Tag: Spain

The Spanish Navy minesweeper Turia ran aground on August 27, off La Manga, Spain. The ship was participating in a search and rescue operation for a downed Spanish Air Force C-101 training jet, when the grounding took place. After the incident, some of the ship's crew, as well as a dive team, remained on board the ship during the night, in order to monitor any changes.

A Spanish ferry, carrying around 400 passengers, ran aground while sailing from Ibiza and Majorca, on August 16. After the incident rescue operations were launched by the coast guard and other emergency services. The ferry 'Pinar del Rio' is operated by Balearia, and grounded off Benidorm, southeastern Spain, while the ship was preparing to moor in harbor with 393 passengers and 70 vehicles on board.

Based on data from the LNG terminal operator Enagás, Spain's LNG imports rapidly increased by 48.9% in June, in comparison to the same month last year. Accordingly, the LNG imports reached about 20.7 terawatt-hours (TWh) in June 2019, in comparison to 2018 June's 13.9 TWh that was reported.

More than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for a limit of one cruise ship a day docking in Palma de Mallorca. Currently, around 500 cruise ships dock in Mallorca every year, disembarking about 2 million passengers. The manifesto claims that the number of giant cruise ships has increased in an unsustainable way, which the city does not want.

The European Commission decided to refer Greece and Spain to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to make the EU rules on personal data protection into a law (the Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive, Directive (EU) 2016/680). In April 2016, the Council and the European Parliament agreed the Directive had to be transposed into national law by 6 May 2018.

Spain's Guardia Civil arrested six members of a hashish-smuggling gang during an operation on the Chafarinas Islands, off the coast of Ras Kebdana, Morocco. According to information, the gang allegedly used a boat as a semi-permanent staging base for smuggling, as well as 11 speedboats.

APM Terminals has invested €47 million in the Port of Barcelona over recent months. The most recent investment was the acquisition of 29 new straddle carriers, which will help APM Terminals Barcelona improve efficiency once operational this month. 

Baleària, Spanish shipping company, announced its deal with Armón shipyards, for the construction of the Eleanor Roosevelt fast ferry. According to the company, it will be the first catamaran high-speed passenger vessel to navigate powered by liquefied natural gas is progressing in its construction process in the workshops of the Gijón company. 

Spanish authorities informed that they have captured hashish worth about 20 million euros ($22 million) from a container ship that allegedly was smuggling the drug from North Africa to the eastern Mediterranean. The seizure of the drugs and the arrest of the crew is a result of a six-months tracking by the authorities.

Three officers of the Grimaldi Group who were onboard the Grande Europa when it caught fire off Mallorca last month, have been been arrested in Spain for alleged arson. Namely, the third officer and two other crew members are facing accusations of setting off two fires on the ship.