A federal judge has blocked an oil and gas lease sale in Gulf waters off the coast of Louisiana after finding that authorities did not take into account the impact of new offshore drilling on the highly endangered Rice’s whale. The ruling from a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will require the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) to conduct additional environmental reviews before the lease sale proceeds. As it stands, the current lease sale is not canceled but will need more work before it goes ahead. The main issue is the habitat of the Rice’s whales, which live in Gulf waters and nowhere else and were discovered to be a distinct species only recently. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association estimates that there could be only 51 such whales left in the wild. This particular species of whale is particularly vulnerable to being struck by boats because it sleeps near the water’s surface, making it exceptionally hard to spot. Last month, BOEM said no to recommendations that ships slow down in areas where the whales are known to live and keep 500 meters away from any whale that might be a Rice’s whale. The court also ruled that BOEM did not adequately take into account the impact of greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the new oil and gas work in the Gulf of Mexico. The lawsuit was filed in 2023 by several environmental organisations – Healthy Gulf, Bayou City Waterkeeper, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club. The environmental groups have also challenged Gulf lease sale 261, which took place in December 2023, on the same grounds. So far, no decision has been made regarding that sale. Scott Lauermann, a spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute, said that the blocking of the lease sale was “yet another example of activists weaponizing the National Environmental Policy Act process in the courts to block critical access for exploration, underscoring how permitting reform is essential to ensuring access to affordable, reliable energy.” The Biden administration generally looked to limit offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters, especially during his last month in office when an executive order was issued banning drilling in most federal waters. President Donald Trump, however, is doing everything in his power to reverse those decisions and is promising to “unleash American energy”, mostly through oil and gas. The Gulf of Mexico is the focus of those policies since around 97% of all offshore oil and gas production comes from there.

VLGC owner and operator BW LPG has signed a memorandum of agreement to sell two vessels to the BW LPG India joint venture. The two vessels in question, the BW Pampero and BW Chinook, were acquired in the recent Avance Gas transaction and will be sold for approximately $75m per vessel to ensure further expansion and fleet renewal in the Indian market. The delivery of the two 2015-built vessels is expected in the third quarter of 2025. BW LPG India currently owns and operates India’s largest fleet of very large gas carriers, comprising seven ships, after the recently announced sale of the BW Cedar. Its fleet is also the youngest and accounts for import of approximately 20% of LPG into India. The company was established as a joint venture in 2017 between BW LPG Limited and Global United Shipping and is headquartered in Chennai. In 2021, Maas Capital Shipping acquired a minority stake of 42% in BW LPG India, with BW LPG currently holding 52% of the shares. “We see tremendous potential in the country and are proud to participate in the continued growth of the Indian LPG market,” said Kristian Sørensen, CEO of BW LPG.

China’s Jiangsu Qinfeng Shipbuilding has secured orders from Jiangsu Lvhang Logistics for up to six containerships. The deal, with an undisclosed value covers one firm and five optional 1,138 teu newbuilds, with the first vessel expected for delivery by November 2026. No further details have been divulged, except that the boxships have been designed to run on LNG. The yard, established in 2007, won orders for 16 methanol-powered bulkers from Wuhan Innovation Jianghai Transportation last September. The 15,000 dwt and 19,600 dwt newbuilds are touted as the first Chinese coastal ships to run solely on the low-carbon fuel.

Of the 50 largest container shipping lines in the world in the year 2000, only 24 are still in existence, according to new research from Denmark’s Sea-Intelligence. The capacity operated by these surviving carriers has grown dramatically. Overall, they have grown their collective capacity from 2.5m teu in 2000 to 26.7m teu in 2025, 983% capacity growth over 25 years, equalling 10% growth on average, every single year for 25 years. Sea-Intelligence also noted in its latest weekly report that apart from the 24 survivors, 26 carriers have entered into the top 50, some as new carriers and some that were outside the top 50 in the year 2000. These 26 newcomers in total operate 6% of the global fleet – versus the 84% operated by the survivors, Sea-Intelligence data shows. “Clearly, this is a market which has undergone extreme consolidation. But it has also been a 25-year journey, where the incumbents have clearly been better at adapting and growing in the market than the newcomers,” Sea-Intelligence noted. This week the global liner fleet will likely cross the 32m teu mark, according to data from Alphaliner. The container fleet has grown very fast this century. The 30m teu landmark was hit in June last year with a teu tsunami cascading out of yards in Asia delivering a record volume of newbuildings. It took the industry around 50 years to reach the 5m teu mark in 2001. By contrast, the leap from 20m teu to 30m teu was achieved in just seven years.