|  The Cypriot-flagged Ionian King was carrying 1,200 Libyan evacuees when 49 passengers used rope to descend into the water under the veil of night while docked at the Greek island of Crete. At least 3 are confirmed dead due to drowning and hypothermia, 15 missing, and 18 hospitalized after local residents alerted Greek authorities that people were spotted in the waters. More of the Bangladeshis have possibly made it to the shore and escaped inland.
All 49 of these evacuees were Bangladeshi employees of Korean company Daewoo stationed in Tripoli, Libya. Dozens of other refugees attempted to flee the vessel. Officials are quoted as saying that the Bangladeshis are avoiding being ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  The Interlake Steamship Company is pleased to announce the renaming of the M/V Charles M. Beeghly in recognition of the Honorable James L. Oberstar, retired United States Congressman from the State of Minnesota.
The Vessel will sail from layup this March as the M/V Hon. James L. Oberstar, and will be rechristened later this spring. Details of the rechristening will be released as arrangements are finalized.
Congressman Oberstar is a distinguished Minnesota legislator and legislative leader who dedicated nearly half a century to service in the U.S. House of Representatives. Congressman Oberstar’s tenure on Capitol Hill stretched over 36 years as a Member of Congress and 11 years ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  50 miles off the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana, a non-producing GI 102A oil platform owned by Arena Offshore caught fire Sunday morning.
Two men were aboard the temporarily defunct rig and were rescued by a good Samaritan vessel, the HDS Stormridge when found floating in a life capsule in the water trying to escape the platform fire.
The U.S. Coast Guard then responded by hoisting the only 2 men who were aboard the rig from the rescue ship by helicopter and brought them to the West Jefferson Medical Center in Louisiana where they were evaluated and believed to be without injury, though there is no official report ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  Japanese-owned and Bahamian-flagged oil tanker MV Guanabara was seized on Saturday by pirates of an undisclosed nationality 328 nautical miles southeast of Duqm, Oman.
The tanker crew of 24 took refuge in the vessel’s citadel after 4 pirates boarded the ship. Crewmembers thereafter sent out a distress call, which was heard by the multinational coalition known as the Combined Maritime Force. The USS Bulkeley Navy destroyer, assigned to the Combined Task Force 151 counterpiracy mission, was dispatched by the U.S. Central command backed by Turkish NATO warship, the TCG Giresun.
Bulkeley’s specialist boarding team climbed aboard the Guanabara on Saturday and without any exchange of fire detained the ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) today released the findings of its investigation into allegations that BP Exploration and Oil, Inc. (BP) did not maintain required copies of engineer-approved drawings for its Atlantis oil and gas platform operating in the Gulf of Mexico. The investigation stemmed from an April 2009 lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act by a former BP contractor. The former contractor alleged that BP did not properly maintain the engineer-approved “as built” drawings of systems and structures aboard the Atlantis facility. The contractor alleged that the absence of the documentation created increased safety risks for the facility and to its personnel.
The investigation included ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  After being unable to dock in Tripoli, a cargo ship carrying around $160 million of Libyan currency was impounded in British water and escorted to the port of Harwich in eastern England due to security concerns.
A number of containers have been unloaded from the vessel by the UK Border Agency, and the currency is subject to UN sanction.
The UK has already frozen about 2 billion pounds worth of Libyan assets, initially only freezing money accessed by Gaddafi and his immediate family. The assets halt has now been extended to 26 individuals within Gaddafi’s inner circle, denying access to bank notes and accounts which is hoped to aid ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  The US Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration has successfully reached an agreement with the Department of Energy (DOE) on the application of cargo preference requirements to the DOE loan guarantee program. The Maritime Administration’s cargo preference requirements allow for U.S. flag ocean carriers, hiring U.S. crews, to bid on at least 50 percent of cargoes shipped as part of a federally-financed project. These requirements allow at least 75 percent for the case of food-aid cargoes, and 100 percent for military cargoes. In an effort to resolve a difference of legal opinion, the two Agencies engaged in a dialogue over a period of months to address the issue, and have agreed as a matter of policy ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  The ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has recently seen a rise in the number of Nigerian oil frauds reported to them.
Over the first few weeks of 2011, several ship owners have reported receiving unsolicited messages from parties who claim to have been offered cargoes on board their vessels. Most often these cargoes are shipments of Nigerian crude oil that the senders say are being offered by mysterious middlemen. Owners immediately recognise these messages as fraudulent ̶ not least because the vessel is often in a different part of the world at the time.
Whilst ship owners are knowledgeable enough to disregard these messages, their vessel have sometimes been ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  The French Frigate NIVOSE has joined the EUNAVFOR.
Commanded by Commander Dard, the ship and its crew are fully prepared and trained to take an active part within EU NAVFOR and in all counter piracy operations. It is the second time that FS NIVOSE has taken part in Operation ATALANTA. The warship is equipped with extensive self defence measures and is equipped with a Panther helicopter.
As a flexible warship, FS NIVOSE is perfectly adapted to counter-piracy missions and will improve the capability of EUNAVFOR.
F-732 NIVOSE holds 102 crew members, including 14 officers. She has been commissioned for service in the French Navy since ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  Two leading wheat export terminals have halted shipments due to wage protests by the Argentine workers.
Port workers have suspended tugboat services in Bahia Blanca and Quequen, south of the province Buenos Aires, paralyzing two major soy processing terminals in Rosario.
Union leader Omar Suarez says in addition to higher wages, the workers wish the exporters to utilize a logistics company for hiring its members. The grain exporters have agreed to negotiate with the workers, even though it is months ahead of traditional negotiations, as one of the biggest agricultural hubs in the world needs to get back to business, especially after the 2010/11 harvest was completed last ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  Current senior vice president of sales and distribution for the Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Disney Cruise Line EMEA region has been selected to help run the Carnival-owned Italian Costa Cruises on March 28th.
Norbert Stiekema will be assuming the position of executive vice president for global sales, including Italy, France, Benelux, Spain, Portugal, Germany, UK, Central America, South America, and Asia-Pacific.
Structural managerial changes and adding a big time player like Disney’s Stiekema has been decided by Costa Cruises in response to the current social media boom, hoping to cater to new and prevalent digital distribution channels to help maintain its leading position.
Stiekema ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  Leading towage and salvage specialist Multraship has salvaged the fishing trawler Nieuwpoort 28 (N28) which capsized off Dunkirk on March 1, using its recently upgraded floating sheerlegs Cormorant to successfully complete a challenging operation.
The trawler capsized twenty miles off the French/Belgian coast. It was upside-down in the water and the French and Belgian Coastguards mobilised a Search & Rescue operation during which Navy divers searched the vessel but were unable to find any of the trawler’s three crew members – two brothers and their brother-in-law, all from the close-knit Zeeland fishing community.
On March 3, Multraship was awarded the salvage contract. It mobilised its Multratug 18, which held ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  Keppel AmFELS LLC, a US wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), has won a contract from Mexico's Perforadora Central SA de CV (Perforadora Central) to build a repeat jackup rig valued at about US$195 million.
Slated for delivery in 1Q 2013, this latest high specification unit will be based on the LeTourneau Super 116E design. Unlike the existing LeTourneau Super 116Es, this will be the first Super 116E newbuild to be further enhanced to provide for an additional 1,500 kips of elevated load. It will have leg lengths of 511 ft and the capability to drill wells up to 30,000 ft at a water depth of 375 ft. ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  The first upgraded Wärtsilä RT-flex68-D engine equipped with a Variable Turbine Geometry (VTG) turbocharger was successfully tested at Doosan Engine Co Ltd in South Korea. It is fully compliant with the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Tier II regulations.
The engine has a slimmer outline to better suit installation requirements for container ships. Moreover, the engine provides extended flexibility over a broader load range when equipped with a VTG turbocharger. The tested engine is the first of eight for installation in eight ships for a Chinese owner at a Chinese shipyard. The engine has a contracted maximum continuous power of 21,910 kW at 95 rpm.
The main objective in ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  Patrick J. O’Hern has joined Donjon Marine Co., Inc.’s Shipbuilding and Repair as a consultant. He brings more than 35 years of shipyard experience in the Great Lakes region to this position as a result of his longtime employment at Bay Shipbuilding Company located in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, where he last served as Vice President and General Manager.
“We are pleased to announce the addition of Pat O’Hern and we welcome his experience and history of success to the Donjon management team. Under Pat's leadership, many vessels constructed within the Great Lakes were built specifically for a number of coastal markets, so his success in both fresh and salt water markets is ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  BMT Fleet Technology, of Ottawa, Ontario has announced its collaboration with the University of Victoria to design and deliver North America’s first ever hybrid, electric research ship. The vessel, formerly known as CCG Tsekoa II, will be used by the University as a research facility off the British Columbia (BC) coast to investigate changing coastal ecosystems, marine resources and continental shelf and slope dynamics.
Funding in excess of $10 million has been provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the BC Knowledge Development Fund and other partners, including industry. Kim Juniper, Lead Scientist on the project comments: “As a national and international leader in the study of the oceans we are always ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  Complete search and rescue cover around Africa’s coast was secured on Thursday (3 March 2011) with the signing, in the presence of representatives from Cape Verde, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Morocco and Senegal, of an ad-hoc multi-lateral co-operative agreement on the North and West African sub-regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), which establishes a new Morocco MRCC near Rabat, with its associated sub-centres.
The Morocco sub-regional MRCC, located at Bouznika, a seaside area 20 Km from Rabat, will join those already commissioned in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2006; in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2007; in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2008; and in Monrovia, Liberia, in 2009, thus completing the final link in ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  Wärtsilä, the marine industry's leading solutions provider, has been awarded a contract by shipbuilding company STX Finland Oy to supply the propulsion machinery for a new passenger ferry to be built for Viking Line, a Finnish ship owner.
The vessel will be the largest passenger ferry to operate on liquefied natural gas (LNG), making it the most environmentally sound and energy efficient large passenger vessel in the industry to date. The ship will be built at the STX Turku shipyard, in Finland, and is scheduled to enter service in 2013. The vessel will sail between Turku and Stockholm, Sweden in the Baltic Sea. The agreement includes an option for the supply ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  Datacom, a leading provider of mission-critical communications to the maritime, energy, and government sectors, announced that it has acquired the offshore and international operations of TanMar Communications, LLC. TanMar is a diversified telecommunications company that provides expert solutions in satellite communications, two-way radio systems, SCADA backhaul and video systems. Included in the acquisition are key personnel and leased facilities located in Larose, LA, a strategic hub for the maritime oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. With the addition of TanMar, Datacom strengthens its ability to help companies better communicate with their remote assets all over the world.
“We’re excited about what this means for the customer,” said ... Read More>>>Back to Top |  For the seventh time in an eight-year history, Signal International will receive the ‘Excellence In Safety Award’ for 2010 from the Shipbuilders Council of America, on April 5th, in Washington, DC.
The Shipbuilders Council of America is the largest and most broad-based national trade association representing the US shipyard/marine construction industry. More than 43 companies operating over 100 shipyards and marine facilities comprise its membership.
Each year the Council issues safety awards to companies whose incident rates are below the association's collective average. For the calendar year of 2010, Signal had a total OSHA recordable incident rate of 0.83, compared to the latest industry average (from OSHA and the ... Read More>>>Back to Top | | |
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