Boatfagging Iranian tankers may be difficult.

NITC increasingly operating in the dark

June 17th, 2019 Sam Chambers Middle East, Tankers 0 comments

Iranian tankers are increasingly voyaging incognito to get around reimposed US sanctions.

Latest AIS data analysed by shipbroker Gibsons shows that approximately 33 Iranian VLCCs have their AIS trackers completely switched off, a notable increase from just 12 units in April, just before the expiry of the US waiver program.

While Iran’s main tanker player NITC has engaged in ship-to-ship transfers in the past, increasingly the Iranian tactic is to use its tankers for floating storage, Gibson noted.

Argus Media has estimated that floating storage jumped from 7m barrels to 20m barrels last month.

Analysts at TankerTrackers.com have recently spotted one Iranian tanker suddenly appearing in Southeast Asian waters having gone dark for a number of weeks since leaving Kharg Island in Iran last month.

The 2008-built, 317,367 dwt Horse, belonging to NITC, suddenly appeared in Southeast Asian waters late last week. After weeks of having its AIS switched off, the ship flicked its transponders back on, showing a changed destination to China and a changed draught

NITC is one of the world’s largest tanker operators with a fleet of 59 ships made up of 56 tankers, an LPG carrier and two OSVs, according to data from VesselsValue.

https://splash247.com/nitc-increasingly-operating-in-the-dark/

Day-old but thinking still good news.

Authorities Find 16.5 Tons of Cocaine on Ship at Port of Philadelphia

June 18, 2019 by Mike Schuler

msc gayane

File photo of the MV MSC Gayane. Photo courtesy MarineTraffic.com/Hans Schaefer

Federal authorities have seized approximately 16.5 tons of cocaine from a ship at the Port of Philadelphia, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania tweeted Tuesday.

The drugs were seized on a ship at the Packer Marine Terminal on the Delaware River.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said the drug bust marks the largest drug seizure in the history of the district. The drugs have an estimated street value of approximately $1 billion the office said.

The amount of drugs would rank in among the top drug seizures in U.S. history, including 21 tons of cocaine that was seized in California and 14 tons of cocaine in Texas both in 1989, Reuters reported.

At least some crew members on board the ship have been arrested, the Attorney’s office said in another tweet.

An investigation is on-going.

BREAKING NEWS Federal authorities have seized approximately 16.5 TONS of cocaine from a large ship at the Packer Marine Terminal in Philadelphia. This is the largest drug seizure in the history of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. @ICEgov @CBPMidAtlantic @PhillyPolice @USCG

— U.S. Attorney EDPA (@USAO_EDPA) June 18, 2019

Local NBC affiliate NBC10 reported that federal agents were seen boarding the MSC Gayane on Tuesday. AIS data shows it arrived at the port early Monday morning. The ship had previously called at Colombia, Chile, Panama and the Bahamas, the report said.

Back in March, a joint operation involving the U. S. Customs and Border Protection seized approximately 3,200 pounds of cocaine from a ship at the Port of New York and New Jersey in what officials at the time said was the largest seizure of drugs at the port since 1994.

The Packer Avenue Marine Terminal back in March received two new super post-panamax cranes, bringing the total number of operational cranes at the PhilaPort to seven, including five super post-panamax.

https://gcaptain.com/authorities-find-cocaine-worth-over-1-billion-on-ship-at-port-at-philadelphia/

Marketfags may like this one. Imagine not only the scrap steel supply increase but a ship's reduction gear is really really expensive metal.

Banks With $100 Billion in Shipping Loans Get Strict on Climate

June 18, 2019 by Bloomberg

containership sailing

Just dance / Shutterstock

(Bloomberg) –A group of financiers with $100 billion of loans to shipowners are about to get stricter on the kinds of vessels they’ll finance as part of a drive to improve the maritime industry’s environmental performance.

Eleven major financiers including Citigroup Inc. and Societe Generale SA are for the first time adopting a set of principles requiring them to maintain their lending books in a way that matches goals in the Paris climate agreement, as well as related targets adopted by global regulator the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization.

It means banks will favor financing of cleaner vessels while shying away from those carriers that are more polluting. The shift will potentially help to tighten a well-supplied freight market that’s depressed rates, said Michael Parker, global head of shipping & logistics at Citigroup.

“Shipowners will think more carefully about the economic life of the asset,” he said. “Climate is a new consideration they haven’t really had in the past.”

A lack of bank finance today is already keeping new ordering low and the impact of the principles will become evident in the next two-to-three years as shipowners consider new IMO targets and limit orders to cleaner vessels, which might reduce supply of new ships, Parker said. There’s already a pick up in scrapping of older ships after the IMO imposed clean-fuel rules for ships starting in 2020, he said.

The financial institutions’ so-called Poseidon Principles will establish a baseline to assess and disclose whether the lenders’ portfolios are in line with the climate goals. They’ll also serve as a tool to manage investment risks such as those posed by new fuels standards or carbon pricing. Under the plan, a loan book that’s ready for new climate policies would be more valuable than one that isn’t.

Banks and pension funds are increasingly pushing for companies in many industries to cut emissions in an effort to reduce the risk of wild stock-market fluctuations caused by climate change and new policies. The Climate Action 100+ group says its goal is to drive change at companies contributing the most greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Poseidon Principles rewrite the role that the financial sector can play in helping achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement,” said James Mitchell, a manager in the climate finance and industry programs at environmental group the Rocky Mountain Institute, which helped develop the measures.

The principles for shipping, being adopted by banks that also include DNB ASA, are intended to evolve over time as the IMO tightens its policies. Shipping companies including A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S are also behind the initiative.

The rules initially mean lending would dovetail with a goal that greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping will peak as soon as possible and fall by at least 50% of their 2008 levels by 2050.

“We know that the portfolio that’s aligned with the target today may not be aligned in 2023, when the targets will probably be tightened,” said Parker, who is the chair of the principles’ drafting committee.

The shift should encourage shipbuilders to innovate with designs so vessels can, in future, switch to cleaner fuels such as biofuels, hydrogen or ammonia from the heavy fuel they use today, said Tristan Smith, a reader in energy and shipping at University College London who helped develop the principles. Vessels that don’t have the flexibility to switch fuels may limit their useful life.

It’s possible some shipowners will continue ordering dirty ships, betting rules that damage their profitability won’t come anytime soon, Smith said.

If a carrier isn’t able to attract good rates, its owner will “either have to accept a much lower second-hand value or have to scrap it prematurely,” he said. “It’s a chain of events that isn’t yet in the regulation, but it’s highly foreseeable.”

Bloomberg Philanthropies, which along with Bloomberg LP is owned by Michael Bloomberg, helps fund the Rocky Mountain Institute. The nonprofit helped develop the principles.

© 2019 Bloomberg L.P

https://gcaptain.com/banks-with-100-billion-in-shipping-loans-get-strict-on-climate/

>>6790882

Here's what's listed for MSC GAYANE previous port calls

>>6790922

Who thought packing 46.5 tons into one shipment was a good idea? Somebody done made the cartel boss real unhappy

>>6790904

May be no more than cartels expect the Border routes to get closed down so tried to find another way. California too easily suspected so try Philly? Only two of us boatfags so trying to include watching Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, and Halifax would require espresso IV's

>>6790999

marinetraffic.com has 64 photos of the ship available.

Here she is.

U.S. DISPLAYS MINE FRAGMENTS, MAGNET

In the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah on Wednesday, the U.S. Navy exhibited pieces of limpet mines and a magnet it said its personnel extracted from one of two oil tankers attacked in the Gulf of Oman last week.

The U.S. military earlier released images it said showed Iranian Revolutionary Guards removing an unexploded mine from Japanese-owned tanker Kokuka Courageous, which was hit by blasts along with Norwegian-owned Front Altair tanker on June 13.

“The limpet mine that was used in the attack is distinguishable and also strikingly bearing a resemblance to Iranian mines that have already been publicly displayed in Iranian military parades,” Sean Kido, commanding officer of an explosive ordnance dive and salvage task group in the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), told reporters.

Small fragments said to have been removed from the Kokuka Courageous were on display alongside a magnet purportedly left by the Revolutionary Guard squad allegedly captured on video.

The Japanese company that owns the Kokuka Courageous had said its ship was damaged by two “flying objects,” but NAVCENT dismissed this account.

“The damage at the blast hole is consistent with a limpet mine attack, it is not consistent with an external flying object striking the ship,” Kido said, adding that nail holes visible in the hull indicated how the mine was attached to the ship’s hull.

The location of the mine above the ship’s waterline indicated the intention was not to sink the vessel, he said.

Two Western security sources told Reuters this week the attacks seemed calibrated to inflict only limited damage and avoid injury to show that Iran could sow chaos if it wanted to, possibly to persuade Washington and other foes to back off rather than trigger conflict.

Kido also said NAVCENT had collected biometric information including fingerprints from the ship’s hull that would help in crafting a criminal case against the assailants.

Full article here:

https://gcaptain.com/navy-says-mine-fragments-suggest-iran-behind-gulf-tanker-attack/

>>6790911

28 million veterans in the United States. "Antifa Season" will have no tag limit. "Millions of antifa supersoldiers" sounds like a new way to say "target-rich environment." Roughly four and a half months to practice combatives/bayonet training? Gonna be a lot of basements and dorm rooms coming available.