Oil Leak News

The Iran war has threatened Gulf ports and disrupted global trade through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes.Iran's Revolutionary Guards have warned that ships passing through the narrow Strait will be targeted, after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on the country on February 28.Below is a list of reported attacks:MARCH 1A crew member was killed on board Marshall Islands-flagged crude tanker MKD VYOM after it was hit by a projectile as the vessel sailed off the Omani coast…

Tehran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Tuesday, despite a threat by President Donald Trump that the U.S. will obliterate Iran's energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz.Authorities in Dubai said the fire on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi had been brought under control following a drone attack, with no oil leak and no injuries to the crew. Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship's owner, said the vessel's hull was damaged.The attack was the latest on merchant vessels in the strait…

The Johor Port Authority has informed the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) that the oil leak at Langsat Terminal has stopped and that the spill clean-up at the site is ongoing.On April 3, an oil patch was sighted in the eastern Johor Strait off the northeastern coast of Pulau Ubin.Three patrol craft from the MPA and an oil spill response craft have been deployed to survey the area and carry out mitigation efforts.The Johor Port Authority confirmed an oil spill incident within the Langsat Terminal in Johor.

Shell has contained the oil leak from its oil processing units at the Shell Energy and Chemical Parks at Pulau Bukom in Singapore, following the shut down of facilities to investigate the source of the leak.Efforts by Shell to locate the source of the leak in the oil processing unit are ongoing, according to an update by Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority (MPA).Additional containment and absorbent booms have been laid in the channel and at the mouth of the channel as precautionary…

Investigators have placed a Cyprus-registered containership in their crosshairs as the possible source of an oil spill in Algoa Bay off South Africa's East Coast.The spill, which has spread at sea and is impacting the region's wildlife, is believed to have originated from the MSC Apollo, a container vessel anchored in the bay, according to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA).MSC Apollo is scheduled to dock at the Port of Ngqura as soon as a berth is available for a thorough inspection to identify the source of the oil leak…

An oil leak from a barge carrying up to 35,000 barrels of fuel oil that capsized in early February off the Caribbean island of Tobago has stopped, said the twin islands' government on Thursday.The spill, which was first spotted off the coast of Tobago's Atlantic coast on Feb. 7, damaged some of the island's mangrove and threatened its tourism and fishing sector. The spill also entered the Caribbean Sea, threatening nearby Venezuela and Caribbean islands, including Bonaire."The hydrocarbon discharge emanating from the overturned vessel located off the coast of Tobago has stopped…

Nine days after a slick was first spotted by Trinidad and Tobago's Coast Guard, an oil leak from a capsized barge remains unplugged, according to first responders and authorities, prompting nations across the Caribbean to coordinate a response.The spill has spread miles from Tobago's shore, the area first hit by the incident. Trinidad this week alerted neighbors Venezuela and Grenada on possible impact to their coasts.The Caribbean Disaster Management Agency, dependent on regional group Caricom…

It might be easy to blame EALs, but the ongoing causes of stern tube damage are varied, and possibly declining.Environmentally Acceptable lubricants (EALs) gained market traction with the introduction of US VGP regulations in 2013. Since then, DNV has observed two major trends. The first, starting in 2013 was early life damage, either during sea trials or within the first five years of operation, where aft stern tube bearings typically failed under extreme load conditions. Then from around 2018…

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is recommending new notification alarms and procedures for potential incursions on pipelines and a change to an anchorage off the California coast following a crude oil release in 2021 caused by ship anchors damaging an underwater pipeline.NTSB investigators determined that the oil leak, which began on October 1, 2021, in San Pedro Bay, resulted from an anchor strike on the pipeline that occurred eight months earlier, when anchors…

Danish company Green Instruments has entered a major agreement with Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding for the delivery of equipment that detects oil mist and vapor on ships and triggers an alarm before fires can develop and endanger the crew, ship, equipment, and environment.The shipyard now installs Green Instruments’ equipment on every new vessel built.Oil mist is formed by oil droplets floating in the air and can ignite at low temperatures. Green Instruments’ oil mist detector is designed to register the slightest traces of oil mist and vapor from hydraulic oils and bunker fuel…

Last month, a Hydrex diver team carried out an underwater stern tube seal repair on a ro-ro ship berthed in Algeciras, Spain.The ship was suffering from an oil leak, making an on-site repair necessary. Using a Hydrex flexible mobdock, the team was able to carry out the entire operation on-site and underwater, saving the owner an expensive and time-consuming trip to drydock.Once the operation was approved, all preparations were handled swiftly and the lightweight equipment was…

Philippine authorities have increased efforts to contain an oil spill from a sunken fuel tanker that has affected coastal towns and was still spreading, the environment ministry said on Tuesday, as the country grapples with cleanup challenges.Improvised spill booms made from cogon grass and coconut materials were helping to restrict oil leaking from MT Princess Empress, the Philippine-flagged tanker that encountered engine trouble in rough seas on Feb.

The U.S. has imposed a $2 million fine on the owner and operator of a bulk carrier that knowingly committed pollution crimes on the Mississippi River. Greek-based Empire Bulkers and related company Joanna Maritime were sentenced Thursday for committing "knowing and willful violations" of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and the Ports and Waterways Safety Act related to their role as the operator and owner of the bulk carrier Joanna.A March 2022 inspection of the…

RWE, Germany's largest power producer, said Europe needed more investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on land to secure shipped fuel supplies from global gas producers in the long term.But RWE Chief Executive Andree Stracke told the Gastech conference in Milan that he did not think Europe would abandon Russian gas forever because of the cost to industries and households.Europe is facing its worst gas supply crisis ever, with energy prices soaring and German importers…

Top U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil producer Shell said on Thursday it halted production at three U.S. Gulf of Mexico deepwater platforms after a leak shut two pipelines connecting the platforms, adding it expected pipeline service to resume on Friday.A failure at an onshore pipeline junction in Louisiana leaked about two barrels of oil, said Chett Chiasson, executive director of Greater Lafourche Port Commission. A fix is expected to take about a day, he added.A Shell spokesperson said the leak…

An incorrectly installed section of main engine fuel oil return tubing led to an engine room fire aboard a containership off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Tuesday.Marine Investigation Report 22/15 details the NTSB’s investigation of the April 28, 2021, fire aboard the containership President Eisenhower while transiting through the Santa Barbara Channel. The vessel was transiting to Oakland, California with a crew of 22. The crew extinguished the fire using the engine room’s fixed carbon dioxide fire-extinguishing system. As a result of the fire, the vessel lost propulsion and drifted for several hours before being towed to the Port of Los Angeles. No pollution or injuries were reported.

Heavy tug boats on Tuesday sprayed water on a burning ship carrying thousands of Porsches and Bentleys adrift off the coast of Portugal's Azores islands, the ship's manager said in a statement.The Felicity Ace, carrying around 4,000 vehicles including Porsches, Audis, and Bentleys, some with lithium-ion batteries, caught fire on Wednesday last week.The 22 crew members on board were evacuated the same day. Ship manager Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd (MOL) said in a statement the vessel was still on fire but stable, and that no oil leak had been reported so far.

Ships were deployed in Thailand on Thursday to contain a fresh oil spill off its eastern coast, authorities said, two weeks after an undersea pipeline leak in the same area damaged coastal communities and marine life.The pipeline, owned by Star Petroleum Refining Public Company (SPRC), sprang a leak on Jan. 26 and spewed an estimated 47,100 to 55,000 litres (12,443 to 14,529 gallons) of oil into the sea.It was patched up within a day but not before it damaged a beach area in Rayong province and threatened corals in the shallow waters.The same pipeline on Thursday spilled a further 5…

Taiwan's state-owned refiner CPC Corp has started cleaning up an offshore oil spill caused by a pipeline that cracked during the discharging of oil from a vessel at its Talin refinery, the company's spokesman said on Wednesday.The oil leak occurred on Tuesday at 2:18 a.m. (1818 GMT) and was likely caused by bad weather, the company said in a statement. CPC immediately halted oil discharge following the incident, it added.The incident will not affect the refinery's operations and…

Sri Lanka began towing a fully loaded supertanker on fire off its east coast after it began drifting towards land, a spokesman for the navy of the Indian Ocean nation said on Friday.The fire was still raging on the New Diamond tanker carrying about 2 million barrels of oil, said the spokesman, Captain Indika de Silva. There were 23 crew on board, one of whom is presumed dead, while the rest have been rescued from the ship.There were no signs of an oil leak from the vessel, he added.

A fully loaded oil tanker has caught fire off the east coast of Sri Lanka, which has dispatched an aircraft and two navy ships to help in the rescue, a Sri Lankan navy spokesman said on Thursday.The New Diamond, a very large crude carrier (VLCC) chartered by Indian Oil Corp (IOC), was heading to the port of Paradip in India, where the state-run firm operates a 300,000 barrel-per-day refinery.The ship had sailed from the port of Mina Al Ahmadi in Kuwait, carrying Kuwait Export Crude, Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking data showed.The Sri Lankan spokesman, Commander Ranjith Rajapaksa, said the VLCC was ablaze about 20 nautical miles off the east coast.

A Japanese ship that ran aground on a reef off Mauritius two weeks ago has now stopped leaking oil into the Indian Ocean but the island nation must still prepare for "a worst case scenario", Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said late on Monday.Conservationists said they were starting to find dead fish as well as seabirds covered in oil, increasing fears of an ecological catastrophe despite a massive local cleanup operation that includes making floating booms from leaves and human hair.Jugnauth said the leak from a damaged oil tank on board the stricken vessel…

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) is warning people in the waters off the Rockaways to stay away from any tar balls or oil sheens they might see and is investigating to see if they're related to an oil leak from a vessel a few days ago.USCG, along with partner agencies, are responding to reports of oil sheen and tar balls, on the ocean side of Coney Island and Long Island, from Norton Point to Atlantic Beach.Members of the Unified Command for Goethals Oil Spill continue responding to a report of sheening and tar balls received Saturday from New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC).During shoreline assessments conducted Sunday afternoon…