Tuesday, February 03, 2026
Media Kit
cargo ship aground in Turkey

Turkey Responds as Ship Damaged in Black Sea Attack is Now Aground

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The project would support comms for large unmanned subs like XV Excalibur, above (MSubs file image)

UK Tests Out Drone Boats for Maintaining Comms with Submersibles

Published Feb 2, 2026 10:49 PM by The Maritime Executive

Unmanned submersibles are a growing focus area for naval R&D, and they have significant potential as force multipliers. They need to communicate with shoreside personnel to receive instructions and report back. That is a challenge for every subsea system, since high bandwidth radio telecommunication does not work underwater and subs quickly lose their stealthy advantage if they have to surface. The British military's startup accelerator program, UK Defence Innovation (UKDI), is backing a novel solution: tag-along surface vessels that handle...

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The Mountain Pass rare earths mine in California (TMY350 / CC BY SA 4.0)

Trump Administration Launches $12B Plan to Stockpile Rare Earths

Published Feb 2, 2026 10:09 PM by The Maritime Executive

The Trump administration has launched a $12 billion initiative to stockpile critical minerals. The initiative is intended to fend off Chinese dominance in the supply chain for these strategic ingredients for manufacturing and defense technology, allowing the U.S. to regain more independence. Starting in 2011, Chinese conglomerates have consolidated control over the world's market in rare earth element mining and processing, giving Beijing a powerful tool for trade leverage. The U.S. Navy is particularly dependent on these materials: every F-35...

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dual-fuel containership

Number of Dual-Fuel Ships Nearly Doubled in 2025, and Strong Orderbook

Published Feb 2, 2026 8:23 PM by The Maritime Executive

The amount of liner shipping using dual-fuel vessels able to take advantage of the emerging alternative lower emissions fuels nearly doubled in 2025, according to new data from the World Shipping Council. In its year-end update on the Dual-Fuel Fleet Dashboard, WSC highlights continuing strong investments as shipowners push forward with their efforts, not waiting for the IMO and other regulators. WSC launched the Dual-Fuel Fleet Dashboard as a tool to track the global liner shipping industry’s investments in new...

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The tanker M Sophia, above, has since rejoined Venezuela's oil trade (U.S. DHS)

With U.S. Embargo Lifted, Venezuelan Oil Exports Bounce Back

Published Feb 2, 2026 8:18 PM by The Maritime Executive

Oil exports from Venezuela have surged upwards since the end of the U.S. embargo and the capture of former dictator Nicolas Maduro. Under American management, oil cargoes rose to 800,000 bpd in January, up from about 500,000 bpd under U.S. Navy blockade in December. Vitol and Trafigura reportedly reached an arrangement to buy the initial surge of bottled-up oil at Venezuela's loading terminals and anchorages, and the work of shipping it is proceeding. Two additional trading houses, Mercuria and AD...

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Offshore

offshore wind farm

Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind Receives Injunction Against Trump Administration

A U.S. District Court Judge issued a preliminary injunction on Monday, February 2, for Sunrise Wind against the Trump administration’s December stop-work order. With today’s ruling, all five of the under-construction offshore wind farms have received permission to resume work despite the administration’s claims of new information about potential radar interference from the wind turbine blades and towers. Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind had reported in early January that it would follow the lead of the other wind farms and also file...

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Shipbuilding

dual-fuel containership

Number of Dual-Fuel Ships Nearly Doubled in 2025, and Strong Orderbook

The amount of liner shipping using dual-fuel vessels able to take advantage of the emerging alternative lower emissions fuels nearly doubled in 2025, according to new data from the World Shipping Council. In its year-end update on the Dual-Fuel Fleet Dashboard, WSC highlights continuing strong investments as shipowners push forward with their efforts, not waiting for the IMO and other regulators. WSC launched the Dual-Fuel Fleet Dashboard as a tool to track the global liner shipping industry’s investments in new...

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Environment

LCO2 transport

Northern Lights has Deals With Shipping Lines to Double CO2 Transport Fleet

The Norwegian CO2 storage initiative, which became the first commercial operation for carbon capture and storage, announced a new deal that will double the company’s fleet by 2029. This comes just months after the company completed its first injection of liquid CO2 for permanent storage. Northern Lights, which is a joint venture between Equinor, TotalEnergies, and Shell, reports it has struck a new charter deal with major shipping companies, including existing partner Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (“K” Line), while adding MISC...

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Business

iStock tanker

Tanker Orders: Too Much, or Not Enough?

Last week, in our annual forecasting opinion ("A Fool's Game?"), we prognosticated that the tanker orderbook will decline in 2026. We are still early in the year, but the headlines from many of the trade publications seem to indicate that this may not happen. It appears that many shipowners and other investors in our industry a lining up even more newbuilding orders. In this week's tanker opinion, we will give a little more background on why we think (hope?) the...

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