The Panama Canal accounts for roughly five percent of world sea trade, and the expanded Panama Canal is estimated to generate a three percent increase in cargo volumes transiting the Canal.

Norsepower Oy Ltd., the developer of the world’s first commercially viable renewable energy-powered vessel technology, has announced that it has received the ‘Innovation of the Year’ accolade at the 2016 Electric & Hybrid Marine Awards’ ceremony, which took place at Electric and Hybrid Marine World Expo in Amsterdam, Netherlands, today.

In its latest weekly review of trends in petroleum, the U.S. Energy Information Agency examined how the new Panama Canal expansion will affect crude and product supplies on the North American market – and forecasts that it will have little impact.

Local media in Sao Paolo, Brazil report that investigators are looking into a fatal accident aboard the bulker Ocean Phoenix. A contractor, Vanderley Ferreira da Silva, was killed by a high pressure water jet, which reportedly penetrated his thigh and severed his femoral artery.

On Thursday, the geared bulker Benita went hard aground on reefs near the small city of Mahebourg, Mauritius – reportedly due to an attempted mutiny and a brawl among her 23 Taiwanese and Filipino crew.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has begun testing its newly finished second set of locks with transits by the bulker Baroque on the Atlantic side of the canal. The 115,000 dwt vessel has been chartered for a series of trial runs in advance of the canal’s formal opening June 26.