Coast News

As U.S. shale oil boomed last decade, an oil pipeline company pitched an ambitious multi-billion-dollar export port off the Texas coast to ship domestic crude to buyers in Europe and Asia.In April, Enterprise Products Partners' SPOT became the first project to receive a license from the U.S. maritime regulator for a deepwater port that could load two supertankers, each of which can carry up to 2 million barrels of oil at a time.But multi-year regulatory delays, a loss of commercial backers and slowing U.S.

The Great Lakes Towing Company (GLT) on Monday unveiled plans to roll out a new breakbulk and RoRo shipping service serving the Caribbean.The Cleveland, Ohio-based company announced the formation of Great Lakes East (GLE), effectively reactivating Crimson Shipping Company’s former domestic and international marine transportation business, based out of Mobile, Ala. However, GLE will shift the primary load port to Fernandina Beach, Fla.GLE will initially service the trade with the 270- by 80-foot fully enclosed deck barge…

“Wind Turbines: The Bigger, the Better” -USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, August 24, 2023Last December the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a proposed sale notice regarding new development areas for utility scale wind projects in the central Atlantic Ocean. The notice includes an upfront issue: the need to mitigate conflicts with U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) activities. BOEM explains that in certain areas the Air Force has set an airspace floor of 1,000 feet above sea level and the Air Force asked BOEM to keep structures below that height.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it is seeking to fill 18 vacancies on the National Towing Safety Advisory Committee, which advises the Secretary of Homeland Security, via the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard on matters relating to shallow-draft inland navigation, coastal waterway navigation, and towing safety.The Coast Guard said it will consider applications for the following 18 vacancies:Seven members to represent the barge and towing industry, reflecting a regional geographic balance.One…

The Captain of the Port (COTP) has established the Fort Carroll Temporary Alternate Channel, which is on the northeast side of the main channel in the vicinity of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and will provide limited access for commercially essential vessels.The channel has a controlling depth of 20 feet, a 300-foot horizontal clearance, and a vertical clearance of 135 feet, and will facilitate additional commercially essential vessel traffic through the port of Baltimore.“This additional channel increases the types of vessels able to transit inbound and outbound the port of Baltimore…

Two Japanese navy helicopters crashed into the sea during a training exercise, killing at least one of the eight crew members on board, the defence minister said on Sunday.The two SH-60 patrol helicopters were conducting anti-submarine exercises on Saturday night near Torishima in the remote Izu island group, off the southern coast of central Japan.Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told a press conference the cause of the crash is under investigation. The two flight recorders had been discovered in close proximity to each other and the probability was high that the two helicopters had collided…

The port of Corpus Christi, Texas, the top U.S. oil export hub, said it exported 6.40 million barrels per day of crude oil in the first quarter, up 6.9% from the same period a year ago.The U.S. Gulf Coast port handles more than half the nation's oil exports, benefiting from its pipeline ties to South and West Texas shale fields. Its volumes have risen along with shale oil production.Overall, the port has moved nearly 48.9 million metric tons of goods through the Corpus Christi Ship Channel in the first quarter.

Merchant ships and seafarers are increasingly in peril at sea as attacks escalate in the Middle East and the United Nations must do more to protect supply chains, the industry said in a letter released on Friday.Tensions have soared across the Middle East since the start of Israel's campaign in Gaza in October, with Israel or its ally the United States clashing repeatedly with Iranian-aligned groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.In a letter sent on Thursday to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres…

If nothing else, building vessels in the U.S. is a complicated business.In a session on the domestic shipbuilding marketplace, at Marine Money’s late-November 2023 conference held in New Orleans, Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards (with more than a dozen facilities, in Mississippi and Louisiana), described his company’s architecture as a “three-legged stool approach: commercial newbuilds, government newbuilds and repair/conversion capabilities”.On the same panel…

Steerprop announced it has been chosen to provide a Polar Class 4 (PC 4) propulsion package for the Canadian Coast Guard's Multi-Purpose Vessels (MPV) renewal program.The contract entails the supply of propulsion packages for the initial six MPVs, integral to Canada's National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). Steerprop's solution comprises two tunnel thrusters for auxiliary propulsion and two Contra-Rotating Propulsors (CRP) for main propulsion, engineered to meet the operational…

The World Shipping Council (WSC) has appointed Joe Kramek as its new President and CEO, to succeed John Butler upon his retirement at the end of July.Kramek brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his new role, from both the maritime sector and government service. He has already served as the WSC's Director of U.S. Government Relations.His professional journey includes 28 years as a commissioned officer with the U.S. Coast Guard where he spent time at sea and as the Chief of Maritime, International, and Environmental Law. Notably, Kramek led the U.S.

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.

The Maritime Risk Symposium is an annual three-day conference in which government and maritime industry leaders, port representatives, researchers, and solution providers convene to examine current and emerging threats to maritime security. MRS2024 is scheduled to take place June 11-13 2024 at Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, CA.A look @ Panel 5: Facilitator: Eric “Coop” Cooper, CAPT, USCG (retired)This panel will inform participants and generate discussion to improve understanding of the risk of gray zone activities pose to the economy…

Hurtigruten is working towards drastically reducing and recycling edible food waste from its fleet operations. A specially designed reactor at one of its ports converts edible food waste into compost used to grow vegetables for Hurtigruten.The initiative encompasses a comprehensive approach to waste management, starting with the sorting of edible food waste onboard Hurtigruten's Original Coastal Express ships during their year-round schedule along the coast of Norway, calling at 34 ports from Bergen in the south to Kirkenes in the north.

For 15 years the Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS), an annual three-day event, has brought together government and maritime industry leaders, port representatives, international and domestic researchers and solution providers to examine current and emerging threats to maritime security. World events highlight that maritime security is increasingly at risk during the current period of great-power competition and ongoing conflicts. The active competition between nations who are not…

Bellingham, Wash. shipbuilder All American Marine (AAM) announced it has been awarded a contract to build a new research vessel for the marine sciences program at  the California Polytechnical Institute at Humboldt (Cal Poly).The vessel is a 78’ x 26.7’ semi-displacement aluminum catamaran that was developed by Nic de Waal of Teknicraft Design in Auckland, New Zealand. The vessel will be inspected to U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Subchapter T standards and will operate as a multipurpose research vessel in the Near Coastal Waters of Northern California and Oregon, as well as Offshore on Ocean Routes.

South Korea remembered the 304 people, most of them school children, who died on the Sewol ferry on the 10th anniversary of its sinking on Tuesday, with families calling for a proper apology for the unnecessary deaths of their loved ones.Many parents attended a memorial service in the city of Ansan, home of the 250 children who died on the ferry during a school excursion, while another 37 family members boarded a Coast Guard ship that sailed to the scene of the disaster, marked by a lone buoy…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the final air quality permit for Dominion Energy’s 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project located off the coast of Virginia Beach in the United States.Issued on April 9 following a 30-day public comment period, the permit authorizes the construction and operation of the largest offshore wind project in the U.S.

The discharge of scrubber water from ships out to 22km (12 nautical miles) from the Danish coasts will be prohibited by law. The ban will come into effect on July 1, 2025, for ships with scrubbers in open operation, where the wash water is discharged into the sea. For ships with scrubbers in closed operation, the ban on water discharge will take effect on July 1, 2029.The Ministry of Environment has stated that scrubber water has contributed to excessive levels of a number of heavy metals and tar substances such as lead, cadmium, anthracene and benz(a)pyrene in the marine environment.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has signed a basic contract for the marine transport of offshore wind components with JFE Engineering Corporation, while also agreeing to build a new module carrier vessel with Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering.This will be first coastal module carrier in Japan to transport components for offshore wind turbine foundation components, according to MOL. MOL DrybulkThe vessel is scheduled for delivery in the spring of 2026, and will then engage in the coastal transport of offshore wind turbine foundations from JFE Engineering's manufacturing base in Kasaoka-shi…

DEME’s DP3 offshore installation vessel Orion has departed for the United States to prepare for the installation of 176 foundations on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, following the wrap up of works at the 882 MW Moray West offshore wind farm in Scotland.DEME’s flagship Orion vessel has completed monopile installation works on Ocean Winds’ Moray West offshore wind farm project in Scotland.Despite harsh winter conditions, DEME managed to install 29 monopiles in approximately two months.Meanwhile…

The United States' first Jones Act-compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), Charybdis, was launched into the water at the Seatrium AmFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas.The 472-foot WTIV—the first and only to be constructed in the U.S.—is being built for Blue Ocean Energy Marine, a subsidiary of Dominion Energy, who announced the milestone on Monday. Welding of the ship's hull and commissioning of the vessel's four legs and related jacking system has been completed…

This week, Seaspan Energy launched the second of its three 7600m3 liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering vessels, the Seaspan Lions, named after the twin peaks of the North Shore, or known as Ch'ich'iyúy Elxwíkn (“Twin Sisters” or “Two Sisters”) to the Squamish Nation.This series of vessels is named after iconic West Coast mountains and the first two vessels, the Seaspan Garibaldi ("Nch'kay") and the Seaspan Lions (Ch'ich'iyúy Elxwíkn), will be delivered in 2024 with the third…