Oil Products Tanker News

A Liberian-flagged oil products tanker hit a mine on Sunday in the Black Sea off the coast of Romania and sustained minor damage, but the crew was safe, sources said on Monday.It is the second vessel this month to have been hit by a floating mine in the Black Sea, in a reminder of the continued perils faced by commercial ships in the region.The Ali Najafov tanker was sailing near to the Sulina channel near Romania when the blast occurred on Sunday, Yoruk Isik, head of the Bosphorus Observer consultancy, told Reuters.A Ukrainian source separately confirmed the vessel had struck a mine.The vessel's Istanbul-based manager Palmali, listed in shipping databases, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The captain of a fuel tanker arrested by the Indonesian navy in May on suspicion of illegally anchoring in its waters has been jailed for 15 days and fined 200 million rupiah ($13,350), a navy spokesman said on Wednesday.The Nord Joy, a Panama-flagged oil products tanker, was detained on May 30 whilst anchored in Indonesian waters to the east of the Singapore Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.Indonesian navy officers asked for an unofficial payment of $375,000 to release the vessel, two people involved in the negotiations told Reuters at the time. The Indonesian navy denied any such payment was requested and said the vessel was being held for anchoring in its waters without a permit.

Greenpeace protesters have blocked the entry of a Greek tanker into a southern English port due to its Russian fuel cargo with police making arrests, the green group said on Monday.Britain and the EU have separately banned Russian-flagged vessels from their ports, with exemptions, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in what the Kremlin describes as a "special military operation."The UK has said it will phase out imports of Russian oil by the end of the year, which has meant that foreign-flagged vessels carrying Russian cargoes are still able to call at ports for the time being.Greenpeace said 12 activists occupied a jetty on Sunday evening in Navigator Terminals' Thames site in Essex…

State-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corp is seeking $22.4 million from its insurer for a cargo ship hit by a missile in March, government officials with knowledge of the talks said, in the first major marine insurance claim from the conflict in Ukraine.The UN's shipping agency said last week it would create a safe maritime corridor for merchant ships and crews stuck in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, although shipping industry sources expect progress to be slow. Projectiles have hit four other vessels in recent days with one sunk.Insurance premiums have soared by over 100% for voyages to the region since the war started. Insurers are watching…

U.S. refiner Valero Energy Corp was granted a Jones Act waiver, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday, after a cyberattack shut the Colonial Pipeline late last week, creating a fuel crunch in several parts of the U.S. Southeast and Northeast.Jones Act waivers are a key way to ensure fuel supplies reach some of the hardest hit areas as pump prices continue to surge while Colonial begins to ramp up flows on its pipeline network that transports more than 2.5 million barrels of fuel every day.The Jones Act requires goods moved between U.S.

Valero Energy chartered an oil products' tanker for storage in the U.S. Gulf Coast on Friday amid a cyber attack that shut the Colonial pipeline, the biggest U.S. fuel pipeline, two sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.The tanker, called the Nave Titan, is currently in the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana, according to Refinitiv Eikon shipping data.Nave Titan can hold up to 330,000 barrels of oil, according to the tanker data.Other Gulf Coast refiners were looking to book tankers for storage this weekend as the outage affected shipments of refined products to the East Coast, according to the sources.Valero did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Laura Sanicola; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Kim Coghill and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

Ten months of test sailing using Frugal Propulsion on the tanker Endelo Swan shows a fuel saving of 12.2%, which is now driving Uni-Tankers to install the system on more ships in the fleet.Danish shipping company Uni-Tankers is reaping the rewards of Frugal Propulsion, a system which provides opportunities for optimizing fuel consumption on engine-driven ships.Frugal Propulsion, which is developed by the Danish start-up Frugal Technologies, was installed on the chemical/oil products tanker Endelo Swan during docking in June 2020.

The Belgian port of Antwerp has quarantined a Maltese-flagged oil tanker until at least July 4 after more than half of its crew tested positive for COVID-19, the port authority said on Thursday.The Minerva Oceania was being held at the port's Leopold dock after 15 of its 26-person crew had returned positive tests, a port spokeswoman said in an emailed response.Two of the crew members who tested positive were in hospital but their condition was not serious, she said. The other crew were remaining on board and those with COVID-19 self-isolating in separate cabins.

RMK Marine Shipyard is located in the Tuzla/Istanbul, Turkey, since 1997 as part of the Koc Group of Companies (https://www.koc.com.tr/en-us) which is Turkey’s biggest conglomerate. It specializes in shipbuilding as well as super/mega yacht refit, conversion and new building projects. On the shipbuilding side, specialty, high-temperature product tankers, such as asphalt and bitumen, as well as chemical and oil products tankers have been a staple of RMK Marine. Since 1997, RMK…

The United States on Friday announced the deployment of 1,500 troops to the Middle East, describing it as an effort to bolster defenses against Iran as it accused the country's Revolutionary Guards of direct responsibility for this month's tanker attacks.President Donald Trump's administration also invoked the threat from Iran to declare a national security-related emergency that would clear the sale of billions of dollars' worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries without required congressional approval.The actions were the latest by the Trump administration as it highlights what it sees as a threat of potential attack by Iran…

The oil products tanker operated by Singapore-based NYK Bulkship (Asia) Challenge Peak  has shipped the first batch of plant condensate produced at the onshore gas liquefaction plant of the INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG Project.According to a press release from the Japanese shipping and logistics company NYK (Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha), the condensate was loaded from the gas liquefaction plant in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia, and the vessel departed for an Asian country on December 26.A joint venture among INPEX (the operator), oil major Total, and others, the Ichthys LNG Project is one of the largest LNG projects in the world…

Traders adding U.S. port options to cargoes for flexibility. Traders are scrambling to find oil products in Asia to ship to the United States and Latin America after Hurricane Harvey shut almost a quarter of U.S. refining capacity, several trading and shipping sources told Reuters on Wednesday. Many are also asking for ships to have a U.S. option added to their original destination to allow for flexibility in sending the cargoes across the Pacific, shipbrokers said. At least one oil products tanker, BW Kallang, is being diverted to Houston instead of New York after loading gasoline blending component alkylate from India, a source familiar with the matter said.

The Master of an oil tanker who says she was “just doing her job” has received the highest International Maritime Organization (IMO)  bravery recognition for saving the lives of seven fishermen from a sinking fishing boat during a tumultuous storm in the Bay of Bengal in June 2015. “It is every seafarer’s and Master’s solemn duty and obligation to save souls in distress at sea. I just did what a seafarer should do for a fellow soul in distress at sea. Yes, it was an instant decision, but not without assessing the risks involved. I just did my duty,” said Captain Radhika Menon, Master of the oil products tanker Sampurna Swarajya. She was speaking after IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim presented her with the 2016 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea on Monday (21 November)…

Captain Radhika Menon, Master of the oil products tanker Sampurna Swarajya, is to receive the 2016 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea for her role in the dramatic rescue of seven fishermen from a sinking fishing boat in tumultuous seas. The IMO Council, meeting for its 116th session in London, endorsed the decision of a Panel of Judges that Captain Menon displayed great determination and courage in leading the difficult rescue operation in the Bay of Bengal in June last year. Captain Menon was nominated by the Government of India, for the rescue of all seven fishermen from the fishing boat Durgamma, which was adrift following engine failure and loss of anchor in severe weather. Food and water had been washed away and they were surviving on ice from the cold storage.

Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD) and its two-stroke engine manufacturer Hyundai Heavy Industries - Engine & Machinery Division (HHI-EMD) announced the successful testing and delivery of their first IMO Tier III compliant Wärtsilä X72 diesel engine. Built at HHI-EMD’s works in Ulsan Korea, the six-cylinder, Wärtsilä X72 diesel engine employs a compact, pre-turbocharger selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system. The system is supplied by HHI-EMD and at a shop test on 23rd March 2016…

Iran is using its sea power in the Gulf to show it will not be cowed by Washington's newly assertive Arab allies, prompting critics to accuse Tehran of destabilising the region. Iranian ships fired shots at a Singapore-flagged tanker which it said damaged an Iranian oil platform, causing the vessel to flee, and seized a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil route, over a debt row. The incidents coincided with a push by Washington to reassure Gulf Arab monarchies that their interests would not be threatened by a nuclear accord that Tehran and world powers are trying to reach by the end of June. In an escalating confrontation with Saudi Arabia over Yemen…

A Singapore-flagged oil products tanker fired at by Iranian craft on Thursday had previously collided with an Iranian oil drilling platform in March and efforts have since been made to resolve the issue, the owner said on Friday. The Alpine Eternity was attacked by a number of small craft in international waters off the United Arab Emirates. The owner South Maritime Pte Ltd and manager Transpetrol said in a joint statement that the tanker collided with an uncharted object on March 21 in the Middle East Gulf, which was later identified as an Iranian jacket platform causing no pollution or injuries to crew. "Since the March 21 incident…

Iranian naval vessels fired shots at a Singapore-flagged tanker in the Gulf on Thursday in what appeared to be the country's latest attempt to settle a legal dispute by force with a passing commercial vessel, U.S. officials said. Around noon (0800 GMT) in the Gulf, five Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy ships approached the Alpine Eternity, prompting the oil products tanker to flee to safety in United Arab Emirates waters, the officials said. One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran had attempted to intercept the vessel in international waters because Tehran says it is liable for damage to an Iranian-owned oil platform it hit on March 22.

Singapore-flagged oil products tanker Alpine Eternity has reached the port of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates safely after coming under attack in the Gulf earlier, the vessel's manager said on Thursday.   A spokesman for the vessel's Norwegian manager Transpetrol said the vessel was attacked at sea at 0800 GMT on Thursday on its way to the UAE port of Fujairah.   "The nature of the attack is still unclear," the spokesman said. "She reached UAE waters and she is in the port of Jebel Ali now. The vessel is safe and there are no injuries to crew."   The spokesman said the attack had been reported to Singaporean authorities.     (Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Iranian naval vessels fired what appeared to be warning shots over a Singapore-flagged ship in international waters in the Gulf on Thursday, prompting it to flee to United Arab Emirates waters, U.S. officials said. The Alpine Eternity, a 29,130 gross tonnes oil products tanker, has safely reached the UAE port of Jebel Ali after coming under attack in the Gulf, its manager said. The UAE sent Coast Guard vessels toward the ship once it reached UAE waters and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy ships turned away, one U.S. official told Reuters, adding the account was based on preliminary information. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, were unaware of any U.S. Navy involvement.

A pirate attack that killed a supertanker crewman off the coast of Nigeria this week has highlighted a growing threat off oil-rich West Africa, as vessels carrying millions of barrels of crude traverse a region that has become known as "pirate alley". The 2 million barrel Kalamos Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) was heading to Nigeria's main oil terminal when it was attacked late on Monday, leaving the ship's Greek deputy captain dead and three crew members taken hostage. Security experts say the waters off Nigeria are now the deadliest on earth…

Wärtsilä says it has launched its new SK 5054 MkII chemical and oil products tanker design at the current SMM conference and exhibition in Hamburg, Germany. The proven Wärtsilä SK 5054 ship design has been used for more than 60 vessels already built and in operation. The SK 5054 MkII version builds upon this strong foundation to offer a reliable and environmentally sound ship design that incorporates the latest Wärtsilä technology applied to its broad offering of solutions. In particular, the new design facilitates the use of gas as a marine fuel, thereby making it especially applicable to ships that will operate within emission control areas (ECAs). This new design offers a 12% increase in energy efficiency over the original SK 5054 design.

Shipping companies are turning to equity markets to fill a growing funding gap, betting that investors hungry for decent returns will provide capital to a sector recovering from its worst downturn since the 1980s. Ship owners ordered large numbers of vessels between 2007 and 2009, just as the global economy sank into crisis. Prospects have brightened in recent months as world trade picks up and the ship glut is absorbed. The industry still faces a multi-billion dollar financing hole after banks…