AST Sunshine brings clearing weather

1. The gloom is lifting, allowing a clear view of the boldy painted ship as it unloads at Imperial Oil.

Living up to its name AST Sunshine brought clearing weather when it arrived today. The ship had been anchored off Halifax Since May 5. A cynic would say it was waiting for the price of oil to go up, but it certainly was a long time.
The splendidly painted ship is nearly new, having entered service January 10 of this year.It came from the Samsung Shipbuilding and Heavy Industry yard in Geoje, South Korea and is 50% owned by Solar Shipping + Trading SA and 50% by Asahi Marine of Tokyo. Management of the ship is in the hands of Northern Marine Management of Clydebank, Scotland. Despite all that the ship is registered in Panama.
It is obviously operating under charter to Stena-Sonanagol, a 26 ship pool of  Suezmax tankers operated by Stena Sphere shipping of Sweden and Sonangol, the state owned oil company of Angola. Most of the ships were built in the last two or three years, and are roughly identical in size. AST Sunshine is typical, at 81,187 gross tons and 159,000 tonnes deadweight.

Big tankers on the move

Two big tankers moved out of Halifax this morning. First off was the Euronav tanker Cap Guillaume bound for West Africa. It measures 81, 324 gross tons and 158,889 tonnes deadweight. It discharged a partial cargo of crude oil at Imperial Oil, having previously unloaded at Portland, Maine for the Montreal pipeline. It is a sister to the Cap Theodora previously reported for two pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea. The Euronav tankers are more common callers on the St.Lawrence River.

1. Heather Knutsen stern in at pier 27-28.

Following after was Heather Knutsen, a Canadian shuttle tanker that had been in Halifax since April 24 for repairs. When it arrived, in dense fog, it anchored for a time before going alongside pier 27-28. There is a rumour (unconfirmed) that the ship may have found the bottom near George's Island on the way in.
Divers were active on the ship while it was alongside, working under the stern doing routine maintenance to the shaft seal . Heather Knutsen was built in 2005 by Samsung, Koje (Geoje) for Husky Energy to serve the White Rose project  on a ten year charter. It is a ship of 80,918 gross tons and 148,644 deadweight tonnes. It will anchor off Halifax for an indeterminate time.

Meanwhile another comparably sized tnaker, AST Sunsdhine remains at anchor off Halifax. Also built by Samsung, Geoje and delivered earlier this year, it measures 81,187 gross tons, 159,039 deadweight. It is expected to move in to Imperial Oil.