Maria Desgagnés at Imperial Oil

1. The coastal tanker Maria Desgagnés tied up at Imperial Oil's number 3 dock today (that is Seafriend at number 4 dock in the foreground). 

As if more signals of the big changes at Imperial Oil were needed, this arrival is certainly a sign of things to come.Since shutting down their refining activity at Imperoyal, Imperial Oil has seen a variety of foreign product tankers at their terminal (some arriving with little if any cargo and leaving with little if any cargo)  but precious few Canadian tankers. The familiar Algoma tankers have been nowehere to be seen for weeks. Here is the rundown:
Algonova September 26 to 27, departed for St.John's.
Algoscotia September 28 to October 1 departed for Sydney.
Algocanada October 4 to 6.
Rio Dauphin October 18-20 (foreign flag, chartered to Algoma, and is due for one more trip from Sarnia)

When Imperoyal was a refinery, Algonova and Algoscotia were in an out of port every few days, distributing refined product around Atlantic Canada. Since the closure Algonova is now en route to the Ultramar refinery at St-Romuald (Lévis) and Algoscotia  has been to Sarnia and Nanticoke and is now in Montreal.Aside from any foreign product that may have been brought in, the only Imperial oil cargo before today came on the Rio Dauphin's one trip.

The Irving Oil tanker Acadian has been in twice, which is more than usual, but since Irving and Imperial share the terminal dock, it is hard to tell how much of its cargo may have been for Irving use and how much for Imperial. 

Maria Desgagnés, like most Petro-Nav tankers usually serves Ultramar, so it is likely that if the ship brought in any product it came from Quebec.

Maria Desgagnés was built in 1998 by Qiuxin Shipyards in Shanghai as Kilchem Asia. However the original owners, Kil Shipping of Denmark, defaulted on the contract and Transport Desgagnés acquired it in early 1999. It is a modern double hulled chemical/product  tanker of 8848 gross tons, 14,335 deadweight and was built to LR Ice Class 1A. During the past summer it made several trips to the north. The ship is chartered to the Desgagnés tanker subsidiary PetroNav Inc.

2. Maria Desgagnés in Montreal in 2002.

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