Three's a crowd

 The old phrase that "two's company, three's a crowd" might well be leveled at Algoma Tankers Ltd today (January 12) as there are ships from the fleet at Piers 26, 27 and 28.

The latest arrival is Algonorth which moved over from Imperial Oil this morning to Pier 28. It is bow to bow with Algotitan which is receiving its new name today. (It was officially registered in Halifax under the new name yesterday.) At nearby Pier 25-26 the Algoma Hansa, the third member, awaits a sale and transfer to new owners.

Algonorth built in 2008 by Tuzla Gemi, in Turkey, is a 12,164 gt, 16,979 dwt ship, originally named Gan Gesture, until 2009 and Ramira until 2018.

Algonorth is still wearing the (once) attractive red hull colour of its previous owners Alvtank Rederi AB of Sweden. Most of the ship's certificates expire 2023-10-17, so I anticipate a drydocking for renewal  this year, at which time it is likely to be repainted in Algoma's customary deep blue.

The only repainting expected on the Algotitan, is the name, which was underway earlier today. The former Chataco had its new name on the starboard bow, and there were painters working from staging on the port bow (no more bosun's chairs for this work.) 

The only ship wearing traditional Algoma colours was Algoma Hansa which, with extra lines and fire wires overside, is settling in for an indeterminate layup peroid until it is sold.

The reason for Algonorth's arrival in Halifax was to load cargo from Imperial Oil, and I am supposing that it moved over the Halifax to allow for the arrival of more product today on the Danish flag tanker Nord Superior. It is a 30,229 gt, 49,753 dwt vessel built in 2015 by STX Offshore + Shipbuilding in Jinhae. The ship features an unusually tall funnel, which carries the colours of Damps. NORDEN A/S.

The ship operates in the Norient Product Pool APS (an operation founded 50:50 by NORDEN and Interorient, but now100% owned by NORDEN). The ship has not followed the usual route of  Imperial's imported product. [See previous post.] Instead of sailing from Exxon/Mobil's refinery in Antwerp, the ship sailed from Al Fujayrah, Saudi Arabia December 9 and after transiting the Suez Canal December 17 it anchored off Barcelona December 24-30, then spent December 30-31 in the port itself. The Lipsa refinery in Barcelona is a large producer of bio-fuels.

.