PUBLISHED NOV 25, 2021 2:34 PM BY THE BARENTS OBSERVER

[By Atle Staalesen]

The quickly accumulating sea-ice on the Northern Sea Route is creating a potentially critical situation along Russia’s east Arctic coast. For several weeks, a number of ships have been trapped in thick sea-ice.

Several ships have also been waiting to sail into the area. For many days, the Tiksi, Yamal Ibris, I. Trubin, Polar King and Arshenevsky were located in the Kara Sea awaiting icebreaker assistance to their destinations. On board the ships was thousands of tons of equipment needed by local authorities and companies in the Chukotka region.

However, none of the ships will reach their destinations. In mid-November, they all turned back westwards and are now about to make it to Arkhangelsk where the cargo will be unloaded.

According to regional authorities in Chukotka a replacement will come in early January when nuclear-powered container ship Sevmorput will bring the cargo to destination.

Nuclear-powered container ship Sevmorput will help deliver goods to towns on east Arctic coast. Photo: Rosatomflot

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https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/sudden-freeze-up-disrupts-supply-chain-on-russia-s-northern-sea-route

PUBLISHED NOV 25, 2021 3:23 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

Australia is set to become the next country to incorporate offshore wind energy into its efforts to expand the supply of renewable power. After years of advocacy by environmentalists, Parliament on November 25 approved a series of laws to support the offshore electricity infrastructure, while at the state level funding is being provided to support feasibility studies and pre-construction development for projects proposed for Australia’s southern coast.

“The offshore electricity infrastructure package will unlock development of a new industry,” said Australia’s Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor after the three bills passed the final stage in the Senate establishing the regulatory framework for offshore electricity infrastructure projects.  The minister highlighted that the legislation will accelerate several key projects, but “importantly, this framework enables the development of these new energy projects while safeguarding the environment, securing the health and safety of workers and protecting other maritime stakeholders.”

Known as the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Bill 2021 the legislation was designed to facilitate and regulate the development of electricity infrastructure in Australian waters. In addition to providing the government the ability to designate areas for offshore wind farm development, it also establishes the licensing and regulatory framework. Elements of the bills also provide for safety and protection zones to protect offshore electricity infrastructure, establish the Offshore Infrastructure Registrar, and address issues of work health, safety, and environmental concerns as well as compliance and enforcement powers.

This week, the southern state of Victoria also announced efforts to support the development of offshore wind energy projects. As part of the Energy Innovation Fund, the government will provide A$40 million (US$28.75 million) to support three of the first proposed offshore wind farms. The funding will help each company conduct studies to determine the exact location for their projects.

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https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/australia-passes-legislation-to-develop-offshore-wind-energy-industry

PUBLISHED NOV 25, 2021 3:51 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

Police in Mauritius are detaining a bulker while they investigate the murder of the captain of the vessel. According to newspaper reports in Port Louis, the bulker’s chef confessed to murdering the captain last week while the vessel was sailing in the Indian Ocean.

The 55,900 dwt Meghna Liberty, registered in Bangladesh, departed South Africa on November 14 bound for India. According to information from the chef and other crew members the captain of the vessel, Rolly Baquillos Solante, age 44, had an ongoing dispute with the chef. On November 21, Calopez Alfred Kenneth Bonghanoy, a 33-year-old Filipino working as the chef confessed to his messman that he had murdered the captain.

The third officer of the bulker alerted other officers and they began to search the ship. They reportedly found the chef in a hallway and he repeated the statement that he had murdered the captain. The officers broke down the door to the captain’s cabin and found him lying in a pool of blood. They attempted to revive him but determined that he had already bled to death.

The chief officer of the Meghna Liberty was in contact with the owners of the vessel and they determined that the ship should divert to the nearest port. The vessel arrived in Mauritius on November 22 where the chef was handed over to the police.

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https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/chef-murders-captain-aboard-bulker-in-indian-ocean

PUBLISHED NOV 25, 2021 11:27 AM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

Less than a month after beginning its patrols in the Gulf of Guinea, the Danish frigate Esbern Snare killed four suspected pirates and took four others into custody. The incident, which is the first involving the newly arrived international presence in the region, is being widely hailed as a potential turning point in the regional fight against piracy.

Forsvaret, Denmark’s defense ministry, reports that on Wednesday, November 24, the Esbern Snare, which had been sailing to Tema, Ghana, responded to reports of increased risk in the area dispatching its helicopter for surveillance. The crew of the helicopter reportedly that afternoon found “a fast-moving motorboat with eight suspicious men on board in an area with a number of merchant ships.” On board the boat, the helicopter crew could see a number of the tools associated with piracy, including ladders.

During the evening, Esbern Snare was close enough to launch a fast-moving boat with its detachment from the frogman corps with orders to board the suspected pirate boat. The ministry reports that the Esbern Snare called the pirates to bring them to a halt so that the Danish soldiers could get on board. When the pirates did not react, the Danish forces fired warning shots and the pirates then opened fire on the Danish soldiers.

A brief firefight ensued with the Danish soldiers acting in self-defense responding to the fire from the pirates. No Danish soldiers were injured, but five pirates were hit before the gun battle ceased. The Danes then boarded the pirate vessel finding that four have been killed, one was wounded, and the remaining three surrendered.

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https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/danish-frigates-kills-four-pirates-in-first-gulf-of-guinea-engagement

PUBLISHED NOV 25, 2021 1:42 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

French and British authorities are both reporting that they believed an unnamed containership is responsible for the largest migrant accident which claimed many lives in the English Channel. French authorities are reporting between 27 and 31 people died when the inflatable raft they were in sunk with one person still unaccounted for and only two survivors rescued in what is becoming the latest international indecent between the countries.

It began to unfold on November 24 after a local fisherman reported seeing bodies in the English Channel. French and British rescue authorities began a search with the French reporting they recovered the bodies which included at least seven women and three children. French rescue authorities had requested the assistance of all vessels in the area in the frantic search while French and British rescue vessels and helicopters also searched the water. They reported that only a few of the individuals appeared to have lifejackets but most succumbed to hypothermia in the water.

Speaking to the two survivors they were able to piece together a report that said the 32-foot inflatable dingy meant to hold a maximum of 10 people had set out from a beach near Dunkirk in poor weather conditions in an attempt to make it across the Channel. The survivors indicated that they were hit by a large ship that caused the dingy to immediately deflate sending everyone into the water. The French authorities were able to recover the dingy and bring it to shore.

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https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/migrants-killed-in-english-channel-when-containership-hits-dingy

The shipowner is a proverbial scapegoat in today’s environmental perspective.

For those who are not familiar with the definition of a scapegoat “a goat sent into the wilderness after the chief priest had symbolically laid the sins of the people upon it (Lev. 16).”

I have written this article because I strongly feel that the shipowner is pushed for compliance with regulations without being given sufficient time to adapt to compliance practically. Today I will limit my discourse to the demand of a fuel levy to be imposed on the shipowners by the “acronym soap of representative bodies” or as I refer to them – the Umbrella Organizations representing ‘countries shipowners’ associations’.

The proposal is put forward to MEPC ( 75/7/4. 18 November 2019) by Bimco, International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), InterCargo, Interferry, InterTanko, International Product Tanker Association (IPTA) – all Europe based, World Shipping Council and CLIA, based in Washington, DC. – collectively representing some 90% of the world merchant fleet across all trades and sectors. These organizations are joined by 5 European nations (Denmark, Greece, Georgia, Malta, Switzerland) and 2 Asian (Singapore, Japan), 2 African (Liberia, Nigeria), and 1 Micronesian (Palau – US compact country).

We all know and accept, these umbrella organisations are well reputed and respected bodies who are supposed to protect the shipowner’s interest, but in reality do they?

These well-known shipowner umbrella organizations have joined together to present a proposal that each vessel over a certain threshold will be subjected to this mandatory levy of $2.00 per ton of fuel used on yearly basis for shipping decarbonisation research. This mandatory levy on shipowners is supposed to raise USD5 billion over 10 years at $500million per year. Under this scheme, I estimate over 40,000 existing vessels will be forced to pay this mandatory levy. I did a fast analysis on two main sectors of shipping Tankers and Bulk Carriers ONLY the table as below: the amount of funds that will be generated yearly and if you add the additional 20000 or vessels it will be more or less close to a billion dollars.

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Is shipping the right scapegoat for the R&D fund? Are shipowners the beasts of burden, cash cows or scapegoats?

Wartsila, a company in the spearhead of shipping’s decarbonization efforts, expects more to be done in the coming months and years, in terms of accelerating the inevitable need to lower emissions. However, as Mr. Sachin Kulkarni – Head of Sales, Marine Power, South Asia, Wärtsilä says, in an exclusive interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide , the technology to drastically reduce emissions already exists today. “But the mere existence of technology does not decarbonise maritime alone – action from both the market and regulatory side of the maritime industry is crucial to incentivise investment, build infrastructure, favour the development of the needed fuel supply chain, and legislate to accelerate the adoption of these technologies. Decarbonising maritime will take more than technology”.

Wartsila is positioned as a technology company looking to offer solutions towards the shipping industry’s decarbonization process. Which are the main “ingredients” of this undertaking?

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulation is a major driver for industry transformation. On April 2018, the IMO committed to reducing GHG by 40% by 2030 and total annual GHG emissions on a fleet level by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008. But due to an increasing number of vessels, by 2050 the increase should be 70% or even 80% on a vessel level.
In line with such targets, new short-term measures are set to come into force in 2023. All the vessels above a certain tonnage, new and old ones, will have to comply with newly introduced IMO sustainability indices, which will be used to assess the energy efficiency of both vessel designs and operations.

As maritime speeds towards decarbonisation, the biggest question of our time is not if or when, but how this will be achieved. The industry is experiencing an unprecedented era of change, but not one of uncertainty. What we need to do is certain and the time to act is now.
As a company with the most comprehensive portfolio at hand in the industry, Wartsila is turning technology into solutions to enable a sustainable maritime industry.

To drive sustainable shipping, elements like Fuel flexible systems, Energy saving technologies and electrification would take us to reduction in GHG level.

Wärtsilä does this by developing technology and fuel flexibility to create the path towards decarbonisation of the maritime industry. Our history of delivering innovations and industry firsts when it comes to fuel flexibility includes multi fuel technology.
Transition (with our multi-fuel technology) will not simply consist of a clean swap to one fuel or the other but will include fuel blends and drop-ins.

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Wartsila: “The Mere Existence Of Technology Does Not Decarbonise Maritime Alone”