MARITIME NEWSThursday, March 27, 2014

International maritime news for seafarers

Oil discharged into Lake Michigan: USCGThe US Coast Guard's initial assessment of a Lake Michigan oil spill showed that between nine and 18 barrels of crude oil was spilled the in lake on Wednesday. One barrel of oil contains about 42 gallons, meaning the estimate indicates between about 378 and 756 gallons of crude oil were released into the lake, experts said.

USCG representatives along with officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) resumed salvage operations on Wednesday. Weather and wind conditions improved overnight, which allowed teams to redeploy boom as precautionary measures. The exact volume of oil released is still undetermined.

Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer Alan Haraf said a more accurate figure likely will be released later this week on how much oil entered the lake, where crews for BP continued their clean-up work on Wednesday. Those crews deployed absorbent booms following the spill, which affected a half-mile of private shoreline that's owned by BP and is not accessible to the general public.

The EPA, which is supervising the clean-up work with the USCG, said on Tuesday that BP crews had used vacuum trucks to suck up about 5,200 gallons of an oil and water mixture from the site and had also removed oil globs from the shoreline.

The EPA issued a brief statement on Wednesday saying an assessment team from the agency, the Coast Guard and BP surveyed the spill site on Wednesday and found "minimal oiling of the shoreline".

The EPA said the survey team has recommended that crews continue to scour the shoreline to manually remove any remaining oil.

BP said in a statement on Wednesday that its crews "have recovered the vast majority of oil that had been visible on the surface" of a covelike area where the spill occurred.

The company said it continues its work to calculate how much oil was released into the lake during the spill, which was discovered on Monday.

BP and EPA officials said on Tuesday the spill apparently occurred when a malfunction allowed crude oil to enter a cooling system that draws lake water into the oil giant BP's Whiting northwestern Indiana refinery, some 20 miles south-east of downtown Chicago, to cool equipment and then returns that water to the lake. (with inputs from AP)

SAFETYSOLAS requirement for rescuing persons from waterThe latest Technical Newsletter 3-2014 of the DNV GL deals with the new SOLAS requirement related to the recovery of persons from the water. The revised requirement applies to all new vessels provided with SOLAS certificates, when the keel will be laid after July 1, 2014. For vessels in operation, the requirement applies from the first periodical or renewal safety equipment survey carried out after July 1, 2014,whichever comes first. The requirement also applies to units provided with a MODU Code certificate.

At MSC.91 (November 2012), new requirements were adopted stipulating that all ships shall have ship-specific plans and procedures for recovery of persons from water. The plans and procedures shall identify the equipment intended to be used and the measures to be taken to minimise the risk to shipboard personnel while recovering persons from the water.

Ship-specific procedures for the recovery of persons from the water should specify the anticipated conditions under which a recovery operation may be conducted without causing undue hazard to the ship and the ship's crew, taking into account, but not limited to: manoeuvrability of the ship; freeboard of the ship; points on the ship to which casualties may be recovered; characteristics and limitations of equipment intended to be used forrecovery operations; available crew and personal protective equipment (PPE); wind force, direction and spray; significant wave height (Hs); period of waves; swell and safety of navigation.

Source: DNV GL

Fednav use drones to scope iceMontreal-based Fednav Ltd have started using drones in Arctic shipping for ice reconnaissance task.

Fednav allowed its Umiak I icebreaker, which is using a variety of video-equipped Unmanned Air Vehicles, to scout conditions ahead of the vessel in the ice-covered waters off the Canada's north-eastern Labrador coast.

Fednav have also become the first shipping company to use drones for ice reconnaissance on a commercial voyage. The goal was to provide the ship's captain and officers with real-time images of ice conditions ahead.

The move will help navigators scout subtle features in the ice, such as ridges, leads and fractures.

Vancouver Port truckers agree to end strikeStriking truckers at Canada's largest port have reached a deal to end a prolonged strike that officials said threatened the country's economy.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark said on Wednesday the port will be open for business on Thursday.

British Columbia introduced back-to-work legislation earlier this week that would have affected the unionised workers.

The dispute left hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cargo stranded at Vancouver-area container terminals.

It largely focused on issues related to pay, including rates, unpaid time spent at the port waiting for cargo, and allegations of undercutting within the industry.

Clark and Prime Minister Stephen Harper both warned the dispute was jeopardising the economy. (AP)

Backlog reduces as Houston Ship Channel opensThe backlog of ships waiting to sail in or out of the Houston Ship Channel dropped on Wednesday as the fuel oil spill in Galveston Bay got cleaned.

The US Coast Guard also reduced the daylight restriction, allowing ships to sail until midnight CDT (0500 GMT), which further reduced the backlog.

Houston Pilots Captain Clint Winegar said the number of ships waiting to move to or from the port of Houston through the channel slid by 30 to 57 by Wednesday afternoon. Earlier on March 22, a collision between two vessels spilled about 168,000 gallons in the region.

Meanwhile, charter fishing businesses and other individuals in Galveston Bay have filed a class-action lawsuit against the owners of the vessels, saying they've suffered losses because of the spill. The channel is the main waterway through which more than a 10th of US refining capacity receives crude oil.

COMMERCEOver USD 14.7bln invested in second-hand vesselsThe month of February 2014 has seen more than USD 14.7 billion investment in both new-buildings and second-hand vessels by the ship owners. This number is higher as compared to last year but lower than the record in January 2014.

According to data, 205 vessels were ordered in February for USD 11 billion, while an additional 92 orders were contracted at an undisclosed price, representing 33% orders for the year.

In terms of second-hand vessel purchases, 149 ships were ordered for more than USD 3.71 billion, representing a fall of 13% on the month.

ENVIRONMENTChina under pressure to contain offshore pollution: reportChina remains under pressure to contain pollution in its offshore areas, although water quality of 95% of the country's territorial waters met standards in 2013, a report said on Wednesday.

According to the report issued by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), the quality of 44,000sqkm of sea waters was rated below Level IV - the lowest level - in China's offshore areas.

Inorganic nitrogen, active phosphate and fossil oil were the main pollutants, it said.

The report said that the quality of 88% of waters surrounding China's 431 near-shore pollutant discharge outlets failed to meet standards.

In addition, the report said 16.72 million tonnes of pollutants in the sea were from 72 rivers monitored by the SOA, a slight decrease from last year.

Around 77% of maritime eco-systems at estuaries and bays monitored by the administration were rated as "sub-healthy and unhealthy", it said.

The report said an oil spill last year after a pipeline blast in Qingdao City of east China's Shandong Province posed considerable threat to the maritime environment in neighbouring areas, Xinhua reported.

Radioactive materials discharged into the Pacific Ocean from the crippled Fukushima power plant in Japan also affected the water environment and sea life.

SECURITY2 hurt as Israel Navy targets smugglersTwo Palestinians were wounded on Wednesday when Israeli Navy vessels destroyed two Gaza-bound boats smuggling cigarettes and tobacco from Egypt, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

Palestinian witnesses and medical sources said the navy opened fire at the vessels as they were heading towards Rafah, moderately wounding two people, while the rest of the crew managed to escape.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the incident, saying a naval vessel had been damaged by Palestinian gunfire in the exchange.

She said naval forces had identified two Palestinian vessels trying to reach southern Gaza from Egyptian territorial waters in a "suspected smuggling attempt".

Troops had called on the boats to stop and fired warning shots, but the appeal was ignored, AFP reported.

"After the vessels failed to comply the soldiers fired toward the vessels. Hits were confirmed, and secondary explosions were heard," she said.

Meanwhile, Turkey hopes to soon close a difficult chapter with Israel sparked by a deadly commando raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla of aid ships in 2010, Turkish foreign minister told AFP.

Nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed in the Israeli assault, sparking a major crisis between the long-time regional allies and compensation claims from the victims' families.

In the diplomatic tussle since, "the gap between the expectations of the two sides is closing," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told AFP in an interview on Wednesday.

"Progress has been made to a great extent, but the two sides need to meet again for a final agreement," he said. (AFP)

Richard Branson eyes move into cruise shipsBritish multi-billionaire and founder of the Virgin group, Richard Branson, is looking to move into cruise shipping, he told the German business daily Handelsblatt on Wednesday.

"We want to move into the cruise-shipping business with Virgin in the next few years," Branson said.

"We are already in negotiations with shipyards in Italy and Germany on the construction of big ships for Virgin Cruises," he said, adding that the chances that a German company could win a contract were "very good".

The newspaper quoted industry sources as saying that Branson would invest about USD 1.7 billion in the project.

The ships could be launched by 2019, Branson said. (AFP)

SHIPPING DATABALTIC EXCHANGE

Market snapshot: 1100 GMTDry Index BDI 1496 -82Capesize Index BCI 2761 -232Panamax Index BPI 1062 -26Supramax Index BSI 1180 -21Handysize Index BHSI 672 -4

EXCHANGE RATES

New York (Wed Cls) Fgn Currency USD in Fgn in USD CurrencyBritain (Pound) 1.6578 0.6032Canada (Dollar) 0.8999 1.1112China (Yuan) 0.1611 6.2088Euro 1.3787 0.7253India (Rupee) 0.0166 60.1400Indonesia (Rupiah) 0.000088 11426.00Japan (Yen) 0.009798 102.0600Norway (Krone) 0.1654 6.0460Philippines (Peso) 0.0222 44.9800Poland (Zloty) 0.3297 3.0300Russia (Ruble) 0.0281 35.5382Singapore (Dollar) 0.7892 1.2671Ukraine (Hryvnia) 0.0902 11.0900

WORLD TRAVELSPAINSpain, a sovereign state and a member state of the EU, is located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra and the Bay of Biscay and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of three countries (Morocco, France) to have both Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines. Spain's 1,214km border with Portugal is the longest uninterrupted border within the EU.

Getting thereBy plane: Iberia is Spain's national-flag carrier. Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Malaga are among the busiest airports, followed by Seville, Valencia, Bilbao, Alicante, Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, Gran Canaria and the two airports in Tenerife. Low cost carriers operating to Spain include: Vueling, easyJet, Ryanair, Blue Air and Jet2.com.

By train: Train system in Spain is modern and reliable, most of the trains are brand new and the punctuality rate is one of the highest in Europe.

By boat: From the UK, Brittany Ferries offers services from Portsmouth and Plymouth to Santander and from Portsmouth to Bilbao. The journey time from Portsmouth to Santander is approximately 24 hours. Another popular route is from Barcelona to Genoa.

Top attractionsAlhambra: Granada's Alhambra Palace is Europe's favourite tourist destination. The spectacular Arab complex dates back to the Mediaeval era in Spain.

Mezquita de Cordoba: The Great Mosque -Aljama- of Cordoba, built during the period of Moorish occupation, is the most splendid Islamic monument in the western world. Its construction commenced in 785, when Abd-ar-Rahman established Cordoba as capital of al-Andalus, on the site of an ancient church dedicated to San Vicente and was extended during successive periods by Abd-ar-Rahman II, Al-Hakam II and Almanzor.

El Escorial: The Escorial is a vast building complex located in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, near Madrid. The building is the most important architectural monument of the Spanish Renaissance. Construction of El Escorial began in 1563 and ended in 1584. The project was conceived by King Philip II, who wanted a building to serve the multiple purposes of a burial place for his father, Holy Roman emperor Charles V; a Hieronymite monastery and a palace.

Ibiza: Besides being the clubbing capital of the world, Ibiza also has an amazing natural beauty, a superb climate and a World Heritage site. To enjoy music of the world's best DJs in Ibiza's unmatched party scene or the astounding clear sea, warm sun, attractive coves and eventful beaches - or a bit of everything - Ibiza is certainly the right place.

La Sagrada Familia: The Sagrada Familia is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona and one of Spain's most visited tourist attractions. It's a design by Antoni Gaudí, a Catalan architect who worked on this project for almost 40 years until his death in 1926.