Refinery Products News

A ‘work in progress,’ the North American brown water, shallow draft sectors have experienced a tumultuous year of evolution, changing market conditions, a rapidly shifting regulatory environment and new opportunities. Anything but boring; and within the pages of Maritime Reporter’ & Engineering News’ Annual Yearbook, Joseph Keefe, editor of sister-publication MarineNews, takes a deep dive into the issues driving the domestic waterfront.Workboat EmissionsMore than one year ago, Volkswagon learned the ultimate (and painful) meaning of the iconic U.S. adage of “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time – or at least pay the staggering fine.” And pay it forward, Volkswagen did.

When markets expand niches are created, goes the logic. For builders of tugs, that market is “floating gas” and the expanding use of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, as a fuel. In support of LNG, there’ll be more oceangoing tug duty — the new floating storage and regasification units, or FSRUs, mean busier LNG carriers, and LNG cargo owners have an interest in tug escorts that share their “carbon footprint”. Still, new emissions rules offer ways to keep using refinery products, and the work of master tug designers suggests the new breeds of tugs are about more than fuel.

Massive investments in the port of Antwerp are coming in the next few years. The SEA-Invest group is planning construction of a new tanker terminal in the Delwaide dock representing an investment of 250 million euros. In the same dock the group will also operate an independent container terminal that it has acquired from Independent Maritime Terminal (IMT). This facility is currently located in the Hansa dock but will be moved to the Delwaide dock where there is space for further development with an additional investment of 50 million euros. Other new activities not directly related to the waterfront will help to reutilise the space released in the Delwaide dock. In the meantime a location has been found for the Houston-based international terminal operator Zenith Energy.

Energy giant Rosneft said on Thursday its trading arm had delivered an inaugural gasoline cargo to the Asia-Pacific, marking what could be Russia's first foray into a region dominated by OPEC producers from the Gulf. The 200,000-barrel cargo, bought by Rosneft from the international market and taken by Indonesian state energy company Pertamina, was delivered on free-on-board (FOB) terms to Malaysia. Rosneft declined to say from which refinery it had received the cargo. It also did not say from or to which ports it was being delivered. The cargo was shipped to Pertamina within a term agreement for the delivery of 1.2 million barrels signed between the companies in June, Rosneft said.

Russia's oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has the capacity to reroute oil from Russia and the Caspian Sea to other destinations if Turkey shuts the Bosphorus or Dardanelles straits, RIA News agency cites Transneft chief as saying. Turkish maritime authorities on Saturday shut the Bosphorus Strait to tankers for several hours following what the government said was an attempted coup. The strait, which links the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara and is important for oil shipping, was reopened the same day. Nikolai Tokarev, the head of Transneft, said the company has enough spare capacity in its westbound pipeline system to reroute oil in the event of any further closures of the straits.

The port of Rotterdam achieved steady results in the first half of the year. Total throughput increased by 0.6% compared to the first half of 2013. The throughput of crude oil increased by 3.3% while that of mineral oil products decreased by 13.5%. The throughput of coal grew by 9.5%, while ore throughput stayed virtually the same. Container throughput, measured in tonnes, increased by 2.7% or 1.9% when measured in TEUs. Throughput saw a small decrease of 0.2% in the first quarter, but was slightly positive in the second quarter, causing throughput in the first half of the year to increase by 0.6%. A further recovery of the European economy is expected for the second half of the year, so that the port is on track in terms of achieving approximately 1% growth for all of 2014.

The Port of Rotterdam’s throughput in the first quarter of 2014, at 109 million tonnes, was 0.2% below the level for the corresponding period last year.Split up by goods type, less crude oil (-2%), mineral oil products (-14%) and other liquid bulk cargo (-14%) were transferred. On the positive side, iron ore and scrap (+5%), coal (+15%), agribulk (+69%), other dry bulk cargo (+13%), containers (+1%), roll on/roll off (+9%) and other mixed cargo (+9%) did better. CEO Allard Castelein of the Port of Rotterdam Authority said, “The falling tendency of the second half of 2013 continued initially, but thanks to a strong month in March, the throughput in the first three months nonetheless stayed almost the same.

Meeting national transportation needs during the current decade should involve a surfeit of new contracts for our domestic shipbuilders. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) mandates double hulls for all vessels engaged in U.S. petroleum carriage. In our non-contiguous trades, renewal programs are needed for the replacement aging container and RoRo fleets. Moving freight containers and trailers on RoRo barges and vessels, and moving people on passenger and passenger-vehicle high speed ferries, provide the obvious solutions to traffic congestion in the population corridors served by at least two of our Interstate highways. Some of these vessel needs are now immediate because of private sector decisions to postpone projects.