Tag: Baltic Sea

IB Polaris is the first icebreaker in the world to use an LNG engine and has bunkered  LNG at the Tornio LNG terminal in Röyttä Harbour. Polaris joined the fleet of Finland’s icebreaker operator Arctia in September 2016. Except the use of LNG, the lubricant used in the vessel's propulsion system is biodegradable. The ship’s gray water, which basically consists of showering water, is collected to a container which is emptied during port calls. 

Alexey Miller, Chairman of Russia's Gazprom Management Committee, met with Masami Iijima, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Japanese Mitsui & Co., Ltd., in Moscow on 22 January. The parties discussed current issues related to bilateral collaboration, including the Sakhalin II project.

The Baltic Exchange focused on analysing, in its weekly report, the performance of tankers in the shipping sector. The report mainly focuses on VLCC, Suezmax, Aframax and Clean. Namely, the very large crude tankers (VLCCs) are the ones that remained stable in the previous week.

The US wants Qatar, which is the leader on LNG supply globally, to compete Russia's gas dominance in Europe, according to Reuters. The US are under conversation with Doha about supplying Europe with LNG, as it wants Germany and other countries to import Qatari and US gas rather than from Russia, which now accounts for 60 percent of German gas imports, as reported by Deputy U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette.

2019 kicked off with the data collection on fuel oil consumption, alternative mechanisms to comply with the 2020 Sulphur cap, the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, the IMSBC Code 2017 amendment as well as amendments designating North Sea and Baltic Sea as ECAs. With many more regulations and developments still yet to come, nations from all across the globe, ship operators and crew are going through a key period because of ten major issues that will have significant impact over the next ten years in the shipping industry.

A new EU project seeking to improve ferries transport in Baltic Sea was presented in Sweden this week. The project "Real Time Ferries (RTF)", under the EU-funded Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020, seeks to extend the use of real-time information to optimise intermodal transport chains for goods and people in the Baltic Sea Region. 

In the first 11 months of 2018, all Baltic ports received and shipped 144.78 million tons of cargo, which surpassed the same period in 2017 by 5.6% or 7.665 million tons according to the Lithuanian Statistical Bureau. From the whole cargo-handling, 41.8% was reloaded in Latvia, 35.3% in Lithuania and 22.9% in Estonia.

On 11 December 2018, the world’s largest LNG bunker supply vessel 'Kairos' has started operations in Northwest Europe. Chartered by Blue LNG, a joint venture of Nauticor with a 90% share and KN with a 10% share, the ship was handed over by the owner Babcock Schulte Energy in the port of Klaipeda.

Starting from 2019, ships taking part in the Environmental Ship Index (ESI) for reducing air emissions may apply for up to 8% discount on tonnage fees in the harbours of the Port of Tallinn. The differentiated port fees is expected to be launched in January 2019.

ECOPRODIGY addresses both the environmental and economic challenges posed by increasing eco-efficiency at all stages of the vessel lifecycle from design and building to the use, maintenance, stowage as well as conversion processes. DFDS was the most recent addition to the project.