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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Update - corrected

  With the return of sunny and mild weather today, there was little to remind anyone that there had been a post tropical storm less than a week ago. Nevertheless harbour traffic could not be considered exactly normal. 

ZIM's feeder service, the Canada Feeder Express saw the arrival of AS Felicia, a ship that has not been seen here on that route for several years.

The regular feeder ship Contship Leo on leaving here September 14 sailed to its usual destination of  Kingston, Jamaica, but then went on to Altamira, Mexico, and has been reported in Veracruz, Mexico since September 27. This seems to be a weather related diversion, since the ship would normally have returned from Kingston to New York. Also AS Felicia normally runs to San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was badly hit by Fiona when it was at hurricane strength, so has likely been redeployed to keep it running productively.

Another unusual caller is the Irving Oil (long term charter) tanker Nor'easter. Sailing under the Marshall Islands flag, its normal trade is between Saint John, NB and US ports. I assume it has been granted an emergency coasting license to replenish local fuel supplies, as some facilities ran short following Fiona. Sydney and Charlottetown may also be on its itinerary as those cities have also experienced shortages. Correction: Due to a maintenance shutdown of the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, both Nor'Easter and Great Eastern were dispatched to Amsterdam for cargoes from Irving Oil's European depot. Nor'Easter sailed from Amsterdam September 17 and delivered some of the cargo to its Saint John terminal September 27-28, before arriving in Halifax. Great Eastern is due in Amsterdam October 6.

 Similar to the other Irving Oil charters (which were built in 2005), it was built in 2007 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan as Iver Progress. The 23,589 gt, 37,412 dwt ship was brought into the Irving fleet by Vroon after the previous Nor'easter was moved to Canadian flag and renamed East Coast in 2014, joining the other Canadian flag tanker Acadian. 

The (current) Nor'easter works with New England and Great Eastern under Marshall Island flag running to US ports. It did operate for Irving Oil under its orginal name until 2016.
 

Cruise ships have returned to normal schedules too, but today's arrival of Enchanted Princess was slightly unusual. The ship was due here originally on Thursday, September 22, the eve of Fiona's arrival on September 23-24. Arriving off Halifax from Saint John, NB, it did not actually enter port, but returned to sea and made for New York. I imagine it took a wide loop out ot sea to avoid Fiona's track, but must have found some rough weather en route.

On arrival in New York September 24, it sailed again for Boston (September 26) and called on Saint John yesterday.

 

Built by Fincantieri, Monfalcone in 2020, the 145,281 gt ship had to postpone its maiden voyage from June 2020 to November 2021 due to the world wide shut down of cruises during the height of COVID. It has a capacity of 3,660 passengers and a staff of 1,346. It sailed this evening again for New York and will likely have a more pleasant voyage than its last one.

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Look what the wind blew in

A first arrival for Irving Oil took place on Sunday November 1 with the arrival of the tanker Nor'easter from Ijmuiden, Netherlands. The ship is one of five on charter from Vroon BV of the Netherlands, but is the "odd man out" in that it was not one of the original four. Those four ships consisted of the Acadian to be Canadian flag, Nor'easter, Great Eastern and New England to be Marshall Islands flag.  All were built by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan in 2005 and were 23,356 grt, 37,515 dwt more or less.

After Esso closed its refinery and Irving Oil withdrew from the common storage facilities it shared with Esso, they had an increased demand for a Canadian flag tanker and transferred the first Nor'easter to Canadian registry. However the name was already taken by another ship and so it was renamed East Coast in 2014.

In the meantine Irving Oil had been using another Vroon ship, Iver Progress and in 2016 it was folded into the fleet as the second Nor'easter. Also a product of Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan, it was built in 2007 , and has tonnages of 23,421 grt, 37,412 dwt so is essentially the same size. It was also refitted with the same exhaust gas scrubber system as the other four ships, and in profile looks quite similar.
There are differences in its appearance however, most notable is the black trim around the wheelhouse windows. It also appears to have a slightly more raked bow.

Nor'easter anchored in the harbour yesterday, and will await the arrival and departure of Acadian (expected tonight) before unloading at Woodside. Interestingly the ship is carrying a cargo from the Netherlands. It usually trades along the US east coast.

A sixth ship, Iver Prosperity, a sister to Nor'easter is also dedicated to Irving Oil work, but has not been renamed. Also it has not been fitted with the SOx scrubber sytem.

A Friday arrival anchored in Bedford Basin due to high winds and remained there until yesterday when it moved to Imperial Oil #4 dock.

Jinan was last here in June ( see http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2018/06/early-riser-rewards.html, ) and as noted then it is a rare Qatar flagged ship. On that visit is came from Port Neches, TX. Port Neches, Beaumont and Port Arthur are all ports on the Neches River, which at its mouth forms the border with Louisiana.

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Nor' Easter

Not the storm, but the ship, Nor' Easter blew into Halifax last evening. It is the first time this particular tanker has docked at the refurbished Irving Oil terminal in Woodside. It is also the first ship to dock bow north. Fleet mate Acadian has always tied up bow south.

Sunrise this morning reveals the Nor'easter.

Despite the prominent Esso tank in the background , the ship is delivering Irving Oil cargo to Irving Oil tanks. Neighbouring Esso just happens to be in the line of sight from my aerie.

Nor' Easter (ii) is the recently renamed Iver Progress which has been working for Irving Oil for the past year or more under Marshall Islands flag. It replaced the East Coast (ex Nor' Easter (i)) when that ship transferred to the Canadian flag in 2014. It was renamed since there was already a Nor'easter registered in Canada.
This Nor' Easter was built in 2007 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan and has tonnages of 23,421 grt, 37,412 dwt. The previous ship was built in 2005.

Irving Oil has two Canadian and three Marshall Islands tankers on charter from Vroon. The latter trade internationally from Saint John to the US eastern seaboard.

Nor' Easter's last port was Ijmuiden, Netherlands, making this the second cargo Irving has brought to Halifax from overseas. The company has recently acquired a small refinery in Ireland, so we should probably expect to see more international cargoes.

I believe the reason for this arrival however, is that the ship is returning from the installation of an exhaust gas scrubber system in Gibraltar, where it was also renamed and repainted in Irving Oil colours.
Read more about that conversion process:
http://www.shiprepairers.co.uk/casestudies_35_2841245953.pdf





In the light of day (Saturday November 26), the ship's freshly applied Irving Oil colours still look very new. The unique hull colour has been applied to Irving tankers since the 1940s.

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Nor'easter blows in to East Coast

Irving Oil has brought the Marshall Islands tanker Nor'easter into Canadian registry October 6 and renamed it East Coast*. One of four ships built by Vroon at Hyundai Mipo for long term charter to Irving Oil, only Acadian was Canadian flagged. The other three, Nor'easter, Great Eastern and New England were flagged in the Marshall Islands, since they would be trading internationally between Saint John and mostly US ports.

With the closure of Imperial Oil's refinery in Halifax, Irving Oil has found the need for more domestic tanker capacity and has had to apply for three coasting licenses this year alone to allow Nor'easter to run between Canadian ports. Now they have made the decision that the ship is needed more in Canada.

This is the fourth foreign fagged tanker brought under Canadian flag this year. Algoma Tankers brought in Algoma Hansa  in July, also as a result of changing trade patterns due to the Imperial closure. Both Irving and Algoma will be transporting refined products with their tankers.

 Desgagnés bought two tankers to run from Montreal to Lévis with crude oil from the newly configured Alberta pipeline.

The fall out from Imperial's closure has seen a spike in the number of ships arriving in Halifax, with all refined product for the area arriving by ship. If only we could get top quality furnace oil, instead of the low grade, mostly kerosene, that comes from Texas, consumers might be happier.

As mentioned in the prior post Algoma Dartmouth has gone to Port Hawksbury to load bunkering fuel, which is no longer produced in Halifax.

Now that Nor'Easter has become East Coast the large code letter "N" on the superstructure below the funnel will have to be changed to an "E". This quick way of identifying which ship of an identical quartet is perhaps unique.

Also on the Irving Oil front, construction has started on Canaport 2, their crude oil export facility, which will connect to the yet to be built TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline. That project is intended to bring Alberta crude to tidewater, with terminals in Cacouna, QC and Saint John. The Cacouna project (next door to Riviere-du-Loup) has been put on hold due to environmental concerns. On the edge or in the middle of the endangered beluga territory and a bird sanctuary, drilling for foundations was halted this summer.

Irving Oil is weaning itself from rail deliveries of crude oil, but will still be bringing in Bakken crude from the US by train. They will be upgrading their tank cars ahead of the regulatory deadlines. Those rail cars go through Sorel, QC which has also become a crude export port.


* There was already a Nor'Easter, a Nor'Easter I and a Nor Easter 07 on the Canadian Registry, so the existing name was not available unless the owners of at least one of those craft could be persuaded to give up the name.

Tankers, tankers, more tankers

Despite the loss of big tankers coming into Halifax with the closure of Esso's refining operation, there are still lots of tankers calling in Halifax. Today there were three in port

1.   Freshly out of drydock (see yesterday's post) Travestern is tied up at pier 34 completing its refit. Crews were busy working on the ship's free fall lifeboat. It normally nests in the orange cradle just above the anchor.

2.   Energy Protector arrived this morning and went to anchor in Bedford Basin. It was last here December 12 with refined product for Esso's tank farm, and presumably has some more on this trip.

3.  Irving Oil's Nor'easter (flying the Marshal Islands flag) is a rare caller in Halifax. Since the end of refining in Dartmouth, Irving tankers have been much more frequent visitors. Irving now has to supply its Halifax area needs from Saint John, instead of buying it from Esso, so their only Canadian flag tanker Acadian is running hard to meet demand.  It was therefore necessary to apply for a coasting license for Nor'easter to fill in. The license application was for the period December 4 to 17, but may have been extended.

Rumours are now emerging that Irving Oil will be reactivating its own dock in Woodside. Long abandoned when Irving Oil joined its Woodside tank farm with Esso by pipeline, they may now be finding that there is no advantage to that connection. Today a core drilling barge was working off the old Woodside dock, a sure sing that some engineering may soon begin on the design for a new pier.

 4.  On a day almost as foggy as today, but in June 1977, Irvingstream was tied up at the Irving Woodside pier. It was a small "L" shaped structure, and took some imaginative line handling to several points on the shore to secure a large ship.

5.   Despite its small size, the pier could accommodate quite a crowd.In this 1984 view Irving Canada has just sailed from the outside of the pier (with the assistance of Point Vigour), the barge Irving Dolphin is on the inside and Irvingwood is on the north side. The spindly wood structure of the pier was eventually condemned, but remains in place.

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