Response Equipment News

The car carrier Morning Midas sank on June 23 following the fire that broke out on board on June 3.The fire was no longer active, but the vessel sank while awaiting the arrival of a tug with long-distance towing capability.“Damage caused by the fire, compounded by heavy weather and subsequent water ingress, caused the Morning Midas to sink at around 16.35 local time zone (UTC -9) on 23 June, in waters approximately 5,000 meters deep and 360 nautical miles from land,” said ship manager Zodiac Maritime.The vessel reportedly had 350 metric tons of marine gas oil and 1…

Researchers from Dalhousie University and the US Naval Postgraduate School presented a concept for an affordable mother ship with a flotilla of uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) capable of providing coast guard services at the ISCRAM2025 Conference (Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management) in Halifax, Canada, last month.The concept could provide a persistent, on-water presence which could assist with search and rescue response, response to shore-based emergencies…

Equinor will establish and operate a new area-wide emergency preparedness solution for the southwestern Barents Sea."Together with the other operators, the authorities and the supply industry, we have through 50years developed the preparedness for the fields in the North Sea and in the Norwegian Sea. With Johan Castberg coming on stream towards the end of the year and increased activity in the north, we are now establishing an area-wide emergency preparedness system in the Barents Sea in the Barents Sea," says Grete B. Haaland, Equinor’s SVP for Exploration & Production North.Grete B.

Anacortes, Wash. shipbuilder Dakota Creek Industries (DCI) has delivered a new state-of-the-art oil spill response barge to Alyeska Pipeline Service Company for operation in the coastal waters of Alaska.The barge, named Allison Creek, is specifically designed by Elliot Bay Design Group (EBDG) to meet the rigorous requirements in Prince William Sound. Allison Creek has a capacity of 13,600 barrels, an overall length of 200', beam of 42', depth of 16' and is outfitted with a deck crane and on-deck houses to store emergency response equipment.The barge is certified by the U.S.

The IMO is urging Member States to contribute equipment to help UN-led efforts to prevent a possible catastrophic oil spill from the FSO Safer, an ageing and rapidly decaying floating storage offshore (FSO) unit moored 4.8 nautical miles off the Red Sea coast of Yemen.A converted super tanker, the FSO Safer contains an estimated 150,000 metric tonnes (approximately 1.1 million barrels) of crude oil, four times the amount spilled during the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989. It has been moored at Ras Isa since 1988 where it had been receiving…

Two new oil spill response barges were recently completed at ASL Shipyard in Singapore for Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC).The two 3,500 tonne barges, Sentinel 303 and Sentinel 304, will be delivered to WCMRC in October, with arrival in Canada by the end of 2022. The response barges will join WCMRC’s fleet of pollution response vessels stationed along the south coast of British Columbia.These new barges represent a significant enhancement to the pollution response capabilities already in place and will benefit the entire local maritime industry…

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s National Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility, known as Ohmsett, has now reopened after undergoing significant refurbishment over the past eight months as part of BSEE’s ongoing maintenance plan. Originally constructed and operated by the U.S. EPA in 1974, the facility was passed to the U.S. Navy and then to the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service in 1990. Today, it is the only facility in the U.S. conducting full-scale oil spill response research, equipment testing and training using live oil.

Ship repair yard Guam Shipyard will pay nearly $70,000 and take measures to improve its facilities following multiple pollution violations discovered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2018.The EPA said on Tuesday its settlement with Guam Industrial Services, Inc., doing business as Guam Shipyard, includes a $68,388 penalty as well as mandatory installation of preventative measures to reduce the discharge of stormwater pollutants into Apra Harbor.Guam Shipyard operates a ship repair facility on Cabras Island in Piti…

Damen Shipyards Group has been awarded a contract to design a new offshore terminal tug for Edison Chouest Offshore. Chouest will initially build two ASD Tugs 5016 at its Gulf Ship yard in Gulfport, Miss., for completion by May 2022.Damen said it has designed the 50-meter ASD Tug 5016 to provide escort, hold-back, hose-handling and maintenance duties offshore Guyana. The tug will deliver 120 tons of static bollard pull delivered by twin C-280 engines. It will also have a hybrid system that will be engaged when loitering.

The large 203,130 dwt bulk carrier Wakashio has run hard aground in an environmentally sensitive area off the east coast of Mauritius, on Saturday evening.The 300-meter, Panamanian-flagged vessel was sailing under ballast without cargo through a major shipping lane in the Indian Ocean when it went off course and grounded on the reefs of Pointe d'Esny, while en route from China to Brazil. Its last port call was in Singapore.The cause of the grounding is unknown. Weather at the time was clear…

When discussing the arrival of autonomous workboats, many – especially those developing the technologies that enable them – say it’s is not a matter of if, but when. In fact, autonomous harbor tugs are already being put to the test in Singapore, where authorities hope to establish the technological infrastructure to enable fully autonomous ship operations. In the U.S., an autonomous vessel was shown to be able to respond to marine oil spills.But is autonomy really the future?

On March 3, the Coast Guard published a notice that Martin Midstream Partners (MMP), a petrochemical transport and storage company, was seeking approval to modify terminal operations in Beaumont, Texas, along the Sabine-Neches Waterway. If approved, MMP would expand its liquefied hazardous gas (LHG) operations, both in volume and products. Instead of just handling ammonia the change would allow shipments of butane, propane, ethane, ethylene and propylene.Critically, MMP’s expansion would increase LHG vessel transit from 24 ships to as many as 350 per year.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered Guam Shipyard to obtain a stormwater discharge permit and to achieve compliance with the Clean Water Act for discharges of pollutants into Apra Harbor, Guam.“Ship repair facilities must have stormwater pollution controls to protect coastal ecosystems,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Mike Stoker. “This order will prevent pollution from reaching Apra Harbor.”Guam Shipyard operates a ship repair facility on Cabras Island in Piti, Guam. It has operated industrial activities, including boat repair, sandblasting, high pressure washing, painting and material storage since at least January 2016.EPA inspected the facility on September 2018 and found multiple violations of the Clean Water Act.

As a part of its cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD), Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics announces that it has successfully demonstrated its autonomous systems in action on board a Kvichak Marco skimmer boat during events held along the Portland harbor earlier today.Sea Machines’ technology opens a new era of capability for the marine industry, and today the company demonstrated its ability to increase the safety, productivity and predictability of response for marine oil-spill operations.

Sea Machines Robotics has been a progressive leader in advancing autonomy in the maritime space, and today it announced a deal with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MarAd) to demonstrate the value of Sea Machines’ autonomous technology in marine oil-spill response ops. The scope of the deal has Sea Machines installing its SM300 autonomous-command system aboard a Marine Spill Response Corp. (MSRC)-owned MARCO skimming vessel and will train MSRC personnel to operate the system.

Bouchard Transportation Co., Inc. announced Friday that one of its barges has ended its shipyard period after completing a major overhaul.The work was performed at Gulf Marine Repair in Tampa, Fl. She left the shipyard earlier this week.Bouchard Barge No. 295 (B. No. 295) left Gulf Marine Repair in Tampa, Fla. earlier this week following an extensive scope of repair and upgrade work, a Bouchard spokesperson told MarineLink.Approximately 90 percent of the the barge’s main deck plate has been replaced…

A training event on oil spill preparedness and response for countries in eastern Africa, was held in Dar Es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania (6-9 November).The  relevant government agency representatives with responsibilities in spill response in the countries like Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Somalia, United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda have participated in the training."In the event of a marine oil spill, relevant government agencies in the affected region need to manage and coordinate a response," a release from International Maritime Organization (IMO) explained the scenario.The…

The salvage operations of the container vessel MV SSL Kolkata that had caught fire last month, is continuing in rough weather conditions with 2- 4 metre swells. The vessel is grounded at about 8 nautical miles off the ecologically sensitive Sundarbans since the 13th of last month when its cargo area had caught fire following an explosion. All 22 crew members were   rescued by the Indian Coast Guard. The Directorate General of Shipping and its allied office, Mercantile Marine Department, Kolkata, Govt. of West Bengal, the Indian Coast Guard and various authorities have been constantly monitoring the developments as the salvage efforts continue.

With the rise in transport by sea of chemicals and gases, in bulk and containerized, adequate preparedness for response to potential spill incidents involving hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) is increasingly important. The Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) is hosting a regional workshop on response to such incidents, in Valletta, Malta (20-21 June). Regional cooperation on oil and HNS spill response and contingency planning is an efficient and cost-effective way of preparing for possible spills – through the sharing of information, knowledge and/or response equipment. A recent example of cooperation in this field was an agreement signed between Cyprus, Greece and Israel following support from REMPEC.

More than 40 U.S. Coast Guard, State of Texas, maritime industry and local emergency responders attended the American Salvage Association’s (ASA) Marine Salvage and Emergency Response training course last month in the Houston-Galveston area presented by the ASA Training Committee. Designed to train students on how to coordinate proactive marine casualty response operations, this two-day program exposed students to a wide variety of course modules led by ASA members and industry experts in salvage law, naval architecture, commercial diving, environmental policy, and emergency response operations. “Since 2003, the ASA has presented a number of Marine Salvage courses every year to Federal…

Salvage and marine firefighting are complex response efforts often undertaken in adverse weather and sea conditions. While no two oil spill responses are the same, the diversity of variation between any two oil spill responses is not near as great as the diversity of any two salvage and marine firefighting responses. As a result, salvage and marine firefighting response providers must plan for and anticipate a wide range of variation in what will be required to address their portion of a marine casualty. The U.S.

Work to remove a commercial fishing vessel aground off American Samoa has resumed in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Gita. Hazardous weather conditions on Friday forced responders to delay efforts to salvage the grounded 88-foot Taiwanese-flagged vessel Chui Zai Fa No. 1, which is split in half with the bow and stern portions sitting side by side in the surf approximately 300-yards off Leone Bay. U.S. Coast Guard officials resumed work with local authorities and the vessel’s owner to develop a plan to salvage the Chui Zai Fa No.

Norwegian suppliers Framo, Maritime Partner, Norbit Aptomar, and NorLense have come together to create the OSRV (Oil Spill Recovery Vessel) Group to offer a complete oil spill response solution. “Our aim is to be a one-stop-shop where we pool our efforts and act as a total systems supplier of safe, highly functional, and well-tested technology. The emergency response equipment has undergone thorough testing and quality assurance drawing on 40 years of oil spill response experience,” says Jørgen Brandt Theodorsen, Area Manager, Oil & Gas Pumping Systems, at Framo.