Turkey News

Iran has released the oil cargo of a Greek-owned, Marshall-Islands-flagged tanker it seized in the Gulf of Oman earlier this year, a shipping source told Reuters on Thursday.The vessel, M/T St. Nikolas, is still being held by Iran, the source added. It was laden with 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil destined for Turkey when it was seized."The cargo was released earlier this week after negotiations," the source said.Turkish refiner Tupras said in a statement that the St. Nikolas…

A Palau-flagged general cargo vessel has been detained in Israel after "inhumane" crew conditions were discovered during an onboard inspection. The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) said the vessel Serafina is the worst its inspector Assaf Hadar has ever seen in four years of inspecting ships in Israel.When Hader boarded the ship, he found food storage freezers all at above 0°c, the stench of rotten meat, a bug infestation, broken sanitation facilities, among other inhuman conditions.

Prosecutors in the Italian city of Crotone said on Tuesday they have informed six police and coastguard officers that they may face trial over alleged failures to avoid amigrant shipwreck that killed at least 94 people.The move was denounced by Italy's right-wing government who defended the two coastguards and four police officers."Not only do they risk their lives every day to save others, but they even run the risk of being arrested in the event of a disaster," said Matteo Salvini…

Indian sub-continent ship recycling markets remain decidedly dicey as both currencies and local steel plate prices in India and Bangladesh declined even further this week, reports cash buyer GMS.“Vessel prices and demand take on a whole new meaning of industrywide suffering, especially with Turkey and Pakistani ship recycling markets still being remanded at the same resort over recent weeks.”The political situation in the Middle East will also continue to restrict the supply of vessels for the immediate future / likely until Q4…

Turkey will send an exploration vessel off the coast of Somalia later this year to search for oil and gas as part of a hydrocarbon cooperation deal between two countries, Turkish energy ministry said on Thursday."We will send our Oruc Reis vessel at the end of September, or early October to Somalia. It will conduct a significant seismic study there, which can last for months," Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.Two of the three blocks, were some 50 kilometres off the Somalia coast…

Ottomotive Tech has joined the global community of maritime battery enablers, the Maritime Battery Forum.Founded in 2021, Ottomotive Tech gives support for products, engineering and consultancy in different sectors such as maritime, automotive, telecommunication and energy storage systems. The company’s expertise comprises of system engineering from scratch to pre-serial production, followed by production, test, homologation and delivery processes of requested products. Their…

Dutch shipbuilder Damen has signed a contract with Toyota Tsusho for the delivery of four vessels to support the port development project in Namibe, Angola.The order consists of two ASD Tugs 2813, a Pushy Cat 1004 and a Stan Pilot 1905. The vessels will be provided to the Ministry of Transport Angola as part of a Japanese Government funded port development project.Damen will deliver the vessels in the first quarter of 2025.The shipbuilder had already commenced construction of the vessels at Damen Shipyards Gorinchem…

Ship traffic in Turkey's Bosphorus Strait is set to resume for northbound vessels as of 1440 GMT, after a suspension earlier on Wednesday due to an operation failure during the towing of a vessel, the Tribeca shipping agency said.(Reuters - Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun, Editing by Huseyin Hayatsever and Andrew Heavens)

The Russian navy's Black Sea Fleet has been forced to rebase nearly all its combat-ready warships from occupied Crimea to other locations, and its main naval hub is becoming ineffectual because of attacks by Kyiv, Ukraine's navy chief said.Vice-Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa said Ukrainian missile and naval drone strikes had caused heavy damage to the Sevastopol base, a logistics hub for repairs, maintenance, training and ammunition storage among other important functions for Russia."They were established over many decades, possibly centuries.

It has been another tentative time in the global ship recycling markets as overall this week, reports cash buyer GMS, as sale and purchase activity and local arrivals / deliveries reported minimal movements at the various waterfronts.Indian sub-continent ship recyclers are approaching the monsoon season with a ‘wait-&-watch’ mindset prior to committing afresh on tonnage, especially since virtually all sub-continent recyclers have taken in their respectable shares of tonnage over…

Dutch offshore vessel owner Acta Marine has announced the expansion into French maritime and offshore energy market with the newbuild construction service operations vessel (CSOV) named Acta Pegasus.The fourth vessel in Acta Marine’s fleet, currently under construction in Turkey, will fly the French flag, showcasing the company’s commitment to the French maritime industry and the intention to further strengthen its foothold in France.The CSOV, named Acta Pegasus, is of Ulstein SX216 design, and features an optimized hull and ability to use (e- )methanol as main fuel According to Acta Marine, t

Across the industry this week, the ongoing and disastrous state of affairs in both Bangladesh and Pakistan on opposite ends, coupled with the onset of the customarily slower summer / monsoon months, has increasingly descended the Indian sub-continent ship recycling markets into a tighter squeeze, reports cash buyer GMS.India too shuffles through the impact of its recent election results, and Turkey is in wait for any signs of tonnage coming their way.“A natural byproduct of such a depreciation has been the increasingly marginal number of units arriving sub-continent port positions every week…

Saving migrants from one of the shipwrecks that have left dozens dead or missing off Italy's shores involved walking through bodies to find barely alive survivors, the NGO captain involved in one of the rescues said on Tuesday.One boat with 51 survivors and 10 bodies was intercepted about 90 kilometres (56 miles) south of the island of Lampedusa, while another was spotted about 200 kilometres east of the southern Italian region of Calabria.Eleven survivors from the second shipwreck and the body of a woman were taken ashore on Monday…

Cash buyer GMS predicts a knuckle-biter of a third quarter for ship recycling, given that:• (confusing) budgets were announced in Bangladesh and Pakistan this week• taxes and duties are to be imposed on FO / LO on incoming vessels in Bangladesh  • India’s first post-election budget is due in July under the freshly formed coalition government• Alang recyclers are still fresh in the wake of post-election abnormalities that are expected to become the norm• a Turkish market that is…

Russian oil exporters are charging more for their oil in major market India than at any time since the war in Ukraine started as a growing number of shippers and intermediaries take part in the trade, weakening the impact of Western sanctions on Moscow.The exporters have had to offer deep discounts to encourage shipping companies and traders to move their crude and brave the risk of sanctions since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.Among the restrictions…

Russian navy ships churned into Havana harbor on Wednesday, a stopover the U.S. and Cuba said posed no threat but which was widely seen as a Russian show of force as tensions rise over the Ukraine war.Small groups of fishermen and curious onlookers lined the Malecon seafront boulevard in light rain to welcome the ships as they passed the 400-year old Morro castle at the harbor's entrance.The first to arrive was a fuel ship, the Akademik Pashin and a tug, the Nikolay Chiker, while…

An eventful week in the ship recycling industry saw the announcement of the Bangladeshi budget surprisingly deliver negative news for Chattogram’s ship recycling sector, reports cash buyer GMS.“Bangladesh’s proposed budget has surprisingly fallen short of appreciating, assessing, or even addressing the extent of the nation’s ongoing economic crises via establishing realistic targets and measures needed to correct recently erupted financial abnormalities,” says GMS.The Taka declined further against the U.S.

Norwegian shipbuilder Vard has secured a new contract for the design and construction of a stern trawler for Havbryn, part of fishing boat company Strand Rederiet.The vessel will be of Vard 8 02 trawler design, outfitted for semi-pelagic and bottom-trawling operations with gentle handling to meet the latest demands for fish health management, efficiency, and environmentally friendly operations.The new vessel will have a length of 80,4 meters and a beam of 16,7 meters. The hull is ice strengthened according to Ice-1A.

As May comes to an end, increasing vessel prices on the back of a firming demand from Alang recyclers has now seen local steel plate prices climb nearly $45/ton, reports cash buyer GMS.“Notwithstanding, an all too familiar lack of decent quality tonnage available to global recyclers to sink their teeth into, remains blisteringly omnipresent as the industry ventures into the traditionally quieter monsoon months and freight sectors appear to be performing firmly once again, depriving recycling destinations of meaningful tonnage yet again…

Esgian provides an update on rig sales and the shrinking pool of vintage semisubs in its Week 22 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsNoble Corporation has secured a new well intervention contract with Harbour Energy in UK waters of the North Sea for the 350-ft jackup Noble Resilient.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesThe recently drilled offshore production well at the Kupe oil and gas field in New Zealand is underperforming despite a recent wireline well intervention.BW…

As the summer / monsoon months creep closer, ship recycling markets in Turkey and the Indian sub-continent have been firming over recent weeks, reports cash buyer GMS.“Pakistan, though still relatively firm, feels sluggishly satiated of late having taken in a healthy collection of vessels / LDT (for this market’s size).” Despite having bested last year’s recycling volumes with another three fresh arrivals this week, it continues to endure a rather glum outlook as its demand and…

Following on from last week’s unexpected shock via the intentional depreciation in the value of the Bangladeshi Taka, it has been an altogether quieter week of sales and activity in the country, says cash buyer GMS.Domestic ship recyclers are evaluating the potential costs and implications of further depreciations, given that the Taka slipped further into BDT 117 territory against the U.S. Dollar this week. “As Bangladesh’s outflow of foreign currency reserves increases once again…

Romanian rescue teams were searching on Saturday for three missing crew members of a cargo ship that sank off the Black Sea coast, the naval authority said.Officials said they were notified very early on Saturday that the Tanzania-flagged Mohammad Z had sunk 26 nautical miles away from Romania's Danube village of Sfantu Gheorghe.The naval authority's Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), border police and two commercial vessels in the ship's vicinity were involved in the search and rescue efforts.Mohammad Z had eleven crew members on board, nine Syrian citizens and two Egyptians."Eight o