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Abbott News

23 Dec 2022

Texas Beefs Up Security with New RHIBs

(Photo: Ocean Craft Marine)

The state of Texas is putting into service a fleet of new, highly capable patrol boats as it works to detect, disrupt and deter criminal activity along the Rio Grande."Now, more than ever, it is imperative that our law enforcement officers and Texas National Guard soldiers adopt innovative solutions," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said during a recent visit tour the state’s enhanced assets along the U.S.-Mexico border. According to Abbott’s official website, the Governor has secured $4 billion in funding for Texas' border security efforts.

19 Feb 2021

Emergency Buy: LNG Tankers Start Offloading Cargo in Mexico

Mexico on Friday began discharging the first of at least four cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) bought under emergency to ease gas scarcity and power cuts at its Northern states after a cold snap hit supplies via pipeline from the U.S. South.The Marshall Island tanker Flex Courageous carrying U.S. LNG docked on Friday at the Manzanillo terminal on the Pacific Coast, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. The vessel is expected to discharge about 162,850 cubic meters that the government plans to supply to several power plants.A second cargo also from the United States on the tanker Seri Balhaf is waiting to discharge about 151,300 cubic meters of LNG at Mexico's Altamira terminal on the Gulf Coast…

22 Oct 2020

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Moving Its HQ to Houston

(Photo: Great Lakes Dredge & Dock)

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. announced Thursday it is moving its corporate headquarters to Houston, positioning the nation’s largest dredging services provider nearer to major regional projects and opportunities. The firm will also open regional offices in Jacksonville, Fla., and Staten Island, N.Y.The move to Houston from from Oak Brook, Ill., which stems in part from changing industry dynamics, places the company closer to key regional customers and new markets, especially along the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River…

17 Sep 2020

NZ Fines Master for Leaving Port with Known Engine Problems

Funing (Photo: Maritime NZ)

A cargo ship master and chief engineer have been sentenced and fined after admitting to charges relating known engine problems that led to their ship to lose power and run aground at the Port of Tauranga in July.The Singapore-registered log-carrier MV Funing lost power and passed over a channel marker with the propeller becoming caught in the markerchain, before making contact with a sand bar in the Tauranga Harbor channel.A Maritime NZ investigation and subsequent prosecution…

21 Aug 2020

Four Missing, Six Injured After Dredge Strikes a Pipeline in Corpus Christi

Four people are missing and six have been hospitalized for injuries caused by a pipeline explosion in the Corpus Christi Ship Channel on Friday, officials said.The explosion and subsequent fire were reported at about 8 a.m. local time near Nueces Bay in the northern part of the city after a dredge struck a pipeline in the water. The dredge, Waymon L Boyd owned by Houston-based Orion Marine Group, was working on a private project, not the channel deepening work currently underway at the port.The U.S.

21 Apr 2019

Aramco Buys Shell's Stake in Saudi JV

The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) is  planning to buy oil major Shell's 50% stake in Saudi Aramco Shell Refining Co (SASREF), a Saudi refining complex developed as a joint venture between the two oil companies,  for $631 million.Abdulaziz Al-Judaimi, Saudi Aramco‘s Senior Vice President of Downstream, said: “The partnership with Shell has led to a strong record of performance and delivery of refined products. Saudi Aramco will take full ownership and integrate the refinery into its growing Downstream portfolio. SASREF will continue to be a critical facility in our refining and chemicals business and we look forward to further optimising its performance and long term viability.”John Abbott…

10 Jan 2019

US Oil Export Boom Sparks Battle to Build Texas Ports

Š Robert Coy / Adobe Stock

Booming U.S. oil exports have set off a scramble to build Gulf Coast ports to handle more than 3 million barrels per day in new supplies expected over the next five years.Of seven proposed oil-export projects, nowhere is the opportunity greater or the competition more fierce than in Corpus Christi, Texas, where three firms are vying to open the state's first deepwater port.Commodities trader Trafigura has taken an early lead with a planned offshore facility that has an easier…

16 May 2018

Galveston Pilot Dispute: Round One goes to State Pilots

Federal Pilots to appeal. Local spat has regional and national implications. The Galveston-Texas City Pilots and the five-member Board of Pilot Commissioners for Galveston County are facing a serious legal challenge from five pilot applicants and their local attorney. In a nutshell, local, federally licensed and similarly qualified pilots want to compete for business in a previously closed space. In Texas, like virtually every other U.S. state, a local group of pilots – so-called ‘state pilots’ are given the privilege of providing all marine pilot services for deep draft registered (foreign) traffic. In essence, it amounts to a legal monopoly.

06 Sep 2017

Genoil Signs Tri-Partite Scientific Pact on Low Sulphur Fuel Oil

Clean technology engineering company for the petroleum industry Genoil Inc has signed a tri-partite science, research and technical cooperation agreement with two leading Russian institutions. Genoil has joined forces with the UFA Scientific Research Institute of Petroleum Refining and Petrochemistry, located in Bashkortostan, Russia, and the OJS VNIIUS Institute, located in Tatarstan, Russia to establish a world class partnership. The scope of the agreement is to research, develop and market cutting-edge technologies and patents both in the Americas and globally. The partnership will focus on the petrochemistry, petroleum refining and gas chemistry industries where, through joint co-operation and a wide base of expertise, the parties саn add significant value to client proposals.

25 Aug 2017

Residents Flee South Texas Ahead of Harvey

Residents fleeing most powerful storm on U.S. mainland since 2005. Businesses closed and lines of cars streamed out of coastal Texas as officials called for residents to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Harvey, expected to arrive about midnight as the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. mainland in more than a decade. The hurricane is forecast to slam first near Corpus Christi, Texas, drop flooding rains along the central Texas coast and potentially loop back over the Gulf of Mexico before hitting Houston, some models showed. "My urgent message to my fellow Texans is that if you live in a region where evacuation has been ordered, you need to heed that advice and get out of harm's way while you can," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a televised address.

24 Aug 2017

Oil Firm Evacuate Workers as Storm Approaches Texas

Oil companies evacuate workers as storm takes aim at Texas. Royal Dutch Shell, Anadarko Petroleum and Exxon Mobil announced they were curbing some oil and gas output on Wednesday at facilities in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of a storm expected to hit the Texas coast later this week. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a hurricane watch Wednesday for much of the Texas coast, calling for slow-moving Tropical Depression Harvey to intensify as it nears landfall. Shell said it was evacuating all personnel from the roughly 100,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Perdido oil and gas production platform as a precaution. Anadarko said it had shut in production and was evacuating workers from its Boomvang, Gunnison, Lucius and Nansen platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

24 Aug 2017

Tropical Storm Harvey heads for Texas, May Strengthen

The Texas Gulf Coast was getting ready for the tropical storm Harvey to make landfall by Friday, bringing with it strong winds, heavy flooding and torrential rains. Hurricane, tropical storm and storm surge watches were in effect for counties on the eastern coast of Texas as the storm moved across the Gulf of Mexico, where it may strengthen into a hurricane. Winds up to 75 mph (120 kmh) and 15 inches of rain (40 cm) were forecast, according to the National Weather Service. "Now is the time to check your emergency plan and take necessary actions to secure your home or business. Deliberate efforts should be under way to protect life and property," the weather service said in an statement early on Thursday.

23 Aug 2017

India to Buy $1 Billion of US Crude Oil

New Prosperity crude carrier will deliver the first shipment of US crude to India's Paradip port (Odisha, India) in the last week of September. (Image: India House)

Following Indianan Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s June 2017 visit to the U.S., where President Donald Trump and PM Modi agreed to deepen the energy engagement between the two countries, India oil companies have started the process of procuring crude oil from the U.S. Now six weeks after the visit, the first orders for $1 billion of crude are being placed. Two Indian oil giants, Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum, have already taken delivery of the first 2 million barrels that have shipped from ports in Texas and Louisiana.

12 Sep 2016

Sparkman & Stephens under New Ownership

Photo courtesy of Sparkman & Stephens

Sparkman & Stephens (S&S), the naval architecture and brokerage firm founded by Olin Stephens and Drake Sparkman in 1929, announced that it was acquired by a group of private investors led by Brooke S. Parish and John B. Reuter. The transaction enables S&S to implement expansion strategies in its design and brokerage businesses, for which it sought growth capital. The firm remains privately held and terms of the deal were not disclosed. “We feel a tremendous sense of pride and responsibility to assume stewardship of a brand and a company whose legacy in American yachting cannot be overstated…

06 May 2016

MHIA Relocates to Houston

Today Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. (MHIA), a Group company overseeing the business of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) in North America, commenced full-scale operations at its newly relocated Head Office in Houston, Texas, following a move from its previous base in New York. MHIA held a reception at Rice University today to mark the occasion in the presence of guests including The Honorable Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas. Present at the reception, MHI President & CEO Shunichi Miyanaga offered the following remarks: "I am delighted that we have been able to set up a new base in Houston to better serve our customers and oversee our Group operations in North America.

29 Apr 2016

How France Sank Japan's Sub Dream

Ousting of Japan ally PM Abbott opened door to rivals; Tokyo slow to respond to new competitive process. In 2014, a blossoming friendship between Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe looked to have all but sewn up a $40 billion submarine deal. Then French naval contractor DCNS hatched a bold and seemingly hopeless plan to gatecrash the party. Almost 18 months later, France this week secured a remarkable come-from-behind victory on one of the world's most lucrative defense deals. The result: Tokyo's dream of fast-tracking a revival of its arms export industry is left in disarray. Interviews with more than a dozen Japanese…

07 Apr 2016

RV Neil Armstrong Arrives in Woods Hole

The research vessel Neil Armstrong was met by a jubilant crowd at the WHOI dock Wednesday, as it arrived to its homeport for the first time. (Photo by Daniel Cojanu, WHOI)

The research vessel Neil Armstrong arrived to its home port at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) dock for the first time Wednesday, escorted by the WHOI coastal research vessel R/V Tioga, two Coast Guard vessels and fireboats from neighboring towns. “What a wonderful day for Woods Hole, for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the entire ocean science community,” enthused WHOI President and Director Mark Abbott. “We’re very proud to have been selected by the Office of Naval Research to operate the Neil Armstrong. Six years ago, the U.S.

11 Mar 2016

Container Blood Bath: Freight Rates Hit New Lows

The World Container Index’s composite index, an average of spot freight rates on 11 global East-West routes connecting Asia, Europe and the US, reached a record low of US$701 per 40-foot container on March 10, says Drewry Shipping Consultants. This was the lowest reading since the World Container Index (WCI) starting tracking weekly transatlantic, transpacific and Asia-Europe rates in June 2011. “The World Container Index’s composite index is now 60% lower than the average of the past 5 years and has decreased by 62% in the past year,” said Richard Heath, director of WCI. Jonathan Chappell, an analyst at Evercore ISI in New York says that there’s been an arms race in building bigger and bigger ships and they’re coming at a time the economy is slowing.

03 Mar 2016

AFP to Investigate Submarine Report Leak

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) will investigate the leak of classified documents about the timeframe for building Australia's new fleet of submarines. The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ordered the investigation. A report in The Australian newspaper has referenced "several sections of the draft white paper" that was produced under former prime minister Tony Abbott and former defence minister Kevin Andrews. The papers show that under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's reign, the plan was to bring new 12 submarines into service by the mid-2020s. The story published information from a classified draft of the defence white paper written while Abbott was PM and while Kevin Andrews was defence minister.

13 Nov 2015

Merkel Backs German Bid to Build Australian Submarine Fleet

HMAS Collins, part of Australia's aging Collins Class, was commissioned in 1996. (Photo: Royal Australian Navy)

Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced her government's support on Friday for a German arms manufacturer's bid to win a $35.7 billion (A$50 billion) contract from Australia to build it a new fleet of submarines. Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) and France's state-controlled naval contractor DCNS are competing with Japan for the deal, seen in part as an Australian effort to counter Chinese assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region. "The German government supports the German bid…

01 Oct 2015

Japan's Chase for Australian Subs Deal

Japan has confirmed it is ready to build Australia’s submarines entirely at local shipyards, after stumbling in its effort to win the A$50 billion ($34.76 billion) contract, reports Reuters. According to Masaaki Ishikawa, director general for Acquisition Reform at the Ministry of Defense, Tokyo was willing to train hundreds of Australian engineers in Japan's submarine-manufacturing hub of Kobe as well as in Australia as part of its offer for one of the world's biggest defence contracts. It is the first time an official directly involved in the bid has said Japan was willing to build the stealth submarines entirely in Australia. Canberra is expected to order between eight and 12 vessels.

29 Sep 2015

Japan Renews Submarine Bid for Australia

Japan looking to fix faltering Australian submarine bid. Japan is ready to match European rivals and build a fleet of submarines for Canberra entirely at Australian shipyards, a senior Japanese official said on Tuesday, after stumbling in its effort to win the A$50 billion ($34.76 billion) contract. Tokyo was willing to train hundreds of Australian engineers in Japan's submarine-manufacturing hub of Kobe as well as in Australia as part of its offer for one of the world's biggest defence contracts, Masaaki Ishikawa, director general for Acquisition Reform at the Ministry of Defense, told Reuters. His comments are the first from an official directly involved in the bid that Japan is willing to build the stealth submarines entirely in Australia, where jobs are a hot button political issue.

21 Sep 2015

AUSINDEX15 a Success

The inaugural bilateral maritime exercise between India and Australia, AUSINDEX15, has concluded in Visakhapatnam, India. The activity brought together ships and aircraft from both countries to strengthen defence co-operation under the Framework for Security Cooperation announced by the Australian and Indian Prime Ministers, Abbott and Modi, in 2014. Head Navy Capability, Rear Admiral Jonathan Mead, AM, RAN, was on location in India for part of the exercise and said the relationship between the two militaries was strategically significant. “India remains one of Australia’s key security partners in the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific,” Rear Admiral Mead said.