Sami News

Norway's parliament on Tuesday told the government to consider an alternative way to cut carbon emissions at Western Europe's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, but stopped short of outright halting a controversial plan to use power from land. Oil firm Equinor and partners are seeking approval to replace the use of gas at the plant with power from the national grid, and thus reduce its emissions. The site is one of Norway's largest single emitters of carbon dioxide. In a unanimous vote…

Egypt's petroleum minister said on Tuesday that a regasification vessel would leave Egypt by the end of the week, a day after Norway's Hoegh LNG said Egypt was to give up one of its two floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.The minister, Tarek El Molla, told Reuters the other vessel would stay behind as part of the petroleum ministry's strategy to maintain energy supplies for the country.Hoegh said Egypt Natural Gas Holding (EGAS), having decided to end its charter early…

Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation ABB has completed its acquisition of intrion, with the aim of boosting its expertise in fast-growing logistics automation market.intrion is a privately owned company headquartered in Huizingen, close to Brussels, with approximately 120 employees and over a decade of experience in logistics automation solutions and services for the logistics, food and beverage and pharmaceutical industries.The acquisition was announced on July 24, 2018. The two parties agreed not to disclose the value of the transaction.Distribution and fulfilment centers are increasingly turning to robotic automation solutions to improve their efficiency, workplace safety and scalability to meet soaring demand.

At least 22 students drowned on Wednesday when a boat carrying more than 40 people sank while crossing the Nile in northern Sudan, state news agency SUNA said.Civil defense forces were searching the waters for the missing passengers but had not recovered the bodies, the agency added. A female hospital employee also drowned.(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz, writing by Amina Ismail, Editing by Sami Aboudi and Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

ABB will acquire Intrion, a privately owned company headquartered in Huizingen, close to Brussels, with approximately 120 employees and over a decade of experience in logistics automation solutions and services for the warehouse and distribution, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical industries.Its expertise covers a full spectrum of logistics automation solutions including inline checking, product picking, packing, palletizing, conveying, storage, sorting and sequencing, and order picking. The two parties have agreed not to disclose the value of the transaction, which is expected to close in Q3/Q4 2018.“The acquisition is a milestone for ABB’s entry into the logistics market and will significantly advance our logistics robotics automation offering…

State-owned Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) signed an agreement with Spain's Navantia to set up a joint venture in the kingdom to build five warships, the state news agency SPA reported on Thursday.The deal is part of a wider framework agreed in April by Spain and Saudi Arabia for Spanish state-owned shipbuilder Navantia to supply warships to the Gulf Arab state under a deal estimated to be worth around 1.8 billion euros ($2.2 billion).SPA said the agreement between SAMI…

Egypt has approved an exploration agreement with Italy's Eni and the Egyptian Tharwa company to search for oil and gas in the Mediterranean off the coast of northern Sinai, the Egyptian oil minister said on Wednesday.Under the deal, Eni and Tharwa will spend $105 million in two stages over six years, which involve drilling one well in the first stage and another in the second, Tarek El Molla told journalists.Reporting by Momen Saeed Atallah, writing by Sami Aboudi

Damen has delivered a Cutter Suction Dredger 450 to Vesirakennus Ojanen Oy in Finland. This is the first time a Damen Cutter Suction Dredger has been deployed in the Scandinavian market. The new dredger was delivered in only a few weeks from stock and has been put to work straight away in the Port of Pori, where it is dredging at a depth of 4.5 meters. Olivier Marcus, Damen Product Director Dredging, commented: “We have had a breakthrough with the first CSD in the region. The Damen CSD450…

Sami Uotinen will join naval architecture firm Robert Allan Ltd. on October 1, responsible for European Business Development initiatives, operating from Turku, Finland.   Uotinen, a graduate naval architect, joins Robert Allan Ltd. from Rolls Royce, where he has worked since 2000, most recently as North American Sales Manager for Z-Drive propulsion. He has also held positions at Aquamaster, Kamewa and Kvaerner Masa Yards.

Bahrain accused Qatar on Monday of illegally seizing three boats with 16 sailors on board, state news agency BNA reported, worsening an already deeply troubled diplomatic situation in the region. Coast Guard Commander Commodore Alaa Siyadi told BNA the boats were seized over the past three days. The report gave no details on the nature of the boats or where they were seized. Qatari officials said they were checking the report. Siyadi said the seizure raised to 15 the number of boats seized, and the number of sailors in Qatari custody to 20, adding that some of the boat seizures date back to 2009, BNA reported. Bahrain, together with Saudi Arabia…

The captain of a Turkish freighter said on Monday that the Greek coast guard had fired on his vessel after he refused an order to dock at a port on the Greek island of Rhodes. Turkey said the action was "disproportionate" and showed no regard for human life. "There is no justification ... for firing on an unarmed commercial ship carrying freight between two Turkish ports," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Sami Kalkavan, captain of the M/V ACT, told the broadcaster CNN Turk that the Greek coast guard had ordered him to dock in Rhodes, which is some 15 miles (24 km) from the Turkish coast, for inspection. He said that when he had failed to comply, the coast guard had opened fire, putting 16 bullet holes in his ship.

At least 35 of the 64 people who were on a ferry that sank off Yemen have been rescued, a Yemeni minister said on Wednesday. Rescue teams continued to look for survivors from the boat that was en route from Hadramout province in mainland Yemen to the island of Socotra, Fisheries Minister Fahad Kaffen said on his Facebook page. Socotra and Hadramout are under the control of the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which is in a war with the Houthis who control most of northern Yemen. The Aden al-Ghad news website said the ship was believed to have suffered an accident and authorities at Hadramout's Mukalla port lost contact with it on Tuesday evening. It sank 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Socotra, an archipelago some 380 km south of mainland Yemen.

Calmer seas and Libya's lawlessness have opened the way for smugglers to ship thousands of migrants across the Mediterranean this week, in a striking reminder of how far Europe is from ending the migrant crisis. In just four days, Italy's coastguard and European vessels pulled 13,000 migrants from packed wooden boats and rubber dinghies crossing from Libya's coast through the Strait of Sicily, one of the shortest routes from North Africa. Images from rescue vessels showed migrants crammed into fragile boats, some in orange life jackets, others jumping into the water to swim as rescuers shouted for them to stop. Many were women and children, most of them Subsaharan Africans.

Bureau Veritas announces the appointment of Nicolas Tissot as Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer. He replaces Sami Badarani, who has decided to leave the company to pursue new professional opportunities. Nicolas Tissot has solid management and finance experience gained in key roles within international groups. Before joining Bureau Veritas, he was Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Executive Committee member of SCOR. He previously held various roles, including finance director positions at Alstom and ENGIE (GDF Suez). Didier Michaud-Daniel, Chief Executive Officer of Bureau Veritas, said, "I am very happy to announce the arrival of Nicolas Tissot, who will hold a key post within Bureau Veritas.

Italy's coastguard said it helped rescue 801 migrants from two boats off western Sicily on Thursday, including many Syrians, amid signs that refugees from the Middle East are increasingly shunning the Greek route into Europe. More than a million migrants, many from Syria, have entered Europe via Turkey and Greece in the past year but the number has fallen sharply since March, when Ankara agreed with the European Union to take back refugees landing on the Greek islands. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said the two boats aided on Thursday, which were also carrying some Iraqis, represented the largest such attempted mass migration from Syria and Iraq to Italy for at least a year.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the United States have agreed to carry out joint patrols to stop any Iranian arms shipments reaching Yemen, the bloc's secretary general, Abdullatif al-Zayani, said on Wednesday.   Zayani was speaking at a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter after a meeting between Carter and his counterparts from the GCC, which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.   Iran denies accusations by Gulf states that it is smuggling weapons to Yemen, where GCC countries are involved in a military campaign against the Tehran-allied Houthi movement.     (Reporting by Sami Aboudi and Yeganeh Torbati, Writing by Angus McDowall, Editing by William Maclean)

Iran released 10 U.S. sailors on Wednesday after holding them overnight, bringing a swift end to an incident that had rattled nerves days ahead of the expected implementation of a landmark nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had freed the sailors after determining they had entered Iranian territorial waters by mistake. The sailors had been detained aboard two U.S. Navy patrol boats in the Gulf on Tuesday. "Our technical investigations showed the two U.S.

Press release - Officials at Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeidah said the first ship to dock there in three weeks arrived on Tuesday, carrying desperately needed fuel, as Saudi Arabia denied it was obstructing aid supplies heading for Yemen by sea. Yemen is suffering what the United Nations has designated as one of its highest-level humanitarian crises but aid efforts have been severely hampered by ongoing fighting and air and sea ports being blocked for long periods. Hodeidah port officials said that two cargo ships, one carrying wheat and the other timber, were the last vessels to enter the facility about three weeks ago. The tanker that arrived on Tuesday had been waiting in international waters for two months…

Saudi-led coalition forces said on Wednesday they had seized an Iranian fishing boat loaded with weapons on its way to deliver them to Houthi fighters in Yemen. The announcement came a day after tribal fighters backed by the coalition won control of a strategic dam in central Yemen from Houthi forces following weeks of fighting east of the capital Sanaa. The coalition, which also includes Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, has been battling the Iranian-backed Houthis for more than six months. It aims to restore to power President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government, forced out by the Houthis, and contain what Gulf Arab states see as Tehran's growing influence in their backyard.

Up to 40 African migrants were feared drowned after their inflatable boat sank near the Libyan coast, survivors told the United Nations refugee agency on Thursday after reaching Italy. "They said between 35 and 40 people died on Wednesday morning," said Carlotta Sami, the UNHCR spokeswoman for southern Europe. All the dead came from sub-Saharan countries such as Senegal, Mali and Benin. A team from the Save the Children charity that interviewed some of the survivors said up to 7 children, aged about 15 or 16, were also believed to have died in the incident. Sami said the boat they were travelling in started to disintegrate shortly after it put to sea from the Tripoli area.

Aspida is the first PMSC to be permanently approved by CNAPS to provide armed guards onboard French flagged vessels. Maritime security firm Aspida informs that as of June 12, 2015 it has become the first private maritime security company (PMSC) to be permanently certified and licensed to supply armed guard protection to French flagged vessels. Aspida is also the first non-French PMSC to get a nontemporary accreditation by CNAPS. Aspida’s operations are carried out by more than 200 qualified and regularly vetted security personnel.

Merchant vessels are taking weeks to deliver vital food supplies to Yemen as Saudi-led coalition warships search for arms bound for Iran-allied Houthi fighters and heavy fighting disrupts shipments in a worsening humanitarian crisis. The conflict has hurt imports to Yemen, where about 20 million people or 80 percent of the population, are estimated to be going hungry. The Arabian peninsula's poorest country, Yemen imports more than 90 percent of its food, including most of its wheat and all its rice - most of it by sea. It faces increasing problems as many shipping companies have pulled out and those still willing to bring cargoes in face a long wait to get navy clearance.

Warships from the Saudi-led coalition have blocked a vessel carrying more than 47,000 tonnes of wheat from entering a Yemeni port, demanding United Nations guarantees that the cargo would not go to military personnel, shipping sources said on Thursday. Ocean Marine Services, which acts as the Yemen-based agent for the ship, said in a letter to the director of the Yemeni Red Sea Ports Authority, that the Lycavitos, carrying 47,250 tonnes of wheat, had been stopped from entering al-Saleef port, north of Hodeidah on Wednesday night, on the grounds that all Yemeni ports were off limits to shipping. "As official bodies, we appeal to you to communicate with whoever may be in charge to find a quick solution to the problem…