$15.2 million.The 39.5-meter steel hull patrol boat, to be constructed in Western Australia and delivered in September 2024, is in addition to the 21 Guardian-class Patrol Boats ordered by the Australian Government under the Pacific Patrol…
Russia Resumes Participation in Ukraine Grain Export Deal
Russia said on Wednesday it would resume its participation in a deal to free up vital grain exports from war-torn Ukraine after suspending it over the weekend in a move that had threatened to exacerbate hunger across the world. The Russian defense ministry said it had received written guarantees from Kyiv not to use the Black Sea grain corridor for military operations against Russia. "The Russian Federation considers that the guarantees received at the moment appear sufficient…
World Maritime University Celebrates 2022 Graduation
On October 31, 2022, global maritime leaders of tomorrow graduated from the World Maritime University (WMU). The Class of 2022 has received the education required to contribute to maritime and ocean matters in their home countries and more broadly to the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Overall, the graduating class includes 276 graduates from 70 countries, and sets a record of 94 women graduates.WMU President Dr.
Maersk CEO Sees Plenty of Dark Clouds on the Horizon. Container Demand Set to Drop
Shipping group Maersk warned on Wednesday of slowing demand for transport and logistics as a global recession looms and cut its forecast for container demand this year, even as it beat third-quarter earnings expectations. "It is clear that freight rates have peaked and started to normalize during the quarter, driven by both decreasing demand and easing of supply chain congestion," Chief Executive Soeren Skou said in a statement.
Van Oord Names Chief People Officer
Dutch marine services company Van Oord has appointed Meike Salvadό-de Reede to the position of Chief People Officer (CPO) in its Executive Committee as of November 1, 2022. "Van Oord’s people agenda is fundamental to its strategy and to building a high-performance organization," Van Oord, which provides dredging and offshore energy installation services,said.Meike Salvadό-de Reede has a Civil Engineering background and over 20 years of experience in commercial…
Report: Germany Could Seize Property to Speed LNG Build-out
Germany, racing to end its reliance on Russian gas, plans to introduce new regulation that will make it possible to expropriate property to link offshore liquid natural gas terminals to the grid, Handeslblatt reported. The new law could make it possible to use parts of Gazprom's defunct Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, to link a terminal to the shore.The newspaper said a draft law due to be agreed by…
Heddle Shipyards Wins Terry Fox Life Extension Job
Heddle Shipyards said it has been awarded a $135.5 million dollar contract for the Vessel Life Extension (VLE) of the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Terry Fox.The nearly three-year project will involve an extensive engineering, planning and procurement phase, with shipyard work scheduled to begin in December 2023. This multi-year project will create and sustain over 200 hundred jobs at the Port Weller Dry Docks through the summer of 2025 when the CCGS Terry Fox is scheduled for redelivery.
DPS Safety Alert Follows DP3 Drillship Blackout Investigation
The United States Coast Guard issued the following Marine Safety Alert rergarding Dynamic Positioning Systems.Dynamic positioning (DP) systems1 meeting equipment class 2 (DP2) and equipment class 3 (DP3) have control features and redundancies that are often regarded by the crews of vessels using these systems as infallible. A recently investigated DP incident revealed that a DP system may still have weaknesses…
Solstad Offshore Wins Contracts for CSV Trio
Norwegian offshore vessel company Solstad Offshore has won contracts for three of its subsea construction vessels (CSV).Normand Vision has been awarded a new contract with Havfram AS for a period of 3 years firm plus an option for an extra 2 years. The contract will start in January 2024, in direct continuation of present agreement with Havfram.Normand Ocean has been awarded an extension and a new contract with DeepOcean AS for a total period of 2 years firm from January 2024.
Ghana's Historic Slave Forts are Being Swallowed by Rising Seas
For 21 years, Fort Prinzenstein's caretaker James Ocloo Akorli has watched the Gulf of Guinea's tempestuous waters eat away at both his livelihood and his heritage.The 18th century Danish citadel, set along Ghana's palm-fringed coastline, was once the last stop for captured Africans before they were forced onto slave ships bound for the Americas.Today, three-quarters of the UNESCO World Heritage site…
IMO Sec-Gen Marks Entry Into Force of Carbon Intensity Rules
Amendments to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) Annex VI entered into force on Tuesday, November 1, 2022. Developed under the framework of the Initial IMO Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships agreed in 2018, these technical and operational amendments require ships to improve their energy efficiency in the short term and thereby reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Main Road to Brazil's Paranagua Port, Major Grain Export Hub, Still Blocked
The main access road to Brazil's Paranagua port, the country's second busiest for grain exports, remained blocked by political protesters on Tuesday, according to a statement from the port authority, hobbling shipping from one of the world's top food producers. Blockades in the area were first reported Monday afternoon after similar demonstrations erupted throughout the country as supporters of outgoing…
NFE's Louisiana Offshore LNG Plant Start-up Slips to 2H 2023
U.S. firm New Fortress Energy Inc's proposed Louisiana offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility likely will not begin operation until the second half of 2023, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.The 2.8 million tonne per year export project initially was proposed to start next March but has faced delays during its permit review. U.S. regulators on Friday lifted a stop-clock order. The soonest the facility could begin producing LNG…
Nine Migrants Rescued, Dozens Missing after Boat Sinks off Greek island
Greece rescued nine migrants and was searching for dozens of others believed to be missing after their boat sank off the island of Evia early on Tuesday, the coast guard said. Nine people have been rescued from the boat, which sank off the southern tip of Evia, Greek coast guard spokesman Nikos Kokkalas told state broadcaster ERT. According to the migrants accounts, about 68 people were on the boat, Kokkalas said.
U.S. LNG Exports Dip in October
U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in October remained capped by plant outages, with producers shifting more cargoes to Asian buyers last month, according to Refinitiv Eikon tanker monitoring data, after of a pipeline leak cut supplies from Malaysia. LNG prices recently have cooled with Europe's gas storage levels rising to over 90% of target capacity and a slow start to winter. In Asia, however…
India's Adani Ports Q2 Profit Jumps as Cargo Volumes Surge
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, India's largest private operator of ports, reported a 69% surge in quarterly profit on Tuesday, driven by strong cargo volumes. The company's consolidated profit for the quarter-ended Sept. 30 rose to 16.77 billion Indian rupees ($203 million). It had reported a profit of 9.95 bln rupees a year ago. Revenue from operations surged 33% to 52.11 billion rupees from a year ago.
Tech File: VIKING Norsafe E-Mako-655, the All-electric Rescue Boat
VIKING Life-Saving Equipment and maritime electric motor systems developer Evoy launched an electrically powered 6.55m rescue boat, the VIKING Norsafe E-Mako-655. The Mako-655 is an existing rescue boat design that, up until now, has only been offered with traditional engine propulsion due to the current IMO/SOLAS regulation which states that rescue boats of this type must have at least one internal…
'Carbon Free' Platfom Supply Vessel Firm Launched in Norway
Norway-based company Amon Maritime has launched Amon Offshore - a new company focused on the offshore oil and gas market – with plans to operate carbon-free platform supply vessels. The ship has already received approval in principle from DNV and preliminary flag approval from the Norwegian Maritime Authority, Amon Maritime said. Amon Offshore has been created to build, own and operate a fleet of ammonia-powered supply ships for the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
Gas Shipping Firm Anthony Veder Renews Connectivity Deal with Inmarsat
Rotterdam-based gas-shipping company Anthony Veder has renewed its connectivity agreement with Inmarsat to increase its Fleet Xpress bandwidth allowance. The contract applies to every vessel in Anthony Veder’s tanker fleet."The agreement was reached following a successful trial in which Anthony Veder used the upgraded-bandwidth Fleet Xpress plan to run a data-intensive video-conferencing platform in a busy shipping lane…
Region in Focus: Norway’s West Coast Shipping Tech Hub
Two load-bearing pillars of Norway’s leading maritime industry cluster in Sunmøre on the country’s west coast – offshore energy and the expedition cruise sector – took severe knocks from plunging energy prices in the 2010s followed by COVID-19. However, a recent tour of the region found the cluster in recovery mode.At the time, the cluster’s diversification strategy was to dive into the emerging expedition cruise sector: small…
