Category: News

UK - Authority awards further oil and gas production licences

The UK North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has once again awarded exploration licences to companies in a new oil and gas licensing round after October 2023. The successful licence holders include the British offshore majors bp, the Norwegian group Equinor and TotalEnergies E&P UK. The exploration areas now awarded are located in the central and northern British North Sea and west of the Shetland Islands. This is also where the Victory gas field is located, for which Shell received the development and production licence from the NSTA at the beginning of the year. The licences will only be confirmed once the associated environmental and habitat assessments have been carried out by the British...

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ASPIDES: Participation of Belgian frigate delayed

The integration of the Belgian frigate "Louise-Marie" (F931) into the European naval operation EUNAVFOR ASPIDES to protect shipping against attacks by Houthi militias in the Red Sea will have to wait. According to a statement from the Brussels Ministry of Defence on 12 April 2024, the frigate will now remain in the Mediterranean for training purposes and will postpone its passage of the Suez Canal scheduled for that day until technical faults have been rectified. The frigate of the former Dutch M-class left Zeebrugge on 10 March for a deployment in the Red Sea lasting several months. While the official statement does not go into the causes, the error is said to have occurred during a test firing of the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile system,...

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ASPIDES and ATALANTA: Better coordinated than alone!

By decision of 4 April 2024, the EU amended the mandate of EUNAVFOR Operation ATALANTA in order to create better conditions for EUNAVFOR Operation ASPIDES to ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. Accordingly, Operation ATALANTA is to ensure close coordination with Operation ASPIDES and facilitate their mutual logistical support. In addition, the changes to the mandate include the operational area for ATALANTA and co-operation with other operations, such as ASPIDES. ATALANTA will retain the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea as its area of operations. However, this operation may now only operate in Somali territorial waters if this is authorised by the Somali government.

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Hamburg: Hapag-Lloyd utilises land routes through Saudi Arabia

Since Hapag-Lloyd AG has rerouted its container ships due to the security situation in the Red Sea, it is no longer possible to call at ports in Saudi Arabia (SA) and Jordan (JO). Hapag-Lloyd, but also other shipping companies such as Maersk, expect supply routes through the Red Sea to ports in the Near and Middle East, but also on the routes from Asia to Europe, to be interrupted for months. Hapag is providing its customers with a live ticker so that they can follow the latest developments. Well over 100 passages operated by the Hamburg-based shipping company and its partners are currently affected, which is why Hapag is cancelling land corridors from the Persian Gulf (Jebel Ali...

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USA and Japan agree on new military agreements

During a state visit to the White House, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida concluded a total of around 70 agreements for closer cooperation in the defence sector. These include the modernisation of the US military command structure in Japan - the biggest change of this kind since the 1960s, the establishment of a forum for the joint development and production of missiles and a working group for the training of fighter pilots and the joint development and production of jet trainers. In addition, regular maintenance and repair of U.S. Navy ships and aircraft in Japanese shipyards was also agreed for the first time....

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