News: Jahre Viking to Get $22 Million Make Over

Dubai Drydocks has won a $22m contract from Norway's First Olsen Tankers to convert the world's largest ship, the 564,763 dwt ULCC Jahre Viking, to a specialized 4.2 billion barrel Floating Storage unit for a five-year charter by Maersk Oil for the Al Shaheen oil field off the coast of Qatar. The vessel has already arrived in Dubai with the conversion program due to be completed by June 2004. This is likely to be the final phase in a chequered history for this ship. She was originally ordered by Nomikos as a 400,000 dwt unit in the seventies in Japan, but, following the collapse of the oil markets in mid-1974, construction was halted. The hull was then purchased by Hong Kong's C Y Tung — lengthened to her current size, and sailed first as the Seawise Giant. She was attacked during the Iran/Iraq War during the late eighties and was expected to be classed as a Constructive Total Loss (CTL). However, Norway's Anders Jahre purchased the hull and she was rebuilt in Singapore's Keppel Shipyard during 1991, sailing out of the yard as the Jahre Viking.