Yes, and rather unoriginal name since there is up to a MEIN SCHIFF 6 currently cruising off Vietnam. The La Romana port call seemed worth reporting.
Brazil’s Sprawling Car Wash Probe Expands to Maersk Contracts
December 18, 2019 by Reuters
By Jake Spring and Pedro Fonseca BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Brazilian authorities on Wednesday targeted Maersk and other companies for allegedly paying bribes to get an edge in securing shipping contracts with state oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA, in the latest phase of a sprawling graft probe.
Federal prosecutors said in a statement that Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, was involved in allegedly paying $3.4 million in bribes related to 11 shipping contracts with Petrobras, worth 592 million reais ($141.07 million).
Maersk confirmed in a statement that its offices in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo were searched by Brazilian police, adding that it would co-operate fully with authorities. Petrobras said it continues to work with authorities, adding the company itself is a victim of corruption.
Twelve search and seize warrants were carried out on Wednesday, prosecutors said, in order to further their investigation.
Maersk met with Brazilian investigators as far back as 2014 in relation to its dealings with Petrobras during the early stages of the corruption investigation.
This is the 70th phase of the Car Wash probe that unveiled wide-ranging graft, upending the country’s political establishment by implicating hundreds of officials and executives.
Prosecutors additionally named shipping brokers Tide Maritime and Ferchem as targets in the probe.
A representative of Tide Maritime said the company is unaware of the issue and continues to operate normally, declining further comment. Ferchem could not immediately be reached for comment.
The three companies are being investigated in relation to contracts with Petrobras totaling more than 5 billion reais ($1.19 billion), prosecutors said.
Companies allegedly bribed Petrobras employees for privileged information on the schedule of ships used to transport oil and derivative products in order to gain an edge in bidding for contracts, federal police said in a statement.
In the case of Maersk, the company used a brokerage that passed bribes to a Petrobras director, who has been actively assisting authorities in their investigation, prosecutors alleged.
The fact that Maersk would use a brokerage with little experience aroused suspicions, helping prompt further investigation, they said.
“We were able to verify that Maersk had chosen to hire a totally inexperienced broker, without any prior track record in the sector,” federal prosecutor Marcelo Ribeiro told a press briefing.
($1 = 4.1964 reais)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019.
https://gcaptain.com/brazils-sprawling-car-wash-probe-expands-to-maersk-contracts/
Poking around the gcaptain site again and found it.
How about this one from gcaptain?:
New Clean Shipping Fuel Rules, But Who Will Police the Polluters?
December 19, 2019 by Reuters
By Jonathan Saul LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Sweeping new fuel rules aiming to cut pollution belching from ships and save lives are now just a couple of weeks away but with no central policing agency and several countries still not signed up to them, compliance is a major concern.
From January 2020, ships must use fuel with a sulfur content of 0.5%, down from 3.5%, or install devices that strip out the toxic pollutant – known as scrubbers.
As a result, refiners and shipping companies will spend billions of dollars in the years ahead on ensuring fuel and engines comply.
But enforcement of the United Nations convention on cleaner fuels – known as MARPOL Annex VI – rests with individual countries and flag states, meaning for some routes and regions, compliance is already looking patchy.
A handful of major states resisted pressure this month at the UN’s COP25 climate talks in Madrid to ramp up efforts to combat global warming, underscoring a need for collective action to cut carbon emissions and wider pollution.
Despite two decades in the making, countries such as Israel and New Zealand have been unable to sign up in time for the 2020 IMO start date, while others such as Malaysia are considering how to apply the rules.
“I am sure there will be pockets (of non-compliance) initially,” said Guy Platten, secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping association.
“Without co-ordination and consistency, shipowners will be placed in a no-win situation,” he said.
So far, over 90 countries have adopted the rules, which were set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), leaving large parts of Africa and South America yet to sign up.
Russia said in October that while it pledged to stick to its obligations in international waters from 2020, it wants to postpone introduction of the rules domestically to prevent a sharp jump in marine fuel prices for its domestic river fleet.
The IMO said flag states which have signed up represented almost 97% of world merchant shipping by tonnage.
“It is recognized that in some areas the coverage by port state is not 100%, but as soon as a ship trades to a state which has acceded to MARPOL Annex VI they could be subject to control,” it said.
All commercial ships have to be registered, or flagged, with a particular country, partly to comply with safety and environmental regulations.
SANCTIONS?
Nick Makar, regulatory affairs advisor with the Marshall Islands registry, among the world’s top three flags, said it was an obligation under the MARPOL convention to establish sanctions, and penalties should be “adequate to discourage violations.”
“Compliance will be considered on a case by case basis,” he said.
Officials in Israel said the country was unable to meet the 2020 start date as a national proposal on the issue was still in the process of being amended.
Israel’s environment ministry said its proposed regulation would be more stringent than MARPOL Annex VI, but gave no time frame for when the country would join.
New Zealand’s government said this month it would sign up to the IMO convention, as the country’s previous administration had not initiated the process.
Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter said there would be “a longer lead in time” before the rules applied to domestic ships, with stricter sulfur limits from early 2022.
Genter’s office told Reuters fuel companies in New Zealand were preparing to supply international ships with 0.5% fuel on entering local waters, but did not say when it would happen.
ENFORCEMENT
Malaysia, a major shipping hub for commodities and oil, said it would consider detaining ships until they had compliant fuel.
“We will have to look into how we enforce these requirements on the ships,” said Baharin bin Abdul Hamid, director general of the Malaysia Marine Department.
Countries in Europe are gearing up for full compliance using measures such as “sniffers,” which measure the sulfur content from a vessel’s flue gas, and rigorous oil sampling at port control areas, all with the threat of imprisonment.
Elsewhere, the Panama Canal, one of the world’s busiest chokepoints, was taking steps to ensure readiness.
“We expect some non-compliance internationally and for that reason we have been training our inspectors and engineers to secure compliance,” said Alexis Rodriguez, a specialist in environmental protection with the Panama Canal.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019.
https://gcaptain.com/new-clean-shipping-fuel-rules-but-who-will-police-the-polluters/
Member back in 8chan how the slides increased whenever CEMEX came up? Wonder what it is about that company that causes so much activity?
Trying to tie CEMEX, Hanseatic Unity Chartering, and ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach and Vancouver together and slides where everywhere, then 8chan was gone.
Was trying to tie Church of Scientology Cruise ship FREEWINDS to M/V REVERIE of Alamitos Bay and Saona Island in the Dominican Republic and the "you are a boatshill" attacks started.
Anons seem to have found a few of the sore spots
Somebody did mention old memes in our collections
It is Winter
A message from the Grand Admiral: There's a lot of water out there to watch!"
I haven't needed a subscription there yet
Mostly I cath the ships near the ports where the AIS receivers are. I use this one when looking toward owners of large ships:
http://www.vesseltracking.net/
Dis right here
About to haz a smoke break, and the pronoun is "boatfag" dammit