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The North-Western Office for Criminal Investigations in the Transport Segment of Russia’s Investigation Committee said that the Saint-Petersburg Transport Investigation Department has initiated a criminal case on the fire onboard the "Pyotr Tchaikovsky", moored at the Oktyabrskaya Embankment in Saint-Petersburg, constituting an offence under Part 2 of Article 263 ot the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (improper operation of water transport which resulted inadvertently in the death of a person). The fire broke out in the engineer's cabin of the "Pyotr Tchaikovsky" on Aug 22, 2019, at 05:30 a.m. The 25 year old man died from injuries caused by the fire while being transported to a medical facility. The more than 200 passengers and 80 crew members were evacuated from board. The fire was put out within one hour. Crime scene investigation team immediately appeared at the scene of the accident. Investigative activities are underway to establish facts, causes and circumstances of the case. Report with photo: http://en.portnews.ru/news/282316/

An 88-year-old British passenger of the "Aurora" died aboard the ship in the morning of Aug 21, 2019. The vessel had sailed from Southampton to Funchal. The crew reported to the CROSS Corsen at 07.50 that the passenger had fallen ill. After a remote consultation of the maritime medical center of Toulouse and the SAMU in Brest, it was decided to send a Caiman NH 90 helicopter. Around the time when the staff was hoisted on board, shortly before 10 a.m., the patient was dead. His body will be kept on board until the ship has arrived in Funchal the next weekend.

Gautam Adani is looking to expand his ports empire by closing in on buying a 65-70 per cent stake in Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd, the entity promoted by Hyderabad-based CVR Group to run a private deep-water port at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), India’s biggest private port operator, is expected to pay more than ₹5,500 crore to buy the stake which will give it access to the country’s largest waterfront area (for a port) of 12.5 km and a transit storage area of 6,800 acres. It started operations in 2008. Currently, the port has a draft of 18.5 metres, a depth that can accommodate full-loaded Capesize vessel of 200,000-tonne capacity.

Chinese city-gas distributor Shenzhen Gas will launch next week in southern China its first fully-owned terminal to import liquefied natural gas (LNG), a company executive told Reuters on Friday. This will make Shenzhen Gas the second city gas distributor backed by a local government that owns an LNG import facility.

After improvement of the weater, on Aug 21 at 4 p.m. a mobile crane which had been erected on the North jetty in of Dénia in the morning, started to take off the 70 vehicles aboard the "Pinar del Río" one by one. The salvage team proceeded to unload all vehicles except a caravan and two motorcycles that required special fasteners and were to be recovered on Aug 22. The crane hoisted the cars and placed them subtly on the breakwater. The Baleària workers, who had got the car keys already on Aug 17, transferred them to a parking lot in the port. Baleària contacted the owners and told the cars were now safe and that they could pick them up. The recovery continued at night with one car all ten minutes. Once these works are finished, the Dutch company Ardentia Marine will continue with the stabilization of the 'Pinar del Río' to prepare its refloating. After the storm it turned out that the starboard hull of the ferry was quite damaged. In the morning the fast ferry "Jaume 1" started covering the service between Ibiza and Palma. Spanish reports with photos: https://www.levante-emv.com/comunitat-valenciana/2019/08/22/coches-aires-denia/1913720.html https://www.lasprovincias.es/marina/ferry-denia-encallado-descarga-coches-20190821120440-nt.html

The "Ellen", the first ferry in Denmark to be fully powered by electricity has entered service on Aug 14, making it the first in the country without a diesel engine on board. The "Ellen" is sailing between the ports of Søby and Fynshav, connecting the islands of Ærø and Als. It is powered by a battery system with a capacity of 4.3 megawatt hours, and does not emit environmentally-harmful substances during operation. The e-ferry took two years to construct at the shipyard in Søby, and it was built through a partnership between Ærø Municipality and the European Union. The "Ellen" can sail approximately 40.7km between charges, giving it a range that is seven times longer than any other fully electric car ferry. The distance between Søby and Fynshav is 17.2km miles, and it's 15.2km between Søby and Fåborg. This means that it is capable of making a round-trip between the destinations and returning to the charging station in Søby to get topped up again.

In the morning of Aug 17, 2019, around 7 a.m. a fire broke out aboard the Namibian trawler "Ocean Tide", 296 gt (IMO: 7220839), which was moored at the jetty of the Seaworks Fish Processors. One of the 20 crew members on board, was found dead following the fire. The deceased was identified as 40-year-old Hausiku Mathews Sivambo. It was believed he became trapped inside the vessel and burned to death. His body was removed the next morning. The family of the deceased was present at the scene. A police investigation into the cause of the fire was ongoing. Report with photo: https://www.nbc.na/news/one-dead-after-vessel-caught-fire-walvis-bay.21902

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI) announced a series of projects, totaling over $170 million of capital investment, that will increase efficiency, add product liquidity, and enhance blending capabilities at its Pasadena and Galena Park terminals, part of its best-in-class refined products storage hub on the Houston Ship Channel. In response to growing customer demand, KMI’s liquids terminal platform now boasts 10 ship docks, 38 barge spots, 20 inbound pipelines providing connectivity to 10 regional refineries and chemical plants, 15 outbound pipelines, 14 cross-channel lines, and approximately 43 million barrels of storage on the Houston Ship Channel, North America’s leading port for energy exports.

On Aug 18, 2019 the CROSS AG received a call of the patrol boat 'Heliconia Star' of the Montserrat Maritime Police after a sailboat was on fire five miles northwest of the island. At this moment, no occupant was spotted on or near the ship. The CROSS AG immediately deployed the civil security helicopter of Guadeloupe, a Dragon 971 and the patrol boat "Violette" from Guadeloupe which was joined by the "Lesley PG". At 2:30 a.m. the blazing boat sank despite attempts to extinguish the fire. Just over an hour later, the Dragon 971 detected two people in an inflatable boat. The 'Heliconia Star' diverted to the position and took on board the two castaways. They were immediately sent to the Montserrat hospital. One of the two castaways, severely burned during the fire, succumbed to his injuries in the morning. French report with video: https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/martinique/dragon-971-sauve-naufrage-montserrat-740913.html

The "Red Eagle" with 50 passengers on board assisted in a rescue operation in the morning of Aug 21, 2019, during its 06:00 a.m. Southampton to East Cowes sailing. Just minutes after departing Southampton, Captain Craig Young spotted an upturned dinghy in the water off Hythe, near Dock Head. Further investigation aided by binoculars revealed that a man was in the water, holding onto the side of the dinghy. Captain Young immediately instructed his team to deploy Red Eagle’s rescue boat. The Southampton Harbourmaster and Solent Coastguard were also alerted. The Southampton Patrol attended the incident and was able to recover the man from the water, assisted by the ferry’s crew, and brought him to shore where local medics attended. He was taken to hospital via ambulance. The "Red Eagle"’s rescue boat towed the stranded dinghy to Hythe Marina before returning to the ferry for the 06:00 sailing to recommence. There were some delays to the service as a result but the return sailing from East Cowes to Southampton was only five minutes past the scheduled arrival time.

Australia’s New South Wales government said on Wednesday it will fast track its review of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at the port of Newcastle, proposed by a South Korean firm, as the state urgently looks to beef up gas supply. The $430 million Newcastle GasDock LNG project, planned by South Korean firm EPIK, was declared “critical state significant infrastructure”, which means the project will not have to go to the state’s independent planning commission for approval, saving several months in the review process.

Germany’s largest universal port remains on a growth course, achieving a distinct 4.1 percent advance to 69.4 million tons in seaborne cargo handling in the first half of 2019. Especially good growth trend in the general cargo segment, up 6.1 percent at 48.4 million tons, was the main contributor to the excellent figures for total and container handling. The total for bulk cargo handling was just 0.3 percent lower than for last year’s first half at 21.0 million tons. Germany’s largest universal port remains on a growth course, achieving a distinct 4.1 percent advance to 69.4 million tons in seaborne cargo handling in the first half of 2019. Especially good growth trend in the general cargo segment, up 6.1 percent at 48.4 million tons, was the main contributor to the excellent figures for total and container handling. The total for bulk cargo handling was just 0.3 percent lower than for last year’s first half at 21.0 million tons.