Oil Tanker News

Pirates have released three crew taken hostage from a Greek oil tanker off the coast of the West African country of Togo in November, the vessel's manager said on Friday.A fourth hostage, a Filipino, died from illness during captivity, European Products Carriers Ltd added.It did not give details of the release.The tanker, Elka Aristotle, was attacked on Nov. 4 about 18 km (11 miles) from the port of Lome.

An oil tanker, which shipping data showed was managed by a Chinese company under U.S. sanctions, refused to allow an inspection by maritime authorities while anchored in Malaysian waters, Malaysia's maritime agency said.Silvana III's commercial manager is Kunlun Shipping Co Ltd, according to shipping transparency website Equasis.org.Kunlun is one of several firms placed under U.S. sanctions this year for alleged involvement in transporting oil from Iran.The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said the Silvana III, which anchored off Kuala Kurau on Malaysia's west coast on Dec. 5, did not follow instructions to drop its ladder to allow officers to conduct checks."After several attempts to instruct the ship to drop ladder were not heeded…

World growth and trade volumes under pressure, but still positive. A continued slowdown in global growth, as well as a lower trade multiplier will reduce overall demand for shipping for the rest of this year and through 2020.Expectations for global trade growth have also been lowered for 2020; this is now forecast at 2.7%, down from 3%. The WTO cautions that risks to these forecasts are weighted to the downside, with these risks including a potential deepening of trade tensions…

Finnish provider of auxiliary wind propulsion systems for ships Norsepower has completed a joint project with China’s Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) for the development of an energy-efficient dual-fuel 300,000 dwt very large crude carrier (VLCC) design.The design has already received an approval in principle (AiP) from classification societies Lloyd’s Register and ABS.Under the agreement, Rotor Sails were implemented in the VLCC design for improving the fuel efficiency and reducing emissions…

Pirates have kidnapped 19 crew members from a crude oil tanker off Nigeria in an area where acts of piracy are on the rise, an official with the ship's operator said on Thursday.The loaded vessel, the Nave Constellation, was attacked 77 nautical miles off Bonny Island on Tuesday and 18 Indians and one Turk from the crew were seized, the official said.Seven other crew members remain on board the vessel. Neither the vessel nor the cargo were damaged, the official said.The shipping…

Watson Farley & Williams, international law firm based in London, advised Ridgebury Tankers and Tufton Oceanic on the acquisition of two Suezmax tankers in a 50%-50% joint venture with Euronav NV who also provided secured debt to the joint venture companies for the purposes of the acquisitions.Last month, Belgium's tanker shipping company Euronav has acquired two Suezmax tankers through a joint venture formed with affiliates of Ridgebury Tankers and clients of Tufton Oceanic.The  two Suezmax tankers fetch a combined consideration of US$40.6m.

Pirates attacked a Greek oil tanker off the coast of Togo in the early hours of Monday and fled after taking four crew members as hostages, the West African nation's navy said, two days after a similar attack in the waters of neighbouring Benin.Of the missing crew members, two are Filipinos, one is Greek and one is Georgian, the navy said in a statement. One security guard was also shot and wounded in the attack, it said."Monday, 4th of November 2019, around 0300, the tanker boat Elka Aristotle was attacked around 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the port of Lome by armed individuals…

Nearly 300 oil tankers globally have been placed off limits as companies fear violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, driving freight rates to new highs, industry sources said.The move has taken roughly 3% of the global oil tanker fleet out of the market, according to industry sources and data on Refinitiv Eikon, sending rates soaring to secure tankers to ship oil, particularly to Asia."Freight rates are going through the roof and people are getting very nervous with the cost of shipping…

Delivered tonnage of crude oil tankers have grown by +37%, whereas total fleet demolitions for 2019 have slumped to the lowest in a decade with a reduction of 52% from the year before, says BIMCO, the largest of the international shipping associations representing shipowners.Newbuilding orders have remained low through the year with contracted tonnage down by 48%, it said.Amidst a market filled with uncertainty and geopolitical unrest, BIMCO maintains its bearings and turns to the market fundamentals to cut through the mist of market speculation and uncertainty-driven hype.

Russia's state-owned tanker carrier Sovcomflot (SCF Group) reported improvements on both the top and bottom line in the third quarter benefiting from a stronger tanker market.The energy shipping company posted a net profit of  $26m as revenue increased in the third quarter.Sergey Frank, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PAO Sovcomflot, said: “We are satisfied with the Group’s performance over the third quarter. Sovcomflot steadily follows through on its strategy of increasing the share of large-scale industrial shipping projects in its portfolio."He added: "During the reporting period…

A fire broke out onboard the Panama-flagged tanker 'HOYU' within Singapore waters, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said in a statement on Thursday.Shipping data in Eikon showed that the tanker was fully laden with an unspecified oil cargo and was bound for the Philippines.The Singapore Civil Defense Force, Singapore Police Coast Guard and the Republic of Singapore Navy deployed vessels to render assistance to the HOYU crew, the statement added.All 18 crew members have been safely evacuated, and the fire has been put out, it said.There were no reports of injury or pollution and shipping traffic was unaffected.MPA is investigating the incident, it said.

Schottel recently received an order to supply two EcoPellers and a bow thruster for installation in a chemical/oil tanker. The tanker will be built at Chinese shipyard Taizhou Kouan Shipbuilding and will be operated by a European owner.The 120 m x 21 m vessel is powered by an electric motor, which is vertically integrated into the azimuth thruster. The propulsion system of the tanker consists of two Schottel Rudder EcoPellers type SRE 460 L FP with an input power of 2,000 kW each and one Schottel Transverse Thruster type STT 170 FP.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said an Iranian tanker damaged in the Red Sea on Friday had been hit by at least two rockets, and there is video footage of the incident.Iranian authorities reported that the Iranian-owned oil tanker, the Sabiti, was struck off Saudi Arabia's coast. There has been no independent report on the cause of the damage.Iran's rival Saudi Arabia has said it was not behind any attack on the tanker.

An Iranian tanker damaged in the Red Sea two weeks ago has entered Iranian territorial waters, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday, citing information from the National Iranian Tanker Company.The tanker will dock at Kharg Island in two days, the report said.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last week that the tanker, the Sabiti, had been hit by at least two rockets, and there is video footage of the incident.The attack was undoubtedly carried out by a government and there would be consequences…

OGCI Climate Investments has led an EUR 8 million investment round in Norsepower, along with current investors, to accelerate Norsepower’s growth on global markets.The investment enables Norsepower to scale up production at its manufacturing facilities as part of a next phase of commercialization triggered by demand for its renewable wind energy propulsion systems, said a press release from Norsepower Oy Ltd., the provider of low maintenance, software operated, data verified auxiliary…

The company which owns the British-flagged Stena Impero oil tanker seized by Iran is not in negotiations with Iran and is not aware of any formal charge against the crew or the company, its chief executive said on Wednesday."We haven't been accused of anything. Not through any formal letter or anything else to the company. We are still in the dark over why we are anchored in Bandar Abbas," Stena Bulk CEO Erik Hanell told Reuters by telephone.Iran seized the British tanker near…

China National Offshore Oil and Gas Company (CNOOC) is on the hunt for liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers to charter, several industry sources told Reuters, looking to replace ships it had previously hired that are linked to a Chinese company sanctioned by the United States for allegedly transporting Iranian oil.The company, COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian), is one of four Chinese firms on which the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Sept. 25, in what it described as the biggest sanctions taken by the U.S.

A fire that spread across two oil tankers in a South Korean port injured 10 people on Saturday, coastguard and fire officials said, adding the blaze had largely been put out.An explosion occurred on the Stolt Groenland, a 25,000-tonne, Cayman Island-flagged oil tanker, at the southern port of Ulsan at around 10:50 a.m. (0150 GMT), a coastguard official said.There were 25 sailors aboard, including Russians and Filipinos.The fire spread to another oil tanker docked nearby, the 9,000-tonne, South Korean-flagged Bow Dalian, with 21 aboard, he said.All of the sailors on both ships were rescued, but 10 people, most of whom were workers at the terminal, have been wounded so far, a fire official told Reuters.

The world's largest oil tanker shipping company Frontline Ltd has declined options to buy four more tankers from Trafigura Marine Logistics (TML) and said that it will keep to buying only 10 tankers.Last month, the Bermuda based company announced an agreement with TML  to acquire ten Suezmax tankers, with two separate options to acquire two plus two additional Suezmax tankers.The options were part of a deal reached between the two companies last month to acquire ten Suezmax tankers…

The detained British-flagged tanker Stena Impero is "free to leave," Iran's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Hamid Baeidinejad, said on Twitter on Monday."The British-flagged tanker 'Stena Impero', pursuant to the completion of the judicial and legal process, is now free to leave," he wrote.The seizure on July 19 of the ship, two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar, ratcheted up tensions in the region in the wake of attacks on other merchant vessels that Washington blamed on Tehran.Iran denied responsibility for those attacks…

Oil prices jumped more than 2% on Friday, October 11, 2019, after Iranian media said a state-owned oil tanker had been struck by missiles in the Red Sea near Saudi Arabia, raising the prospect of supply disruptions weeks after attacks on Saudi oil plants.The Suezmax crude tanker Sabiti was ablaze and suffered heavy damage after being hit by two missiles, Iranian media reported.Both oil benchmarks recorded their biggest daily rise since Sept. 16, the first trading day after the…

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday he expected the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, seized by Iran in July, to be released after the completion of legal procedures in his country."The tanker is going through the final court proceedings. I predict that it will be released," Rouhani said at a news conference in New York during the United Nations' annual gathering of world leaders.The ship's owner, Stena Bulk of Sweden, said on Wednesday the vessel was still…

A Canadian company has loaded a test cargo of solid bitumen onto a vessel destined for a refinery in China, the latest effort by the energy industry to avoid congested export pipelines and find new ways to export more oil sands crude.Calgary, Alberta-based Melius Energy loaded 130 barrels of neat bitumen, similar in consistency to a hockey puck, onto a 20-foot shipping container in Edmonton, Alberta, and transported it by rail to the Port of Prince Rupert in northern British Columbia.