Cyprus News

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, had proposed reviving contacts on Black Sea shipping but that he had not yet had time to study the documents.Turkey and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have long been seeking to get merchant shipping sailing more freely though the Black Sea, which in parts has become a naval war zone since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.Putin told Russian state television that Erdogan had "once again renewed these proposals to continue contacts related to shipping in the Black Sea…

Greece will start negotiations to buy a fourth Belharra frigate from France to strengthen its navy as it recovers from a decade-long debt crisis, the country's defence minister said on Thursday.Greece agreed in 2021 to get three new Belharra frigates for 3.0 billion euros ($3.34 billion), with an option for one more, as it aims to replace old units that have operated for more than 30 years in its navy."I am pleased to announce today Greece's intention to start negotiations to acquire one more frigate…

Esgian has no rig contracts to announced but provides an update on rig moves and drilling operations in the US Gulf of Mexico, Canada, Morocco and Norway in its Week 38 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryDrilling Activity and DiscoveriesExxonMobil has abandoned the Persephone C-54 well on EL 1169 in the Orphan Basin offshore Newfoundland, Canada.Seadrill’s 12,000-ft drillship West Neptune has resumed drilling operations on LLOG’s Who Dat South exploration well in the US Gulf of Mexico…

Investigators have placed a Cyprus-registered containership in their crosshairs as the possible source of an oil spill in Algoa Bay off South Africa's East Coast.The spill, which has spread at sea and is impacting the region's wildlife, is believed to have originated from the MSC Apollo, a container vessel anchored in the bay, according to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA).MSC Apollo is scheduled to dock at the Port of Ngqura as soon as a berth is available for a thorough inspection to identify the source of the oil leak…

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…

A U.S. amphibious assault ship has docked in Cyprus as part of a pre-arranged visit, but could be used to support civilians if hostilities flare in the Middle East, the U.S. ambassador to Cyprus said.EU member Cyprus has offered to assist, if needed, in the evacuation of Europeans and third-country nationals should tensions spill over in the Middle East amid a standoff between Israel, Iran and Iran-affiliated groups."The visit comes at a time when the United States continues all efforts along with key partners to de-escalate regional tensions and to be prepared to support civilians in crisis…

The U.S. military announced on Wednesday that its mission to install and operate a temporary, floating pier off the coast of Gaza was complete, formally ending an extraordinary but troubled effort to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians.The pier, announced by President Joe Biden during a televised address to Congress in March, was a massive endeavor that took about 1,000 U.S. forces to execute. Aid began flowing via the pier to Gaza in May, an operation aimed at helping avert…

Yemen's Houthis targeted three vessels, including an oil tanker, in the Red and Mediterranean seas with ballistic missiles, drones and booby-trapped boats, they said on Monday.Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the latest Houthi military operations were a response to the Israeli airstrike on the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on Saturday, an attack that killed at least 90 Palestinians and wounded 300 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.In dozens of attacks since November…

When scientists in the 1960s excavated the wreck of an ancient Greek merchant ship off the northern coast of Cyprus, what they found was an amazing time capsule from a pivotal period in the Mediterranean world following the death of Alexander the Great.But determining the date of the Kyrenia shipwreck with any sort of precision has proven difficult, and some previous scientific dating yielded conclusions that conflicted with the archeological evidence. Researchers have now calculated…

Yemen's Houthis on Friday said they targeted two vessels in the Red Sea with drones and missiles, but there was no independent confirmation of the purported attacks.The group targeted the Elbella and AAL Genoa vessels with "a number of drones and ballistic and naval missiles", the Iran-aligned group's military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised speech.Saree did not specify the date on which the strikes were carried out. Reuters did not receive any reports of incidents in the Red Sea on Friday.Eastern Mediterranean Maritime…

Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou voiced gratitude at being selected as recipient of the first ever IMO Gender Equality award, presented by Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez ahead of the International Maritime Organization Women in Maritime 2024 event. The award recognized Co-Chief Executive Officer of Tototheo Maritime, Ms. Panayiotou Theodosiou's leading and pivotal role in advancing gender equality and empowering women through her tenure as President of WISTA International.The IMO said Ms.

This year’s International Day for Women in Maritime focuses on the crucial role of women in ensuring maritime safety worldwide, while highlighting the changing attitudes towards gender in the industry.Observed globally on May 18 every year, Women in Maritime Day seeks to raise the profile of women in maritime, while promoting their recruitment, retention and sustained employment in the sector. Currently, only 29% of the overall maritime workforce and 20% of the workforce of national maritime authorities are women. Women make up less than 2% of seafarers worldwide.

The United States anchored a temporary floating pier to a beach in Gaza on Thursday to boost aid deliveries, but Washington is facing the same challenges that have beset the United Nations and relief groups for months when it comes to distributing assistance to the war-torn enclave.These include working in a war zone to stave off a looming famine and a dire shortage of fuel for aid trucks. The United Nations also has yet to finalize its involvement in the distribution of aid once…

Aid for Gaza was being loaded onto a ship in Cyprus on Wednesday in what was expected to be the first cargo to be delivered using a U.S. pier built to expedite supplies to the besieged enclave.Containers were being stacked on the U.S. flagged Sagamore, docked at the port of Larnaca, on Wednesday. Some containers to the ship were labelled as aid from the United Arab Emirates.Konstantinos Letymbiotis, a Cyprus government spokesperson, said a U.S jetty built to handle aid shipments to Gaza had been completed."We are completing the loading of aid onto a U.S.

The role women play in ensuring maritime safety will be celebrated worldwide by the IMO on this year's International Day for Women in Maritime. Observed globally each year on May 18, International Day for Women in Maritime aims to promote the recruitment, retention and empowerment of women in the sector, as well as a barrier-free work environment.Ahead of the day, the IMO will host an international symposium on Friday, May 17 at IMO headquarters in London, under the theme ‘Safe…

A formal naming ceremony was held at the CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Company in the Chinese province of Quanzhou on April 26 for AAL Shipping’s new heavy lift vessel, AAL Limassol.Due to sail on her maiden voyage from China into Europe, the 32,000 deadweight AAL Limassol is set to carry a full weather deck of project heavy lift cargo, including two 135-meter-long barges, weighing 1,650 tonnes and fifteen 80.5-meter-long wind blades. The newbuild will sail under the Cyprus flag.Kyriacos Panayides…

The U.S. military's cost estimate to build a pier off Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid has risen to $320 million, a U.S. defense official and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.The figure, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the massive scale of a construction effort that the Pentagon has said involves about 1,000 U.S. service members, mostly from the Army and Navy.Still, the cost has roughly doubled from initial estimates earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the matter."The cost has not just risen.

U.S. troops have begun construction of a maritime pier off the coast of Gaza that aims to speed the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave when it becomes operational in May, the Pentagon said on Thursday.President Joe Biden announced the pier in March as aid officials implored Israel to ease access for relief supplies into Gaza over land routes. Whether the pier will ultimately succeed in boosting humanitarian aid is unclear, as international officials warn of the risk of…

Greenpeace activists painted slogans on an Estonian-owned tanker in the middle of the Baltic Sea on Friday, and said the ship supplied bunker fuel to vessels transporting Russian oil that posed a danger to the environment and would fuel conflict."Oil fuels war," the campaigners, who arrived in small boats, scrawled in large white letters on the side of the Zircone tanker, pictures provided by Greenpeace showed.The vessel, sitting in international waters off the Swedish island of Gotland, has supplied fuel to more than 50 oil tankers travelling to or from Russian ports in the last two months, S

A British Royal Navy ship will supply aid to Gaza as part of an international effort to help set up a new humanitarian maritime corridor in early May, the foreign office and ministry of defence said on Saturday.The multinational effort, involving the United States, Cyprus and other partners, will develop a new temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, British foreign minister David Cameron said."The situation in Gaza is dire and the prospect of famine is real. We remain committed to getting aid to those who so desperately need it…

Ships carrying 332 tons of food for Gaza left Cyprus's Larnaca port on Saturday in a convoy which will reach the besieged enclave early next week, authorities said.It is the second shipment this month after Israel eased a 17-year naval blockade on the Gaza Strip to allow aid in from Cyprus, sourced by U.S. charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) for starving Palestinians.The aid will be taken to Gaza on a cargo ship and a barge towed by a salvage vessel, along with a tugboat carrying a support team in a journey which will take about 60 hours…

A ship transporting almost 200 tons of food to Gaza left a port in Cyprus early on Tuesday in a pilot project to open a new sea route for aid to a population on the brink of famine.The charity ship Open Arms sailed out of Larnaca port in Cyprus, towing a barge containing flour, rice and protein.The 200-mile (320 km) voyage across the eastern Mediterranean to Gaza with a heavy tow barge could take up to 2 days, Cypriot officials have said.The mission, funded mostly by the United Arab Emirates, is organised by U.S.

A ship carrying tonnes of food for Gaza remained docked in a Cyprus port on Sunday as preparations were underway to launch a yet untested maritime aid route to the enclave, where the United Nations estimates a quarter of the population faces starvation.The Open Arms, a salvage vessel, plans to tow a barge with 200 tonnes of food, mostly funded by the UAE. The supplies were sourced by charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), which is working with Spanish non-governmental organisation Proactiva Open Arms.WCK said it has another 500 tonnes of supplies in Cyprus…