Dutch firm Heerema Marine Contractors and Singapore's Sembcorp Marine, on Thursday, showed off the world's largest crane vessel that can be used for the setup and decommissioning of offshore oil and gas facilities.The semi-submersible vessel, which cost Heerema about $1.5 billion, is equipped with two cranes that can reach a height of 220 metres
Saudi Arabia’s state owned oil company Saudi Aramco will buy 5 million tons of liquid natural gas per year(LNG) from the U.S. company Sempra Energy, based in San Diego under a 20 year agreement.The heads of agreement (HOA) between the companies anticipates the negotiation and finalization of a definitive 20-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) sale-and-purchase agreement (SPA) for five million
Demolition of dry bulk ships in the first four months of 2019 was 120% higher than in the same period of 2018. Much of this increase comes from demolitions of Capesize ships, up from 1.1m DWT between January and April 2018 to reach 3.4m DWT in the first four months of 2019.Despite the increasing in scrapping, the bulk carrier market, particularly on the large ship side
According to a research note from BIMCO, Brazilian soya bean exports are up 85.2% in the first two months of 2019, this following a record high exports in 2018 of 83.6 million tonnes, which was a 22.7% increase from 2017.According to BIMCO, 2019 has seen the highest ever export of soya bean during the month of February. Exports totaled 6.1 million tonnes, a 112.6% increase from the 2.
At the end of December, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) announced its selection of ten dredging projects that will form the core of a pilot program to advance the beneficial use of dredged material.The recent U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ announcement culminated a program required by Congress, established within the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2016, specifically Section 1122.
Following an almost total halt in exports of soya beans to China in the last quarter of 2018, the new year has brought new hopes for American farmers and the dry bulk shipping sector. The USDA reported that in the first four weeks of 2019 754,609 tonnes of soya beans were ready to be shipped in China, up from only 25,347 tonnes in December.
Companies with workers repairing and refurbishing ship components utilizing sand blasting have become the subject of a new U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard.All employers and employees in the maritime industry need to be aware of the new requirements as OSHA continues efforts to protect workers from the hazards of exposure to breathable silica
The development that saw no U.S. seaborne exports of crude oil to China in August has continued into September, according to BIMCO. This is despite crude oil not being a part of the ‘official trade war’.“The trade war between the U.S. and China is now impacting trade in both tariffed and some un-tariffed goods with both countries looking elsewhere for alternative buyers and sellers
Some of France's spectacular Riviera beaches have been shut as volunteers with shovels and sacks try to rid the coastline of a thick oily residue that washed ashore after two ships collided off Corsica earlier in October.The clean-up operation is taking place on beaches in the glitzy resort of Saint-Tropez and nearby Ramatuelle
Researchers have deployed high-tech robotic sensors disguised as boulders for the first time to measure the initiation and evolution of the huge, hard-to-measure seafloor avalanches that regularly damage global networks of seafloor telecommunication cables.The so-called "smart boulders" revealed some surprising findings that will help inform where best to lay the seafloor cables that keep the
The Coast Guard has developed two separate mitigation system prototypes specifically designed for inland and offshore environments and tested them in the Kalamazoo River and Lake Huron.Whenever there is a need for oil, there will always be a risk of oil spills. This is no less true for bituminous sands, commonly known as oil sands or tar sands.
A U.S. House committee will kick off debate next week on three new bills aimed at boosting offshore wind energy leases in federal waters.The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will hold a hearing on Tuesday on three bipartisan offshore wind proposals.One proposal would require the Interior Department to develop a leasing plan or schedule for federal offshore leases