Carry Oil News

Venezuela's oil exports plummeted in January to the lowest level since September amid loading bottlenecks caused by returned and rescheduled crude cargoes, according to internal documents from state-run PDVSA and tanker tracking data.Even as the company and its joint ventures are receiving a stable supply of diluents from Iran that has allow it to increase production, they have struggled to export those volumes because of crude quality issues and the poor condition of storage tanks and port berths.An average of 416…

I don’t remember when I discovered that the first application of lightbulbs occurred at sea rather than ashore. But when I dug a little deeper into the subject recently, I came across an interesting set of coincidences that shows how innovation often relies on simply doing, rather than endlessly talking about it. After Thomas Edison managed to make sufficient improvements to the lightbulb concept to have it show commercial viability in late 1879, he ended up in a chicken and egg conundrum.The lightbulb might be great, but to get it to work would require an electrical power plant.

Ship assessors are resorting to virtual inspections of oil tankers to keep vessels afloat, as the coronavirus pandemic makes physical visits to check for seaworthiness tougher and a slump in fuel demand increases the need for ships as storage.Oil tankers require rigorous inspections twice a year to reduce the risk of oil spills or mechanical collapse with polluting cargoes onboard.But the global pandemic has disrupted international trade, leaving merchant seafarers stuck on ships…

China on Tuesday formally established China Shipbuilding Group, which the country's government-run broadcaster described as the world's largest shipbuilder.The group's establishment, reported by China Central Television (CCTV), comes after Beijing last month approved the merger of the country's two largest shipbuilders, China State Shipbuilding Corp and China Shipbuilding Industry Co.The group has 147 research institutes, business units and listed firms, as well as total assets of 790 billion yuan ($112 billion) and 310,000 workers, CCTV said.

China's cabinet has approved a merger of the country's two largest shipbuilders, China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) and China Shipbuilding Industry Co (CSIC), the country's state asset regulator said on Friday.The companies' products range from aircraft carriers to commercial ships that carry oil and gas.Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk

China's two largest shipbuilders are planning to merge, their listed arms said in separate exchange filings on Monday, the latest to join a wave of mergers among state-owned enterprises as the government overhauls the sector.The move by China Shipbuilding Industry Corp (CSIC) and China State Shipbuilding Corp Ltd (CSSC), is subject to approvals from related authorities and there are still many details to be ironed out before the proposal can be finalized, the filings showed.A slew of units belonging to the two companies…

Chinese buyers of Iranian oil are starting to shift their cargoes to vessels owned by National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC) for nearly all of their imports to keep supply flowing amid the re-imposition of economic sanctions by the United States.The shift demonstrates that China, Iran's biggest oil customer, wants to keep buying Iranian crude despite the sanctions, which were put back after the United States withdrew in May from a 2015 agreement to halt Iran's nuclear program.The United…

Some Russian ships have stopped transporting cargo to Ukraine, deeming it risky after a Russian tanker was detained in a Ukrainian port as Kiev made good on sanctions against Moscow, two sources at shipowners said.It is the latest fallout from Russia's annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014 and the emergence of a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine.The Mekhanik Pogodin oil tanker, under the Russian flag, has been moored in the port of Kherson since Aug. 10, Reuters ship tracking data shows.A spokeswoman for a regional unit of the Ukrainian state security service (SBU) said the tanker had been detained in the port and prevented from offloading because its owner is on a list of sanctions imposed by Kiev."We are just following the law…

China's cabinet has given preliminary approval to merge the country's two largest shipbuilders, China State Shipbuilding Corp with China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.   It said the move, which will create a firm that will dwarf its South Korean rivals such as Hyundai Heavy Industries Co , could still be subject to change as many details needed to be ironed out by ministries and regulators.   The two companies have multiple shipyards across China whose products range from aircraft carriers to commercial ships which carry oil and gas.   Reporting by Brenda Goh

Statoil awards Simon Møkster Shipping AS contracts for three emergency response and rescue vessels (ERRV), and Havila Shipping ASA for one ERRV. The contacts have a total value, included options, of NOK 2.7 billion. The vessels will be part of Statoil’s area-wide emergency response on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The emergency response vessels play an important role in addressing government authorities’ and the company’s own requirements for rescue, hospital, fire-fighting, emergency towing and oil spill preparedness. “Statoil has an extensive emergency preparedness system on the NCS, and through the contracts we have secured four vessels that are tailored to our waters.

It may be the world's biggest traffic jam. As ports struggle to cope with a global oil glut, huge queues of supertankers have formed in some of the world's busiest sea lanes, where some 200 million barrels of crude lies waiting to be loaded or delivered. The vessels, filled with oil worth around $7.5 billion at current market prices, would stretch for almost 40 km (25 miles) if formed up in one straight line. One captain with more than 20 years at sea told Reuters his tanker had been anchored off Qingdao in northeastern China since late March and was unlikely to dock before the end of this week, a frustrating delay of more than three weeks.

Canada will push ahead with a moratorium on oil tanker traffic along the northern coast of British Columbia, effectively slamming the door on a controversial pipeline project that was already facing massive development hurdles. In a letter released on Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed Transport Minister Marc Garneau to work with numerous other ministries to "formalize" the ban on oil tanker traffic, a Liberal campaign promise ahead of the federal elections last month.

Canada moved on Tuesday to strengthen its response plan for oil spills at sea ahead of the development of new pipelines that would sharply increase tanker traffic in Canadian waters if they are built. Among the new measures, the federal government said it would remove a per-incident liability cap on a domestic clean-up fund, which means that all the money in the fund could be made available to clean up a single spill. It also pledged to cover spill costs if clean-up funds were exhausted. It also said it will lift its ban on the use of dispersants in cases when using them offers a net environmental benefit. Dispersants are chemicals that break down oil slicks but can also harm marine life.

Six years after applying to build the Keystone XL pipeline, Canada's frustrated oil industry appears steadfast in its support of the plan even though Washington has again delayed a decision on whether to approve the politically charged project. The reason is simple: A massive new pipeline to the U.S. Gulf Coast remains the most elegant solution for producers looking to export burgeoning supplies of crude from Canada's oil sands to the United States. TransCanada Corp's $5.4 billion pipeline would seamlessly pump enough crude from Alberta to Texas to meet 4 percent of total U.S. demand. "We're definitely supportive of the project," said Brad Bellows, a spokesman for MEG Energy Corp, which produces crude from Alberta's oil sands though it has not committed to ship on Keystone.

The ports of Antwerp (Belgium) and Rotterdam (Netherlands) propose to collaborate in construction of a linking pipeline bundle. One year ago the respective port authorities announced that they would collaborate in studying the possibilities of further developing pipeline connections between the two ports. Since then they have mapped out a route and drawn up a joint cost estimate for building a set of pipelines running in parallel. In the near future the port authorities will use…

A top Kazakhstan's official said on Monday that fears of tanker congestion in the Bosphorus and Dardanelles waterways resulting from increased Kazakh oil exports were unfounded and safety standards would be respected. The Bosphorus, crossed annually by some 50,000 vessels, of which 14 percent carry oil, will see more tanker traffic from the Russian port of Novorossiisk when oil is loaded from a new pipeline leading from Kazakhstan's giant Tengiz field. "This (congestion) issue is a far-fetched one, and we are ready to cooperate and be responsible for respecting all safety and ecological norms," the official said. The Turkish government…

It’s a fact: Emission Control Areas (ECA) clean up the air that we breathe. It’s also a good bet that someday, ECAs might be the primary cause of dirtier water. That’s because the physical act of switching from fuel oil to cleaner burning distillates on oceangoing craft is anything but a routine event for some vessels. But, don’t take our word for it – the State of California does a pretty good job of recordkeeping, and the numbers don’t lie. It’s probably a good thing, then, that the U.S.

Applicability: Non-tank vessels of 400 gt or more of any flag, which are self-propelled, carrying oil of any kind as fuel, and bound for a port or place in the U.S. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has published a Final Rule which took effect on 30 October, 2013, requiring owners or operators of non-tank vessels to submit oil spill response plans (known as Non-Tank Vessel Response Plans (NTVRPs)) by January 30, 2014. Non-tank vessels are vessels other than tank vessels. Tank vessels are generally defined as those constructed or adapted to carry oil in bulk as cargo or as oil cargo residue. The NTVRP Rule updates, and aligns with, the existing IMO and US MARPOL Annex I requirements for a Shipboard Oil Pollution and Emergency Plan (SOPEP)…

Two recent shipping incidents in BC Canada waters have heightened the fears of the Gitga’at First Nation facing the prospect of the world’s largest oil-tankers passing right past their village of Hartley Bay. Enbridge has teamed up with other multinational oil giants to build the Northern Gateway Pipeline to carry oil from Alberta’s tar sands to a port in Kitimat where it would be loaded onto tankers roughly double the size of the infamous Exxon Valdez. The shipping lanes proposed by Enbridge plunge straight through the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest and prime whale habitat. In the first incident, a cruise ship docked in Vancouver with a dead Fin whale impaled on its bow. This second largest animal on Earth, is especially vulnerable to being struck by ships.

The United States Coast Guard issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on August 31, 2009 on long-awaited new regulations concerning the following: (i) requiring owners and operators of nontank vessels to prepare and submit oil spill nontank vessel response plans (NTVRPs); (ii) updating the international Shipboard Oil Pollution Emergency Plan (SOPEP) requirements; and (iii) requiring owners and operators to submit their vessel response plan control numbers with their notice of arrival information. Comments are due on or before November 30, 2009. As explained in a previous Blank Rome advisory available at http://www.blankrome.com/index.cfm? contentID=37&itemID=82, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2004 (Pub.

Palmali announced that the company plans to move its office from Malta to Istanbul in 2008. The Company also announced plans to invest $1.3b in the construction of oil tankers, which will be used to carry oil from Baku – Ceyhan pipeline from Turkey. [Source: http://www.seanews.ru]

State officials are negotiating modifications of state oil and gas royalty terms on offshore Beaufort Sea leases held by Eni US Operating Inc. Most of Eni's leases on the project now require a 16.6 percent royalty on gross production revenues. Some leases are 12.5 percent gross royalty with an additional 30 percent share of net profits paid to the state. Eni is proposing to develop heavy oil from one shallow reservoir interval and conventional light oil from a deeper reservoir section in the project, which underlies shallow waters offshore the producing Kuparuk River field on the North Slope. Eni has told state officials it hopes to secure corporate approval for development by the end of 2007 and have Nikaitchuq in production in 2009. On Oct.

The U.S. Coast Guard issued a Notice announcing the availability of interim guidelines for the development and review of plans for responding to a discharge, or threat of a discharge, of oil from nontank vessels. The guidance, Navigation and Vessel Inspection Circular (NVIC) 01-05, applies to all self-propelled vessels of 400 gross tons or greater, other than tank vessels, that carry oil of any kind as fuel for main propulsion and that are either vessels of the United States or foreign vessels operating on U.S. navigable waters (internal waters or within the 3-nm territorial sea). Tonnage is measured in accordance with the International Tonnage Convention (ITC). 70 Fed. Reg. 7955 (HK Law).