Ton Oil Tanker News

As international cooperation brings increasing pressure on more the traditional pirate trade in east Africa, there is mounting evidence that Western Africa, from Guinea-Bissau south to the Congo has become a new hotspot for the pirate trade. While the movie “Captain Phillips”, a story about Somali pirates hijacking the Captain of the container ship Maersk Alabama, played in theaters around the world, the International Chamber of Commerce, International Maritime Bureau, was quietly…

The skipper of a racing yacht has been made to pay over £100,000 in fines and costs after colliding with a 120,000 ton oil tanker in the Solent. Roland Wilson of Perthshire, Scotland was today found guilty on three counts of breaching international maritime law at West Hampshire Magistrates' Court. On August 6, 2011, the yacht Atalanta of Chester was taking part in the first day of racing at Cowes Week. Heading towards Southampton Docks was the tanker Hanne Knutsen. Skipper Roland Wilson, who at the time was a Royal Navy Lieutenant, said he spotted the red tanker when it was five miles away.

Inigo Albina, a citizen of the Philippines, was sentenced today to three years probation and fined $10,000 by U. S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr., for obstruction of justice in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1505, announced U. S. Attorney Dana J. Boente. According to the court documents, Albina served as the Chief Engineer of the M/T Stolt Facto, a 26,328 gross ton oil tanker, from October 18, 2012 until on or about January 30, 2013. Albina was responsible for the overall operation of the engine room which included maintaining the Oil Record Book. During his tenure as Chief Engineer of the M/T Stolt Facto, Albina made and signed all the entries in the Oil Record Book.

Company to Pay More Than $1 Million for Dumping Oily Waste into Hawaiian Waters, Obstruction of Justice and Covering up Oil Pollution. Keoje Marine Co. Ltd. and two engineers from the M/T Keoje Tiger pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Honolulu to environmental crimes violations, announced Environment and Natural Resources Division Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno and U.S. Attorney Florence T. Nakakuni. Keoje Marine was sentenced to pay a $1.15 million criminal penalty…

A Panamanian company that operated a 40,000-ton oil tanker ship that regularly made calls in multiple ports in Texas pleaded guilty Oct. 21 in federal court in Houston for deliberately concealing pollution discharges from the ship directly into the sea, the Justice Department announced. Styga Compania Naviera S.A., the operator of the M/T Georgios M, pleaded guilty to three felony violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to properly maintain an oil record book as required by federal and international law. According to a plea agreement filed with U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the company has agreed to pay a $1m criminal fine along with a $250…

A Hong Kong tanker owner is about to take delivery of a 3,000 ton oil tanker from the Guangdong Jiangmen Shipyard on the Pearl River. The vessels eight cargo tanks are contained in the 68 by 16 by 6.45-meter hull. Accommodation and navigational areas are included in the aft deckhouse. Main propulsion engines are a pair of Cummins V-16 four stroke QSK60 main engines each rated at 2,000 HP and turning twin propellers through Reintjes gears. A pair of Cummins QSM11-powered 240 kW generators provides auxiliary power.

The Bach Dang shipbuilding company, a subsidiary of the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (Vinashin), delivered a 13,500-ton oil tanker to the Vinashin Vien Duong shipping and forwarding company on December 25. The Vinashin Sea oil tanker, the biggest ever built in Vietnam so far, is 145.3 metres long, 20.8 metres wide and 11.20 metres high. It was equipped with a 5,180 KW engine imported from Denmark and built under the supervision of a Japanese registration agency. Source: VNA

The Government Office announced a proposal to establish the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Economic Group (Vinashin Group) by restructuring the Viet Nam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (Vinashin) had been approved. The Vinashin Group would become a multiple-owner business with the State holding a majority stake, comprised of State-owned and equitised subsidiaries, it said. Under the plan, the group would function as the financial investor for its other concerns, and control the capital holdings, technology, trademarks and markets of its subsidiary companies. The Government also issued official approval of the establishment of a holding company for the Ha Noi-based Viet Nam Shipbuilding Industry Group.

Piracy attacks on oil tankers surged to unprecedented levels during the first quarter of 2001, reinforcing fears that the onslaught will sooner or later result in ecological catastrophe. "There has been an increase in the number of tankers attacked," Jayant Abhyankar, deputy director of piracy investigator the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said. Nearly half of the 56 cargo ships attacked in the first quarter of the year were tankers, compared to 28 percent in last year's first quarter, according to the IMB's latest report. Last week, Abhyankar warned a tanker owners' conference that pirate attacks on tankers in Asia's crowded shipping lanes were a growing threat to navigation.

Pirate attacks rose 57 percent in 2000, and were nearly four and a half times higher when compared with 1991 according to a report by the ICC's International Maritime Bureau (IMB). In its annual Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships report for 2000, the IMB — a division of the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) — reports a total of 469 attacks on ships either at sea, at anchor or in port. The violence used in the attacks also rose to new levels, with 72 seafarers killed and 99 injured in 2000, up from three killed and 24 injured the previous year. The number of hostages taken halved to 202 seafarers. Ships were boarded in 307 instances, and a total of eight ships were hijacked.