Still Importing Oil News

Firefighters are again battling flames aboard a fully loaded oil supertanker off Sri Lanka, the island's nation's navy said on Monday, four days after fire first broke out on the New Diamond."Fresh flames have risen in the funnel section of the MT New Diamond Supertanker and firefighters are battling the fire using foam to contain the blaze," said the Navy spokesman Captain Indika de Silva, adding that the fire had not reached the oil cargo of around 2 million barrels.A fire first broke out last Thursday in the engine room and spread to the bridge of the very large crude carrier…

Sri Lanka on Wednesday signed an agreement with a subsidiary of U.S.

In ten years, India Shipping Summit held consistently in Mumbai, has sailed on a robust growth course despite the worldwide witnessing recessionary waves buffeting any endeavors to grow and gain. The reasons are not too far to see. From the very beginning it has been reputed to be a mega event of South East Asia. It sought consistently to bring government representatives and the leading lights of the industry on to a common platform thus acting as a beacon for the country’s maritime trade to move on the road to progress. It has continued to garner support from every section of the trade and industry each time the event has taken place. This year the three-day event held last week brought together a bigger gathering of shipping elites and the who’s who in the industry.

The accord reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the United States, China, Russia, Great Britain and France) and Germany (the P5+1) in November 2013, becomes effective Jan. 20, 2014, for a six-month interim period. The accord provides limited sanctions relief for Iran in exchange for a halt to Iran's nuclear development program. While some of the details regarding the specific scope of sanctions relief are not yet public, this alert provides initial information about the scope and impact of these measures. On Nov. 24, 2013, the P5+1 reached an interim accord with Iran called the Joint Plan of Action. This accord is intended to provide an interim compromise to give negotiators an opportunity to conclude a more permanent agreement.

Officials with the World Trade Center Mississippi River Alliance (WTC MSRA) and the Big River Coalition (BRC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining a cooperative effort to preserve and promote economic growth on the Mississippi River and Tributaries (MRT). The organizations will work together in support of increasing the draft in the Lower Mississippi River deep-draft channel to 50 feet to equal the maximum draft to be available when the new Panama Canal locks open in 2015. Along with this agreement, both parties will be given access to broadcast their organizational information and updates to each other and its members. “The timing for such a partnership with the Big River Coalition is ideal.

Petrobras plans to invest $5.2 billion in foreign acquisitions, mainly in the Gulf of Mexico, to meet a 2005 foreign output target of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), Reuters reported. Jorge Marques de Toledo Camargo, head of Petrobras' foreign operations, also said other purchases would focus on offshore drilling projects in which he said the Brazilian company had a competitive advantage. "We cannot meet this goal (of 300,000 bpd) only with our existing portfolio. We need to accumulate new assets," Camargo said in a recent interview while visiting Colombia. "In South America and Western Africa ... we have built a portfolio as we had planned. The area that would be most challenging for our growth is the Gulf of Mexico, where we are focusing," he said.