China’s oil rig moving near Vietnam waters, heading to Indian Ocean
The High Command of Vietnam Coast Guard last Saturday said that the oil rig, with the escort of tugboats and transport boats, was moving in the East Sea near the Vietnamese waters.
The platform was going from north to south and passed the 15th parallel, the source said, adding that Vietnam’s coast guard boats and fisheries surveillance ships are monitoring the movements of the rig to take measures to cope with it in time when necessary. The source, however, also said the oil drilling rig is normally moving in the international waters, heading for the Indian Ocean.
Initial information says that the facility is being towed to the Indian Ocean to implement exploratory drilling under a contract signed between China and a Southeast Asian country.
In the period from early May to July 16, China deployed the same drilling platform to an area within Vietnam’s economic exclusive zone and continental shelf for drilling to explore oil and gas. The rig was escorted by more than 110 vessels including warships, along with many planes including jet fighters. These Chinese ships often rammed and fired water cannons on Vietnam’s coastguard boats or fisheries surveillance ships that were trying to ask the rig and its escort ships to leave the Vietnamese waters
The encroaching ships also attacked Vietnamese fishing boats in the same ways. Such attacks injured 15 fisheries surveillance officers together with two fishermen, as well as damaged 27 boats belonging to Vietnam’s marine law enforcement and Coast Guard forces and seven local fishing boats.
Despite strong objections from Vietnam, China illegally maintained the rig and its escort boats in the Vietnamese waters for 75 days until early July 16, 2014, when it moved the platform and its guarding vessels out of the Vietnamese waters, announcing that it had completed oil exploration activities there. Source: tuoitrenews
US Coast Guard proposes Bering Strait shipping route
With global warming leading to increased traffic to a vulnerable Arctic, the U.S. Coast Guard is proposing a 4.6-mile wide shipping route through the Bering Strait to try to protect the region.
Any accident in the sensitive area can be a major problem and traffic has increased tremendously, so the Coast Guard mapped out a voluntary two-way route — akin to a highway for ships — said agency project officer Lt. Kody Stitz. “We see more traffic and envision more traffic to continue,” Stitz said. Last year ships went through the Bering Strait 440 times, twice what it was in 2008, according to a study in the journal Marine Policy.
Retired Coast Guard Vice Admiral Roger Rufe, former operations chief for the Department of Homeland Security, said that’s an indication that climate change has made the region more passable for ships, with ships able to sail through formerly icy waters during more months in the year. He said shippers like the route because it can provide a shorter and quicker way to go from Europe to Asia.
But the ice melting also “means that ice is more unpredictable and the weather is far worse because the ice is what keeps the waves down,” said Marilyn Heiman, U.S. Arctic director for the Pew Charitable Trusts and co-author of the Marine Policy study.
More than just shipping routes is needed, she said. That increased traffic in the Bering Strait traverses rough waters, far from help, where the environment is pristine and oil spills and other accidents can have serious consequences, Rufe said.
“An oil spill up there would be really devastating,” Rufe said.
This type of route is typical around far busier ports and would be the first one in the Alaska region, Stitz said. But the route leading up to and through the Bering Strait is several hundred miles long, much bigger than others.
At the same time the Coast Guard is charting the route, diplomats are meeting in Peru to work on an international treaty to battle global warming. “We have serious changes happening in the Arctic,” Heiman said. “Climate change is impacting people’s lives, people’s safety.” Source : Alaska Dispatch
China coming up with a list of credible offshore shipyards
By Lee Hong Liang from Singapore
China is coming up with an offshore shipyard list, likened to the ‘white list’ of conventional vessel builders, in an effort to promote the development of the sector. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released new offshore shipyard guidelines last week, outlining several pointers on the requirements for offshore shipyards.
In the conventional shipbuilding sector, a so-called ‘white list’ of 60 shipbuilders have already been announced, and they are expected to benefit from prioritised financial support from the local banks.
The Ministry’s statement said the government is currently working on coming up with the list of offshore shipyards that can expect to receive policy support, and welcomes the relevant companies to submit their applications. The key focus of the new offshore shipyard guideline is to encourage the offshore yards to establish their own in-house design team, make progress on technological innovation and improve on project management.
One of the points mentioned in the statement is a need for each offshore yard to make an annual investment at least 2% of their yearly revenue into design and technology. Chinese offshore yards are known to be lagging behind their western counterparts due mainly to the former’s poorer quality in terms of design and finishings. Source : Seatrade Globa
Chart ISO container delivers Hamburg LNG
The first delivery of LNG fuel for HUMMEL, which is a 100-metre long hybrid barge that generates low-emission electric power for cruise ships while docked in Port of Hamburg, has been achieved by Chart and Becker Marine Systems.
The first ISO container of LNG fuel for Hummel was formally delivered to Becker Marine Systems at the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg on 17th December 2014 – from the Fluxys LNG terminal in Zeebrugee.
Hummel uses LNG fuel to produce and deliver shore electrical power, resulting in zero emissions of SOx and particulates and significant reductions in NOx and CO2 compared with diesel-fuelled generators.
Three Chart ISO containers are used as exchangeable LNG fuel tanks on board Hummel and a Chart Gas Processing Unit delivers the natural gas to the marine-classified engines. The barge is expected to come into full operation in Spring 2015, just in time for the start of the cruise season. Source : Gasworld
Hanjin Heavy Has High Hopes for Subic Shipyard
Amid a situation in which Korean shipbuilders are closely chased by Chinese rivals, Hanjin Heavy Industries is trying hard to retain its leadership by reviving the shipyard in Subic Bay, the Philippines. Since running at full capacity in 2009, the Subic Shipyard has won orders continuously, surpassing the US$1-billion sales revenue for the first time in its history last year. Its operating profit is also solidly in the black for five consecutive years.
A Hanjin Heavy Industries official said on January 4, “Although the figures are not compiled yet, the 2014 sales revenue of the Subic Shipyard is estimated at more than $1 billion. Following 2013, last year will witness a positive profit of about 30 billion won.”
Located 110 kilometers northwest of Manila, the shipyard is 11 times larger than that for Hanjin’s Yeongdo dockyard. Ahn Jin-gyu, Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp. Philippines head, said, “We can build 10,000-TEU containers at Subic, which is unimaginable in Yeongdo. Thanks to this large capacity, we have been able to sign deals to build five 11,000-TEU containerships.
“The shipyard will soon build a very large crude carrier as large as 300,000 tons. Mr. Ahn added, “We have an order backlog of 39 ships, equivalent to three years of work, at the shipyard.
We will hire 2,000 additional workers this year.” Currently the shipyard employs 25,000 local workers.
Source: The Korea Economic Daily
Reprinted from issue 007 of DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2015 published by http://newsletter.maasmondmaritime.com/ShippingNewsPdf/magazine.pdf on 2015-01-07
