Challenger News

Esgian reports that offshore drilling contractors secured additional backlog in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Egypt, Nigeria, and Brazil and operators confirmed new discoveries in Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire, and China in its Week 10 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsDiamond Offshore has executed a two-year contract extension with a subsidiary of bp in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for the 12,000-ft drillship Ocean BlackHornet.Shelf Drilling’s 250-ft jackup Rig 141 has secured a two-year…

Chemship commissioned its first ship with wind assisted ship propulsion. This makes the MT Chemical Challenger the first chemical tanker in the world to be equipped with sustainable wind technology. The ship will serve on shipping company Chemship’s Trans-Atlantic route between the East Coast of the United States and the Mediterranean.This week four 16-metre-high aluminum wind sails were installed on board the 134-meter-long vessel. The VentoFoils from Econowind create a direct wind surface of 180 m2.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. has decided to issue “blue bonds” through a public offering in Japan’s domestic market in January 2024, reportedly the world’s first blue bonds in the shipping industry, which refer to the guidance provided by the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) and other organizations.The Blue Bond Framework developed for the issuance of the bonds will ensure that all uses of the bonds’ proceeds will contribute to a sustainable blue economy, and the bonds received the highest rating of “Blue1(F)” from the Japan Credit Rating Agency, Ltd.

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry are co-leading an international initiative to accelerate reduction of emissions from the shipping sector, and on December 1, during COP28, they chaired a new round of announcements under that initiative, the Green Shipping Challenge.Various countries and organizations proposed measures to reduce emissions from shipping. This year’s announcements include:• Amazon: Amazon and other…

Pope Francis said on Friday that migrants who risk drowning at sea "must be rescued" because doing so was "a duty of humanity" and that those who impede rescues commit "a gesture of hate".Francis, 86, spoke at an inter-religious prayer service before a monument dedicated to those lost at sea. Earlier, the city's archbishop, Cardinal Jean Marc Aveline, an Algerian-born Frenchman, criticized politicians who block NGOs and their ships from saving drowning people."We cannot be resigned to seeing human beings treated as bargaining chips, imprisoned and tortured in atrocious ways," Francis said.

On a windswept island 50 miles north of Seattle sits a U.S. Navy monitoring station. For years, it was kept busy tracking whale movements and measuring rising sea temperatures. Last October, the Navy gave the unit a new name that better reflects its current mission: Theater Undersea Surveillance Command.The renaming of the spy station at the Whidbey Island naval base is a nod to a much larger U.S. military project, according to three people with direct knowledge of the plans:…

A Panamanian-flagged vehicle carrier vessel rescued three sailors from a Russian yacht that was mauled by sharks in the Coral Sea. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said it coordinated the rescue after the Russian-registered Tion activated its emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) at 1:30 a.m. (AEST) on Wednesday.The distressed vessel, a 9-meter inflatable catamaran with three people on board, including two Russian and one French citizen, was sailing…

A captain’s decision to navigate close to shore in an area with uncharted rocks led to the grounding and capsizing of a fishing vessel in Alaska last year, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.The Challenger struck a submerged rock while fishing for salmon along the shore of Kodiak Island, Alaska on August 7, 2022. The vessel began taking on more water than the onboard pumps could handle. The captain and three crewmembers abandoned ship and were rescued by a nearby Good Samaritan fishing vessel, and the vessel capsized soon after.

Space tourism company Space Perspective is converting an offshore support vessel (OSV) to function as the world’s first "marine spaceport". The Florida-based company in November 2022 announced it had acquired the 292-foot-long vessel from Edison Chouest Offshore as the first in its planned global fleet of converted spaceport vessels to support the mobile launch of its balloon-driven passenger spacecraft.The 2003-built Jones Act vessel C Challenger has been renamed Voyager and is currently being converted by Conrad Shipyard following preparatory work by Gulf Ship.

REMEMBERING MY SHIPMATE JOHN MICHELWe met in January 1959 when I became the first Officer in Charge of the Navy’s newly acquired Bathyscaph Trieste and John was the first USN enlisted man to be assigned to the project. We were based at the Naval Electronics Laboratory in San Diego. Trieste was unique as there were only two deep diving manned submersibles in the world. The French Navy had the other. Our team learned about the bathyscaph more by ‘apprenticeship’ than through any sort of formal learning process.

Climate change advocates and seafarers recently gathered for a small conference at the Hudson Valley Maritime Museum in Kingston, N.Y., to discuss the shipping industry’s struggle to achieve sustainability and environmental compliance.The setting, the hamlet of Rondout, N.Y. (within Kingston), holds significance as it was, ironically, a Hudson River port once considered the largest coal port in the world (yes, the world). In 1828, the opening of the Delaware and Hudson Canal enabled coal to be delivered from Pennsylvania to New York City.

Divers from a documentary crew looking for the wreckage of a World War Two aircraft off the coast of Florida found a 20-foot section of the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded and broke apart shortly after its launch in 1986, NASA said on Thursday.The divers contacted NASA after spotting a large, clearly modern object mostly covered in sand at the bottom of the ocean and bearing the shuttle's distinctive tiles, the space agency said in a written statement."This discovery gives us an opportunity to pause once again…

Shofu Maru, the world’s first coal carrier equipped with the Wind Challenger - a hard sail wind power propulsion system - this week made the maiden port of call in Newcastle, Australia. Japanese shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) held a ceremony on October 24 to mark the occasion. "The Australian government has set a decarbonization policy to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, and local port officials in Newcastle have high expectations and interest in the Shofu Maru, which contributes to decarbonization while transporting energy resources that support people's lives," MOL said.

Top Israeli ministers on Wednesday endorsed a U.S.-brokered deal to delineate a maritime border with Lebanon, paving the way for a potentially fractious two-week parliamentary review before it goes into force.Prime Minister Yair Lapid's security cabinet said the deal should be "urgently" green-lit, according to a statement following the meeting.If finalized, the agreement - hailed on Tuesday by all three parties involved as a historic achievement - would mark a diplomatic departure from decades of war and hostility as well as opening the door to offshore energy exploration.

Israel gave its preliminary nod on Sunday to a draft U.S.-brokered deal demarcating a maritime border with Lebanon that may lead to profit-sharing in a disputed Mediterranean gas prospect. Hoping to defuse one source of conflict between the hostile countries and prod them toward accommodation, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein last week submitted a new proposal that would pave the way for offshore energy exploration.After years of stop-start shuttle diplomacy, agreement seems closer than ever.

Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) on Wednesday said it intends to equip a second bulk carrier with the Wind Challenger hard sail system, which harnesses the power of wind to propel the vessel, improving efficiency and reducing fuel consumption and emissions.MOL Group company MOL Drybulk Ltd. will operate the vessel, which will transport wood pellets for sustainable wood bioenergy producer Enviva Inc. and has signed a construction contract for the new ship with Oshima Shipbuilding Co.…

A bulk carrier assisted in the rescue of an injured mariner sailing solo off the coast of Australia.After receiving a distress beacon from a 10-meter yacht with a 70-year-old solo crew member located 167 kilometers east of Double Island Point, Qld., the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) diverted the Malta-flagged merchant vessel Skiathos to the yacht's location.The 229-meter-long Skiathos found the yacht and brought the vessel alongside.AMSA tasked the Melbourne-based Challenger jet and a Brisbane-based CHC helicopter to attend the scene…

Offshore seismic services company Shearwater GeoServices said Tuesday it was divesting the four seismic survey vessels Polar Marquis, Oceanic Challenger, SW Emerald, and SW Eagle for recycling as part of its fleet renewal strategy.The first two vessels, Polar Marquis and Ocean Challenger, have been delivered in Turkey for recycling in accordance with EU regulations and the 2009 Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, Shearwater GeoServices said.SW Emerald - Credit: Shearwater GeoServicesThe further two vessels…

Japanese shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and its dry bulk subsidiary MOL Drybulk have signed a memorandum of understanding with steelmaker Tata Steel to develop and deploy an environmentally friendly bulk carrier.MOL will partner with Tata Steel on this innovative project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its supply chain.Peeyush Gupta, Vice President, Supply Chain, Tata Steel, said: "The objective of the agreement is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the ocean transportation of raw materials for production of steel.

The Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) discharged 300 steel coils on June 10, 2021, to barge at Coastal Cargo breakbulk and heavy-lift terminal at the Louisiana Ave. Complex that were transported to the barge from the SK Shipping Star Challenger and made their way upriver to be off-loaded at the Port of Caddo-Bossier in Shreveport.“This is a great example of two Louisiana ports coming together to facilitate commerce in the State and moving cargo on the Mississippi River,” said Brandy D. Christian President and CEO of the Port of New Orleans and CEO of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad.

A privately funded mission has found, surveyed and filmed the USS Johnston, the world’s deepest known shipwreck, offshore Samar Island in the Philippines Sea.The expedition was backed by Victor Vescovo, is an entrepreneur, explorer and retired U.S. Navy Commander who personally piloted his submersible DSV Limiting Factor down to the wreck during two separate, eight-hour dives 21,180 feet (6,456 meters) below the ocean's surface. These constituted the deepest wreck dives, manned or unmanned…

A Marshall Islands-flagged tanker helped rescue two people from the water after their boat sank in the Torres Strait.At about 7:15 a.m. AEST on Thursday, a coastal pilot on board the tanker Godam contacted Townsville Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) to report a sighting of two people clinging to a timber plank in the water.The location for the sighting was about 10 kilometers southeast of Sue Islet, Warraber Reef. Conditions were rough with two to three meter swells with around 30…

A Marshall Islands flagged livestock carrier listing from hull damage off Australia's western coast was directed to the Port of Geraldton.On Monday night, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) tasked its Challenger search and rescue jet to fly over the vessel Barkly Pearl, and it was able to confirm damage to the starboard side of the vessel, which was listing to port.AMSA General Manager of Response Mark Morrow said there were significant concerns for the integrity of the vessel and its ability to safely reach Indonesia, its planned destination.