Phantom News

Venezuela’s oil exports rose in February to over 700,000 barrels per day (bpd), their highest level in 10 months, pushed by more sales of fuel oil cargoes to new clients in Asian markets, according to Refinitiv Eikon’s tanker tracking data and documents.A growing number of clients with no track record in oil trading has been helping Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA to allocate crude and fuel in Asia, especially since the U.S. Treasury Department halted oil swaps by PDVSA’s long-term customers in the last quarter of 2020 as part of tightening sanctions.These buyers…

On Aug. 21, a tanker called the Otoman docked at the Jose oil terminal on Venezuela’s coast in the Caribbean to load 1.82 million barrels of heavy crude, according to the state oil company’s internal documents.Yet no tanker with that name is registered in major global shipping databases.Muddying the situation further, the unique identifier for the Otoman listed in the documents - a number used by the International Maritime Organization to identify ships - was assigned to another tanker called the Rubyni, according to the databases.The Rubyni was broken up two years ago, they record. Satellite images provided by TankerTrackers.com, an independent vessel tracking service…

Quark Expeditions has signed an agreement with Croatian shipbuilder Brodosplit to build a new expedition ship designed for operation in the polar regions.The 13,000+ gross metric ton, 200-passenger ship was designed by LMG Marin in cooperation with Quark Expeditions and is scheduled to be launched in 2020.“This ship will be more than just a ship – it will be an unrivalled operational base for polar expeditions,” said Andrew White, Quark Expeditions President.The ship will carry 20 zodiacs that will be rapidly deployable from an internal zodiac hangar with four embarkation points.

With four drone types in its arsenal, DNV GL has adapted its survey technology to various ship structures. Recently DNV GL reached a new milestone with its first offshore drone survey. It's a gusty day in Gdynia, Poland, and outside the DNV GL station Leszek Alba is waiting for the wind to change. Alba is one of DNV GL’s 16 drone surveyors. Today, he is testing the Custom drone’s stability in different wind conditions and the stability of the video transmission – an important factor during the inspection of remote structural components in tanks and cargo holds. Since DNV GL carried out its first production drone survey in June 2016, it has become the leading provider in this field.

Mercury Marine is saddened by the death of Charles “Charlie” Strang who served as Carl Kiekhaefer’s top engineer for 13 years at Mercury Marine. After leaving Mercury, he served as Director of Outboard Marine Engineering (OMC) and later CEO and Chairman of the Board. Strang, 96, was also known as the creator of the sterndrive engine, sketching the first sterndrive in 1948 while attending MIT. Strang’s mother, Ann, is responsible for the famous Mercury Phantom Black engine color. Strang was a very popular figure in both the marine and NASCAR industries.

Flights of Fancy? No longer a pipe dream, aerial drones find a home in maritime. Price Waterhouse Cooper estimates the global commercial drone market at $127 billion. Shipyards, offshore wind-farm developers, cruise lines, blue water cargo agencies, maritime marketing departments, first responders, admiralty lawyers, shore-to-ship package couriers, insurers, classification societies, salvors, container ports and the military are all using or actively exploring drones to accomplish tasks heretofore impossible without greater risk or cost.

Offshore wind industry services provider CWind said it has been awarded a contract by DONG Energy, to install new and retrofit existing gates on the transition pieces (TPs) at the Gode Wind and Borkum Riffgrund offshore wind farms, located in the North Sea off the coast of Northern Germany. CWind, which is part of the Global Marine Group and delivers the company’s power capabilities, will use its crew transfer vessels, assets and engineering expertise to help complete the project.

CWind, a provider of services to the offshore wind industry, has announced that it has invested in the company’s largest crew transfer vessel to date. Newly named as CWind Phantom, the 27.4m catamaran can hold 20,000 litres of fuel and has a 20 ton cargo capacity, making her suitable for longer stretches of work at wind farms located further from shore. This investment demonstrates the company’s ability to evolve with the changing market. CWind’s fleet now totals 18, with access to additional cable installation and maintenance vessels via CWind’s parent company, Global Marine Systems Limited.

1846 - During the Mexican-American War, a detachment of Marines and Sailors, led by Arm. Col. John C. Fremont from the sloop USS Cyane, commanded by Cmdr. Samuel F. DuPont, lands and takes possession of San Diego and raises the U.S. flag. 1898 - During the Spanish-American War, the gunboat, USS Helena, commanded by Cmdr. William T. Swinburne, captures the Spanish steamer Manati at Cienfuegos, Cuba. 1920 - USS St. Louis (CA 20) is ordered to Turkish waters to protect American nationals and citizens during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922).

GOST (Global Ocean Security Technologies), a world leader in marinesecurity, tracking, monitoring and video surveillance systems, announced today that it has partnered with Phantom Rescue in its fight against child trafficking. Phantom Rescue is a non-profit organization that provides awareness and deterrence for the prevention of child trafficking, enhanced global networking to stop the underground activities that contribute to human sex trafficking and most importantly, the organization takes direct action to locate, rescue, and return “taken” children to the safety of their loved ones. “Everyday, 46 children are stolen and forced into sex slavery or labor in the United States. That is 17,000 kids per year in this country alone,” said Jay Keenan, president and CEO of GOST.

Boeing Co. has unveiled at its Huntington Beach facility an autonomous, unmanned undersea vehicle that can be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The Echo Voyager, which is 51 feet long, is capable of running on its own, unmanned, for months underwater while being able to dive to 11,000 feet. Echo Voyager is the latest innovation in Boeing’s UUV family, joining the 32-foot Echo Seeker and the 18-foot Echo Ranger. The Voyager is expected to begin sea trials off the California coast in Summer 2016. “Echo Voyager is a new approach to how unmanned undersea vehicles will operate and be used in the future,” said Darryl Davis, president, Boeing Phantom Works. Echo Voyager will begin sea trials off the California coast later this summer.

Are we that far away from phantom fully autonomous vessels plying the world’s seas? Not according to many in the know. Many predict by 2020 that we will see this type of ship with a limited crew in smaller applications such as the marine highway short haul scenarios, local ferry service such as the Staten Island ferry and offshore supply boats in the Gulf of Mexico. Phantom/drone unmanned ships reportedly would be safer, cheaper and less polluting for an industry that carries approximately 90 percent of the world trade. However as with aircraft drones and on the horizon driverless auto’s, we must be concerned with regulatory and safety issues.

The U.S. Executive Branch has declared that the cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation, and that America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on effective cyber security. Before the maritime industry sounds the danger signal, it needs to monitor other industries and branches of the government and take proactive preventative measures. There is no better place to prepare future and current mariners for these challenges than in maritime simulators.

A former minister in President Nicolas Maduro's government denied in an interview published on Friday accusations of corruption during the purchase of three ferries from Spain and said he was being hounded for denouncing currency crimes. Local media said an arrest warrant was issued earlier this month for Hebert Garcia, a general who served as transportation and food minister for Maduro, on charges of embezzlement in the 50 million euro ($54 million) purchase in 2013. Maduro, elected to replace the late Hugo Chavez two years ago, has vowed this week to step up a crackdown on corruption, be it from opponents or within his ruling Socialist Party. But foes accuse him of protecting the worst offenders.

GOST (Global Ocean Security Technologies), announced that its GOST Insight HD GPS Security System was instrumental in foiling the theft of electronics onboard a powerboat in Aventura, Florida. On the morning of October 14, 2014, Scott Patterson received a text message at 6:18 a.m. from the security system on his boat stating, “Cockpit Motion” which included a link to a ten second video showing a perpetrator in the salon of his 52-foot Sea Ray Sundancer. Patterson immediately ran to the marina while police were dispatched. An alarm scared off the intruder, thwarting the potential theft of tens of thousands of dollars worth of electronics.

A port operator has today (Monday 29 September) pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches, following the deaths of three crew members of a tug which capsized on the River Clyde in 2007. Clydeport Operations Ltd, who were sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh, received fines totalling £650,000. In December 2007 the Flying Phantom was one of three tugs assisting the 70,000-tonne cargo ship Red Jasmine as it made its way along the River Clyde. As they approached the Erskine Bridge, the Flying Phantom was secured to the bow of the Red Jasmine, which was transporting animal feed. Just before 6pm, in thick fog, the Flying Phantom called the ship to say they had grounded and the pilot instructed the tug to let go the line. That was the last communication.

Today in U.S. Naval History - July 21 1823 - After pirate attack, Lt. David G. Farragut leads landing party to destroy pirate stronghold in Cuba. 1944 - Invasion and recapture of Guam begins. 1946 - In first U.S. test of adaptability of jet aircraft to shipboard operations, XFD-1 Phantom makes landings and takeoffs without catapults from Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1987 - Navy escorts first Earnest Will Convoy in the Persian Gulf. For more information about naval history, visit the Naval History and Heritage Command website at history.navy.mil.

Combined production of crude oil, gas and condensates in the United States is on course to a hit a record this year, passing the previous peak set in 1972. The rise in output has confounded the famous forecast made by Shell geologist M King Hubbert who predicted that U.S. oil and gas production would peak in the 1970s and then decline. Hubbert's prediction was contained in a paper entitled "Nuclear Energy and the Fossil Fuels," published in 1956, in which he argued the coming decline of oil and gas output would make the development of nuclear energy essential. Hubbert's prediction of peaking oil and gas production came to be known as "Hubbert's peak" and spawned the popular and influential theory known as "peak oil".

20 teams demonstrated their engineering prowess in week-long human-powered design competition. Intelligent Decisions (ID), Inc., a  global IT systems integrator, congratulates Virginia Tech HPS and their vessel “Phantom 6” as the winner of the ID Innovation Award at the 12th International Submarine Races (ISR). The sponsors also recognizes the efforts of the University of Washington: HPS Team and their vessel “Wolverine 2” for their second place Innovation Award and OMER’s vessel “OMER 8” for their third place Innovation Award. ID has sponsored the races and the Innovation Award since 2011.

With the peak season now in full flow, cargo rollovers are more likely, but ocean carriers are not the only party to blame. Cargo no-shows and phantom bookings are still a major headache for ocean carriers, particularly during the peak season. Whilst cargo booked from Asia to Europe was being rolled onto following vessels at the beginning of July due to a combination of unusual circumstances (see last week’s analysis of the Asia-North Europe tradelane for more details), some ships still sailed light due to last minute booking cancellations.

Captain Pottengal Mukundan, Director of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) was invited to MC Northwood to meet with the staff of the NATO Shipping Center to maintain and strengthen the dialogue between the two organizations which work to provide the maritime community with the best information products possible to avoid piracy. The IMB is based in London and is a specialized division within the Commercial Crimes Services of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). IMB's primary mission is to protect the integrity of international trade by seeking out fraud and malpractice. One of the IMB's principal areas of expertise is in the suppression of piracy.

On February 12, 2013, President Obama issued Executive Order 13636 – Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. Citing repeated electronic intrusions into critical infrastructure, the document states that it is the policy of the United States Government to increase the volume, timeliness, and quality of cyber threat information shared with U.S. private sector entities so that these entities may better protect and defend themselves against cyber threats. It directs the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS)…

Maritime security firm Phantom Services now offers global Security Concierge Services, providing 24/7 monitoring, tracking and recovery of vessels exclusively for customers with onboard marine security, monitoring and tracking systems from leading supplier GOST (Global Ocean Security Technologies). Phantom Services is a yacht security, recovery and antipiracy training firm headed by maritime security expert Tony Sparks. “GOST supplies the most comprehensive and reliable tracking systems on the market.