A Nautical Miscellany

Costa blames the captain - Shipping news - www.tradewindsnews.com

Costa "blames" the captain

“Preliminary indications” are that “significant human error” on the part of the ship’s Master resulted in the capsizing of the Costa Concordia.

“The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain’s judgment in handling the emergency appears to have not followed standard Costa procedures,” Genoa-based Costa Cruises says.

Italian prosecutors are understood to have already leveled accusations of manslaughter against Captain Francesco Schettino, who joined Costa in 2002 as a safety officer and was appointed captain in 2006 after acting as staff captain.

Prosecutors have also seized the ship and the DVR – the so called “black box” containing all navigation data and the vessel can be accessed by Costa only with permission from the authorities.

Costa’s statement comes 48 hours after the he 114,000-gt Costa Concordia(built 2006) ended up with a 40 metre gash in the hull.

The captain told Italian television that the vessel had “hit a rock which should not have been there.”

On Monday Pier Luigi Foschi, chief executive of the Carnival Corp subsidiary, is due to hold a press conference in Genoa.

In a statement Sunday evening, Costa said its immediate priority is to account for all passengers and crew and to secure the vessel to ensure that there is no environmental impact.

It added it had taken on an unnamed salvage company to develop an action plan and help establish a protection perimeter around the ship.

By Ian Lewis in Genoa, Tradewinds

Maersk’s Christmas spree - Shipping news - www.tradewindsnews.com

Maersk Supply Services has turned to Chilean shipyard Asenav with an order for up to six offshore support vessels.

AP Moller-Maersk’s offshore shipowning arm will pay $200m for the first two firm vessels and is sitting on options for four more.

Asenav will wheel out the firm 150-tbp ships, which are designed for harsh-environment operations off Canada, in February 2014 and January of 2015, a statement says.

Designed by Maersk Maritime Technology and Wartsila Ship design, the vessels will be 25% more energy efficient than their rivals in the market, Maersk claims.

Carsten Plougmann Andersen, CEO of Maersk Supply, boasts the vessels will set new standards on emissions and operational efficiency.

The company has a fleet of 67 ships, nine of which are already operating in the Canadian market. It also has two platform supply vessels on order at Canada’s Marystown Shipyard.

Maersk is no stranger to Asenav having preciously built five newbuildings at the yard.

By Andy Pierce in London, Tradewinds

Maersk’s Christmas spree - Shipping news - www.tradewindsnews.com.

Neste goes arctic

Two Neste Shipping tankers have made it through the icy North-East passage to Asia.

 

The Finnish owner said the first vessel to try the shorter arctic route from Murmansk in Russia was the 75,000-dwt Stena Poseidon (built 2006), which discharged in South Korea in August.

 

 

It was followed by the 75,000-dwtPalva (built 2007), which headed to China in September.

 

Neste said: “The very challenging ice conditions along the route, which follows Russia's northern arctic coastline, limit its use, and the route continues to be open to traffic for only a couple of months in the summer.”

 

Neste’s shipping and terminals vice president Niko Ristikankare added that one of its tankers was the first commercial vessel to use the route in 1997.

 

Russian authorities require that all ships operating along the route are ice-classified and fitted with additional equipment, such as radios approved for use in arctic areas and a spare propeller blade.

 

The 6,250 nautical miles take around 20 days at 13 knots, half that of the Suez Canal route.

 

"Our journey from Murmansk to the Bering Strait took nine days, escorted by a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker and a local ice pilot," said Jari Leino, captain of Stena Poseidon.

 

"We spotted ice along the route but were able to avoid the larger floes thanks to the open water conditions that prevailed this summer. All in all, it was a unique experience."

 

By Gary Dixon in London, Tradewinds

 

Native group nears LNG deal - Shipping news - www.tradewindsnews.com

Native group nears LNG deal

Developers LNG projects proposed for the Canadian town of Kitimat are nearing a settlement on a native group’s complaint over shipping traffic.

A deal would pave help pave the way for National Energy Board approval of the country’s first LNG export schemes.

The Gitxaala Nation has raised concerns that LNG carriers serving the Kitimat LNG and BC LNG Export Co-Operative projects will have a negative impact on its territory in Douglas Channel.

(Click here to read the LNG Unlimited story in full)

Kitimat LNG operator Apache of the US is aiming to take a final investment decision by the end of the year.

The company, which has a 40% stake, is targeting a 2015 start-up of the first 5 million tonnes per annum train with expansion eventually boosting capacity to 10 million tpa.

BC LNG Export has applied for a license to ship out 1.8 million tpa to Pacific Rim markets over 20 years.

The company is jointly owned by the business interests of US oil and gas developer Tom Tatham and the 1500-member Haisla community.

By LNG Unlimited staff in London

Murmansk breaks ice

Russia's Murmansk Shipping has chartered an icebreaker to the US to help Antarctic research.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will take the 4,400-gt Vladimir Ignatyuk (built 1983) to its logistics hub at McMurdo Station for the 2011-12 winter season.

The vessel will clear a path through the ice that will allow cargoships to deliver the supplies and fuel needed to operate McMurdo and a second station at the South Pole.

NSF will pay $8m for the year.

There are options for two additional summers, in case the US Coast Guard's icebreaker Polar Star is not back from a refit.

By Gary Dixon in London, Tradewinds
Published: 10:04 GMT, 01 Sep 11 | updated: 10:04 GMT, 01 Sep 11

Scorpio shoots through - Pretty sure we're shouldn't be encouraging ships to "shoot through" ice infested waters...

A Scorpio Ship Management tanker has turned up the heat on the Northern Sea Route.

The STI Heritage passed through the NSR in double-quick time.
Its 73,956-dwt STI Heritage (built 2008) has raced through the passage in just eight days to set a new benchmark for international vessels.

The ice-breaker assisted marker smashes the 15 days taken for the 73,788-dwt Perseverance (built 2005) to pass through earlier this year, a spokesperson tells TradeWinds.

Scorpio’s benchmark comes at a time when the NSR is gaining popularity due to favourable sailing conditions.

“While transits are weather dependant, climate models have predicted the icy sea route will be navigable by commercial vessels for an additional two to four months this year,” Scorpio said in a statement.

Just last week Russian owner Sovcomflot pushed its the first suezmax tanker through the NSR.

It completed the transit in 7.4 days.

By Andy Pierce in London, Tradewinds

SCF sets Arctic record
Sovcomflot suezmax Vladimir Tikhonov will follow the Arctic sea route from Murmansk to its destination in Southeast Asia.

But what makes this voyage unique is that it is the first time a tanker of this size has taking this route to Asia.

The 160,000-dwt enhanced ice class 1A (Arc 4) ship (built 2006) will go to the north of the Novosibirsk Islands, Sovcomflot has said.

And the Novatek-chartered tanker, laden with 120,000 tonnes of gas condensate, will expect to complete its voyage in under a month as opposed to a non-Arctic timescale of around a month and a half.

SCF Baltica made trip last year
The voyage builds on a previous trip in August last year which saw Sovcomflot’s 100,000-dwt aframax SCF Baltica follow the same route.

The shipowner has taken extra safety measures given the region’s lack of infrastructure and inhospitable navigation conditions.

These include a mobile search-and-rescue station to counter oil spills, specialist diving equipment on one of the icebreakers deployed for the voyage and a Glonass communications system.

Ships plying Arctic sea lanes are more exposed to risk compared to other sea regions. Protection and Indemnity insurer Gard has highlighted the importance of preparation for shipowners undertaking Arctic voyages.

By Julian Macqueen in London, Tradewinds

Yards get more time Canada

Yards get more timeCanada has extended the deadline for four shipyards to submit bids for a massive $35bn newbuilding programme.

Irving Shipbuilding, Seaway Marine, Victoria Shipyards and Davie Yards now have until 21 July - an extra two weeks - to file their papers.

Davie Yards

But the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) secretariat rejected a request for a two-month extension of the previous 7 July cut-off, saying it would "be unacceptable, as it would have significant and unacceptable impacts."

The government said the two-week extension is "the maximum flexibility available to Canada without incurring costs and/or causing unacceptable impact on the NSPS program."

The two biggest candidates, Irving's Halifax Shipyards and Seaspan Marine’s Victoria, had opposed the extension.

Davie, which filed for bankruptcy last year, is relying on a takeover bid from Italy’s Fincantieri to allow it to meet the bidding criteria.

One winner will be awarded the $25bn combat vessel construction deal, while another will secure at least $8bn of non-combat ships, plus more coast guard orders to come, all over 30 years.

Losing shipyards may bid on an estimated $2bn in construction work for smaller, non-combat ships.

Mary Keith, spokeswoman for Irving, said she was disappointed that the government had decided to grant any extension.

"We've worked extremely hard and we've invested thousands of hours and significant financial resources to prepare the bid in compliance with a deadline that was established over a year ago," she added.

"We were ready for the 7 July deadline, we did not need an extension and although we feel the extension was unwarranted, we're going to continue our focus on submitting our bid in accordance with the new deadline."

By Gary Dixon in London - Tradewinds

The wages of sin and my profiting thereby

A friend of mine described obtaining publicity as about as certain as throwing great gobs of over cooked spaghetti against a greased wall and foolishly hoping a few strands will stick.

In our endeavours to get the name of TMS on everyones lips I have advertised in shipping magazines, paid for literature distribution at conferences, mailed out invites to conferences with discounted pricing, designed and mailed out postcards around the world (my favorite was learning the rules by which Canada Post decides pricing on a small piece of cardboard, an education like no other), printed brochures (two types) and spent thousands on a website. Has it produced work? Not so far, but it's only been three years. What unfailingly provides employment is to be referred by someone you know. Does the PR work remind people of who you are? Not so sure but I'm hoping so.

With our recent change of direction I have taken yet another tack and distributed a press release across the country, in both official languages, no less (thanks Marijke). It's yet to be picked up in a newspaper as far as I can tell but then ship management news would appeal only to a small subset of the populace I'm thinking. Our one success has been to be picked up by Tradewinds, who I think out of a sense of charity and the fact that I've worked for noteworthy companies wrote a nice piece on the Tsekoa and our deal with the uni. (The piece can be read here, for how long I don't know.) One would think that ship management is of interest to a much larger group of people amongst Tradewinds subscribers then newspaper readership in Saskatoon or Fredricton.

We just hope someone I know reads the piece and remembers me when asked for the name of a good ship management/broking/consulting company.

Coming round again..

 Received this message this morning from a friend who uses Hotmail for his mail service, been awhile but it would appear that someone is STILL trapped in a hotel in Lagos. I was actually pretty impressed with the writing of the message, generic enough to be sent to anyone but with just a soupcon of desperation.

His account has been  hacked, I suggested Gmail instead.
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Hello, Sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling to West Africa for a Seminar, am presently in Lagos Nigeria. I am stranded here because i misplaced my wallet and other valuable things, personal items such as cash, credit cards and identification documents on my way to the hotel i lodged.  I will like you to assist me urgently with the sum of 2500 pounds to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home. I will appreciate whatever you can afford; I’ll pay you back as soon as I return. I had no option than to send you an e-mail since I have exceeded my spending limit in the hotel and I have no money to call you. It will cost me much to make/receive phone calls and I don't have such money right now. I can only contact you through my e-mail for now. It's impossible for me to access my bank account from here, which is why I need your help. The safest and fastest way for you to help me out is by sending the money through the Western Union .  So I will really appreciate whatever you can afford and I promise to pay you back as soon as I return, kindly let me know if you can be of help? So that I can send you the Details which you will use when sending the money to me through Western Union ,  Thanks.