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Sinking offshore oil rig stabilized
THE world’s largest offshore oil rig was saved from further
sinking nearly a week after a series of explosions crippled the 40-storey
platform, according to its Brazilian owners. At least 10 of the oil rig’s
crew were killed during the explosions.
Petrobras, the owner of the oil rig, disclosed that the
condition of the structure has been stabilized after workers pumped enough
water out of the submerged compartments. They have also injected nitrogen
and compressed air in a bid to remove nearly 3,000 tons of water weighing
down the rig.
Even so, the platform was listing more than ever, at a
27-degree angle, almost three times that of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and
has sunk almost 15 feet since the blasts. “Conditions at sea are making
the work difficult but they are not preventing the operation from continuing
altogether,” Petrobras said in a statement.
Petrobas general manager Carlos Eduardo Bellot for the
Campos Basin said that if the rig was to sink, up to 395,000 gallons (1.5
million litters) of crude and diesel in underwater pipelines and onboard
tanks could be dumped into the ocean. That amount is just a fraction of
the 11 million gallons (41 million liters) spilled by the Exxon Valdez
supertanker into the Alaskan seas in 1989, the worst environmental oil
disaster ever. “For the moment there is no environmental question that
is worrying us,” said Carlos Henrique Mendes of Brazil’s environmental
authority Ibama.
Three blasts ripped through the rig, killing 10 and seriously
injuring another member of the 175-persons crew aboard the rig anchored
in Brazil’s oil-rich Campos Basin north of Rio de Janeiro.
Workers’ unions said they were stepping up protest to
demand more safety, saying they will keep only a skeleton crew on the 50
platform in the Campos Basin, which supplies about 50 percent of Brazil’s
oil. “The protest is for life, for health, safety and in the memory of
our lost colleagues,” said Fernando de Carvalho, a regional director
for the United Oil Workers Federation. Unions are considering staggered
nationwide work stoppages.
Petrobras flew in US and Dutch experts and 50 tons of
European equipment to try to keep the deep-sea platform afloat and prevent
an oil spill over the weekend. Officials said there was a good chance of
keeping the huge structure afloat. Nearly 350 engineers, divers and navy
personnel are working to save the rid and expect to take advantage of calmer
seas.
‘Bill of Rights’ for seafarers
A “BILL of Rights” for the world’s seafarers look certain
to emerge from a radical overhaul of the international rules governing
living and working conditions at sea.
In recent discussions that resulted in a “pioneering agreements”
to develop a new “super convention,” NUMAST said the deal was reached at
the International Labor Organization’s joint maritime commission, a working
group composed of maritime unions, shipowners and governments. It will
aim to draw up by 2005 the terms of what has been describe as the industry’s
first truly ‘human factors’ convention.
Aside from replacing some 30 existing complex and often
outdated regulatory mechanisms, it will also incorporate a mechanism to
ensure that the rules covering seafarers employment conditions can be quickly
and efficiently updated to reflect changes in the industry. One of the
aims of overhauling the ILO rules is to ensure that social and labor standards
are properly taken into account when ships are inspected.
NUMAST general secretary Brian Orrell said the agreement
should help to combat the extensive abuse and exploitations of seafarers
in the world fleet. “The decline of terms and conditions and the casualization
of the working environment has fostered fundamental problems affecting
the recruitment and retention of skilled professional seafarers, creating
a serious long-term problem that exacerbates the industry’s growing labor
crisis," he warned.
Dutch master fined for drinking
A DUTCH shipmaster has been fined a total of 3,000 pounds
plus costs after he was discovered to be drunk while in charge of a ship
in the Thames Estuary. The Port of London Authority fined Capt. Geert Dijkema
after a duty port controller at Gravesend noticed that the Dutch-flagged
general cargo ship Steel Shuttle was navigating erratically in the Barrow
Deep.
A pilot cutter was sent out to meet the 993 gross ton
vessel as it came into the Thames after a voyage from Amsterdam and a pilot
had to be put onboard earlier than planned. A subsequent breath test on
the master proved positive.
The 53-year old master was fined 2,000 pounds for navigating
without due care and attention, 500 pounds for being under the influence
of alcohol and 500 pounds for failing to keep a proper lookout. The court
also awarded 1,326 pounds as costs to the PLA.
Freighter breaks in two, sinks off Spain
A MALTESE freighter with a crew of 35 broke in two and
sank off northwest Spain, leaving three sailors dead and eight missing,
maritime services said. The other crew members were rescued by teams working
from helicopters and ships, although three were hospitalized in serious
condition in the city of La Coruna.
Most of the crew of the vessel Kristal managed to abandon
the ship and board two life rafts after hitting stormy weather. One of
the rescued sailors died later in hospital while two others were found
dead in the water, the report said.
The ship was sailing from India to Rotterdam with a load
of molasses.
New ECDIS cuts bridge workload
WORKLOAD on the bridge will be dramatically reduced and
safety improved with the new electronic display and information system
(ECDIS) that claims to “bring together for the first time the things that
matter to both ships’ officers and shipowners.”
Called “Microplot Mariner 7 ECDIS, the new equipment produced
by Sea Information System, was designed by a former ship officer. Tony
Cochrane-Barnett, the company’s managing director, described the ECDIS
as being “designed and built by mariners for mariners.”
One of only two ECDIS fully type-approved by DNV, Mariner
7 can display five different charting systems in raster and vector format,
providing global coverage.
The system simultaneously displays the ship’s position
and can undertake such tasks as route planning and monitoring, distance
measurement and alarm monitoring, as well as offering anti-grounding and
off-route alarms.
Cochrane-Barnett said the system can cut bridge workload
and improve safety by providing all the necessary information in one place
in a familiar Windows display. The system can also interface to Navtex
receivers and display navigational warnings on screen.
Robot to search for missing fishers
THE search continues for the four students, two instructors
and three crews tossed out to sea when a US submarine crashed into their
fishing trawler off Oahu in Hawaii.
Family members of nine Japanese men and boys were
taken to the accident site where they tossed flowers into the sea, calling
out the names of their love ones while the Navy and Coast Guard widened
their search to cover 25,600 square kilometers. The Navy will also use
a deep-sea robot to investigate the ocean floor where the Japanese fishing
vessel sank, the head of the US Pacific Command said.
Adm. Dennis Blair said the inspection would help determine
the feasibility of a salvage operation for the Ehime Maru requested by
Japanese leaders and relatives of nine men and teenage boys feared entombed
in the ship. He spoke after meeting with Yoshitaka Sakurada, Japan’s parliamentary
secretary for foreign affairs. Both men said US Japanese relations should
not be damaged by the tragedy.
Alarm raised on substandard ships
THE International Commission and the Lloyd’s List called
on Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries to develop a uniform inspection
of their ports in the wake of reports that the region will be flooded
with substandard ships fleeing tough regimes in North America and Europe.
A draft report from the international symposium on “Safer
Shipping in the APEC Region,” contained recommendations which echoed port
state control practices similar to those already put in place by established
maritime nations, such as targeting high-risk vessels and developing a
culture of qualitative inspections. The draft report also includes some
recommendations from the International Commission on Shipping’s “Ships,
Slaves and Competition” report.
Notable was one from the symposium working on “engaging
other maritime related organizations and the power of the media,” chaired
by Lloyd’s Register shipping marine director Alan Galvin. It stated: “That
there could be benefit in the naming of the charter and cargo owner to
reduce substandard shipping and, nothing the conclusion of the Icons [report]
that shippers’ council should develop best practices codes of conduct,
to actively encourage their members to adopt the codes in the selection
of ships.”
Along with the call to develop an APEC-driven global port
state control network, symposium delegates asked ministers in their region
to:
- bolster flag state responsibility through competition
of International Maritime Organization self-assessment forms to put pressure
on failing states to close their registers;
- work closer with one or more fully in the IMO;
- focus on the human element in safety through a commitment
to world best practice in education, training and welfare and IMO protocols;
- improve and support maritime administration; and
- use and work with the media to raise shipping’s public
profile while co-operating with and supporting other maritime organizations
and associations.
Master arrested for crime vs environment
THE MASTER of a tanker that ran aground in the environmentally
sensitive Galapagos island is facing up to five years in jail for negligence
and crimes against the environment. Some 700,000 litres of diesel oil was
spilled when the 30-year old Ecuadorian-flagged tanker Jessica struck a
rock half a mile from the island of San Cristobal.
Captain Tarquino Arevalo has admitted that the incident
was his fault. ‘It was over-confidence on my part – I am completely to
blame,’ he said after the arrest. The captain and his crew members were
questioned by police investigating reports that the ship was not carrying
charts and that the radar was not being used.
Although the incident had been described by the Ecuador
government as the worst environmental disaster in decades, reports suggest
it has so far resulted in the death of two pelicans. Fear of major problems
receded after winds and currents carried the worst of the slick out to
the sea. A salvage team led by a special US Coast Guard spill response
unit manage to transfer some of the cargo into a barge, but were force
to stop by adverse whether conditions. However, a 1.5m appeal has been
launched to help fund a clean-up operation that aims to combat the impact
of bunker oil on the island’s unique ecosystem.
The incident has also generated renewed calls for all
ships to be required to have indemnity cover.
Efforts to refloat the tanker proved unsuccessful and
an alternate plan to sink the vessel further out to sea is being considered. |
