News

On April 15, 2025, the Canadian Coast Guard responded to an assistance call of the 'Ocean Swell' off the coast of Newfoundland. The Coast Guard deployed its fishing support vessel 'Teleost' (IMO: 8714346 ) was deployed to provide assistance to the disabled fishing vessel. It was taken in tow and safely pulled to St. John's harbour for repairs. Video: https://www.tiktok.com/@mudders_adventures/video/7493676415225728262?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

The 'Nordkappfangst' was destroyed by a fire, which broke out in the engine room, on the evening of April 12, 2025. off Honningsvåg, outside Nordvågen in the Nordkapp municipality. while catching shrimps. The skipper Stig Ivar Pettersen was down to pack some shrimp, when suddenly there was smoke around him, and he heard the alarms. Pettersen tried to reach the fire extinguisher, but had to give up because of the smoke. He contacted the fishing boat "Amalie Sofie" that was nearby, via coastal radio. Captain Arnt Magne Johansens alerted his deckhand Even Vigeland (29), wjho had his first week on the shrimp trawler. They could only see a red dot in the middle of the sea. Also the rescue helicopter SAR Queen was on its way, but the fire developed so quickly that it did not arrive in time. Pettersen and his deckhand put on their life jackets and survival suits. The "Amalie Sofie" arrived about five minutes later. It was dark, visibility was poor, and the weather conditions were bad. The crew of the 'Nordkappfangst' was standing on the deck before they had to jump into the water to escape the rapidly spreading flames. One of them was drifting behind the boat, where the flames were the worst. Johansen and Vigeland had to circle around the burning shrimper, but managed to throw a rope. After a short time, both fishermen were rescued. Pettersen had inhaled a lot of smoke, which meant that he had to wear an oxygen mask for 20 minutes in the ambulance. Report with photos: https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/xmv2jl/fiskebaat-i-full-fyr-maatte-hoppe-i-sjoeen

Due to Hurricane Dorian, the South Carolina Ports Authority’s marine terminals in Charleston and Georgetown will be closed Wednesday and Thursday. All terminals are open and operating normal hours Tuesday, South Carolina Ports reported early Tuesday. Charleston and Georgetown terminals will reopen Friday at 9 am EDT. The Wando Welch Terminal (WWT) and the North Charleston Terminal (NCT) will operate normally on September 7. WWT and NCT will also be open September 8. The South Carolina Ports Authority’s inland ports will be open and operating under normal hours throughout the week.

Freeport LNG on Sept. 03 announced that it has shipped the first LNG commissioning cargo for Train 1 from its liquefaction facility located on Quintana Island in Freeport, Texas. Approximately 150,000 cubic meters of LNG were loaded aboard the LNG Jurojin, which departed from the Freeport LNG terminal on September 3. “This first cargo loading is another significant step that gets us one step closer towards our start of commercial operations which is anticipated later this month,” said Michael Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Freeport LNG. “We are very pleased that it took less than 45 days to load our first cargo since gas was first introduced to our liquefaction facilities.” Freeport’s Train 2 is advancing pre-commissioning to support an in service date of January 2020. Train 3 is nearing completion to support an in service date of May 2020. Source: Freeport LNG

There were renewed concerns about pollution coming from the 'MSC Baltic III', after some small tar balls were found on the beach near the vessel last week. The Canadian Coast Guard collected the tarry substances, approximately the size of tennis balls, for analysis. No other oil has been observed on the water or the shoreline. An underwater survey was conducted on April 13 with no signs of oil. The vessel still contains about 1.700 tons of heavy fuel and marine gas oil. The salvage company hired to clean up and remove the wreck has resumed the process of heating and pumping oil from the vessel into tanks on the deck. A barge will be brought alongside the vessel when the weather allows, to transfer the oil onto tanks onto the barge. The Coast Guard sremained on-site and was working with the salvage company to ensure that contaminant are removed from the vessel as quickly as possible.

The two upper segments of the crane boom of the 'Ferdinand' became detached on April 10, 2025, in the port of Barth. Using their own resources, the employees of the Ueckermünde-based hydraulic engineering company Colcrete managed to repair the defective crane, The damaged second-to-last segment was removed, and the upper end piece was reattached to the remaining boom. Although this shortened the boom somewhat, the reach was sufficient for the remaining sheet piles of the construction of the new marina. allowing to pull the remaining steel piles of the sheet pile barrier by the afternoon of April 14. To make things worse, the barge "Roock 84," which was alongside and was supposed to transport the 15-meter-long, two-ton sheet piles, sank on April 12. The loaded sheet piles were recovered and have been stored on the crane platform. The sunken barge was brought back to the surface on April 15. A small leak above the normal waterline led to the sinking. As it was continuously loaded with sheet piles, the barge sank deeper until the leak was below the water surface, so that the barge filled up with water in the access channel to the new Barth marina, which had recently been dredged to a depth of three meters. The barge was then completely unloaded and pumped dry. Because the leak was now above the water surface again, there was no danger as long as the barge is not moved. The dredging of the remaining sand barrier was scheduled to continue on April 22. Reports with photos: https://www.ostsee-zeitung.de/lokales/vorpommern-ruegen/ribnitz-damgarten/barth-pannen-bei-arbeiten-am-neuen-yachthafen-kran-kaputt-und-schiff-gesunken-QK3LTZCQ5RFTBFFVTVGL2IAWMM.html https://www.ostsee-zeitung.de/lokales/vorpommern-ruegen/ribnitz-damgarten/gesunkenes-arbeitsschiff-im-barther-yachthafen-gehoben-zufahrt-nach-ostern-frei-DYFYV6TWZVELXONFQ6DRB7HRVU.html

Affiliates of Qatar Petroleum and the Belgian independent natural gas transport company Fluxys Belgium signed a long-term agreement for LNG unloading services at the Zeebrugge LNG Terminal. Under the agreement, Qatar Terminal Limited (QTL) -a subsidiary of Qatar Petroleum- will subscribe to the full capacity at the terminal from the expiry of the existing long-term unloading contracts and up to 2044. The transaction follows a competitive evaluation process as well as the approval of the Belgian regulators. QTL is already a party to an existing agreement under which approximately 50% of the terminal’s capacity is utilized for delivery of Qatari LNG into Belgium under long-term LNG agreements.

The first berth of the Lamu Port is now 98 per cent complete and is set to be unveiled next month. The construction has been ongoing for three years. Stakeholders are optimistic that it will have a socio-economic transformation of the region through trade. It will open up the corridor counties to the rest of the country and neighbouring states. At least 33 shipping companies have shown interest and their representatives have either toured the site or will do so before the opening date. Lamu Port will be actively involved in the transhipment business as its depth can accommodate big ships from which cargo can be loaded to smaller ships bound for Mombasa, according to Abdullahi Samatar, Kenya Ports Authority general manager in charge of Infrastructure development.

A dispute between the state-run oil company Petrobras and steelmaker Gerdau delayed the first dismantling the 'Petrobras 32',of an oil production vessel in Brazil by at least a year, in a setback for local shipyards. The operation had been hailed as a chance to reinvent Brazil's struggling shipbuilders as industrial recyclers, generating jobs as Petrobras plans to spend $9.9 billion in the next five years to retire another 10 ships of the same kind. The FPSO was set to wrap up its decommissioning by Dec 2024 under a new Petrobras sustainability program. Instead, the work began only in March 2025, according to the head of a local metalworker's union in Rio Grande do Sul state Benito de Oliveira Goncalves The dispute between Petrobras and Gerdau over removing petroleum residues from the vessel had stalled work for more than a year. The sale of the FPSO took place on July 7, 2023. In a collaboration supervised by Petrobras, the steel company Gerdau S.A. and shipyard Ecovix have been entrusted with the responsible and environmentally sound recycling of the unit.

The 'White Eagle' has been lying idle in the port of Nador for more than two months for reasons that were remainng unclear. The ship was en route from Sierra Leone to Lebanon, but switched off its AIS near the coast of Rabat. Then it unexpectedly berthed in Nador. What happened in the meantime remained a mystery. The ship has had a total of seven different names since it was built in Shanghai in 1991. It has previously been called 'Breadbox Falcon', 'Saphir', 'Baltimar Sirius' and 'Moresby Chief', among others. It was suggested that the ship had technical problems, but it was not towed, and the port of Nador has no repair facilities. Rumors of smuggling were now circulating. The 'White Eagle' has been involved in drug trafficking investigations in the past. However, the ship has not yet been fully searched. The crew, mainly of Filipino origin, has been on board all the time and is not allowed to leave. Even a visit by the Philippine ambassador did not change that.

The commercial port in Libya’s second city Benghazi is working round the clock three years after reopening, attempting to raise revenues for its restoration and expansion. The port was caught in the crossfire as rival factions battled for control of Benghazi from 2014 in a conflict that left parts of the eastern Libyan city in ruins. It suspended operations as the main gate and some buildings were destroyed and the roads strewn with shells. Forces led by Khalifa Haftar eventually declared victory in Benghazi in 2017. Repairs and reconstruction have been limited — two out of three damaged tug boats are still out of service. But the port is now doing brisk business and trucks loaded with cars and containers carrying foodstuffs, motor oils and other goods can be seen streaming out of the main gate near the city center. Port manager Yzaid Bozraida said monthly revenues stood at more than seven million Libyan dinars ($4.9 million) before the war, though the income had not been used to develop the port.

NSW Ports and Patrick Terminals have commenced work on a A$190 million project to double on-dock rail infrastructure capacity at Port Botany’s Patrick Terminals - Sydney AutoStrad in Australia. The project includes investment of A$120 million from NSW Ports to deliver on-dock rail infrastructure and A$70 million from Patrick Terminals to deliver automated rail operating equipment at the container terminal. The project will deliver capacity to handle one million TEUs on rail and improve train turn-around times by 33 percent. It will be opened in stages to allow existing rail operations at the terminal to continue throughout the construction period. Once fully operational in 2023, the project will increase rail capacity of the Patrick Terminals – Sydney AutoStrad from 250,000 to one million TEU. It is anticipated to reduce the truck kilometers travelled in Sydney by at least 10 million per year, saving over two million liters of diesel per year – the equivalent of a net reduction of more than 5,400 in CO2 emissions tonnes per year.