Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 26/07/2016
1. Aussie Detention Rate Falls
AMSA has released its annual port state control report saying that of the 242 foreign-flag vessels detained in 2015, Indonesia (with three) had the highest flag state detention rate of 23.7 percent. However, where a flag is subject to a small number of inspections, a single detention can result in the flag state exceeding the average detention rate and this may not be an accurate measure of performance. More generally, AMSA says that for large flags that have been subject to more than 50 inspections, Antigua and Barbuda, Liberia, Malta and Cyprus are not performing as well as Singapore, Marshall Islands, China and Greece.
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2. Piracy Drops Reported
The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre released good news on Monday: attacks in the first half of 2016 are at the lowest level since 1995, even taking the recent spate of kidnappings in the Gulf of Guinea and the Sulu Sea into account. The centre’s data shows 98 attacks through the end of June, down from 134 in the same period last year. Annualized, these numbers are well below the values recorded in 2003 and 2010, the most recent peak years. Pottengal Mukundan, the center’s director, said that the news was encouraging but ships need to remain vigilant in high-risk areas like the Gulf of Guinea and waters near Somalia.
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3. Nigeria Steep Crude Loss
The drop in Nigeria’s crude oil revenue in the first quarter of 2016, put at N53.72bn, is higher than the total amount the nation lost in the whole of 2015 (N51.3bn) as a result of incessant attacks on pipelines conveying petrol. Nigeria’s crude oil export decreased by 7.81 million barrels between January and March 2016, down from 132.48 million barrels recorded in the preceding quarter, to 124.67 million barrels, the latest report from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has shown. This puts the total crude oil revenue shortfall in the first quarter of year at $268.58m.
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4. ECDIS Must Be Used
Ship groundings could be avoided through the use of ECDIS, a report into the grounding of 1997-built cruise ship "Hamburg" infers. The DNV GL-classed and Bahamas registered ship grounded on New Rocks shoal in the Sound of Mull, near Tobermory in Scotland, on 11 May 2015. This resulted in damage to the port propeller, shaft and rudder such that they were unserviceable, and led to the prosecution of the ship’s master. The 144m vessel was bareboat chartered to Hamburg Cruise and under the technical management of VShips.
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5. First LNG Tanker Through Locks
The Panama Canal marked another milestone with the transit of the first LNG carrier through its expanded locks on Monday. Shell-chartered "Maran Gas Apollonia", measuring 289 meters in length and 45 meters in beam, arrived Monday from the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Panama Canal CEO Jorge L. Quijano says the LNG trade will greatly benefit from the expansion. The Expanded Canal can accommodate 90 percent of the world’s LNG tankers, which will have a major impact on global LNG flows and offer numerous benefits to shippers.
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6. New Panama Green Initiative
The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has announced a new environmental initiative, known as that Green Connection Award, which will be given to carriers that make efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by meeting or exceeding IMO environmental standards. ACP will evaluate environmental factors, including their Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) and Environmental Ship Index (ESI) scores, as well as the amount of nitrous oxides they emit in relation to engine performance, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions they reduce by using the Panama Canal over other routes, and the type of bunkers that vessels use.
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7. Charity Comes to Seafarers Aid
Apostleship of the Sea (AoS) in Poland stepped in to assist 59 abandoned Russian seafarers who were left in the lurch after the ship owner went bankrupt. The men were crew members of three ships – mv Vyritsa, mv Zarechensk and mv Braschaat. They learnt about their plight while they were out at sea.
AoS Gdynia port chaplain Father Edward Pracz has been supporting them from the time their ships were anchored at the port in April. Fr Edward said, “The ships were taken over by the bank and there were delays in paying the crews’ wages.
AoS Gdynia port chaplain Father Edward Pracz has been supporting them from the time their ships were anchored at the port in April. Fr Edward said, “The ships were taken over by the bank and there were delays in paying the crews’ wages.
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8. Sea Shepherd’s New Boat
Sea Shepherd’s brand new anti-poaching boat slowly moved into the Antalya Harbour in Turkey on Friday, touching its first saltwater in what is sure to be a long career of cruising the world’s oceans. The MV Ocean Warrior is the conservation group’s first custom-built vessel, designed to chase down and stomp out illegal fishing. “Poachers beware; here she comes,” Sea Shepherd Captain Alex Cornelissen says as the Ocean Warrior slowly leaves the shipyard, carried by heavy machinery. At 175 feet long, the boat is a sight to behold. She is the fastest boat in the Sea Shepherd fleet, designed especially harsh Antarctic conditions.
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9. Grounded Ship Refloated
Salvors refloated the "MV Benita" Sunday more than a 5 weeks after the ship ran aground off Mahebourg, Mauritius. The vessel was towed to a position some 20 miles off the coast, where a skeleton crew will remain on board in order to assess the vessel’s seaworthiness and general condition, according to international salvage firm Five Oceans Salvage. Appropriate evacuation procedures are in place to ensure the safety of those on board should conditions deteriorate. The Liberian-flagged ship ran aground after an incident involving one of the crew members, who reportedly attacked other crew members before damaging equipment.
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10. New Box Monitoring Scheme
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has joined forces with the French shipping giant CMA CGM in backing French start-up container fleet monitoring company TRAXENS. The agreement sees CMA CGM and MSC invest capital in TRAXENS, with each group also represented on the Board of Directors. The deployment of the TRAXENS devices across the fleets of both carriers will be announced in fourth quarter of this year. With a combined fleet of 4.5 million units these two world leaders transport approximately 25% of the world’s shipping containers.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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