Elderly Cruise Passengers Accused of Smuggling Cocaine

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December 12, 2018

Authorities in Lisbon have arrested an elderly couple aboard the cruise ship Marco Polo on allegations of smuggling cocaine. According to Portuguese police, the two passengers – both in their early 70s – allegedly had about 20 pounds of cocaine concealed within hidden compartments in their luggage. The value of the consignment is estimated at roughly $2.5 million.

Portugal's National Drugs Trafficking Unit did not release the names of the accused, nor the name of the vessel involved. However, British press identified the ship as the 800-passenger Marco Polo. Operator Cruise and Maritime Voyages has confirmed that it is cooperating with the investigation.

The suspects were British nationals and were on a cruise from the Caribbean to Europe. According to Portuguese outlets, it was not their first luxury cruise.

Portugal's anti-trafficking agency worked with the UK's National Crime Agency to track the shipment and intercept the alleged smugglers. The arrest took place just after the Marco Polo arrived in Lisbon, and was immediately followed by a search of the passengers' cabin. The suspects are now being held in preventive custody pending trial.

The 1965-built Marco Polo is a "child-free" luxury cruise ship marketed primarily to UK passengers. She is a traditional ship with traditional amenities, including a piano bar, a high-end formal restaraunt, a dance revue theater and a library. As of Tuesday evening, she was downbound on the river Seine, near Rouen.

Source:maritime-executive

Global Fishing Watch, USCG Team Up to Study Illegal Fishing

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December 12, 2018

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Fisheries data NGO Global Fishing Watch is teaming up with the United States Coast Guard Research & Development Center (RDC) to conduct research on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. The effort will focus on evaluating open-source vessel movement data, capturing data and satellite imagery, and advancing understanding of patterns of vessel activity related to IUU fishing.

With backing from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Global Fishing Watch is setting up a new data and analytical group to collaborate with external agencies. The collaboration with RDC is the division's first external partnership, but Global Fishing Watch has collaborated with many other governmental agencies in the past, including the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security and the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency.

“The Global Fishing Watch Data and Analytical Cell is all about making data available and then making use of that data to achieve better analysis and shared awareness,” said Tony Long, CEO of Global Fishing Watch and Commander, Royal Navy (ret'd). “To have the USCG be the first organization to benefit from our new cell would be an honor . . . effective collaborations like this can be game-changing in the fight to combat IUU fishing.”

Global Fishing Watch's database includes vessel-tracking data from other government agencies, including NOAA and the Peruvian and Indonesian fishery authorities. The group is also working with Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama to bring their national fishing-vessel tracking data (including VMS data) into its database.

Global Fishing Watch has led the way in efforts to correlate satellite visual imagery with AIS and VMS tracking to identify IUU fishing patterns, including tracking-evasion behavior. Unlicensed squid-jigging is particularly susceptible to satellite detection due to its reliance on high-intensity lamps during night fishing. Ship-to-ship transfers on the high seas are also an identifiable indicator of potential unregulated fishing.

Source:maritime-executive

Two Vietnamese Shipbuilding Execs Arrested on Corruption Charges

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December 12, 2018

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Vietnam's Investigative Police Agency has arrested two executives from troubled state shipbuilder Vinashin on charges of embezzlement.

Truong Van Tuyen, the firm's former director, and Pham Thanh Son, its current deputy director, stand accused of abusing their positions to transfer funds for their own use. According to prosecutors, Son and Tuyen worked with the firm's former accountant to transfer $4.5 million in illicit deposits to accounts at Ocean Bank, a now-defunct financial institution that has been connected to other corruption cases. Dozens of Ocean Bank's employees have already been sentenced to long prison terms, and former bank director Nguyen Xuan Son faces a death sentence for abuse of power and embezzlement.

It is not Vinashin's first embezzlement scandal. In February 2017, three former executives of the shipbuilder's shipping subsidiary, Vinashinlines, were convicted and sentenced for stealing $11.3 million from shipping contracts completed in 2006-2008. Giang Kim Dat, Vinashinlines' former business director, and Tran Van Liem, the division's former director-general, have been sentenced to death. They lost an appeal six months later. Prosecutors called for especially strict sentences because the state-owned firm became a loss-making business after the theft occurred.

Vinashin (now rebranded Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, or SBIC) has undergone a major restructuring program since its debt-burdened collapse in 2010, which occurred just as it launched a major partnership with a leading European shipbuilder. In 2013, Vietnam's ministry of finance swapped $600 million in outstanding Vinashin loans for new government-backed bonds. The loan went into default in December 2010 when Vinashin missed the first payment installment of $60 million.

Source:maritime-executive

Saipem’s Servers Hit by Cyberattack

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December 12, 2018

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In a brief public statement issued Monday, Italian subsea engineering and oil services firm Saipem announced that it had detected an attack on its regional server systems in the Middle East.

"We are collecting all the elements useful for assessing the impact on our infrastructures and the actions to be taken to restore normal activities," the firm said. "We are also in the process of notifying the report of the incident to the competent authorities."

Saipem officials told Bloomberg that about 400 of its servers – primarily units located in Middle Eastern countries – were hit by the attack, but not its main servers in Europe. The hacking attempt is believed to have originated in India.

"We're keeping the servers down to understand what happened," said Saipem head of digital Mauro Piasere, speaking to Reuters.

The company has backups of all the affected data, so no information was permanently lost in the attack. Saipem has not found reason to believe that any data was stolen.

Saipem's servers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE were especially hard-hit, the firm said. Saudi state oil firm Saudi Aramco is Saipem's biggest client, and the firm has a major role in Saudi upstream and downstream projects. It maintains a local fabrication yard in the oil and gas hub of Dammam. which has helped it win more work in the kingdom. “Saudi Arabia is very, very important and there are many more projects we’ll be participating in,” said Saipem CEO Stefano Cao in an earnings call in October.

Source:maritime-executive

Yamal LNG Reaches Full Capacity

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December 12, 2018

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The Yamal LNG project reached full capacity on December 11, with the inauguration of the plant’s third LNG train.

Yamal LNG is comprised of three liquefaction trains with a total nameplate capacity of 16.5 mmtpa, or 5.5 mmtpa per LNG train. The project is supported by a fleet of Arc7 ice-class tankers supplemented by lower ice-class designated tankers to transport LNG cargoes. More than 100 LNG cargoes have been offloaded with approximately 7.5 million tons of LNG produced and delivered to five continents – a year since the project’s first shipment in December 2017.

One of the biggest LNG projects in the world, Yamal LNG is developing the 4.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent of reserves (boe) from the giant onshore South Tambey gas and condensate field, located on the Yamal Peninsula. It is currently the largest LNG project in Russia with an aggregate share of about five percent of the global LNG market.

The project includes an integrated gas treatment and liquefaction facility with three initial trains of 5.5 million tons per year capacity each, storage tanks, and port and airport infrastructure. An additional that small-scale 0.9 Mtpa train is under construction with a start-up planned early 2020.

Yamal LNG’s production is sold under long-term contracts in Asian and European markets, predominantly under oil-indexed price formulas. LNG will be supplied to the markets all year round via the ice-class LNG carriers that will travel the Northern Sea Route to Asia through the Bering Strait in the summer.

The project is operated by the Yamal LNG Company, owned by Russian independent gas producer Novatek (50.1 percent), Total (20 percent), CNPC (20 percent) and Silk Road Fund (9.9 percent).

Leonid V. Mikhelson, Novatek’s Chairman of the Management Board, said: “The Yamal LNG project enabled us to become one of the major players in the global LNG market. Our accomplishments pave the way to create a large-scale LNG platform utilizing the prolific conventional natural gas resources on the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas as well as facilitating the achievement of our strategic goal to produce 55 – 60 mmtpa by 2030.”

Source:maritime-executive

Norwegian Safety Agency Orders More Improvements at Goliat

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December 12, 2018

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Eni Norge's long-troubled Goliat platform has received another order for required improvemets from Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority. While the facility has made progress in correcting previously-identified deficiencies, newly-discovered issues and the overall quantity of outstanding maintenance pose potential problems going forward, PSA asserted.

"The PSA’s observations from this audit show that faults and deficiencies still exist which, until they are corrected, represent a source of uncertainty which makes a negative contribution to the risk picture for the Goliat FPSO," the agency wrote in a notice of order published Tuesday.

According to PSA, the work backlog for the platform's electrical and instrumentation equipment is relatively large, including required improvements and general maintenance. The PSA's latest audit identified nonconformities in several core areas, including fire dampers, emergency shutdown system, emergency lighting, monitoring and control systems, and a variety of safety management policies and procedures. Among other issues, PSA auditors recorded the following concerns:

– Four fire dampers in air intakes for important areas would not close upon activation.

– Permanently installed electrical equipment lacked ATEX certification / Ex protection in hazardous areas (an issue that has affected Goliat before).

– Inadequate availability of backup electrical power in the emergency hospital in the event of a main power outage.

– Several improper electrical cable installations, leading to the potential for mechanical wear on cables.

– Several fire doors with broken gaskets and closing mechanisms that did not work.

– Inadequate training and operating procedures for personnel in central positions, including on-the-job training systems for control room operators and instrumentation technicians.

To address these issues, PSA has issued Eni Norge its eighth notice of order for Goliat, setting a new record for safety orders affecting a platform on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The new notice requires the firm to "draw up a realistic and binding plan for completing outstanding safety-critical work." Eni will have until March 1, 2019 to meet the order's requirements; in addition, it has until January 15 to explain how it will address certain other nonconformities.

"Goliat stands in a special position. They have had big challenges, and that's why we've been back on surveillance over and over again," said PSA spokesperson Eileen Brundtland, speaking to DN.

Merger and rebranding

On the same day as the new notice of order, Eni ceased use of the Eni Norge name, a consequence of the successful conclusion of its merger with Norwegian oil company Point Resources. The newly-rebranded, combined firm is now Vår Energi (in English translation, "Our Energy"). The new company has 170,000 boe of daily production, and Eni holds a 70 percent share of its equity.

At roughly 100,000 bpd of rated output capacity, Eni's Goliat platform constitutes a large share of the rebranded firm's current output. Before the merger, Point Resources reported average production of 35,000 boe per day.

Source:maritime-executive

Tractebel broadens offshore horizons

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December 12, 2018

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Tractebel subsidiary Lahmeyer International has acquired Deutsche Offshore Consult to strengthen its position in the offshore wind sector.

German outfit Deutsche Offshore Consult has staff covering all aspects of the offshore wind development process, including engineers, geographers and logistics experts, Tractebel said.

“With this acquisition, Tractebel consistently pursues its offshore wind strategy and offers its customers the complete competence matrix of expertise from a single source,” the company said.

Tractebel chief executive Olivier Biancarelli said: “DOC is the second acquisition made by Tractebel in the offshore segment within just a few weeks. This demonstrates that we are rigorously pursuing our growth strategy to become the leader in offshore wind engineering and a global player in the energy transition.”

In September, Lahmeyer acquired German engineering company Overdick, which provides offshore engineering and design, maintenance and inspection services.

Lahmeyer chief executive Martin Seeger said: “With DOC we are gaining additional expertise in fields which are key for the successful realisation of offshore projects. Our customers will benefit in particular from this wide spectrum of services which we will be able to offer from a single source in future."

Deutsche Offshore Consult managing director Oliver Spalthoff said: “For DOC the participation represents the logical step towards strategic growth through internationalisation and the extension of expertise".

We are looking forward to pooling our expertise with Tractebel to become an even stronger partner in the national and international offshore wind industry together.

Source:renews

Cable cheer for Orsted at Hornsea 1

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December 12, 2018

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Orsted has completed installation of the export cable system for its 1200MW Hornsea 1 project in the UK North Sea.

The project features three NKT-made export lines totalling 467 kilometres and the developer said manufacture and installation of the wires has been completed months ahead of schedule..

Tideway began installation of the cables in March using Ocean Yield charter vessel Connector and later added its new-build cable layer Living Stone to the cable-lay campaign.

Hornsea 1 project director Duncan Clark said the project has been “a step up in scale from the offshore wind farms we have today".

“Over 35 vessels were involved in delivering the installation, which was conducted safely and efficiently by all. It is an incredible feat of logistical coordination, and truly a landmark achievement for both the project and the growing offshore wind industry across the globe,” he said.

Burial work along the cable route is ongoing. The developer said termination and testing of the lines is expected to complete early next year.

Source:renews

Zero hour nears for Massachusetts offshore bonanza

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December 12, 2018

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Nineteen companies will have the opportunity to compete in an auction on Thursday for three lease areas to develop over 4GW of offshore wind off the coast of Massachusetts.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will host the auction for the 158,000 hectares with a one-per-customer rule for the leasing areas, meaning the auction could result in three different winners.

The auction will start on Thursday morning and consists of a series of rounds. During each round, companies can choose to pay the new price tag or drop out of consideration.

The auction will likely conclude by day's end when BOEM will announce the results.

Developers, including Avangrid Renewables, Norwegian company Equinor and Orsted-acquired Deepwater Wind, have the opportunity to bid on the three different lease areas.

The auction will be the second time BOEM has attempted to auction off the area.

In 2015, the agency divided the area into two leases that both failed to receive any bids from 12 qualified companies.

In response to comments from the companies, BOEM split the area into three leases instead of two.

The three zones each contain about 53,000 hectares, and lie directly southeast of areas already leased to Vineyard Wind and Bay State Wind.

The other companies able to compete in the auction are Camellia Wind Energy, Blue Cloud Wind Energy, Cobra Industrial Services, East Wind, EC&R Developments, EDF Renewables, EDPR Offshore North America, Enbridge Holdings (Green Energy), Innogy US Renewable Projects, Mayflower Wind Energy, Northeast Wind Energy, Northland Power America, PNE Wind USA, Vineyard Wind, Wind Future and WPD Offshore Alpha.

The next BOEM offshore auction – for as much as 315,000 acres of the New York Bight – is scheduled for early 2020.

Source:renews

US House signals offshore wind charge

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December 12, 2018

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The US House passed a bill on Monday that could bring offshore wind farms to territories like Guam and Puerto Rico.

The Offshore Wind for Territories Act would amend federal law to allow development in federal waters off the coasts of five US territories, including American Samoa, Mariana Island and the US Virgin Islands.

HR 6665 was introduced by Del. Madeleine Bordallo, a non-voting member of Congress representing Guam, and supported by representatives for all five territories affected by the bill. The House Committee on Natural Resources approved the bill in September.

Representatives of the offshore wind industry and the US Department of the Interior spoke in support of the legislation during a committee hearing earlier this summer.

The president of the National Ocean Industries Association immediately released a statement calling on US Senate leaders to pass the bill.

“The House passage of HR 6665 is welcome news for many Americans this holiday season,” NOIA President Randall Luthi said. “Too often, Americans in the US territories are our forgotten citizens. The Offshore Wind for Territories Act empowers US territories such as Guam and Puerto Rico to tap their offshore resources and strengthen their energy security, all while providing jobs and economic growth for hardworking Americans.”

Source:renews