United States Maritime Administration News

BWMS User Guide lays out path to compliance over lifetime of installationThe Ship Operations Cooperative Program (SOCP) has released the Ballast Water Management Systems (BWMS) User Guide. Developed by Glosten in cooperation with the SOCP Members and support from the United States Maritime Administration (MARAD), the guide simplifies the complex regulatory framework around ballast water management and provides step-by-step methods for integrating and operating a compliant BWMS.The guide is geared primarily toward U.S.

Global commodities trader Trafigura said on Friday it had formed a joint venture with U.S. refiner Phillips 66 to build a major deepwater port in Texas capable of handling supertankers, ditching its own competing project.The Bluewater Texas Terminal, which will be located 21 nautical miles east of the entrance to Corpus Christi port, will consist of two single point mooring buoys that can load Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) capable of carrying around 2 million barrels of oil.Geneva…

The United States Maritime Administration website has renewed its warning about threats to U.S. commercial vessels from Iran and its proxies in the Gulf and surrounding area.The notification, valid from Monday to Jan 13., is not substantially different from an initial warning issued on Friday. "There remains the possibility of Iranian action against U.S. maritime interests in the region," both notices said.(Writing by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Alison Williams)

Dallas-based oil and gas company Sentinel Midstream is planning to develop a deepwater crude oil export terminal, located near Freeport, Texas. The completed facility will be capable of fully loading Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) vessels.Texas GulfLink will include an onshore terminal with up to 18 million barrels of storage, an offshore 42-in. pipeline, and a manned offshore platform to facilitate port operations with two  Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring (CALM) Single Point Mooring (SPM) buoys. Projected export loading rates will be up to 85,000 barrels per hour, with a nominal capacity of 1.2 million barrels per day over the course of a calendar year.“Texas GulfLink will provide the United States with an economical solution to clear the over-supply barrels destined for the Gulf Coast…

After 10 years at the helm, Harry Bolton handed over command of the Training Ship Golden Bear Wednesday at California State University Maritime Academy.Bolton, a 1978 graduate of the Academy, returned to Cal Maritime on May 1, 2008 after a 30-year career with American Maritime Officers. Twenty of those years were with American Overseas Marine Corporation (AMSEA) aboard the original preposition ships based out of Guam, Saipan and Diego Garcia. Bolton began sailing as Master in 1985, only seven years after graduation.Dr.

HudsonAnalytix, Inc. and its subsidiary HudsonCyber have completed a U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) Cargo Handling Cooperative Program (CHCP) grant to perform cybersecurity capability assessment workshops at three U.S. ports. HudsonAnalytix’s HACyberLogix-informed assessment approach enabled these ports to cost-effectively assess their entire organizational cybersecurity capabilities and identify cybersecurity capability vulnerabilities. The results from these workshops will support MARAD CHCP in leading the adoption of cyber risk management best practices across the U.S. port industry.

The Honghua Group Limited has awarded a $12 million front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to Wood for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) platform development in the West Delta area of the Gulf of Mexico. The main objective of the FEED is to finalize the design of the world’s first offshore platform-based natural gas liquefaction and storage facility. Wood recently completed the pre-FEED for this project. Wood’s scope of work includes the onshore gas pre-treatment plant configuration and layouts, general utilities, feed gas processing and compression, and transportation and delivery via repurposed pipelines from the existing onshore Toca and Venice, Louisiana, facilities to the LNG facility 10 miles offshore.

Container-on-barge services have returned to the Port of Greater Baton Rouge to provide the petrochemical industry with another option to move its products. Operated by SEACOR AMH, the service transports empty containers by barge into the Port of Greater Baton Rouge and loads them at the Inland Rivers Marine Terminal with products from nearby industries. The IRMT is located on a slack water canal off the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Port Allen. The second leg of the service delivers and returns containers to and from the Port of New Orleans, via the Mississippi River.

After more than two years of phased construction, officials at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa formally dedicated their nearly $12 million dock renovation project Tuesday. Featured speakers for the dedication ceremony were Chip Jaenichen, Administrator for United States Maritime Administration; Gary Ridley, Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation; Michael Patterson, Executive Director for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation; and Bob Portiss, Port Director of the City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority…

Radio Holland, part of the newly formed company RH Marine Group, has recently completed the installation of new radar and ECDIS equipment on the bridge of TS Golden Bear, the training ship of the California Maritime Academy. Radio Holland was awarded an initial contract from The United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) in March for replacing the gyroscopes and gyrocompass repeaters. Radio Holland then successfully tendered for a second MARAD contract for the radars and ECDIS in June.

Crowley Maritime Corp. has formalized two new groups, Government Services and Global Ship Management, in a move that aims to better streamline its offerings to the growing government services sector and to continue expanding its global ship management business. The two new, standalone business segments, which were previously imbedded in other company business units, will allow Crowley and its personnel to better serve customers in these contracting segments. Leading the new business units are industry veterans Mike Golonka…

United States Maritime Administration tours Maritime Technology and Training Center site. Administrators from the United States Maritime Administration (MARAD), along with staff from United States Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, recently visited the construction site of the Maritime Technology and Training Center, where they received a glimpse of one of the region's only waterfront campuses being built specifically for mariner training and as a home to the state's first maritime transportation associate degree program. Michael Rodriguez, MARAD deputy maritime administrator; Shawn Ireland, MARAD director of Office of Ship Disposal Programs…

London International Shipping Week 2015 (LISW15) is pleased to announce the line up, so far, of high level government and industry speakers for the official LISW15 Conference being held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane, on Thursday 10th September. The conference will begin with Jeremy Penn, Chairman of the LISW15 Steering Group and Chief Executive of The Baltic Exchange, formally welcoming everyone to the event before handing over to The Rt Honourable The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Alan Yarrow who will then address the Conference alongside a Senior UK Government Minister. This session will focus on World…

London International Shipping Week 2015 (LISW) is delighted to announce that Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Singapore’s Minister for Transport, has confirmed that he will speak at the official LISW Conference on 10th  September 2015 at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane. Mr Lui Tuck Yew will speak in the session on: “National, Supranational and Global Governance – The role of governments in a global maritime industry: Should governments lend their support and how can they participate in growing their domestic sectors? Welcoming the announcement, Jeremy Penn, CEO of The Baltic Exchange and Chairman of the LISW Steering Group, said: “We are thrilled to be getting such tremendous support internationally.

Paul “Chip” Jaenichen was appointed by President Obama and sworn in as Maritime Administrator on July 25, 2014. Before his appointment, Administrator Jaenichen served as Acting Administrator beginning in June 2013. He joined the U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration in July 2012 when he was appointed Deputy Maritime Administrator. A career naval officer, retiring in 2012 after serving 30 years as nuclear trained Submarine Officer in the U.S. Navy, Jaenichen’s…

The design and construction of WWII Liberty cargo ships revolutionized shipbuilding by overhauling the blueprint process and standardizing on commonality of parts, welding, pre-fabrication and assembly line construction. Give me Liberty, or give me death!” a rallying cry of the Revolutionary War, got a second act in World War II. “Built by the mile and chopped off by the yard,” Roosevelt promised the no-frills Liberties would form a “bridge of ships” across the Atlantic. And they did. An exaggeration perhaps, but in truth, the Liberty wasn’t much to write home about.

President Barack Obama has announced his intent to nominate David T. Matsuda, Administrator, Maritime Administration, Department of Transportation. David T. Matsuda has been serving as Deputy Administrator and Acting Administrator of the United States Maritime Administration since July 2009. He is a transportation professional with more than a decade of experience in federal transportation policy, programs and oversight. Prior to his current position, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), where he served as a chief policy advisor and focused on issues including surface transportation reauthorization…

During the Subcommittee on Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation hearing on President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Requests for the United States Coast Guard, United States Maritime Administration and Federal Maritime Commission, Chairman Elijah E. “The Subcommittee convenes today to examine the fiscal year 2010 budget requests for the Coast Guard, Federal Maritime Commission, and the federal Maritime Administration. The President has requested just under $9.5 billion in fiscal year 2010 to fund the U.S. Coast Guard. This request would provide an increase of approximately $371 million – 4.1 percent – over the service’s enacted fiscal year 2009 budget.

Henry Hillman, Jr., president of American West Steamboat in Seattle, announced early in December that Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, Inc., had been selected to build the “Empress of the North,” a 360 by 60 ft. sternwheeler that will be the Whidbey Island, Washington’s yard largest single-boat contract. The vessel, which will accommodate 236 overnight cruise guests and 84 crewmembers, will be utilized for cruises in season in southeast Alaska and the Columbia/Snake River complex. Reportedly, the “Empress” will be the first sternwheeler on the Inside Passage in more than 100 years. Hillman said that construction and outfitting costs are expected to exceed $50 million. The United States Maritime Administration will provide a loan guarantee to facilitate funding of the project, he said.

Merchant Mariners? When the public's attention is preoccupied with the 9/11 anniversary and with sword rattling about a pre-emptive strike on Iraq, how do merchant mariners enter our consciousness? The simple answer is that they don't. To most Americans, merchant mariners are out of sight and out of mind, despite our absolute dependence upon them in peace and in war. More than ninety percent of everything that we consume in our peacetime global economy - from our morning coffee to the car that takes us home from work - has traveled on a ship. The vast majority of international trade with the United States is on foreign flag ships with foreign crews. Our military depends on both American and foreign merchant mariners to sustain their operations.

Comsat Mobile Communications(CMC), a unit of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, has teamed with the United States Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to offer free Amver/SEAS (formerly Automated Mutual-assistance VEssel Rescue / Shipboard Environmental-data Acquisition Systems) messaging to mariners that use COMSAT-C satellite messaging service. CMC recently distributed more than 2,000 free packages of Amver/SEAS software to vessels and maritime shipping companies. This software combines Amver capabilities with NOAA volunteer observing ships weather reporting. The software, which uses a message format developed by COMSAT, enables ships to send compressed data via Inmarsat-C terminals using COMSAT-C service.