Eastern Coast News

Taiwan's homegrown submarine programme will remain on track, the defence minister said on Wednesday, after the head of the programme resigned due to what he said were unfair attacks against him and the military.Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has made the submarine programme a key part of an ambitious project to modernise its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises to assert sovereignty claims Taipei rejects.Taiwan unveiled the first of eight new submarines in late September, though it won't enter service until next year.

Police from two countries in the eastern Caribbean are investigating the possible murder of two people believed to be U.S. citizens who owned a catamaran that was hijacked by three fugitives in the waters off the island of Grenada.The yacht's alleged owners, Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry, were last seen Sunday night, when three men escaped from the custody of Grenadian authorities. Police in St. Vincent and the Grenadines captured the men on Wednesday.The Royal Grenada Police…

Taiwan unveiled its first domestically developed submarine on Thursday, a major step in a project aimed at strengthening the island's defense and deterrence against the Chinese navy, though it won't enter service for another two years.Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has made the indigenous submarine program a key part of an ambitious project to modernize its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises to assert its sovereignty.President Tsai Ing-wen…

Taiwan hopes to deploy at least two new, domestically developed submarines by 2027, and possibly equip later models with missiles, to strengthen deterrence against the Chinese navy and protect key supply lines, the head of the program said.Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has made the indigenous sub program a key part of an ambitious project to modernise its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises to assert its sovereignty.President Tsai Ing-wen…

The Italian coast guard has rescued around 750 migrants in two separate operations off the country's southern coastline, hours after at least five people died and 33 were missing in an attempted sea crossing from Tunisia.The coast guard said some 295 people were rescued from a fishing boat intercepted 167 km from the eastern coast of the Calabria region, while about 450 were rescued from another fishing vessel 185 km east of Syracuse in southern Sicily.The second vessel was in precarious state of seaworthiness…

Rescuers recovered four more bodies on Monday, a day after a wooden sailboat carrying migrants to Europe smashed onto rocks in stormy weather off southern Italy, bringing the death toll to 63, including at least 14 children.Rescuers said most of the migrants came from Afghanistan, as well as from Iran, Somalia, Syria and elsewhere. Pakistan's foreign ministry said 20 Pakistani citizens were on the boat, with four missing and 16 survivors of the nighttime shipwreck.Many of the victims washed ashore close to where the vessel sank near Steccato di Cutro…

Liebherr Container Cranes completed its first ship to shore lift height increase with their new patented jacking system as part of Liebherr Transform. The operation was conducted under the supervision of Liebherr engineers at Patrick Terminals – Brisbane Autostrad.Patrick Terminals – Brisbane Autostrad located on the eastern coast of Australia is one of the world’s most advanced container terminals. Liebherr have two ship to shore container cranes at the terminal, a new STS currently being commissioned and an STS supplied in 2015.

A fire erupted on Saturday at an oil terminal in Venezuela when a hose used for supplying gasoline to a tanker broke lose, the country's oil minister Tareck El Aissami said.The fire, which occurred early on Saturday at one of Guaraguao terminal's berths, located on Venezuela's eastern coast, was extinguished shortly after, but also affected Panama-flagged oil vessel Larko and interrupted the terminal's operations, according to shipping sources.No injuries have been reported.

Steerprop, a designer and manufacturer of high-performance propulsion systems, has won a major order to supply the complete propulsion package for Maersk Supply Service's recently ordered Wind Installation Vessel (WIV). Singapore-based Sembcorp Marine Ltd, which has secured a contract for the construction of the vessel for Maersk Supply Service, ordered the propulsion package from Steerprop.Steerprop's scope includes six ducted L-drive azimuth propulsors with an output power of 4500 kW and two 900 kW Steerprop Tunnel Thrusters for dynamic positioning…

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…

Ships were deployed in Thailand on Thursday to contain a fresh oil spill off its eastern coast, authorities said, two weeks after an undersea pipeline leak in the same area damaged coastal communities and marine life.The pipeline, owned by Star Petroleum Refining Public Company (SPRC), sprang a leak on Jan. 26 and spewed an estimated 47,100 to 55,000 litres (12,443 to 14,529 gallons) of oil into the sea.It was patched up within a day but not before it damaged a beach area in Rayong province and threatened corals in the shallow waters.The same pipeline on Thursday spilled a further 5…

Australian high speed craft builder Incat Tasmania announced Monday it has been awarded a contract to build a new fast ferry for Daezer Construction of South Korea. Work on the new 76-meter craft has already commenced with delivery scheduled for the first quarter of 2023.The high speed ferry will operate for Daezer on the line between Pohang and Ulleung, an island 117 nautical miles off the eastern coast of South Korea where the main economic activity is tourism.Incat Tasmania…

Ports on India's eastern coast on Sunday restricted shipping activities and asked vessels to vacate anchorages ahead of a cyclonic storm expected to make landfall on Wednesday, port authorities and trade sources said.The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that a "very severe cyclonic storm" would impact Indian states including Odisha and West Bengal, where key ports are located.Some regions are likely to receive heavy rainfall and wind speeds could reach 110 miles per hour…

More than a dozen large tankers were waiting on Wednesday at Venezuela's main oil port and nearby anchorage zones for state-run PDVSA to assign them slots to load crude, as an outage and low inventories caused delays, according to documents and sources.Venezuela's crude output declined in April to 445,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to secondary sources consulted by OPEC, down 81,000 bpd from March levels. The drop was mainly due to a lack of diluents to produce exportable grades from the country's largest oil region…

India expects to start full-scale operations at Iran’s Chabahar general cargo port it has built by the end of May, the country’s shipping minister said in a boost for regional trade.India has been developing a part of the port on Iran’s south-eastern coast along the Gulf of Oman as a way to transport goods to Iran, but also Afghanistan and central Asian countries, and avoiding rival Pakistan.But U.S. sanctions on Iran slowed down the port’s development and Indian officials are…

Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela has begun transferring crude off of an offshore oil facility where governments in two neighboring countries have voiced concerns about a potential spill, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.The company this week began the first of several transfers from the Nabarima floating storage and offloading facility (FSO), anchored in the Corocoro oilfield off Venezuela's eastern coast, onto the Inmaculada barge, said the people…

Venezuela's oil exports fell to a historic low of 359,000 barrels per day (bpd) in October as most of state-run PDVSA's long-term clients paused trade to meet a U.S. deadline to halt business with the firm, according to data seen by Reuters on Monday.The United States set an October-November deadline for PDVSA's long-term customers - including Italy Eni, Spain's Repsol and India's Reliance Industries - to stop oil swaps it had authorized this year as exceptions to sanctions on Venezuela.None of those companies loaded cargoes of Venezuelan crude in October…

Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) plans to offload crude from the Nabarima floating oil facility via ship-to-ship (STS) transfer amid environmental concerns, two people familiar with the matter said on Monday.The Nabarima, part of PDVSA’s Petrosucre joint venture with Italy’s Eni SpA in the Paria Gulf off Venezuela’s eastern coast, is laden with 1.3 million barrels of crude.Images last week showed it tilting on its side, raising worries about a possible oil spill.

Venezuela's state-run oil firm PDVSA is informing customers about a new hub for doing ship-to-ship transfers for exports in a location away from shore, a shift that could mean higher costs and less supervision, according to three sources.More than two-thirds of Venezuela's oil exports leave from the Jose terminal on the country's eastern coast, a large and heavily supervised facility with two monobuoys for exports and connected through pipelines to several crude upgraders.But with U.S.

An idled oil storage facility off Venezuela's eastern coast is in "satisfactory" condition, an official with state company Petroleos de Venezuela said, after a series of incidents in recent months raised concerns about environmental hazards.About 1.3 million barrels of Corocoro crude have been stuck for over a year aboard the Nabarima FSO (floating storage and offloading facility), part of the Petrosucre joint venture between PDVSA, as the company is known, and Italy's Eni SpA, as U.S. sanctions have complicated the nation's exports.With no operating crew on board, in July the vessel presented an 8% incline that created the risk of a spill, and in late August a sea water leak led to flooding in the engine room.

Turkish tugboat builder, towage and pilotage operator Med Marine said it has signed a deal with Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) to build and deliver a new 42-meter tugboat for the Port of Mombasa.The vessel is scheduled to enter service in East Africa’s largest port in 2021 as part of the KPA’s equipment modernization and maintenance program aiming to enhance efficiency at the port.The vessel design is from the RAstar ASD tug series by Canada’s Robert Allan Ltd. The new RAstar 4200 with a bollard pull of 120 metric tons, ranking it among the most powerful tugs Robert Allan Ltd.

The Venezuelan navy said it escorted a fourth tanker bringing Iranian fuel through its waters on Thursday, while the United States called the shipments to the gasoline-starved country a distraction from problems facing President Nicolas Maduro.The oil industries of Iran and Venezuela are both under U.S. sanctions. Iran is providing its fellow OPEC member up to 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and refining components to help ease an acute shortage, the result of the near-complete breakdown in its refining network as well as the sanctions.Washington has said it is weighing a response to the shipments.Venezuela's military has escorted each tanker through its exclusive economic zone.

Venezuela's state-run PDVSA and Eni are looking at options to safely offload crude from a floating storage facility on Venezuela's eastern coast that has remained idle for over a year due to U.S. sanctions, according to sources close to the discussions and a statement from the Italian oil company.The companies suspended output at their joint venture Petrosucre shortly after Washington imposed sanctions on PDVSA in January 2019, depriving the partnership of its main crude buyer, PDVSA's U.S.-based refining subsidiary Citgo Petroleum.About 1.3 million barrels of Corocoro crude stored at the FSO (floating storage and offloading facility) have remained stuck in the vessel…