Mexico News

New legislation introduced in the wake of the fatal Seacor Power tragedy would require commercial vessel owners to provide timely notifications to crew members’ families throughout search and rescue operations.The Vessel Response Plan Improvement Act was introduced by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) after the 234-foot lift boat capsized in the Gulf of Mexico with 19 crewmembers on board last month. Six crew members were saved, and the bodies of six deceased personnel were recovered in the days following.

Safety of workers,structures, equipment and the environment are paramount in any offshore energy project. In the March/April print edition, Offshore Engineer took a look inside some notable newcomers.Wearable tech to boost drill floor safetyHaloGuard – Credit: TransoceanOffshore drilling contractor Transocean has recently deployed what it said was the offshore drilling industry’s first safety system that integrates a wearable locating device with drill floor equipment and machine stoppage controls.The system…

The Texas A&M Maritime Academy said it has been notified by the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD) that the National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) expected to arrive on its Galveston campus in 2025 will be named the Lone Star State.The ship, which is slated to be built by Philly Shipyard, is the fourth in a new series of vessels specifically designed to support both maritime training needs and disaster response capabilities.“The Galveston…

French firm CGG, best known for its seismic data services for oil and gas exploration, has now launched a maritime pollution monitoring solution named SeaScope."Combining expertise in remote sensing science, Earth observation data, machine learning and high-performance computing, SeaScope provides critical sea surface slick intelligence for a range of industries to strengthen situational awareness of the interaction between offshore assets, coastal facilities, local vessel activity and the natural marine environment…

Salvors have started removing fuel from the tanks of a lift boat that capsized in the Gulf of Mexico last month, the U.S. Coast Guard said.The 234-foot Seacor Power could have been carrying up to 35,000 gallons of fuel, lube oil, hydraulic and waste oil when it overturned in rough weather on April 13, about eight miles south of Port Fourchon, La., according to the Coast Guard. No spills have been reported.Salvage crews arrived at the wreck site over the weekend and began lightering operations on Monday using a method called hot tapping…

The U.S. trade deficit jumped to a record high in March amid roaring domestic demand, which is drawing in imports, and the gap could widen further as the nation's economic activity rebounds faster than its global rivals.Manufacturers lack the capacity to satisfy the surge in demand because of resource constraints and bottlenecks in the supply chain. Inventories are very lean. Demand is being driven by a rapidly improving public health situation and massive government aid to households…

The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday called off its search for more survivors from a boat that capsized off a rocky shoal near San Diego in what authorities said was an ill-fated migrant-smuggling operation that left three dead and five hospitalized.The 40-foot trawler-style vessel with 32 people aboard overturned and broke apart on Sunday near the Point Loma Tide Pools, part of a federal marine national monument about 20 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities said.Officials on Sunday said four people aboard the boat had perished…

Australia's Port of Newcastle has signed a A$515 million ($398 million) loan with National Australia Bank (NAB) that links interest payments to non-mandatory social and environmental targets, the companies said.The world's largest coal port will pay less if certain targets are met, including reducing its direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and screening all customers for modern slavery risks, they said in a joint statement.The loan also contains metrics focused on mental health first aid…

Three Cuban-flagged tankers that are under U.S. sanctions for transporting Venezuelan oil to the Communist-run island have been serviced in the port of Veracruz on Mexico's Gulf coast, according to vessel tracking data and industry sources.The maintenance work on the vessels—one of which was serviced as recently as this month—is a potential breach of sanctions on Venezuela, two lawyers who specialize in U.S. sanctions said.However, the United States has in the past not brought enforcement actions against shipyards for doing work on blacklisted vessels from those countries, according to U.S.

The U.S. Coast Guard is working with the Seacor Power's owner to salvage the lift boat that capsized earlier this month in the Gulf of Mexico.A unified command including representatives from the Coast Guard and Houston-based Seacor Marine engaged in-person for the salvage and wreck removal, including the removal of fuel and oil from the overturned vessel, the Coast Guard said on Tuesday.The 234-foot Seacor Power capsized in heavy seas and winds approximately 8 miles south of Port Fourchon, La., on April 13.

Norwegian based Siem Offshore said it has entered into a contract with an undisclosed subsea construction company for an offshore project in the Gulf of Mexico.The project will utilize the Bahamas-flagged offshore support and construction vessel (OSCV) Siem Spearfish for a scope of work consisting of subsea and remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) duties. The contract has been awarded under a minimum duration of 110 days, plus options, Siem Offshore said.Siem Spearfish will commence its new charter in direct continuation of its current commitment in West Africa…

Lockport, La.-based Bollinger Shipyards has acquired Gulf Island Fabrication’s shipyard facilities in nearby Houma for approximately $28.6 million.The purchased site encompasses 437 acres on the west bank of the Houma Navigation Canal, of which 283 acres is unimproved land that is available for expansion. The facility includes 18,000 square feet of administrative and operations facilities, 160,000 square feet of covered fabrication facilities and 20,000 square feet of warehouse facilities. It also has 6,750 linear feet of water frontage, including 2,350 feet of steel bulkheads.

ExxonMobil on Monday floated a proposal for a public-private carbon storage project that would collect planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. petrochemical plants and bury them in reservoirs under the Gulf of Mexico.The plan would require “$100 billion or more” from companies and government agencies to store 50 million metric tons of CO2 by 2030 with capacity potentially doubling by 2040, Joe Blommaert, president of Exxon’s Low Carbon Solutions business said in an interview.Blommaert outlined the plan in a blog post on Monday, about two months after the largest U.S.

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday it will call off its search at sunset for the remaining eight crew members missing from the lift boat Seacor Power, which capsized in the Gulf of Mexico last week.The Coast Guard said its vessel and air crews worked with local agencies and good Samaritans to scour more than 9,200 square nautical miles of sea over the course of 175 cumulative hours after the 234-foot Seacor Power overturned in rough seas and hurricane force winds approximately 8 miles south of Port Fourchon, La., last Tuesday.

As the traditional offshore oil and gas markets continue to struggle, the renewable offshore wind market is hot and getting hotter.As the cumulative maritime, offshore, port and logistics marketplace gears up for offshore wind energy on a huge scale, World Energy Reports (WER), in its report “2021 The Year When Offshore Wind Takes Off in the United States,” shows the anticipated growth trajectory. Service Operations Vessels (SOVs), which can commission and/or maintain turbines…

Divers recovered two unresponsive crewmembers from the overturned lift boat Seacor Power on Friday, bringing the death count to four with nine still missing after the vessel capsized in extreme weather conditions in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.U.S. Coast Guard and other local responders have been scouring the area by sea and air since the 234-foot Seacor Power overturned in rough seas and hurricane force winds approximately 8 miles south of Port Fourchon, La. Six crew members were rescued, four have been pronounced dead and nine are still missing.

A second unresponsive person has been recovered from the water near a lift boat that capsized in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Friday.A Coast Guard helicopter crew spotted the person in the water at 7:10 p.m. on Thursday while searching the area about 8 miles south of Port Fourchon, La. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Benjamin Daily, also in the area searching, recovered the unresponsive person and transported him to Coast Guard Station Grand Isle where a…

The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday it is still searching for 12 people missing from a lift boat that capsized in extreme weather conditions Tuesday in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.Coast Guard vessel and air crews have worked with other local agencies to scour the area overnight Wednesday and through the day Thursday in search of the dozen missing from the Seacor Power, which overturned in rough seas and hurricane force winds approximately 8 miles south of Port Fourchon, La. The search has covered approximately 6…

Longer sailing distances cushion fall in US crude oil exportsTon mile demand generated by US crude oil exports has fallen by 9.7% in the first two months of 2021 compared with the start of 2020. The fall could however have been much worse; In volume terms, seaborne crude oil exports have fallen by 18.8%, to 20.9m tonnes, a 4.8m tonnes decline compared with last year, according to data from the US Census Bureau.While seaborne crude oil exports to all regions have fallen, those to Asia are among the least affected, down just 1.0%, or equivalent to one Aframax load (101,088 tonnes).

One person has died, a dozen are missing and six others have been rescued after a commercial lift boat used to service oil rigs capsized in hurricane force winds south of Louisiana’s Port Fourchon, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday.Rescuers in Coast Guard cutters, aircraft and volunteer civilian boats were hunting for the dozen missing people in the Gulf of Mexico after the 234-foot commercial vessel, Seacor Power, capsized in rough seas eight miles off Port Fouchon about 4:30 p.m.

Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics revealed on Wednesday that its SM200 wireless helm system has been installed and is being used aboard two sister U.S.-flag articulated tug-barge (ATB) tugboats.Sea Machines said its dealer Rio Controls & Hydraulics, of Houston, managed the installations and technology integrations at a U.S. Gulf of Mexico shipyard. In the coming months, Rio and Sea Machines will continue to work together to install additional SM200 systems on at least five more ATB tugboats by the same owner.Sea Machines’ wireless helm system introduces flexible control for mariners…

Six people were rescued near the coast of Louisiana after a commercial [lift boat] capsized about eight miles off Port Fourchon on the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard said late Tuesday.About a dozen people are still missing after the 234-foot commercial lift vessel [reportedly Seacor Power] capsized in a storm, according to local media reports citing authorities. There was no immediate response from the coast guard to a Reuters request for comment on the number of missing people and potential casualties."We're still searching for more people…

BP's behemoth Argos offshore oil platform, the centerpiece of the company's $9 billion Mad Dog 2 project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, has arrived in the U.S. after a 16,000-mile journey from South Korea.The platform, loaded onboard Boskalis' BOKA Vanguard heavy transport vessel, had left South Korea on February 3, and it has this week arrived in the Kiewit Offshore Services fabrication yard in Ingleside, Texas."The arrival of the new floating production unit is a major milestone towards the completion of Mad Dog 2.