Capsized Atlantic Rowers Safe

The US Coast Guard has rescued four Britons attempting to row across the Atlantic for charity after their boat capsized.

Chris Jenkins, Tim Garrent, Wayne Davey and Joby Newton, who called themselves the Scilly Boys, were attempting to row the 3,200 nautical miles from New York to the Isles of Scilly off the Cornish coast. Their 29-foot vessel capsized 420 nautical miles east of Cape Cod. All four men were inside the boat's two cabins at the time. They managed to contact Falmouth coastguard who alerted their American counterparts. A Hercules plane spotted the men in a liferaft, and they were rescued and taken on board a merchant ship in the area."The crew has been taken aboard the Gulf Grace at 8 am. We understand all are relatively safe and well, but suffering slight hypothermia," British coastguards said. They set off from New York's Liberty marina on June 1, aiming to break the world record of 55 days set back in 1896 by George Harboe and Frank Samuelson. The route has only been completed successfully six times. The Scilly Boys are raising money for four charities: Breakthrough Breast Cancer, the Cornwall Air Ambulance, the RNLI's Train One and Above and Beyond.

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More than 800 Filipinos perish as ferry capsizes

More than 800 Filipinos have perished in one of the worst maritime disasters in history.

140 kmh winds from Typhoon Fengshen capsized the MV Princess ferry owned by local operator Sulpicio Lines as it made its way from Manila to the centre of the country around noon on Saturday. The ship sank off Sibuyan Island in Romblon province. Twenty eight survivors have been found alive. The group made it to a small village in Quezon province in the centre of the archipelago after drifting at sea for more than 24 hours. Initially there were 30 of them but two died. The discovery raises the number of survivors to 32. The Philippine Coast Guard is coming under intense scrutiny for allowing the vessel to depart the capital despite the clear danger presented by Typhoon Fengshen, which had already ripped through the centre of the country on Saturday and was heading north. The president of the nation, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has promised a full inquiry into the disaster, the latest in a series of mammoth ferry tragedies to have hit the archipelago.
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PTT: LPG imports may surge five-fold

PTT Plc, the Thai majority state-owned oil-and-gas conglomerate, expects liquefied petroleum gas imports to rise five-fold next year to one million tonnes from 200,000 tonnes this year unless the government scraps its subsidy.

The domestic LPG price today, at 8.50 baht a kilogram, is one-third the international market price, with PTT absorbing the difference. Prasert Bunsumpun, PTT's chief executive and president, said the artificially low LPG price at a time when the prices of other fuels were surging in keeping with the sky-high global oil prices had led more motorists to modify their engines to use the gas. Vendors and producers of LPG fitting equipment also are enjoying bonanza profits thanks to its popularity. Mr Prasert said the government's decision to drop the subsidy by gradually floating the cooking-gas retail price could not deter the prevalent use of the gas in the auto sector. An industrial source said that LPG in the global market, at US$902 per tonne in June, could translate into a local retail price of 48 baht a kilogram, excluding seven baht of taxes and other contributions. This compares favourably with 30 baht a litre for premium petrol, excluding 12 baht of taxes and contributions. Although natural gas (CNG) in the transport sector is sold at only at 8.50 baht a kg compared to 18.13 baht per kg of LPG, CNG conversion kits cost three or four times more than those for LPG. ''At present, the gap between the price of LPG and those of other types of fuels is too large. Even if the state floated the LPG price now, it can't let it rise to the real cost all at once because people will be shocked,'' Mr Prasert said. PTT has expanded its natural gas service facilities and expects the gas consumption will rise to 5,400 tonnes a day soon from 1,700 tonnes currently.
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Keppel corks ground-breaking rig

Keppel Offshore & Marine arm Keppel FELS has finished the new DSS-21 proprietary designed semi-submersible rig for Maersk Contractors, the most advanced deep-water drilling rig to be designed and completed by Singapore to date.

The rig named, Maersk Developer, is the first of a trio of DSS-21 semi-submersible rigs that Keppel is building for Maersk Contractors, a unit of Danish shipping and oil group Moller-Maersk. The Maersk Developer is contracted to Norwegian giant StatoilHydro for operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The DSS-21 rig features a dynamic positioning system, with the ability to attach a pre-laid mooring system. It is capable of operating at water depths of 3000 metres and drilling down to 10,000 metres, which makes it suitable for conditions off Brazil, West Africa, the Gulf of Mexico and South East Asia. Maersk Contractors, which operates a fleet of 26 drilling rigs contracted to global oil companies, in May 2006 ordered its third deep-water rig from Keppel, bringing its total order for the DSS21 design to about S$1.2 billion (US$877 million). The two other DSS-21 rigs being built at Keppel FELS are set to be delivered in the second quarters of 2009 and 2010. The Maersk Developer was named on Saturday in the presence of Minister Lim Boon Heng from Singapore’s Prime Minister’s Office, by Kari Reinertsen, the wife of Oivind Reinertsen, president of StatoilHydro’s North American operations.
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Oceanic Carriers signs new time charter agreement

Oceanic Carriers Limited has entered into a time charter agreement with Oldendorff Carriers for the ‘GO Pride' at Athens, Greece.

The agreement is for a minimum period of 35 days at the gross rate of US$44,000 or US$45,000 per day and a ballast bonus of US$375,000 or US$ 400,000 depending on port of discharge. The charter is expected to commence on or about June 26, 2008. The ‘GO Pride' is a handysize bulk carrier built in 1982 with a carrying capacity of 35,055DWT.
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BBC Chartering expands liner services

BBC Chartering, home-ported in Leer, Germany, has extended its existing liner services between the US Gulf and South America to Europe.

The BBC Americana Line European Service is an extension of a successfully running BBC service from the US Gulf to the East Coast of South America. This now connects Hamburg, Antwerp and Bilbao as scheduled ports with Vitoria, Rio de Janeiro, Santos and Buenos Aires. When required, both services can also call at other ports en route. BBC Chartering expanded both lines because of the increasing demand for project and break-bulk cargo capacities to South America. In trade between Hamburg and South America, the portion of non-containerized cargo is relatively high: 65 per cent of the total tonnage is transported conventionally. The reason for this is the structure of the goods in foreign trade. Ores, oil seeds, fruits (bananas), meat and coffee are the most important groups of imported goods. Fertilisers, machines and/or machine parts and chemical products have the largest share in the export sector. Since April, the BBC Americana Line European Service has provided a total loading capacity of 12000 tonnes per month. On-board cranes can handle all kinds of heavy left cargo of up to 500 tonnes.

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