Selected items from compilation of Intership Navigation Training Center. Issue 29 / 2010

1. CASUALTY WEBRIEF

M/V KHALIJIA 3 (St.Kitts & Nevis, 45798dwt) w/ 28-crew, laden with steel coils from China, run aground and suffered a water ingress, about 8 miles from Mumbai coast. The crew was rescued by Indian Coast Guard. The hole in the hull was plugged by rescue team. 18-July-2010.

M/V WEST OCEAN 1 (Philippines) had fire in the engine room 20-July-2010 at the Manila N Harbor. Crew tried to fight the fire but it worsened and spread quickly. The master declared abandonship. The fire was later extinguished by shore firefighters. Faulty wiring was the suspected cause of fire.

M/V ANDRIAN III (Indonesia) bound for Khorramshaher Iran from Jakarta, had flooding problem and anchored off Kochi, India. Indian Coastguard, provided food + water to the crew. 18-July-2010.

M/V PEAK BERGEN (Barbados, 1543gt) w/ pilot o/b inbound Hull, caught the chain of a Middle buoy by its propeller and dragged the buoy. The ship w/damage was towed to Albert Dock. 16-July-2010.

M/V RASUL GAMZATOV (Russia, 4991gt) struck the buoy 65 while heaving anchor in the Volgo Caspian Channel. The buoy sank. 14-July-2010.

Pass/cruiser SUPERSTAR VIRGO (Panama, 75338gt) rescued 8 of the 59 crewmembers of the F/V GIAN SENG 18 (Taiwan) after it caught fire off Port Dickson, 15-July-2010. The rescued persons were taken to Port Klang, Malaysia.

M/T VARZUGA (Russia, 16038dwt) contacted with M/V INDIGA (Russia, 16168dwt) in heavy ice. The 2 ships are passing the Northern Sea w/ 2 nuclear icebreakers ROSSIA + TAYMYR. 17-July-2010.

M/V RUI JIN TAN (China, 31004gt) w/ crude oil cargo sent distress message that it ran aground in the north channel of the Qiongzhou Strait, between Tonkin Gulf and S China Sea, 19-July-2010.

Typhoon CONSON passing Vietnam: M/V SHINSUNG ACCORD (S.Korea, 17,500dwt) and c.c. VINASHIN EXPRESS 01 (Vietnam, 23063dwt), were torn off moorings from a shipyard in Hai Phong, Vietnam, and dragged under the 4-lane Binh Bridge. M/V V.Express 01 shattered a big piece of concrete on the bridge and bent some metals and cable supports of the bridge, 17-July-2010. M/V VINASHIN ORIENT (Vietnam, 8300dwt) was stuck under the bridge and freed only after cutting part of the bridge. Many of its cranes were destroyed. Vehicles are banned from crossing the bridge until notice of safe passage is confirmed after electronic checks. M/V JADE (Antigua &B) rescued 10 men while Navy ships had rescued around 190 fishermen off the Paracel islands. About 17 persons dead or missing and 43 vessels sunk or damaged. 19-July-2010.

2. PORT STATE CONTROL

From recent news of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the first group of 20 PSC officers from member countries of the Paris MoU completed the 5-day training course on enforcing the forth coming New Inspection Regime (NIR). In total, 80 PSC Officers will follow the NIR training during 2010.  Back in their respective countries, they will train others, around 2000 PSC officers.

3. PIRACY

Chem. M/T UBT OCEAN (Marshall I, 9380dwt) w/ 22-Myanmar crew and F/V SAKOBA (Kenya) w/ 16-crew (Spanish, Polish, Kenyans, Cape Verdean and Namibian) were released by Somali pirates after ransom has been paid, 20-July-2010. The vessels have been held for more than four months.

4. IMO Environmental update: FUEL OIL SULPHUR LIMITS (fm NE P&I)

The new 200 nautical-mile North American emission control area was adopted (MPEC 190(60)).

Scheduled to enter into force on 1-August-2011, a MARPOL annex VI sulphur limit of 1.0% will apply from 1-August-2012, 12 months after the entry into force of MARPOL Annex VI, reg.14.7. Sulphur limits for the Baltic and North Sea emission control areas were effective from, 1-July-2010.

Apart from those vessels using exhaust gas scrubbing plant, vessel transiting emission control areas from 1-January 2015 will be required to adhere to revised sulphur limits of 0.10%.

A revision to the supplement to the international pollution prevention certificate issued under MARPOL annex VI was approved to document clearly which sulphur limit a ship meets. If adopted at MPEC 61 in Oct-2010, the revisions will enter into force in February 2012.

5. POLLUTION

Chinese workers were scrambling to contain a huge oil slick from seeping further into the Yellow Sea, 18-July-2010 after an explosion in Dalian, Liaoning, NE China oil storage. Many vessels were working to contain about 180 square-kilometres oil spill. According to a preliminary investigation, a leak from a Libyan-flagged tanker, which was unloading oil at the port, caught fire leading to explosions at two pipelines at the facility. There was a report that an incorrect procedure during the offloading of the tanker may have led to the incident. Over 2,000 fire-fighters and 338 fire engines fought the blaze for 15 hours. No deaths or injuries were reported. It was estimated that about 1500 tons of oil was spilled in the sea. About 800 fishing boats and 24 oil clean-up vessels collected about 460 tons spilled oil as of 19-July-2010. The oil terminal will be closed for more than 2 weeks.