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INTERTANKO has recently updated its recommendatory guidance, Crew Welfare Management and Mental Wellness. The advice and recommendations it contains have been developed for the consideration of shore-side staff when providing practical guidance to leadership teams on how to manage crew that may be experiencing stress as a result of prolonged onboard service. The guidance is aimed at non-healthcare professionals. However, in circumstances where any doubt should exist in any case involving crew general welfare and mental wellness, professional assistance should always be sought. The guidance considers three key areas: Understanding ...

A rare attack off the coast of South America has highlighted the global risks from piracy now being faced by vessels. Although the number of attacks of piracy at sea have decreased in 2020, when compared to 2019, the spread of attacks has increased. Half of all attacks occurred in Nigeria, a fall from 71% in 2019 showing that pirates are travelling further afield to target vessels. Western crew members are particularly at risk of kidnap, with crew being taken ashore and ransom demanded. Taking into account the wide area ...

Tight grain supplies in the European Union should be replenished next season by an improved harvest, but prices could remain high as Chinese demand keeps the global surplus limited, French analyst firm Strategie Grains said. European wheat futures soared this week to seven-year highs as reduced U.S. supply forecasts and Russian plans to curb grain exports fuelled concern about dwindling global availability. “Despite wheat and maize stocks in Europe returning to more comfortable levels than in 2020/21, we anticipate that prices will remain high,” Strategie Grains said in a monthly ...

Oil prices have tripled in nine months. Brent averaged just US$18/bbl last April, as demand collapsed and the market was swamped with crude. As the effects of the pandemic unfolded, the mood turned increasingly bearish. Ann-Louise Hittle, Head of Macro Oils, was among those who saw light at the end of the tunnel, anticipating that it wouldn’t last and that oil prices would stage a strong recovery inside 12 months. Brent’s recent move to over US$56/bbl prompted me to ask how she sees things developing from here. First, demand will ...

China’s anticipated robust economic growth in 2021 will help to propel domestic oil demand into top gear, with analysts S&P Global Platts spoke to expecting a consumption growth of 3.5%-4.5% year on year, but imports of crude oil may not witness similar growth as the country grapples with bloated inventories. With financial institutions forecasting a GDP growth of 8%-9% in 2021, compared with 2% in 2020, the outlook for oil in the world’s biggest consumer has become brighter, bringing relief to the global energy market that depends on China’s insatiable ...

U.S. shale producers are taking advantage of the oil market’s rally to levels not seen in nearly a year by locking in prices for future sales, sources familiar with the matter said. U.S. crude futures this month jumped above $50 a barrel to the highest since February. The rally has sparked optimism among shale companies, but after a bracing year of pandemic-induced demand destruction, they are not ready to ramp up production. Instead, they are using futures markets to lock in higher sale prices. Shale producers buy and sell contracts ...

Pakistan and Bangladesh are rationing gas and buyers across South Asia are seeking alternative fuels after spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices surged to record highs, government and industry officials told Reuters. Spot LNG prices LNG-AS have nearly tripled since early November as freezing temperatures across North Asia boosted demand and depleted inventories. Since July, prices are up a dizzying 1,000%. Gas-fired power plants and industries across the region are scrimping on gas, with the scramble for other fuels driving up demand for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and residue oil. ...

Financial executives are settling in for the long haul over the Trump administration’s investment ban on Chinese securities, expecting the rules to be lasting but hoping to have more clarity after President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Trump’s executive order requires U.S. investors to completely divest from the securities of 44 companies deemed to be linked to the Chinese military. Confusion over the order, which has been amended and interpreted via different guidance from separate agencies, has roiled Asian markets, led financial institutions to purge potentially affected companies from funds and ...

There aren’t many years you can effectively write off economic growth forecasts for a quarter and leave markets unperturbed – but welcome to 2021. Investors are once again training their sights beyond second and third waves of the pandemic even as they busily mark down first-quarter growth and earnings assumptions and cross their collective fingers and toes that often extremely hesitant vaccine rollouts do eventually work by midyear. “It’s darkest before dawn” is the mantra from many economists and politicians but there’s more than a few nerves about just how ...

The World Bank released its latest Global Economic Prospects report this week, providing us with an updated look at the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on the world economy. Striking a cautious tone, the report finds that global economic output will likely remain below its pre-pandemic trend for a protracted period, warning that the pandemic “has exacerbated the risks associated with a decade-long wave of global debt accumulation.” While the World Bank’s economists have adjusted their 2020 forecast for global GDP growth from -5.2 percent to -4.3 percent to account for early ...

The British Ports Association has written to Ministers about the continuing issues affecting seafood exports to the EU. At an urgent meeting of 20 fishing ports from across the UK on Friday, numerous serious issues were raised with new processes that are affecting landings and undermining the fisheries sector. Issues exporting seafood to the EU are affecting UK fishing ports’ competitiveness and must be addressed immediately. The BPA has joined calls for compensation for those negatively affected. Many ports have reported that boats usually landing into their harbours are either ...

The Jeddah Islamic Port has achieved a remarkable increase in the number of transshipment containers by 2.5 million standard containers during the year 2020, an increase of 12 percent compared to the same period of 2019, amid an integrated system of competitive services. This continuous increase in transshipment activity, which is an added value to the economy, comes from the value-added services that the world’s hub ports seek to increase by attracting regular international shipping lines to them, in line with the Kingdom’s ambition to transform into a global logistics ...

Venezuelan officials have met in recent months with small domestic oilfield contractors to propose letting them operate fields owned by state-owned PDVSA while pocketing part of the proceeds, according to six people with knowledge of the talks. The talks show President Nicolas Maduro, facing a collapse in crude output and U.S. sanctions aimed at ousting him, is seeking to attract investments to the OPEC nation by offering even sweeter terms than a 2018 plan that walked back elements of the country’s nationalist oil industry platform. It was unclear whether any ...

Swiss trading house Gunvor will resume trading in large volumes of Russian oil products this year after winning a big tender from Russia’s largest oil firm Rosneft for the first time in eight years, five industry sources told Reuters. Gunvor won the rights to lift 9 million tonnes of Rosneft’s oil products, the sources said. Rosneft also chose Trafigura and BP as the other big lifters of products for 2021, the sources added. Gunvor and Trafigura declined to comment for this report. BP and Rosneft did not respond to requests ...

U.S. energy firms this week added oil and natural gas rigs for an eighth week in a row as crude prices recover to their highest in nearly a year. The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose 13 to 373 in the week to Jan. 15, its highest since May, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said in its closely followed report on Friday. RIG-USA-BHIRIG-OL-USA-BHIRIG-GS-USA-BHI Those eight weeks of additions were the most since November when the rig count climbed for nine weeks in a ...