Oil Booms News

Antwerp-based Brabo Group has held a naming ceremony for a Multi Cat 1506 and a Multi Cat 1908 delivered by Damen Shipyards Group. The group’s cleaning division, Brabo Cleaning Company, has secured a contract with Port of Antwerp to maintain a pollution-free environment in the harbor.The naming ceremony took place at Brabo’s headquarters in Antwerp on October 21. The vessels were sponsored by Annick de Ridder and Yasmine Janssen.After securing the contract, Brabo required the vessels quickly.

A Chinese fishing vessel that ran aground and spilled oil off Mauritius has been refloated and detained, local officials said on Thursday. The Lurong Yuan Yu struck a reef facing Pointe-aux-Sables near Port-Louis on Sunday evening in poor weather conditions. A minor oil spill was contained, and the vessel's crew was evacuated by helicopter without reported injuries.Mauritian Minister for the Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping, Sudheer Maudhoo, said, “Mauritius’ coastal waters are some of our most important natural resources…

After the recent oil spill disaster of the Bow Jubail in the Port of Rotterdam, Fleet Cleaner has stepped up to help the authorities with cleaning ship’s hulls which were fouled by the heavy fuel oil, in order to minimize the environmental impact. Within record time, Fleet Cleaner has transformed its installation to an oil spill response vessel; by installing specialized heating equipment, the high pressure water cleaning robot was made ready for high pressure steam cleaning.

A serious water pollution incident occurred on Saturday 23 June 2018 in the Derde Petroleumhaven in the Botlek area of the Port of Rotterdam. A large amount of heavy fuel oil spilled into the water. The Port of Rotterdam Authority and the emergency services installed oil booms around the vessel as quickly as possible to prevent the further spread of the oil. The installation of the oil booms was successful but some of the oil had already spread beyond the incident area. On Sunday 24 June 2018 a considerable spread of traces of oil was observed on the water from Hoek van Holland to Spijkenisse bridge and to the Benelux tunnel. Most of the oil is in the Derde Petroleumhaven. Experts are expecting the clean-up operation to take days if not weeks, or possibly even longer.

Later this year a major oil and chemical protection exercise dubbed SCOPE 2017 will be carried out in Norway. A joint project including major European and Scandinavian stakeholders, the simulated response to a combined oil and chemical spill aims to foster clearer communication and coordination of spill response across agencies and physical country boundaries. Stig Wahlstrøm, Project Manager SCOPE 2017, Norwegian Coastal Administration and Johan Marius Ly, Director, Department for Emergency Response, explain.

Statoil awards Simon Møkster Shipping AS contracts for three emergency response and rescue vessels (ERRV), and Havila Shipping ASA for one ERRV. The contacts have a total value, included options, of NOK 2.7 billion. The vessels will be part of Statoil’s area-wide emergency response on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The emergency response vessels play an important role in addressing government authorities’ and the company’s own requirements for rescue, hospital, fire-fighting, emergency towing and oil spill preparedness. “Statoil has an extensive emergency preparedness system on the NCS, and through the contracts we have secured four vessels that are tailored to our waters.

The population of a U.S. oil boomtown that became a symbol of the fracking revolution is dropping fast because of the collapse in crude oil prices , according to an unusual metric: the amount of sewage produced. Williston, North Dakota, has seen its population drop about 6 percent since last summer, according to wastewater data relied upon heavily by city planning officials. They turned to measuring effluent because it was a much faster and more accurate way to track population than alternatives such as construction permits, school enrollment, tax receipts or airport boardings. U.S. Census Bureau figures are usually too old as a full-fledged population count only happens once a decade, with sporadic updates in between.

ELASTEC’S 1.5 meter ELASTEC BoomVane is designed to quickly deploy heavier oil booms in coastal and open waters in advancing sweeping and skimming applications – with only one towing vessel. No longer limited by the length of a sweep arm, wider boom swaths can be configured with the unharnessed power of the BoomVane to tow the boom into position. BoomVane also solidly holds the swath configuration in place, maneuvered by the boat’s captain.   www.elastec.com (As published in the May 2015 edition of Marine News - http://magazines.marinelink.com/Magazines/MaritimeNews)

On-site workers acted quickly to contain an oil leak during the final stages of removing the wreck of the MV Miner off Scaterie Island, says the government of Canada’s Nova Scotia province. About 800 litres of oil was collected after a leak occurred during demolition of the wreckage of the MV Miner off Cape Breton's Scaterie Island. “Thankfully, the contractor already had preventative actions in place and contained the spill immediately,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Minister Geoff MacLellan. “No heavy oil got past the containment oil booms and the lobster fishery is not affected. He said no heavy oil got past containment booms that were close to the wreck and the lobster fishery in the area was not affected.

Miko Marine has developed a new carrying case for the convenient transport and storage of its high power anchor magnets. Manufactured from special high density polypropylene the new case is water and dust proof and contains an inner storage compartment that shields and isolates the magnet from its surroundings. The case has been designed to accommodate the powerful Miko MAM-001 and MAM-003 magnets which are used extensively offshore for a wide variety of applications above and below the water line. The new Magnet Case now provides users with a greater degree of convenience when they are using a Miko magnet. A sturdy handle makes it easy…

On July 4 Tsavliris Salvage dispatched its salvage tug Megas Alexandros from her Piraeus salvage station, to the assistance of bulk carrier Katherine (17,255 GT, 28,711 DWT), laden with 26,400 MT of hot briquetted iron, following collision with bulk carrier Baru Satu (9,978 GT, 16,190 DWT), in the Kafirea Strait, Aegean Sea. As a result of the accident, the M/V Katherine was rammed by the bulbous bow of the M/V Baru Satu penetrating her cargo hold no.5, (which flooded) locking the two vessels together.

Oil spill equipment manufacturer Elastec brings new and sophisticated tools to a market in need of better, faster, more efficient and environmentally sound tactics. Just what the doctor ordered. Elastec/American Marine may well be the largest manufacturer of oil spill and environmental equipment in North America, but it is technology and innovation that are quickly propelling the firm to the top of the markets. With six U.S. locations, three foreign offices and a network of global dealers, ISO 9001 certified-Elastec produces a range of products that includes oil spill equipment (skimmers, containment boom, fire boom, dispersant application equipment), incinerators, vacuum systems, portable tanks, pumps and a dozen more entries.

Barents Oberver reports that the recently discovered oil spill now threatens marine life and sea birds in the White Sea, the unique Arctic waters in Russia’s northwest. The magnitude of the spill remains unknown, but environmentalists fear for the worst. Last year’s spill, which took place at the same time of year, polluted more than 210,000 square meters of waters and 400 square meters of the coastline. While the Belomorsk Oil Base in 2011 put out oil booms, it is not able to do so this year because the bay is not yet ice-free,say WWF Russia. According to Aleksey Smirnov, chairman of the Murmansk regional Committee on Environment and Nature Management, the oil leakages to the sea come from the numerous of spill which over the years have run into the adjacent land.

The April 2010 Gulf of Mexico massive oil spill needed immediate external support, expertise, solutions and equipment to assist in the containment and clean-up efforts. Finnish based Lamor Corporation immediately set its action plans into motion and within 36 hours, through its global network, the company airlifted its arsenal of equipment and key personnel to the scene. The blown-out well on the ocean floor off Louisiana threatened the entire ecosystem in the area as well as the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people at a rate of over 5,000 barrels of leaking crude oil per day.

NRC Contractors, Adam Wilkison, Collin Potts and Ron Broadway, put up a barrier of think plastic to prevent fuel from escaping the containment area around a damaged tank at the BP Harbor Island Seattle Terminal Dec. 6. The Coast Guard, Washington Department of Ecology and BP worked with NRC contractors to keep any of the fuel from entering Puget Sound. NRC contractors meet to discuss their plans to keep diesel fuel from escaping a damaged tank and entering into Puget Sound at the BP Harbor Island Seattle Terminal Dec.

Containing spills is a job for the port authorities. Ninety percent of the annual 450 spills involve less than 50 litres. To deal with these, the RMPM patrol vessels have absorbent oil booms. For larger spills, more than 250 litres, a number of companies in the port area have synthetic booms to avert the oil. With the founding of a so-called Boompool, a partnership between the government and business community the booms can be used more efficiently. The booms can be found at strategic points in the port and are stored in one-TEU containers. During incidents, the fire brigade collects the oil booms and puts them into service.

The Damen ASD Tugs 3110 SIMBA III, KIBOKO II AND NYANGUMI II are not the first Damen Tugs to be used in the port of Mombasa. “EL-LAMY”, a Stan Tug 3300 with a bollard pull of 55 ton. § It is used as harbour for import and exports as a gateway to East Africa. For these purposes freighters and container vessels up to 85.000 ton visit the port. § Of even more importance is the function of the harbour as a cruise vessel port. The largest cruise vessels like “Queen Elisabeth” visit the port regularly.

The clean-up operation for the oil spill that resulted from a collision between the Thailand-registered freighter, MV Hermion and the Singapore-registered bunker tanker, Neptank VII, at 0145hrs about 4.5km south-east of Sentosa, has made good progress. Oil patches sighted by an aerial recce conducted from 0900hrs to 1100hrs have been cleaned up by the anti-pollution craft deployed by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA). The dispersant-treated oil patches (i.e. light oil sheens) were sighted in the waters about 5 km south and south-east of Bedok Jetty. There has been no report of the oil affecting any of the islands or mainland Singapore. The MPA has deployed oil booms off the waters of Marina Bay and Sentosa as a precautionary measure.

Shipping companies and oil-handling facilities should take immediate steps to increase the number of boats available to respond to oil spills in Puget Sound and along Washington's coast, according to Ecology Director Jay Manning. A newly released study commissioned by the Department of Ecology (Ecology) found that there are not enough vessels available to simultaneously deploy oil booms, transport oil-spill equipment and supplies, and provide other spill-response assistance needed during a major oil spill. "With as much shipping and tanker traffic as we have in Washington's waters, a significant oil spill is a very real threat, and we have to be able to stage a rapid and aggressive response effort," said Manning.

Rolls-Royce has won a contract to supply the design and a full equipment package for a multi purpose coastguard vessel to be built by ASMAR in Chile for the government of Iceland. On completion in 2009 the vessel will perform a variety of tasks, including coastguard duties and management of Iceland’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), fishery control, standby and rescue, emergency towing, pollution prevention, oil recovery and firefighting. To meet Iceland’s requirements, UT-Design in Rolls-Royce has developed the UT 512 L. The starting point was the Norwegian coastguard vessel KV Harstad, type UT 512, built for a Norwegian shipowner and chartered to Kystvakt .

Fire on the Russian tanker Jivanna at the Kaliningrad shipyard Yantar has been localized and extinguished, Itar-Tass reported. It took fire fighters almost seven hours to liquidate the powerful fire that started on the evening of April 5. 15 fire engines, four fire fighting boats, two tugboats and other equipment were engaged in the operation. A total of 100 people participated in the extinguishing operation. Almost the whole vessel was in flames. It had 200 tons of fuel oil and 200 tons of diesel fuel in its tanks. Two members of the tanker’s crew were hurt during the fire. They were hospitalized with medium severity burns. Fire fighters continued work after the fire. In particular, they were pumping in water in order to level the tanker that gave a lurch.

The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore confirmed that no spilled oil has entered Singapore’s port waters after a collision between a cargo vessel and an oil tanker.Some scattered patches of oil sheen were sighted in the Singapore Strait, south of Pulau Sebarok. Two MPA anti-pollution craft were deployed to clean the patches of oil sheen. The Agate collided with Panama-registered ship, Tian Yu, off the east coast of Singapore. The Singapore-registered aframax tanker, Agate, is currently safely anchored about 6 nautical miles (approximately 12km) north east of Horsburgh Lighthouse. Its manager, World Tankers Management, deployed six anti-pollution craft to contain and collect the spilled oil. The spilled oil has been contained within oil booms.

Dutch towage and salvage company Multraship has completed the salvage of Eclips, the pusher tug that sank in Antwerp harbor last week. Multraship utilized its floating sheerlegs Cormorant to salve the pusher tug that sank in at the Vrasene dock. of the water and delivered the vessel intact. Leendert Muller, director of Multraship. tug and into the harbor. Eclips sank overnight on March 9. It is not yet known why. Two of the three crewmembers were able to jump overboard and were rescued. The third crewmember managed to get off the vessel just before it sank.