The Official Gazette News

For centuries, riverside communities, including the "quilombola" descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped from plantations and ranches, have shared Xingu Island in Brazil's Amazon Basin.Its inhabitants live in brightly painted wooden houses overlooking rivers where small boats crisscross between islands and Abaetetuba city on the mainland to trade fish, seeds and fruits gathered from the Amazon forest in their backyard.In 2016, however, strangers docked on Xingu Island, in Para state…

Venezuela's state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela has created a new unit to run its oil terminals, according to a copy of the government's official gazette seen by Reuters and a person with knowledge of the matter.The launch of the new unit, PDV Puertos S.A., comes after socialist President Nicolas Maduro last month named a new PDVSA president and oil minister to try to revive the once-prosperous OPEC nation's crude output, which has fallen to decades-lows due to years of underinvestment and mismanagement as well as U.S.

At least 38 workers from Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela’s, including the president of maritime subsidiary PDV Marina, were detained on accusations of trafficking fuel, Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on Saturday, describing the accusations as "treason."The move comes just days after other state officials were detained and amid a shakeup at PDVSA after President Nicolas Maduro last month named a committee to restructure the OPEC nation’s oil industry, which is struggling under U.S. sanctions designed to force Maduro’s ouster, as well as years of mismanagement, corruption, and declining cash flow.On Friday…

Venezuela has changed the formulas for calculating royalties energy companies pay the government to remove references to fuel oil and some crude grades, driven by stricter rules governing marine fuel emissions, according to a document seen by Reuters.A ban by the United Nations shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), on the use of fuels with a sulfur content above 0.5%, aimed at reducing pollution, has roiled oil markets and caused price volatility for…

Mexico will impose tariffs of 15 percent to 25 percent on U.S. steel products and on some agricultural goods, the Mexican economy ministry said on Tuesday, after pledging to retaliate against U.S. President Donald Trump's metals tariffs.The ministry published a list of new tariffs in the government's official gazette, which included a 20 percent tariff on U.S.

Mexico's economy ministry said on Thursday it formally imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of carbon steel pipe from China after completing an investigation into "unfair" trade practices. The action came the same day U.S. President Donald Trump was set to announce tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the United States in a bid to counter cheap imports, especially from China. Mexico's investigation of Chinese steel pipes predated Trump's tariff plan, beginning in December 2016 at the request of three companies and covering an analysis of the period from May 2013 to April 2016…

Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA has been authorized to export idle liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the spot market, according to the Wednesday issue of the official gazette. According to the text, Petrobras has been given the green light to export up to 6.6 million cubic meters, assuming this would not result in supply problems for the domestic market. As a state-controlled company, some of Petrobras' commercial strategies require energy ministry authorization. Petrobras operates three regasification terminals in Brazil, which were built in a time when the country was seeing high economic growth rates and natural gas consumption was strong. But demand fell in the last two years while Brazil went through its deepest recession on record, and local production continued to grow.

At the 33rd ordinary meeting on Thursday, 1 December, the Board of Directors of the Merchant Marine Fund (CDFMM), at the Ministry of Transport, Ports and Civil Aviation in Brasilia (DF), approved to finance basis 2.15 billion reais for the construction of a new ship repair facility in Brazil as part of a 9.15 billion reais program for new and existing projects. Company (BBDC). The yard will be located in the municipality of Lucena, in the northeastern Brazilian state of Paraíba. Banco da Amazônia. depending on a number of project parameters. relevant authorities in Brazil in July of this year and clears the way to support funding efforts for the project.

Turkey imposed a tax this week on imports of thermal coal from Colombia, Russia and other major exporters, for use in power generation, to support domestic coal production. The Turkish cabinet decided to impose the tax of $15/tonne on imports from the United States, Colombia, Russia and South Africa on July 18 and announced it in the Official Gazette this week. The tax hits the biggest exporters of thermal coal but does not apply to imports from the European Union, Israel, Macedonia, Bosnia, Morocco, West Bank, Tunisia, Egypt, Georgia, Albania, Jordan, Chile, Serbia, Kosovo, South Korea, Mauritius and Malaysia, the government said. The levy is equal to around a quarter of the current month's physical South African coal price of around $63.65 a tonne.

Oil companies operating in Mexico's deep waters must use national suppliers for 8 percent of the projects by 2025, the government said on Tuesday, a relatively low rate meant to encourage foreign and private firms to bid on contracts. Mexico's oil regulator has scheduled its first-ever deep water auction in early December for 10 blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, after constitutional amendments in 2013 ended a nearly eight-decade monopoly by state oil firm Pemex. The low rate would allow companies to rely less on Mexican suppliers, which have limited expertise in the country's largely unexplored deep waters. The rule set a 3 percent minimum in 2015…

Egypt has transferred the assets of the Al-Arish port in the Sinai Peninsula from a civilian-run agency to the armed forces, citing national security reasons in an area where militant attacks have increased in the past year. The decision was made last week by then-interim President Adly Mansour but only announced on Monday, a day after former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi - who ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last July - was sworn in as the new head of state. The move seemed likely to reinforce critics' concern that Egypt is returning to strongman rule three years after a popular uprising raised hopes of democracy free from military influence.

Eike Batista, who was Brazil's richest man for most of the past decade, is under investigation for allegedly engaging in insider trading while he chaired his now-bankrupt oil-producing and shipbuilding firms, securities industry watchdog CVM said on Friday. In a statement sent to Reuters, Rio de Janeiro-based CVM confirmed that Batista is a respondent in six of nine probes that executives of his Grupo EBX conglomerate are facing for breaching securities rules. In two of them, regulators are examining whether Batista allegedly took advantage of his access to privileged information.

The Cyprus Department of Merchant Shipping (DMS) has licensed the AdvanFort Company, a world-leading provider of maritime security solutions for the commercial shipping industry, to supply the services of armed and unarmed escort guards on those of its flagged vessels transiting piracy high-risk areas, it was announced today. The decision by Cypriot authorities comes just six months following similar approval by the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) to conduct counter-piracy operations aboard vessels flying the Panama flag.

The European Commission has found a €113.9 million Greek support for an infrastructure project of €120 million at the Port of Piraeus to be in line with EU state aid rules. The EU's official gazette 'Europa' reports that the EU Commission found that the project will further the objectives of EU transport policy and cohesion without unduly distorting competition in the internal market. In September 2012 Greece notified plans to support an investment project by OLP, the port authority, to extend existing infrastructure for cruise ships at the Port of Piraeus by 2 docking stations.

World renowned maritime security specialist Ambrey Risk has been awarded accreditation to work with Cyprus-flagged vessels. The UK-based security company, which won a Chamber of Commerce award for business growth last year, became the first UK maritime security company to be granted official accreditation from the Cyprus Maritime Authority, on 13th February 2013, sanctioning the services of armed and unarmed escort guards on vessels transiting piracy high risk areas. Ambrey Risk…

OSX Brasil S.A., a Brazilian corporation engaged in the equipment and services sector for the offshore oil and gas industry, by means of integrated operations in shipbuilding, chartering of exploration and production (E&P) units, and operation and maintenance (O&M) services, announces to its shareholders and the market in general that: The Board of Directors of the Merchant Marine Fund (Fundo da Marinha Mercante - FMM) approved the prioritization of financial support for the Açu Shipbuilding Unit ("UCN Açu") project of OSX Construção Naval S.A., pursuant to the resolution published today in the Federal Official Gazette (Diário Oficial da União).

Turkey has made key changes to the requirements for registration on its international ship register. The changes will make it simpler for both shipowners and financiers to take advantage of Turkish registration. Seyma Inal, senior partner at Istanbul-based Inal Law Office says, "The biggest change, published last week, is that ships no longer have to call at a Turkish port before they can be registered on the Turkish International Ship Registry. And the registration period for ships first registered abroad has been increased from six months to one year. The amendment to the Turkish International Ship Registry Regulation was published in the Official Gazette on September 17, 2006 and came into force immediately.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez authorized the Navy Commander Vice-admiral Benigno Remigio Calvo to enter into a $261m trade agreement with Spanish firm Rodman Polyships for joint construction of 66 boats and purchase of construction material for other 40 units to be manufactured in Venezuela, reports said. The second stage of this project is expected to be implemented in the Navy Unit of Careen Services. According to the Official Gazette dated June 11, the operation is taking place under a strategic alliance entered into on October 16, 2005 in Vigo, Spain. However, in April 2006, Navy Commander Vice-admiral Armando Laguna Laguna told reporters they would purchase a lower number of boats.