OCEAN MARLIN

Cadeler has taken delivery of Wind Ace, its 11th offshore wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) and the second of three A-class newbuilds.Built over the past two years at the COSCO Shipping Offshore shipyard in Qidong, China, the vessel was delivered on schedule and within budget, according to Cadeler.Following mobilization, Wind Ace will prepare for deployment on ScottishPower Renewables' 960 MW East Anglia TWO offshore wind farm in the UK, where Cadeler will transport and install both the project's foundations and wind turbines.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to close "all other export corridors that benefit the U.S. and its allies", Iranian media reported, after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports."Regional energy exports are either shared by all, or denied to all," the IRGC said in a statement carried by Iran's IRNA state news agency on Wednesday.Analysts have said Iran has been signalling it may use its Houthi allies in Yemen to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, opening a new front against Washington and putting two of the world's most vital energy arteries at risk.

An oil tanker chartered for loading oil at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal off Russia's Black Sea coast was attacked and damaged by two drones on Friday, CPC said.Sources told Reuters the vessel, the Suezmax-class Nordic Zenith, had been chartered by ExxonMobil.CPC did not identify any party as responsible for the incident. The past week has seen a sharp escalation in attacks by both Russia and Ukraine on shipping in the Black and Azov seas, marking a new phase in a war that has until now mainly been fought on the ground and in the skies.CPC said in a statement that a fire broke out on the Nordic Zenith but was later extinguished.

Armed assailants boarded the chemical tanker Asana off the southern coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden on Friday and are in control of the vessel, maritime security officials said.Based on initial assessments, the incident appeared to be related to Somali piracy rather than Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia, one of the maritime security sources said.Attempted attacks on ships in the Gulf of Aden have risen in recent weeks, adding to concerns over safety in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz on the other side, boosting risks for critical energy shipments from the region to buyers in Asia.

The U.S. Interior Department has proposed a lease of more than 31 million acres off the coast of American Samoa for seabed mining, part of President Donald Trump's broader push to boost U.S. critical minerals production.The waters around the Pacific Ocean territory are estimated to contain large amounts of potato-shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules filled with the building blocks for electric vehicles, weaponry and electronics.The department's Marine Mineral Administration (MMA) said on Thursday it aims to lease two blocks, one of 16.3 million acres and the other 15.1 million acres, in federal waters off the eastern coast of Tau, one of the territory's seven islands.