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Delta News

22 Feb 2024

Five Killed After Barge Hits Bridge Near China's Guangzhou

(Photo: social media)

Five people were killed after a barge collided with a bridge over a waterway in China's Pearl River Delta near Guangzhou city, causing part of the bridge to break off, plunging vehicles into the water, Chinese state media reported on Thursday.The barge was travelling from Foshan city to a southern district of Guangzhou when it crashed into the bridge at 5:30 a.m. (2130 GMT) on the Hongqili Waterway, the Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration said in a statement.Images on state…

08 Feb 2024

Insights: Blake Powell, JMS Naval Architects

Blake Powell, President, JMS Naval Architects (Photo: JMS Naval Architects)

Blake Powell, president at JMS Naval Architects, discusses his career, company and latest trends in naval architecture and marine engineering.Please give a brief professional bio, including education, experience and overview of current duties as president of JMS Naval Architects.I earned my degree in Naval Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley where I attended on a Navy ROTC scholarship and was commissioned as a Diving and Salvage Officer after I graduated.

06 Feb 2024

Huisman Secures Port Order for Automated Stacking Cranes

(Credit: Huisman)

Dutch manufacturer Huisman has entered the port and logistics market with the order for series of automated stacking cranes (ACSs) from Hutchison Ports ECT Rotterdam (ECT).The ACSs will serve for the efficient handling and buffering of containers. The cranes feature a fully automated process for handling and buffering containers, providing a solution for enhanced operational efficiency, required for 24/7 operational time.The diversification in port automation underscores Huisman's…

24 Jan 2024

Ukraine's Black Sea Grain Export Success Tested by Red Sea Crisis

© wifesun / Adobe Stock

Ukraine has managed to boost its Black Sea grain exports to a level not seen since before Russia's invasion, although the Red Sea shipping crisis poses a new challenge to its crucial agricultural trade.Kyiv's success in replacing a UN-backed Black Sea export deal with its own shipping scheme has brought relief for Ukrainian farmers and importing countries while representing a naval breakthrough for Ukraine's military as a land counteroffensive has stalled.The export turnaround…

22 Jan 2024

Red Sea Shipping Attacks Pressure China's Exporters

© ABCDstock / Adobe Stock

For Chinese businessman Han Changming, disruptions to Red Sea freight are threatening the survival of his trading company in the eastern province of Fujian.Han, who exports Chinese-made cars to Africa and imports off-road vehicles from Europe, told Reuters the cost of shipping a container to Europe had surged to roughly $7,000 from $3,000 in December, when Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement escalated attacks on shipping."The disruptions have wiped out our already thin profits…

18 Jan 2024

Diesel and Engine Oil Removed from Sunken Tug in California

(Photo: Levi Read / U.S. Coast Guard)

Petroleum product and hazardous material have been removed from a 1940s era military tugboat that sunk in California, the U.S. Coast Guard said.A Unified Command and its contractors completed lightering efforts from the tug Mazapeta, Wednesday.The Mazapeta sunk September 4, 2023, in Little Potato Slough within the San Joaquin Delta, northwest of Stockton, with approximately 1,600 gallons of diesel and engine oil reported to be onboard at the time of the incident.Quantification of recovered product is ongoing…

10 Jan 2024

Salvors to Remove Fuel from Sunken Tug in California

Crews work to place and maintain sorbent boom around the Tug Mazapeta on September 7, 2023. Image credit: California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention & Response.

Salvors are set to begin removing fuel from a 1940s era military tugboat that sunk in California last year, the U.S. Coast Guard said.The Mazapeta sunk September 4, 2023, in Little Potato Slough within the San Joaquin Delta, northwest of Stockton, Calif. with approximately 1,600 gallons of diesel and engine oil were reported onboard at the time of the incident.To date approximately 593 gallons of petroleum product have been recovered from inside the containment boom area, which surrounds the sunken tug.

09 Jan 2024

Oil Tankers Continue Red Sea Movements Despite Houthi Attacks

© Haris Andronos / Adobe Stock

Oil and fuel tanker traffic in the Red Sea was stable in December, even though many container ships have rerouted due to attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi militants, a Reuters analysis of vessel tracking data showed.The attacks have driven up shipping costs sharply along with insurance premiums, but have had less impact than feared on oil flows, with shippers continuing to use the key East-West passage. The Houthis, who have said they are targeting Israel-bound vessels, have largely…

05 Dec 2023

US Coast Guard Responds to Another GoM Oil Spill

A Main Pass Gathering Company, LLC Panther helicopter conducts an overflight to observe visible sheen off the coast of Louisiana, Nov. 18, 2023. (Source: US Coast Guard)

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday it was responding to an oil discharge near the Main Pass Oil Gathering (MPOG) Co's pipeline system in the Gulf of Mexico, while the main pipeline and several surrounding ones remained shut in."The reported sheen is being investigated and has not been confirmed to be associated with the November 16 observed initial discharge," the Coast Guard said.The Coast Guard had not yet identified any damage or indication of a leak after surveying the entire length of the pipeline along with 22.16 miles (36 km) of surrounding pipelines.

23 Nov 2023

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Shuts in Around 3% of Daily Output

Credit: US Coast Guard

Around 61,165 barrels of daily oil output from at least six producers, making up about 3% of crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, has been shut in by Third Coast Infrastructure's underwater pipeline leak, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday.The oil producers whose facilities are impacted include W&T Energy, Occidental Petroleum, Walter Oil and Gas, Cantium, Arena Offshore and Talos Energy Ventures, the Coast Guard said, citing the U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of…

20 Nov 2023

1 Million+ Gallons: Pipeline Leaking Oil in the Gulf of Mexico

(Photo: Main Pass Oil Gathering Company, LLC)

The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday said it was still looking for the source of a leak from an underwater pipeline off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico that it estimated had released more than a million gallons of crude oil.The 67-mile long pipeline was closed by Main Pass Oil Gathering Co (MPOG) on Thursday morning, after crude oil was spotted around 19 miles offshore of the Mississippi River Delta, near Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans."Overflight teams observed visible oil Friday moving southwest away from the Louisiana shore…

15 Sep 2023

EU Does Not Extend Ban on Ukraine Grains Imports to Neighboring EU Countries

© dechevm / Adobe Stock

The European Commission said on Friday that it would not extend a ban on imports of Ukrainian grains into Ukraine's five EU neighbors due to expire on Friday."It has concluded that thanks to the work of the Coordination Platform and to the temporary measures introduced on 2 May 2023, the market distortions in the 5 Member States bordering Ukraine have disappeared," the European Commission said in a statement.Restrictions imposed by the European Union in May allowed Poland, Bulgaria…

24 Aug 2023

Ukraine's Odesa Region Introduces New Grain Export Control Mechanism

© danimages / Adobe Stock

The southern Ukrainian region of Odesa, which has ports on the Black Sea and Danube River, is introducing a new export control mechanism for grain, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Thursday."From now on, vessels (barges) will be loaded only after a preliminary analysis of the legality of the grain's origin," he said, adding that all customs declarations would have to be registered prior to the loading of export goods.The measure is aimed at strengthening discipline, accounting and reporting in foreign economic activity, he said.Analysts have said that a significant amount of grain is bough

16 Aug 2023

MARAD Designates Two New Marine Highway Routes

(Photo: Eric Haun)

Two new routes have been designated under the U.S. Marine Highway Program (MHP), U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced this week during a visit to Alaska.The newly designated M-11 in Alaska will add over 6,500 miles to the marine highway system, and the M-79 route extends the reach of the Ohio River system by nearly 250 miles in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. These designations allow any eligible applicant on these routes to apply for future U.S. Marine Highway Program grants…

10 Jul 2023

Nigeria Will Destroy a Vessel it Intercepted Carrying Stolen Crude

(Photo: NNPC Ltd)

Nigeria's state-owned oil firm NNPC Ltd said on Monday an 800,000-liter (211,338-U.S. gallon) vessel carrying stolen crude had been intercepted offshore while heading to Cameroon and would be destroyed as a deterrent to oil theft.Crude theft from pipelines and wells in the Niger Delta has hobbled the country's output in recent years and is one of the biggest challenges to confront new President Bola Tinubu.NNPC said the oil was stolen from a well in south western Ondo state.

01 Jun 2023

Plans Announced for LNG Export Facility in U.S. Gulf of Mexico

©Grand Isle LNG

Grand Isle LNG is proposing to build an LNG export facility, thirteen miles south of Grand Isle, Louisiana, in Plaquemines Parish, promising significant economic benefits to the region.The proposed deepwater port is a platform-based modular design; its pipeline access, and its nearshore location will result in one of the least expensive and safest operations on the market today. Importantly, all platforms and many components of the facility will be Louisiana made by Louisiana energy workers.Located in federal waters of the West Delta Blocks in depths ranging from 68 to 72 feet…

30 May 2023

Ukraine Wants to Deepen Danube to Expand Grain Export Routes

© leopold / Adobe Stock

Ukraine wants to begin work to make its Danube shipping canal deeper as early as this year to expand its alternative routes to export grain, Deputy Minister of Renovation and Infrastructure Yuriy Vaskov said on Tuesday.Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia last year, has already increased the depth of its southwestern Bystre Canal on the Danube River to 6.5 meters from 3.9 meters with the aim of increasing food exports from its river ports.The push for alternative export routes has taken on urgency during the war after Russia blocked Ukraine's traditional export route via the Black Sea and only

26 Apr 2023

Canadian Government Approves Vancouver Terminal Expansion

(Image: Port of Vancouver)

The Canadian government has approved a marine container terminal expansion project in Delta, B.C., following a environmental assessment process that started in 2013.The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project includes building new land and a new three-berth marine container terminal near existing port terminals at Roberts Bank in Delta, B.C., about 35 kilometers south of Vancouver. The project will incrementally deliver an additional 2.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of capacity…

13 Mar 2023

FID Reached for Second Phase of Plaquemines LNG Export Project

(Image: Venture Global)

U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Venture Global LNG said on Monday that it will go forward with the second phase of its Plaquemines LNG export plant in Louisiana after securing $7.8 billion of financing.Phase two's final investment decision (FID) comes after the first phase was sanctioned in May.Venture Global said that completes about $21 billion in total for Plaquemines, the largest project financing ever done in the space, to build the terminal that would produce about…

09 Mar 2023

Interview: Harry Stewart, President & CEO, The Dutra Group

Harry Stewart, President and CEO, The Dutra Group, at the controls of the Harry S. Photo courtesy The Dutra Group

Harry Stewart recently took the helm as President and CEO of The Dutra Group, succeeding Bill T. Dutra, the man who founded the company at the age of 26 and led it for the last 50 years. With a renewed vigor for national infrastructure, there are myriad opportunities in the dredging and marine construction sectors, opportunities balanced by a similar number of challenges. We recently visited with Mr. Stewart for his insights, covering everything from taking over the seat from an industry legend…

28 Feb 2023

Moose Boats Wins New Fireboat Order

(Image: Moose Boats)

San Francisco Bay Area shipbuilder Moose Boats announced it has been awarded a contract from the Woodbridge Fire District for the construction of a M3-36 Monohull to serve as a fireboat in California's San Joaquin Delta.The 36-foot-long vessel will feature twin 300-horsepower Mercury outboards and a dedicated fire pump to flow through two monitors at approximately 1,500 gallons per minute. This vessel will also be equipped with dive platform doors to help facilitate water rescue…

24 Feb 2023

Pushing the Envelope: A H2 Project Highlights French Teamwork on Alt-Energy

Copyright Parradee/AdobeStock

At the Sea Tech Week Maritime Transport conference this past September, held in Brest, France, there was no shortage of big-picture, creative ideas pertaining to maritime shipping and alternative energy.One such project, called Seaguel, was presented as part of a larger discussion on hydrogen (H2) as maritime fuel. The full session was titled “Distributing Hydrogen from Offshore Wind Farms as a Fuel for Ships.” The topic was developed by France Energies Marines (FEM), a public-private R&D collaborative focused on offshore renewable energy.Right now…

20 Feb 2023

Romania Asks to Check Ukrainian Canal Dredging in Sensitive Danube Delta

© luzitanija/AdobeStock

Romania said on Monday it was concerned by signs that neighboring Ukraine was dredging a canal that sliced through a shared, ecologically sensitive coastal region, and asked if it could check the site.Ukraine has been transporting grain on the Bystroe canal as it develops alternative routes for its exports while access to its Black Sea ports is limited by Russia's invasion.Romania has said it is concerned that any works on the waterway through the shared Danube Delta area could…