John Hughes News

Ellicott Dredges announces several significant new orders from three state governments in the USA, as well as for multiple U.S. federal government agencies. One project is an EPA-approved PCB Superfund project. Ellicott has delivered the final dredge of a previously announced precedent-setting four dredge order for the State of Delaware, a Series 670 "Dragon" named the "BROADKILL". The State has named its new MC-2000 Mud Cat the Indian River. Delaware Secretary of State Harriet Smith Windsor commissioned the Broadkill and the Indian River for Governor Ruth Ann Minner at a formal ceremony on November 4 , at the State’s newly dredged Indian River marina.

In conjunction with the autumn meetings of the INTERTANKO Executive Committee and Council, INTERTANKO will be organising an international seminar on Tanker Safety, Pollution Prevention, Spill Response and Compensation. Jan Kopernicki, Chairman of OCIMF, Dr. Helmut Sohmen, Chairman of ITOPF, Lars Carlsson, Chairman of INTERTANKO, Will Jenkins, Vice-Chairman of OCIMF and Director of ITOPF, Capt. John Hughes, Director of OCIMF, Måns Jacobsson, Director, the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC), Capt. Jayant Abhyankar, International Maritime Bureau (IMB) and INTERTANKO MD, Dr. Peter Swift.

A group of 41 oil majors will make their tanker inspection reports available to port examiners in Europe. They also aim to ensure higher standards for their shared reporting system as part of a raft of initiatives to ensure greater tanker safety in the wake of the Erika incident. "We have been in recent discussions with the Paris MOU secretariat with a view to making SIRE reports more easily available to port state inspectors," Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) Chairman Richard Paniguian said at a news briefing in London. SIRE (ship inspection reports) do not pass or fail vessels on structural issues but concern operating standards. The Paris MOU is Europe's agreement by which unsafe ships are detained by individual countries' port-based inspectors until repaired.

Close to 300 delegates joined the International seminar with the theme 'Tanker Safety, Pollution Prevention, Spill Response and Compensation'. Co-hosted by ITOPF, OCIMF and INTERTANKO, the event took place in Hong Kong on 6 November and formed part of a busy week for the three organizations involved, which included the INTERTANKO Executive Committee and Council meetings. Welcoming the delegates, Jan Kopernicki, Vice President of Shell Shipping and Trading and Chairman of OCIMF, outlined the role of OCIMF and current developments in the industry. Important issues that OCIMF had recently been closely associated with were: encouraging the major Classification Societies to bring about transparent change…