1326 GMT - BP is among the most mentioned companies across news items over the past four hours, according to Factiva data, after the energy major suspended all its oil-tanker shipments through the.
Onboard the merchant ship the Anastasia, four crew members are on suicide watch.
âThey need to go home immediately or something worse will occur,â says Gaurav Singh, 29, second officer of the ship that has been stranded at anchor for nearly five months off the Caofeidian port on the Chinese coastline.
An estimated 1500 seafarers are stranded in Chinese harbours âessentially as pawns of warâ, according to Dean Summers from Maritime Union of Australia.
There are fears for the mental health of the stranded crew, pictured on the Anastasia this week.
The crews are held hostage to import restrictions imposed on Australian coal as part of a wider geopolitical feud between the two nations. Companies keen to offload thermal coal to their Chinese buyers have kept the ships at anchor hoping for a resolution, but that option disappeared when China formally banned Australian coal imports on Tuesday, throwing the $14 billion export industry into turmoil.