Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 09/02/2015
1. BIMCO Issues Security Advisory
BIMCO has issued a new security advisory to highlight recent events in the Gulf of Guinea region and reinforce guidance. This comes after three pivotal events in the area in which armed pirates boarded and hijacked a fishing vessel underway off Togo, a Greek-owned tanker was hit while it was waiting to load off Nigeria, killing its Greek deputy captain and taking hostage three other crew, and the detention of a vessel with embarked security onboard.
———————————————————————————
2. VLCC Security A Major New Headache
The recent violent attack on the Malta-flagged VLCC "MT Kalamos off the Nigerian coast has sparked a fresh round of talks in the shipping industry about the escalating piracy threat in West Africa and its potential implications. "It’s a very sad incident and it will have an impact on how business is done in WAF," a shipowner said. "The pirates down there are ruthless and can cause grave damage to the ship and crew"
———————————————————————————
3. New Sulphur Caps Beckon
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has agreed that sulphur cap changes are coming. ICS Chairman, Masamichi Morooka, explained: “While postponement of the sulfur global cap until 2025 is still a possibility, the shipping and oil refining industries should not assume that this will happen simply because they are unprepared. ICS has concluded that, for better or worse, the global cap is very likely to be implemented in 2020."
———————————————————————————
4. Spain Hands Down Somali Sentences
Six Somali pirates have each been sentenced to 16 years in jail for the attempted seizure of a Spanish fishing vessel in 2012. Spain’s National Court handed down the sentences for piracy and for being members of a criminal gang. The 4,089gt tuna purse seiner Izurdia was attacked and one of the assailants fired an AK-47. Tuna vessels of this kind have a low freeboard towards the stern, making them easy for pirates to board.
———————————————————————————
5. VLCC Attack Highlights Pirate Alley
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.” Cyrus Mody, of the IMB said the waters off Nigeria are now the deadliest in the world “by any length,” despite attention still focused on Somalia and the Gulf of Aden.
———————————————————————————
6. Danes Stepping Up on Piracy
The government has announced a new strategy to fight piracy and armed robbery at sea. The strategy sets a framework for Denmark’s overall political, developmental and military efforts against piracy for the years 2015-18. "Most of our actions are focused on the Horn of Africa [the coasts of Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya], but from now on we are also going to concentrate on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa.
———————————————————————————
7. Malaria Risks Raised
The risk of malaria infection continues to be a real risk for seafarers calling at a number of places around the world. Malaria remains one of the most serious diseases in the world and good preventative steps will help to keep crew safe. Given that ships will likely call at ports in places where malaria exists, there is some risk to the crew, measures can be taken, such as physical blocking of mosquitos, repellents and medicines.
———————————————————————————
8. China Greek Port Hopes Dashed
Just as the goalposts came into view, the Chinese have seen their port privatisation dreams in Greece not just moved but completely dismantled and removed from the field. The new government, led by the left-wing Syriza party, has quashed plans to privatise the Port of Piraeus, through the sale of two-thirds of Piraeus Port Authority. The original plan was set in motion by the previous Greek government to raise funds, but it is now all change on that front.
———————————————————————————
9. Name Change for Shamed Ship
After protests by Jewish groups, Allseas Group has announced it will change the name of a giant ship that had been christened after a convicted Nazi. The Pieter Schelte’s name honored the Dutch father of Edward Heerema, founder and president of the ship’s operator, Allseas Group SA. Pieter Schelte Heerema is considered a pioneer in maritime engineering who helped open oil exploration in the North Sea…be he has served as an SS Officer.
———————————————————————————
10. Low Oil Hits Jobs
As the lower oil price bites in the offshore market Maersk Drilling is cutting 90 staff at its head office. Maersk Drilling said that in response to lower utilisation and rates for offshore drilling rigs it had started a “cost reduction and efficiency enhancement programme”. As part of this programme it was cutting staff, with 40 – 50 of these being found through redundancies. “It is regrettable that we have to scale down the head office", the company said.
———————————————————————————
Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
Best regards,
S Jones
Seacurus Ltd
Registered in England No. 5201529
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
A Barbican Group company
Telephone: +44 191 4690859
Facsimile: +44 191 4067577
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.seacurus.com
Registered Office: Suite 3, Level 3,
Baltic Place West, Baltic Place,
South Shore Road,
Gateshead,
NE8 3BA,
United Kingdom
This message, and any associated files, are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it was addresses and may contain information that is confidential, subject to copyright or constitutes a trade secret. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, copying or distribution of this message, or files associated with this message, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately.
Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
Best regards,
S Jones
Seacurus Ltd
Registered in England No. 5201529
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
A Barbican Group company
Telephone: +44 191 4690859
Facsimile: +44 191 4067577
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.seacurus.com
Registered Office: Suite 3, Level 3,
Baltic Place West, Baltic Place,
South Shore Road,
Gateshead,
NE8 3BA,
United Kingdom
This message, and any associated files, are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it was addresses and may contain information that is confidential, subject to copyright or constitutes a trade secret. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, copying or distribution of this message, or files associated with this message, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately.
