Spanish Government News

Germany's top utility RWE has signed a Letter of Support with the Port Authority of A Coruña to facilitate the scaling-up of the port capacity in support of the Spanish government’s floating wind targets.Working together under a Letter of Support, the partners will investigate the potential for transforming infrastructure at the Port of Coruña, in northwest Spain, into a logistic hub for the marshalling, assembly and deployment of major components for commercial-scale floating…

The Spanish government has tightened its rules around ship-to-ship oil transfers after an uptick in the activity along its coastline.Oil tankers seeking to carry out operations off the Mediterranean and Atlantic shores, even outside territorial waters, will have to seek authorization from the closest Spanish port captaincy, according to a new rule due to come into force 20 days after it was published on March 22.Boats seeking to service these tankers loaded with crude oil, refined products or other chemicals will also have to request specific authorization, the rule said.Fuel trading has been

An underwater pipeline to carry green hydrogen between Barcelona and Marseille will cost around 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion), according to preliminary estimates of the project agreed between Spain, Portugal and France, two sources told Reuters. It comes as an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine has accelerated European plans to bolster renewable energy as an alternative to Russian gas. Spain and Portugal aim to become clean hydrogen hubs and net energy exporters, causing…

Shipping giant Maersk plans to produce up to two million tonnes of e-methanol a year in Spain by 2030 to supply its fleet of cargo ships and reduce its carbon footprint, the Spanish government said on Thursday.The project will require an investment of about 10 billion euros ($9.75 billion), according to Spanish government calculations, and Spain may enter as a strategic investor. An agreement on the project, which will be partly financed by EU recovery funds, was signed on Thursday in Madrid by Maersk CEO Søren Skou and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

The bodies of four migrants, who died on the Atlantic Ocean in an inflatable dinghy with 34 people on board, and a survivor were brought to Spain's Canary Islands, the local maritime rescue service and an NGO said on Sunday."The ship Miguel de Cervantes has recovered the bodies of the four dead people found yesterday 150 miles southwest of Gran Canaria in a dinghy, from which a survivor was also rescued," the maritime rescue service said on Twitter. The sole survivor was an "exhausted 27-year-old man" who was found by a cargo vessel on the dinghy alongside the bodies, according to tweets by Helena Maleno from Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish non-governmental organization that monitors migratory flows.The survivor…

Greece will deliver 50 tons of animal feed to the Togo-flagged ElBeik, which has been stuck at sea for nearly three months in the Mediterranean carrying hundreds of cattle rejected by their buyers amid fears of disease, government sources said on Tuesday.The vessel is expected to sail for Spain once the food transfer is completed in the late evening, an agriculture ministry official told Reuters.Spain’s government could not confirm it was expecting the return of the Elbeik, which left the Spanish port of Tarragona in December carrying nearly 1,800 cattle for sale in Turkey.Turkish authorities rejected the animals and another shipment of 800 Spanish cattle aboard the Lebanon-flagged Karim Allah over concerns they had bovine bluetongue virus, turning the vessels into international pariahs.

Spanish government veterinarians were on Friday inspecting hundreds of cows crammed aboard a ship that returned to port after months at sea in which the animals endured what one NGO described as “hellish” conditions.The Karim Allah docked at the southeastern Spanish port of Cartagena on Thursday after drifting for months through the Mediterranean, struggling to find a buyer for its 895 cattle, which were rejected by several countries over fears they had bovine bluetongue virus.“The inspection will continue throughout today. The information gathered will be analyzed and appropriate decisions will be taken,” the Agriculture Ministry said.If they test positive for the insect-borne bluetongue virus…

At least eight people were drowned after a boat carrying more than 35 migrants from the Maghreb region of North Africa and heading towards the Canary Islands capsized on Tuesday, emergency services said on Wednesday.Four people were found dead late on Tuesday and another four bodies were rescued on Wednesday morning. The emergency services said they were searching for any more missing persons.One of the 28 migrants rescued had to be transferred to a hospital.A Reuters reporter…

A Spanish charity rescue boat sought safe port on Friday after Italy rejected its request to disembark 124 people saved from two migrant rafts in the Mediterranean, the organisation said.Non-governmental organisation (NGO) rescue boats have largely disappeared from the Mediterranean over the last year as governments have tightened controls. Charity ships that have rescued migrants have faced lengthy standoffs in their attempt to disembark those onboard.Barcelona-based NGO Open Arms rescued 55 people from a sinking raft on Thursday, among them two babies, and a further 69 people from another boat during Thursday night, the organisation said on Twitter.Two heavily pregnant women were among those rescued from the second raft…

A Spanish charity rescue boat sought safe port on Friday after Italy rejected its request to disembark 124 people saved from two migrant rafts in the Mediterranean, the organisation said.Non-governmental organisation (NGO) rescue boats have largely disappeared from the Mediterranean over the last year as governments have tightened controls. Charity ships that have rescued migrants have faced lengthy standoffs in their attempt to disembark those onboard.Barcelona-based NGO Open Arms rescued 55 people from a sinking raft on Thursday, among them two babies, and a further 69 people from another boat during Thursday night, the organisation said on Twitter.Two heavily pregnant women were among those rescued from the second raft…

To keep the planet flourishing, 30 percent of Earth needs protection by 2030. Today about eight percent of the ocean and 15 percent of land is protected."We’re on track to reach a global goal of protecting 10 percent of the ocean and 17 percent of the land by 2020, but world leaders need to dramatically boost ambition if we are to protect our natural resources and the people and wildlife that depend on them," said Oceana, an ocean conservation and advocacy organization.Oceana has joined the world’s leading philanthropists and ocean conservation organizations, such as Hansjorg Wyss, the Wyss Foundation and the Wyss Campaign for Nature in encouraging world leaders to commit to protect at least 30 percent of land and sea by 2030.As Mr.

Some of Spain's biggest port terminals came to a standstill on Monday as shipping companies redirected cargos to avoid a dockers' strike. After months of talks between unions, companies and the Spanish government over a reform of port hiring practices, dockers held the first of several planned strikes to protest against possible job losses. Some container shipping firms such as Maersk re-routed boats destined for the southern port of Algeciras to get around the strike, during which dockers will stop working every other hour on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week.

Spanish dock workers on Wednesday called off a planned three-day strike next week after the government said it would delay plans to reform the sector and instead open talks with the unions.   The standstill was due to take place every other hour on Feb. 20, 22 and 24 at dozens of Spanish ports which employ more than 6,000 stevedores and handle an estimated 500 million tonnes of merchandise a year.   The strike was called after the Spanish government announced plans to overhaul the way ports are managed and allow companies to hire their own personnel instead of unionised staff.   Export chains in Spain, especially the car industry, would face a major disruption if a strike of three days or more was to be held. Reporting by Julien Toyer

Key export chains in Spain could face major disruption if a long-running dispute between the government and the country's dock workers extends beyond a planned three-day strike next week, industry sources warned on Thursday. The standstill will take place every other hour on Feb. 20, 22 and 24 at dozens of Spanish ports which employ more than 6,000 stevedores and handle an estimated 500 million tonnes of merchandise a year. "The strike action could cause a lot of problems, not only for the ports but also for the companies," said an administrative source at the busy Mediterranean port of Valencia, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Spain's export sector is worth more than 330 billion euros ($352 billion) a year, or about a third of economic output.

At a meeting of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPCF) this week, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has strongly criticised the judgement of the Spanish Supreme Court in the ‘Prestige’ Case. This judgement (in January 2016, but discussed by the IOPC Funds this week) overturned that of a lower Spanish Court, in La Coruña in 2013, instead finding the Master criminally liable for damages to the environment and sentencing him to two years’ imprisonment (albeit likely to be suspended). It further held that the misconduct deprived the shipowner of the right to limit liability for pollution damage under the 1992 Civil Liability Convention (the “CLC”).

Court says scheme does not give firms selective advantage; EU regulators cracking down on unfair tax systems. Europe's second-highest court gave clearance on Thursday to a Spanish tax lease scheme in the shipbuilding industry, annulling a decision by EU regulators two years ago that this gave a selective advantage to companies and so was illegal state aid. The ruling by the Luxembourg-based General Court underlines the hurdles facing the European Commission in its crackdown on corporate tax avoidance and national programmes that benefit only certain groups. The Spanish scheme involved financing ship construction through a structure with two intermediaries, and allowing shipping companies to get a rebate of 20 to 30 percent on the price of vessels built by Spanish shipyards.

The SENER Engineering and Technology Group closed the 2013 financial year with an operating revenue of €1.218 billion, representing a growth of 7.6% on the previous year. The number of people working at SENER reached 5,570, an increase of 3.8%, and R&D investment was €71.7 million, representing 5.8% of the group's revenue. These figures position SENER as Spain's leading multidisciplinary engineering group in terms of R&D and the development of technologically-differentiated international projects.

Around 120 kilos of shipping fuel has been scraped up off the Spanish Gran Canaria tourist beaches Veneguera, Tasarte and Taurito, the government said on Thursday, after a Russian fuel-laden ship sank off the coast last week. The situation on the beaches would worsen over the next few days, the environmentalist group Greenpeace warned in a separate statement. The Russian vessel Oleg Naydenov, carrying 1,409 tonnes of fuel oil, sank late on Tuesday 15 nautical miles south of Gran Canaria, and is currently leaking 5 - 10 litres of fuel into the sea per hour, according to the Spanish government. The Public Works Ministry has sent a robot submarine down to the wreckage, some 2.4 kilometres deep, to see if the three known leaks in the hull of the ship can be sealed, the government said.

The British government said on Thursday it had summoned Spain's ambassador over what it described as "provocative" activity by the Spanish navy near the disputed territory of Gibraltar. Britain, which runs the rocky outcrop as a British Overseas Territory, said a Spanish Navy vessel had sought to redirect two commercial vessels heading to and from the Port of Gibraltar on Wednesday because they were in Spanish waters. Britain disputed that, saying the vessels were in international waters. "This represents a cynical attempt by the Spanish government to disrupt Gibraltar's economy, in contravention of international law," said David Lidington, Britain's minister for Europe. "I condemn this provocative activity," he said, warning Spain to not let it happen again.

Turnover increased by 8 percent to reach 1.315 billion Euros, with net profit rising by 66 percent to reach 57.8 million Euros. The engineering and technology group SENER ended 2014 with a turnover of 1,315.7 billion Euros; an increase of 8.02 percent over the previous year. The group’s operating result came to 73.3 million Euros, representing an increase of 54.7 percent compared to 2013, and the holding company’s profit reached 57.8 million Euros (an increase of 66.1 percent). The number of people working at SENER has remained almost constant at 5,541 (a decrease of 0.52 percent).

How did you find a career in the maritime industry? As a consequence of my father´s dedication to the industry, as founder of a shipping agency in the early eighties as well as partner in a large shipping company and shipyard´s ownership, I grew up in this atmosphere and orientated my academic training towards being able to continuing what he and his business partners created and developed. Although I did start my professional career dealing with other type of businesses within my family, the core root of our family wealth has always been in the maritime industry.

A Greenpeace ship was detained by Spanish authorities today in the port of Arrecife, Lanzarote, following last Saturday's protest against Repsol’s potential oil drilling in the Canary Islands. Spain’s Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (Ministerio de Fomento) has detained Arctic Sunrise, a ship operated by Greenpeace International, while an investigation is performed into the protest on November 15 which resulted in the injuries of two Greenpeace activists when the Spanish Navy allegedly rammed Arctic Sunrise, Greenpeace said.

Indonesia to have full cooperation in maritime infrastructure development from European countries Spain and Italy, says a report in Jakarta Post. Spanish Ambassador to Indonesia Francisco Jose Viqueira Niel outlined the Spanish government’s cooperation plans with Indonesia in the sector to Indonesian Maritime Affairs Minister Indroyono Soesilo. Spain has become an effective partner with Indonesia in the field of shipbuilding. Spain's plans include a review of the Mina Jaya fishing boat construction program, which was carried out in the 1990s. Recently, a team from Indonesia had been sent to Spain to study the Rodman shipyard in Vigo, Spain, while also preparing for the arrival of four patrol ships to strengthen the Maritime Security Board (Bakamla).