Super Tankers News:
CUPE BC Opposes Enbridge Tanker Plans to Navigate Off Coast
Marketwire (press release)
The project would involve super tankers carrying bitumen from the Alberta tar sands and navigating the coast of British Columbia, including the fragile ...and more » Liberals' plan to ban oil supertankers is full of holes
Vancouver Sun
Are spills from small tankers okay? And wouldn't a requirement to transfer oil from the small tankers into supertankers in Vancouver in itself carry hazards ...and more » Supertanker damage raises alarm in Persian Gulf
The Associated Press
The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, loaded with 270000 tons of oil, was heading from the petroleum port of Das Island in the United Arab Emirates to the ...and more » 
Miller-McCune.com
The Caledonian Mercury (blog)
Peace FM Online
Peace FM OnlineBC VIEWS: Oil discovered on Salish Sea
Clearwater North Thompson Times
“This is the premier who wants to end the 40-year moratorium on supertankers on our coast,” shouted NDP environment critic Rob Fleming. ...and more » 
The Hindu
The Economist
Ship gouged 3km channel in reef: scientist
The Chinese coal ship Shen Neng 1 lies stranded and leaking oil on Douglas Shoals in the Great Barrier Reef after running aground on Saturday. Photo: AFP
The bulk coal carrier that ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef has pulverised a large section of a protected shoal that could take up to 20 years to recover.
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority chief scientist David Wachenfeld says the Chinese-owned Shen Neng 1 has gouged a channel about 3km long and up to 250m wide in the reef off Rockhampton.
Dr Wachenfeld says the damage was far more extensive than previous groundings in the marine park.
“There is more damage to this reef than I have ever seen in any previous Great Barrier Reef groundings,” Dr Wachenfeld said today.
He says the vessel inflicted the damage as it shifted with the tides and changing winds.
Not only has it pulverised a significant portion of plant and animal life, but it has also smeared a large section of Douglas Shoal with antifouling paint from its hull.
“An optimistic estimate would be, if there were no chemical contamination at this site, that it would take (the reef) 10 to 20 years to recover,” Dr Wachenfeld said.
“That paint is quite likely to have heavy metals in it.
“That would really put a much longer timeframe on recovery because that paint would be stopping any plants and animals from recolonising.”
He said the shoal supported a broad variety of marine plant and animal life.
“There would be all sorts of crabs, sponges, snails, sea cucumbers and so on that would have been pulverised under the ship but they’re not going to leave behind any observable trace,” he said.
As for the fish, the impacts won’t be immediate but Dr Wachenfeld says a lot of the algae that provides them with food and shelter has been destroyed.
An Australian Institute of Marine Science vessel is on its way to inspect the damage.
Dr Wachenfeld says they will use more sophisticated technology to assess the damage further before deciding how to remove the paint residue.
Australian Federal Police are investigating whether criminal charges should be laid.
Potential penalties include up to three years in jail or a $220,000 fine.
The ship was finally refloated yesterday evening and is now anchored in safe waters off Great Keppel Island.
A helicopter has been monitoring the ship, but has not detected any further oil leaks, Premier Anna Bligh told state parliament today.
AAP
Tanker Rates Seen Sinking 35% Amid Refinery Cutbacks
By Alaric Nightingale and Alistair Holloway
April 6 (Bloomberg) — The most profitable supertanker market in more than a year is heading for a 35 percent slump as oil refineries from Japan to the U.K. shut for maintenance and leave a surplus of vessels.
Shipping costs will fall to an average of $28,758 a day this quarter from $44,576 on April 1, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 13 analysts, traders and shipbrokers. Rates to hire the ships, each bigger than the Chrysler Building, averaged $49,908 a day in the first quarter, the most since the last three months of 2008.
The most extensive shipbuilding program in three decades is adding supplies and fewer tankers are being used to store crude, swelling the number of available vessels just as global oil demand drops for the first time in a year. Frontline Ltd., the world’s biggest operator of supertankers, would lose money on any ship it hired out at the survey’s median forecast.
“Refineries are slowing and shutting down and they’ve already imported crude,” said Andreas Vergottis, the Hong Kong- based research director at Tufton Oceanic Ltd., which manages the world’s largest shipping hedge fund. “Crude inventories are high and getting higher. The entire second quarter tends to be soft for tankers.”
Global oil demand will slip about 0.5 percent to 85.9 million barrels a day this quarter, down from 86.3 million barrels in the previous three months, according to the Paris- based International Energy Agency. Japanese refiners including Japan Energy Corp. plan to cut oil processing by as much as 17 percent this quarter, according to company announcements.
Tanker Demand
The slowdown will weigh on shipping because the Far East and Southeast Asia represents 62 percent of demand for supertankers, according to McQuilling Services LLC. Rates along the Saudi Arabia-to-Japan route set a global benchmark for supertankers and form the basis of the forecasts in the Bloomberg survey.
“Asia would be one of the markets where we would expect some kind of flagging demand,” said Mark Jenkins, a London- based analyst at Simpson, Spence & Young Ltd., the world’s second-largest shipbroker. “Asia’s role as a generator of tanker employment has grown substantially.”
ConocoPhillips and Ineos Group Holdings Plc plan to shut or partially close refineries in the U.K. this quarter, data compiled by Bloomberg show. U.S. plants are running at 82.6 percent capacity compared with a 10-year average of 89.3 percent, data from the Department of Energy show.
Refined Products
Shipping rates may also drop as traders use fewer vessels to store crude and refined products. The number of tankers tied up in storage reached a record 168 in November and fell to 104 by February, according to Simpson, Spence & Young.
As an oil glut formed during the recession, traders could profit by purchasing crude, storing it on tankers and selling the barrels for delivery in the months ahead. Those trades unwound after the premium for later delivery evaporated, especially for products such as gasoil.
The number of available ships may also expand as the northern hemisphere’s winter ends, said Jonathan Chappell, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York.
“Refinery maintenance in Asia will have an impact but an equally big issue is that the fleet runs far more efficiently in summer than in winter,” he said.
Oil Demand
The drop in charter rates may not last long. The IEA forecasts a rebound in oil demand in the third quarter and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, accounting for about 40 percent of oil supply, increased output for six consecutive months through February. Non-OPEC supply will expand about 0.6 percent this year, the IEA says. The additional supply spurs demand for tankers.
“Normal seasonal trends argue for decreasing rates but not as much as normal,” said Ole-Rikard Hammer, a senior analyst at Oslo-based Pareto Securities ASA, who has tracked tanker markets for more than two decades. “The risk really is on the upside.”
Ship owners may also get help from the scrapping of single- hulled tankers after a global ban began to take hold this year. Single-hulled tankers account for about 12 percent of the fleet, according to Lloyd’s Register-Fairplay. Their scrapping will contribute to an overall 4.2 percent decline in the fleet this year, according to Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the world’s biggest shipbroker.
Shipping Stocks
The six-member Bloomberg Tanker Index of shipping stocks advanced 7.5 percent this year, more than the 4.2 percent gain in the MSCI World Index of stocks. Frontline added 19 percent in Oslo trading and the Hamilton, Bermuda-based firm is expected to earn $2.33 a share this year, compared with $1.32 last year, analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.
Frontline said in February it needs $30,800 a day to break even on its supertankers. Ship owners hire their vessels out in the spot market and on longer rentals at fixed prices.
The median of $28,758 in the Bloomberg survey of rates would still be 24 percent more than the full-year average of $23,130 in 2009. Rates fell so low at some points last year that ship owners were effectively subsidizing their clients by having to pay toward fuel costs.
Global oil demand will rebound in the third quarter to 86.8 million barrels a day, its highest level since the first three months of 2008, the IEA estimates. The world economy will expand 2.7 percent this year, the fastest pace since 2007, according to the World Bank.
Higher Consumption
Ship owners are counting on higher consumption to fill new vessels joining the fleet. Shipping lines ordered the largest number of supertankers since the 1970s after rates rose as high as $177,000 a day in 2008. Fifty-four carriers were delivered from yards last year, the largest number since 1976, according to Clarkson. A further 71 will be added this year.
Refineries ran below capacity during the global recession, potentially allowing them to carry out early maintenance, said Jens Martin Jensen, Singapore-based chief executive officer of Frontline’s management unit.
“Short term, the rates have dropped but I think they will bounce back,” he said.
–With assistance from Yuji Okada and Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo. Editors: Stuart Wallace, John Deane
To contact the reporters on this story: Alaric Nightingale in London at Anightingal1@bloomberg.net; Alistair Holloway in London at aholloway1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stuart Wallace at swallace6@bloomberg.net
Top 5 biggest ship in the world and a speacial ship
Launching of the M/T Miss Claudia
Oil Tanker
Knock Nevis – The Largest Ship Ever – 565.000 DWT
China’s Supertanker Completed in Guangdong
China’s largest self-developed supertanker named Xinpuyang was completed in Nansha port of Guangdong province.
China’s largest self-developed supertanker was completed in south China’s Guangdong Province and has already set sail. The 333-meter-long and 60-meter-wide oil tanker, named Xinpuyang, was designed and built by the Guangzhou Longxue Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. and the Marine Design and Research Institute of China.
The tanker was handed over to the buyer, China Shipping (Group) Company, in Nansha Port in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, said a spokesman of Longxue on January 29. The tanker is designed to have a service speed of 15.7 knots (equal to 30 km per hour) with a loading capacity of 308,000 tonnes of crude oil.
The ship is equipped with satellite navigators, radar and a monitoring alarm system. China is the third largest oil importer in the world and 80 percent of its oil transport relies on foreign tankers.
Pirates release supertanker
SOMALI pirates have freed the Greek supertanker VLCC Maran Centaurus, one of the largest ships ever hijacked, after a plane dropped at least $US5 million ($5.43 million) in ransom on the deck.
The ransom, also one of the largest ever paid, sparked a deadly feud within the group of pirates delaying the release of the ship and its crew of 28 seamen who were taken in the Indian Ocean on November 29.
“She’s free. She’s preparing to sail out” from the pirate lair of Harardhere, Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers Assistance Program said today.
Pirate sources in Harardhere said the huge ship was still anchored off Harardhere today apparently receiving last-minute technical assistance from a nearby foreign warship.
Ecoterra International, an environmentalist NGO that monitors illegal maritime activity in the region, said the last pirates left the very large crude carrier (VLCC) early today.
“The stash of the record-breaking ransom (over $US7 million) is reportedly now held in a heavily guarded house in Harardhere,” the group said.
It added that pirates reportedly bragged about generously giving $US500 ($543) to each crew member – 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, two Ukrainians and a Romanian – “for good co-operation”.
On December 2, the 332-metre-long ship was brought to the pirate base of Hobyo but was subsequently moved further south to Harardhere, the capital of Somali piracy.
The 1995-built supertanker, the second largest vessel seized by Somali pirates yet, is carrying two million barrels of crude, which is equivalent to the daily output of some of the world’s top oil producers.
The largest snatched by Somalia’s marauding freebooters was the Sirius Star, a Saudi-owned VLCC seized in 2008, for which an estimated $US8 million ($8.68 million) were paid in ransom money.
The hijacking of the Sirius Star sent shockwaves through the shipping world as pirates showed they could disturb key interests on one of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes.
The incident also raised fears that pirates might one day use a hijacked ship as a weapon to carry out an attack and cause unprecedented human and environmental damage.
The ship, the first known case of a Greek-flagged vessel being hijacked, was headed from Saudi Arabia to the US.
The 300,000-tonne (deadweight) supertanker, hijacked by nine pirates, was easy prey for pirates equipped with fast skiffs and grapnels as it moves slowly and could not outmanoeuvre the nimble sea-robbers and has a low freeboard.
Pirates Hijack Oil Super Tanker Headed for U.S.
NAIROBI, Kenya. Somali pirates seized a tanker carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States in the increasingly dangerous waters off East Africa, an official said Monday, an attack that could pose a huge environmental or security threat to the region.Pirates have increased attacks on vessels off East Africa for the millions in ransom that can be had. Though pirates have successfully hijacked dozens of vessels the last several years, Sunday’s attack appears to be only the second ever on an oil tanker.
The hijacking of a tanker increases worries that the vessel could crash, be run aground or be involved in a firefight, said Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at London-based think tank Chatham House.
Pirates typically use guns and rocket-propelled grenades in their attacks, and some vessels now carry private security guards, but Middleton said oil tankers do not.
“You’re sitting on a huge ship filled with flammable liquid. You don’t want somebody with a gun on top of that,” Middleton said. “Financially it’s a very costly exercise because the value of oil is so volatile. If it is held for a long time and the price of oil drops, they could lost millions of dollars.”
In November 2008, pirates hijacked the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, which held 2 million barrels of oil valued at about $100 million. The tanker was released last January for a reported $3 million ransom after a two-month drama that helped galvanize international efforts to fight piracy off Africa’s coast.
Somali pirates are a separate group of criminals from the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic militants who control large areas of southern Somalia, but anytime pirates hold such valuable and explosive cargo it raises international concerns.
In late 2007, pirates hijacked a chemical tanker carrying up to 10,000 tons of highly explosive benzene. Initially, American intelligence agents worried terrorists from Somalia’s Islamic extremist insurgency could be involved, and might try to crash the boat into an offshore oil platform or use it as a gigantic bomb.
When the Japanese vessel was towed back into Somali waters and ransom demanded, the coalition was relieved to realize it was just another pirate attack.
Somalia’s lawless 1,880-mile coastline provides a perfect haven for pirates to prey on ships heading for the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for a generation and the weak U.N.-backed administration is too busy fighting the Islamist insurgency to arrest pirates.
Pirates now hold about a dozen vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members. The Maran Centaurus had 28 crew aboard — 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, two Ukrainians and one Romanian, Harbour said.
Middleton said pirate demands and negotiations are becoming more complex.
“They still want the money but they have also asked for the release of imprisoned comrades,” he said. “That demand is an extra bargaining tool they can use to add extra layers to their negotiating position.”
Piracy has increased despite an increased presence by international navies patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. The U.S. this fall began flying sophisticated drones over East African waters as part of the fight against piracy.
Sailors in ‘high spirits’ after supertanker released!
The Saudi oil supertanker captured by Somali pirates has taken to sea, a minister said, after being released for a suspected multi-million-dollar ransom by its captors, six of whom drowned in the operation.
The owner of the Sirius Star, Vela International, confirmed the ship’s release and that all 25 crew had survived the two-month ordeal, but refused to comment on whether a ransom had been paid.
“We are very relieved to know that all the crew members are safe and I am glad to say that they are all in good health and high spirits,” Vela’s chief executive Saleh K’aki said in a statement.
Sources close to the negotiations said $US3 million dollars ($4 million) were delivered to the pirate group onshore on Thursday.
The 330-metre Sirius Star, owned by the shipping arm of oil giant Saudi Aramco, was seized far off the east African coast on November 15, in what was the pirates’ most daring attack and largest catch to date.
Saudi oil minister Ali al-Nuaimi said the supertanker with its $US100 million cargo of crude oil had “now set sail and is making its way out of Somali territorial waters.”
Six pirates involved in the hijacking of the Sirius Star, however, drowned when the small boat they used after leaving the vessel capsized.
Some $US300,000 of the alleged ransom money was on board and is now missing, the pirate leader said in Nairobi.
“The small boat that was carrying those killed and eight who survived was overloaded and at high speed as we are told by the survivors,” Mohamed Said said by telephone from Harardhere, 300 kilometres north of Mogadishu.
“They were afraid of a chase from outsiders [foreign navies] who invaded Somalia waters.”
He added that four other pirates were also missing.
Haradhere resident Mohamud Aden said the capsize was an accident.
“The pirates were full of joy and partially frightened by the presence of foreign war machines and overspeeding,” he said.
“That was a tragedy for the pirates.”
The pirates did not give the exact sum of the suspected ransom, after originally demanding $US25 million dollars, while the shipowner declined any comment.
“I can’t comment on that kind of information,” a Vela spokesman said.