East Australia News

Every day, nearly 60 fully loaded very large crude-oil carriers sail between the Persian Gulf and Chinese ports, carrying about half of the oil that powers the world's second-largest economy.As the vessels enter the South China Sea, they ply waters increasingly controlled by China's growing military, from the missile batteries and airfields at its bases on disputed islands to its stealthy Type 055 destroyers.But when crossing the Indian Ocean, joined by others headed to China from Africa and Brazil…

Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at collaborating on a fleet-specific decarbonisation strategy for ‘The Silk Alliance’ cross-industry initiative to enable zero-emission shipping across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.The collaboration includes driving investments into scalable fuel supply infrastructure to meet the demand of members of The Silk Alliance and potential wider regional bunkering demands for alternative fuels.Launched in May 2022…

Sanmar Shipyards delivered four tugs during the final week of 2022 rounding off a year that saw the Turkish tugboat-builder deliver a total of 30 tugs to operators across Europe, the Middle East, Australia, South and Central America and Asia, along with others to its domestic market in Türkiye.The last tug to be delivered in 2022 was YENICAY XVI to Türkiye based Marintug, where it was been renamed ADAKALE by its new owners. The RAscal 1800 Class of compact tugs have been developed exclusively for Sanmar by Canadian naval architects Robert Allan Ltd…

The newly elected President of The Nautical Institute, Jillian Carson-Jackson has vowed to help the Institute and wider maritime community meet three important challenges – those of diversity and inclusion, branch engagement and managing the impact of technology.Speaking at today’s Nautical Institute Annual General Meeting she announced a pledge from the Institute on diversity and inclusion saying: “There has been a concerted effort over the past years to raise visibility of not just women, but the overall role of diversity and inclusion in maritime.

Taiwanese container transportation and shipping company Evergreen Line has launched a new digital platform designed to provide customers with seamless booking capabilities and greater access to integrated trade services.Evergreen Line said in a press note that GreenX platform provides a digital portal for Evergreen customers to get instant quotes and book secured space with prioritized equipment supplied by the carrier.From the time of its soft launch last month, GreenX has received nearly 2,000 sign-ups via this one-stop digital platform, demonstrating customers’ interest in executing their bookings and trade services digitally.The digital platform is powered by BlueX Trade…

Total announces the closing of the acquisition of Engie’s portfolio of upstream liquefied natural gas (LNG) assets for an overall enterprise value of $1.5 billion. Additional payments of up to $ 550 million could be payable by Total in case of an improvement in the oil markets in the coming years. This portfolio includes participating interests in liquefaction plants, notably the interest in the Cameron LNG project in the US, long term LNG sales and purchase agreements, an LNG tanker fleet as well as access to regasification capacities in Europe. “Acquiring Engie’s LNG business is a real step change for Total allowing us to leverage size and flexibility in the fast growing and increasingly commoditized LNG market.

Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has delivered the fifth cruise ship in a series of oceangoing newbuilds for ship owner Viking Cruises. The new vessel, Viking Orion, was delivered today from the builder’s shipyard in Ancona.Viking Orion, as its four preceding sister ships, fits into the small cruise ship segment, with a gross tonnage of about 47,800 tons. It has 465 cabins with accommodation for 930 passengers.Viking's ocean ships are all equipped high-efficiency engines, hydro…

Around 300 ships caught in jam that would stretch 40 miles; freight rates for biggest coal, ore carrier hit 3-yr high. More than 300 large dry cargo ships are having to wait outside Chinese and Australian ports in a maritime traffic jam that spotlights bottlenecks in China's huge and global commodity supply chain as demand peaks this winter. With some vessels waiting to load coal and iron ore outside Australian ports for over a month, key charter rates have jumped to their highest in more than three years. Placed end-to-end, the total delayed fleet would stretch more than 40 miles, enough to span the English Channel from Dover to Calais and back.

From January 2018 the International Marine Contractors Association’s (IMCA) will recognize only formal inspection reports conducted using its eCMID database, meaning that paper reports not uploaded into the database will no longer be considered by IMCA to be authorized inspection reports. The whole eCMID system is now based on the principles described in the ISO 19011 Guidance for Auditing Management Systems standard and is aligned with other comparable industry guidance on safety management system assurance.

Two partners in port project have entered administration means that port charges are now higher for other backers. Glencore and five other miners backing the world's most expensive coal port in Australia face extra annual charges of A$150 million after the restructuring of one of their partners this month, the latest to buckle under slumping commodity prices. The additional charge will deal a blow to the remaining backers of the A$2.6 billion ($2 billion) Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET) in east Australia at a time when they are grappling with floundering coal markets. Mining and trading giant Glencore and seven partners began negotiations to build WICET in 2008 near the height of a coal boom…

Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull joined Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, AO, CSC, RAN, and friends and family at Garden Island, Sydney, to farewell the 229 Royal Australian Navy personnel onboard HMAS Darwin as the ship sailed for the Middle East region. Commander Australian Fleet, Rear Admiral Stuart Mayer, CSC and Bar, RAN, spoke to the assembled crowd and noted that while most Australians were spending the festive season with their loved ones, Darwin was deploying on an important mission…

Combined tanker capacity of at least 2.25 mcm LNG lies unused. Over a dozen liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers are parked, many idle, in and around Singapore - one of the world's biggest trading hubs for the fuel - in a sign that the slowdown engulfing world gas markets may be worsening into a crisis. With Asian spot LNG prices down by almost two-thirds since February 2014 as slowing demand combines with rising output, shippers are parking their tankers close to ports like Singapore where unused ships can be easily maintained and serviced until new orders come in. Leading ship brokers estimate over one-tenth of the global fleet of 400 LNG tankers is currently unused because of slowing growth in Asia's biggest economies. The impact just in Singapore suggests the problem could be worse.

For the 2014 business year, the Liebherr Group is currently anticipating an overall turnover of 8,866 million euros (2013: 8,964 million euros). In the area of construction machines and mining, a decline is expected. For the other areas, the 2014 figures are higher than the previous year’s. The Liebherr Group’s overall turnover is expected to be 8,866 million euros in this business year. Compared with the turnover from 2013, this is a slight drop of about 98 million euros, or 1%.

Fast-growing global energy services company Senergy has marked a business first after being awarded a framework agreement to provide geotechnical representatives on behalf of a client and its site investigation work. The agreement, which has been secured through Senergy’s survey and geo-engineering division, is with Statoil ASA for its projects in the Norwegian Continental Shelf. It will involve the supply of Senergy geotechnical personnel acting as a client representative for site investigations to underpin Statoil procedures, ensuring technical and HSE assurance.

World economic development was weaker in 2012 than in the previous year. Although growth was still 3.2%, the emerging markets’ rates of growth declined as well. The industrial nations continued to pursue a course between consolidation and economic stabilization. Within the Eurozone only a few countries achieved economic growth. The volume of world trade increased by 2.1%. The 2012 business year progressed well for the Liebherr Group. Although the reduced dynamism of the world economy had a noticeable effect on orders received in the final months of the year…

Shell Australia announced its Geelong Refinery is for sale. The proposed sale of the 120 kb/d refinery is in line with Shell’s global strategy to concentrate investment on large scale sites, such as the company’s world scale Pulau Bukom refinery in Singapore. The announcement underpins Shell’s local strategy to grow its retail and bulk fuels business, along with terminals and pipelines. Shell recognizes that other parties, with a different portfolio, may have a different strategy and want to enter or expand in the Australian refining market.

A decline in demand for Capesize vessels has been countered by an improvement in demand for Panamax vessels, according to the latest Dry Bulk Insight published by Drewry Maritime Research. This left the Drewry Hire Index unchanged from January’s level. Panamax was the sole segment to record an improvement in earnings in February. Rates for vessels doing round voyages from Far East to East Australia more than doubled, rising from $3,954pd to $6,818. Weather-led disruptions in transport have affected Australian coal exports and will continue to do so as the mines are still flooded. There was a 19% decline in coal exports from the four major ports of Queensland in January.

A energy production technology services company Proserv has bolstered its rapidly-evolving global footprint and specialist integrated services after acquiring major US company Total Instrumentation & Controls (TIC). The acquisition of Houston-based TIC, which specializes in advanced process and control systems equipment and has a second manufacturing facility in Lafayette (LA), also significantly increases Proserv’s talent pool by more than 300 people to over 1600 with the entire American-based workforce joining forces with the company under the Proserv mantle.

The Liebherr family business was established in 1949 by Hans Liebherr. The great success of his first mobile, easy-to-assemble and affordable tower crane was the foundation on which the company flourished. International economic development in 2011 was rather more moderate than in the previous year. Total production worldwide went up by 3.8 %. In this second year following the financial and economic crisis, the significant growth stimuli once again came from the emerging markets.

Senergy Development Solutions (SDS), which specializes in oil and gas facilities engineering and total project delivery, has positioned itself to harness the increasing market demand for its services by appointing a third director to its leadership team. Rob Fisher joins fellow directors Murray Douglas and Stuart McAuley at SDS, which is part of global energy services company Senergy. He will underpin and lead SDS’s subsea, pipeline and construction management business and further build on the company’s track record in engineering and project management.

ITF, a global oil and gas technology facilitator, announced the challenges that its membership of operator and service companies want to see tackled as priorities in 2012. Up to 100% funding will be available for the right solutions to some of the industry’s most pressing challenges and ITF aims to secure around £50 million investment directly from its members over the next three years. A Subsea Technology Challenge Workshop will take place in Aberdeen on September 6, 2012, which will aim to drill down further into the issues and develop a roadmap to allow focus on the key subsea gaps that can be tackled collaboratively. Neil Poxon,…

ITF, the global oil and gas technology facilitator, has announced the challenges that its membership of operator and service companies want to see tackled as priorities in 2012. Up to 100% funding will be available for the right solutions to some of the industry’s most pressing challenges and ITF aims to secure around £50 million investment directly from its members over the next three years. The first Technology Challenge Workshop on unconventional reservoir characterisation will take place in Aberdeen on 13 March where members will prepare a roadmap to define the issues ahead of a further workshop in Houston in June. A global call for proposals will then be issued inviting technology developers to submit their innovative solutions.

Energy services company Senergy has appointed a vice president (VP) of resources to further strengthen the company’s commitment to building and developing its global talent pool. Taking up the role is Vivien Broughton who, through her broad oil and gas career, has established an impressive track record in delivering effective business solutions that improve retention and attract new talent. Vivien started her career as a geologist and subsequently worked as a wells engineer before…