TFG Marine, the international marine fuel joint venture founded by Trafigura, Frontline and Golden Ocean, has announced the signing of a long-term time charter agreement with Singapore-headquartered Consort Bunkers for four newbuild methanol carriage-ready bunker tankers.

The 6,500-dwt IMO type 2 tankers are being constructed by Merchants Jinling shipyard in Nanjing, China, and will be operated by Consort Bunkers for TFG Marine. Deliveries will commence in late 2024 and continue into 2025.

The vessels will be capable of carrying TFG Marine’s current range of marine fuels, including HSFO, VLSFO, MGO and biofuels up to B100, as well as any grade of liquid methanol in the future.

“This agreement is part of TFG Marine’s ongoing efforts to renew our fleet with modern, mass flow meter-equipped bunker barges that are ready to carry the low-carbon fuels that will help shipping decarbonize,” said TFG Marine’s Global Head of Bunkering, Kenneth Dam.

S.K. Yeo, Director and General Manager of Consort Bunkers, said: “With the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore set to introduce a methanol bunkering licensing framework in the near future, we are supporting TFG Marine’s goal to take a leading role in providing low-carbon fuels to international shipping…

Esgian provides an update on new rig deals in its Week 30 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.

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Contracts

Valaris has been awarded a multi-year contract with Equinor Energy do Brasil, a subsidiary of Equinor, for the 12,000-ft drillship Valaris DS-17. The contract relates to work on Project Raia offshore Brazil.

Noble Corporation has secured a one-well contract for 350-ft jackup Noble Resolve with Central European Petroleum (CEPetro) offshore Poland. The upcoming work will mark Noble’s first drilling campaign in Polish waters.

Etesco Construções e Comércio Ltda has secured a win in Petrobras’ tender for a jackup drilling rig to conduct P&A operations and assist with decommissioning of fixed platforms at several mature development fields in Brazil.

Petrobras has exercised a 279-day option for Transocean 10,000-ft drillship Deepwater Mykonos offshore Brazil at a dayrate of $366,000.

Transocean has confirmed that 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Invictus was recently awarded a 40-day contract extension in the US GOM, keeping the rig working into August 2024.

Transocean 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Atlas has been awarded a new two-well contract in the US GOM with Beacon Offshore Energy at a dayrate of $580,000.

T7 Global Berhad subsidiary Tanjung…

Hornbeck Offshore said it has installed a dynamic positioning (DP) simulator that provides an interactive and immersive training experience for current and future mariners who serve in DP officer (DPO) roles.

The Wärtsilä NaviTrainer Professional 6 Offshore Simulator (NT Pro 6) is designed to make training more efficient, cost effective and risk free via a ship-like environment that can subject mariners to realistic failure situations in a controlled atmosphere.

The new NT Pro 6 at Hornbeck Offshore’s headquarters office in Covington, La. is specially configured to incorporate the controls and models of three diverse DP systems: Wärtsilä, MT, and Beier, and also simulates vessel classes of the HOS Mystique, HOS Red Dawn, HOS Stormridge and HOS Taurus. This custom design affords DPOs the opportunity to train on the same or similar DP systems installed on Hornbeck Offshore’s vessels.

The system has received interim certification from the Offshore Service Vessel Dynamic Positioning Authority (OSVDPA) as a Class “A” full mission bridge simulator capable of simulating DP Operations in a physical set-up that mimics a fully equipped vessel’s bridge.

Naval architecture and marine engineering firm Bristol Harbor Group, Inc. (BHGI) announced it has hired Addison Pope as a naval architect. Pope holds a bachelor’s degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Webb Institute. 

Before joining BHGI, Pope interned at Viking Cruises in Louisiana. During his time there, he created reports detailing the yard’s progress and various vendors. He collected and organized river and wave data, assembled speed trial information, performed squat calculations, and completed a concept vessel design. Additionally, he interned at Snow & Company in Washington, where he assisted with production engineering for small steel and aluminum boats. Pope performed weights and centers calculations on new pilot and workboat designs, along with other small projects.

Despite stating that the transport of unweaned calves from Ireland to France is in breach of EU law, the European Commission has so far failed to take action against it, says Ethical Farming Ireland.

In an audit report published in December 2023, the Commission claimed the journey was in breach of Regulation 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport, as the calves are not being fed during the long ferry crossing to France. In most cases, these animals are left unfed for up to 30 hours, sometimes more.

A group of animal welfare NGOs have now joined forces to call on the Commission to intervene. They are also directly urging one of the major shipping companies on this route, Stena Line, to immediately put an end to the transport.

Ireland continues to export large numbers of unweaned calves annually, with an estimated 160,000 already transported this year.

Unweaned calves, as young as 15 days old and dependent on milk, are transported in trucks, around 300 in each, on a roll on roll off ferry for the 18-hour sea crossing to Cherbourg, France. While the EU Regulation states that unweaned calves must be fed after a maximum of 19 hours, this is not possible because at that stage the calves are stuck in a truck and they need to be unloaded to…

A marine tanker carrying industrial fuel sank in rough seas off the Philippines on Thursday, causing a large oil spill as coast guard rescuers search for a missing crew member, officials said.

Sixteen of the 17 crew members of MT Terra Nova have been rescued, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said, after the ship capsized off the coastal town of Limay in Bataan province. A search is underway for the missing sailor.

“There is already oil spill. Right now, we cannot dispatch our resources because of strong winds and high waves,” Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista told a situation briefing.

The ship was carrying 1,494 metric tonnes of industrial fuel, Bautista said.

Based on accounts of the rescued crew, Balilo said they encountered rough seas before the ship capsized.

Philippine coast guard spokesperson Armando Balilo told a separate briefing a 97-metre coast guard vessel had been deployed to search for the missing crew and combat the oil spill. Smaller vessels are waiting for the weather to clear before they could sail.

An aerial survey by the coast guard showed an oil slick spreading roughly two nautical miles and being driven by strong waves.

“We are racing against time. We will do our best to contain the fuel,” Balilo said.

He added the…

The renewal of the Panama merchant fleet is one of the quality objectives of the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA), which is why the entry of vessels under 15 years of age to the Panama Ship Registry is being prioritized.

As a result, 57% of ships registered in 2024 have an average age of four years. These vessels come mainly from the Asian market, a region in which the Panamanian Registry has technical offices (Japan, Singapore, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and the Philippines).

Among the strategies to improve the PMA indicators is also the recruitment of newly built vessels.  The latest figures reveal that Panama has exceeded its own expectations at the end of the first week of July 2024.

The fleet debugging process is also part of the PMA’s plan to continue positioning itself worldwide.  This consists of ensuring that the vessels of the Panama Ship Registry comply with current international regulations, which is why this year more than 5 million tons of gross registration has been canceled ex officio.

The PMA, through the General Directorate of Merchant Marine, carried out 771 new flag registries this year, which translates into 16.8 million gross tonnages (GT).  

The Panama Ship Registry has 8,606 vessels, which represent more than 247.7…