Tankers

[vic mcclymont]

It would appear that the Media cannot differentiate between a tanker and a containers.

In the latter part of the 19th Century it would be impossible to differentiate as there was no such thing as a dedicated as we know it.
Sailing ships loaded barrels of oil (kersosene) that was carried. The cargo was carried in large wooden barrels.
Later on the case tanker was developed and used also for transporting kerosene from the USA to Europe.
The case tanker carried the fuel in metal containers, which on arrival at the destination port was transported to the final seller. Empty Metal containers were sought after and once cleaned were used for all sorts of domestic chores.
Later on shipowners wanted dedicated ships for the sole purpose of carrying fuel from the USA to Europe and beyond. The early tankers, had tanks which contained cylindrical tanks in which the fuel was transported in.

Vic

[happy daze john in oz]

A question without notice for those who sailed tankers.
I only did one, maiden voyage on the British Hawthorn.
We were then classified as a clean ship, the cargo being lube oil as opposed to maybe crude.

Was that a common practice to have tankers designated for different oil types.

With all oil be it crude or processed there will be a degree of vapor coming off.
That can be dangerous, but was there a difference in the volitility of different levels of crude or clean oil.

[j.sabourn]

There are crude oil carriers , and clean products carriers John that’s just about it for me. I was on two clean products carriers , the cargoes were Jet A1 and A2 fuel. Petroleum straight ready for the garages. Parafins, and other refined oils. All your lighter oils such as paraffins etc are all refined from the original heavy oil , so that is where the money is as far as I am aware . There were 26 tanks on the vessels I was on and is a different ball game to dry cargo ships . Give me a dry cargo ship any day if I’d of had the choice. Loading a tanker is all about ullages , the two ships I was on a 3 ft. 6 inch ullage seemed to be about the norm for most cargoes. But when it came to putting pigs through pipes as tankermen usd to call it , you had to know which oils were compatible or least liable to cause. Contamination . A pig in the pipe as far as I can recollect was a shot of water through the line to prepare it for a different product. Another thing obvious on a tanker is the number of samples of the cargo one takes all at different ullages so as to get the samples at different depths. All these dozens of bottles went ashore with the cargo at discharge. The refined oil that the yanks made their bombs for for Vietnam can remember carrying two loads of that. JS

[Lewis McColl]

I have sailed on ULCC, VLCC, Afro max, Pana Max. Dedicated Product tankers. Chemical tankers & LPG+LNG carriers. Crude oils come in various forms and grades. Sour crude oil is crude oil containing a high amount of the sulfur +0.5. Sweet crude oil is less than -0.5.

Sweet crude oil contains small amounts of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. High-quality, low-sulfur crude oil is commonly used for processing into gasoline.

Light sweet crude oil is the most sought-after version of crude oil as it contains a disproportionately large fraction that is directly processed (fractionation) into gasoline (naphtha), kerosene, and high-quality diesel (gas oil).

The cleanest tanker I ever sailed on was a dedicated Methanol carrier. I sailed on her for about 2 years only once did we ever do a tank entry. We had to wear PPE not for our protection but tank protection to avoid possible contamination from our own sweat etc! The Whesso gauges were oil free. We had a Whesso tape broke and the only way to recover it was by doing a tank entry, the recovery gear was useless.
To do a tank entry meant purging gas freeing the tank with Nitrogen and then using the IGG system in Dry air mode. A real work up. The tank was loaded with Methanol but it was classed as a sacrificial tank. I have carried a cargo of Napthia on an LPG tanker.

[Keith Tindell]

John S, i never ever worked on tankers, but the mention of a pipeline pig bought back memories. The fuel from Fawley is, or was, pumped directly to Heathrow, and the different type of fuels divided by a pig, occasionally the would get stuck, and in the fire service we would stand by while the engineers put a valve either side of the pig, and then cut the pipe and extract the pig. interesting watching the procedure, kt

[Tony Taylor]

Joined my first ship (Shell H class), in Hamburg, discharging heavy fuel oil, then Petit Couronne, near Rouen on Seine river. Then over to Puerto Miranda on Lake Maracaibo, loaded Venezuelan crude which was heavy crude and had to be heated.
Discharged that in Antwerp. After several cargos of heavy fuel round UK and Continent we were changed over to white oils, firstly, tank cleaned in Schiedam, then two cargoes of gas oil to Invergordon (NATO fuel dump). then progressively lighter grades until we were carrying very clean cargoes only avgas, mogas, AVTUR etc. Also some cargoes which would be classed as chemical cargoes (one I cant recall the name but it smelled like TCP - the feline variety) in later years. Also did VLCCs, ULCCs, bitumen and LNG.

[Malcolm Lawrence]

John S, i never ever worked on tankers, but the mention of a pipeline pig bought back memories. The fuel from Fawley is, or was, pumped directly to Heathrow, and the different type of fuels divided by a pig, occasionally the would get stuck, and in the fire service we would stand by while the engineers put a valve either side of the pig, and then cut the pipe and extract the pig. interesting watching the procedure, kt

I used to work on Pipeline Agency (MOD) sites where Pigging lines was very common, the client had an underground line that ran from one of it's pumping stations to Avonmouth Docks, it hadn't been used for 30+ years and it needed pressure testing prior to bringing on line, we as there main contractor advised them to fill with water to test it, but they decided to fill with product because it meant filling then pigging the water out (at a cost of about £3-4k)
They instructed us to use product and guess what, an Environmental Agency boat reported an oil slick in the River Avon, they trace it back via a brook to Kerocene bubbling up out of the ground a mile from the pumping station.
Big investigation by Enviromental Agency & the Health & Safety Executive, end result an Improvement Order and a fine together with horrendous costs for excavating the corroded pipeline and disposing of around 3000 cu mtrs of contaminated soil.
Our rough estimate of the costs was £2.8m. Thank god our recommendation was in writing.

[Keith Tindell]

I was also told, mind back in the sixties, that a helicopter flew the pipeline on a regular basis looking for leaks, maybe that is now one of the cutbacks, kt

[Malcolm Lawrence]

Hi Keith, they still fly the lines (that's what the orange markers are for) but not looking for leaks as they wouldn't see them from the air, what they are looking for is construction companies digging/building next to the pipes.