[[{“value”:”
Cable layers are a niche segment of the global merchant fleet with just 75 or so in operation today. They are set for plenty of action in the opening weeks of 2025 as another new segment, cable cutters, have dominated shipping headlines in the 19 days since the last issue of Daily Splash, our free newsletter, was published.
The tanker Eagle S which is part of the dark fleek servicing Russia was seized and boarded by the Finnish coastguard on December 26. The ship is suspected of being involved in the damage of a subsea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia and disruptions of several data cables. The Finnish decision to board was far more swift and decisive than what was seen with the Yi Peng 3 in November. In that case, the vessel suspected of destroying two cables from Sweden to Germany and Finland to Germany was at anchor for a month before Danish, Swedish and Germans went onboard for a single day of investigations whereafter the vessel went on its way.
Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna said damage to vital underwater infrastructure has become so frequent that it is hard to believe it was a coincidence or just bad seamanship, adding: “We must understand that damage to the undersea infrastructure has become systemic and must be treated as attacks on our essential infrastructure.”
In Asia, meanwhile, Taiwan’s coast guard believes that a Chinese freighter severed a telecom cable off the island’s northern coastline last week.
On Friday, Chungwha Telecom notified Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) that a subsea communications cable had been severed just off the coast of Keelung. The CGA sent a patrol boat to intercept the Hong Kong-owned, Tanzanian-flagged Shunxin-39.
Other big news to have occurred while Splash took its annual Christmas break included the start on January 1 of the European Union’s landmark FuelEU Maritime regulation. The regulation aims to reduce the carbon intensity of bunker fuels used by ships calling at European Union ports, with a 2% reduction by 2025, followed by an exponential increase every five years – 6% by 2030, 14.5% by 2035, 31% by 2040, 62% by 2045, and 80% by 2050. GHG emissions are calculated from a well-to-wake perspective. In addition to emissions from onboard combustion, this calculation also includes emissions related to the extraction, cultivation, production, and transport of the fuel.
In financial news, Kenon Holdings, the entity controlled by Israeli shipping magnate Idan Ofer, officially sold its remaining shares in Israeli liner ZIM on December 26.
Canals made headlines – as they have done for much of the 2020s.
Egypt has just successfully tested a new 10 km extension of the part of the canal allowing two-way traffic. The chairman of the Suez Canal Authority stated that with this 10 km extension of the part of the canal allowing two-way traffic, the canal can now handle an additional six to eight ships per day as well as providing resiliency in the event of another accident such as 2021’s Ever Given grounding that brought traffic to a standstill for six days. The expansion, however, comes at a time when traffic along this intercontinental waterway is at lows not experienced for decades as the Houthis from Yemen carry on their campaign against merchant shipping in the region. Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said late last month that due to “regional challenges”, the country had lost approximately $7bn in Suez Canal revenue in 2024, marking more than a 60% drop from 2023.
In the western hemisphere, meanwhile, home to the world’s other major canal, the president of Panama ruled out discussing control of the Panama Canal with US president-elect Donald Trump, rejecting the possibility for reducing canal tolls with Trump making some incendiary claims about control and pricing of the canal last month.
In the offshore sector, Vantage Drilling created a joint venture entity with French energy major TotalEnergies, which will own the Tungsten Explorer drillship, while Singapore OSV owner and operator Vallianz was hit by a ransomware incident.
Designed to come out at the start of the European working day and end of business hours in Asia, Daily Splash is our free newsletter published by email Monday to Friday with the top eight shipping news stories from around the world as well as the four most important offshore stories. To subscribe, click here.
The post The stories that made a splash over Christmas appeared first on Energy News Beat.
“}]]