Greek Islands News

A new analysis from Windward reports a 20% decrease in the volume of direct oil voyages out of Russia in Q3 2024 compared to Q2.Q3 2024 marked the lowest monthly average of direct voyages from Russia to China since March 2023. When compared to Q2 2024 averages, there is a decrease of 12% in such voyages.This is the first total volume decrease since the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine and is likely related to the slight decrease in port calls in Russia this quarter.However…

Houlder, the design and engineering consultancy, is collaborating with Blue Sea Power, an integrated energy solution provider as a gas-to-power company based in Athens, to develop three innovative floating LNG-to-power barges (FSRPs).According to the partners, the FSRP barges, which are set to be operational by 2025, will efficiently provide greener, lower emission baseload and peak power to the non-interconnected islands of Kos, Chios, and Lesvos. This power will be used when existing renewable solar and wind energy utilization reaches its technical limits.

A superyacht linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich docked in the Turkish tourist resort of Bodrum on Monday, after skirting the waters of European Union countries which have sanctioned the oligarch over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Abramovich was among several wealthy Russians added last week to an EU blacklist, and EU governments have acted in recent days to seize yachts and other luxury assets from them.World governments are seeking to isolate President Vladimir Putin and his allies over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a "special military operation".Last week, Abramovich flew into Moscow after leaving Istanbul in his private jet.

European police have dismantled a criminal network that made hundreds of millions of euros smuggling migrants from Turkey to Italy mainly on yachts, Greek police said.Greece and Italy have been on the frontline of Europe's migration crisis since it began in 2015. While most migrants and refugees typically cross from Turkey to nearby Greek islands, a growing number of people have reached Italy from Turkey by sea since 2020, according to the United Nations refugee agency.Twenty-nine people were arrested in raids in Albania, Greece and Italy on Jan. 19, Greek police said late on Thursday.

A Turkish-flagged cargo ship carrying 382 mostly Afghan migrants docked safely at a Greek island's port early on Sunday, two days after losing power in the Aegean Sea and sending out a distress signal.Six people among what was the country's biggest single influx of migrants in years were detained after the vessel, the Murat 729, was towed into Kos port by a Greek coast guard ship, the migration ministry said.The other arrivals were taken to a reception centre on the island. Their stay at the center…

Greece mounted a rescue operation on Friday for a cargo ship carrying about 400 migrants after it sent out a distress signal off the island of Crete, the coast guard said.The Greek coast guard quoted passengers as saying the Turkish-flagged vessel had sailed from Turkey, calling it “one of the largest search and rescue operations carried out in the eastern Mediterranean.”Authorities said the ship was being taken to land but gave no further details. The nationalities of the passengers…

Turkey said on Monday that its Oruc Reis exploration vessel will carry out seismic surveys in a disputed area of the eastern Mediterranean until Sept. 12, provoking an angry response from neighboring Greece.Turkey and Greece, NATO allies, vehemently disagree over claims to hydrocarbon resources in the area based on conflicting views on the extent of their continental shelves in waters dotted with mostly Greek islands.Both sides have held military exercises in the east Mediterranean, highlighting the potential for the dispute over the extent of their continental shelves to escalate.The Turkish navy issued an advisory saying the Oruc Reis would continue working until Sept. 12. It had previously been scheduled to work until Sept.

VIKING Life-Saving Equipment has delivered the first vessel in a series of three new ambulance boats for the Hellenic Coastguard.For many years, the Coastguard and the Hellenic National Center for Emergency Care (EKAB) have worked together to support patient transfer requirements from the Greek islands to larger hospitals. Today, a call for transport services is almost a daily occurrence.The new closed-cabin boat will be station in Naxos as the first in a series of special craft equipped with medical equipment.

VIKING Life-Saving Equipment has been declared the winning bidder in a tender covering three offshore high-speed ambulance boats that will support emergency services in the Aegean Sea.The international tender was concluded after a cooperation between the Hellenic Coast Guard and the Greek Emergency Response Organization (E.K.A.B), in an initiative supported and financed by the European Union under the INTERREG V-A Cooperation Program 2014-2020.All three ambulance boats are scheduled for delivery during the summer of 2020…

Three people died and four were missing on Tuesday after a refugee boat carrying eight people capsized in a river that flows between Turkey and Greece, a spokeswoman for Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Organisation (AFAD) said. The eighth refugee had made it into Greece, it said. The boat was travelling along the Maritsa River, in Turkey's northwestern province of Edirne, when it capsized early on Tuesday, the first aid organization said. Nearby residents heard yells and informed the local gendarmarie forces. Searchers recovered three bodies, it said, adding that two of them were children - one around 12 years old and the other around four. The causes of death were not yet determined.

At least eight people, including a child, drowned when an inflatable boat carrying refugees and migrants sank off Greece's Lesbos island, the Greek coastguard said on Monday. The United Nation refugee agency UNHCR said the number of dead was at least 12. Citing survivors, it said 25 people were on board. Two survivors, one of whom is pregnant, were taken to the island's main hospital, the coastguard said. Lesbos was the main gateway into the European Union in 2015 for nearly a million Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who crossed from Turkey. A deal between the EU and Ankara in March last year has all but closed down that route. Just over 4,800 refugees and migrants have crossed to Greece from Turkey this year, according to UNHCR data, and about 20 arrive on Greek islands each day.

As part of the ongoing Blue Star Delos Renewable Energy Innovation Project, Eco Marine Power (EMP) stated that the Aquarius Management & Automation System (MAS) installed on Blue Star Delos has been updated with new fuel oil consumption (FOC) and emissions monitoring software. This updated software combined with the Aquarius MAS hardware allows for fuel consumption data from all flow meters on the ship to be displayed and logged in real-time. In addition CO2, NOx and SOx emissions are calculated based on the fuel type being used. Data is logged every minute and via a connection to a dedicated GPS unit, the ships location and speed is displayed and logged. A trip-meter is also available so that fuel consumption can be monitored for a specific time period or voyage.

Ships manned by humanitarian organisations, the Italian navy and the coast guard helped rescue more than 2,000 boat migrants on Thursday as calm seas returned to the Mediterranean prompting a surge in departures. The Topaz Responder, a ship run by the Malta-based humanitarian group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), said 23 different migrant boats had been spotted in the sea about 20 nautical miles from the Libyan port city of Sabratha. Rescue operations were ongoing, the Italian coast guard said. "The mass movement is probably the result of week-long, unfavourable weather conditions" that have come to an end, MOAS said on Twitter. The Topaz Responder picked up 382 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa from three different large rubber boats.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Saturday for countries to do more to help cope with Europe's migrant crisis, saying Greece could not manage on its own. Speaking in Athens before heading to the Greek island of Lesbos, the gateway into Europe for nearly a million people last year, Ban said Greece had shown "remarkable solidarity and compassion" in dealing with the hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing war, despite its economic hardship. "Greece should not be left alone to address this challenge on its own," Ban told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. "We must work together to protect people and address the causes of displacement.

Greece is considered to be the world’s first ship-owning country in terms of tonnage. The Greeks are known to control 17.7% of world fleet and gaining share except in crude tankers. Even recession in the dry bulk market has not had much effect on the Greek-owned fleet with the fleet size touching 5,226 vessels last year with a total DWT of 334 million. For debt-laden Greece, shipping – a key element of Greek economic activity since ancient times – is considered a knight in shining armor at this crucial juncture. Most Greek shipping companies are family owned businesses which have been in shipping for many decades, even over a hundred years.

NATO agreed on Thursday to broaden its operations in the Mediterranean to help the European Union stop criminals trafficking refugees from North Africa but will not act until the fate of rescued migrants is cleared up. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said a meeting of NATO foreign ministers supported the wider role as Europe struggles with failing states on its fringes and said NATO should link up with the EU's "Sophia" naval mission in the area. This could be a step towards NATO helping stabilise Libya by patrolling coastal waters to uphold a U.N. arms embargo and counter the growing presence of Islamic State, a step that would likely need U.N. Security Council support, diplomats said.

Italy's coastguard said it helped rescue 801 migrants from two boats off western Sicily on Thursday, including many Syrians, amid signs that refugees from the Middle East are increasingly shunning the Greek route into Europe. More than a million migrants, many from Syria, have entered Europe via Turkey and Greece in the past year but the number has fallen sharply since March, when Ankara agreed with the European Union to take back refugees landing on the Greek islands. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said the two boats aided on Thursday, which were also carrying some Iraqis, represented the largest such attempted mass migration from Syria and Iraq to Italy for at least a year.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will use a visit to Turkey this weekend to try to soothe tensions over a deal meant to stem the flow of migrants to Europe as questions about its effectiveness and long-term viability mount. The pact, which came into force almost three weeks ago, aims to help end the chaotic arrival of migrants and refugees on the Greek islands, many fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. More than one million reached Europe last year. The deal initially slowed the numbers of new arrivals to Greece sharply, but boats have been coming again with about 150 people a day, indicating the "hermetic sealing" of the route appears to be over, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

Turkish authorities intercepted hundreds of migrants trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on Friday, in a major operation involving coastguard ships and helicopters, as European leaders clinched an agreement with Ankara to halt illegal migration. Around 1,200 migrants, many detained at sea and the others in hostels and streets on Turkey's Aegean coast, were being taken to a sports hall in the town of Dikili, a senior local security official told Reuters. The migrants, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, would be questioned to determine their backgrounds and what action would be taken next, officials said. "I think there are many people running from war to Europe, and I guess it's a (problem)," said Issam Katib, 27, who fled from Damascus and was among those detained.

Arrivals of refugees and migrants to Greece from Turkey rose sharply on Wednesday, just over a week since the European Union and Turkey struck a deal intended to cut off the flow. Greek authorities recorded 766 new arrivals between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning, up from 192 the previous day. Most arrived on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos. Italy reported an even larger jump in arrivals on Tuesday, when officials there said 1,350 people - mostly from Africa - were rescued from small boats taking the longer migration route over the Mediterranean as the weather warmed up. The EU Commission said on Tuesday that the flows in the last week had reduced…

Three passenger boats return migrants from Lesbos, Chios; desperate migrants continue to cross despite deal. The first migrants deported from Greek islands under a disputed EU-Turkey deal were shipped back to Turkey on Monday in a drive to shut down the main route by which a million people fleeing war and poverty crossed the Aegean Sea in the last year. Under the pact criticised by refugee agencies and human rights campaigners, Ankara will take back all migrants and refugees who enter Greece illegally, including Syrians. In return, the European Union will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with more money, early visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations.

Italy's coast guard said on Thursday it had rescued more than 300 migrants from a packed boat in which they had travelled hundreds of kilometres (miles) from Egypt to the Strait of Sicily. People fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East have been arriving in southern Italian waters for years, usually from Libya, where they pay smugglers for the passage. A spokeswoman for the Italian coast guard said migrants had arrived from Egypt in the past, but much less frequently than from Libya, which is about half as far away by boat. Italy's coast guard and a Spanish aircraft working for European Union border agency Frontex went on Wednesday to the aid of the boat, rescuing 156 men, 51 women and 107 minors.

Two ferries carrying more than 120 migrants returned to Turkey from the Greek island of Lesbos on Friday, in the second round of arrivals under an EU deal with Ankara to stem mass migration to Europe across the Aegean Sea. The accord, which came into force on Monday, aims to help end a chaotic influx into the European Union of migrants and refugees, most fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond, after more than 1 million arrived last year. Around 325 people have now been sent back from the Greek islands under the accord, which the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) has condemned and rights advocates say may violate international law. They are to be sent to a camp near Turkey's border with Bulgaria, to which the UNHCR said it had yet to gain access.