Recent Tankers

 Both Irving Oil and Imperial Oil had foreign flag tankers in Halifax recently and McAsphalt had their articulated tug/tanker barge in port.

     Irving Oil's Woodside terminal took cargo from STI Marshall, a 29,991 gt, 47,499 dwt ship, dating from 2019. It was built by Hyundai Vinashin Shipyard Co in Ninh Hoa Vietnam. The ship arrived from Amsterdam August 9 and is due to sail August 11.

The ship was named Marlin Marshall from 2019 to 2021 when it was taken over by Scorpio Tankers International. It displays the stylized scorpion logo on it oversize funnel, which incorporates an exhaust gas scrubber. It seems likely that the scrubber is original equipment, but might have been added later. (The green stripe on the scrubber housing may be left over from the Marlin era).

The ship is registered in the port of Majuro, the registry port for the Marshall Islands, a popular flag of convenience for tankers, particularly American owned. (Scorpio, founded by Emanuele Lauro is headquartered in Monaco, but listed on the New York stock exchange. It owns 128 product tankers.)

    The Malta flagged Hellas Fighter arrived off Halifax from Antwerp August 6 and anchored before coming alongside Imperial Oil August 7. It sailed in ballast August 10 for Houston.

Built in 2015 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan, the 29,410 gt, 49,997 dwt ship is managed by Latsco Marine Management, the operating arm for the 41 ships of the Latsis shipping companies of Greece. It carries the large letter "L" on the funnel. (Fleet mate Lady Malou was in port  July 30 - see post of that date).

      As the name implies McAsphalt is a specialist asphalt company part of Miller McAsphalt, owned in turn by the French conglomerate Colas SA. The tug Leo A. McArthur and barge John J. Carrick are regular callers in Halifax, the last time was July 21-22. The company operates it own jetty in Eastern Passage next to Autoport (once known as Dook's Dock), with a heated pipeline to storage tanks on shore. (It also has a rail connection there.)

 

Both tug and barge were built in China in 2009 and delivered in 2010, with the tug carrying the name Victorious. It was renamed in 2017 in honor of one of the founders of McAsphalt Industries. The high heat cargo barge, named for the other McAsphalt founder, has a capacity of 11,100 cu meters (70,000 bbls) and has boilers to keep asphalt and similar cargoes in the liquid state.

McAsphalt returned to China for construction of an asphalt tank ship with a 11,700 cubic meter (73,600 bbls) capacity. Powered by LNG/LBG it also has battery storage capacity. Named McAsphalt Advantage, the ship was launched in July and is expected in Canada later this year.

When the tanker is delivered we will likely see it here and the tug barge will concentrate mostly on the Great Lakes area. McAsphalt's older tug / barge combo Everlast (1976) / Norman McLeod (2001),  which is restricted to the Lakes / Seaway area may be retired or repowered / rebuilt.

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