Page 20: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 1999)

Ship & Boatbuilding Technology • Tankers

Tanker Safety Takes Practice

ARCO, Crowley Marine, MSI team on pioneering training techniques

As the maritime industry and world at large look to ship owners for ever increasing safety measures, training of crew regarding all aspects of tanker operations has become tan- tamount to long-term success. When ARCO was considering a proposal to use its super- tankers ARCO Spirit and ARCO Independence to bring oil into a berth not usually used by ships of this size, the company knew that an interactive approach to training was needed — including ARCO crews, tug operators and VTS — to make the plan feasible.

In 1995, ARCO had teamed with Crowley

Marine Services and MarineSafety

International (MSI) to pioneer an interactive simulation training course that brought together the tanker bridge team, the pilot, the tug master and the VTS operator to train together as parts of the system that moves tankships out of Valdez, prince William Sound and into Rosario Straits, San Francisco, or

Long Beach. When the San Diego proposal came up, ARCO turned to the same sort of testing to see if the ship utilization plan was feasible.

To this end, ARCO, San Francisco Pilots and Baydelta Maritime came together at MSI to test the plan. The plan for San Diego involved maneuvering the supertanker into a narrow channel, making a 135 degree turn with prevailing winds and currents, and lay- ing the ship on berth so that the manifold lines up with the vales on the pier.

Upon conclusion of testing at MSI, those involved felt that the proposed plan was sound and the risks could be minimized without any extraordinary effort.

Circle 40 on Reader Service Card conversion of its U.S. barge fleet when it received its fourth new double-hulled tank barge in three months and began operating a 100-percent, double-hulled fleet of 14, unmanned tank barges along the Gulf

Coast from Brownsville, Texas, to Mobile,

Ala. Powered by seven push boats, the barge fleet operates 24 hours a day, deliv- ering approximately 20 million barrels a year of crude oil and products such as asphalt.

Harrier Deployed Offshore

Equatorial Guinea

A unique Floating Storage and

Offloading (FSO) tanker, the VLCC

Harrier, was recently installed and operat- ing at Zafiro field offshore Equatorial

Guinea. The FSO is chartered into Zafiro from Mobil's transport fleet. At 289,000 dwt and almost 1,100 ft. long, it is slightly larger than the Zafiro Producer FPSO. It was converted for FSO service on a fast track basis and was installed at Zafiro field four months after the project was approved. Crude oil from the Zafiro

Producer's process system is being trans- ferred directly to the FSO through a 16-in. drape hose, rather than going through the

FPSO's storage tanks.

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The American Society of Methanita! Engineers 20 Circle 227 on Reader Service Card Maritime Reporter/Engineering News