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Top Pentagon Official: Houthis Have “Scary” Ballistic Missile Capabilities   Last week, the Pentagon’s most senior acquisition official warned that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have developed “amazing” ballistic missile capabilities over the course of the past year – capabilities that are only shared by a few advanced nation-states.  Dr. William LaPlante, current Under Secretary of Defense…

Hong Kong Maps Action Plan on Green Maritime Fuel Bunkering   The Government of Hong Kong hosted a presentation on Friday, November 15 to detail its action plan to promote the development of Hong Kong into a high-quality green maritime fuel bunkering center. As one of the busiest ports in Asia, the government looks to…

Maersk Redeploys Maersk Halifax After First Conversion to Methanol Maersk is reporting that it has successfully redeployed its first-ever methanol conversion containership back into the fleet. The Maersk Halifax is underway making its final call in Asia before crossing the Pacific to Mexico and Panama on its first post-conversion voyage. “We are happy to announce…

Two Baltic Subsea Cables Likely Severed by “Outside Forces”   Two Baltic subsea cables connecting four different NATO nations have likely been severed, according to officials in Finland and Sweden. The first fiber-optic line in question is the C-Lion1 cable, which runs about 750 miles from Helsinki, Finland to Rostock, Germany. According to Finland’s state telecom company,…

Tanker Suffers “Rudder Failure” Forcing Turkey to Suspend Bosphorus Traffic Mechanical failures and incidents are not particularly uncommon in the region around the Bosphorus due to the ragtag fleet operating to the Black Sea and along the Turkish coast, but yesterday’s incident was not the typical emergency for Turkish authorities. It forced them to close…

Singaporean Bunker Magnate OK Lim Sentenced to 17 Years for Fraud   Singaporean bunker trading tycoon OK Lim has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for his role in an accounting scandal that cost their creditors billions of dollars.  Lim, 82, faced 130 individual charges in connection with a fraud scheme at…

Italy Launches Antitrust Investigation into MSC Investment in Moby Italy’s Competition and Market Authority revealed today that it has launched an investigation into the investment by MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company into Italian ferry operator Moby. The investigation is looking at the potential of “restrictions of competition,” after MSC made a series of actions in 2022…

Navy Officials Missed Multiple Chances to Avoid Red Hill Disaster   The Pentagon’s inspector general has concluded that the U.S. Navy didn’t understand the spill risks involved in operating its Red Hill fuel tank site at Pearl Harbor, and it repeatedly failed to respond when a major spill finally occurred, exposing thousands of military family…

OSG’s CEO Proposes One-Cent Export Tax to Fund U.S. Tankers   In the event of a major war in the Western Pacific, U.S. forces are going to need fuel, and a lot of it. Government estimates of the supply needs for carriers, warships and ground forces run in the range of 50 million gallons per…

Crude Behavior: What Are Oil Prices Telling Us?   In the eight weeks from early August to mid-September, America’s benchmark oil price (West Texas Intermediate) fell from the mid-$80s a barrel to the mid-$60s – the lowest level in 32 months. Prices have rebounded slightly since. For many in the Oil Patch, however, a price…

Managing Cyber Risk With USCG’s New Maritime Security Directive   In this article Michael DeVolld, Maritime Transportation System (MTS) Cybersecurity Lead at ABS Consulting looks at the potential implications to vessel owners, operators and port authorities impacted by the new directive, the importance of acting now to prepare for the implementation of the regulations and some…

EU’s Maritime Spatial Plan for the Aegean Angers Turkey   Following a recent update of maritime spatial planning (MSP) maps in the European MSP Platform, Turkey has expressed displeasure with the bloc’s delimitation of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. In a statement over the weekend, Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said that the Aegean and Mediterranean…

The Complexities of a Global Network for Seafarer Medical Exams Post-COVID   The maritime industry operates on a unique foundation where crew health and well-being are critical for safe and effective operations. The COVID-19 pandemic has redefined the requirements for health and safety at sea, leading to new challenges in ensuring that seafarers undergo thorough and consistent…

To Prepare for a Pacific War, U.S. Must Harden Southern Flank   [By Henry Ziemer] The United States’ foundations as a global great power rest in no small part on its status as a regional hegemon. No single country in the Western Hemisphere can make a serious bid to balance Washington’s economic and military might,…

Port of Salalah Looks to Gemini Network to Revive Traffic Oman’s Indian Ocean container port at Salalah is fighting a drop in throughput caused by Houthi attacks on shipping by joining a global vessel-sharing agreement headed up by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd.  The Gemini Network is intended to facilitate use of the Cape of Good Hope…

China and Russia Threaten a Fundamental Principle of the Antarctic Treaty   [By Evan T. Bloom, Tony Press, and Lyn Goldsworthy] The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) recently concluded its 43rd annual meeting in Hobart, with no progress on any of the major issues it faced. Many of the 200…