Japanese shipping company MOL announced its intention to install a navigation system using augmented reality (AR) technology jointly developed by Furuno Electric and MOL Techno-Trade, on 21 MOL-operated very large crude oil carriers (VLCCs).
Last week marked 18 years since the explosion and sinking of the VLCC ‘MT Haven’ off the coast of Genoa, Italy. To date, Haven is not only known as the world’s largest shipwrecks, but also the largest oil spill in the history of the Mediterranean Sea.
In its weekly report for 12-20 March, Fearnleys said that VLCC activity has been far disappointing, the market for Aframaxes trading in the North Sea and Baltic came off significantly, while for the Suezmax type, continued sparse activity in the West has allowed Charterers to pull rates even further down.
China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) announced its plan to raise around RMB4.1bn ($610 million) through new share offering. The company will use part of the money to fund newbuilds on order, including four VLCCs and two VLOCs. It also expects to spend $50 million on fitting 10 VLCCs with scrubbers.
Sentinel Midstream published its scheduled development of Texas GulfLink, a proposed Deepwater Crude Oil Export Terminal, located near Freeport, Texas. The facility will be able to fully load Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) vessels.
Sentinel Midstream, a Texas-based midstream solution provider, is the latest company to present its designs for the development of a new deepwater terminal, located near Freeport, Texas. The proposed Texas Gulflink will be capable of fully loading Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) vessels.
Saudi Arabia’s tanker owner Bahri has dismissed reports that one of its very large crude carriers (VLCCs) was breaching U.S. sanctions on Venezuela. The company reports that the cargo, they’re accused of, was contracted on January 9, 2019, well before the U.S. sanctions were imposed against Venezuela on January 28, 2019. The company’s 303,000 dwt oil tanker Abqaiq is on its way from the Red Sea to pick up a cargo from the Port of Jose Terminal in Venezuela for one of its Indian customers.
Texas COLT, a proposed joint venture among Enbridge, Kinder Morgan, and Oiltanking, announced that it has submitted an application with the US Maritime Administration to construct and operate a deepwater crude oil export port located off the coast of Freeport, Texas. The submission with MARAD starts the application process for Texas COLT which is expected to be in-service by 2022.
According to Gibson Shipbrokers, Libya is planning to build a new port suitable for VLCCs to berth. The port will aspire to leverage its strategic location for vessels travelling between Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal and to and from the US. VLCCs have not fully loaded in port for more than 5 years because of a build-up in silt at the Es Sider terminal.
MOL says that the dry bulk market will weaken because of uncertainty over the trade war between the US and China. In addition, the very large crude oil carrier market has gradually weakened since the start of 2019, after peaking at the end of 2018. MOL expects repeated ups and downs until the end of February, which is the winter demand period.
