Posts Tagged "Chittagong"

In accordance with a press release by Robin des Bois dated June 16, 2017 and with numerous prior reports in the NGO’s quarterly publication “Shipbreaking”, the Bangladesh Supreme Court has just banned the dismantling of the North Sea Producer, a former FPSO (Floating Production Storage Offloading), i. e. a floating plant used to refine and store crude oil extracted through offshore platforms.

Bangladesh has the most deficient ratio – 42 ships – 3 deaths.
Indonesia has the best productivity. 81 illegal fishing boats were demolished in 15 seconds.

Palau is the trendy funeral flag this quarter. 11 ships were deflagged to Palau just prior to be sent for scrapping. 17 of the 45 ships deflagged for their last voyage belonged to European shipowners.

The purchase price offered by shipbreaking yards in the second quarter of 2017 is around 350 US$ per ton in the Indian Sub-continent and around 250 US$ in China and in Turkey. The cumulated tonnage of scrapped ships is 1.6 million tons. The tanker Catherine Knudsen built in 1992 in Nagasaki, Norwegian-owned and Norwegian-flagged, was sold for more than 8 million US$. She was deflagged to Palau for her last voyage.

236 meters long. The North Sea Producer, prized possession of Maersk, the number one ship owner in the world, has served the petroleum industry in the North Sea well for 18 years.
This former tanker was launched in 1984 in Denmark under the name Dagmar Maersk and was converted 12 years later into a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO). It was stationed in the Mc Chulloch oil field north of Aberdeen. The North Sea Producer retired in 2015 on the banks of the Tees next to the shipbreaking site of Able UK in Hartlepool where the former French aircraft carrier Clemenceau was demolished, and from there left Europe under tow. Maersk chose Bangladesh for the end of its life. In the last 9 years, 161 workers have been killed on the beaches of Chittagong. Maersk was not impeded by these facts. What really counts is selling at the best price. The scrappers of Bangladesh offered more than $6 million US for the North Sea Producer.

As Robin des Bois published in its quarterly bulletin “Shipbreaking” #47, in its kilometres of pipes the North Sea Producer contains radium scales. Radium is naturally present in the underwater substratum, the exploitation of gas and oil concentrates the radium in the pipes and tanks. Radium scales are highly toxic through inhalation and contact. For example, during the maintenance and dismantlement of the Lacq gas field in France, Total Production produced more than 2000 tons of metal contaminated by Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material. The official destination of this waste was the Soulaines storage center in Aube department under the responsibility of ANDRA, the National Agency for the Management of Radioactive Waste. Norway exploits a storage center for radioactive residuals from the petroleum offshore industry.

The Gulf Jash, ex- Probo Koala, is anchored in Halong Bay, Vietnam. Today, June 3rd GMS, U.S. based ship broker, denies ownership of the ship. Under this hypothesis, it is for Dubai based Gulf Navigation, owner of the ex- Probo Koala since 2006, to clarify the conditions of the sale and the destination of the vessel.

In accordance with Robin des Bois’ (“Robin Hood” international association based in Paris) press release published May 17th 2011, the Equasis database displays, since May 31st that the Gulf Jash ex-Probo Koala, the Gulf Ahmadi ex-Probo Bison and the Gulf Shagra ex-Probo Panda are indeed “to be broken up”.