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03 Mar 2024

Esgian Week 9 Report: Dolphin, Diamond and Seadrill Updates

© AndSus / Adobe Stock

Esgian reports rig-related updates from Dolphin Drilling, Diamond Offshore, and Seadrill in its Week 9 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report Outline:ContractsDespite Tullow Oil’s recent announcement that it would take a break from drilling offshore Ghana, Noble Corp. has stated that there has been no contract termination announcement and that its 12,000-ft drillship Noble Venturer is currently still contracted to Tullow into March 2025.Masirah Oil Ltd has signed a rig contract with…

11 Dec 2023

Canada’s Fifth Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship Launched

(Photo: Irving Shipbuilding)

The Royal Canadian Navy’s fifth Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS), the future HMCS Frédérick Rolette, was launched December 9, 2023, at Irving Shipbuilding's Halifax Shipyard.A full two months ahead of schedule, the 103-metre future HMCS Frédérick Rolette transitioned from Halifax Shipyard’s land level facility to a submersible barge on December 8 and launched in the Bedford Basin. The ship is now pier side at Halifax Shipyard where work continues in preparation for sea trials…

24 Aug 2023

Ukraine's Odesa Region Introduces New Grain Export Control Mechanism

© danimages / Adobe Stock

The southern Ukrainian region of Odesa, which has ports on the Black Sea and Danube River, is introducing a new export control mechanism for grain, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Thursday."From now on, vessels (barges) will be loaded only after a preliminary analysis of the legality of the grain's origin," he said, adding that all customs declarations would have to be registered prior to the loading of export goods.The measure is aimed at strengthening discipline, accounting and reporting in foreign economic activity, he said.Analysts have said that a significant amount of grain is bough

07 Mar 2023

Asia Demand to Drive Cheniere's LNG Shipments this Year

© moofushi / Adobe Stock

Cheniere Energy expects to ship more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asia this year, after European customers took the lion's share of its 2022 cargoes, an official said on Monday.The top U.S. exporter of LNG shipped a total of 638 cargoes last year, with slightly over 70% delivered to Europe, Chief Operating Officer Corey Grindal said at the CERAWeek energy conference.Cheniere last year gave the financial go ahead for an expansion of its Corpus Christi, Texas, liquefaction plant and has sought an early environmental review with federal regulators for an expansion at its Sabine Pass…

17 Jan 2023

Venezuela's PDVSA Freezes Most Oil Exports for Contract Reviews

© poonsit / Adobe Stock

The new head of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA has suspended most oil export contracts while his team reviews them in a move to avoid payment defaults, according to an internal document seen by Reuters and people familiar with the matter.Since U.S. trading sanctions were first imposed on PDVSA in 2019, the company has increasingly resorted to little known middlemen to allocate its oil exports, leading to big price discounts and problems with payments affecting its cashflow.The freeze order is leading to port delays…

21 Nov 2022

The World Can Harness Trade to Save the Planet

© SHUTTER DIN / Adobe Stock

Trade is a major cause of global warming. Think of all those goods travelling from far away on polluting ships – and raw materials and components whizzing across the world in complex supply chains.But the right trade policies can also do a lot to save the planet. The solution is to tax trade in carbon-intensive goods and get rid of tariffs on clean ones – while also subsidising green technologies and stopping aid to dirty ones. And to do all this fairly.Trade wasn’t prominent at COP27, the United Nations climate conference which just finished in Egypt.

22 Sep 2022

Incoming Shell Boss Aims Fire up Renewables Drive

Shell's incoming Chief Executive Wael Sawan. Copyright Miquel Gonzalez; Photographic Services, Shell International Limited.

Shell's incoming Chief Executive Wael Sawan is set to accelerate the group's drive to build its renewable energy business, including through a possible "transformative" clean power acquisition, company and industry sources said.Sawan will from January take on a firm with a strong balance sheet after a surge in oil and gas prices, but whose renewables capacity has lagged peers like TotalEnergies and BP as green issues come increasingly into vogue. Shell aims to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and to become a net-zero emitter by 2050…

09 Aug 2022

Russia, Ukraine Agree to Protect Ukraine Grain Shipping Channel

© Elena / Adobe Stock

Ships exporting Ukraine grain through the Black Sea will be protected by a 10 nautical mile buffer zone, according to long-awaited procedures agreed by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations on Monday and seen by Reuters.The United Nations and Turkey brokered a deal last month after Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine halted grain exports, stoking a global food crisis that the United Nations says has pushed tens of millions more people into hunger.Since then Russia, Ukraine…

28 Jun 2022

Union Talks at West Coast Ports Going Well, US Labor Secretary Says

© Mariusz / Adobe Stock

Talks to reach a new contract with union workers at West Coast shipping ports before the existing deal expires this week are going well with no major sticking points, U.S. Labor Secretary Martin Walsh told Reuters on Tuesday.The current contract covering more than 22,000 port laborers at 29 West Coast ports expires on July 1. Retailers, farmers and other U.S. shippers worry that any breakdown in the often-contentious West Coast port labor talks will further disrupt cargo flows…

14 Jun 2022

US West Coast Port Union, Employers Say No Plan for Strike or Lockout

© Brad Nixon / Adobe Stock

The union and employers negotiating the contract for more than 22,000 port laborers on the U.S. West Coast on Tuesday said they are committed to reaching a deal and are not planning any work stoppages or lockouts that would worsen supply chain logjams.The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) employer group have been in negotiations since May.They said they do not expect to reach a deal before the high-stakes labor agreement…

11 Apr 2022

Interview: Shane Guidry, Harvey Gulf

Shane Guidry, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Harvey Gulf (Photo: Harvey Gulf)

Shane Guidry transformed Harvey Gulf from an inland and offshore towing vessel operator to a provider of offshore vessel services in the Gulf of Mexico and international oil and gas markets. Innovation initiatives he has spearheaded include, among others, leading the company to become the United States’ first owner and operator of liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered offshore support vessels, as well positioning the firm as the first LNG bunkering facility operator in the U.S.

16 Nov 2021

Ocean Winds, Principle Power in French Floating Wind Team-up

WindFloat Atlantic (Viana do Castelo, Portugal) - Credit: Ocean Winds

Ocean Winds, a partnership between ENGIE and EDP Renewables, and Principle Power, a designer of floating wind turbine foundations, will cooperate to design the floating platforms for France’s first commercial-scale floating wind tender.In September this year, the French Government selected Ocean Winds to participate in the tender process.The duo has successfully delivered the 25 MW WindFloat Atlantic floating wind farm project currently operating in Portugal and the companies…

29 Sep 2021

BIMCO: Iron Ore Spot Rates Spike 163%

© corlaffra/AdobeStock

As the average length of the journey increases, partly due to port congestions in China, soaking up capacity and pushing up spot rates, shipowners will likely be enjoying high freight rates until the end of the year.Iron ore spot freight rates from Western Australia, to Qingdao, China have jumped 163% to USD 21.82 per tonne on 28 September 2021 compared with the same time last year. For a very large ore carrying Capesize ship transporting 200,000 tonnes of iron ore, this represents an increase in freight revenue from USD 1.66 million…

20 Jul 2021

Shipbuilding and The Navy Of Tomorrow

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt transits the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 1, 2021. U.S. Navy Photoby Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Wade

In the United States, it is a frustrating time to be in the government shipbuilding business. Even though America depends upon maritime commerce and faces growing security risks at sea, shipbuilding is just not a major national focus.Up to now, shipbuilders have had it pretty good. For the past several years, big naval shipbuilders have enjoyed steady growth and strong performance. In 2020, Huntington Ingalls Industries enjoyed record revenue of $9.4 billion, an 8.5% margin and gave a quarter billion back to shareholders in dividends and stock buybacks.

18 May 2021

Lindblad Expeditions to Reactivate Two Ships in Alaska

Expedition cruise ship operator Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic announced on Tuesday it plans to add additional voyages in Alaska this summer. Citing robust demand for its Alaska programming, Lindblad said it will reactivate its two remaining U.S.-flagged vessels. The 62-guest sister ships, National Geographic Sea Bird and National Geographic Sea Lion, will sail from Alaska on a series of departures starting June 25 and continuing through August. The company said it has added an additional 13 departures in total.All guests 16 years of age and over will be required to be vaccinated prior to traveling onboard. Among other health and safety protocols are negative COVID-19 tests, daily guest temperature checks and thorough cleaning procedures.

15 Apr 2021

Baltic Dry Index Scales Over 1-year Peak

© Alexey Lesik / Adobe Stock

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships ferrying dry bulk commodities, rose to its highest level since September 2019 on Thursday as demand strengthened across vessel segments.The Baltic dry index, which tracks rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels, rose 145 points, or 6.7%, to 2,323, its highest since Sept. 12, 2019.The capesize index advanced 232 points, or 7.4%, to 3,383, its highest level since Oct. 9, 2020Average daily earnings for capesizes…

18 Mar 2021

Scrubber-fitted Ships Nearly Double Since January 2020 -BIMCO

© zheltikov / Adobe Stock

As the lion’s share of the world fleet replaced high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) with low-sulphur fuel oil (LFSO) as a mean of propulsion to be compliant with the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) 2020 global sulphur cap that came into force on January 1, 2020, overall bunker sales rose in the world’s by far largest bunkering hub: Singapore.Total bunker sale volumes grew by 5% in 2020 and have continued to climb in the first two months of 2021 (+2.7% y/y),a n indication of the shipping industry’s ability to deliver all the way through the pandemic.

18 Feb 2021

Inside Cruise Shipping's Fight for Survival

Photo Source: Port Everglades

In early 2021, the somber news from the cruise sector continued. For some cruise brands, their own version of “lockdowns” will have spanned an entire year. By late January, 2021, Carnival and others were hesitantly pegging their restarts for April/May 2021, and for some markets, late summer, under a Conditional Sail Order promulgated late last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).What else to do but look ahead?In preliminary earnings guidance, Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL)…

18 Dec 2020

SMM DIGITAL: The Future Of Shipping Is Smart

Digitalisation is the maritime game changer. This is why the digital transformation will be in focus at SMM DIGITAL, which has been given the leitmotif “Driving The Maritime Transition”. As a purely digital event, SMM DIGITAL will feature conferences with top-ranking panelists discussing current trends in Smart Shipping. International experts will report about the challenges facing the maritime industry, and highlight attractive solutions.Complex contractual relationships, the enormous dimensions of ships and routes…

10 Nov 2020

Phantom Buyers in Russia, Advice from Iran Help Venezuela Skirt Sanctions

On Aug. 21, a tanker called the Otoman docked at the Jose oil terminal on Venezuela’s coast in the Caribbean to load 1.82 million barrels of heavy crude, according to the state oil company’s internal documents.Yet no tanker with that name is registered in major global shipping databases.Muddying the situation further, the unique identifier for the Otoman listed in the documents - a number used by the International Maritime Organization to identify ships - was assigned to another tanker called the Rubyni, according to the databases.The Rubyni was broken up two years ago, they record. Satellite images provided by TankerTrackers.com, an independent vessel tracking service…

13 Aug 2020

Containerships Overtake Tankers as Most Scrubber-fitted Sector -BIMCO

© aerial-drone / Adobe Stock

Containerships with a collective cargo carrying capacity of 5.3 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) are now fitted with an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) to remove sulphur oxides (SOx) from the exhaust gasses generated by the combustion processes in marine engines and thereby comply with the IMO 2020 global sulphur regulation which came into force on January 1, 2020.By the start of July, the share of the containership fleet with scrubbers installed exceeded that of the crude oil tanker fleet.

27 Oct 2020

First Cruise Ship Preparing to Resume Voyages from Singapore

Dream Cruises’ World Dream arrives in Singapore (Photo: Dream Cruises)

Dream Cruises’ 150,695 gross ton megaship World Dream arrived in Singapore Sunday morning ahead of its November debut as the first cruise ship to restart service from the Lion City.The skeleton crew of 187 on board have completed their 14-day quarantine on the cruise ship prior to arrival in Singapore, and they will undergo a further series of mandatory COVID-19 testing as stipulated by the local authorities and are required to test negative before signing-up for active duty.The…

14 May 2020

Sailing Beyond Coronavirus

Asbjørn Halsebakke (Photo: Yaskawa Environmental Energy / The Switch)

A new reality demands a new approach. Asbjørn Halsebakke, Product Manager, Yaskawa Environmental Energy / The Switch, argues that we can’t afford to let the greatest opportunity within the current crisis slip away.We can’t celebrate a pandemic. People are dying. Economies are crashing. Unemployment rates are rocketing. We are distanced – from those we love, but also from our immediate past. Life as we know it has been turned upside down. So, we can’t celebrate. But nature can.Instant impactAs we have retreated into our homes, the natural world has come out to play.