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prepared by Mikhail Kashubsky
25 September 2008 marks the 31st celebration of World Maritime Day, the annual occasion when the International Maritime Organization (IMO) leads the world in honouring shipping.
World Maritime Day, which is usually celebrated during the last week of September, is used to focus attention on the importance of shipping safety, maritime security and the marine environment and to emphasise a particular aspect of IMO’s work. This year, the theme for World Maritime Day is ‘IMO: 60 years in the service of shipping’.
The year 2008 contains a number of key milestones and anniversaries for the IMO. For instance, 6 March 2008 was the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization (IMO Convention) by a conference held in Geneva in 1948 under the auspices of the United Nations.
17 March 2008 was the 50th anniversary of entry into force of the IMO Convention. In June 2008, the IMO Council, the executive organ of IMO responsible for supervising the work of the Organization in between sessions of the Assembly, held its 100th session.
In his World Maritime Day message to the international maritime community, IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos said:
Globalization has transformed international commerce, new powers have emerged in shipping and the plethora and thoroughness of measures established by IMO during its 60 years in the service of shipping has provided the bedrock from which a safer and cleaner industry has emerged, one that can continue to develop and flourish. Furthermore, IMO’s work has demonstrated, beyond doubt, that international standards – developed, agreed, implemented and enforced universally – are the only effective way to regulate such a diverse and truly international industry as shipping.
Mr Mitropoulos assured that IMO’s standards are now ‘firmly embedded in shipping’s consciousness and practice worldwide and they shape the industry of today’.
He further added that
[it] is because of the extensive network of global regulations that IMO has developed and adopted over the years that shipping is, nowadays, a safe and secure mode of transport; clean; environmentally-friendly; and very energy-efficient. And so, IMO stands united, focused on the challenges ahead and continuously relevant to the industry it has been serving for so long. Shipping is, par excellence, a significant contributor to, and facilitator of, economic growth on a worldwide basis. As such, the mission of IMO (that of promoting its safety and security, its efficiency and its environmental credentials) is one that reaches out far beyond the Organization’s immediate constituency and touches the life of nearly everyone on the planet.
The fourth ‘parallel event’ to celebrate World Maritime Day formally and officially outside of the IMO’s London headquarters was held in Greece on 19 and 20 September 2008.
On 19 September, Athens was the location for a seminar and panel discussion on the theme of ‘IMO: 60 years in the service of shipping’, in which leading figures from the maritime community took the opportunity to outline, from their perspective, their views on the past, present and future of IMO and the shipping industry.
On 20 September, the International Memorial to the Wife of the Seafarer was unveiled in the town of Galaxidi, by the IMO Secretary-General, and Greece’s Minister of Mercantile Marine, the Aegean and Island Policy, Mr Anastasis Papaligouras.
Source: IMO Press Briefing 41/2008, 24 September 2008; IMO Press Briefing 42/2008, 24 September 2008.
Following the deposit of an instrument of acceptance of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization on 18 July 2008, the Cook Islands has become the latest Member of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
It was a long road to IMO membership for the Cook Islands. It applied to join IMO in 1999. Its application required the approval of two-thirds (112 members) of current IMO membership because the Cook Islands is not a Member State of the United Nations.
The final, 112th, letter of acceptance was received by the IMO on 15 July 2008. With the accession of the Cook Islands, the number of IMO Member States stands at 168, with a further three Associate Members.
Source: UN Atlas of the Oceans Newsletter, September 2008; IMO Press Briefing 38/2008, 11 August 2008.
On 5 June 2008, the Assembly of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), at the 118th meeting in Kingston, Jamaica elected by acclamation Nii Allotey Odunton of Ghana as Secretary-General of the Authority for a four-year term commencing on 1 January 2009.
The decision was made in accordance with article 160, paragraph 2(b) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982.
Mr Odunton, currently Deputy to the Secretary-General, succeeds Satya N. Nandan of Fiji, the Authority’s first Secretary-General, who is retiring on 31 December 2008 after serving three consecutive four-year terms.
Speaking after his election, Mr Odunton commended Mr Nandan for the innovative steps he had taken to increase the Authority’s knowledge base. He assured the Assembly that he would continue in that vein. He noted that with the ever improving economic conditions for nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese, the ISA would have to work towards adopting a code for exploitation or mining of polymetallic nodule deposits in a timely fashion.
Representative of the various regional groups congratulated Mr Odunton on his election, paying tribute to his experience and expressing confidence that there would be continuity and innovation under his leadership.
Source: International Seabed Authority, ISA News, 6 June 2008 <http://www.isa.org.jm/en/node/431> at 15 September 2008.
The international shipping community has made a ‘crisis call’ and demanded immediate action from the governments to suppress pirates operating out of Somalia.
On 29 September 2008, the international shipping industry, represented by the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), the International Chamber of Shipping and International Shipping Federation (ICS/ISF), the International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners (INTERCARGO), the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (INTERTANKO), and the International Transport Workers’ Federation, issued a joint statement in which they called on the governments to take action to address the piracy problem in Somalia and the Gulf of Aden.
The statement included the following remarks:
Pirates in Somalia threaten lives of seafarers and the security of world trade. Inadequate response by governments and their naval forces is unacceptable says international shipping community… Since 9/11, the international shipping industry has spent billions of dollars to comply with stringent new security requirements, agreed by the international community to address concerns about terrorism. Yet when merchant ships – which carry 90% of world trade and keep the world economy moving - are subject to attack by violent pirates, the response of many governments is that it is not their problem…
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has also condemned Somali pirate attacks in its statement released on 22 September 2008. The ICC also called on governments to take ‘immediate, strong and effective action’.
This year, so far, there had been over 60 pirate attacks on vessels in Somali waters. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) advised all vessels transiting the area to take additional precautionary measures and maintain strict 24-hour radar and anti-piracy watch using all available means. Vessels not making scheduled calls to ports in Somalia are advised to keep as far away as possible from the Somali coast.
The IMB warned that the Somali pirates are now attacking vessels in the northern Somali coast in the Gulf of Aden. The IMB noted that Somali pirates are very dangerous and they do not hesitate to fire automatic weapons at ships (and occasionally Rocket Propelled Grenades) in order to stop them.
Once the attack is successful and the vessel hijacked, the pirates sail towards the Somali coast and thereafter demand a ransom for the release of the vessel and crew.
Among the latest piracy attacks in the region is the hijacking of Ukrainian dry cargo ship MV Faina on 25 September 2008 carrying 33 T-72 battle tanks, almost 1,000 tonnes of ammunition as well as other weapons and military hardware.
The crew consisting of 17 Ukrainians, three Russians, and one Latvian, is being held hostage. Pirates initially demanded $35 million dollars ransom, but later reduced it to $5 million.
The situation is still developing, but recent reports confirmed that the ship’s captain, Russian national, Vladimir Kolobkov, died from a heart attack. The vessel is currently located some 300 km off the Somali coast. The US and Russian navy ships are closely monitoring situation near Faina, to ensure that these weapons do not get passed on to the local militants in Somalia.
Pirates are suspected to be using ‘mother ships’ to launch attacks far from the coast. These ‘mother ships’ proceed far out to sea and launch smaller boats to attack and hijack passing ships.
According to intelligence sources there are now three suspicious vessels in the Gulf of Aden believed to be pirate mother ships. They are Russian-made stern trawlers with names Burum Ocean (shown below) and Arena (or Athena), and an unknown blue-coloured tug.
Fishing trawler Burum Ocean – a suspected pirate mother ship
Source: International Maritime Bureau, <http://www.icc-ccs.org/main/all_piracy_al.php> at 1 October 2008.
The recent assessment of the US Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) suggests that ships are only being attacked during the day, and ships with low freeboard and slow speed are the most vulnerable to an attack.
The shipping organisations have indicated that some major shipping companies are already refusing to transit the Gulf of Aden while many others are considering similar steps.
The Mandab Strait between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is defined by the US Energy Information Administration as the ‘world oil transit chokepoint’, critical to global energy security. Lloyd’s Maritime Information Services records that a total of 3,418 tankers transited the Gulf of Aden westbound in 2007 and 2,956 tankers transited eastbound.
According to INTERTANKO, that is on average 17 tankers every day in the Gulf of Aden carrying almost six million barrels per day of crude oil and other petroleum products (seven per cent of total world oil consumption).
INTERTANKO stresses that it is essential that this flow of oil is not disrupted. If tankers were to be routed via the Cape of Good Hope, instead of Suez and the Gulf of Aden, the distance from the Middle East to the US is more than 30 per cent longer.
Source: International Maritime Bureau, Gulf of Aden Warning, 26 August 2008; International Transport Workers’ Federation, Press Release, 29 September 2008; INTERTANKO <http://www.intertanko.com> at 30 September 2008; NTV News <http://www.ntv.ru> at 5 October 2008.
It was reported that despite safety measures and initiatives undertaken after earlier hurricanes such as Katrina and Rita, the recent Hurricane Ike still had substantial impact on the offshore petroleum industry this September.
The United States Minerals Management Service (MMS) has confirmed that as of 17 September 2008, 49 of more than 3,800 offshore oil and gas production platforms have been destroyed in the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Ike.
By contrast, three years ago, Hurricane Katrina destroyed 44 platforms and shortly after that Hurricane Rita destroyed 64 platforms in the region.
Fortunately most of the platforms destroyed were older platforms with relatively low production volumes.
For instance, out of 49 platforms, 44 produced less than 1,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) and just 5 produced between 1,000 and 5,000 bpd.
In total, the 49 destroyed platforms are estimated to have been producing just about 1% of the total Gulf of Mexico daily petroleum production.
Map of offshore rigs damaged by Hurricane Ike in the Gulf of Mexico as of 16 September 2008
Source: Rig Zone (2008) <http://www.rigzone.com/news/hurricanes/map.asp?s=Ike & m=RigDamage> at 30 September 2008.
In addition, as oil companies evaluate their offshore assets and continue to report on their findings, it is quickly becoming apparent that Hurricane Ike has delivered a harsh blow to the Gulf of Mexico drilling rig fleet.
So far, twelve offshore rigs have been reportedly affected by hurricane. This includes three jack-up rigs and one platform rig, which have apparently been lost, four moored semi-submersibles, which sustained damage to their mooring systems, and submersible rig, pushed off of its pre-storm location. The map below shows nine of those twelve damaged rigs.
MMS is still analysing damage reports submitted by oil companies and full damage statistics will be released in October 2008.
MMS has also been conducting helicopter fly-overs to investigate reports of oil spills or sheens, and so far there are no reports of oil impacting the shoreline or affecting birds and wildlife from releases in the Gulf of Mexico federal waters.
Source: Rig Zone News, After the Storm Ike (2008) Rig Zone <http://www.rigzone.com/news/hurricanes/ike.asp> at 30 September 2008.
[1] The information and material used to compile this section often come from other sources. Every effort has been made to acknowledge such sources and, where possible, to contact copyright holders.
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