Four Seafarers Abandoned on Tugboat in the US
Four seafarers have been abandoned without pay on a 60-year-old tugboat in Washington State.The vessel, Wycliffe, recently changed its flag to Vanuatu, and was scheduled to help tow two retired Washington State Ferries vessels for a 34-day transit to Ecuador – where the new owner is based – for scrap, but the contract was canceled after the tug experienced technical issues.The four crew members on board from Colombia…
Rand Logistics CEO Dave Foster to Retire, Greg Binion Named Interim CEO
Rand Logistics, Inc., a provider of bulk freight shipping in the Great Lakes region, announced that Dave Foster has informed the Board of his decision to retire from his role as Chief Executive Officer, following a nearly 40 year career in the maritime industry, including the past four as CEO of Rand.Greg Binion, a seasoned transportation and logistics executive and most recently a Board Member of Rand…
Naval Power: Navies Increasingly Eye Alternative Fuels
Alternative fuels are not top of the list of naval requirements for gensets, but they are inching their way up.The naval world is largely exempt from the decarbonization pressure faced by commercial shipping, but it can’t ignore it entirely. As a famed naval strategist once said: “Fuel stands first in importance of the resources necessary to a fleet.”Navies must therefore consider their fuel supply…
VIKING Life-Saving Equipment Expands Business in Norway
VIKING Life-Saving Equipment has expanded its network of owned service stations in Norway by acquiring the safety department of Tromsø-based company Lindrup Martinsen.The move will ensure VIKING can deliver even better service to customers in Northern Norway, as it expands its business in the region.Lindrup Martinsen has been a service partner for VIKING for 15 years. VIKING and Lindrup Martinsen have now agreed that VIKING will take over Lindrup Martinsen’s safety department…
QatarEnergy Orders Six More QC-Max LNG Vessels from Chinese Shipyard
QatarEnergy has signed an agreement with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) for the construction of six additional QC-Max vessels, bringing the total number of LNG vessels on order under its fleet expansion program to 128, including 24 QC-Max mega vessels.The QC-Max vessels, which will be built at China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard, a wholly-owned CSSC subsidiary, are the largest LNG vessels ever built with a capacity of 271,000 cubic meters each.
Eidesvik Offshore’s CEO Resigns
The chief executive officer of Norwegian offshore vessel owner Eidesvik Offshore, Gitte Gard Talmo has resigned from his role to take up a new position in an international company abroad.Gitte Gard Talmo has been with the company for 22 years and has been CEO of Eidesvik Offshore since January 1, 2022.According to Eidsevik Offshore, Gitte Gard Talmo will continue in her position as CEO for the time being…
GMS: Ship Recycling Market Subdued
The ship recycling market has so far been subdued in September, as expected, reports cash buyer GMS.Macro factors affecting the market include the situation in the Middle East, Houthi attacks on passing vessels and tensions caused by the repositioning of navies in response to ISIS fighters targeting U.S. bases.“The start of September saw the industry still witness the inescapable decline that is India’s ship recycling sector today…
Becker Marine Systems Introduces New Wind-Assist Steering Technology
Becker Marine Systems introduced two new products at SMM which are designed to optimise vessel hydrodynamic performance: the Becker Daggerboard and the Becker Steering Gear.The Becker Daggerboard is an anti-leeway fin designed for ships equipped with modern wind- assisted propulsion systems (WAPS). When using WAPS, the desired thrust ahead components drive the ship. Depending on the wind direction…
Esgian Week 36 Report: New Contracts Awarded in India, Guyana and West Africa
Esgian provides an update on new contract awards for Greatship, Transocean, Noble and Stena Drilling in its Week 36 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsGreatship has secured a contract with Cairn for its 350-ft Greatdrill Chetna jackup drilling rig in India. The contract is firm for six months at a dayrate of approximately $90,000, starting in late November or early December 2024.Transocean has secured a binding letter of award from Reliance Industries for its 6th generation 12…
USS Richard M. McCool, Jr. Commissioned
The San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Richard M. McCool, Jr. (LPD 29) commissioned aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, on September 7.San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships are warships that embark, transport and land elements of a landing force for a variety of expeditionary warfare missions. They provide the Navy and Marine Corps with modern, sea-based platforms that are networked…
ASRY Lays First Keel in Bapco Refining’s Barges Project
The Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Company (ASRY) has launched the first phase of the Bapco Refining Self-Propelled Fuel Oil Bunker Barges project with a keel-laying ceremony.The project, which is scheduled for execution in the final quarter of 2024, comes as part of a strategic alliance between ASRY and Bapco Refining and is a step towards positioning the Kingdom of Bahrain as a key maritime hub…
Mark Riggio Responds to “Getting the Numbers Right”
Wendy Laursen’s article Getting the Numbers Right, published in the August issue of Maritime Reporter, sparked debate from ballast water management experts. Here Mark Riggio, owner of Simplify Ballast, LLC, provides his feedback on the article which outlines the challenges the industry has faced trying to reduce the occurrence of invasive marine species transferred by ballast water.I felt it was important to speak out about this article for a number of reasons…
Autopsy Results Suggest Bayesian Victims Sought Bubbles of Air
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch died of suffocation after running out of oxygen, an investigative source said, citing initial examinations carried out on Saturday after his body was recovered from the family yacht that sank off Sicily's coast last month.Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, an onboard cook and four guests died when the British-flagged superyacht Bayesian sank during a severe and sudden weather event off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, on Aug.
Greece Tackles Over-Tourism from Cruise Ships
Greece plans to impose a 20-euro levy on cruise ship visitors to the islands of Santorini and Mykonos during the peak summer season, in a bid to avert over-tourism, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday.Greece relies heavily on tourism, the main driver of the country's economy which is still recovering from a decade-long crisis that wiped out a fourth of its output.But some of its most popular destinations…
US Gulf Coast-bound Fuel Oil Cargoes Hit Five-year Low
Fuel oil exports bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast slumped to their lowest level since January 2019 last month, a sign of weakened refinery demand as margins have softened, analysts said.Feedstocks like high sulfur fuel oil and other heavy residues can be refined into higher value products such as gasoline and diesel using secondary units.But loadings of those products to the Gulf Coast, America's largest refining hub…
US Justice Dept Will Inspect Containership Dali, Signaling Potential Lawsuit
The U.S. government signaled in a court filing on Wednesday for the first time that it may file a claim against the owner of the ship that caused the March collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.U.S. Justice Department attorney Laine Goodhue submitted a letter, opens new tab notifying U.S. District Judge James Bredar that the government is among the "claimants and prospective claimants”…
New England States Move Forward with Three Giant Offshore Wind Farms
Massachusetts and Rhode Island are moving ahead with three offshore wind projects totaling 2.9 gigawatts (GW), or enough electricity to power about 1.6 million homes, government officials announced on Friday.The project selections, following a joint solicitation in March for wind farms to be built off of New England's shores, move Massachusetts and Rhode Island closer to state renewable energy goals…
US Coast Guard Academy Students Seek $130 Million Over Alleged Sexual Assaults
More than a dozen former U.S. Coast Guard Academy students who say they were victims of sexual assault filed complaints on Thursday seeking $130 million in damages, accusing the school of allowing sexual violence to go unchecked.The former students filed administrative claims with the U.S. Coast Guard, claiming the academy in New London, Connecticut, for nearly four decades enabled sexual abusers and failed to protect victims or provide them recourse.The group comprises 12 women and one man…
Ukraine's Maritime Food Exports Fall in August
Ukraine's food exports by sea and river totalled 4.13 million metric tons in August, down from 4.25 million tons in July, agriculture ministry data showed on Friday.That included 2.18 million tons of wheat, 553,732 tons of corn and 454,641 tons of barley, the data showed.Ukraine's UGA grain traders union said this month that overall grain and oilseed exports totalled 4.3 million tons in August, up from 4.2 million in July.UGA said that included 2.2 million tons of wheat…
Oil Loadings at Russia's Western Ports on the Rise
Russia will increase oil exports via its western ports to 1.98 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, up by just 30,000 bpd from August, despite expected start of seasonal maintenance on Russian refineries, two trade sources said on Friday.Russia needs to supply its own market with enough crude oil to produce motor fuels essential to meet demand, but normally local refineries start large seasonal maintenance and cut runs, which leads to higher availability of crude oil for exports.Russia's
