Large Oil Tankers News

About the Author: Captain Rahul Khanna is Global Head of Marine Risk Consulting at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty. A marine professional with 26 years of experience within the Shipping and Maritime industry, Captain Khanna served more than 14 years on board merchant ships in all ranks, including Master of large oil tankers trading worldwide. Although shipping losses have more than halved over the past decade fires on board vessels remain among the biggest safety issues for the maritime industry.

Commercial insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty released its Safety & Shipping Review, an annual analysis of shipping losses and accidents worldwide. The 2022 report reveals that the maritime sector continues its long-term positive safety trend over the past year with 54 total losses of vessels reported globally, compared with 65 a year earlier. This represents a 57% decline over 10 years (127 in 2012); while during the early 1990s the global fleet was losing 200+ vessels a year.The 2021 loss total is made more impressive by the fact that there are an estimated 130…

South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) received an approval in principle (AiP) from classification society DNV for the DSME Rotor Sail System for large oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.Desigend to provide eco-friendly auxiliary propulsion for ships, a rotor sail system incorporates the installation of cylindrical columns (rotors) on the vessel’s deck to generate additional power to propel the ship by using the force of the wind and column rotation during operation.“In this time of growing pressure to decarbonize…

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, says its DIA-SOx marine scrubbers have been installed on 22 ships during the last eight months.The builder said the installations were completed as scheduled despite the continued spread of COVID-19 globally through remote commissioning conducted via close communication and cooperation with its local partners' engineers in China and Singapore.The  DIA-SOx lineup consists of the R Series and C Series.

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) has expressed concern about the agreement of fusion notified from the South Korean shipbuilding groups Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME).The authority antitrust of Singapore has raised competition concerns with the proposed acquisition by Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd. (KSOE) of a majority interest in DSME and the intended integration of the businesses of KSOE and DSME.Earlier, on 12 September 2019, CCCS accepted an application from KSOE for a decision on whether the Proposed Transaction infringes section 54 of the Competition Act (Cap.

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a member of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) Group, based in Yokohama, has increased production capacity for its marine SOx scrubber system that reduces sulfur oxide (SOx) from the exhaust gas of ships, and begun shipments of the DIA-SOx C Series tower and DIA-SOx R Series tower from partner fabricators in China and Taiwan, respectively. The C Series tower shipped this time is designed to be fitted on LPG carriers and large oil tankers…

The world's second-largest shipbuilder by orders Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co (DSME) has clinched a US$370 million deal to build two LNG carriers.A report in Yonhap said that  under the deal with an unidentified customer, the South Korean shipbuilder is set to deliver the 174,000-cubic-meter ships by the first half of 2021.The Korean shipyard has an option to build four more vessels as well, it said. The company informed that the deal on the options would be finalized in 2019.DSME has won deals valued at a combined $5.64 billion to build a total of 41 ships, including 16 very large oil tankers so far this year.According to Yonhap, with the latest deal, Daewoo Shipbuilding has met some 77 percent of its annual order target of $7.3 billion.

The consortium Boskalis, Van Hattum en Blankevoort and Mobilis is constructing a deep-sea quay, inland navigation quay and jetty for the new HES Hartel Tank Terminal on the Hartelstrook (Maasvlakte 1), on behalf of Port of Rotterdam Authority.To enable the tank terminal to accommodate large oil tankers and inland vessels, the consortium is constructing a 1,200-metre quay wall for sea-going vessels, an 1,100-metre quay wall and a 350-metre jetty with four berths for inland vessels, as well as the necessary bank and seabed protection."Port of Rotterdam Authority started its part of the work in January 2018. The 600 mixed-in-place piles are now in place and the reinforcement work and concrete placements of the quay walls are in full swing.

The fatal explosion in the pump room on the Brazilian FPSO Cidade de São Mateus in February 2015, demonstrated the potential for major accidents on this type of unit. Although there has never been an explosion in the oil storage tanks of an FPSO, there is a potential for such an event and offshore operators should assess the risks of such events to design against them. It is therefore imperative that risk assessments of FPSOs address this type of event. For this, they need to estimate its annual likelihood of occurring.

Supertankers entering the Port of Long Beach will use ABB’s marine software to produce real-time data of the keel-to-seabed clearance, improving the safety and efficiency of the operations. Sensors fitted to Tesoro vessels will send information to a Portable Surveyor Box (PSB), carried by the pilot, which will verify their route to the dock. In this specific case, the system is used to continuously validate (and improve) pre-calculated motions from the online decision support system PROTIDE, which is used to calculate safe transit time windows for large oil tankers to enter the port.

Global oil and shipping markets reacted nervously on Tuesday after an international arbitration court ruled against Beijing's claims across large swathes of the South China Sea, fuelling geopolitical tensions in the vital waterway. A tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, found China had breached the sovereign rights of the Philippines and had no legal basis to its historic claims in the South China Sea, a major shipping lane between Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The ruling will be seen as a victory by other regional claimants such the Philippines and Vietnam…

Nearly 30 large oil tankers waiting to load at Basra; daily VLCC tanker rates have doubled to nearly $75,000. A traffic jam of nearly 30 large oil tankers has built up outside the Iraqi port of Basra due to loading delays, with some waiting up to three weeks and costing ship operators around $75,000 a day per vessel. Shippers and port sources said more delays are expected throughout April as the city's facilities struggle to cope with Iraq's soaring crude output. The problems at Basra, coupled with continuing storage tank shortages in China, have pushed supertanker rates from the Middle East to Asia to unseasonal highs as the delays disrupt future sailing schedules and charterers cover future tonnage requirements.

Reuters reports that China's growing military presence in the South China Sea has drawn warnings from the United States that Beijing is seeking to exert control over one of the world's most important sea lanes, but so far the shipping industry seems less concerned. Beijing has been increasingly assertive in staking its claim to almost the whole of the sea, though which trillions of dollars of trade passes each year. Merchant shipping says operations are, as yet, unaffected, despite the diplomatic tensions. "For ship owners, it’s business as usual," said Captain Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive officer at Anglo-Eastern Univan Group, one of the world's biggest ship management companies.

China's growing military presence in the South China Sea has drawn warnings from the United States that Beijing is seeking to exert control over one of the world's most important sea lanes, but so far the shipping industry seems less concerned. Beijing has been increasingly assertive in staking its claim to almost the whole of the sea, though which trillions of dollars of trade passes each year. This month China landed its first test flights on a new 3,000 metre (10,000 ft) runway it has built on a reef in the Spratly Islands, drawing protests from Vietnam and the Philippines which have overlapping claims in the area. Despite the diplomatic tensions, merchant shipping says operations are, as yet, unaffected.

Grave concerns on safe navigation through Straits of Malacca and Singapore. The Malacca and Singapore Straits is a strategic gateway in world trade and one of the world’s busiest waterways. On any given day, over 140 ships – such very large oil tankers, container ships, bulk carriers and cruise liners, ply through the Straits; not forgetting the smaller crafts like passenger ferries, tugs and barges making frequent cross-Straits voyages in the littoral states of Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. During the past week, acrid haze originating from forest fires in Sumatra, Indonesia has blanketed the region, including the southern Straits, southern peninsular Malaysia and the island of Singapore.

According to a Feb 15 report from Bloomberg, UAE-based shipping company Gulf Navigation Holding will add two very large crude carriers (VLCCs) by 2013 to its fleet as it expands and launches two new companies. Last month it received a VLCC named Gulf Eyadah, which has started its two-year contract. The holding company's total capacity in five years will be 18 million barrels with nine VLCCs.   (Source: Bloomberg)

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., said that it won orders to build 12 ships worth $2.3b this month, Yonhap reported.  The company said that nine very large oil tankers, one drill ship and two bulk carriers are to be built. Source:  Yonhap

Conoco Inc. and Maritrans Inc. are jointly developing advanced shuttle tanker technologies to safely transport newly discovered deepwater Gulf of Mexico crude oil reserves to U.S. refineries more economically than current pipeline alternatives. Technologies being evaluated have the potential to greatly reduce the time between discovery and production of deepwater crude reserves. "The industry is actively exploring for the 10 billion barrels of crude oil reserves that are estimated to be contained in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico," said Rob McKee, Conoco executive vice president for exploration production. "Operations in deepwater are expensive, and we are continuously seeking ways to improve the economics of our deepwater program.

Conoco Inc. and Maritrans Inc. are jointly developing advanced shuttle tanker technologies to safely transport newly discovered deepwater Gulf of Mexico crude oil reserves to U.S. refineries more economically than current pipeline alternatives. Technologies being evaluated have the potential to greatly reduce the time between discovery and production of deepwater crude reserves. "The industry is actively exploring for the 10 billion barrels of crude oil reserves that are estimated to be contained in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico," said Rob McKee, Conoco executive vice president for exploration production. "Operations in deepwater are expensive, and we are continuously seeking ways to improve the economics of our deepwater program.

Chairman Frank A. LoBiondo (NJ-2) precides over a hearing into the cause of the recent oil spill on the Delaware River. Chairman LoBiondo heard testimony from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Departments of Environmental Protection from both New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Maritime Exchange from the Delaware Bay and River, and the New Jersey Audubon Society. Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo (NJ-2), Chairman of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee…

Oil wells in the North Sea and the North Atlantic are still bubbling with Black Gold. With two new high-performance Voith Water Tractors, the harbor authority of the Shetland Isles (Shetland Island Council) is set to widen its opportunities and will soon be able to unload even larger oil tankers in the harbor of Sullom Voe at affordable cost. In spring 2010, the two new vessels will enter service at the most northern point of Scotland. The two escort vessels will be built in Spain by Union Naval Valencia. With 77 tons bollard pull ahead and 71 tons bollard pull astern, they are in the highest output class for this type of Escort Voith Water Tractors. Each of the two Voith Water Tractors is fitted with two electronically controlled Voith Schneider Propellers size 36R6/255-2.

The output of China's shipbuilding industry reached a record 14.52 million dwt in 2006, making up close to one-fifth of the global total for the same year, according to official statistics. The Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (CSTIND) announced on Tuesday that the output of 2006 was 20 percent higher than that of the previous year. According to the CSTIND, China's top two shipbuilding giants, the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), reported annual output of 6.02 million dwt and 2.67 million dwt respectively. The rest of the market was covered by local shipbuilding companies.

Imtech has received an order worth $25.6m for an important part of the technology on board a high-tech floating oil-production platform to be made operational in the North Sea. The North Sea contains many so-called 'marginal fields', which still contain a substantial amount of oil, but are too small for exploitation by means of large production platforms. The only way to extract this oil is by making use of Floating Production Storage Offloading vessels (FPSOs). These are floating oil-production systems that serve the same purpose as production platforms. They are far more efficient and flexible in use than the large platforms. After extraction…