East Gulf News

Activity at Israel's ports is slowing after Saturday's attacks by Islamist group Hamas on towns close to Gaza, with the cost of insurance premiums for Israeli shipments soaring amid tightening supplies of food stocks, according to sources and data.Israel's southern coastal city of Ashkelon, which has a small port well in range of Hamas rockets, is not allowing ships to enter, shipping sources said.While the main Israeli ports of Ashdod further up the coast and Haifa in the north…

Jeffery Bukoski, president of Palatka, Fla. shipyard St. Johns Ship Building, has been awarded the RADM Lauren S. McCready Award, which recognizes graduates of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) who have made significant technical achievements in the marine industry or who have contributed organizational or managerial support to making such technical achievements possible.Bukoski, USMMA class of 1986, is a 35 year veteran of the U.S. marine industry, having worked at several government and commercial shipyards on the East…

The cost of chartering a supertanker to load Middle Eastern crude oil for Asia has rebounded from a 19-month low in September, but industry sources expect output supply cuts, led by Saudi Arabia, to cap freight rates for the rest of the year.The world's benchmark very large crude carrier (VLCC) export route from the Middle East Gulf (MEG) to Japan, known as TD3, rose to W50.46 on Monday in the Worldscale measure of freight rates, LSEG data showed. It fell to W35.60 in September…

Middle East Navigation Service (MENAS), provider of aids to navigation (AtoN) in the Middle East Gulf region, said its is increasing rates and widening the group of ships that will be asked to pay for the service.The group has been providing AtoN in the Middle East Gulf – one of the busiest trade lanes in the world – since 1951, supplying seafarers with information regarding the location, route and configuration of obstacles and hazards.MENAS covers the cost of operating and maintaining such AtoN…

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…

An Iranian-flagged tanker on Friday delivered an oil shipment to Syria, which the United States had previously confiscated around Greece, ending months of uncertainty about the cargo, a ship tracker said.The seizure from the Lana, formerly the Pegas, prompted Iranian forces in May to seize two Greek tankers in the Middle East Gulf which were released on Nov. 16. Satellite tracking data showed the Lana had discharged the cargo of around 700,000 barrels in the Syrian port of Banias, said Claire Jungman, chief of staff with U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic through ship and…

An Iranian-flagged tanker has retrieved an oil cargo which the United States had confiscated and is set to leave Greece, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. The seizure from the Lana, formerly the Pegas, prompted Iranian forces in May to seize two Greek tankers in the Middle East Gulf, which have not yet been released. The United States had hired a tanker in April to impound the oil onboard the Lana tanker, which had been anchored off Greece. The oil was then partly removed and placed aboard the Ice Energy tanker, which had been chartered by Washington and had been expected to sail to United States before Greece's supreme court ruled that the cargo should be returned to Iran. "The reloading process is complete," one of the sources said.

An Iranian-flagged tanker is reloading oil that was confiscated by the United States earlier this year after Greek authorities approved the release of the cargo, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.The case has strained relations between Athens and Tehran amid growing tensions between Iran and the United States after Washington hired a tanker in April to impound the oil onboard the Lana tanker, which had been anchored off Greece.The removal of oil from the Lana, formerly the Pegas…

An Iranian-flagged tanker anchored off Piraeus port is expected this week to retrieve part of its cargo which was confiscated by the United States and sail back to Iran, following a Greek top court ruling, government sources said on Wednesday. The case has strained relations between Athens and Tehran amid growing tensions between Iran and the United States.The removal of oil from the Lana, formerly Pegas, prompted Iranian forces to seize two Greek tankers in the Middle East Gulf which have not yet been released. "The (Greek) Supreme Court's ruling...

An Iranian-flagged tanker seized by Greece in April, part of whose cargo was confiscated by the United States, was being towed to the port of Piraeus on Saturday, Greek coast guard officials said, after Greek authorities approved its release.For over two months the Iranian-flagged Lana has been anchored off the Greek island of Evia in a diplomatic impasse which strained Athens' relations with Tehran amid growing tensions between Iran and the United States."It left Karystos at 06:30 am (0330 GMT) and is expected to reach Piraeus around 10:00 pm…

Supply chain issues tied to liner shipping have been front page news throughout 2021; just about everyone agrees that there’s a problem. The underlying cause is right out of Economics 101: a surge in demand for moving containerized cargo, in the face of “inelastic” throughput capacity (which includes vessels and their landside interfaces to surface transportation, trucks and rail) that could not handle the swell, attributable to re-stocking of containerized cargo as economic activity recovered from the pandemic induced jolts.

The Suez Canal, blocked by a giant container ship that ran aground on Tuesday, is the quickest sea route between Asia and Europe and about 15% of global shipping traffic moves through it.The 193-km (120-mile) waterway, run by the state-owned Suez Canal Authority, is a vital source of foreign currency for Egypt.How much oil goes through the canal?Of the 39.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil imported by seaborne methods in 2020, 1.74 million bpd went through the Suez Canal…

The OSV sector will be reliant on a hitherto unseen amount of scrapping to balance the market, writes Gregory Brown, Associate Director – Offshore, Maritime Strategies InternationalThere is a consensus that an OSV market recovery will only be driven a supply side rationalization. As well as a lack of newbuild activity, that rationalization will have to include unprecedented levels of scrapping in a market which has historically witnessed only limited levels of attrition.That limited level of attrition has several deep-seated roots…

After a turbulent year, low demand looks set to plague the market in the coming months combined with too many ships fighting for too few cargoes in both the crude oil and oil product segments, says the oil tanker shipping overview and outlook released today by BIMCO.Demand drivers and freight ratesThe realities of the pandemic are setting in for the tanker market. The record-breaking Q2 2020 is a distant memory and, instead, the market faces a slow recovery with low demand, stock…

The United States said on Friday it had confiscated four Iranian fuel shipments that had been bound for Venezuela, disrupting a key supply line for both Tehran and Caracas as they defied U.S. sanctions.U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran should not be sending cargoes to Venezuela and added that the seized shipments were bound for Houston, Texas, a major U.S. oil shipping hub and suggested they may have already arrived."They're going to Houston. And, they're there," Trump told a White House news conference. "We're moving them, and moved, to Houston."The U.S. Justice Department said the seized cargo was now in U.S. custody "with the assistance of foreign partners…

Tankers carrying Iranian fuel cargoes covered by a U.S. warrant for seizure are sailing to the United States after talks between U.S. authorities and ship owners, a U.S. government source and a shipping source said on Thursday.Iran had planned to transport the gasoline to Venezuela, a supply line that both Tehran and Caracas have flaunted in defiance of U.S. sanctions. Washington has imposed sanctions on both countries to choke oil exports and deprive their governments of their main source of revenue.Iranian action against another ship on Wednesday in the Gulf was in retaliation against the Greek owner of some of the vessels that were carrying the fuel cargoes, the government source and two shipping sources said.U.S.

Crude oil tanker earnings have come down sharply in recent weeks with very large crude carrier (VLCC) earnings from the Middle East Gulf to China dropping 68% in just nine days (from $222,591 per day on April 22 to $71,885 per day on May 4), according to BIMCO. In the same period, daily VLCC earnings from the Middle East Gulf to the U.S. Gulf have plunged nearly 80% (from $162,433 per day to $36,249).The window of extraordinary earnings closed at the end of April with the OPEC+ oil production cuts of 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) on May 1, reducing the flood of oil in the market.

Supertanker freight rates are on the rise for a second time this month as producers, refiners and traders scramble to secure ships to transport crude or store a fast-growing global glut of oil, industry sources said.Freight rates for very large crude-oil carriers (VLCC) along the Middle East Gulf to China route were assessed at about $180,000 a day on Monday, up from some $125,000 on Friday and a weekly low of about $90,000 a day on Wednesday, according to several ship broking sources.Its difficult to say whether or not the rates will be sustained…

The cost to transport oil on supertankers soared on Thursday as major producers scrambled to secure vessels to ship more crude in a bid to regain market share and buyers took advantage of plunging oil prices.Freight charges to ship oil in very large crude carriers (VLCCs) from the Middle East, which is home to the largest OPEC producers, to China, the world's top crude oil importer, nearly doubled overnight.VLCC tanker rates along the busy Middle East Gulf to China route jumped to about $160…

Shipping associations have called on ship owners to inform Britain's navy of their movements before sailing into the Middle East Gulf and Strait of Hormuz because of the escalating international crisis in the region.About a fifth of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz and shipping companies are already deploying more unarmed security guards as an extra safeguard.However, in a joint note issued by the leading trade associations on Monday, ship captains were requested to register with the Royal Navy's liaison body…

China's Unipec has made replacement bookings for four oil shipments from the Middle East Gulf after the United States imposed sanctions on the tanker subsidiaries of China's COSCO, three shipping sources said on Thursday.The sources said Unipec, the trading arm of Asia's top oil refiner Sinopec, had switched to other tanker owners including China Merchants-owned AMCL after the designation by Washington on Wednesday of two of state-owned COSCO's subsidiaries.Sinopec declined to comment. AMCL's Hong Kong office could not be reached for comment after office hours.

On August 20, 2019, Dutra’s new Jones Act built Hydraulic Dump Scow ES15 was successfully launched, christened, commissioned and will finish sea trials and additional testing this week. Next week the ES15 will head to Massachusetts to to work on the Boston Harbor Deepening Project.ES15 is a 6,000cy Hydraulic Dump Scow built in Corn Island Shipyard in Grandview, Indiana, located at 734 Mile Marker on the Ohio River. Departing from Corn Island, IN  on August 27, 2019, the vessel will head south on the Ohio River…

A disruption in global oil flows following attacks on Saudi Arabian facilities has left U.S. crude exporters without enough tankers to cover rising demand for cargoes, traders and shipping sources said.Missile attacks last Saturday temporarily cut Saudi oil production by more than 5 million barrels per day, or about half the country's output.That set off a scramble for alternative cargoes of crude, particularly in the United States, which lined up available tankers sailing from the Mediterranean, West Africa and continental Europe to pick up cargoes.