Shipyard - launch area work starts

 1. Pier 6 makeover begins

With much noise in the local press about an imminent signing of Phase II contracts in the ship procurement contract with Halifax Shipyard, physical work has started on the new launch area at the north end of the yard.
As we understand it, Phase II of the contracts is called the Definition Contract, worth multi-millions, most of which will be done elsewhere. Such yards as Maersk's former prime shipbuilding yard of Odense in Denmark, and General Dynamic's huge destroyer building yard in Bath, Maine, will carry out a lot of design and engineering work, but it will not involve the actual building of ships. That will be done in Phase III in Halifax.
In order to build the new ships, which will  be too big and heavy to launch on the current launchway, a former steelyard in the north end of the yard at pier 6 will be converted to a side launch area. Ships will be rolled northward out of the fabrication hall and then eastward to Pier 6 where they will moved onto a new floating drydock and gently lowered into the harbour and floated off.
Pier 6 is of course best known as the Ground Zero area of the Halifax explosion in 1917, where the drifting IMO came ashore after the massive explosion which devastated the Richmond area of north end Halifax.
After the explosion the area was a wasteland, but was rebuilt by Halifax Shipyard and parent company Dosco, which used it as a coal stockpile. Then in 1960 it was fitted with a series of unique steel bridge structures, supported on steel encased concrete cells.The structures, topped with concrete, acted as a pier, supporting shipyard cranes, and on a lower level some machine ship functions.
This series of photos taken in September, 1960 shows construction of the bridge sections. *

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Pier 6 was used a fitting out berth and for in water repairs, and was heavily utilised during the oil rig building program of the 1960s and 70s.

8. Oil rig Sedco H under construction at pier 6 in 1969. The steel yard on the shore had its own traveling gantry crane.

 9. Shipyard crane Timberland unloads oil rig leg sections from the barge Haltren No.1 at pier 6 in 1975. The sections were built by Dosco's Trenton Works and barged to Halifax.

For the past several years pier 6 has fallen into a state of disrepair and has seen little use, except at the very north end where Harbour Development Ltd keeps some of its dredging plant..
This week demolition crews moved in and have begun to dismantle the steel bridge sections.

New work will include dredging, a new pier face 10 meters farther to seaward, a pier extension of 250 meters and new buildings, as well as the hard stand where the new ships will be transferred to the drydock for launching.
Due to a change in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, which came into effect July 6, 2012, there was no requirement to complete an assessment on the project.

* In the background of the 1960 construction photos are ships of the former Canadian National Steamships.CNSS laid up its ships rather than bow to union strike demands. A deal to sell the ships to Cuba fell through when Fidel Castro took over and most of the ships languished in Halifax for years until sold for scrap. Also appearing in photo #6 is the coal burning icebreaker CGS Saurel tied up at the north end of pier 6.

New Halterm cranes - coming this summer

1. Halterm as seen from Point Pleasant Park. The new cranes will service the extended pier 42.

It was stated last week that Halterm's newest super post-Panamax container cranes will be arriving this summer.The new cranes will be installed at pier 42 directly from a heavy lift ship operated by the crane manufacturer. This will be essentially a repeat of the 2000 delivery of two such cranes to the same pier.
Shangai Zhen Hua Shipping Company has a whole fleet of converted bulk carriers, rebuilt to carry huge and heavy deck loads. Their decks are situated so that with proper ballasting the cranes can be rolled directly onto the dock from the ship.

2. In May 2000 Zhen Hua delivered two post -Panamax cranes to Halterm.

Halterm has also applied to the Canadian Transportation Agency to use the heavy lift ship Zhen Hua 19 to move the existing crane on pier 42 (at far right in photo#1 and in the foreground of photo#2) to pier 36.As a non-Canadian ship, it must have a coasting license to carry cargo "between Canadian ports".

3. Pier 36 has two cranes now, one of which was built with special dollies to allow it to move back and forth to pier 41. The pier only serves smaller ships, but could handle two at a time given enough cranes.

The old smaller crane will be used at pier 36 since it is not high enough to work the larger ships at pier 42. However it is only smaller ships that can use pier 36.

4. Zhen Hua 4 at anchor in May 2000. It also carried cranes for another port, and straddle carriers for Halterm.

The ship Zhen Hua 4 called in Halifax on two separate occasions. In May 2000 with the two cranes for Halterm, and in February 2002 with one crane for Fairview Cove. In order to pass under the bridges, that crane came on shorter legs, which were extended after the crane was landed. 

5. The new cranes for Halterm will likely come full assembled as the last ones did, since there will be bridges to pass under in Halifax. It does mean however that they must sail from China via the Cape of Good Hope.

Oceanex on a roll

Oceanex Sanderling leaves Halterm for Autoport.

Oceanex, the company that provides container and RoRo shipping services to Newfoundland from Montreal and Halifax, is expanding its service even before delivery of its new ship in the fall of 2013.
A recent press report indicates that the company will be adding "another ship" to its Halifax run in Apriil. Whether this means an actual ship, or that they will be doubling their calls in Halifax is not clear. Last year Oceanex Sanderling was making two trips a week between Halifax and St.John's, but that has been down to once a week in recent months. However they have added Argentia to their routes, even though it is not shown on their published schedules. Development of the Vale nickel smelter in Long Harbour has resulted in an increase in traffic, so they have apparently added Argentia, the nearest port to Long Harbour, to reduce congestion and road traffic in St.John's. They dropped Corner Brook as a port of call last year, preferring to use trucks to move cargo from Corner Brook to St.John's. Both Oceanex Sanderling and Cabot have called in Argentia. The third, and newest ship in the current fleet, Oceanex Avalon is a container only ship.
The new ship, Oceanex Connaigra is under construction in Germany, with keel blocks to be laid February 12, launch May 1 and delivery October 1. The original assumption was that this ship would replace Cabot on the Montreal / St.John's service, but even that is now in question as traffic may warrant keeping Cabot, despite its age. 

 Oceanex Avalon at speed on the St.Lawrence River

Dartmouth Refinery - green light at the end of the tunnel

A big part of the business of Halifax Harbour involves incoming crude oil.

The federal government's Minister of Natural Resources has "given the green light" to a proposal to convert a gas pipeline to an oil pipeline and to extend it from Quebec to Saint John to provide Alberta bitumen to the Irving Oil refinery.
This strange support, given that it is the National Energy Board that actually approves such things,  could be considered political tampering in an established regulatory framework if another minister did it (or the mayor of Toronto, say), but I guess it is OK for the Oil minister to give the political signal that the government wants to ship Alberta Oil to the Maritimes.
I'm not saying I'm against it either, but since no application has actually been made to the regulator it does seem like jumping the gun a bit. So I am giving the proposal my "Amber Light."
Here's what I think should and should not happen if the 1mn bbls per day of  Alberta tar sands bitumen makes it to the east via pipeline.

 Most crude is imported from the world spot market.

1. The Province of Quebec will have to OK such a pipeline through its sovereign territory, and that is not a foregone conclusion by any means.Their biggest refinery, Ultramar in St-Romauld, (Lévis) gets its crude from Algeria as far as I can tell - and that is a far from a stable domestic source as we have seen recently. They will want some cheap Canadian crude too - lets say 200,000 bbls per day. They aren't the only Quebec refiners, so Petro-Canada will want some, say another 100,000 bbls per day or more.
2. A certain amount must be doled out to keep the Imperial Oil refinery in Dartmouth a viable entity, and even expand, say 100,000 bbls per day. The pipeline will never be extended from Saint John to Halifax, so Irving will have to guarantee sea or rail delivery of the 100,000 bbls per day as a cost of doing business.

Refined product is distributed to all of Atlantic Canada, and into Quebec from Halifax.

3. If Irving Oil gets the rest, 600,000 bbls per day, that would allow them to double the size of their current refinery.
They are already getting Bakken crude from North Dakota by rail, so they are already competitive in the US retail market, where most of their output goes now. However they are still selling into the Canadian market as if their crude comes from overseas. Therefore the price of this deal to Irving must be that they sell refined product in Canada at the same price as Alberta pays for gasoline at their pumps (taxes excluded of course.)
4. Drastically bringing down the price of gasoline in Atlantic Canada would of course probably mean that all Newfoundland offshore oil production would have to cease because it would no longer be competitive in Canada. However it could be exported more widely without any messy pipeline debates in B.C, and it is a lot nicer oil than Alberta tar/ shale/ bitumen/ or what ever critics want to term it.Newfoundland oil is "clean" oil by comparison. Of course the lower price of fuel in Atlantic Canada can only spur our economy - or does that really matter?

Newfoundland shuttle tankers would still shuttle oil to terminals where it would be sold abroad for world prices, however it would be too expensive to use in Canada.

5. What must not be allowed to happen is for Alberta bitumen to sell at international prices as as soon as it hits tidewater. Irving must guarantee to use every drop of its 600,000 bbls and not to sell any crude - only to sell refined product. Canada must become absolutely 100% weaned off foreign crude oil before a single drop of Alberta bitumen leaves our shores. Ultramar, Imperial and the others must also agree to this deal and not sell their their share overseas either.

 Why can't Canada become self-sufficient in oil and gas?

6. TransCanada Pipeline of course will also be part of this deal, and they will want to rake off transmission costs to actually pay for the pipeline. I propose a policy shift here however. Instead of the "meter" being at the user end (like electricity or water) I propose that the meter be at the "producer" end and that the Alberta producers pay a rate to ship their product off their property. They can still sell the oil per bbl, but they must also pay the shipping cost, so that all users along the length of the pipeline pay the plant gate price for the crude.
Regrettably I have no ability to bully the National Energy Board, so my Amber Light remains a caution, and I expect most "drivers", like the Oil Minister, will blast right through it instead of slowing to a halt and stopping to think this through.

This tanker was called British Destiny. What will be Canada's Destiny?

Constable Carriére - moved away form builfing hall

The fourth in the series of CCG Mid-Shore Patrol Vessels (MSPV) Constable Carrière has moved closer to launch position. After being rolled out January 4, it has remained close to the building hall. As of Friday, it has now been moved away f rom the building. This is likely to allow for the next boat in the series to be rolled out for painting. Based on the threE previous boats, launch will be sometime in toward the end of March.
On Friday Corporal Teather C.V., third boat in the series,  was drydocked for a few hours on the Novadock. Reports indicate that this may have been to perform some sonar adjustments.

Louis S. St-Lauerent - off to the Saguenay

1. Louis runs through a snow squall in the Narrows.

CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent sailed this morning for the Saguenay River. After trials in Bedford Basin yesterday, the ship took on more bunkers at anchorage, from Algoma Dartmouth last evening.
It remained at anchor in the Basin over night and "upped anchor" about 1030 hrs, in the midst of a brief snow squall. They can expect much worse when they reach the Saguenay, with fierce weather predicted in the next few days.

2. Once into the lower harbour they were in the clear.

North Contender - to Basin anchorage

1. North Contender passes the new pier 9C extension project in the Narrows...

2. ... then under the MacKay bridge, headed for Bedford Basin anchorage.

The chemical tanker North Contender anchored in Bedford Basin this morning awaiting her turn at Imperial Oil.* The ship was built in 2005 by Fukuoka Shipbuilding Co in Japan, and is owned by a Japaense company based in Panama, but is operating for Eitzen Chemical (USA) LLC, one of the largest chemical tanker fleets with a fleet of fifty ships.They are frequent callers in Halifax, usually with the prefix "Sichem".
If flies the flag of Panama and is a ship of 11,662 gross tons and 19,925 deadweight tonnes.It is fitted with heated stainless steel cargo tanks, and can carry a number of different products at the same time.
More about Eitzen and its fleet: http://www.eitzen-chemical.com/
In the fleet list, under the ship's name you will find a capacity drawing, a general arrangement drawing and a "Q88" form, which gives every conceivable detail about the ship.

* the ship never did go to Imperial Oil. It sailed on Saturday February 2 for the St.Lawrence River. It shows on the Port of Trois-Rivières web site.