Currents….

Currents….

RUSSIAN RULING: Russia has been ordered to pay the Netherlands US$6 m damages after the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that it had seized the Dutch-flagged Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise in international waters in 2013. The court determined that Russia had violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea when its agents boarded the ship without the permission of the flag state. Russia maintains that as the ship was within its EEZ, it was within its rights to act to defend its economic interests, even though the vessel was outside Russian territorial seas.

NUCLEAR DEAL: Serco has secured a contract extension to continue managing International Nuclear Services’ cargo ships for another four years. The contract covers the operation and management of INS vessels on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Pacific Nuclear Transport, and includes support for 192 seafarers who are employed by PNTL, with day-to-day management from Serco. The agreement means Serco is the second largest operator of UK-flagged vessels, with a fleet of 109 ships in addition to the four PNTL and NDA vessels.

MNOPF AWARD: The Merchant Navy Officers’ Pension Fund has won the Best Investment Strategy Award at the prestigious European Pension Awards, in recognition of its achievements in securing returns way above average for the industry and making significant progress towards its target of 103% funding on a gilt basis by 2025. MNOPF chair Rory Murphy commented: ‘We continually strive to innovate and improve what we do, and this award is testament to that.’

SECURITY THREAT: The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has welcomed an Australian Senate inquiry report which warns that flag of convenience ships pose a threat to national security. The report highlights a submission from the Australian Border Force which argues that there are ‘features of FoC registration, regulation and practice that organised crime syndicates or terrorist groups may seek to exploit’.

WAGE REVIEW: the UK government is reviewing the application of the National Minimum Wage to seafarers in British waters, business minister Margot James told Parliament last month. In a response to questions from Hull East MP Karl Turner, she said ministers are working on ‘more detailed guidance on minimum wage law with respect to seafarers’ — but she failed to say when this would be completed.

SNIFFING SHIPS: Denmark is planning to deploy drones to ‘sniff out’ ships breaching emission standards. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced last month that it will start to use the new ‘sniffer’ technology on helicopters to monitor compliance with emission control area rules. The equipment can measure both sulphur and nitrogen oxide emissions.

WAGE CRISIS: British workers are enduring a ‘deepening wage crisis’, with latest official figures showing a 0.7% fall in real wages over the past year, the TUC warned last month. The average worker saw weekly pay, including any bonuses, rising 1.8% year-on-year in the three months to May — down from 2.1% in the previous month.

DISNEY ADDITION: Disney Cruise Line has announced plans to add a seventh ship to its fleet. The company has already got two new 135,000 gt ships on order at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany, and all three vessels will be powered by liquefied natural gas.

P&O RECORD: P&O Ferries carried more freight across the Channel in the first six months of this year than in any first half of the year in modern history, with lorry traffic up 10.4% from the same period in 2016.

DRUNK MASTER: An Estonian ship master was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for two years, after being found guilty of being over the alcohol limit in the port of Belfast last month.

ABERDEEN EXPANSION: Scottish Enterprise says it will contribute £11.7 m towards Aberdeen Harbour’s £350m expansion programme, supporting the creation of 2,300 jobs by 2026. The project, due to be completed in 2020, will provide enhanced facilities and capacity to the oil industry, as well as tapping into cruise and renewables markets.

PRELUDE MOVES: Shell’s flagship FLNG vessel Prelude — at 499,167gt the world’s biggest floating gas facility — has left the Samsung Heavy Industries yard in South Korea to be towed to the Prelude off shore gas field, some 475km NNE of Broome, Western Australia. Production is due to start next year.

CLEAN-UP COSTS: the cost of decommissioning North Sea oil and gas infrastructure could run to anything between almost £60bn and as much as £83m, a report from the Oil & Gas Authority has warned. It calls for industry and government to work together to cut the price tag to around £39 bn or less.

GULFMARK FREEZE: Nautilus is consulting members employed by GulfMark Guernsey about a proposed pay freeze. The move came after the company told the Union that the ‘challenging market conditions’ have meant it is ‘not in a position to improve current salary levels or conditions’.

TIDEWATER TALKS: US off shore vessel operator Tidewater says it has received bankruptcy court approval for its restricting and refinancing proposals. The company says it plans to make acquisitions once it clears its $1.6bn debt.

NORWAY BOOST: The Norwegian officers’ union NSOF says there are some signs of optimism for the off shore oil sector, with the number of unemployed seafarers on its books having almost halved in the first half of this year.

CREW REPATRIATED: 12 crew members from the Panama-flagged cargo ship Yas have been repatriated after their vessel was seized in April this year after berthing in the port of Aden. The crew of six Indians, five Ukrainians and one Syrian contacted the International Transport Workers’ Federation for assistance after being abandoned by the vessel’s owners with owed wages and no provisions or fuel. The ITF worked with its Yemen affiliate, the Labour Committee of Aden Container Terminal, to secures the seafarers’ safe return home from the war zone.

ORDERS UP: VLCC orders have risen to the highest level since the start of the global economic downturn in 2008, a new report has revealed. The owners’ organisation BIMCO said there had been a 20% increase in contracts for new tankers and dry bulk carriers over the past year, with a total of 8.5m gt now on order. However, it warned, there is a need for more older tonnage to be demolished to prevent a damaging gap between supply and demand.

COSCO DEAL: China Cosco Shipping has announced a US$6.3bn deal to take over Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas International (OOIL), which Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL). If approved by competition authorities, the combined containership fleet will be the world’s third largest, totalling more than 400 vessels and with capacity of more than 2.9m TEU.

STORAGE ROLE: more than 50 VLCCs are presently being used for storing crude oil — with many of them anchored off Singapore and in the Malacca Straits, Affinity Research reports. The market analysts said the slump in oil prices has meant some operators and traders have chosen not to unload their cargoes from owned or chartered vessels.

SAIL RECORD: The Croatian shipyard Brodosplit had launched what is claimed to be the world’s largest sailing ship. The 162m loa Flying Clipper has been built for the Monaco-based cruise company Star Clippers. Due to come into service next year, the vessel has five masts and five decks, and will carry up to 300 passengers and 150 crew.

JOBS THREAT: French maritime unions have expressed concern that Le Havre-based operator Biomar is seeking to reflag its coastal tanker Florence B, with the possible loss of more than 14 French seafarers’ jobs. The vessel has lain idle in Port-de-Bouc after losing its charter contract with Saipol in April.

FRENCH FEARS: French unions have expressed concern about a threat to seafarers’ jobs after the survey ship operator CGG filed for bankruptcy protection in France and the US. The firm has cut its fleet to five ships and jobs have been almost halved over the past year.

JAPANESE BOOM: Japanese shipowners account for the biggest share of the world’s orderbook for new tonnage. Japanese companies have 488 ships totalling 28.2m gt on order, compared with 14.7m gt on order for Greek operators.

TURKISH PROTEST: Turkey lodged protests with Greece last month after coastguards fired on the Turkish-flagged general cargo ship after the master refused an order to divert to the island of Rhodes for an inspection. The ship’s master, Captain Sami Kalkavan, said his vessel had been hit by 16 bullets, but the Greek coastguard said it had information the ship may have been involved in drug smuggling. No injuries were reported, but Turkey’s foreign ministry said there was ‘no justification for firing on an unarmed commercial vessel ferrying cargo between two Turkish ports’.

SPANISH WARNING: shipowners in Spain are seeking less-strict rules on crew nationality as part of a package to rejuvenate the country’s national-flag fleet. Alejandro Aznar, president of the owners’ organisation ANAVE, said the Spanish-controlled fleet is set to rise to its highest level in 32 years, but few of the 18 ships due to be delivered over the next two years are likely to be placed under the Spanish flag because of competition from other ship registers.

SEAFARERS ARRESTED: the master, second officer and an able seaman from the Panama-flagged bulk carrier Amber L were arrested in India last month after their ship was involved in a fatal collision with a fishing boat 14nm off the Kochi coast. Indian authorities remanded the three men in custody while investigations into the cause of the accident — in which two fishers died and one was reported missing — continued.

CHILE CALL: maritime unions in Chile have welcomed an agreement which aims to protect the employment of Chilean seafarers onboard ships flying the country’s flag. During talks with the national shipowners’ association and the country’s Maritime Authority, it was agreed to support cabotage laws protecting domestic shipping and to challenge attempts to open up national services to foreign owners.

MAERSK MOVE: Maersk Supply Service has agreed to pump out potential pollutants from two off shore support vessels which sank off the French coast last year while being towed to Turkey for scrapping. The company said last month that it had completed operations to survey the wrecks of the Maersk Searcher and Maersk Shipper and to remove any hydrocarbons from the tanks of the two ships.

MASTER DIES: South African rescue services went to the aid of the Italian-flagged tanker Freight Margie after the master collapsed while the ship was anchored 7 nm off Durban last month. Paramedics declared the captain to have died from a suspected heart attack. He had just completed his contract period and was close to sign off after five months onboard.

COSTA COLLEGE: Italian operator Costa Cruises has teamed up with the country’s Merchant Marine Academy to open a new facility in the port of Genoa to train cooks, pastry-makers, bakers, customer service representatives, and other onboard passenger service staff. Costa has agreed to sign up some of the students on completion of their studies.

Anchor ‘cut Somalia’s internet’

Somalia detained a containership last month, accusing it of causing a three-week internet blackout by severing undersea fibre-optic cables with its anchor. Authorities said the 1,730TEU MSC Alice was being held while compensation was sought for losses caused by the internet outage, which affected government, media, medical, educational and banking operations.

The government said the blackout had cost around US$10m a day and had affected more than 6.5m people in the south and central regions of the country.

MSC said it was investigating the incident, but claimed the ship had been at an approved anchorage outside the port of Mogadishu.

Pirate attacks fall to five-year low

Piracy and armed robbery at sea has fallen to the lowest level in five years, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has revealed.

A total of 87 incidents were reported worldwide in the first six months of 2017, compared with 97 in the corresponding period last year and 138 over the same timescale in 2013.

The IMB said a total of 63 ships had been boarded during the first half of the year, 12 were fired on and four were hijacked. There were 113 incidents involving violence to crew in this period, with a total of 63 being taken hostage, 14 kidnapped, three injured and two killed.

The IMB urged seafarers to remain vigilant amid signs of renewed activity by Somali pirates and also warned that Nigeria is a particularly risky area, with 31 crew abducted in the region in five separate incidents.

European shipowners have raised concerns about the rate of piracy, armed robbery and kidnapping off West Africa.

‘The continued problems in the Gulf of Guinea create serious concerns about the security of seafarers sailing in that area,’ said Patrick Verhoeven, secretary-general of the owners’ organisation ECSA. ‘Maritime insecurity also disrupts trade flows and has a direct impact on the ability of ports to serve as hubs for parts of the continent. A poor security situation also imposes high costs on imports and exports and put jobs and economic activity at risk.’

ECSA said coastal states need to provide proper protection to shipping in the area and the potential use of private security teams should be investigated. Countries should set up good reporting systems and ensure that pirates are prosecuted, the owners add.

(With thanks to the Nautilus Telegraph: https://www.nautilusint.org)