NASSCO Lays Keel For Second Union Oil Product Carrier

A recent keel-laying ceremony at National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO), San Diego, initiated construction of the second of three 37,500-dwt product carriers being built for Union Oil Company of California.

E.P. Barnett, vice president, refinery and supply, Union Oil Company, and D.L. Hanley, senior vice president, Western Region, Union Oil Company, together struck the initial arcs, signaling the beginning of construction. Richard H.

Vortmann, executive vice president, represented NASSCO in the keel-laying ceremony.

The product carriers are a new NASSCO design designated as the Carlsbad Class. They will be 658 feet in length, 100 feet in beam, have a 33-foot draft, and will carry 250,000 barrels of refined petroleum and petrochemical products from refineries to distribution centers.

The vessels will incorporate the most modern equipment available, and will meet the latest safety and environmental protection standards including double bottoms, a clean segregated ballast system, an inert gas system, a sewage treatment plant, collision-avoidance radar, and a backup steering system. They will have steam turbine engines.

The first product carrier is scheduled for delivery in April 1981. It will be used to transport oil products from Union Oil's Beaumont, Texas, refinery to terminals on the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts.

NASSCO currently has under contract five Navy ships, an oil tanker, and four product carriers.

The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Morrison-Knudsen Company, Inc., Boise, Idaho.

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