Northern Ireland News

The Crown Estate, which manages the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has set out further details of a new leasing round for three commercial-scale floating wind projects in the Celtic Sea off the coast of South Wales and South West England. The projects have the potential to deliver enough clean, renewable energy for more than four million homes.In one of the largest initiatives of its kind in the world, sites totalling 4.5GW of floating wind off the coast of South Wales and South West England will be leased across three agreed areas of the Celtic Sea.

The UK Offshore Wind and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Colocation Forum, set up to provide strategic coordination of colocation research and activity on the nation’s seabed, has commissioned two research projects. The projects are designed to inform the best approach to test and demonstrate the colocation of offshore wind and CCS activities in the future.To achieve the UK’s net zero targets, the UK Government is targeting the delivery of 50 gigawatts of offshore wind energy and the capture of 20-30 million tons of CO2 per year by 2030.

Team Resolute, a consortium of Navantia UK, BMT and Harland & Wolff, has unveiled its evolved design for a Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ship.The progress towards a mature design is a key part of the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) £1.6 billion 'Manufacture Contract’ for three FSS ships that will provide the Royal Fleet Auxiliary with enhanced capability to support global operations for the Royal Navy. The design from BMT’s UK based engineers and naval architects represents a significant advancement in naval logistics capability…

The UK Emissions Trading Scheme Authority (UK ETS) – has announced that the scheme will be expanded to include domestic maritime transport from 2026.The scheme will be applicable to vessels of 5,000 gross tons or higher.The UK ETS is run by a joint body comprising the UK Government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland.The UK ETS was launched in 2021 to replace the UK’s participation in the EU ETS.

Virginia McVea has been named as the next chief executive officer of the U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) effective April 3, 2023.Damien Oliver has been serving as the MCA's interim CEO since October 2022, following the retirement of the agency's former head Brian Johnson.U.K. Maritime Minister Baroness Vere said, "[McVea] joins at a pivotal time for the agency as it faces both challenges and exciting opportunities, and I look forward to working with her to grow the U.K.

Team Resolute, a consortium comprising BMT, Harland & Wolff, and Navantia UK, has secured a contract worth £1.6 billion (currently around $1.97 billion) to deliver three naval support ships for the UK Navy.Harland & Wolff Group said Wednesday that, further to its announcement on November 16, 2022 regarding the award of preferred bidder status, the formal contract signature of the manufacture contract for the £1.6 billion Fleet Solid Support Programme (FSS) had  taken place between Navantia UK Limited (Navantia) and the Ministry of Defence (MOD)."Creating 1…

Britain won't proceed with building a new national flagship to promote business and trade interests around the world, defense minister Ben Wallace said on Monday, ending one of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's pet projects.The ship was announced in May 2021 to host trade shows and negotiations, but tendering of contracts had not been completed.Wallace said that the project had been scrapped as he was prioritizing building ships to detect threats to cables on the seabed in…

Shipping and asset finance lawyer, Harry Theochari OBE, has been appointed as the new Chair of the Belfast Maritime Consortium.Theochari holds the position of Senior Consultant at global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright LLP. He is also current Chair Emeritus of Maritime UK, Chair of Maritime London, and esteemed member of the Institute of Maritime Law Advisory Board at the University of Southampton, and brings with him over thirty seven years’ experience in the maritime sector and…

Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on Friday detained a ferry operated by P&O in Northern Ireland because it was not ready to sail, the agency and P&O said.The British government has already said it will take legal action over P&O Ferries' decision to fire 800 staff earlier this month with immediate effect.The ferry European Causeway, which operates between Cairnryan in Scotland and Larne in Northern Ireland, will be detained until the company resolves all the issues, a spokesperson for the MCA said, citing "crew familiarisation, vessel documentation and crew training"."Following m

Trade unions protested at British ferry ports on Friday after Dubai-owned P&O Ferries abruptly sacked 800 workers via a video message, drawing widespread condemnation and raising the prospect of disruption to key tourist and goods routes.P&O, which is owned by Dubai ports firm DP World, is recovering from a difficult two years when COVID-19 prevented tourists from travelling on its routes between Britain, France, Ireland and elsewhere in northern Europe.P&O said on Thursday it had lost 100 million pounds ($131 million) in the last year and that without changes its business was not sustainable.

P&O Ferries and We4Sea have signed a cooperation agreement to roll-out the We4Sea Digital Twin based performance monitoring solution over the P&O Ferries chartered fleet, with the aim to reduce fuel consumption and emissions from ships. P&O Ferries are one of the UK's largest ferry operators with a fleet of ships serving a network of ferries to France, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, England and Northern Ireland.We4Sea, a Rotterdam based maritime scale-up focusing on increasing the fuel efficiency and reducing the emissions of seagoing ships…

A study, led by maritime design and applied technologies company Artemis Technologies has been awarded £533,000 to investigate transformative solutions to decarbonize crew transfer vessel (CTV) operations in the offshore wind sector.The grant, announced at London International Shipping Week, has been awarded as part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition funded by the Department for Transport and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.Artemis Technologies is partnering with CTV owner and operator Tidal Transit…

Post-Brexit trade frictions have "significantly altered" freight traffic between Ireland and Britain and sparked a steep rise in volumes to and from Ireland and other European Union members, an Irish government agency report said on Thursday.The introduction of checks on some goods since neighboring Britain left the EU's trading orbit on Dec. 31 cut imports from Britain by 35% in the first five months of 2021 while the number of shipping routes to mainland Europe more than doubled.So…

Triumph Subsea Services last week said it had cancelled a letter of intent with Infrastrata related to the proposed construction of an offshore wind development vessel, and said it wouldn't build any vessels with Infrastrata or any of its shipyards. Responding to Triumph, Infrastata said Triumph had not achieved any of the milestones required to proceed with the shipbuilding project.The two companies had signed the Letter of intent for one firm and one optional ST designed 200m x 35m Windfarm Development Vessels (WDV)…

Triumph Subsea Services said Thursday it had formally canceled the Letter of Intent that was issued to Infrastrata in December 2020, for the construction of an offshore wind development vessel and said it didn't want to build any vessels with InfraStrata and or any of its shipyards.The two companies had signed the Letter of intent for one firm and one optional ST designed 200m x 35m Windfarm Development Vessels (WDV), for floating windfarm installations, cable laying, and providing marine services for offshore carbon capture and green hydrogen projects.

The world's largest offshore wind developer Orsted is concerned that Big Oil's eagerness to harness wind at sea could push up prices for seabed leases, making the technology less competitive, its chief executive told Reuters.European oil firms including Total, BP, Equinor and Shell have all outlined plans to speed up investments in renewables, including offshore wind, as they look to reduce their reliance on oil and gas to satisfy investors and governments which are demanding reductions in emissions."Short term we have seen it already…

Britain clinched a narrow Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Thursday, just seven days before it exits one of the world’s biggest trading blocs in its most significant global shift since the loss of empire.The deal, agreed more than four years after Britain voted narrowly to leave the bloc, means it has averted a chaotic finale to the tortuous divorce that has shaken the 70-year project to forge European unity from the ruins of World War Two.It will preserve Britain’s zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the bloc’s single market of 450 million consumers…

Swedish ferry company Stena Line said it has taken ownership of its newest ferry, Stena Embla, following a handover ceremony in Weihai, China. The vessel is the third of five new next-generation E-Flexer RoPax vessels that are being constructed at the CMI Jinling Weihai Shipyard, as part of an extensive modernization of the company’s fleet. It is last of three new vessels due for the Irish Sea, which marks the end of a seven-year development program totaling a £400 million investment…

Ferry routes between Great Britain and Northern Ireland have been safeguarded, thanks to a multimillion-pound government scheme to help ensure critical freight can continue to move into and across the union.The package, worth up to £17 million ($21 million), is being funded by the U.K. government and the Northern Ireland Executive and will be made available to operators so that they can continue running freight services on five sea routes between Great Britain and Northern Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic.Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced further funding…

A Belfast Maritime Consortium led by Artemis Technologies has won a £33 million ($41 million) U.K. government innovation grant to develop zero emissions ferries in Northern Ireland’s capital. With further investment from consortium partners, the total project investment will reach close to £60 million ($74.6 million) over the next four years, creating an initial 125 research and development jobs, and leading to more than 1,000 in the region over the next 10 years.The 13 partner syndicate—which is a mix of established and young companies…

The Evac Evolution ballast water treatment system (BWMS) will be installed on the ILV Granuaile, an aids to navigation vessel operated by the Commissioners of Irish Lights.The vessel’s primary function is to place and service 150 offshore buoys, which warn mariners of the location of sand banks, reefs and other offshore hazards. The vessel also provides support for the teams tasked with maintaining a further 65 lighthouses and beacons around the coast of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In addition, the ship supports the national response to maritime wreck and new dangers to navigation.

Triumph Subsea Services has signed a letter of intent with Infrastrata for the construction of offshore wind farm development vessels at Infrastrata's Harland & Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.The letter of intent envisions the construction of two Windfarm Development Vessels ("WDV) each of which will have a length of 200 meters and a beam of 35 meters.Under the terms of the LoI, InfraStrata's subsidiary, Harland & Wolff - a shipyard that built the Titanic - would be responsible for the build…

An innovative, zero-emissions workboat featuring hydrofoils and a fully electric propulsion system is scheduled to hit the water before the end of the year.The 11-meter vessel, announced by Artemis Technologies COO, Prof. Mark Gillan, during a presentation to the Workboat Association’s Technical Workgroup on Tuesday, will be built by Tuco Marine Group and is fitted with the Artemis eFoiler electric propulsion system. It is designed as a commercial multipurpose workboat platform to help operators reduce fuel usage and carbon emissions.