New England for Irving

In an unusual move the tanker New England arrived today in Woodside from Saint John, NB.The 23,519 grt, 37,515 dwt ship usually runs from Saint John to US ports, and is flagged in the Marshall Islands, permitting international trade only. Built in 2005 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan, it is one of several sister ships on long term charter to Irving Oil. Four sister ships wear Irving Oil livery: Acadian and East Coast ex Nor'easter are Canadian flagged, Great Eastern and New England are foreign flag. Altough possibly owned by single ship companies, they all belong to the Vroon group of the Netherlands and are managed by their Iver Ships BV subsidiary. 

New England arriving in Halifax for the first time since 2006 by my records.

The ship appears to be loaded, so if it has cargo for Halifax, it must have received a special dispensation or very quickly transferred to Canadian registration.

I suspect that the ship's appearance here is related to Monday's fire at the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, that disrupted normal production. Irving Oil spokespersons indicated that they had product in storage and other sources for fuel, so shortages are not anticipated.
If there is an extended shut down of all or part of the refinery, they will have to bring more refined products in from elsewhere, but that may take time. In the meantime they may be re-distributing stored product to meet demand.

.