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Eastern England News

05 Nov 2021

Global Logistics Crisis Boosts Smaller UK Ports

Credit: korhil65/AdobeStock

Global supply chain disruption is changing cargo flows coming into Britain and smaller ports such as Liverpool are benefiting as suppliers look for other ways to route cargoes and minimize disruptions, Liverpool port's operator said.Major bottlenecks have formed across the globe in recent months due to a surge in demand for retail goods from people stuck at home under pandemic-related lockdowns and logjams impacting the supply of container ships and boxes to transport cargo.A shortage of truckers has added to difficulties especially in Britain…

13 Oct 2021

Choked Port Won't Cancel Christmas, Britain Says

© Andy Sears / Adobe Stock

Britain said on Wednesday that people should buy normally for Christmas and there would be no shortage of gifts after shipping containers carrying toys and electrical goods were diverted from the country’s biggest port because it was full.Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company, has diverted some vessels from Felixstowe port in eastern England because a lack of truck drivers means there is nowhere left to stack containers at the port.“I’m confident that people will be able to get their toys for Christmas,” Conservative Party co-Chairman Oliver Dowden told Sky.

16 Nov 2016

Subsidy-Reliant Offshore Wind Takes Cue from Big Oil

From a helicopter, it looks like just another North Sea oil rig, a grey cube supported by massive yellow pillars, 90 kilometres (56 miles) off western Denmark. But the DanTysk facility is the world's first accommodation platform for offshore wind, which is borrowing techniques and labour from the crisis-hit oil sector as it tries to cut costs and end an addiction to state subsidies. The wind industry is moving further offshore and into the deeper waters tamed long ago by oil companies to increase scale and capture stronger and more constant winds. "There's a lot of new-generation technology in the offshore wind industry, but when I'm out there…

02 Sep 2015

SMOE Wins $1bln Multi-platform Culzean Contract

Image: Sembcorp Marine

Singapore's offshore services provider Sembcorp Marine has won an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth over USD1 billion for the Culzean field development project in the North Sea. Sembcorp Marine subsidiary SMOE construction contract  will cover the topsides for the central processing facility, wellhead platform and utilities and living quarter platform, and two connecting bridges. The facility will installed in the UK sector of the Central North Sea. The three-platform complex will be installed in 90 m (295 ft) of water.

05 Jun 2015

Dozens of Illegal Immigrants Discovered at UK Port

Sixty-eight suspected illegal immigrants, including two pregnant women and 15 children, were discovered hidden in lorries at one of Britain's largest ports, officials said on Friday. The group was found on Thursday night at Harwich International Port in eastern England during a search of four vehicles which had been on a ferry from the Hook of Holland in the Netherlands. The East of England Ambulance Service said seven of the group were taken to hospital suffering from abdominal and chest pains and were feeling faint, although none was said to be in a life-threatening condition. Local media reported two of them were pregnant. They were later released after treatment and all 68 - 35 Afghans, 22 Chinese, 10 Vietnamese and one Russian - were handed over to Border Agency officials.

19 Aug 2014

Man Arrested over Death of Stowaway in Shipping Container

Tilbury Port View

A man was arrested in Northern Ireland on Tuesday on suspicion of murder after the death of an Afghan Sikh who was among 35 suspected stowaways found in a shipping container at a dock in England three days ago, police said. Police said the 34-year-old man was arrested just after midday on a motorway at Banbridge, about 28 miles (45 km) south-west of Belfast. He will be taken to England for questioning by Essex police on suspicion of murder and of facilitating illegal entry into the United Kingdom. His home in Limavady, Northern Ireland, was also being searched.

11 Apr 2012

Wind Power Seen Surging as Custom Barges Cut Cost

Offshore wind-power producers from Dong Energy A/S to RWE AG are building custom ships at record rates to reduce the cost of the technology which is  three times as pricey as electricity from coal plants. As many as 20 vessels, some with movable legs which reach the seafloor, will come onto the market in the next few years, reducing chartering costs of as much as 200,000 euros ($261,000) a day, said Marc Seidel, an offshore engineer at Suzlon Energy Ltd., which supplies turbines to Germany’s RWE. A lack of specialized installation ships has forced companies to hire barges designed for oil exploration, holding up work at projects such as EON AG’s Robin Rigg wind farm off Scotland’s western coast.

27 Mar 2012

North Sea Rigs Evacuated on Explosion Risk

Total SA’s Elgin platform leaked gas for a third day in the U.K. North Sea, and neighboring rigs were evacuated to guard against the risk of an explosion. The platform was evacuated and production halted after a “well control problem” caused a leak on March 25. Total has flown in outside experts to help stem the flow of fuel, which prompted Royal Dutch Shell Plc. to move staff from its neighboring Shearwater field. The Elgin and Franklin fields, which send oil and gas through the platform, supply about 15 percent of Forties crude, the biggest component of Dated Brent used to price more than half of the world’s oil. As well as gas, about 23 metric tons of condensate…

30 Aug 2011

WWII Mine Disposed of at Site of World’s Largest Offshore Windfarm

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialist Ramora UK (www.ramorauk.com) reports that it has safely disposed of an unexploded World War II mine onsite at one of the world’s largest offshore windfarm. The four-man Ramora UK team used a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to place a countermining charge next to the 1,500lb (680kg) mine which had been assessed as high-risk due to damage previously sustained to it. Throughout the procedure a 1,500m safety zone was maintained to protect other vessels in the area.

10 Sep 2004

Flensburg Makes its Mark Again

In a further display of hard-earned competitiveness tempered by pure industrial will, Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft has brought another export shipbuilding contract to Germany at a time of ever-more determined incursions by oriental yards into the European market. The Flensburg yard's sealing of a deal with Belgian shipping and logistics company Cobelfret for two container/RoRo (ConRo) vessels has strengthened its standing as a builder of large, RoRo equipped vessels for demanding shortsea trades. The Cobelfret newbuilds have been dubbed the Humbermax type, having been optimized for North Sea service linking the company's new Killingholme terminal on Humberside, in eastern England, with Zeebrugge and Rotterdam in the Low Countries.