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Two men rescued a young female wheelchair user who fell into the water while the "Carnival Fascination" she was traveling on was docked. She was a passenger on board the vessel which had stopped in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Two locals, Kuntry Hamilton and Randolph Donovan, who was a DJ on the ship, sprung into action when the girl in her wheelchair fell into the water off the West Indian Company Dock. Donovan jumped into the water and held the girl up to put a floating tube around her, and then Hamilton leaped into the water to fasten a rope around them both. With the help of ship security officers, ship medical staff and port workers, the girl was pulled to safety just meters from the gangway near the ship bow. Report with video: https://www.newsweek.com/carnival-fascination-virgin-islands-wheelchair-passenger-falls-1454661

In the night of Aug 14 the "Kriti II", which was underway from Heraklion to Piraeus, suffered a mechanical damage to the port side main engine 36 miles north of Heraklion. The vessel, with 907 passengers and 97 crew members on board, sailed to Piraeus at a reduced speed, where it berthed in the morning of Aug 15. The passengers, 178 cars, 22 trucks and 62 motorbikes were landed. The Central Port Authority of Piraeus detained the ferry until repairs were carried out and a class certificate presented by the attending classification society. The ship sailed again at 8.15 p.m.

Australia’s biggest port operator DP World is telling dock workers that 200 jobs will be made redundant in Sydney and Melbourne as the company grapples with stalled union negotiations and growing commercial pressures. DP World Australia’s chief operating officer Andrew Adam told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that the company had no choice but to shed 200 staff – 100 in Melbourne (on top of 50 stevedores who will leave the business this week) and 100 in Sydney. About 1800 stevedores work at the company. “It’s a decision not taken lightly, but we’ve lost volume and market share since last year,” Mr Adam said.

The Mexican government is upgrading the Port of Manzanillo, one of the country’s main Pacific Ocean ports, with four new terminals. The terminals will include a specialized container facility with capacity to handle 1.75 million TEUs per year, another for agricultural bulk, one more for mineral bulk and one specialized for hydrocarbons.

The corrosive substance iron chloride has leaked from tank truck on the "Peter Pan" on Aug 16, 2019, just after 8 a.m. in the port of Trelleborg where the ferry had arrived from Travemuende. A crew member on its routine watch remarked the fluid leaking from the tank. It was unclear how much iron chloride had leaked. The remediation work was started directly by the staff and was taken over by the rescue service. Two forces from the rescue service in Trelleborg wereon site. In addition, chemical units from other locations were called. National rescue resources for dangerous substances attended the site. The effort was expected to last for some hours. Another tank truck was on its way onto which the iron chloride will be pumped over. No one was injured in connection with the leak. All 159 passengers and 112 truck drivers have been safely evacuated from board. The ferry left the port of Trelleborg again at 3.15 p.m. and arrived back in Travemünde at 11.15 p.m. Swedish reports with photos: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/skane/jarnklorid-lacker-fran-lastbil-pa-farja-i-trelleborg https://www.gp.se/nyheter/sverige/fr%C3%A4tande-%C3%A4mne-l%C3%A4cker-p%C3%A5-f%C3%A4rja-1.17192463

The 11 Pakistani crew members of the "Sea Voyager" was evacuated after a fire broke out when it was anchored off Lagos in the morning of Aug 15, 2019. Heavy smoke was billowing out of the superstructure and the bridge. Crew members were observed to be clinging on the leeward side in some boats. Immediately, boats of the NNS "Ekulu" of the Nigerian Navy were deployed to evacuate the sailors who were embarked and given some food and medications. They were then taken to the NNS BEECROFT jetty where they were handed over to the Fleet Commander Western Naval Command (WNC) and their agents (PAK MARINE) in the afternoon. The Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Center RMRCC at Kirikiri mobilized firefighters from other agencies of Government including the NPA to put out the fire. A NIMASA Fast Intervention Vessel was on standby for emergency evacuation. The firefighters quickly got the fire under control. Reports with photos: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/08/16/nns-ekulu-rescues-vessel-11-pakistani-crew-at-lagos-anchorage/ http://oilandgasrepublic.com/nimasa-rescues-tanker-vessel-sea-voyager-from-fire-incident/

Nippon Express France, S.A.S. (hereinafter, “NEF”), a subsidiary of Nippon Express Co., Ltd., has opened a Tanger Med Logistics Center in the Moroccan port of Tanger Med, and this Center began operations on Wednesday, June 26, as NEF’s second location in Morocco.

US-based McDermott International has received a contract to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) services for the Sohar LNG Bunkering Project in Oman. The project has an aim of establishing Oman as a regional LNG bunkering hub capable of supplying LNG as a fuel to marine vessels. Under the deal, awarded by Total Oman E&P Development B.V. in partnership with Oman Oil Company S.O.A.C., the scope of work during the FEED phase includes fully defining the onshore mid-scale LNG facilities and preparing a competitive tender for the engineering, procurement, supply, construction and commissioning phase.

In the evening of Aug 14, 2019, the Port Authority of Kefallinia was informed by the captain of the 'Agios Gerasimos II', enroute from Ithaca to Astakos Aitoloakarnania, about a mechanical breakdown of the port side main engine. The ship, without passengers and cargo, did not ask for assistance and sailed at a reduced speed to the port of Lixouri, Kefallinia. The Port Authority detained the ship until repairs were carried out and a class certificate presented by the attending classification society.

The "Grace 1" has been released on Aug 15 despite 11-hour efforts by the United States to halt the move to release it. The Supreme Court in the British territory of Gibraltar approved the release of the "Grace 1" after officials said they no longer wished to detain it. Gibraltar said it had received assurances from Iran and the owners of the oil that, were the tanker to be released, its cargo would not be taken to Syria, which would be in breach of European Union sanctions. In a court hearing in the morning, instead of announcing the release of the tanker, the Gibraltar attorney general's lawyer Joseph Triay said the US Department of Justice had applied to extend its seizure. The basis of Washington's legal efforts was unclear. The State Department referred CNN to the Department of Justice. The court adjourned until later in the afternoon, when the release of the tanker was confirmed.

July 16: A fire at Iraq’s southern Basra offshore oil export terminal briefly halted crude loading operations on Tuesday but was put out and loading resumed, Iraqi oil officials said. The fire occurred in a residential section of the terminal accommodating workers and did not directly damage oil infrastructure, a port official and sources in the Basra Oil Company said. “Fire erupted at around 5 am (0200 GMT) and it was put out in two hours. We had to halt crude loading operations for three hours for safety issues,” said a port official who was speaking from the Basra port. Basra port has restored full operations with no stoppage at the oil exports jetties, said a statement from the state-run Basra Oil Company. Four workers suffered minor injuries, it added.

Norwegian shipping and tank terminal company Odfjell SE has finalized the sale of its stake in Odfjell Terminals Jiangyin (OTJ), China. The indirect 55% equity interest in OTJ has been sold by Odfjell Terminals Asia Holding to Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) for a price of about USD 46 million.