Clipper Oil: Latest Maritime News – Environmental Groups Say IMO Failing to Cap Emissions, Industry Reaction Mixed

Latest Maritime News

13-26 October 2020

Environmental Groups Say IMO Failing to Cap Emissions, Industry Reaction Mixed

The results of an IMO intercessional on reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions met with sharp criticism from environmental groups and a mixed reaction from shipping industry organizations.

A joint statement by Pacific Environment, Clean Shipping Coalition, Seas at Risk, Transport & Environment and WWF charged IMO with failing to implement its own GHG reduction plan.

A joint statement said the draft text to be forwarded to the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meeting on 16 – 20 November, “did not cap, let alone reduce, shipping emissions this decade.” Continue reading here (Source: Seatrade Maritime News)

Container Lines Expect US Import Binge to Lose Steam

Surging shipments into the United States are fueling record high freight costs and logjams at seaports, but transportation executives say the rally will lose steam with a second wave of COVID-19 restrictions on the cards.

Container shipping companies, which move goods for customers including Amazon.com AMZN.O and Walmart WMT.N, got stung late last year and early this year when COVID-19 halted trade around the world, and they question whether the U.S. import boom can be sustained.

"Let's not get carried away," Rolf Habben Jansen, chief executive of Germany's Hapag Lloyd HLAG.DE, told reporters. "This is just a spike that no one has foreseen in an unusual period. There will be a correction to that." Continue reading here (Source: Reuters)

EPA Unveils New Vessel Discharge Rules

On Oct. 26 in the Federal Register, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published proposed vessel discharge regulations. The new regulations are being implemented pursuant to the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA) of 2018. The EPA is soliciting public comment on its proposal until Nov. 25. Continue reading here (Source: Professional Mariner)

Oil Prices Fall Due to Concerns Over Fuel Demand as COVID-19 Cases Rise

Oil prices have slipped by 3% as rising cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) infections in the US and Europe increased concerns over crude demand.

Brent crude futures were down by $1.25 or 0.3% to $40.52 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell by $1.28 touching $38.57, Reuters reported.

Last week, Brent futures fell 2.7% and WTI dropped by 2.5%.

The total confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide have exceeded 41,798,000 with more than 1,137,000 deaths and 28,349,000 recoveries, as of 23 October. Continue reading here (Source: Offshore Technology)

What Will OPEC Choose for 2021?

Oil prices have held relatively steady in recent months around $40 per barrel. This is not a bad level, as far as OPEC+ is concerned, because at that price most all U.S. oil drillers are effectively insolvent, and U.S. oil supply will continue to drop, from roughly 10.5 million barrels per day—down from more than 13 million barrels per day pre-pandemic.

Sure the OPEC nations would like to generate some more revenue, but having gone through all this pain already, they cannot afford an untimely resuscitation of the U.S. shale patch. That’s why in 2021 we can expect that OPEC+ will not proactively tighten its production to increase the oil price above $50 per barrel, the minimum necessary breakeven for many U.S shale patch operators. Continue reading here (Source: Forbes)

Gulf of Mexico Energy Industry Faces Another Hurricane

The Gulf of Mexico's oil and gas industry is set to weather yet another tropical storm - Zeta, the 27th named storm of the season.

If the forecast from the National Hurricane Center holds, Zeta will pass near or over the Yucatan Peninsula and sweep through the central Gulf of Mexico as a Category 1 hurricane. Typical precautionary measures for a hurricane-force storm include offshore platform evacuations and rig shutdowns, and the Gulf offshore industry has already experienced several rounds of shut-in and startup this season. The storm is forecast to be at or near hurricane strength when it approaches the northern Gulf Coast region, and there is a risk of another round of storm surge, rainfall and high winds between Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle. Continue reading here (Source: The Maritime Executive)

Numbers Don't Add Up on the Record-Breaking Transpacific

Sea-Intelligence, a leading container shipping analyst, is warning the record rates seen on the transpacific are unlikely to last much longer.

Rates from Asia to the US west and east coast have been in record territory for the last three months with carriers injecting significant capacity onto both tradelanes. However, the US is in recession.

“We do have an uneasy sense that the current cargo bonanza cannot be sustained,” the Danish consultancy warned in its latest weekly report, saying the numbers do not add up.

“It does not add up to a sustainable supply/demand equation to see 20+% growth rates in demand in a time of marked recession,” Sea-Intelligence pointed out. Continue reading here (Source: Splash247)