Andrew Jamieson News

The shipping industry is under increasing pressure to decarbonize, but unclear regulatory guidelines, including around what sorts of cleaner fuels large vessels should run, is complicating that path to net zero, according to executives.Global shipping firms are looking for ways to lower their carbon footprints, particularly as the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which regulates the global shipping industry, is being pushed to implement a charge on the sector's greenhouse gas emissions.The IMO's Maritime Environment Protection Committee concluded its 81st meeting last week…

Rising oil tanker chartering rates due to global shipping disruption are forcing oil shippers to take on longer-term shipping charters, executives said this week at an energy conference in Houston.The global oil tanker fleet must now travel further to get crude to refineries and fuel to consumers. European sanctions have forced Russian exporters to send oil to Asia that would have otherwise gone to Europe. Attacks on vessels in the Red Sea have forced some shippers to sail around…

The world’s longest offshore wind turbine blade has arrived in Northumberland, UK to be tested at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult site.The 107-metre blade will be used on the most powerful wind turbine in commercial development – the 12MW Haliade-X from GE Renewable Energy.The blade will undergo a full range of advanced testing procedures, demonstrating its ability to withstand peak wind conditions and simulating its readiness for years of operation at sea. Three other 107 metre blades will soon be shipped to a prototype site in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.Shipping and testing the first components of the Haliade-X 12 MW keeps GE Renewable Energy on track to commercialise the technology in 2021.

The American supplier of rotor blades to the wind industry LM Wind Power, part of GE Renewable Energy, has displayed its first 107-meter blade, for GE’s Haliade-X 12 MW wind turbine, which has made its first trip outside its factory in Cherbourg, France.The LM 107.0 P is the first ever wind turbine blade to surpass 100 meters in length, said a press release from the wind turbine blades manufacturer.Final preparations for shipment of the blade are now underway.GE Renewable Energy has confirmed that the Haliade-X 12 MW nacelle and 107-meter long blade will be shipped to the UK as part of an advanced technology testing program that will…

A new battery storage solution for offshore wind energy will be piloted in the world’s first floating wind farm, the Hywind pilot park off the coast of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Batwind will be developed in co-operation with Scottish universities and suppliers, under a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in Edinburgh on 18 March between Statoil, the Scottish Government, the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and Scottish Enterprise. Battery storage has the potential to mitigate intermittency and optimise output. This can improve efficiency and lower costs for offshore wind. The pilot in Scotland will provide a technological and commercial foundation for the implementation of Batwind in full-scale offshore wind farms…

International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC) said that shipbrokers are being required to sign formal agreements with their principals in the light of a worldwide trend towards stricter anti-corruption legislation, and ahead of the implementation of the new UK Bribery Act in April 2011. The typical document presented to brokers will set out the principal’s prohibition of the payment of bribes and/or the provision of other inducements. There will often be a general ban on ‘inappropriate entertainment’ without defining exactly what that might be. Brokers will be required to confirm their adherence to the principal’s policies, and will often be required to agree to allow their records to be audited. And it is some of the ‘additional’ provisions that can cause the most difficulties.

Ahead of an impending revision of the standard industry shipmanagement agreement, the International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC) has urged shipmanagers to limit their liability to a sum which reflects the growing proportionate gap between ship values and the level of shipmanagement fees. ITIC notes that the standard shipmanagement agreement, BIMCO Shipman, has been around for over twenty years. It said, “The current version is BIMCO Shipman 98 and it is expected that another version will be published very shortly.

The International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC) said the fall in the shipping markets has created a number of difficult issues for ship valuers, with brokers in some cases even declining to provide valuations. ITIC’s Andrew Jamieson said, “It is inevitable that some principals will simply be disappointed by the broker’s view of what the ship is likely to obtain in the current market. But brokers have also been challenged as to whether it is really possible to assess market levels if the number of sales is limited or even non-existent. “The commercial pressures on brokers are evident. There are cases of brokers having been asked to show values to the shipowner prior to submission to the bank…