An investigation is underway after a vessel almost sank near the $43 billion Gorgon gas project on Barrow Island off Western Australia's northwest coast.
Chevron has confirmed a small multicat, operated by contractor Boskalis, ran aground on Sunday, causing some hull damage after it made contact with a dredge anchor.
'There were no injuries and emergency response procedures were activated to secure the multicat and contain fuel on board,' spokesman Guy Houston said.
A spokesman for the Department of Transport confirmed there was an investigation underway, but said it was standard procedure for such incidents.
The vessel Boskalis BKM 102 was towed to Dampier for repairs and will not be allowed to re-enter the port at Barrow Island until it is seaworthy.
However, Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) WA branch secretary Chris Cain says the incident could have been far more serious.
'We had four crew on the vessel with the Dutch captain and it was sinking fast,' he said.
'The ship had a gaping big hole five metres wide, with water and oil flooding in, when it made a run for the beach.'
International Transport Workers' Federation President and MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said it was the second time in recent months that dredging contractor Boskalis Australia had been the subject of safety concerns.
'This is yet another example of a multi-billion dollar project employing cowboys on the cheap and putting lives and the environment at risk,' he said.
FROM LLOYD'S LIST:
Shell boss calls on naviesto ‘take down’ pirate ships
Governments should authorise military to take tougher action amid escalating violent attacks on seafarers
Michelle Wiese Bockmann - Friday 11 February 2011
THE UK’s maritime industry has called for governments to authorise naval forces to “take down” motherships used by Somali pirates to hijack vessels and execute seafarers, acknowledging the intervention may risk civilian lives.
Shell head of shipping Jan Kopernicki, fronting trade groups whose members contribute over £25bn ($40.2bn) a year to the UK economy, made the urgent but controversial call amid escalating and brutal pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean region.
“The world has now changed,” Mr Kopernicki told Lloyd’s List. “The message we in industry are giving to governments — and I stress it’s governments, as the military know what they have to do — is that you have to get the motherships now, you have to attack the motherships.
“We understand it may mean risk to civilians and with great regret we have to take that risk. We know its a risk to military personnel as well.”
Somali pirates have a fleet of 20 motherships, many of them captured vessels, allowing them to operate at long range and in bad weather. They have been used to hijack nine ships this year, including two tankers this week.
Shipowner and maritime trade groups delivered their mothership message to Nato, European and US military officials at a semi-classified meeting on January 24. UK shipping minister Mike Penning also discussed the matter with Mr Kopernicki and other shipping executives at a dinner on Monday night.
Mr Kopernicki, chairman of Maritime UK and president of London-based Chamber of Shipping, said governments had less than two months to act.
“The military know the position very clearly. It’s not a military problem, it’s a political problem,” he said.
“It’s not about rules of engagement, they [the military] need to be ordered to take [mother]ships down. It’s not a policy matter, it’s a ‘giving orders’ matter. I draw that distinction, and that’s why we have set a timeline, as we fear that otherwise this would be treated as a matter of policy, we think it’s too urgent.”
One international shipowner said such an approach was naive. “The guy does not have a clue what he’s talking about. If politicians gave the greenlight to fire on pirates, it would make a difference, but the chance of a politician taking such a decision is the same chance as me winning the lottery,” he said.
“I don’t think any politician in the UK or other European countries would ever take such a decision. It could be done elsewhere but not on our side of the world.”
About 20% of ships undertaking some 25,000 transits a year through the Gulf of Aden are thought to use armed guards, which the shipowner said was effective.
Tanker industry group, Intertanko,supported more vigorous military action.
“They’ve pretty much got the whole of the Indian Ocean pinned down and this is all down to the increased use of motherships,” said Intertanko marine director Howard Snaith.
“There has to be a response to the motherships, and I think the navy has an appetite to do that.
“Where the problem lies is a lack of political will by the governments to want to authorise their navies and to want to address the root cause of piracy in Somalia.”
The international naval response to Somali piracy incorporates EU Navfor, as well as Nato and combined military operations linked to the US Fifth Fleet. But shipowners have claimed rules of engagement have helped piracy to escalate.
“We need a coalition view that it’s important now to authorise military commanders to go to a higher level of activity to take out motherships and to prevent the mothership phenomena proliferating, that’s very very urgent indeed,” Mr Kopernicki said.
EU Navfor spokesman Paddy O’Kennedy said the safety of any hostages onboard motherships was a priority, and highlighted the huge expanse of ocean in which pirates operated.
“When you’ve got six warships and you’re talking 4m sq km of ocean then it’s very difficult for us to be everywhere,” Wing Commander O’Kennedy said.
On attacking motherships, he said: “That’s a government level thing that is so far over my head and above me. We are dealing with the job we’ve been given to do and at the moment we are content with the rules of engagement and the mandate that we’ve been given. If the governments want to change it, they’re entitled to do that and we’ll adapt the role we operate to reflect that.”
Mr Kopernicki said it “beggars belief” that motherships were travelling freely within the Indian ocean picking off merchant ships.
“I don’t buy that in this century. To break the model the military need to have the political support to intervene. It is risky. It is dangerous for everybody. But it’s less dangerous than the other options.”
Direct action should be last resort
David Osler - Friday 11 February 2011
DIRECT action to retake pirate motherships should be considered as a last resort, even at risk to the lives of seafarers, the head of seafarer union Nautilus International said last night, writes David Osler.
General secretary Mark Dickinson said: “We don’t want to see dead seafarers, but the sad fact is that the situation has already escalated to such a point that seafarers are being killed and tortured by pirates as it is.”
However, every effort should be made to avoid such a scenario, and it is essential that any operation is well planned and executed by the military forces.
“Exclusion zones and blockades of pirate bases should be looked at and, yes, determined action to prevent any escalation in the use of motherships is an option that should be explored, but with caution regarding the crews of those vessels.
“If governments do not act now, the shipowners and the seafarers will be forced to seriously consider whether it is safe to proceed into these high-risk areas without a substantive increase in military support being deployed.”
Maritime lawyers responded to Mr Kopernicki’s remarks by pointing out that the extent to which force could be used to recapture a ship was as much a political question as a legal question. Such an action may not necessarily be unlawful, even if it leads to loss of life.
Richard Neylon, a solicitor with Holman Fenwick Willan, said: “Killing pirates may be legal in some circumstances. As a matter of general law, ‘reasonable force’ may be used in the defence of life and property. The Royal Navy will have their own rules of engagement which may impact on the general law as well.”
But a colleague at another leading shipping law firm, who prefered not to be named, argued that there was a difference between using force to defend property and using force to recapture property that had already been taken. So it is not clear whether or not standard self defence provisions apply.
FROM FAIRPLAY DAILY NEWS:
Suspected pirates face death penalty
SEVEN suspected pirates have been charged in Malaysia with offences that reportedly carry the death penalty.
The Somali nationals were charged today with using firearms against the Malaysian armed forces with the intention of causing death or injury, the Associated Press reported.
The accused were arrested on 20 January after the Malaysian navy stormed chemical tanker Bunga Laurel, which had been boarded by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Prosecutors told the court that the suspects shot at Malaysian commandos, but no injuries were reported, according to the AP.
The group did not enter a plea during their appearance in a Kuala Lumpur court, Reuters reported, adding that the three defendants who were 15 years old when they were captured would not face the death penalty.
If found guilty, the seven would be the first Somali pirates to be prosecuted by an Asian country, the news agency said.
FROM THE SINGAPORE BUSINESS TIMES:
Air France-KLM to miss profit target due to snow, strikes
(PARIS) Air France-KLM warned on Wednesday that it would miss a key profit target after a triple whammy of snow, strikes and security problems hit its finances.
Europe's largest airline by revenues said that it would make less than the previously targeted operating profit of 300 million euros (S$522.77 million) in the year to end-March, but would remain in the black.
The warning came despite a third-quarter bounce-back to operating profits of 81 million euros after steep losses in the crisis-hit period a year earlier.
It reflects a cocktail of air traffic control strikes, bad weather on both sides of the Atlantic and instability in parts of western Africa and more recently in Tunisia and Egypt. Unit revenues have also been damaged by overcapacity since January as other airlines rush to add seats as markets start to recover, the group said in a statement.
The one-off problems are just the latest outside pressures in a financial year that began with Europe's volcano crisis.
'The numerous one-off events which have affected the current year . . . do not call into question the structural recovery achieved by the group in 2010,' the Franco-Dutch group said.
Air France-KLM was forced to cancel 6,900 flights in its third quarter ending on Dec 31. The move had a negative impact on revenues of 100 million euros including 70 million for December alone. Quarterly revenues rose 13.9 per cent to 5.9 billion euros overall.
Air France-KLM posted a net third-quarter loss of 46 million euros, but this was considerably narrower than the 241 million euro loss posted a year earlier.
Air France-KLM earlier this week reported a 4.8 per cent rise in January passenger traffic, outstripping a 3.3 per cent rise in capacity, or seats on offer\. \-- Reuters
FROM IFW:
IATA boss slams UK approach to aviation
Damian Brett | Thu, 10 Feb 2011
Stinging attack on policy, taxation and lack of airport expansion
The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has launched a stinging attack on UK government aviation policy, claiming it will “destroy the proud legacy of British aviation”.
IATA called on the UK government to improve its competitiveness in air transport by taking a global approach to aviation and climate change.
It said the government should reduce taxes, change the economic regulatory structure for airports and develop a proper strategy to safeguard the economic benefits of aviation.
In a speech to the Aviation Club in London, IATA Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani (pictured above) said: “The UK has a great tradition of leadership in aviation. But any industry can only take so many knocks before the damage is permanent.
“The government’s policy pillars of excessive taxes, inefficient airport regulation and limiting growth will destroy the UK’s proud aviation legacy.
“Aviation provides critical global connectivity to this island nation. It is a great mystery to me why the government seems so intent on destroying its competitiveness with a policy agenda stuck in the past.”
Bisignani said aviation supported about 1.5 million UK jobs along with US$76 billion in economic activity.
He went on to take a swipe at the UK’s airport regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, for
allowing airport operator BAA to increase Heathrow charges by 86% between 2008 and 2013.
The decision to abandon plans for a third runway at Heathrow also came under fire.
“With the decision, London Heathrow is becoming a secondary hub,” said Bisignani. “Heathrow has two runways, limiting its growth compared with other major European hubs – Amsterdam has five runways, while Paris, Madrid and soon Frankfurt will have four.”
And Bisignani called for better preparedness for severe weather in the wake of major airport shutdowns in December and urged the government to think carefully before deciding whether to sell its shares in the UK’s air traffic management, arguing the current public private partnership has delivered many benefits.
Finally, he hit out at the UK government for taking an “isolated and punitive” approach to managing aviation emissions, particularly with Air Passenger Duty.
Bisignani called for the UK and Europe to co-operate on a global framework for economic measures co-ordinated through the International Civil Aviation Authority, and to support the commercialisation of biofuels, which have the potential to reduce aviation’s carbon footprint by up to 80%.
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