By Marianna Parraga

CARACAS, Sept 8 (Reuters) – A fire halted shipping from a 12 million barrel crude and oil products storage terminal on the Caribbean island of Bonaire on Wednesday, the day after a deadly Mexican refinery blast rattled gasoline and diesel markets.

No ships were loading or unloading while the fire at a tank containing 200,000 barrels of naphtha was brought under control, said Asdrubal Chavez, head of refining at Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA oil company, which owns the BOPEC terminal on the Dutch Antilles island, 50 miles (80 km) north of Venezuela.

“It was caused by an electrical storm. We are working to put it out. There are no injuries or fatalities. It is difficult to control the fire,” said Chavez, PDVSA’s head of refining.

There was little initial impact on oil prices, said energy analyst Phil Flynn of PFGBest Research in Chicago.

“The market reaction has been subdued so far and is likely to continue to be if it is contained to the naphtha tank – there’s really a glut of naphtha out there in the market right now,” said Flynn.

St. John’s — Sept. 8, 2010 — LIAT’s management announces that it is moving to put in place measures for implementation of a new LIAT/LIALPA Collective Bargaining Agreement.

This follows the July 05, 2010 ruling of a three-man arbitration panel headed by retired Barbadian jurist Sir Leroy Inniss QC, concerning a new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Company and its pilots.

LIAT’s CEO Brian Challenger noted that while certain matters are still being clarified, the arbitration award nevertheless provides the opportunity for a new chapter in the often acrimonious relationship between LIAT and LIALPA.

“We believe that that the provisions of the arbitration ruling provide both parties with a blueprint for resolving the many issues that have traditionally plagued our relationship,” Challenger said.

“Based on the ruling from the arbitration panel and following several exchanges of communication with LIALPA we have prepared a draft Collective Agreement which we hope will form the basis for review by both sides and allow for an early signature of the agreement once the remaining areas of clarification are resolved.

“We have already taken action to implement those aspects of the award which had a clear timeline for implementation and we are putting in place the mechanisms to facilitate the necessary administrative and logistical changes, some of which are quite significant to our operations, in order to achieve earliest possible implementation of the agreement,” Mr. Challenger added.

Challenger noted that the company has been in communication with LIALPA with regard to the possible signing of the new Collective Agreement and it is hoped that planned discussions with LIALPA would enable an early identification of a date to sign the agreement.

The arbitration panel was set up following an agreement brokered by the Prime Ministers of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in July 2009 in an effort to settle long-standing industrial relations issues between the Company and its pilots.

LIAT is one of the leading Caribbean airlines. It is owned by regional shareholders, with the major shareholders being the Governments of Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. More information about LIAT may be found at www.liat.com.

NEW YORK — JetBlue Airways Corp. said Wednesday that it will begin offering service from New York and Boston to the Turks & Caicos Islands in the Caribbean in February.

On Feb. 17, it will begin flying daily to Providenciales, the most populous of the islands, from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

On Feb. 19, it will begin weekly Saturday flights from Boston Logan International to Providenciales. That service will end in April and run in following years only in peak tourist season — November to April.

JetBlue expects to start selling tickets for the new Turks & Caicos service in October.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Wednesday September 8, 2010 – In the midst of a battle to have a review or complete scrapping of UK’s controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD) which increases in another two months, regional tourism has been dealt another tax blow.

The German government has implemented an airline ticket tax that will, like the APD, see some of the highest amounts being paid by those travelers coming to the Caribbean.

From September 3rd, tickets bought for travel beginning January 1st and onward, attracted a tax of €8 (US$10) for travel to 52 European destinations, €25 (US$31) for destinations in Asia and Africa, and €45 (US$57) to all other destinations, including those in the Caribbean.

The new flight levy was introduced ahead of a proposed budget designed to reduce government’s €80 billion (US$101 billion) deficit. Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had said Cabinet agreed that the measure would go into effect even before next year’s start date in order to prevent “a rush in ticket-buying aimed at pre-empting the tax”.

Just as UK airlines criticised the APD, German carriers aren’t welcoming the new airline tax either. And regional tourism officials will be just as concerned.

In Antigua and Barbuda where attempts to attract German tourists have not been as successful as officials would like, the Antigua Hotels and Tourism Association (AHTA) General Manager Neil Forrester has admitted that the new tax “certainly won’t help” that cause.

“The German outbound market was actually growing after the recession but this could have a slowing effect on that,” he told a local newspaper. “While the visitors that we’re getting from Germany are more of an affluent type of visitor, who probably wouldn’t even notice $50 difference, it’s certainly not going to help build our visitation from Germany.”

And Barbados’ Tourism Minister Richard Sealy has already expressed concern about the introduction of the tax.

“I am certain that other members of the European Union may look to do likewise if we simply sit silent,” he said, as he also supported his regional counterparts who have their hands full in Britain as they lobby the government and other officials there on the APD.

Representatives from six Caribbean islands are in London with the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO). The delegation includes Tony Johnson, Jamaica’s High Commissioner to London; Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett; John Lynch, Director of Tourism in Jamaica; St Lucia’s Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation, Senator Allen Chastanet; Hugh Anthony Arthur, Barbados High Commissioner; Senator Richard Skerritt, Minister of Tourism and International Transport in St Kitts and Nevis; Glynis Roberts, Grenada’s Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation; CTO Chairman and Antigua and Barbuda’s Tourism Minister John Maginley; and CTO Secretary General Hugh Riley.

They will wrap up their talks today.

The APD will increase on November 1st. Based on the band into which Caribbean countries are placed – the third highest of the four bands – those travelling to the region from the UK in economy class will pay £75 (US $115) from that date, up from £50 (US$77), while the levy for premium economy, business and first-class passengers to the region will move from £100 (US$154) to £150 (US$291).

Source: 360 News

The O’Flaherty Brothers of Wexford have a diverse range of shipping interests ranging from a fishing trawler fleet, a short-sea coaster and ferries under the
Celtic Link Ferries banner, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The shipping family can now also claim to have operations in the far-flung seas of the Caribbean Sea through the chartering of their freight-ferry Diplomat (1978/16,776grt)
which was replaced late last year by Norman Voyager (2008/26,500grt) on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route.

Diplomat spent the winter laid-up at Waterford, where the 32-year vessel was one of the largest vessels to dock at the city-centre quays and formed a temporary albeit floating landmark.

In April the veteran departed Irish shores to take up a new career in the Caribbean. The Diplomat now serves three weekly round trips between the ports of Mayaguez and the
capital of San Juan in Peurto Rico and Rio Haina and San Domingo, the capital in the Dominican Republic, which shares the large island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

In an earlier career, the Diplomat whilst serving as the Baltic Ferry, was requistioned by the British Military of Defence as part of the Falkland Islands task force in the war
with Argentina in 1982. The vessel saw action which involved Royal Air Force Harrier Jump-Jets landing on the cargo-deck using the aircraft’s unique vertical take-off lift
(VTOL) capability.

Another vessel under the O’Flaherty sphere of operations, Finnforest (1978/15,525grt), a sistership of Diplomat and built from a series of successful Searunner-class vessels
ordered by Stena Rederi, returned to Dublin early this year. The vessel had spent several years on charter to Finnlines serving in the Baltic Sea between Helsinki and Gdynia, Poland.

Finnforest like the Diplomat underwent dry-docking at Dublin, with both vessels heading afterwards for lay-up periods at Waterford. Finnforest remains laid-up
awaiting a charter while berthed alongside the city-centre’s disused quays on the Co. Kilkenny side of the River Suir.

Source: AFLOAT

On select 2011 Caribbean itineraries the Disney Cruise Line is offering a significant savings for families with children; kids-sail-free! Seven-night Caribbean cruises from Jan. 8, 2011, through March 5, 2011 — excluding Feb. 19 — are eligible for the offer as well as the January 3, 2011, five-night Bahamas cruise. To take advantage of this special offer guests must book a Verandah stateroom (categories 4A to 7A), and have two full fare guests on the reservation.

Valid for Canada and U.S. residents only, there are a limited number of cabins per sailing allocated for the offer. Book quickly to take advantage of the savings! Enjoy Disney’s Castaway Cay on all sailings, a magical private island full of Disney surprises at every turn. Several different 7-night itineraries are available including stops in St. Maarten, St. Thomas/St. John, Key West, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

For more information, or to book the offer, call (800) 951-3532 or visit Disney’s official website. Mention code “KFO” at time of booking : Disney Cruise Line

Santo Domingo. – Foreign investment in Dominican Republic will top 2.4 billion dollars this year, according to Export and Investment Center director Eddy Martinez, who noted that the figure will include the areas of mining, agribusiness, free zones, tourism, real estate, telecommunications and infrastructure.

Martinez affirmed that the Caribbean country continues being among the “most attractive” at the time to invest capital. “I can assure you that right now Dominican Republic is one of the most attractive countries or perhaps the most attractive for foreign investment, given its climate of security and confidence.”

The official said that while many countries have yet to finish recovering from the global economic crisis, Dominican Republic continues exhibiting “excellent” growth standards.

In that regard, Martinez noted the “importance” of his agency’s estimates that around 2.4 billion dollars in foreign investments would enter the nation this year.

Official data show that the Dominican economy is based mostly in tourism development, free zone production and the remittances from its citizens who live mostly in the United States and Europe.

Source: Dominican Today

Borrowing costs soared Tuesday for weaker European governments and their banks, after a series of unsettling reports about bank risks and the region’s capacity to shoulder a massive debt burden.

Spreads on government bonds issued by Portugal and Ireland surged above the peaks they reached in May, during the last round of market unrest. Investors were demanding 3.76 percentage points more to lend to Ireland than to Germany, and 3.51 percentage points more to lend to Portugal than Germany. Greek spreads were approaching their record highs.

The moves came after investors got bad news from almost every angle over the long Labor Day weekend in the United States.

The Bank of International Settlements reported this weekend that European banks have been loading up on bonds issued by troubled governments in Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

They did this even as private investors backed away from that debt, on the grounds that the risk of a default in one of those countries is rising as the global economic recovery slows, in part because the European Central Bank has been lending freely on the weaker nations’ bonds as collateral.

Then The Wall Street Journal reported there are renewed questions about the strength of the stress tests European Union regulators carried out in July, and discrepancies in the size of various banks’ exposure to troubled governments.

And in Ireland, policymakers continue to grapple with the quickest and least costly way to wind down the government’s support for debt-gorged banks, which already has cost Ireland a string of credit downgrades and stands to consume a huge sum of scarce taxpayer resources.

The cost of insuring against a default on bonds issued by stressed European governments rose 9% in Spain and 7% each in Ireland, Italy and Portugal, according to CMA data.

Shares of the major European banks trading in New York, from Spain’s Santander (STD) and Banco Bilboa (BBVA) to Germany’s Deutsche Bank (DB) and ING (ING) of the Netherlands, tumbled 3% in early action Tuesday.

Even harder hit was Barclays (BCS) of the U.K., which dropped 5% after a surprise management change and the whiffs of a question about its own sovereign debt exposure. The bank was among those whose exposure to weaker governments was understated by the stress tests, The Wall Street Journal reported.

TORONTO, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ — Canada’s most international bank today announced a change in organizational structure that will enable it to capitalize on opportunities for strategic growth. To support the new structure, Scotiabank also announced a series of executive appointments.

“We have long been a leader in the international markets where we operate,” said Rick Waugh, Scotiabank President and CEO. “With these changes Scotiabank will be well-positioned to seize significant global business opportunities that align with our strategic plans.”

Scotiabank announced a re-organization into four business lines:
Canadian Banking (CB)
International Banking (IB)
Scotia Capital (SC)
Global Wealth Management (GWM)

Global Wealth Management becomes the fourth pillar in the Bank’s strategy of diversification across multiple geographies, product lines and strong businesses. Existing wealth management and insurance in Canada and internationally will be combined into GWM, along with Global Transaction Banking (GTB).

In addition, Scotia Capital will have a broader mandate which has been expanded to capitalize on the significant wholesale opportunities in international markets where Scotiabank has a strong presence, most notably in Latin America and Asia. Scotia Capital will continue to be led by Co-CEO’s and Group Heads, Mike Durland, responsible for global capital markets, and Steve McDonald, who leads global corporate & investment banking.

“The changes we are announcing today will accelerate the progress of several initiatives that are well underway,” said Waugh.

To support these changes to organizational structure, Scotiabank is making the following senior leadership appointments.
Chris Hodgson becomes Group Head, Global Wealth Management
Rob Pitfield becomes Group Head and Chief Risk Officer
Brian Porter becomes Group Head, International Banking
Anatol von Hahn becomes Group Head, Canadian Banking

“Scotiabank remains firmly committed to our five key business priorities: sustainable revenue growth, capital management, leadership, prudent risk management and expense management,” said Waugh. “This new structure leverages our progress to date and positions us to compete and win in the global marketplace, recognizing the breadth and diversification of Scotiabank, the strength of our team and our successful business model.”

Scotiabank is one of North America’s premier financial institutions and Canada’s most international bank. With close to 70,000 employees, Scotiabank Group and its affiliates serve approximately 14.6 million customers in some 50 countries around the world. Scotiabank offers a diverse range of products and services including personal, commercial, corporate and investment banking. With more than $523 billion in assets (as at July 31, 2010), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (BNS) and New York Exchanges (BNS). For more information please visit www.scotiabank.com.

Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner says the new fast ferries would be used for excursions to Tobago and Venezuela “to reduce the dependence on the treasury.” The four new water ferries– the Calypso Sprinter, Trini Flash, Paria Bullet and the Carnival Runner arrived in T&T yesterday.

The three current water taxis are expected to be sold, Warner said. During a tour at Staubles Bay in Chaguaramas yesterday, Warner said excursions to those destinations was a lucrative market that would be explored. He said: “We have been advised the water taxis can adequately carry people to Tobago and to Venezuela and can each transport 405 passengers.”

The ferries cost $440 million. Speaking about the victory of the Soca Princesses on Sunday, Warner said: “It is the first time we have won a World Cup match in any World Cup final. “We have been to five World Cup finals, five, since 1989–Guatemala U-20, we have been to Germany, and it is the first time we have won a match and here we have won a match in a women’s final with a woman Prime Minster in the country.” He added it was Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s victory. Warner said resources were needed for football and sport in general.