David Lewis News

More than a dozen shipowners have made payments of about $300,000 apiece to release vessels detained by the Indonesian navy, which said they were anchored illegally in Indonesian waters near Singapore, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.The dozen sources include shipowners, crew and maritime security sources all involved in the detentions and payments, which they say were either made in cash to naval officers or via bank transfer to intermediaries who told…

A boat carrying more than 1,000 survivors of a highly organized, deadly attack by Islamic State-linked insurgents in northern Mozambique arrived in the port of Pemba on Thursday, a Reuters reporter and a diplomatic source said.Aid workers were at the crowded port to give food to those disembarking from the green and white ferry, while police and soldiers kept control of crowds of people excited to see their relatives rescued after the attack that began last week in Palma, the reporter said.Islamist insurgents have been increasingly active in the surrounding province of Cabo Delgado since 2017…

South Korean public natural gas company Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas) and Vietnam-focused development and asset management company Energy Capital Vietnam (ECV) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the development of a privately-funded LNG regasification terminal in Vietnam.The MOU also covers the development of a storage facility, gas supply system, and a 3,200 MW gas-fired power project near Mui Ke Ga, Binh Thuan Province, Vietnam, said a press note.The MOU contemplates KOGAS and ECV working together to optimize their efforts to meet the significant LNG demand growth forecasted for Vietnam. The scope of the MOU covers matters relating to cooperation and collaboration for the Project.David Lewis…

Ghana's finance minister said on Thursday that the forecast for oil revenues in 2015 had been slashed to 1.5 billion cedis ($416.7 million), down from 4.2 billion cedis forecast in the budget presented in November due to falling oil prices.   Finance Minister Seth Terkper told parliament the government had based its original revenue forecast on oil prices averaging $99.4 per barrel this year but was now using an IMF projection of oil at $52.8 per barrel.   Terkper also said that the oil production forecast for 2015 remained unchanged at 102,033 barrels per day.     ($1=3.60 cedis) (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Daniel Flynn)

Sierra Leone is aiming to increase its power capacity tenfold by 2017, a plan the energy minister said should be driven by foreign investors despite the outbreak of Ebola and a history of bureaucratic difficulties. Sierra Leone has recorded strong economic growth rates in recent years as major mining projects came online, but the broader recovery from years of conflict during the 1990s has been slow and risks being derailed by an Ebola outbreak that has gripped the country. "We are open for business," Henry Macauley told a packed conference room in the London offices of Herbert Smith Freehills, a law firm advising the government. The plan aims to increase power capacity to 1,000 MW by 2017, from a current level of 100 MW.

Ivory Coast said on Friday it would file a complaint with an international jurisdiction after Ghana took legal action to resolve a dispute over the two nations' maritime border in an area rich in hydrocarbons. British firm Tullow Oil has licences in Ghanaian waters near to the boundary disputed by the West African neighbours. Bruno Kone, a spokesman for Ivory Coast's government, would not give details on where the complaint would be filed. "We will take this before the competent jurisdiction, but we are not going to say more for the moment," he told Reuters. Earlier this week, Ghanaian Attorney General Marrieta Brew Appiah-Oppong said Ghana had filed a suit under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea after 10 bilateral meetings failed to resolve the issue.

Military Sealift Command-chartered heavy lift crane ship MV Ocean Titan delivered the second of a new class of U.S.-built patrol boats to Manama, Bahrain. The 115-ft boat is destined for Iraq, where it will be turned over to the Iraqi navy and used primarily to patrol coastal waters and provide security for the country's oil platforms. This is the second of an expected 15 identical vessels being built for and delivered to the Iraqi navy in support of U.S. and Iraqi efforts to reconstitute Iraq's ability to enforce its maritime sovereignty and security. The Iraqi navy acquired the boats as part of the U.S. Navy's Foreign Military Sales Program. "Our foreign partners rely on the U.S. Navy's expertise in combatant craft acquisition," said Rear Adm.

Two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, undergoing their final stages of construction, successfully conducted the first-ever DDG 51 class Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) testing during the week of April 8-12, 2002. On April 10, USS Shoup (DDG 86) conducted a two-way transfer of radar data with USS Cape St. George (CG 71). Cape St. George was in the Gulf of Mexico near Pascagoula preparing for a joint exercise. Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, successfully established a CEC link with a CEC capable E-2C Hawkeye from Naval Air Station, Patuxtent River, Md. "This is a significant step forward for both the CEC and AEGIS shipbuilding programs," said Capt. David Lewis, Program Manager for AEGIS Shipbuilding.