Gwladys Fouche News

An activated but faulty missile launcher on a Danish navy vessel triggered a closure of airspace and shipping traffic in the Great Belt strait on Thursday, the Danish armed forces said.Denmark's National Maritime Authority had earlier warned ships not to sail through the Great Belt strait, one of the world's busiest sea lanes and the main maritime access to the Baltic Sea, due to the risk of "falling missile fragments"."The problem occurred during a mandatory test where the missile launcher is activated and cannot be deactivated…

Maersk said explosions nearby forced two ships operated by its U.S. subsidiary and carrying U.S. military supplies to turn around when they were transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait off Yemen, accompanied by the U.S. Navy."While en route, both ships reported seeing explosions close by and the U.S. Navy accompaniment also intercepted multiple projectiles," Maersk said in a statement, adding it was suspending Red Sea transits by vessels of the U.S. subsidiary.A spokesperson for Yemen's Houthi military forces said they fired ballistic missiles at several U.S. warships that were protecting two U.S.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Tuesday that China was cooperating in Finland's investigation of the Hong Kong-flagged NewNew Polar Bear vessel's role in the Oct. 8 damage to the Balticconnector pipeline.Finnish police leading the criminal investigation have named the NewNew Polar Bear container carrier as the prime suspect in damaging the gas pipeline early on Oct. 8, saying it was too early to tell if this was an accident or a deliberate act.A large anchor, believed to belong to the NewNew Polar Bear…

The United States on Friday opened its northernmost diplomatic station, highlighting the increased importance of the Arctic region for Washington at a time when cooperation among Arctic nations has been hit by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the opening of the station, in Tromsoe, Norway, in June, as a means for the United States to have a "diplomatic footprint above the Arctic Circle"."Symbolically, it is significant," Andreas Oesthagen…

The three incidents that resulted in damage to a gas pipeline and two telecom cables between Estonia, Finland and Sweden "are related", Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said.Finnish police leading the pipeline investigation have named the Hong Kong-flagged container carrier NewNew Polar Bear as the prime suspect in damaging the Balticconnector Finland-Estonia gas pipeline early on Oct. 8.A large anchor was found near the pipeline, and the investigators believe the pipe was…

An investigation into the damage to the Balticonnector gas pipeline is currently focused on the role of the Chinese NewNew Polar Bear container vessel, Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said on Friday.Early on Oct. 8, a gas pipeline and a telecoms cable connecting Finland and Estonia were broken, in what Finnish investigators said may have been sabotage, though they have yet to conclude whether it was an accident or a deliberate act.On Tuesday, Sweden said a third link…

Finland's foreign ministry said on Friday it had contacted China and Russia via diplomatic channels regarding the investigation of damage to a pipeline and a telecoms cable in the Baltic Sea.Early on Oct. 8, a gas pipeline and a telecoms cable connecting Finland and Estonia were broken, in what Finnish investigators say may have been deliberate sabotage. The Finnish foreign ministry in a statement to Reuters on Friday said it had contacted China to seek help to get in touch with the NewNew Polar Bear vessel, a ship named as a subject of investigation by Finnish police.Regarding Russia, Finland contacted the Russian foreign ministry, "stating the seriousness of the matter"…

Estonia said on Thursday it would probe the damage on a Baltic Sea telecoms cable connecting the country to Sweden as part of its ongoing investigation about the rupture caused on another telecoms cable, connecting Tallinn with Helsinki.On Oct.8 a gas pipeline and telecoms cable connecting Finland and Estonia were broken, in what Finnish investigators believe may have been deliberate sabotage. Helsinki is investigating the pipeline incident, while Tallinn is probing the cable incident.On Tuesday…

A Norwegian Navy ship shadowed a Chinese container ship investigated over damage to a gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland for about 15 hours as it sailed along the western coast of Norway on Monday, vessel tracking data showed.Finnish investigators on Tuesday said they were looking into the Chinese vessel, the NewNew Polar Bear, and a Russian-flagged ship, the Sevmorput, as well as other vessels, present in the area when a Baltic Sea pipeline was damaged on Oct. 8.They said the incident was due to "outside activity" and could have been deliberate.The NewNew Polar Bear is a container ship travelling between Europe and China via the Northern Sea Route in the Arctic.

The Norwegian government on Tuesday proposed opening its waters to deep-sea mining despite opposition from green campaigners and some countries, as it seeks to shift from a reliance on hydrocarbons to new sources of economic activity.Norway, whose vast oil and gas reserves made it one of the world's wealthiest countries, has taken a leading role in the global race to mine the ocean floor for metals that are in high demand as countries transition away from fossil fuels."We need minerals to succeed with the green transition…

Inspections of Norway's offshore gas pipelines after the Nord Stream blasts found nothing suspicious, an executive at energy major Equinor told Reuters, in the first official word on the security sweep.However, risks remain after last year's still-unexplained explosions at the Nord Stream pipelines built to carry Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, warned Jannicke Nilsson, who manages security for Equinor.Europe's largest gas supplier after a drop in Russian flows last year, Equinor also acts as technical service provider for offshore pipelines operator Gassco.

A Norwegian naval officer was found guilty on Monday and sentenced to a two-month suspended jail sentence for negligence leading up to the 2018 collision between a warship he commanded and an oil tanker in which the military vessel sank.Building a replacement for the lost Helge Ingstad frigate would have cost up to 13 billion crowns ($1.24 billion), the armed forces estimated in a 2019 report.The early-morning crash between the Ingstad and the fully loaded Sola TS crude carrier near a major North Sea oil export terminal also triggered shutdowns of parts of Norway's petroleum production.

OSLO, March 20 (Reuters) - Norway's Supreme Court ruled on Monday that EU ships cannot fish for snow crab off the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic in a case also deciding who has the right to explore for oil and minerals in the region.At stake was whether EU vessels had the right to catch snow crab, whose meat is considered a delicacy by gourmets in Japan and South Korea, in the same way as Norwegian vessels did.But what is valid for the snow crab, a sedentary species living on the seabed…

The heads of NATO and the European Commission flew on Friday to a North Sea platform bigger than the Eiffel Tower in a visit underlining Norway's importance for gas supplies since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.The Troll A platform extracts gas from Norway's biggest gas field. After a drop in Russian flows, the Nordic country last year became the largest gas supplier to the EU.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will discuss the protection of infrastructure and gas supplies to Europe with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere…

Norway's Supreme Court will on Tuesday hear arguments on whether EU ships can fish for snow crab off the Arctic islands north of Norway, in a case that could decide who has the right to explore for oil and minerals in the region.At stake is whether EU vessels have the right to catch snow crab, whose meat is considered a delicacy by gourmets in Japan and South Korea, in the same way than Norwegian vessels do.A Latvian fisheries company applied to the non-EU country in 2019 for a fishing license to catch the species…

A Norwegian naval officer on Monday denied negligence leading up to the 2018 collision between a warship he commanded and an oil tanker in which the military vessel sank. Building a replacement for the lost Helge Ingstad frigate would cost up to 13 billion crowns ($1.3 billion), the armed forces estimated in a 2019 report. The early-morning crash between the Ingstad and the fully loaded Sola TS crude carrier near a major North Sea oil export terminal also triggered shutdowns of parts of Norway's petroleum production. There was no leak from the oil tanker.

A Norwegian naval officer stands trial on Monday accused of negligence that led to the 2018 collision between a warship he commanded and an oil tanker in which the military vessel sank. Building a replacement for the lost Helge Ingstad frigate would cost up to 13 billion crowns ($1.3 billion), the armed forces estimated in a 2019 report. The early-morning crash between the Ingstad and the fully loaded Sola TS crude carrier near a major North Sea oil export terminal also triggered shutdowns of parts of Norway's petroleum production. There was no leak from the oil tanker.

Norway plans to export around 122 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas in 2023, in line with last year’s level, and to maintain this volume for the next four or five years, Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland said on Thursday.The output for 2022, which had not previously been released, was up 8% from 2021, in line with a previous government forecast, and similar to the all-time high of 122.37 bcm set in 2017.“Norwegian authorities have updated the estimate for the sales from gas from the Norwegian continental shelf in 2023.

Norwegian police on Thursday responded to a threat made by telephone against the Nyhamna gas processing plant, one of Europe's largest energy export facilities, and later said the incident had been resolved. The threat came amid heightened concerns about the security of oil and gas infrastructure following suspected sabotage of Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines to Europe, though plant operator Gassco and offshore producers Shell and Equinor said output had not been interrupted.

A U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft flew near the site of the ruptured Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea hours after the first damage emerged, according to tracking reviewed by Reuters, a flight Washington said was routine.Russia's Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines burst on Sept. 26, draining gas into the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark and Sweden. Seismologists registered explosions in the area, and police in several countries have launched investigations.Flight data showed…

Norway has deployed a specialist vessel to inspect a subsea gas pipeline to Germany because of safety concerns after suspected sabotage last month on two Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany, according to sources and data.Norway, Europe's largest gas supplier, last week put its energy sector on high alert, deploying its navy and air force to patrol offshore facilities and placing soldiers at onshore gas processing plants after the Sept. 26 Nord Stream blasts.The Havila Subsea, an oil service vessel equipped with remotely operated subsea vehicles, was deployed on Oct. 5 to survey the Europipe II pipeline that runs from the Kaarstoe gas plant in Norway to Dornum in Germany, Refinitiv vessel-tracking data shows.

Frontline and rival Euronav have signed an all-stock merger deal to create a market-leading oil tanker group with 146 vessels including 68 very large crude carriers (VLCCs), the companies said on Monday.The firms, which expect the merged company to have a market capitalization of more than $4 billion and the merger to generate synergies of at least $60 million a year, first announced their intention to merge on April 7.

  A fire that broke out at Equinor's Mongstad oil refinery on Norway's west coast early on Sunday was now extinguished, the company said, affecting the unit producing gasoline.The fire broke out in a part of the refinery that produces gasoline, Equinor said, adding that the main part of the refinery was still in operation."The fire is extinguished," said a company spokesperson.Mongstad is Equinor's largest refinery and has a crude oil and condensate distillation capacity of 226,000 barrels per day.The wider Mongstad area contains refinery operations, a terminal for crude oil exports as well as