The Port News

Demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power ships will rise this year on attractive prices, while more dual-fuel vessels join the global fleet. Prices of LNG delivered as marine fuel at the world's largest bunker hub Singapore are at steep discounts of nearly $100 per metric ton compared with conventional 0.5% very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO), industry sources report.That is a far cry from record premiums of more than $1,000 a ton seen in September 2023, based on data from S&P Global Platts published on industry coalition SEA-LNG's website…

Wallenius Wilhelmsen has signed a 20-year lease agreement with the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), with options up to 30 years for Brunswick port expansion, increasing its strategic terminal and processing networkUpgraded and enlarged Brunswick facilities will further expand the scope and scale of U.S. Southeast operations of Wallenius Wilhelmsen, which is the world's largest RoRo vessel operator.The Brunswick expansion will further cement the company’s position as the favored partner for North American customers…

Simulation-based training has its whole-of-ship/whole-of-team scenarios, but zooming in, the industry is now working on more specific targets.We have a close relationship with technology, evidenced by, for example, the phones we are estimated to unlock around 50-80 times a day. It has changed us. Half the people surveyed in a 2022 King’s College London study said that they feel like their attention span is shorter than it used to be. They are wrong, though, if they think that the average attention span of adults today is just eight seconds, one second less than goldfish.

Maersk may resume some shipping services at the Port of Baltimore when a temporary channel is opened to give access for commercially essential vessels that remain blocked by a collapsed bridge, the company said."This channel, with a controlling depth of 20 feet, could potentially allow Maersk and other carriers to operate limited barge services into and out of the Port of Baltimore," Maersk said in a statement.The group last Wednesday said the port's alternate shipping channels…

Danish shipowner CBED has signed a contract with Siemens Gamesa for the first offshore wind project for its new SOV Wind Creation as part of the CBED fleet.With the new walk-to-work project, the SOV joins commissioning an offshore wind farm in the Netherlands.The project starts at the end of the second quarter of 2024 and runs for the remainder of the year, thereby securing full activity for Wind Creation until the first quarter of 2025.CBED now has all three vessels in the fleet…

The first tanker carrying crude from the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline is expected to load at the Port of Vancouver in the second half of May, the company building the project said on Tuesday.The expanded pipeline, which will carry an extra 600,000 barrels per day of oil from Alberta to Canada's Pacific coast, will begin transporting crude on May 1 with final line fill completed in early May, Trans Mountain Corp said in an email.(Reuters - Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

On April 19th, 2024, Muddy Water Dredging, LP, held the christening ceremony of its Marlin Class dredge at the Port of New Orleans. The event was attended by many esteemed business leaders, media personnel, and distinguished dignitaries. "We are happy to unveil the Vaneta Marie dredge. After many hours of collaboration between Muddy Water and DSC what we have before us is a dredge that was crafted with precision and ingenuity," said Michael Kerns, President, and CEO of Muddy Water.

The uniquely painted Norwegian Aqua was launched at the Fincantieri  Marghera (Venice) shipyard, the first vessel in the Prima Plus class for Norwegian Cruise Line's (NCL).With external work now complete, the yard and its partners will forcus on completing the ship for its scheduled April 2025 delivery.“We are thrilled to celebrate another milestone together with our partners at Fincantieri, who are an integral part of the Prima class ships' journey and support us in evolving the extraordinary experience we design and deliver to our guests…

EST-Floattech has been selected by KOTUG International to provide its containerized energy storage solution with Octopus Series energy modules for the E-Pusher 1 (Type M), the world’s first fully electric pusherboat operated by Cargill.The vessel was built by Padmos, and EST-Floattech worked with the yard, Sea and Shore, and Gebhard Electro to realize the system. The container is ESTRIN-Certified and has a capacity of 2MWh. It was designed and constructed in a little over half…

The MSC Foundation, the MSC Group and Mercy Ships International have joined forces to build a new hospital ship.On 8 April, the chairman of MSC Group and MSC Foundation, Capt. Gianluigi Aponte, MSC Group President and Member of the MSC Foundation Board, Diego Aponte, and Mercy Ships Founder, Don Stephens, finalized an agreement to kickstart the new project with a generous anchor donation from MSC Foundation.The new purpose-built hospital ship will expand the impact of Mercy Ships’ life-changing surgeries…

As U.S. shale oil boomed last decade, an oil pipeline company pitched an ambitious multi-billion-dollar export port off the Texas coast to ship domestic crude to buyers in Europe and Asia.In April, Enterprise Products Partners' SPOT became the first project to receive a license from the U.S. maritime regulator for a deepwater port that could load two supertankers, each of which can carry up to 2 million barrels of oil at a time.But multi-year regulatory delays, a loss of commercial backers and slowing U.S.

The Great Lakes Towing Company (GLT) on Monday unveiled plans to roll out a new breakbulk and RoRo shipping service serving the Caribbean.The Cleveland, Ohio-based company announced the formation of Great Lakes East (GLE), effectively reactivating Crimson Shipping Company’s former domestic and international marine transportation business, based out of Mobile, Ala. However, GLE will shift the primary load port to Fernandina Beach, Fla.GLE will initially service the trade with the 270- by 80-foot fully enclosed deck barge…

The Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority on Monday revealed details of a program to slash carbon emissions to net zero by 2040 in an effort to improve air quality and the health of residents.Working with technical experts from sustainability consultancy Tunley Environmental, and thanks to funding from the State of Michigan, it established that operations across the port region were responsible for 27,869 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, and that urgent action was needed.“The maritime industry is responsible for 3% of global emissions, and it’s growing.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it is seeking to fill 18 vacancies on the National Towing Safety Advisory Committee, which advises the Secretary of Homeland Security, via the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard on matters relating to shallow-draft inland navigation, coastal waterway navigation, and towing safety.The Coast Guard said it will consider applications for the following 18 vacancies:Seven members to represent the barge and towing industry, reflecting a regional geographic balance.One…

Hong Kong-based shipping company Wah Kwong is finalizing a deal later this month to double the number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers that it has ordered to four, as it eyes growing global trade in the superchilled fuel, its chairman said.The ships would be delivered from 2027 onwards, Wah Kwong's Executive Chairman Hing Chao told Reuters on the sidelines of the Singapore Maritime Week ShipZERO28 event late last week."We have always been very optimistic about the outlook of LNG as a global energy," said Chao, adding that a lot of supply will have to come from the U.S.

French energy giant TotalEnergies and Oman National Oil Company (OQ) have reached the final investment decision (FID) on the Marsa LNG project, which will feature an LNG plant completely powered by renewable energy that will produce LNG for use as a marine fuel for maritime transportation.Through their joint company Marsa Liquefied Natural Gas (Marsa), TotalEnergies (80%) and OQ (20%) have launched the integrated Marsa LNG project which combines upstream gas production, downstream gas liquefaction…

The Maritime International Advisory Panel (IAP) held its third annual meeting on April 16, 2024, during the Singapore Maritime Week 2024. This year, the Maritime IAP held in-depth discussions on the key developments in the maritime sector, including decarbonization, green financing, digitalization and cybersecurity.Established in 2022 by the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), the Maritime IAP aims to seek international perspectives on key long-term trends and developments that will shape the maritime industry.

Esgian reports on the many rig movements that occurred last week in its Week 16 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsADES Holding Company has received a letter of award from an international oil company for a one-year firm drilling contract for a jackup offshore Qatar.TotalEnergies has exercised a three-well option for Transocean 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Skyros offshore Angola at a rate of $400,000, keeping the rig working into December 2025.After initially beginning a short-term job in the US GOM in January 2024…

The Captain of the Port (COTP) has established the Fort Carroll Temporary Alternate Channel, which is on the northeast side of the main channel in the vicinity of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and will provide limited access for commercially essential vessels.The channel has a controlling depth of 20 feet, a 300-foot horizontal clearance, and a vertical clearance of 135 feet, and will facilitate additional commercially essential vessel traffic through the port of Baltimore.“This additional channel increases the types of vessels able to transit inbound and outbound the port of Baltimore…

Ukraine's military said on Sunday it had struck and damaged a long-serving Russian rescue vessel in Sevastopol, the headquarters in occupied Crimea of Moscow's Black Sea Fleet.Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said the vessel, the Kommuna, had been hit in Sevastopol Bay on Sunday morning and it was "clear that the ship is no longer in a state to carry out assignments."A post on the Ukrainian Armed Forces Telegram channel said the ship was one of the oldest operated by the Russian…

An accident with a shiploader at the sugar terminal in the Recife port in Northeastern Brazil suspended loading operations at the site, according to a note from shipping company Williams Brazil late on Thursday.The company said the shiploader collapsed and a part of the machine fell inside the cargo hold of a vessel that was docked at the port to load raw sugar.The press service at the Recife port confirmed the accident, adding that nobody was hurt.The port said experts are evaluating the situation and there is still no time frame for the repair.

The port of Corpus Christi, Texas, the top U.S. oil export hub, said it exported 6.40 million barrels per day of crude oil in the first quarter, up 6.9% from the same period a year ago.The U.S. Gulf Coast port handles more than half the nation's oil exports, benefiting from its pipeline ties to South and West Texas shale fields. Its volumes have risen along with shale oil production.Overall, the port has moved nearly 48.9 million metric tons of goods through the Corpus Christi Ship Channel in the first quarter.

A cargo ship from Russia earlier detained in Germany on suspicion of breaching sanctions is now free to leave the port of Rostock, the Stralsund main customs office confirmed on Friday without providing any further details.The Atlantic Navigator II carried 251 containers of birch wood destined for the United States, which is subject to EU sanctions against Russia, but not to the US ones, prosecutors have said.The vessel, which is managed by Canada-based CISN and sailing under the Marshall Islands flag, also has enriched uranium for some US clients, exempted from both US and EU sanctions, The O