The heatwave experienced in parts of the world has seen temperatures of between 40 – 42C recently – and according to an article in TradeWinds, ‘Shipyard work has become nearly impossible in the sweltering temperatures and workers have had to take unscheduled breaks’ meaning that production has been delayed.

 

Many yards are therefore having to declare force majeure due to extreme weather and, whilst owners may push back depending on their particular wording, it is hard to see what the yards could reasonably do to alleviate the current conditions.

Missing the delivery date

Most shipbuilding contracts set an agreed “delivery date”, with liquidated damages payable to the buyer (via reduced purchase price) in case the yard misses the delivery date. They tend to contain a system for calculating a long stop date, on which the buyer gets a right to cancel the contract completely if the ship has not been delivered. Most shipbuilding contracts also contain a mechanism by which the yard can push back the contractual delivery date in case of certain types of delay. Typically, there will be “permissible delays”, which tend to include “force-majeure” type delays. Usually, a yard will be given quite a lot of lenience in being able to push back the contractual delivery date due to “permissible delays”, because these are seen as relatively excusable delays, as long as there is compliance with contractual provisions about giving notice of delay and mitigation.

Contracts typically also permit extensions for other delays, sometimes called “non-permissible” delays, but only to a limited extent, and again usually only if notice is given.

“Acts of God” or “weather conditions not included in normal planning”

The term “Act of God” is frequently used as a catch-all provision in force majeure clauses, such as Article VIII of the SAJ Form of shipbuilding contract (“the SAJ Form”). It has been defined in English law as “such an operation of the forces of nature as reasonable foresight and ability could not foresee or reasonably provide against”. If the yard wants an extension of the delivery date based on an “Act of God”, it must prove not only the impact of a natural phenomenon on the expected delivery date, but also that it could not reasonably have been avoided.

The extent to which mere extreme weather, as opposed to specified meteorological events such as storms or lighting strikes, can constitute an “Act of God” has not been finally settled by the English courts. But it seems likely that weather can constitute an “Act of God” if it is so extreme, judged in light of the usual conditions at the place of contractual performance, that the yard could not reasonably have been expected to take steps in advance to avoid it.

There is also no clear ruling on whether extreme heatwaves would be encompassed by the clause “flood, typhoons, hurricanes, storms or other weather conditions not included in normal planning” in Article VIII of the commonly-used SAJ Form”. Therefore whether or not a heatwave would count as a “force majeure” event under this clause will be a matter of fact and degree. The fact that it is relatively common for Chinese shipbuilding contracts to be amended expressly to include as potential “force majeure” delay any periods of time during which external temperatures at the shipyard exceed 35° may impact the interpretation of Chinese shipbuilding contracts, if those clear words have been left out.

Strikes at the yard

If workers actually down tools due to extreme weather, several types of shipbuilding contracts list strikes at the yard as a type of ”permissible delay” alongside other typical ”force majeure” events. For example, Article VIII of the SAJ form provides for delays due to strikes to count as ”permissible delays” if “at any time before the actual delivery, either the construction of the vessel or any performance required as a prerequisite of delivery of the vessel is delayed due to…strikes, lockouts or other labour disturbances”.

It will usually be open to the buyer to try to argue that the relevant delaying event did not trigger a “permissible delay” under the shipbuilding contract, because the yard has acted unreasonably. This is because English law usually requires a person seeking to rely on a “force majeure” clause to show they took reasonable steps in advance to avoid the impact of a “force majeure” event and to mitigate its effect.

For example, in a strike situation, the buyer could argue the yard has been unreasonable in its dealings with its workforce i.e. the strike was not in fact outside the yard’s control. The courts have been sympathetic to arguments like that. E.g. in Channel Island Ferries Ltd v. Sealink Ltd (1987) the yard was entitled to rely on a force majeure exception of strikes only if there was nothing it could reasonably have done to avoid the strike or to mitigate its consequences. For this reason, the type of strikes capable of generating force majeure delays and qualifying as “permissible delays” under shipbuilding contracts will tend to be those affecting the whole or a substantial part of the shipbuilding industry in the country of construction, rather than just the particular yard in question.

Hints and Tips

Yards have often come off badly before the courts in the case of delays. They would do well, therefore, to document and claim delays arising from the current extreme conditions, including:

Claim for permissible delays as they arise, and make sure records of delays supported by critical path analysis are kept.

Comply with all formal notification provisions under the contract.

Keep a record of how the conditions have impacted work at other yards, and even how they have impacted other industries, in the region.

Keep a clear record of what has been done to try to overcome delays, in an effort to demonstrate that the yard has acted reasonably.
Source: Reed Smith Global Solutions By Reed Smith shipping lawyers Thor Maalouf, Sally-Ann Underhill and Lianjun Li

CREWEXPRESS STCW REST HOURS SOFTWARE - Paris and Tokyo MoU have announced that they will jointly launch a new Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) from 1st September 2022 to 30th November 2022


The U.S. Department of Defense’s research and development agency is moving into the second phase of a project to to build and demonstrate a new seagoing unmanned surface vessel.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on Monday announced  it is moving into Phase 2 of the No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program, which seeks to build and demonstrate a revolutionary new medium unmanned surface vessel (MUSV) that can go to sea and perform missions with unprecedented reliability and availability, while carrying a significant payload. The agency selected Serco Inc.’s design to move forward at the conclusion of Phase 1.

NOMARS took a clean-sheet approach to ship design, holding firmly to the requirement that there will never be a human on board the vessel while it is at sea – including during underway replenishment (UNREP) events. By eliminating all constraints and requirements associated with humans, NOMARS opened up the design space to novel ship configurations and capabilities that could never be considered for crewed vessels.

NOMARS is also pushing the boundaries on ship reliability. Because there is no crew on board to perform maintenance, NOMARS required new approaches for power generation, propulsion, machinery line-up and control schemes to ensure continuous functionality throughout a long mission in all weather, temperature, and sea states.

“NOMARS plans to demonstrate a next-generation completely unmanned ship that will enable entirely new concepts of operations,” said Gregory Avicola, program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. “We will enable methods of deploying and maintaining very large fleets of unmanned surface vessels that can serve as partners, across the globe, for the larger crewed combatants of the U.S. Navy.”

In Phase 1, Serco developed a new Design Space Exploration (DSX) toolset that can evaluate spaces with a variety of parameters and outputs millions of ship designs to meet a diverse set of performance objectives and constraints. Serco used their DSX tool to create a set of ship designs ranging from 170-270 metric tons, then refined those into a single ship for the preliminary design review, which the company dubbed Defiant. In Phase 2, Serco will finalize ship design, build the ship, and work through a series of rigorous testing activities before taking it to sea for a three-month demonstration event. Serco is working with Beier Integrated Systems LLC, Caterpillar, DRS Naval Power Systems Inc., ICE FLOE LLC (dba Nichols Brothers Boat Builders), Metron Inc., Serco Inc. (div Maritime Engineering Operations), Submergence Group LLC, and Thrustmaster of Texas Inc. on the project.

Defiant will be the first of its kind. The 210-metric ton MUSV-class ship aims to maximize performance, reliability, and maintenance efficiency while still carrying significant payload at tactically useful ranges. The goal is to achieve ultra-reliability objectives by integrating distributed hybrid power generation, podded propulsors, and high-capacity batteries. A key philosophy of NOMARS is “graceful degradation,” which allows individual equipment to fail over time by having enough system-level redundancy to meet full system requirements at speeds of at least 15 knots after one year at sea. The major system components of the selected design are modularized, so repairs can be conducted with equipment typically found in yacht-yards worldwide. This maintenance philosophy supports rapid turnaround, allowing the ships to spend a majority of their lifetime at sea performing missions.

Source: https://www.marinelink.com/news/us-darpa-build-test-demonstrate-uncrewed-498920

 

CREWEXPRESS STCW REST HOURS SOFTWARE - Paris and Tokyo MoU have announced that they will jointly launch a new Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) from 1st September 2022 to 30th November 2022


Aug. 22, 2022 — Navigation is prone to human errors. In addition to their own eyes, captains often have only location-based technologies, maps and perhaps a radar at their disposal. Common reasons for collisions at sea are bad decision making, poor lookout, inefficient use of radar, inexperience, lack of communication, and fatigue, lists Antti Lehmussola, Team Lead for Machine Learning at Groke Technologies in the webinar High Performance Computing for SMEs organized by the EuroCC project earlier this year.

Data from Multiple Sources

Groke Technologies focuses on developing intelligent methods for autonomous navigation to improve safety at sea. High-performance computing plays a vital role in optimizing machine-learning models for computer vision.

The ultimate goal of Groke Technologies is to get rid of human errors at sea and automate navigation through a multi-sensor system that is coupled with deep neural networks and a graphical user interface. The technical solution will combine radar technology, automatic identification system (AIS), visual and thermal cameras, as well as sea charts, inertial measurement units (IMU) and dual band GNSS.

All these sensors and data sources will be installed in a vessel together with several computing units to process the data. There is still work ahead before all of this is in production but in the meantime, many improvements in navigation can be achieved through different awareness systems for captains and vessel operators.

Groke Technologies’ navigation solution is currently in the product development phase. At the moment, AI and machine learning technology is mostly used to process images from a highly specialized camera system that consists of a 225-degree visual camera and a 180-degree thermal camera. By detecting and identifying objects around a vessel from the side of another vessel to a far-away sea buoy it helps to improve the captains’ situational awareness and perception of their vessels’ surroundings. In the future, other sensors’ information will be handled through machine learning too, explains Lehmussola. All this can eventually enable fully automated vessels.

Training Machine-Learning Models with Supercomputing

High-performance computing is an important asset in developing products and services. HPC enables companies to perform massive calculations within a short period of time and allows them to replace time-consuming physical prototyping with simulations. As a result, companies can accelerate the product development process, cut research and development cost and create new innovations.

With the financial support from Business Finland´s AI Business program and computing resources provided by CSC – IT Center for Science, Groke Technologies is now training their machine learning model and investigating how to build deep neural networks for object detection with the optimal trade-off between accuracy and performance. This not an easy task because there are hundreds of different machine learning architectures available for object detection alone but with the HPC experts’ support they are making good progress.

Digitization of Navigation

Due to the strategic investment from Mitsubishi Corporation, Groke technologies’ solution will be initially tailored to meet the needs of the Japanese seafaring where it is expected to alleviate the inevitable shortage of sea captains. Japanese vessels are not allowed to sail under Japanese flag unless the captains´ nationality is Japanese, and many of the local captains are already in the later stages of their careers. The data-driven high-technology navigation solution is expected to draw younger generations into the maritime industry.

LUMI Supercomputer for Industrial Use

LUMI is Europe’s flagship supercomputer. It plays an important role in the endeavor of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) to develop a world-class supercomputing ecosystem in Europe.

The versatile architecture of LUMI makes it also one of the world’s leading platforms for artificial intelligence. Up to 20% of LUMI´s massive computing capacity is reserved for industrial use which offers new exciting opportunities for data-driven business development.

With the ever-increasing computational performance, we can accelerate our machine-learning research and development efforts, and find the most optimal models for our use cases, says Lehmussola.

Have a look at the webinar High Performance Computing for SMEs organized by the EuroCC project:

Source: Anu Märkälä, CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland

 

CREWEXPRESS STCW REST HOURS SOFTWARE - Paris and Tokyo MoU have announced that they will jointly launch a new Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) from 1st September 2022 to 30th November 2022


Further reflecting the progress that has been made in reducing the danger of piracy off the east coast of Africa and into the Indian Ocean, the shipping industry plans to formally end the “High Risk Area,” designation as of the first of the year. While a level of risk remains, they highlight that there have been no boardings in nearly four years with the last reports coming in 2019 of pirates being scared away by EU forces after menacing a vessel near the Horn of Africa.

The official notification of the plan to end the designation was submitted to the International Maritime Organization, today, August 22, to be reviewed and approved at the next meeting of the Maritime Safety Committee scheduled to start on October 31. 2022. The decision to end the designation was made by the International Chamber of Shipping, BIMCO, International Marine Contractors Association, INTERCARGO, INTERTANKO, and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum.

“This announcement is a testament to nearly 15 years of dedicated collaboration to reduce the threat of piracy in the Indian Ocean. Through a combination of efforts by military, political, civil society, and the shipping industry over the years, operators and seafarers are now able to operate with increased confidence in these waters,” the groups said in their joint statement to the IMO.

The designation of the region as a High Risk Area began in 2010 near the peak of the attacks on ships near the Horn of Africa. Two years earlier, the Council of the European Union adopted an action plan based on UN resolutions, to establish the executive EU military maritime operation for Somalia. Known as Operation ATALANTA, the mission was the deterrence, prevention, and repression of acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast.

At the height of Somali piracy in January 2011, EU Naval Force – Somalia reports there were 736 hostages and 32 ships being held by pirates. The combined efforts contributed to a reduction in activity so that two years later they were able to report that there had been no successful hijackings of a commercial vessel and the last confirmed attack on a vessel came in 2018. EU NavFor reported that it chased away a small boat in 2019 but Iran has continued to report that its navy has intervened in recent attacks. The EU mission was extended in 2020 to continue to patrol the waters and specifically to protect commercial ships in the World Food Program and others that might be vulnerable to attack. EU NavFor’s mandate is currently scheduled to end on December 31, 2022.

The removal of the HRA reflects a significantly improved piracy situation in the region, said the organizations. A year ago, they had reduced the size of the designated region, but they said today the end of the designation would not come till year’s end allowing charterers, shipowners, and operators time to adapt to the changed threat from piracy. The groups continue to warn, however, that threat and risk assessments should still be carried out and ships are still encouraged to report to the UKMTO and register with the Maritime Security Centre for the Horn of Africa under the Voluntary Reporting Area administered by UKMTO.

Late in 2021, the UN Security Council began efforts to scale back and end the international programs in the region. As late as March 2022, the EU expressed, however, concern over ending the program while there remains political unrest in Somalia.
Source: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/indian-ocean-high-risk-designation-to-be-withdrawn-at-end-of-2022

 

CREWEXPRESS STCW REST HOURS SOFTWARE - Paris and Tokyo MoU have announced that they will jointly launch a new Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) from 1st September 2022 to 30th November 2022


RGST, which operates the largest terminal facility in Saudi Arabia at Jeddah Islamic Port, was selected by Bangladesh’s Ministry of Transport.

The Port of Chittagong, recently renamed as Chattogram, handled a record 3.2m teu in 2021, and is the busiest port in the Bay of Bengal, serving as gateway for 90% of Bangladesh’s import and export ocean cargo. The majority of import shipments are destined for the capital, Dhaka, 265 km (165 miles) away.

“The port also serves as the main gateway for Bangladesh’s fast-growing exports including its garments trade, one of the largest globally. The new facility, being built by the Bangladeshi government, will feature a 600 metre quay and will be able to handle three vessels simultaneously, augmenting the ship handling capacity at Chattogram port,” an RSGT statement said.

In 2017, the Government of Bangladesh adopted a “Policy for Implementing Private-Public Partnerships (PPP) Projects through Government-to-Government Partnerships (G2G)”, RSGT said. In February, the Bangladeshi Ministry of Shipping proposed a plan for the development of PCT based on the PPP model to the Saudi government which in turn nominated RSGT as the Saudi investor.

“We are extremely pleased to have been selected for this opportunity. The rapid growth of hittagong Port’s cargo volumes necessitates further investment in modern equipment, advanced technology and building new human capacity,” said RSGT’s director of global investments, Gagan Seksaria.

“This project fits well with Red Sea Gateway Terminal’s competencies and its expansion strategy for emerging markets. We are very confident that, through this investment, we will be able to contribute significantly to Bangladesh’s fast-growing trade and economy.”

A 2019 study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) into loan assistance it had provided to Chittagong Port Authority’s development plans found that the port’s strategic location made it an appropriate alternative to other ports in the region.

“Much work still needs to be done before the full potential of Chittagong Port’s gateway function for third-country trade… can materialise. The project’s envisaged outcome of increased container capacity was achieved,” it said.

“However, the project’s enhanced facilities were not able to accommodate the boom in international trade. Chittagong Port is still beset with lingering congestion problems and the new facilities have not been able to keep abreast with the growing demand for port services.”

In 2021, RSGT announced the sale of a 40% equity stake worth $280m to China’s Cosco Shipping Ports Limited (CSPL) and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). “Working closely with PIF and CSPL, we will accelerate our shared vision, further strengthen our customer offering, and elevate our mandate to meet the increasing demand for terminal and logistics services,” Jens O. Floe, CEO of RSGT, said.

Source: https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/ports/red-sea-gateway-wins-port-terminal-expansion-project-bangladesh

 


As many will already know, S-100 is the new International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Universal Hydrographic Data Model. Profiled from the ISO 19100 series of Geographic Information Standards and a much broader foundation to eventually replace the existing IHO S-57 standard, S-100 has been designed to quickly and easily be extended to better accommodate digital hydrographic data exchange and other future technological and navigational developments.

S-100 now supports imagery and gridded data, high-density bathymetry, and dynamic under keel clearance management in ECDIS, in addition to many other maritime data applications. Thanks to this, the standard will enrich the next generation of data products for hydrographic, maritime shipping, and geographic information system communities.

In a navigation context, S-100 will enable improved safety of life at sea functions and promote enhanced situational awareness through the provision of a richer granularity of bathymetric data, in combination with tidal height data, which will dynamically adjust depth in ECDIS. From a navigational perspective, what this means is that numerous different digital data sets and overlays will be available to bridge teams to enhance all stages of the passage planning and execution process.

In the future, digital layers will replace multiple nautical publications, which in combination with weather forecasting will support enhanced passage optimization and Just-In-Time arrival. Whilst S-100 in its current guise is designed for humans to read and interpret on an ECDIS, because S-100 standards are fully extensible it can accommodate future requirements that may arise through developments in Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS).

The future digital data products being designed for MASS will look very different from those used today in ECDIS, as ENC data is very deliberately designed, filtered, and managed to avoid overwhelming the user with too much information. This helps to give the mariner only the correct information needed to support safe navigation decisions. However, in the future, MASS systems will be capable of handling very large, complex data sets which are not intended for mariners and other end users to visually interpret. This will present new, and exciting, challenges linked to data formats and delivery of new MASS navigation products.

Steering the development of the S-100 standard for MASS

Through our work with the MASS community, the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) recognised the need to ensure that the S-100 standard caters for both crewed and uncrewed shipping so a common situational awareness and navigation picture can be used across both types of vessel.

We presented this case to understand the requirements for MASS navigation to the IHO. The organization has established a Project Team with a two-year remit to identify and prioritize MASS navigation requirements, analyze the impact on the S-100 hydrographic standards and services, and develop a set of recommendations to be addressed by existing Working Groups.

Chaired by the UKHO, the Project Team has membership from Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Iran, Japan, Norway, Rep of Korea, Sweden, UK, US, Singapore & Malta. The Project Team has concluded a discovery phase which involved engaging with MASS builders, operators, and system integrators around the globe to understand the challenges the industry face with navigation from a traditional product or service perspective. This resulted in 45 new requirements for MASS navigation that will now be examined against each S-100 standard to identify if the requirement has been met in the development of S-100, or if there is a gap in the individual standards. If gaps are identified, the project team will make a number of recommendations to the relevant Working Groups to address the gap, thereby future proofing S-100 for MASS navigation.

Mayflower Autonomous Ship – practical application of S-100 for MASS

As part of its work investigating MASS navigation requirements and specifically how S-100 may address them, the UKHO has been working closely with Marine AI, the team that built the navigation systems used in the Mayflower Autonomous Ship project based in Plymouth, UK.

When Mayflower set sail across the Atlantic on 28 April 2022, the vessel navigated out of Plymouth Sound using UKHO S-100 data, a world-first for a fully autonomous vessel and S-100. We then conducted experiments to look at how S-101 (ENC), S-102 (gridded bathymetry), S-104 (gridded surface water levels), and S-111 (gridded surface currents) could be used to safely sail an autonomous vessel.

The S-100 data was loaded into the Mayflower’s chart data server, which allows the autonomy modules to extract relevant information and make navigation decisions. The combined S-102 and S-104 data allowed the Mayflower to easily obtain temporal-based water depth information and generate ‘no go’ areas. The S-111 data proved essential in restricted and dynamic water space, such as the Cattewater and the narrows leading into the river Tamar. Overall, the S-100 data sets increased reliability and data quality – specifically related to depth sampling – and resulted in significant computational cost savings using S-101 over S-57.

The bigger picture

As a complete series, S-100 promises to bring new opportunities for day-to-day shipping operations, generating the potential for safer, more sustainable, and more prosperous trade. At the same time, more accurate, harmonious data will improve decision-making in passage planning, vessel operations, and support, and overall ‘smart steaming’ by taking advantage of prevailing conditions such as tides, weather, and port infrastructure – including the availability and readiness of berths, pilots, and tugs. This is how S-100 will enable more refined voyage optimization and Just-In-Time arrival, playing a pivotal role in supporting global shipping decarbonization goals.

These exciting advancements in S-100 will be instrumental in improving marine navigational data and the products and solutions that shipping companies, mariners, and ports will use in their operations in the future.

Source: https://maritime-executive.com/features/data-standard-brings-enhanced-safety-and-commercial-opportunities

 


SAFEEN Marine Services, part of AD Ports Group’s Maritime Cluster, announced today it has marked more than 5 million man-hours with Zero Lost Time Injuries (LTI) and zero environmental incidents since its launch in 2012.

Operating in nine commercial ports in the UAE and the Middle East, SAFEEN Marine Services extends HSE policy across a comprehensive portfolio of integrated and tailor-made marine services and solutions, which include towage, quayside-support services, emergency response, vessel assistance, inspections, and shipping maintenance.

Captain Adil Alhammadi, CEO of SAFEEN Marine Services, AD Ports Group said: “We are proud to announce our success in achieving 5 million man-hours with Zero Lost Time Injuries and zero environmental incidents, highlighting our commitment to AD Ports Group’s robust Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) practices that have been cultivated from the highest industry standards.
“We have achieved this remarkable feat by promoting a safety culture across the organisation that comprises progressive HSE policy updates, regular audits, emergency drills, and regular in-house safety and training programmes to promote the wellbeing of our employees whilst maintaining a seamless supply chain network for our customers.”

SAFEEN Marine Services’ commitment to HSE has been celebrated by the industry’s most acclaimed awards and recognitions including the recent 2021 Stevie Business Awards. In addition, the company’s fleet of tugboats, speedboats, and vessels are revered as the most efficient and sophisticated units both regionally and globally, leveraging state-of-the-art technologies that keep energy consumption and emissions to a minimum.

Overseen by more than 200 high professional marine experts, SAFEEN Marine Services’ fleet is today one of the largest and most sophisticated fleets operating within the region, comprising tugboats, pilot and speed boats, maintenance vessels, landing craft and ferries.

Source: https://www.seanews.co.uk/shipping-news/safeen-marine-services-marks-5-million-man-hours-with-zero-lost-time-injuries-or-environmental-incidents/

 


Jurong Port, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Asia Pacific (MHI-AP), a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and JERA Asia, a subsidiary of JERA, August 19 concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly explore establishing a 100% ammonia direct combustion power plant on Jurong Island, Singapore, which houses the country’s chemical and energy industries.

Under the MoU, a joint study will be conducted, where a 60MW class gas turbine combined cycle plant fueled by 100% ammonia is planned to be set up to produce carbon-neutral electricity, as well as stimulate ammonia demand to be ready for ammonia bunkering in future.

This MoU builds upon an initial agreement between Jurong Port and MHI-AP signed in August 2021 for a pre-feasibility study on ammonia direct combustion technology for green power generation, which was concluded successfully in March 2022.

In February this year, the Singapore government raised its climate ambition to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by or around 2050. This project is in alignment with the overall national decarbonization goals, as it aims to utilize ammonia – which can efficiently transport and store hydrogen in a liquid state at low cost – as a fuel to generate carbon-free electricity, and as the main bunkering fuel in future to decarbonize the maritime sector. The MoU will hence explore the viability and commercialization of ammonia for these purposes.

Ooi Boon Hoe, Chief Executive Officer, Jurong Port, said: “We feel this MoU could help pave the way for encouraging the adoption of hydrogen in Singapore through aggregation of demand across multiple sectors, mainly the power sector and the maritime sector, thereby addressing the chicken-and-egg conundrum of infrastructure versus demand needs for maritime and domestic power generation.

“This collaboration is certainly consistent with the spirit of reinforcing Singapore’s premier bunkering hub status – for current, transition and future fuels.”

Osamu Ono, Managing Director, MHI-AP, said: “Ammonia, which consists of hydrogen and nitrogen, is a highly efficient hydrogen carrier and can be directly combusted as a carbon neutral fuel, thereby contributing to the establishment of a robust hydrogen value chain.

“At MHI, we believe that ammonia and hydrogen are key fuels that can help countries meet their net zero goals, and this MoU is an exciting opportunity for us to contribute our technology and expertise to achieve sustainable development in Singapore and subsequently realize the global sustainability agenda.”

Toshiro Kudama, Chief Executive Officer, JERA Asia, said: “JERA is committed to providing cutting edge solutions to the world’s energy issues and is actively working to strengthen both the ammonia and hydrogen value chains. We believe this MoU offers a unique opportunity to support Singapore’s decarbonization efforts while advancing the ammonia technology development for carbon neutral power generation.

“Through initiatives like this, JERA will leverage its experience and capabilities to help countries to reach their net-zero CO2 emissions targets and to build a clean energy supply chain in the region.”

Source: https://maritimefairtrade.org/jurong-port-signs-mou-to-set-up-ammonia-direct-combustion-power-plant/

 


Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to have repercussions in the Baltic. Already, Finland and Sweden have sought to join NATO. Now, long-time NATO member Denmark is planning to invest up to DKK 40 billion (about $5.4 billion) in naval shipbuilding and new warships.

“With Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the new European security situation, it is more important than ever that Denmark is able to defend itself. Here, security of supply plays a decisive role. It is crucial that the armed forces can obtain the material which is absolutely central to ensuring a strong Danish defense. This applies not least at sea, where Denmark is one of the world’s largest maritime nations,” said Defense Minister Morten Bødskov last week as he announced a new national partnership, charged with coming up with recommendations on how Danish industry can respond to the need.

“Within the next few years, the defense forces will have to replace a large number of ships. This means purchases in the region of DKK 40 billion. The new partnership will make recommendations so that the Danish maritime defense industry can share in these investments. For the benefit of the Danish defense industry, Danish jobs and not least for Denmark’s security,” said Bødkov.

The Minister of Defense has appointed Anne H. Steffensen, managing director of the Danish Shipowners Association (Danske Rederier) as chairman of the partnership.

“We are a large maritime nation with a strong maritime industry both by virtue of our civilian merchant fleet and our navy, which have always had a close interaction,” said Steffensen. “In the coming years, we must strengthen the navy, as a crucial part of Denmark’s defense. A close public-private partnership is the right way to go. In Denmark, we have many competencies that can and must be used when new ships are to be developed and built. As chairman of the new partnership, I look forward to making recommendations on how we can best and on reasonable terms support the needs of the Armed Forces in the maritime area.”

Two of the objectives of the partnership make it clear that beefing up Denmark’s naval shipbuilding capabilities and capacity will be a key part of the strategy.

According to the Ministry of Defense:

  • The new, national partnership for the maritime area must ensure coordination across the state, industry, professional organizations and financial institutions. This applies, among other things, to the work to strengthen Denmark’s national shipbuilding capacity.
  • The partnership must prepare an analysis that results in concrete recommendations on how to best nationally support the Norwegian Armed Forces’ long-term needs for ship procurement – among other things by ensuring that Denmark has the skills to design, build and maintain warships.

Identifying the physical shipyard space needed for naval shipbuilding will be one of the challenges facing the partnership. The most recent additions to the Royal Danish Navy, its three Iver Huitfeldt-class frigates, were constructed in blocks in Estonia and Lithuania. These blocks were then towed to the Maersk Group’s Odense Steel Shipyard (OSS) where they were assembled. Following the delivery of the last of the trio in 2012, the shipyard was closed and became an industrial park dedicated to the offshore renewables sector.

That industrial park is not all that’s left of the shipyard. Consultancy OMT (Odense Marine Technology) was spun off in 2010 to take the OSS technology expertise and experience and evolve into a leading international maritime consultancy. It is part of the team selected by the U.K. Ministry of Defense to develop the Type 31 general purpose frigate, which just happens to be based on the Iver Huitfeldt-class.

Source: https://www.marinelog.com/shipbuilding/denmark-eyes-5-4-billion-return-to-naval-shipbuilding/

 


The Nation reported the arrest of a supertanker by the Central African country after it fled from the AKPO oilfield in Nigeria when its notorious activities were unveiled by the operatives belonging to the Nigerian Navy.

Confirming the arrest on Wednesday, Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Navy, mentioned that the feat indicated renewed collaboration among the Gulf of Guinea nations.

MV HEROIC IDUN
Image for representation purpose only
Ayo-Vaughan confirmed that the supertanker with International Maritime Organization (IMO) reportedly raised a fake alarm that it had come under the attacks of pirates when ‘NNS GONGOLA’ ordered the vessel to head out for Bonny Fairway Buoy for extensive interrogation.

He said the regional centre for Maritime Security for West Africa (CRESMAO) in Abidjan also agreed that the vessel raised a fake alarm regarding an attempted boarding between 10 to 15 NM of Akpo oil field located in Nigeria to the Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre (MMCC), International Maritime Bureau (IMB), as well as other international platforms.

On 7 August this year, the Nigerian Navy personnel on a routine patrol reported the unexpected presence of the MT HEROIC IDUN at the Akpo Oil Field. The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) is a 336-meter tanker that boasts a capacity of 299,995 MT. Its owner is Hunter Tankers AS. The vessel is reportedly domiciled in Scandinavia. However, Trafigura Maritime Logistics, located in the Netherlands, operates it.

Failing to share NNPC clearance papers for loading, MT HEROIC IDUN was prevented from proceeding by the Nigerian Navy Ship named GONGOLA.

The Captain of MT HEROIC IDUN revealed that the vessel’s agent commanded him, Messrs Inchcape Shipping, strictly not to follow any directives provided by the Nigerian Navy. The VLCC also resisted arrest when it was reportedly ordered by NNS GONGOLA to stop, and the supertanker escaped toward the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone Area.

Rear Admiral Istifanus Albarra, the Head of CRESMAO, also confirmed that the tanker captain refused to cooperate and altered the course toward Sao-Tome and Principe. Later on, he deliberately raised false alarms to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) that she was under a pirate attack. The IMB broadcasted the information to relevant international stakeholders and authorities.

Per Ayo-Vaughan, the admiral observed that it is imperative that incidences of piracy reported by vessels must be crosschecked with authorities (especially the Yaounde Architecture) to authenticate the veracity or otherwise before the broadcast.

Ayo-Vaughan added that this is to prevent raising false alarms, particularly during this time when the maritime domain of the Gulf of Guinea has been recording a significant reduction in maritime incidences compared to what was happening two years back. IMB is implored to cancel the alert broadcast, coordinate with authorities, and put out the correct information.

As a demonstration and proof of renewed cooperation among Gulf of Guinea nations, the Nigerian Navy welcomed MT HEROIC IDUN’s arrest. The seizure was facilitated by the Equatorial-Guinean Navy on 12 August, just about four days after the supertanker mistakenly assumed that she had successfully evaded an arrest by the Nigerian Navy and raised a fake alarm of a robbery/pirate attack that did not happen in reality.

References: Business Day, The Cable

 


Company DETAILS

SHIP IP LTD
VAT:BG 202572176
Rakovski STR.145
Sofia,
Bulgaria
Phone ( +359) 24929284
E-mail: sales(at)shipip.com

ISO 9001:2015 CERTIFIED