Solar Sally for CFIA

 The Canadian Food Inspection Agency had another ship to examine today, August 11, 2023. The tanker Solar Sally arrived from Vondeling, Rotterdam and took up position in the short term number one anchorage south of George's Island.

 As the banner on the ship's hull proclaims it is owned by the Shandong Shipping Corporation, a Chinese company owned by the State of Shandong (Provincial People's Government). The company also owns the functionally named Fleet Management Ltd to operate its ships which also include very large tankers and bulk carriers. 

Solar Sally was delivered by Jiangsu New Times Shipbuilding Company, Jingjiang on April 23, 2021, one of eight MidRange tankers ordered by Shandong, each to take up an eight year charter to Shell Oil from time of delivery. The ship measures 30,259 gt, 49,314 dwt and has epoxy coated tanks enabling it to carry a variety of chemicals or refined petroleum products.

The ship is en route to Shell Canada's terminal in Montreal East. The site of a former 133,000 bbl per day refinery until 2010, the facility now receives, stores and dispatches product from overseas and from its own refinery in Sarnia, ON. Shell Canada also operates a refinery in Edmonton, AB.

 While in Halifax the Canadian Food Inspection Agency examined the ship for the presence of the LDA (Lymantria Dispar Asiatica) or LDD (Lymantria Dispar Dispar) invasive moth larva. If the ship has been in Asia in recent months, it could have been "colonized" by the moth, which is a threat to Canadian forests. When satisfied that the ship was free of the insect, the CFIA granted clearance to continue on its voyage.

The significance of the prefix "Solar" in the eight ships' names escapes me as petrolum products are generally not associated with solar energy. And in fact Shandong Province relies on nuclear for almost all its electrical requirements.

The Province of Shandong (once called Shantung by English speakers, and meaning "east of the mountains") has a population in excess of 100 million people. If it were a country it would be 15th most populous in the world with the 15th-largest economy.

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