Perhaps unsurprisingly, the report found that the overall awareness and preparedness of EU member states for maritime specific cyber-attacks is currently low to non-existent; an alarming find considering 90% of the EU’s external trade and more than 40% of the internal trade take place via maritime routes.

While ENISA admits that ensuring adequate maritime cyber security and protection of ICT (information and communications technology) systems is a major challenge that is in no way limited to the maritime sector, more can be done.

First, ENISA recommends EU Member States undertake targeted maritime sector awareness campaigns (see gCaptain Advertising) and cyber security training for shipping companies, port authorities and so on.  On the other hand, policy makers need to prioritize cyber security aspects as they would (or do) with physical security and safety aspects facing the maritime industry.

Given the reports findings, ENISA strongly recommends a holistic, risk-based approach that includes assessment of maritime-specific cyber risks, as well as identification of all critical assets within this sector.

“This report positions maritime cyber security as a logical and crucial next step in the global protection efforts of ICT infrastructure,” said Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht.

It will be interesting to see how the industry reacts to the findings and how, or if, the recommendations will be implemented.

The full report can be downloaded HERE

BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)–The European Union’s executive body Thursday proposed new rules to increase the safety of oil and gas offshore drilling, in a move aimed at preventing accidents in EU waters similar to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“The idea is to avoid accidents here, but if there is environmental damage, the idea is that the damage should be compensated for” and cleaned up, Guenther Oettinger, European Commissioner for energy, said during a press conference.

According to the new proposal, companies will have to submit to national authorities a plan on how they are ensuring safety for personnel and preventing environmental hazards. They will also have to show that they would be ready to react to any emergency and have the necessary financial and technical capabilities to clean up in case of a major accident.

“If there is a spill, the operators are responsible,” Oettinger said, adding that the rules would extend that provision to almost all platforms in EU waters.

-By Alessandro Torello, Dow Jones Newswires

DOWNLOAD: Improving safety for offshore oil and gas operations

Denmark’s A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, the world biggest container carrier by volume; No. 2 CMA-CGM SA of France; and No. 4 Hapag-Lloyd AG of Germany said officials visited their headquarters unannounced on Tuesday and requested documents.

The commission said it “has reason to believe that the companies concerned may have violated the antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices and/or abuse of a dominant market position.”

The subject of the search: a rebound in container shipping rates in 2009 that confounded simple supply and demand.

Maersk, CMA and Hapag said they were cooperating with the investigation and that they comply with competition rules. A smaller line, Hamburg Süd, issued a similar statement. No. 3 shipping company Mediterranean Shipping Co. of Switzerland couldn’t be reached.

‘For several years we have implemented our compliance programme which includes guidelines and training of employees etc. in order to ensure, to the widest extent possible, that our employees are aware of legislation and how to adhere to it,” Maersk said.

The investigation, in cooperation with national authorities, “are a preliminary step into suspected anticompetitive practices,” the commission said. The inspections don’t mean that the companies are guilty, said the commission, the EU’s executive arm.

Since China revved up its export machine in the 1990s, the container-shipping sector has been one of the world’s fastest growing businesses, expanding around 10% a year.

Increasingly, transporting 20- and 40-foot steel containers across oceans has become the standard for moving everything from bananas to electronics around the globe. Ports built new docks. Canals were widened. Carriers ordered hundreds of bigger ships. The number of ships at sea able to carry over 10,000 20-foot containers or their equivalents increased to 48 this year from 15 in 2009. Next year, it will be 61.

But amid that growth came the global financial crisis. Trade in 2009 suffered its worst decline, 12% by value, since World War II. That led analysts to predict a collapse in rates and that at least one shipping line in the top 20 would fail.

That didn’t happen. In January 2009, the index price for shipping a 40-foot container was $1,603. A year later it was $2,517. It has since softened slightly, to $2,436.

“Traditional rules of economics have long not applied to the shipping industry,” said Ashley Craig, a transportation lawyer with Washington-based Venable LLP.

That triggered the curiosity of antitrust investigators in Brussels and Washington, as The Wall Street Journal reported last June. The U.S. Justice Department and Federal Maritime Commission have cooperated with European Union officials, but haven’t announced their findings. EU cartel investigations, which are run by the European Commission, can take years to conclude.

Shipping-industry customers, freight forwarders and other middle men have filed complaints with the EU and the U.S.

According to shipping-industry executives, rates increased because shipping lines laid up vessels, levied surcharges and cut the speed of their ocean crossings, a practice known as slow steaming, which can cut capacity by 5%.

The question, investigators said, is whether the companies acted alone or together. The shipping companies said they acted independently.

The EU in 2008 abolished a long-standing price-fixing exemption for shipping companies. “After the lifting of the exemption, carriers have continued announcing what they want to do their rate levels in the press, which has been described as signaling,” said Dirk Visser, an analyst with Netherlands-based Dynamar BV.

(c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

EWEA and CESA urge the European Commission to develop programmes and funding mechanisms, and for the European Investment Bank to take the necessary measures to support the risk related to the necessary significant investments, to ensure that a sufficient number of installation vessels are available to the offshore wind industry. They also argue that the offshore wind power industry should be identified as a key industry in the EU’s 2020 strategy for smart, green growth.

Investments in new ships totalling €2.4 billion are needed for the predicted growth of offshore wind. By 2020, the installation of thousands of offshore wind turbines, as well as the necessary substructures and cables, is foreseen.

“From 2020 we will see 40,000 MWs per year built offshore” said Eddie O’Connor, founder and CEO of Mainstream Renewables and EWEA Secretary. “This will require ten to twelve new heavy lift vessels, other vessels for transporting foundations, towers, nacelles and blading systems. New ports will have to be built across Europe.”

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The most technologically advanced drillship in the world is not on lovaton in the gulf of mexico or in a Korean shipyard. Actually it’s not even built yet. Meet the Aurora Borealis, a dynamically positioned, drillship/icebreaker, arctic research vessel designed for the European Union. The official website tells us;

The Research Icebreaker AURORA BOREALIS will be the most advanced Polar Research Vessel in the world with a multi-functional role of drilling in deep ocean basins and supporting climate/environmental research for the next 40 years.

The new technological features will include azimuth propulsion systems, satellite navigation, ice-management support, deep-sea drilling under a closed sea-ice cover and the deployment and operation of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) from one of the two moon-pools.

The unique feature of the vessel is the drilling rig, which will enable sampling of the ocean floor down to 5000 m water depth and with 1000 m penetration into the seafloor at the most inhospitable places on earth. The drilling capability will be deployed in both polar regions and AURORA BOREALIS will be the only vessel worldwide to undertake this type of scientific investigation.

Technical Details:

• Powerful icebreaker with ca. 55 MW (diesel-electric)
• Highest classification for icebreakers
• Twin hull
• Two moon pools 7 x 7 m each
• Dynamic Positioning System
• Deep-sea drilling under a closed sea-ice cover
• Drilling rig: max. 5,000 m water depth and 1,000 m core
• Riserless drilling technology
• Modularized mobile laboratory systems – mission specific laboratories
Length over all ca. 180 m | Beam ca. 40 m | Personnel (crew + scientists) 120 | Expedition duration 60 days.

For more information on the Aurora Borealis visit the official website HERE or download the presentation HERE. For the oceanography geeks a more detailed study can be found HERE.

UPDATE: The BBC has just run an excellent article on this vessel which can be found HERE.

Note: This article was originally posted in Jan 08