Laura News

The Iran war is upending the global LNG outlook as soaring prices, damage to major supplier Qatar's export infrastructure and potential delays to new supply raise doubts about previously expected demand from price-sensitive Asian buyers.Before the war, analysts expected global liquefied natural gas supply to rise as much as 10% this year to between 460 million and 484 million metric tons as new capacity, mainly in the U.S. and Qatar, came online, with demand forecast to grow in tandem.Now…

On January 28, 2026, President Donald J. Trump designated Laura DiBella to serve as Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission.Chairman DiBella was sworn in as a Commissioner on January 6, 2026. She was nominated by President Trump on September 3, 2025 and confirmed by the United States Senate on December 18, 2025, to serve a term that expires on June 30, 2028.“It was a true honor to simply be nominated as a Commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission, and to now be tapped as Chairman is nothing short of a privilege…

On January 6, 2026, Ms. Laura DiBella of Florida was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC or Commission). Commissioner DiBella will serve for a term that expires on June 30, 2028. Commissioner DiBella was nominated by President Trump on September 3, 2025, confirmed by the United States Senate on December 18, 2025, and appointed to the Commission by the President on January 2, 2026.Commissioner DiBella previously served as Florida’s first female Secretary of Commerce and as President and CEO of Enterprise Florida.

Australian Border Force (ABF) officers posted overseas in Beijing have prevented over 600,000 illegal vapes from hitting Australia’s streets after information sharing led to the referral of almost 70 high risk containers.The majority of the seized vapes - which had a street value of approximately $30 million, arrived into NSW between September and October 2025.The information allowed ABF officers to identify several other shipments related to the initial referrals, with majority of the containers falsely described as items such as glass bottles…

On the afternoon of March 8, a petroleum tanker named Torm Agnes entered the Port of Ensenada on Mexico’s Pacific coast carrying almost 120,000 barrels of diesel.Such a vessel was a rare sight in that port, which mainly hosts cruise liners, luxury yachts and container ships. Ensenada lacks the infrastructure needed to unload cargos of flammable hydrocarbons safely – making what happened later that day odder still.Waves of fuel-hauling trucks rolled up to the dock to cart away much of the Torm Agnes’ load.

Two senior officials at the White House National Security Council have left their roles in recent days, according to two sources familiar with the moves, the latest departures for a body that has been cut sharply in recent months.Ian Bennitt, the senior director for maritime and industrial capacity, and Brian McCormack, the NSC's chief of staff, both departed last week, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel moves.Bennitt is expected to leave for the private sector…

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced the publication of a Proposed Notice of Sale (PNOS) for an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of America.As directed by Secretary of the Interior and outlined in the PNOS, Lease Sale 262 will offer approximately 15,000 unleased blocks located 3 to 231 miles offshore across the Gulf’s Western, Central, and Eastern Planning Areas. Covering roughly 80 million acres, these blocks are situated in water depths ranging from 9 feet to more than 11…

Danish shipping group A.P. Moller - Maersk has named the first vessel in a series of 17,480 TEU vessels equipped with dual-fuel methanol propulsion, which will operate under the name of Berlin Mærsk.The naming event took place on June 18, at Hyundai Heavy Industries’ (HHI) yard in Ulsan, South Korea.Berlin Mærsk is the 14th dual-fuel newbuild entering the Maersk fleet, and it will be followed by additional five sister vessels in this new class of container ships.All six vessels in the series are being built by HHI with delivery in 2025.

The Ice Memory Foundation is preparing for the upcoming transport of ice cores from mountain glaciers to the Ice Memory Sanctuary in Antarctica.The announcement was made as part of the launch of the UN Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025-2034) during the third UN Ocean Conference in Nice on June 8.Preserved in the Ice Memory Sanctuary at Concordia Station, the cores will be available for study by future generations of scientists.The first Ice Memory alpine ice cores – extracted between 2016 and 2023 – will leave the laboratory cold rooms of the CNR-ISP in Italy in October.

The world's first commercial-scale e-methanol plant began operations in Denmark on Tuesday, with shipping giant Maersk set to buy part of the production as a low-emission fuel for its fleet of container ships.The shipping sector is under pressure to find new sources of fuel after a majority of countries gave their backing to measures to help meet the International Maritime Organization's targets towards eliminating carbon emissions by 2050.So far zero-emission shipping fuels, such as green ammonia and e-methanol…

General Dynamics Mission Systems was awarded a fixed-price-incentive, firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost-only contract from the U.S. Navy in December for up to $808.6 million to produce MK 54 MOD 1 Lightweight Torpedo Kits and related test equipment, spares, provisioned item orders, engineering support and hardware support for the MK 54 Lightweight Torpedo Program. Work will be performed in Canonsburg, PA, and is expected to be completed by December 2032.“Our Progeny Systems employees have been providing advanced torpedo electronics to the U.S. and allied Navies for 18 years. This contract ensures that our surface ships and aircraft will have the most modern and capable torpedoes in the world for many years to come…

Hundreds of Panamanians marched on Thursday to mark the anniversary of a deadly uprising against U.S. control of the Panama Canal in 1964, with some protesters burning an effigy of President-elect Donald Trump who has threatened to retake the vital global waterway.More than 20 Panamanians, many of them students, died during violent clashes across the country in January 1964, which escalated after U.S. security forces opened fire in response to mass demonstrations against the U.S. presence in the country and control of the canal. At least three U.S.

Hycamite TCD Technologies, MOLEA, a subsidiary of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and MOL PLUS have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) promoting the application of methane-splitting for onboard power generation.With Hycamite’s technology, LNG-fueled ships can convert methane into hydrogen as they sail, and the solid carbon produced can be offloaded at the port of destination. If bioLNG is used, the solution can create a negative carbon footprint.Earlier this year, Hycamite announced development of a system that…

Tributes have been paid to The Maritime Group (International) (TMG) founder Captain John M Cox III following his death at the age of 93.Capt Cox, known to his friends as Jack, died peacefully in Seattle on Thursday November 21 after a short illness.He recently retired as chairman and president of The Maritime Group (International), which included The Maritime Group, Inc. (Seattle), The Maritime Group (Pacific), The Maritime Group (Asia) and The Maritime Group (Europe) - recently…

This week at MarineLink…The IMO 2020 Sulfur Cap essentially ushered in a new type of fuel - VLSFO. With it came the engine problems caused by off-spec or incompatible fuels as producers grappled with the requirement for providing a sulfur content not exceeding 0.05%. As pointed out in Lloyd’s Register’s 2024 Fuel Quality Report, persistent issues involving cat fines, stability, sulfur content and flash point continue, and isolated incidents of chemical contamination are still occurring.If new…

At least five cargoes of LNG have diverted from Asia to Europe in the past few days, drawn by higher gas prices on the continent after Russia's Gazprom halted supplies to Austria's OMV, data from analytics firm Kpler showed.On Saturday Gazprom halted supplies to top Austrian gas importer OMV after OMV threatened to impound some of the Russian state firm's gas as compensation for an arbitration it had won over a contractual dispute.Gazprom notified OMV of the planned halt on Friday…

General Dynamics Mission Systems has been awarded a $15.9 million contract by the U.S. Navy to develop its Mining Expendable Delivery Unmanned Submarine Asset (MEDUSA) system.MEDUSA is a tactical, clandestine mining system using an expendable Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) that can be launched from a submarine torpedo tube. The U.S. Navy is developing MEDUSA to address the need for an advanced maritime mining system with long-range offensive mining capabilities.The scope of the newly awarded research and development effort includes the design…

In January 2023, U.S. federal agents raided the home of a Tucson maintenance worker who had a side hustle hauling packages across the border to Mexico.They estimate that over the previous two years, the gray-bearded courier had ferried about 7,000 kilos of fentanyl-making chemicals to an operative of the Sinaloa Cartel. That’s 15,432 pounds, sufficient to produce 5.3 billion pills – enough to kill every living soul in the United States several times over. The chemicals had traveled by air from China to Los Angeles…

The keel for the future USS William Charette (DDG 130), an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, was ceremoniously laid on August 29 at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Bath, Maine. The warship is scheduled for delivery to the U.S. Navy in 2026.Named after Medal of Honor recipient Master Chief Hospital Corpsman William R. Charette, the ship honors his valorous service during the Korean War with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division in the Panmunjom Corridor.Rear Adm. Darin K.

Orient Overseas Container Line Co., Ltd. (OOCL) today celebrated the naming of the company's twelfth 24,188 TEU newbuilding at a ceremony held at Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co., Ltd. (NACKS) shipyard. The new vessel, named OOCL Portugal, is the last in the 24,188 TEU eco-friendly mega vessel series.Michael Xu, Director and Member of Executive Committee of OOCL, said, “The naming of our last 24,188 TEU new vessel marks an important milestone in the development of OOCL.

Six people were rescued after abandoning their fire-stricken fishing vessel off the U.S. East Coast, Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard said.At 8:56 p.m., Coast Guard Sector Northern New England command center watchstanders received a mayday call from the 81-foot trawler Three Girls stating that the vessel was ablaze and the captain, NOAA observer and four crew members on board were preparing to abandon ship about 105 nautical miles east of Portsmouth, N.H. The First Coast Guard District command center also received an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon from the vessel.At 9 p.m.…

The United States' Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro on Monday announced a federal, state and local partnership intended to help rebuild the maritime industrial base workforce required to support the Navy.The so-called Michigan Maritime Manufacturing Initiative (M3) will establish training pipelines and programs to meet the Navy’s need for thousands of new workers and jobs across the state and the broader Great Lakes region. With an initial focus on submarine production skillsets before expansion to other types of ships…

X-Press Feeders, Global Energy Trading Pte Ltd (GET), and PSA Singapore (PSA) have successfully completed the first simultaneous methanol bunkering and cargo operation (SIMOPS) in Singapore on May 27, 2024.The SIMOPS was conducted at the new Tuas Port with the support of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), together with various government agencies and local research institutions. The use of the mass flow metering (MFM) system for methanol, together with the use of digital bunkering…