The Directorate General of Shipping on Monday said that a vessel, with at least 10 Indians onboard, was hijacked off the Somalian coast on Saturday. According to reports, the ship, MV Victoria, sailed from Mumbai earlier this month with cargo and went missing approximately 55 nautical miles off the Somalian coast. "We are working for more details. Ship owners are supposed to inform, but they have not. We are trying to get more information," a top official told PTI.
This is the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal this pre-monsoon season.
A deep depression over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm, named Remal, on Saturday evening and is likely to turn severe before making landfall between the coasts of West Bengal and Bangladesh on Sunday midnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
In a move that may cripple the nation's oil and gas production, the shipping ministry has issued new norms for operation of vessels in the Indian waters that will force leading operators like Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Reliance Industries to shut offshore operations.
The Indian Navy has swiftly responded to a call for help following a hijacking incident involving a Malta-flagged cargo vessel with 18 crew on board in the Arabian Sea, officials said on Saturday.
The shipping business is like the heaving sea -- it's up and down, observes Shyam G Menon.
'Adani can attract vessels at a much lower cost to Vizhinjam as he has the financial muscle to do so.'
Here are a few remarkable moments out of the 340 days Kelly spent far, far away in space.
As severe cyclonic storm 'Remal' initiated its landfall process between the coasts of Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal on Sunday evening, authorities took swift action, evacuating over 1 lakh people from vulnerable areas of the state to safety.
A Bangladeshi oil tanker carrying over 3,50,000 litres of furnace oil sank on Tuesday in a river in the Sundarbans leaving its captain missing while leaking its cargo and endangering the world's largest mangrove forest.
People in large numbers participated in the India Day Parade held in New York, United States.
The Indian Navy is keeping a close eye on Iranian merchant vessel MV Assa, anchored for over a month off the coast of Kerala.
The first parcel of 90,000 tonnes is expected at Mangalore port around December 2.
The congestion at Australia's Newcastle Port is bringing cheers to Indian shipping companies.
India and Iran on Monday signed a 10-year contract for the operation of a terminal at the strategically important Chabahar port in Iran, a move that will boost regional connectivity as well as trade ties. This is the first time India will take over the management of an overseas port that will also have a multiplier effect on trade among India, Iran and Afghanistan as efforts continue to directly tap the potential in Central Asia, bypassing neighbouring Pakistan.
Since January this year, Indian exporters have begun to dread the shipping news. That's because most of it would be about another lot of shipping companies deciding to avoid Indian ports on account of delays.
Progress M-27M/59P is carrying three tonnes of supplies for the astronauts on the International Space Station.
'Building a whole product with the railways was challenging; we had to figure out how to load and unload a train when it stops for only about five minutes at a station.' 'We also helped them understand the revenues this would generate for them.'
India's import of cheap Russian oil scaled another record in May and is now more than the combined oil bought from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE and the US, industry data showed. India took 1.96 million barrels a day from Russia in May, 15 per cent more than the previous high in April, according to data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa. Russia now makes up for nearly 42 per cent of all crude oil India imported in May.
British Prime Minister David Cameron recently asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's help to send back six British sailors who have been in Tamil Nadu for two years.
In a statement, the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways said it has directed all major ports to accord the highest priority in the berthing sequence to the vessels carrying consignments of medical grade oxygen, oxygen tanks, oxygen bottles, portable oxygen generators and oxygen concentrators.
But to get Congress approval, India will have to present a 'credible' plan for separation of its civilian and military nuclear installations.
India will need to travel back in time and seek inspiration from football greats Tulsidas Balaram and Chuni Goswami to deftly dribble around and sidestep the West-imposed price cap on exports of Russian seaborne crude oil. India depends on imported oil to meet 86 per cent of its needs, of which nearly a quarter now comes from Russia. The copious flows are roughly 10 per cent cheaper than competing suppliers helping India save billions of dollars in fuel costs.
Tightening Russian gas supplies to Europe has led to scramble for tankers before winter sets in.
There is no payment problem for Russian crude, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday. He said there is no proposal to cut retail fuel prices at the moment. Addressing a press conference, the minister said India enjoys a buyers' position and foreign suppliers are approaching Indian companies with offers to sell oil.
Officials were surprised at how quickly smugglers appraised the Covid situation to recruit jobless migrant workers to ship gold.
Crude oil shipments from the US to India rose to the highest levels in November since the conflict began in Ukraine in late February, sparking hopes of a resurgence in oil flows from the US to the subcontinent, reveals shipping data. Shipments from the US have surged as Western nations prepare to impose additional sanctions on Russian crude flows. The US shipped around 450,000 barrels per day of crude last month to India, twice that of shipments in October, according to data from London-based commodity intelligence provider Vortexa.
Russia has defaulted on the supply of at least 5 cargoes or shiploads of LNG to India after its retaliatory sanctions hit one of the companies that supply gas to India, sources said. India's largest gas firm GAIL has a long-term deal to import 2.85 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per annum from a Singapore-based unit of Russian gas producer Gazprom. The company has since June defaulted on the supply of 5 cargoes of LNG under that contract citing difficulty in sourcing gas due to sanctions, two sources briefed on the matter said.
Transportation via inland waterways is cost-effective and more environment-friendly than rail or road transportation
Oil producers cartel OPEC's share in India's oil imports fell to an all-time low of 46 per cent in April as purchases of cheaper Russian oil peaked, industry data showed. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations, mainly in the Middle East and Africa, had a 72 per cent share of all crude oil India imported in April 2022. This share slid to 46 per cent in April 2023, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa.
Eighteen Indian sailors stuck in China will return to India on February 14, union minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Wednesday.
The Spanish train maker has offered to test run its lighter and faster trains free of cost on the existing Indian Railways network.
The project, the agreement for which was signed way back in 2009, had been gaining strategic relevance over the years as India-China ties took a hit.
India's imports of crude oil from Russia touched a new high of 1.64 million barrels per day in March and is now double of the purchases from Iraq - the nation's traditional top oil supplier. But the purchases appear to have plateaued as growth has slowed. Russia continued to be the single largest supplier of crude oil, which is converted into petrol and diesel at refineries, for a sixth straight month by supplying more than one-third of all oil India imported, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa.
'The Ever Given, which had 200,000 tonnes of cargo, was too long for the Suez Canal.'
China is also providing supertankers and insurance coverage to move Russian Urals crude to PRC ports, as Moscow seeks vessels for exports after a G-7 oil price cap restricted the use of Western cargo services and insurance.
The trade to-and-from India so far is not affected. But if the situation continues to remain the same for the next two to three months, it could definitely hurt India trade, including essential cargo.
China is all set to send on Thursday the first three crew members to its under-construction space station which is expected to be Beijing's eye in the sky and will rival the ageing International Space Station (ISS).
'IT companies do not have a large presence there either in terms of market and team. So, the impact of the war will be minimal. But West Asia is an emerging economy.'
Come December, India may have to re-evaluate purchases of Russian oil if a price cap on crude oil proposed by the US and the European Union (EU) comes into effect. That impacts nearly a quarter of India's oil purchases that come at a discount, helping limit marketing losses for India's state refiners and enabling New Delhi to manage inflation by freezing pump prices of motor fuels. In September, India imported 1 million barrels a day or 24 per cent of its overall imports from Russia, which became the biggest supplier of oil to India.
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