Galicia News

Quality Tank Cleaning LLC (QTC) has inaugurated a new industrial tank cleaning facility in collaboration with Harvey Gulf (HGIM).The company has introduced Ivan Galicia as a partner in the new endeavor located at Harvey Gulf’s Operations Facility in Port Fourchon, LA.With an illustrious career spanning over 25 years in the industry, Galicia is esteemed for his unparalleled expertise in tank cleaning operations, earning him recognition as a foremost authority in the field. He and…

BAR Technologies, a developer of wind propulsion systems, has entered into partnership with floating offshore wind platforms pioneer Nervion Naval Offshore to manage and oversee the production of BAR Technologies’ wing sail design WindWings in Europe.The agreement with Nervion, a company owned by Amper Group and with factories in Ferrol and As Somozas in Galicia, Spain, is the first manufacturing partnership for BAR Technologies outside of China.It is expected to provide European customers…

A 62-year-old French man survived for 16 hours in an air bubble inside his capsized sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean before being rescued by Spanish coastguard divers in what they described as an operation "verging on the impossible".The 40-foot (12-meter) Jeanne SOLO Sailor sent out a distress signal at 20.23h on Monday from 14 miles from the Sisargas Islands off Spain's northwestern Galicia region, the coast guard said.

Spain on Monday won backing from Europe's top court in its mutlimillion euros damage claim against The London Steam-Ship Owners Mutual Insurance Association for a massive oil spill on its northwestern coast two decades ago.The 2002 sinking of the Greek oil tanker Prestige, which was sailing to Gibraltar, released an estimated 63,000 tones of foul-smelling black fuel along the Galicia coast and forced the closure of Spain's richest fishing grounds.It led to a lengthy dispute between The London Steam-Ship Owners' Mutual Insurance Association Limited…

Canadian rescue officials on Wednesday suspended the search for 11 missing crew members from a Spanish trawler that sank the previous day in rough seas off the coast of Newfoundland, killing at least 10 people.Three surviving sailors from the trawler, suffering from severe hypothermia, were plucked from a life raft early on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear what sank the trawler Villa de Pitanxo.Bad weather complicated the search efforts, which went on for some 36 hours and involved a plane, two helicopters, rescue ships and one Spanish and two Portuguese trawlers.At 4 p.m.

Sea rescue services from the Canadian city of Halifax found and recovered 10 bodies from a Spanish fishing trawler that sank in rough sea off the eastern coast of Canada, the services said late on Tuesday, though 11 of the crew are still missing.“Regrettably, Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) Halifax can confirm that an additional three deceased individuals have been recovered from the sunken fishing vessel,” the center said on its Twitter account. Earlier, it announced the recovery of seven bodies.Three surviving sailors from the trawler…

At least seven crew from a Spanish trawler have died and three were plucked from a life raft after their ship sank off the Canadian coast on Tuesday, an official said, as rescuers searched for more survivors in the bitterly cold Atlantic waters.The vessel, the Villa de Pitanxo, with a crew of 24 comprising 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and three Ghanaians, launched a distress beacon at 0424 GMT, Spain's fisheries ministry said.It sank around 450 km (280 miles) east-southeast of Newfoundland, the ministry said."Seven people have been found dead," said Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the leader of Spain's Galicia region where the vessel and several of its crew were from."There were two Galician fishing boats in the area…

A day after it ordered its tenth E-Flexer vessel in the RoPax class, Stena RoRo on Thursday said it had ordered two new ferries from the Chinese shipyard CMI Jinling (Weihai). To remind, the firm on Monday ordered the tenth unit from the same shipyard for a charter in Canada. The 11th and 12th Stena E-Flexer vessels, ordered Thursday, are in the RoPax class developed by Stena RoRo, with delivery scheduled for 2024 and 2025. Stena RoRo said that at the same time, long-term charter…

Orcas behavior of battering sailboats off Spain and Portugal baffles expertsThere are many mysteries in the maritime environment. For Sailors along Spain and Portugal’s Atlantic coastline, there has been a recent series of puzzling incidents involving apparently aggressive orcas.While orcas are not known to attack humans, they can cause damage to boats. In a series of incidents along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts between Gibraltar and Galicia, groups of orcas have been recorded swimming near sailboats and other vessels…

Finnish marine technology group Wärtsilä has said that its profit-sharing deal based on fuel savings signed two years ago with Brittany Ferries has significantly benefitted both companies. The installation of Wärtsilä's Trim and Speed energy management and optimization technology on the first vessel ‘Cap Finistere’, covered by the contract, was finalized and fully operational in March 2019. The installation was carried out by Wärtsilä Voyage. Wärtsilä says Wärtsilä Voyage is part…

The discovery of a submarine carrying 3,000 kg (3.3 tons) of cocaine off the coast of Spain marks a "historic" turning point in the battle against drug trafficking, Spanish authorities said on Wednesday.Police described it as the first "narcosubmarine" to be intercepted in Europe, adding in a statement that it had been found in waters off the northwestern region of Galicia on Saturday, stuffed with 152 neatly-wrapped bales of cocaine.The estimated street value of the drugs is 100 million euros ($110.22 million)…

The fumigation of grain cargoes using certain pesticides, namely plant protection products, may not be effective in controlling insect larvae, resulting in cargo damage or loss.Javier Quintero Saavedra, head of HSE at Terminales Marítimos de Galicia (TMGA), an operator of bulk terminals in Galicia, Spain, and Chairman, Dry Bulk Cargoes Working Group, ICHCA,  said: “We are finding that the pupae and larvae inside maize kernels in various consignments, and which were subjected to in-transit fumigation…

U.K.'s Portsmouth International Port's relationship with major European ferry operator, Brittany Ferries, has been strengthened following the announcement of an additional five years to a joint long-term agreement.This means Brittany Ferries is committed to Portsmouth until the end of 2031, during which time a further three ships will join the current fleet serving routes from the city. Alongside the Honfleur, Brittany Ferries' state-of-the-art environmentally friendly ship powered by Liquid Natural Gas (LNG), Galicia and Salamanca will both be based in Portsmouth from 2021.Additional ferries will increase freight numbers and holiday makers.

The port of Ferrol hosted its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering operation recently which saw two ferries filled with LNG by Repsol in the port’s Mugardos terminal.Recently built by Turkish shipyard Tersan, the Samnøy and Huftarøy ferries received 178 cubic metres of fuel from five tanks in total. The Samnøy received about 110 cubic metres of fuel, whereas the Huftarøy was supplied with 68 cubic metres.The two operations were carried out on the outer jetty, which is the dock of the inner dock where small and medium-sized cruise ships usually dock when they visit the city.They were on their way to the Norwegian fjords, where they will be exploited in passenger services by the Torghatten Nord shipping company.

Spain's Navantia will build five F-110 frigates for the Spanish navy in a contract worth $4.9 billion. Navantia, which employs around 5,000 people, has in recent years racked up deep losses which reached 389 million euros in 2017.The government's representative in the Galicia region where the frigates will be built said the contract would create 1,300 direct jobs over nine years and as many as 5,700 more indirectly.Javier Losada, a member of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist party, said the contract would be approved on Friday during the weekly cabinet meeting.In April, Spain agreed to sell warships built at Navantia's yards to Saudi Arabia in a deal worth an estimated 1.8 billion euros.(Reuters)

Portuguese renewables company EDP Renewables (EDPR) has inaugurated the Muxía Wind Farm in the homonymous municipality, in the Autonomous Spanish Region of Galicia.A press release from the wind energy producer said that its CEO Jõao Manso Neto and the Managing Director of EDPR Spain were joined at the grand opening by Galician Regional Premier Alberto Núñez Feijóo and the Mayor of Muxía Félix Porto, as well as representatives from the local and regional authorities.The Muxía facility is equipped with thirty-four 2 MW wind turbines, offering a total installed capacity of 68 MW.Including this new wind farm, EDP Renewables now has a total installed capacity in the region of 281 MW…

Oliver Design will be showcasing some of its latest projects on its stand at the Navalia trade fair, which runs from May 22 to 24 , in Vigo, Spain.Recent projects from the Spanish firm, which specializes in naval design and architecture, include new state-of the-art vessels ranging from working vessels to luxury cruise ships. It has also carried out renovation on several existing vessels.The biannual Navalia is one of the top international fairs for the shipbuilding industry.

Golar LNG said on Monday it had started production at its floating LNG (FLNG) platform in Cameroon, the world's second working example of the nascent technology and a milestone likely to boost its Fortuna project in Equatorial Guinea. As the cost of land-based LNG plants more than tripled in the decade to 2013, Golar pioneered the conversion of ageing LNG tankers into giant refrigerators capable of chilling gas into its liquid form at minus 162 Celsius. Natural gas when liquefied can be shipped and sold around the world on tankers, like oil. By starting up the pilot floating plant in Cameroon, Golar is removing uncertainty about the risks associated with squeezing equipment into a fraction of the space occupied by an LNG plant on land, shipping analysts and industry sources say.

Demand for natural gas in 2017 has grown by close to 9% in Spain, compared to 2016, reaching 351 TWh. It is the third consecutive year of increased gas demand in the country. Industrial demand for natural gas, which accounts for close to 60% of the total demand, has shown a rise of 7%, in line with the positive evolution of the economy. Among the industrial sectors showing the highest growth in their gas consumption are metallurgy and construction. Natural gas demand for power generation has grown by 27%. The figure is influenced by low levels of hydroelectricity generation this year, down by approximately 48% compared to 2016. Consumption of natural gas by homes…

Two maritime pilots who defied fire to bring a burning ship to safety, averting a major maritime catastrophe, received the 2017 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea during the 2017 IMO awards ceremony, held on Monday (27 November). Pilots Captain Michael G. McGee and Captain Michael C. Phillips, from Houston, United States, were recognized for their role in averting a major tragedy in September 2016. The ship they were piloting, the 247 meters-long tanker Aframax River, broke down in the Houston Ship Channel in the middle of the night and burst into flames after colliding with mooring dolphins. Captain McGee and Captain Phillips were surrounded by a towering wall of burning fuel as the raging fire quickly spread across the channel…

The crew members from ESPS Rayo continued the regional cooperation EU NAVFOR has established with the AMISOM Marine unit off the coast of Mogadishu. This was the third time this year that EU NAVFOR has had the opportunity to exercise and train with AMISOM forces. This visit to Mogadishu followed on from ESPS Relampago in February and ESPS Galicia in May. The training included briefings and exercises on fire fighting, search and rescue, first aid and boarding procedures. Maritime training with regional partners, such as AMISOM, is an extremely important aspect of Operation Atalanta’s work to deter piracy off the coast of Somalia. The…

Spanish police seized more than two tons of cocaine from a ship with a Venezuelan flag in the Atlantic Ocean and arrested the seven crew members, Spain's interior ministry said on Monday. The operation, carried out alongside the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the UK's National Crime Agency and Portuguese police, took place earlier this month, on May 4. The seven people on board were Venezuelan nationals, the ministry said, adding that a gun had also been seized alongside 2400 kg of cocaine. The vessel, a small, rusted fishing boat according to images distributed by police, has since been towed to Spain's Canary Islands. Separately…

A European Union counter-piracy patrol helped thwart a piracy attack close to Somalia’s east coast on April 22. Late on Saturday evening, EU NAVFOR’s Spanish flagship, ESPS Galicia, received a SOS distress call from the master of Sierra Leone flagged merchant tanker vessel MT Costina to say that his vessel was being attacked by a number of armed pirates in a fast-moving skiff. ESPS Galicia, which was 14 nautical miles away, then launched a SH-3D Sea King helicopter and sailed full speed toward MT Costina.