Sea Empress News

The Sri Lankan navy said on Tuesday an oil slick had been spotted a kilometer from a loaded supertanker carrying roughly 2 million barrels of oil that has been engulfed in intermittent fires since an explosion on September 3.Oil from the engine room of the 20-year old New Diamond tanker “appears to have leaked out to the sea” following regular bouts of water-dousing by fire-fighting vessels, the navy spokesman said.The oil slick has raised concerns about the potential of further leakage from the cargo holds…

The new course to follow in controlling port traffic. A step change to enhance safety and improve operational efficiency. Large ships navigating narrow waterways are always vulnerable to accidents – one only has to think of the Sea Empress tanker disaster at Milford Haven, or more recently the wrecking of the Costa Concordia. Managing their progress, usually in and out of ports and in other restricted channels, has understandably assumed a critical role in ensuring their safety.

Donjon Marine, Co., Inc., a provider of multi-faceted marine services including marine salvage, heavy lift, dredging, emergency response services and most recently shipbuilding and repair, has named John Noble as Managing Director - Donjon UK. Mr. Noble has worked in commercial shipping since 1962 when he joined HMS Conway, the preeminent pre-sea training school in the United Kingdom. He served as a deck officer in the British Merchant Marine sailing with shipping lines including Blue Funnel and Palm Line. After obtaining his Master Mariners certificate, Mr.

BMT Group Ltd, the international design, engineering and risk management consultancy, announced today that it has achieved strong financial results, despite a difficult year for the global economy and the maritime industry in particular. A turnover of £142m provided the group with an underlying operating profit of £11m in the year to 30 September 2010, £5.8m of which has been distributed to the staff through the company’s profit share schemes. Comprising 23 subsidiary companies…

On the night of Thursday, February 15, 1996, shortly after 8pm the 147,000-ton supertanker Sea Empress had begun the final stages of its three-day voyage from Grangemouth, at the mouth of the River Forth, to Milford Haven docks and the Texaco refinery. As it was being piloted into port, the tanker, carrying a full cargo of North Sea light crude, ran aground on rocks in Mill Bay, just off St Ann’s Head, rupturing its oil tanks. What followed amounted to the UK’s third largest oil spill and, according to ic Wales, Wales’ worst environmental disaster. Over the course of the following week a total of 72,000 tons of oil leaked into the sea…

Philippe Boisson, communications manager and legal advisor to Bureau Veritas' Marine Division, has recently authored a book, Safety at sea: policies, regulations and international law, focuses on preventing accidents and evaluating safety at sea. Boisson, who has been following safety system developments for more than twenty years, researched recent sea disasters, such as Braer in 1993; Estonia in 1994; and Sea Empress in 1996. The book is the result of five years research that set out to answer a myriad of questions that, according to Boisson, "always arise after the aftermath of an accident." Specifically: Could disasters at sea be prevented? Are safety levels adequate? Are protective measures appropriate?

Britain will introduce new port safety rules resulting from lessons learned from the Sea Empress tanker oil spill in 1996. The UK Government will introduce a Port Marine Safety Code early next year, Shipping Minister Keith Hill said at a harbor masters' seminar. "Recent maritime history, including the grounding of the Sea Empress in 1996, has demonstrated the need to improve port safety to save lives and safeguard the environment," Hill said. The code would bring in a new safety management regime, establish a yardstick for harbor authority responsibilities for port safety and promote good practice, he said. The Sea Empress spilled over 70,000 tons of oil when it grounded trying to enter the Welsh port of Milford Haven.

Britain's record fine for pollution, imposed on a port authority after a crude tanker ran aground in 1996, was slashed by the Court of Appeal. After a one-day hearing of the case the court cut the fine on Milford Haven Port Authority to 750,000 pounds ($1.18 million) from the original four million pounds. The Port Authority had appealed against the size of the fine -- imposed because of the way it handled the Sea Empress tanker disaster. The vessel ran aground in the approaches to Milford Haven in February 1996, while carrying a cargo of 130,000 tons of crude oil to a Texaco Inc refinery.