Since the Iranian Revolution and overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979, the Strait of Hormuz has been a geographic constant as a choke point for which closure has been threatened from time to time but never truly closed. The longstanding assumption of the continued openness of the strait collapsed on February 28, 2026.
A few months ago, I authored an article for Marine News focused on just one of the many successful features of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA 90,” Pub. L. No. 101-380 (1990)) — Alaska’s regional citizen advisory councils (RCACs). The Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet RCACs were established under OPA 90 to work with oil and gas industry interests on behalf of the surrounding communities to
Three stranded supertankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, while seven empty Qatar-linked liquefied natural gas tankers have entered in recent weeks in an early sign Gulf gas shipping may be resuming, ship-tracking data showed.Iranian-linked tankers also continued to transit the vital waterway, according to the data, with traffic picking up on Monday as U.S.-Iran talks progressed.
On March 17, 2026, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took the extraordinary step of issuing a sweeping waiver of the Jones Act at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense. The waiver, one of the broadest in the history of the nation’s cabotage laws, opened U.S. domestic waterways to foreign-flagged and foreign-built vessels carrying hundreds of energy and agricultural commodity types.
Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore (BV) has announced the appointment of Dr. Jeffrey Guo as Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, and Maciej Lepicki as Vice President, Greater China, effective June 1, 2026.As Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific, Jeffrey succeeds Alex Gregg-Smith, who was appointed President of BV Marine & Offshore in January 2026.
DP World chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem has resigned with mounting pressure over his alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein.Bin Sulayem, one of the Middle East's most prominent business figures, is among the highest-profile executives to face scrutiny and be removed from senior roles following the recent release of the Epstein files.
With everything going on around the maritime industry these days — from a Presidential Executive Order to Make U.S. Maritime Great Again, to bipartisan legislation in Congress to boost our shipyards and merchant marine, to the import tariff rollercoaster ride we’re all on — it’s easy to forget some other important U.S. maritime policy initiatives whose benefits are just over the horizon.
On October 7, Damen Shipyards Group delivered its latest Combi Freighter (CF) 3850 to family owned German shipping company Reederei Gerdes. The delivery of the vessel, named Holger G, took place during a ceremony at the Bason Shipyard in Vietnam. The vessel is named Holger G. Damen’s CF 3850 represents the latest generation in the shipbuilder’s cargo vessel portfolio.
Christopher Ralph Lavers and Edmund G. R. Kraal have released a new edition of their volume 7 book, Advanced Electrotechnology for Marine Engineers - Reed's Marine Engineering and Technology Series. Copies can be purchased here.
In Memoriam: Captain Charles Robert MacVean, USN, (Ret.), PhDMarch 22, 1937 – September 10, 2025The book, Blind Man’s Bluff, describes the secret USN submarine operations known as “The Projects.” It begins with the opening line, “There was something about Commander Charles R. MacVean that had a way of inspiring legend.
The U.S. Coast Guard has accepted delivery of the 63rd Fast Response Cutter (FRC), Jeffrey Palazzo (WPC 1163).Jeffrey Palazzo is the fifth FRC to be homeported in Guam, joining the recently commissioned Vincent Danz (WPC 1162).The Sentinel-class FRCs replaced the 1980s Island-class 110-foot patrol boats and possess 21st-century command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence
Palantir leaders said the U.S. technology company has clinched a deal to sell more software to HD Hyundai, ramping up its heavy-industry work in South Korea.The agreement is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Palantir over several years, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.Palantir declined to comment on terms of the deal.