A report, published last March, by AMEC, shows that the targets for shipping companies to reduce their sulphur emissions by 2015, could cause adverse environmental effects and result in a loss of 2,000 maritime services jobs, and place many more industrial jobs under threat. The report is the first of its kind to examine the full impact of hitting sulphur targets.
This incident refers to the loss of an inflatable liferaft. The master of a vessel reported that the fastening for one of the liferafts failed whilst the vessel was in port, allowing the liferaft to roll over the side of the ship. The liferaft container landed between the ship and the wharf causing the liferaft to inflate. The inflatable liferaft was retrieved but the container was lost. Luckily no persons were hit by the raft.
The following article, written by Dr. Marios Patsoules, focuses on technical issues surrounding errors that may cause a major offshore accident such as the Deepwater Horizon and concludes that the “Human Factor” is one of the most important factors to be taken into consideration. This article is part of a series of articles discussing the infrastructures that are required in order to minimize accidents on offshore platforms.
A research to measure offshore workers’ body size with 3D scanners to inform the future design of safety equipment, survival clothing and space requirements on offshore installations has been launched in Aberdeen by Robert Gordon University (RGU). The research, which will generate an ongoing capability for measuring the size and shape of the offshore workforce, is the first of its kind in more than 25 years and is being led by researchers at Robert Gordon University’s Institute of Health and Welfare Research (IHWR) in collaboration with experts from Oil and Gas UK.
It has been reported by the Indian Coast Guard and is widely spread in the media that MOL Comfort broke in two and sank in Arabian sea on 17 June 2013. The vessel was manned with 26 crewmembers who have been rescued by nearby vessels and are well in their health. The Bahamas flagged containership MOL Confort had a DWT of 90613 MT and a capacity of 8100 TEU.
During last April INTERTANKO, in collaboration with industry stakeholders including shipowner representatives and organisations representing shippers (IPTA, CDI, CEFIC, DGAC), has worked on and put together an information paper on the requirements for Safety Data Sheets (SDS) for Chemical Tankers. A summary of this paper is presented in this article.
This incident refers to an accident where during an operation of washing down a cargo hold from inside the hold, two crew members were injured when they were thrown from the top platform of the scaffolding rigged on the inner bottom in the cargo hold. One of the crew members was slightly injured and the other lost consciousness for a relatively long period. The protracted loss of consciousness was subsequently attributed to brain injury.
Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP), a project of the One Earth Future foundation (OEF) has published a few months ago its third annual assessment of the Economic Cost of Somali Piracy for 2012 (ECoP 2012). This year’s assessment, like the one before it, considered nine separate, first order cost categories and found that maritime piracy cost the global economy between $5.7 and $6.1 billion in 2012. This estimate is the result of extensive research, supplemented by contributions from and an extensive audit by independent piracy experts. At between$5.7 and $6.1 billion, the cost of piracy to the global community fell by around $850 million, or 12.6% from 2011.
Prevailing trends in the European oil industry, especially in the field of search, detection and extraction of hydrocarbon deposits (Upstream), show an increase of these activities in the coming years. The most – technological, institutional, business – advanced European North, has begun to decline after forty years of production and prepares … not just to pass the “baton” to the south, but to bring it themselves…
Due to its dependence on fossil fuel combustion and the fact that it is one of the least regulated anthropogenic emission sources, emissions from the marine transport sector contribute significantly to air pollution and climate change. The European Environment Agency last March published a report on the impact of international shipping on European air quality. The main objective of the report was to provide a comprehensive review of recent literature and reports, taking into account expert knowledge, on the maritime transport sector. The report addresses the sector’s impact on air quality and climate forcing in Europe and the executive summary of the report is presented in this article.
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Officer of the Watch 