Environmental Agency News

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday that environmental agency Ibama should be satisfied with the results of an emergency drill done by state-run oil firm Petrobras in the country's Foz do Amazonas basin, ahead of Ibama's official assessment."Petrobras has already carried out the test. Ibama should be satisfied with the results of the research, and Ibama will now grant us the license to carry out the first experiment," Lula said in an interview with local news channel Rede Amazonica.Despite Lula's claims…

Petrobras obtained approval from the country's environmental agency to clear corals from the underside of the drilling vessel it plans to use in the Foz do Amazonas region, Reuters reports. Its February 10 request was granted on Monday for the vessel the state-run firm will send to drill off the coast of the northern Amapa state if it obtains a long-sought license to explore the environmentally sensitive region.Due to the corals being a potentially invasive species if moved to another biome…

Patrick Murphy has been President of Blue & Gold Fleet, L.P., the San Francisco Bay Area’s largest and premier provider of Bay Cruises and ferry service, since 2016. Murphy grew up in the Maritime business. His father, Roger Murphy, founded Blue & Gold Fleet in 1979. Patrick Murphy began his career in 1982, working part-time in the Box Office and as a Deckhand before receiving his United States Coast Guard’s license in 1995 and was promoted to Captain in 1996. In 2005, Murphy advanced to Blue & Gold Fleet Operations Manager, and then to Director of Operations in 2009.

A power outage in the Rotterdam port area in the Netherlands briefly interrupted operations at one of Europe's biggest oil refineries on Tuesday, the plant's operator BP said.Electricity grid operator TenneT said the problem was solved shortly after 1000 GMT.

The head of Brazil's environmental agency said on Wednesday that he expects a decision soon on state-owned oil company Petrobras' request to conduct exploratory studies in a region known as the Equatorial Margin, as both the company and the government push for a drilling license.Petrobras has been seeking to explore the northernmost part of the Equatorial Margin, near the mouth of the Amazon River, but got a red light from environment watchdog Ibama in May of last year due to concerns over the possible impact on Indigenous communities and the environment.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday threw his weight behind a push by state-run oil company Petrobras to explore the environmentally sensitive offshore Equatorial Margin, saying Brazil cannot give up such an opportunity.The offshore region along the northern coast is seen as Brazil's most promising frontier for oil exploration as it shares geology with nearby Guyana, where Exxon Mobil is developing huge fields."When we start exploring the so-called Equatorial Margin…

Petrobras' new chief executive said a basin in Brazil's Equatorial Margin, an environmentally sensitive offshore prospect seen as the country's most promising frontier for oil exploration, was a matter of "national interest."Magda Chambriard, who took over as the state-controlled oil company's chief executive after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva fired its former CEO this month, said on Monday she wanted to escalate talks about the region near Guyana to the National Council of Energy Policy (CNPE)…

Hundreds of dredging rafts operated by illegal miners have gathered in a gold rush on the Madeira River, a major tributary of the Amazon, floating hundreds of miles as state and federal authorities dispute who is responsible for stopping them.The flotilla of rafts equipped with pumps are moored together in lines that nearly stretch across the vast Madeira, and a Reuters witness spotted plumes of exhaust indicating they are vacuuming the riverbed for gold."We counted no less than 300 rafts.

Crude oil smudges have been spotted at some Brazilian beaches in the northeast state of Ceará, the country's navy said on Monday, almost two months after the area was hit by another oil slick.That was part of a broader spill, whose origin remains a mystery, that stained hundreds of beaches on Brazil's northeast coast between September and November, threatening marine life, tourism and fishing.The navy said samples of the new spill were being sent for analysis to a marine studies institute…

New system helping to solve garbage problems in rivers by collecting waste from water surface. SpillTech, aNorwegian company which specializes in oil spill recovery equipment and systems to collect waste in ports, is expanding its services to tackle waste pollution issues in rivers.“Many rivers are becoming increasingly polluted, so it is important to collect as much waste as possible and that is the reason why we have developed a new waste collector system,” reasoned Trond Lindheim…

Sea-state monitoring firm Miros Group is set to supply eight Oil Spill Detection (OSD) systems to Brazilian oil major Petrobras in the world’s largest x-band radar-based OSD surveillance and response contract to date.The agreement is in partnership with Ulstein Belga Marine, primary supplier to Petrobras, and includes radars and thermal imaging cameras for Petrobras Mobile Offshore Production Units (MOPUs) in the Campos Basin. Delivery and commissioning are scheduled for 2019.The…

DESMI Ocean Guard A/S has announced that the CompactClean Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) has received International Maritime Organization (IMO) Type Approval according to the revised IMO BWMS code.This approval means that the CompactClean BWMS becomes one of only two systems worldwide approved for installation on vessels also after October 28, 2020.On September 21, 2018 DESMI Ocean Guard’s CompactClean Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) received IMO Type Approval according to the IMO Code for Approval of Ballast Water Management Systems (resolution MEPC.300(72)), also often referred to as the revised G8. The approval was…

Total is determined to push ahead with its plans to drill for oil in the Amazon basin, it said on Friday as Greenpeace activists interrupted its annual general meeting in protest at the project.The French oil major wants to explore Brazil's Foz do Amazonas basin, but Brazil's environmental agency rejected its licence application on Tuesday for a fourth time.As the company's annual general meeting opened in Paris on Friday, four activists from Greenpeace descended by rope from the ceiling above the stage…

Brazilian environmental agency Ibama on Tuesday rejected French oil company Total SA's application for an environmental license to drill in the sensitive Foz do Amazonas basin.It is the fourth time that Ibama has rejected the application and requested additional information.(Reporting by Jake Spring Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

The total volume of cargo tranported by sea in Brazil from January to September 2017 was pegged at 800 million tons, according to a survey by the National Agency of Waterway Transportation (Antaq). A large number of oceangoing and cabotage ships are needed to move such a volme and many of these ships will need repairs of various kinds. Having identified a positive demand for international standard ship repair facilities in the South Atlantic basin, McQuilling Services, headquartered in New York, will be leading a project to invest nearly a billion in Lucena, on the coast of the northeast state of Paraíba, for the installation of the Brazil Basin Drydock Company (BBDC) repair yard projects.

A levy on nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions with revenues earmarked to fund the uptake of NOx abatement measures is believed to be the most promising tool to reduce these ship emissions by up to 70 percent, as revealed by a new study by environmental consultancy IVL and CE Delft. The study, commissioned by Transport & Environment (T&E), identifies the policy options available at the EU level to regulate ship NOx emissions in the EU seas and compares them with the measures to be taken under the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Columbia's state environmental agency said that roughly 80 gallons of oil was spilled into the Columbia River by a vessel near Kalama. The Nord Auckland, a 618-foot ship flagged in Singapore, reportedly spilled the waste oil during an internal oil transfer on Thursday morning. The ship, owned and operated by Denmark’s Norden, was at anchor when an apparent operator error led to the spill of substances which were intended to be incinerated. The multi-team response was coordinated by the Washington Department of Ecology and the US Coast Guard (USCG). Department of Ecology documents say the cause is still under investigation but the source of the spill was secured and no additional spills are expected.

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Costa Rican Government and APM Terminals in an appeal filed by the port workers union against the 33-year concession contract for the new Moin Container Terminal (TCM) in Limon on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. "The TCM will be a world class, modern, safe and efficient terminal operating under international standards and procedures, designed to boost Costa Rica´s international trade by taking full advantage of the economy of scale provided by the new-Panamax container vessels of up to 13,500 containers, vessels of up to five times larger than those which can be serviced in the country today," Gallie said.

In an effort to spread out oil and gas production to other parts of the country and increase overall oil production, Brazil has finally intensified hydrocarbon exploration along its northeastern and northern coasts. These are some of the poorest regions in the country and infrastructure for oil and gas exploration is minimal, yet significant discoveries and seismic indicators of large reservoirs are tantalizing and have attracted major local and foreign investors. Potential for oil discoveries in the area is proven, yet players will be faced by many challenges offshore and on land in order to uncork reservoirs at the Northern Frontier.

Federal Marine Terminals (FMT) received the inaugural Environmental Recognition Award from the Hamilton Port Authority (HPA) at a special event held on the harbourfront today. This annual award was created to recognize and reward a Hamilton port partner’s contributions to respecting and protecting the natural environment. “Federal Marine Terminals has the largest footprint of any tenant on port property, and the company is a leader when it comes to environmental protection,” noted Bruce Wood, HPA President and CEO. FMT has taken several measures to achieve a high level of environmental performance. For example, on-site dust is controlled using a new road sweeper, significantly reducing airborne particulate. An advanced equipment wash pad system captures wash water and separates out oil.

Local equipment suppliers reap dividends, but there’s room for foreign businesses – if they know how to play. After huge oil finds in recent years, Brazil's need for offshore vessels continues to expand and could double between now and the end of the decade. Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras wants to extract billions of barrels of oil while also developing its shipbuilding and service industries to create jobs. Meanwhile, Brazil is trying to use locally made vessels and equipment, but foreign companies are benefiting from the nation's oil bonanza too.

Chevron Corp. and Transocean Ltd. are being sued for $22 billion in environmental damages in Brazil, double initial claims, after a federal prosecutor filed a second lawsuit over oil spills off the nation’s coast, according to Bloomberg. Chevron committed “a series of errors” which led to the March spill at Frade, the second incident at the offshore oil project, the federal prosecutors’ office said yesterday. Prosecutor Eduardo Santos de Oliveira is also seeking to halt operations at Frade and block San Ramon, California- based Chevron from transferring profits from Brazil. “The oil spill at the Frade field hasn’t been contained,” Oliveira said.

As Cargo, Fuel or both; LNG is emerging as the clear and clean way forward for the maritime industry. The use of LNG as a marine fuel is not new. Vessels trading cryogenic LNG have burned boil-off natural gas in steam boilers for many years as a simple solution to maintaining necessary temperatures and pressures within cargo spaces. The use of the fuel varied according to the size of the ship and a boil off rate ranging between 0.10 to 0.18 percent of the total cargo. As a result of the variable quantities…