Tracking Services News

This is going to be about whales, but it will actually be an engineering discussion rather than a nature discussion. Let’s start with an easy truth. Whale deaths due to offshore wind activities is utter nonsense. It has no basis in fact, and is a total fabrication by truly malicious characters.There, now let’s get into more interesting stuff. Whale deaths caused by humans is a complex issue that will never be solved completely, but, with careful adjustments, can be reduced. There is a possibility that occasionally there are whale COVID style epidemics that cause unusual levels of mortality…

Venezuela will contract with an Iranian shipyard to build two oil tankers under an existing construction agreement bedeviled by payment delays and difficulties with needed certifications, according to people familiar with the matter and documents.Venezuela’s state-run energy firm PDVSA since last year has redoubled efforts to buy and lease oil tankers to rebuild its own fleet. Its maritime operations have suffered from a long-standing lack of capital and U.S. sanctions that have…

The first liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel arrived on Friday at Freeport LNG's long-idled export plant in Texas since the facility shut in a fire in June last year, according to ship tracking data from Refinitiv.The vessel Kmarin Diamond is operated by a unit of oil major BP, one of Freeport's big customers, according to several vessel tracking services.News of the vessel's arrival helped boost U.S. natural gas futures by over 5% in post-settlement trade on Friday as the second biggest U.S. LNG export plant will consume a lot of gas once it starts production again.The contract had closed at a 25-month low earlier in the week due mostly to mild weather and low heating demand.Freeport has said it would soon start sending gas to one of the plant's three liquefaction trains…

Oil tankers formed a traffic jam off the coast of Turkey on day one of the West's price cap on Russian crude, with Ankara insisting on new proof of insurance for all vessels, the Financial Times reported on Monday.Around 19 crude oil tankers were waiting to cross Turkish waters on Monday, the report said, citing ship brokers, oil traders and satellite tracking services.A $60 per barrel price cap imposed by the Group of Seven nations, Australia and the 27 European Union states on Russian seaborne crude oil took effect this week…

Orbcomm Inc., a global provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, has been awarded a multi-year contract by a U.S. government agency for a competitive renewal of its global Automatic Identification System (AIS) data services used for ship tracking and other maritime navigational and safety efforts. In addition, Orbcomm was awarded a separate competitive contract to deliver AIS services to multiple other U.S. government users.Orbcomm's AIS data will continue to be used in a maritime domain awareness software platform that supports key U.S.

An Iranian supertanker carrying about 2 million barrels of condensate this week began discharging at Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA's main oil port, according to a company document and tanker tracking services.PDVSA and state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in the second half of last year started a swap deal to exchange Iranian condensate for PDVSA's heavy crude. The pact has proven to be key for sustaining Venezuela's oil output, which needs diluents including condensate for transportation and exports.Last year, the two state companies that are under U.S. sanctions exchanged some 4.82 million barrels of condensate for 5.55 million barrels of heavy crude, mostly transported in Iran-flagged vessels.

Global marine electronics and satellite communications provider, Mackay Communications, Inc., dba Mackay Marine, announced it has joined the select cadre of worldwide Iridium GMDSS Service Providers for Iridium’s new Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) service. Mackay is similarly a global partner with Lars Thrane A/S, the first, and currently the only manufacturer of an IMO-certified Iridium GMDSS terminal, the LT-3100S.Iridium’s implementation and accelerated…

Twill, a digital freight forwarder designed to make shipping simple, has announced a change in its brand affiliation from Damco to Maersk.Launched in April 2017, Twill was created as a ‘Damco innovation’ and operated as a partner with the freight forwarder and supply chain management company, which is part of A.P. Moller - Maersk.The realigning of the brand will make it possible to offer Twill to all Maersk customers, in line with the A.P. Moller - Maersk strategy to become a global integrator of container logistics offering end-to-end solutions.The easy-to-use online Twill platform provides greater control of shipments by offering instant price quotes and booking…

BigOceanData and Maersk Line have entered into a two-year agreement whereby BigOceanData will deliver vessel tracking services to Maersk Line. The initial system went live on August 1, 2016 and is already in use in operation centers around the world on both desktop and mobile devices. BigOceanData is now working with Maersk Line to optimize the vessel tracking system for their in-house systems. BigOceanData is initially being used to track Maersk Line’s fleet, a total of approximately 630 owned and chartered vessels…

India's Iran oil imports rose about 39 percent in June year on year, preliminary data obtained by Reuters shows. In the first half of 2016 India's Iran oil imports surged by about 58 percent to about 342,000 bpd, the data showed, in comparison with 216,500 bpd in the same period last year. HPCL-Mittal Energy, majority owned by state refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp, halted oil imports from Iran in November 2012 under pressure from Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear ambitions. HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL), partly owned by steel tycoon Lakshmi N. Mittal, took a cargo from Tehran after a three-and-a-half year break. Last month HMEL took a million barrels of Iranian oil…

Pole Star, a U.K.-headquartered technology company delivering maritime application solutions, has launched its new cloud application platform, designed to facilitate the company’s vision to enable a universal maritime ecosystem. According to its developer, the new Pole Star platform is a highly configurable, extensible and easy-to-use cloud application platform, built upon a powerful, robust and open API, and using enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure. With a wide (and expanding)…

APL Ltd. to Pay $9.8 Million to Resolve Alleged False Claims Under the Department of Defense Shipping Contract. APL Limited has agreed to pay the government $9.8 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act in connection with a contract to provide GPS tracking of shipping containers in Afghanistan, the Justice Department announced today. APL, an ocean carrier based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a wholly-owned American subsidiary of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines Limited. The Department of Defense contract required APL to affix a satellite tracking device to each shipping container transported from Karachi, Pakistan to U.S. military bases in Afghanistan when the Department of Defense (DOD) requested the tracking services.

Oil imports from Iran at 220,000 bpd in year to March 31. U.S. pressured India not to raise annual Iran oil imports. India halted oil imports from Iran for the first time in at least a decade in March as New Delhi responded to U.S. pressure to keep its shipments from Tehran within sanction limits during the last month of negotiations on a preliminary nuclear deal. Iran and six world powers have ramped up the pace of negotiations this week ahead of the Tuesday deadline for reaching an initial accord on a final nuclear agreement. Both sides have warned it was crucial to overcome differences that could still wreck any chance at a deal.

Globe Tracker International, a company in global autonomous asset tracking, monitoring, remote management and data sharing services, and CakeBoxx Technologies, developer of CakeBoxx door-less intermodal shipping containers, today announce their strategic partnership. Under the agreement, the companies will combine service and product offerings to supply the global shipping market with a preconfigured, off-the-shelf secure container / asset tracking solution. CakeBoxx will offer its customers a factory installed Globe Tracker Communications Unit and a 12-month complimentary subscription to Globe Tracker services. Globe Tracker’s leading…

Pole Star Space Applications said it has partnered with Delta Wave Communications to pursue onshore opportunities. Delta Wave will offer Pole Star’s remote monitoring, security and tracking solutions to the North American energy exploration, chemical and oil and gas markets. Since the late 1990s, Pole Star has developed satellite-based fleet monitoring services for use in the harsh and isolated marine environment. Because satellite-based communication provides near global coverage, Pole Star’s systems allow shipowners and managers to track their ships, even when they sail beyond the reach of other communications networks. This need applies equality to onshore companies that operate assets in remote land areas where cellular coverage is limited.

PortVision to provide Sunoco Logistics with TerminalSmart dock management system and vessel-tracking services software. PortVision® has signed a three-year agreement with Sunoco Logistics to provide the company with its TerminalSmart™ platform, which integrates dock management, scheduling, reporting and analytics with the PortVision Automatic Identification System (AIS)-based vessel tracking services. TerminalSmart is the industry’s first web-based service platform that integrates vessel tracking, dock management, and analysis in a single, convenient operational dashboard for marine terminal operators. TerminalSmart supports dock scheduling, comprehensive dock activity logging, and business intelligence reporting.

RedPort Global, providers of marine satellite data, voice routers and services, launch GPS tracking service with the RedPort Optimizer. When connected to a GPS-enabled satellite phone or terminal, Optimizer works as a GPS Satellite Tracker , and can transmit the device’s GPS location at user-defined intervals, working with select tracking services to let users view GPS locations online or input them directly into their existing tracking systems. “Reliable, affordable GPS vessel tracking is a critical part of any vessel operations – from the smallest boat to the largest ship,” said Dr.

Beam receives a $5 M commitment from Telstra for Satellite Docking Stations and Iridium Handsets. Beam Communications Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of World Reach Limited (ASX: WRR), announces it has received a commitment from Telstra to purchase a minimum of USD5.1 M of Iridium based satellite docking stations and product bundles over the next 12 months. The initial shipment (valued at USD1.65 M) is expected to be fulfilled by 30 June 2012, the balance being called upon as required over the 12 month period.

AWT Launches First Service Using Global Automatic Identification System for Accurate Vessel Monitoring. AWT Global AIS Service Expands Coverage to Include Terrestrial Data and Satellite Data. SUNNYVALE, Calif., September 13, 2011 – Applied Weather Technology, Inc. (AWT) today announced the launch of its global Automatic Identification System (AIS) service, AWT Global AIS. AWT is the first in its market to provide this innovative service, using satellite data to more accurately monitor vessels beyond coastal regions on a global scale.

SeaWave, LLC has installed the SeaWave Integrator 3.0 aboard the Alaska Marine Highway System's (AMHS) high speed ferry "Fairweather," as it embarks on a one month trip for delivery from Bridgeport, Connecticut to Juneau, Alaska today. The builder of the vessel, Derecktor Shipyards, wanted to have a communications system on board for email and weather tracking for its delivery voyage. Working with SeaWave, this has been accomplished. The SeaWave Integrator will provide voice and email communications to the Derecktor delivery captain and 10 crew members during transit of the first commercial ferry to be built to the international High Speed Craft (HSC) code in the United States.

Newly merged company will track and monitor half the world’s ships. Pole Star Space Applications Limited (“Pole Star”), Absolute Software Inc. and Absolute Maritime Tracking Services Inc. (“Absolute”) today announced that the merger of the three organisations has been completed. The enlarged global business, headquartered in West London, will provide a combination of monitoring and security related services to more than 35,000 vessels - half the world’s international fleet. Combining Pole Star’s award-winning expertise in systems for commercial fleets…

Melbourne, Australia - Beam Communications Pty Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of World Reach Limited, announced that it has received certification by Iridium Communications Inc. for use of Beam’s LiteDOCK docking station for the Iridium Extreme® satellite phone. Iridium is the operator of the world’s furthest reaching communications network. With the release of Iridium Extreme, Beam Communications has developed a range of next-generation docks to complement the phone’s functionality and features.

Beam Granted World’s First Approval for Iridium Extreme Docking Station. Beam Communications Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of World Reach Limited (ASX: WRR), announces it has received certification by Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: IRDM) for use of Beam’s LiteDOCK docking station for the Iridium Extreme® satellite phone. Beam is the first manufacturer in the world to receive Iridium’s official certification of a docking unit for the Iridium Extreme handset. Iridium is the operator of the world’s furthest reaching communications network.