According to NOAA’s National Hurricane Centres, the first hurricane of the season is expected to pass over the US Gulf of Mexico, and it is possible to make landfall in Louisiana or Texas. The hurricane is expected to pass through the centre of America’s oil and gas industry.
The US Coast Guard issued its reporting requirements for the upcoming hurricane season at the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf, requesting that operators of all manned facilities and MODUs report only when personnel were stranded onboard AND not able to evacuate due to extreme circumstances.
NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center is predicting ]a near-normal Atlantic hurricane season this year. This outlook expects a 40% chance of a near-normal season, a 30% chance of an above-normal season and a 30% chance of a below-normal season. The hurricane season officially extends from June 1 to November 30.
TAFB, the National Hurricane Centre’s Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch, published a detailed five-day marine weather forecasts concerning the offshore waters of Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Ecuador. The new areas reflect an unprecedented increase in predicted lead-time and detail. Such improvements should promote better decision making by ship captains and crew in hurricane-prone waters.
The U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) has issued the report, 2017 Hurricane Season: Recommendations for a Resilient Path Forward for the Marine Transportation System. The report provides an overview of the impacts to the Marine Transportation System (MTS) during the 2017 hurricane season and identifies best practices and lessons learned for federal agencies.
The sinking of the container ship ‘El Faro’ in October 2015, claiming the title of one of the biggest marine tragedies in the recent history of US, was largely attributed to the Captain’s wrong assessment of the conditions. Anastasios Chrysikopoulos, Chief Officer at Maran Dry Management Inc. analyzed the Captain’s actions which identified human error as the key lesson to be learned from the El Faro loss.
The 2018 Atlantic hurricane season officially concluded on 30 November and will be remembered most for hurricanes Florence and Michael, which caused significant damage in the southeastern US. In total, the season produced 15 named storms, including eight hurricanes of which two were ‘major’. An average season has 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.
The US National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, NOAA and partners announced $28.9 million in new grants for the restoration or expansion of natural features, such as coastal marshes and wetlands, oyster and coral reefs, coastal rivers and barrier islands, that help minimize the impacts of storms and other extreme events on nearby communities and infrastructure in 22 states and Puerto Rico.
Offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico are continuing normal operations after the Hurricane Michael. Namely, personnel have returned to all of the 687 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as to all of the previously-evacuated non-dynamically positioned rigs.
The US Coast Guard National Maritime Center issued a notice to announce that, in accordance with Federal Regulations, duplicate Merchant Mariner Credentials may be issued free of charge to mariners whose credentials were lost or destroyed as a result of Hurricane Michael or subsequent flooding.
