East Coast - countdown

 The tanker East Coast arrived today, January 8, at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal with more product from the Saint John refinery. This may be one of the ship's last calls in Halifax as its replacement is due sometime in the first quarter of this year.

Irving Oil has entered into a long term charter arrangement with Algoma Tankers Ltd for two new 37,000 dwt ships to replace East Coast and Acadian to trade under the Canadian flag. 

East Coast was delivered in March 2005 by Hyundai Mipo as a 23,552 gt, 37,515 dwt product tanker. It was initially named Nor'Easter and flew the Marshall Islands flag, trading out of Saint John to ports on the US east coast. In 2014 it was brought under Canadian flag and reanmed East Coast. Another ship, the similar sized former Iver Progress, built in 2007, joined the fleet in 2016 and was given the name Nor'easter, with Marshall Islands registry.

Reports indicate that the new ships, of essentially the same size, and also built by Hyundai Mipo, will be named Algoma East Coast and Algoma Acadian. They will be "methanol ready" as that fuel seems to be the fuel of the future, although there is no ready source for the stuff as yet.

The East Coast and the other members of the Irving Oil charter fleet, were retrofitted with exhaust gas scrubbers which are housed in large appendages to their orginal funnels. Presumably the new ships will be built to use low sulfur fuels (which Irving Oil produces) at first and will not have scrubbers. (Some ports have banned scrubbers, particularly the open loop type.)

East Coast was retro-fitted with an exhaust gas scrubber in 2015. 

(August 20, 2022 photo)

The other two Marshall Islands flag sister ships in the Irving Oil charter fleet, New England and Great Eastern will also be coming up for renewal surveys in the fall of 2025, but there has been no word on replacements (at least to my ear). 

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More Cars and more Fuel

 With spring comes a surge in demand for new cars, and so Autoport has been particularly busy with spring arrivals. To fuel those cars (with summer gasoline formulations) the petroleum companies have also been stocking up.

Over the past few days there have been two ships at Autoport - both familiar ones - with batches of new European cars.

On Saturday May 4 it was Wallenius Wilhelmsen's Don Pasquale from the usual European load ports of Bremerhaven, Goteborg and Southampton.(Skipping Zeebrugge this time.)

The ship was built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in Okpo in 1997 and in 2007 it was lengthened from 219.3 to 227.9 m by Hyundai Vinaship in Vietnam. The reworked ship now registers 67,141 gt, 28,142 dwt with a capacity of 7,194 cars. It sailed for New York.

Today, May 5, it was the SFL Composer in from Bremen (the Volkswagen export facility) with a consignment of VWs, Audis and Porsches. The ship is under charter to VW until the First Quarter of 2027.

It is a 58,631 gt, 18,881 dwt ship with a capacity of 6500 CEU. Built in 2005 by Minami Nippon in Shitanoe, it was originally the Excellent Ace becoming Glovis Composer in 2012 and SFL Composer in 2020.

SFL Composer will remain in port over night and is due to sail late tomorrow afternoon.

On the fuel side of things, Irving Oil has been busy.

On Tuesday May 2 there was an unusual caller, Irving Oil's charter tanker Great Eastern arriving from Amsterdam. 

The Marshall Islands flag ship normally operates between Saint John, NB and US east coast ports, and is rarely seen in Halifax. As a foreign flagged ship it is not permitted to trade between Canadian ports. It also rarely sails to Europe, and this appears to be a "one of" voyage. Irving Oil regualry imports refined product from its storage termainl in Amsterdam, but usually with spot charter ships.

Built in 2005 by Hyundai, Ulsan Great Eastern is a MidRange type tanker of 23,552 gt, 37,515 dwt and is one of five sister tankers operating under long term charter to Irving Oil. Two of the ships, the Acadian and the East Coast (ex Nor-Easter) fly the Canadian flag and serve primarily Atlantic Canada ports, but sometimes reach as far west as Quebec City and Montreal. The Great Eastern and New England, which were joined in 2014 by a second Nor'Easter (the former Iver Progess, built in 2007), run usually to such ports as Portland and Boston.

All of the ships were retrofitted with exhaust gas scrubber systems (housed in a large white structure abaft the funnel).

On arrival Great Eastern anchored in the harbour until the East Coast had arrived May 3 and completed unloading and vacated the Woodside terminal berth May 4. It is rare to see two Irving Oil tankers in port at the same time. The domestic ship was given priority due to shorter terminal time, and "just in time" scheduling.

Irving Oil has committed to a charter with Algoma Central Corporation for two new 37,000 dwt ice class tankers to be built by Hyundai Mipo in Ulsan. The state of the art ships will be ethanol fuel ready and will have numerous other up-to-date features. Delivery is anticipated during the First Quarter of 2025. The ships will be Canadian flagged but will be suitable for trading to the usual US ports,  particularly Boston, which has a beam restriction of 27.4 meters (90 feet) at the Chelsea Street lift bridge on Chelsea Creek to reach Irving Oil's terminal in Revere, MA. 

Disposition of the other tankers, all but one of which will have reached the twenty-year mark next year, remains to be seen.

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Irving invasion

There were two tankers in port today, both operated by Irving Oil.
The Marshall Islands flagged Great Eastern arrived Friday and tied up at Imperial Oil #4 dock.

Great Eastern at Imperial Oil dock #4.

 

This is an interesting development. The ship runs regularly from Saint John, NB delivering Irving's product to the US east coast. On this trip, after discharging it went on to Port Arthur, TX and loaded up on refined product for competitor Esso.

Then this afternoon the Canadian flagged East Coast arrived for the second time in a week.  The ship arrived last Saturday too, but that time docked at Ultramar. I believe it unloaded Ultramar product, picked up in Lévis, QC on the return leg of a trip when it delivered Irving product to St.Lawrence River ports.

East Coast came in west of George's Island. 

 

On today's visit it tied up at Irving Oil's Woodside terminal. To do so it sailed up west of George's Island, made a big sweep north, and came in alongside with the aid of the tugs Atlantic Willow and Atlantic Oak. Dominion Diving's Halmar did line boat duties.

This is the first time I have had a close up look at the exhaust gas scrubber system, installed abaft the original funnel. Certainly an unattractive addition, but a necessary one to comply with emission regulations in Canada and the US.
 

The white structure attached to the aft side of the funnel houses the exhaust gas scrubber.

The Irving tankers each carry the ship's initial on the superstructure.

Tugs turn the ship for its approach to the Woodside pier. 

East Coast ex Nor'Easter (i) will be sailing early tomorrow morning, after pumping off a part load. See last week's post on Nor'Easter (ii).

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