Ismail News

As a speed boat carrying more than a dozen Somali pirates bore down on their position in the western Indian Ocean, the crew of a Bangladeshi-owned bulk carrier sent out a distress signal and called an emergency hotline.No one reached them in time. The pirates clambered aboard the Abdullah, firing warning shots and taking the captain and second officer hostage, Chief Officer Atiq Ullah Khan said in an audio message to the ship's owners."By the grace of Allah no one has been harmed so far," Khan said in the message, recorded before the pirates took the crew's phones.

The U.S. on Thursday imposed sanctions on maritime companies and vessels for shipping Russian oil sold above the G7's price cap, as Washington seeks to close loopholes in the mechanism designed to punish Moscow for its war in Ukraine.The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it slapped sanctions on three United Arab Emirates-based companies and three vessels owned by them in the action, accusing the vessels of engaging in the export of Russian crude oil priced above the $60 a barrel cap.

The union representing St. Lawrence Seaway workers in eastern Canada said it reached a tentative labor agreement on Sunday, ending a week-long strike that shut down a key North American trade route linked to the Atlantic Ocean.The Unifor union, representing some 360 workers, said it agreed to a deal with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp (Seaway) that would cover engineering, maintenance, and other worker groups in Ontario and Quebec provinces.Other details of the agreement, which would need to be ratified by the workers, were not shared.

A strike in Canada's St. Lawrence Seaway entered its second day on Monday after workers walked off over a wage dispute, shutting down an important maritime trade route linking the Great Lakes to Montreal port and impacting about 115 vessels.Some 361 workers represented by the Unifor union went on strike on Sunday after failing to negotiate a new labor contract with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp (SLSMC), which along with a U.S. body operates the waterway linking the Great…

The United Nations said on Friday it had completed the removal of more than 1 million barrels of oil from a decaying supertanker off Yemen's Red Sea coast, averting a potential environmental disaster.U.N. officials and activists have been warning for years that the entire Red Sea coastline was at risk, as the rusting Safer tanker could have ruptured or exploded, spilling four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.The war in Yemen caused the suspension of maintenance operations on the Safer in 2015.

Dock workers on Canada's West Coast and their employers said they reached a new labor agreement, averting an immediate strike, as they sought to end a dispute that has disrupted operations at the country's busiest ports.The International Longshore and Warehouse Canada Union (ILWU) and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) are recommending the ratification of the deal, they said in a joint statement late on Sunday.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), a federal watchdog, ruled on Wednesday that the Pacific coast dock workers' strike must end because their union did not provide the required 72-hour notice before the walkout."This strike is illegal," Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan said on Twitter after the ruling.

The world's biggest fertilizer producer Nutrien Ltd cut production on Tuesday, citing the impact of an 11-day-old strike in Canada's Pacific ports whose cost has now ballooned to an estimated C$5.5 billion ($4.2 billion).Some 7,500 dock workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) walked off on July 1 after failing to agree a new wage deal with the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA).The union says the BCMEA is refusing to give a fair pay increase despite making billions of dollars in profits in recent years.

A Canadian-flagged ship on Wednesday brought ashore debris from the Titan submersible that imploded while on a voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic earlier this month, killing all five people on board.Video from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation showed what appeared to be the nose of the submersible and other shattered fragments wrapped in white tarp pulled up by a crane off the Horizon Arctic vessel at the St. John's harbor in Newfoundland on Wednesday morning.The debris is expected to shed more light on the cause of the catastrophic implosion that killed everyone on board - OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush; British billionaire Hamish Harding…

Rescuers searching for a missing submersible near the wreck of the Titanic on Wednesday concentrated their efforts on a remote area of the North Atlantic where a series of undersea noises have been detected, though officials cautioned the sounds may not have originated from the vessel.With estimates suggesting the air supply on board the submersible could run out by Thursday morning, an international coalition of rescue teams has swept a vast expanse of the ocean for signs of the Titan…

Search teams detected underwater sounds while scanning the North Atlantic for a tourist submersible that vanished with five people aboard during a deep-sea voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic, the U.S. Coast Guard said early on Wednesday.The detection of the sounds by Canadian aircraft on Tuesday, day three of the search, was reported by the Coast Guard as the clock ticked down to the last 24 hours of the missing craft's presumed oxygen supply.Robotic undersea search operations were diverted to the area where the sounds seemed to originate…

Rescuers were in a race against time to find a missing submersible on Tuesday, two days after it lost communication while taking wealthy tourists to see the wreckage of the Titanic in deep waters off Canada's coast.One pilot and four passengers were on board the submersible that disappeared on Sunday. The operating company said it had the capacity to stay underwater for up to 96 hours - giving those aboard until early on Thursday before air ran out.U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral…

A submarine on a tourism expedition to explore the wreckage of the Titanic has gone missing off the coast of southeastern Canada, according to the private company that operates the vessel and the U.S. Coast Guard.OceanGate Expeditions said in a statement on Monday that it was "mobilizing all options" to rescue those on the underwater vessel, which typically has five people on board.British billionaire Hamish Harding is among the passengers, according to a social media post from a relative.The Coast Guard said on Twitter that a boat on the surface…

The Canadian government said on Thursday it would not allow mining in its domestic ocean seabeds without a "rigorous regulatory structure" and that the need for natural resources does not override Ottawa's environmental commitments.Sea floor nodules contain critical minerals used in batteries that are needed to fuel the world's transition to clean energy, but trawling the sea floor for them could disrupt ecosystems."Canada does not presently have a domestic legal framework that would permit seabed mining and, in the absence of a rigorous regulatory structure, will not authorize seabed mining i

Crying with relief after a traumatic 40-day voyage to Indonesia in a leaky boat, Rohingya Muslim Fatimah bin Ismail held a mobile phone with shaky hands as she made a video call to relatives. The 19-year-old was among 174 surviving Rohingya in the overloaded wooden fishing boat when it washed up on the shores of Indonesia's Aceh province this week. Around 200 had been on board, fleeing poverty and persecution, when it set off across the Indian Ocean from Bangladesh on Nov. 21.

Ports have long been integral to Africa’s connectivity with the rest of the world. Yet over the last 15 years, a new stage in maritime infrastructure planning and development has begun. Between 2004 and 2019, over US$50 billion was spent on this infrastructure – roughly 13 times more than was spent between 1990 and 2004.Ports reflect more than simple economic imperatives. They are crucial in creating and reinforcing social, political, and cultural systems. Infrastructure can be…

Canada is exploring ways to see if there is a business case to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) directly to Europe from its east coast, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday.Speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Montreal, Trudeau said "we will do what we can" to contribute to the global supply of energy by increasing capacities in the short term.Canada will also "explore ways to see if it makes sense to export LNG and if there's a business case for it to export LNG directly to Europe ...

Egypt expects the Suez Canal's revenues to reach about $7 billion by the end of the current fiscal year, finance minister Mohamed Maait said on Saturday.Tourism revenues are expected to reach between $10 billion and $12 billion by then, despite the Ukrainian crisis, he added. Egypt's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.The canal is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia and one of the Egyptian government's main sources of foreign currency.(Reuters - Reporting by Ahmed Ismail, Writing by Moataz Mohamed, Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Kongsberg Digital (KDI) said it has signed a contract to deliver a suite of multipurpose simulation solutions to the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport Branch in Sharjah (AASTS), United Arab Emirates. The state-of-the-art simulators enable realistic training scenarios for different vessel types in various operations and weather conditions, and will be used in training and assessment of the academy’s students as well as crew from government and private organizations.“When we signed the agreement to establish the Sharjah branch of the AASTS…

Malaysian oil company Petronas and China-based oil firm CNOOC, have signed a memorandum of understanding to "pursue mutual growth through closer collaboration.""The MoU elevates the long-standing relationship between the two parties from primarily liquefied natural gas (LNG) and upstream projects towards a shared ambition in energy security and cleaner energy solutions," Petronas said.The parties will "intensify" collaboration in LNG, upstream exploration & development projects…

Japanese engine manufacturer Yanmar said it will soon open a new parts warehouse at its Middle East Branch, located in the United Arab Emirates, near Dubai Airport.The Middle East Branch began operation in January of 2019 in the Dubai Airport Free Zone providing sales, service support and training to dealers in Yanmar’s middle east territory. The new site, which serves both Yanmar’s marine pleasure and marine commercial engines business in the Middle East region, is operated by Yanmar subsidiary and Asia regional headquarters…

A mine that was attached to the hull of an Iraqi oil tanker was defused two days after it was discovered, Iraq's military said in a statement on Saturday.The tanker was in international waters about 28 nautical miles (52 km) off Iraq's coast in the Gulf and supplying another ship with fuel when the device was discovered on Thursday afternoon.An investigation has been opened to find out the circumstances of the incident.The military said on Friday that it was not immediately clear how the mine was attached to the tanker…

Canadian rescue officials on Wednesday suspended the search for 11 missing crew members from a Spanish trawler that sank the previous day in rough seas off the coast of Newfoundland, killing at least 10 people.Three surviving sailors from the trawler, suffering from severe hypothermia, were plucked from a life raft early on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear what sank the trawler Villa de Pitanxo.Bad weather complicated the search efforts, which went on for some 36 hours and involved a plane, two helicopters, rescue ships and one Spanish and two Portuguese trawlers.At 4 p.m.