Turkish Port News

A Russia-bound oil tanker suffered a drone attack in the Black Sea that prompted it to request Turkish coastguard assistance and divert from its course, according to a notice by Lloyd's List Intelligence and a separate maritime security source on Thursday.Maritime data specialist Lloyd's List Intelligence said the Palau-flagged Elbus vessel "experienced an unmanned marine-vehicle and drone attack" on Wednesday targeting its engine room, and that no injuries were reported among the 25 crew, nor any pollution.The security source described it as a drone attack, based on an assessment.

The criminalization case of Syrian-born, Finnish citizen and Chief Mate Ali Albokhari sentenced to a 30-year prison term for allegedly being part of the smuggling of cocaine from Columbia continues to be fought against by his wife, Elena Albokhari.Ali Albokhari denies the charges. He remains the only crewmember of the Phoenician-M vessel remaining in prison after their 2023 arrest in the Turkish port of Eregli.Captain Marko Bekavac, also detained, was able to return home to Croatia…

Turkey has decided to bar Israeli vessels from using its ports, forbid Turkish ships from using Israeli ports and impose restrictions on planes entering Turkish airspace, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday.He provided few details in comments to parliament which appeared to summarise steps that Turkey has already taken against Israel over the war in Gaza or has started to implement.Turkey has fiercely criticised Israel's offensive in Gaza and accuses it of committing genocide in the Palestinian enclave, a charge that Israel denies.

Turkish port authorities have begun informally requiring shipping agents to provide letters declaring that vessels are not linked to Israel and not carrying military or hazardous cargo bound for the country, according to two shipping sources.The move is another step Turkey has taken against Israel after it last year severed trade with the country, worth $7 billion annually, over its war in Gaza with Palestinian militant group Hamas.The sources said the harbour master's office had verbally instructed port agents to provide written assurances…

Turkish authorities seized 373 kilograms (822 lb) of cocaine shipped from Latin America and hidden in a container at the Turkish port of Gemlik, detaining nine suspects, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday.The minister said on X that the operation against a criminal group trafficking drugs, "Operation Narco-Steel-20", was carried out in Istanbul and the northwestern city of Bursa.(Reuters - Reporting by Burcu Karakas; Editing by Daren Butler)

At least 10 people were injured on Monday when an explosion rocked grain silos near the port of Derince in western Turkey, prompting an investigation into its cause, Kocaeli Governor Seddar Yavuz said.An explosion occurred around 2:40 p.m.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday that it had found traces of explosives on a ship travelling from Turkey to the port of Rostov-on-Don in Russia to pick up grain.The FSB said the ship had been docked in the Ukrainian port of Kiliia in May, and that it may have been used to deliver explosives to Ukraine.It said the ship had changed its name while in the Turkish port of Tuzla earlier this month and replaced its crew, which had consisted of 12 Ukrainian nationals."These…

A Turkish cargo vessel that Italian special forces boarded after the crew detected a group of unidentified people aboard has left waters off the southern city of Naples, website MarineTraffic showed, as police continued to investigate the incident.Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Friday that the special forces operation was launched due to the presence of about 15 migrants on board the vessel.A Turkish transport ministry statement said the Galata Seaways roll-on-roll-off vessel was sailing from the Turkish port of Yalova to Sete in France. The crew realised other people were aboard the ship late on Friday morning, it said.The crew locked themselves in the engine room and alerted maritime authorities in Turkey, who in turn contacted Italy and France.

Italian special forces boarded a Turkish cargo vessel on Friday after the crew detected a group of unidentified people onboard, some of them armed, Rome's defence ministry said on Friday, adding the operation was still under way.Italian minister Guido Crosetto told an event that there were 15 "illegal migrants" on board, but did not provide details on how they managed to get there or their country of origin."Now all the crew must be liberated and the ship secured," Crosetto said, adding operations were ongoing.A Turkish transport ministry statement said the Galata Seaways roll-on-roll-off cargo vessel was sailing from the Turkish port of Yalova to Sete, France.It said the crew noticed the presence of other people aboard in the late morning on Friday through security cameras, which showed t

A ship operated by Denmark’s Maersk Tankers has been banned from Spanish ports, Spanish officials said, after its cargo of oil products was found to have previously been carried by a vessel that was formerly Russian flagged.Trade in oil and oil products linked to Russia has been complicated by the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised nations' imposition of a price cap on Russian oil in December and separate European Union measures to prohibit the import of Russian crude and oil products into the bloc.Spain's northeastern Tarragona port on Feb. 10 refused entry to the Singapore-flagged Maersk Magellan tanker, saying the vessel had picked…

BP Azerbaijan has declared force majeure on loadings of Azeri crude from the Turkish port of Ceyhan, after a series of earthquakes on Monday, the company said on Wednesday.The notice was issued to oil shippers following a temporary suspension of loading operations from the Ceyhan Marine Terminal (CMT), BP Azerbaijan spokeswoman Tamam Bayatly told Reuters by email.BP Azerbaijan operates the Azerbaijan and Georgia sections of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.BP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Azerbaijan uses the Turkish port of Ceyhan as its main crude export hub…

Key arrangements including procedures for ships still need to be worked out before empty vessels can come in and pick up cargoes from Ukraine using the new grains corridor, a senior London marine insurance market official said on Monday.Turkey and the United Nations brokered a grain-and-fertilizer export agreement between Russia and Ukraine last month - a rare diplomatic breakthrough in a conflict that is grinding on with no resolution in sight."The standard operating procedures for vessels still need to be worked out and there are issues about crewing that still need to be resolved…

Late last month, a Russian-flagged cargo ship carrying corn pulled into the Turkish port of Izmir on the Aegean Sea. The SV Nikolay had loaded the grain at Port Kavkaz, in Russia, six days earlier on June 18, according to documentation provided by an employee of the Russian company that owns the ship.A Reuters analysis of satellite imagery, ship-tracking data and open-source photos and videos yields a different port of origin for the SV Nikolay. On June 18, Reuters’ analysis of a satellite image indicates…

Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Thursday a Russian ship carrying Ukrainian grain had been allowed to leave the Turkish port of Karasu, calling it an "unacceptable situation and summoning Turkey's ambassador."We regret that Russia's ship Zhibek Zholy, which was full of stolen Ukrainian grain, was allowed to leave Karasu port despite criminal evidence presented to the Turkish authorities," foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Twitter."Türkiye's Ambassador in Kyiv will be invited to Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify this unacceptable situation."(Reuters - Reporting by Max Hunder, Writing by Alexander Winning, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Greece has impounded a Russian oil tanker off the island of Evia, the Greek coastguard said on Tuesday, as part of European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.Earlier this month, the EU banned Russian-flagged vessels from the 27-nation bloc's ports, with some exemptions, as it adopted new sweeping sanctions against Russia for what the Kremlin describes as a "special military operation".The 115,500-deadweight tonnage Russian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, was seized near Karystos on the southern coast of Evia, which lies just off the Greek mainland near Athens.The Russian embassy in Athens…

An explosion at an LPG tanker killed one Italian crew member and injured 15 others at the port of Aliaga in Turkey's western Izmir province late on Monday, petrochemicals maker Petkim said.The vessel was anchored at a harbour at the Petkim petrochemical plant operated by the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR.Italian crew member Roberto Montegurdia died in the incident, Aliaga province's sub-Governor Erhan Gunay told reporters."At Petkim Pier 5 around 23:20 (2020 GMT), a fire broke out due to an unspecified reason during the connection to the Italian flagged Synzania for the filling of liquid hydrocarbons," Petkim said in a press statement."As a result of the immediate intervention of our teams…

Navis, a part of Cargotec Corporation, announced that Yılport Holding Inc. will roll out Navis’ Compass visual workflow management application to five terminals that use Navis N4 to bring enhanced visibility, communication and collaboration to the planning process across terminals.The Compass application digitizes the workflow and standardizes the way terminals work to improve the quality of the planning and tracking process to improve the terminal’s efficiency.The Compass application is easy to implement, with multiple deployment options suitable for every terminal, and utilizes the Navis Smart technology to unlock vast amounts of data…

Tengizchevroil (TCO), Kazakhstan's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) producer and exporter, plans to raise propane and butane export through Russian port Taman in 2018 to 450,000 tonnes from 240,000 tonnes in 2017, traders said. TCO's shipments of LPG through Taman port will grow in March to about 40,000 tonnes from 27,000 tonnes in February, traders said. "TCO's LPG export through Taman port will go up to 40,000 from 20,000 tonnes per month (on average in 2017), with further growth possible," said a source in the port. OTEKO, the owner of Taman transshipment terminal, declined to comment and there was no response from TCO. International oil trader Vitol is responsible for supplying TCO's LPG via Taman terminal.

Turkish port operator Yildirim Holdings AS has announced plans to sell its 24 percent stake in the French shipping major CMA CGM, Bloomberg reported. The company mandated China Citic Bank Corp. to find investors from Asia or the Persian Gulf for its interest in the world’s third biggest container shipping company. “We will either exit our investment completely or remain as an ordinary shareholder,” said Yildirim. Yildirim invested $600 million to become a shareholder in CMA CGM between 2010 and 2011. According to the company, the current value of the shares ranges between USD 2.5-3 billion based on recent deals in the industry. A report in Hürriyet CMA CGM has confirmed it is in talks with the Yildirim Group over the sale of the Turkish conglomerate’s 24% stake.

Classification society ClassNK said it has opened two new exclusive survey offices in Turkey with operations beginning January 1, 2017.   The offices are located in the Turkish port cities Izmir and Mersin, which both have “Free Zone” in each area.   According to ClassNK, the opening of the latest offices aims to improve the efficiency of its ship surveys and audits along the southwestern part of Turkey, as the classification society has in recent years reported an increasing number of surveys and audits required in the region.

Smugglers based in Turkey are offering to take migrants to Italy instead of Greece where they are likely to be deported under a deal between the Ankara government and European Union, according to a newspaper report. The Guardian said on Thursday that smugglers had used Facebook to advertise a boat trip to Italy from the Turkish port of Mersin - at a cost of $4,000 per person, four times the price of a journey from Turkey to Greece. "The trip is on Saturday, from Mersin to Italy, on a merchant ship 110 metres long, equipped with food, water, life jackets and medicine," the Guardian quoted the post as saying. The advert, which was no longer visible on Facebook on Friday…

Iraq's southern oil exports dropped slightly in February to an average of 3.225 million barrels per day (bpd), the oil ministry said on Tuesday. Shipments from the southern terminals in the Gulf fell from 3.285 million bpd in January as several days of bad weather delayed loading operations. All of the exports were from Iraq's southern ports, ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said. For a fifth consecutive month, Baghdad exported no oil via its northern pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Iraq depends almost entirely on its southern exports after the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the north ramped up its own independent oil sales via Ceyhan in June 2015 while cutting allocations to Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO).

Azeri Light oil loadings from the Turkish port of Ceyhan are expected to increase to 695,000 barrels per day in January from 603,000 bpd in December, a loading programme showed on Wednesday.     The supplies fell in December due to a planned maintenance at an oilfield in Azerbaijan.       (Reporting by Olga Yagova; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin)