Kaiser To Build LNG Tanks For Oceangoing Ships On Pinto Island In Mobile Bay

Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation, Oakland, Calif., has announced that it will construct a multi-million-dollar facility at Mobile, Ala., to assemble and install huge liquefied natural gas tanks in oceangoing ships.

The company said it has leased approximately 38 acres of land on Pinto Island in Mobile Bay from the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company for the new facility, and construction will begin immediately.

Fifteen all-welded aluminum tanks will be assembled at the site for installation in three liquefied natural gas vessels to be built by Avondale Shipyards, Inc. at New Orleans, La.

The 1,000-foot-long vessels will be brought to Pinto Island and the tanks—-each approximately 120 feet long, 120 feet wide, and 75 feet high—will then be placed into position.

The individual aluminum tanks will weigh up to approximately 950 tons. They will be assembled at ground level and will be lifted for placement into the ships by a unique, double stiff-legged derrick crane standing 30 stories high.

Other facilities to be constructed at the site will include offices, change and lunch rooms, large storage areas and classrooms for an aluminum welding school. Two large revolving cranes will be installed, as well as special testing facilities capable of hydrostatically testing the huge tanks by filling them with up to 8,000,000 gallons of water.

Kaiser Aluminum said that fabrication of the tanks will begin in mid-1974 and continue into 1977. The company expects employment at the facility will be several hundred workers.

When completed, the liquefied natural gas vessels will be used by subsidiaries of El Paso Natural Gas Co. to haul natural gas at cryogenic temperatures (260 degrees below zero) from Algeria to East Coast ports.

Maritime Reporter Magazine, page 30, Feb 1974

Read Kaiser To Build LNG Tanks For Oceangoing Ships On Pinto Island In Mobile Bay in Pdf, Flash or Html5 edition of February 1974 Maritime Reporter

Other stories from February 1974 issue

Content

Maritime Reporter

First published in 1881 Maritime Reporter is the world's largest audited circulation publication serving the global maritime industry.