Big and BIG, et cetera

 There is big and there is BIG, and certainly the crane ship Orion qualifies in the latter category. The ship arrived yesterday, May 1, and tied up at the IEL dock in Dartmouth. There was no clear view of the ship from the Halifax side in yesterday's rain and fog, and today didn't start off much better, but things improved as the day wore on, and the high winds died away.

As the fog cleared off, more and more of the ship was revealed.

Its main characteristic is the massive 5,000 tonne capacity crane (with 1500 tonne secondary) which makes the two "smaller" 100 tonne auxiliary cranes look insignificant. 

Built in 2019 by Qidong Shipyard in China, the ship is an offshore installation vessel with accommodation for up to 239 workers and crew. It has a cargo payload capacity of 30,000 tonnes, a moon pool and diver support facilities and is rated DP3 for dynamic positioning. It is rated at 58,203 gt and 60,575 dwt. Named Orion I when  built it was renamed simply Orion in 2022. Owners Deme Offshore Equipment NV of the Netherlands Belgium , are involved in dredging and offshore work. 

The ship will be involved in offshore wind farm installation in the United States, which will be staged from Halifax.

Tuesday's are free days for seniors on Halifax Transit, so a ferry ride on the Woodside ferry Craig Blake provided close up views.

 

It also gave an unusual opportunity to catch three tankers in the same photo.

 In the distance the Irving Oil tanker East Coast was making another one of its visits to Imperial Oil. This is not as rare an event as it might seem as the two companies exchange product regularly.

At the Irving Oil dock in Woodside, next door to the IEL dock, it was the Marshall Islands flag tanker STI Comandante in from Amsterdam with more refined product.

A Handysize ship of 24,230 gt, 38,734 dwt it was built by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan in 2014, and is operated by the Monaco based Scorpio Tankers Inc. (The company was founded by Emanuele Lauro of Italy, and its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.)

Alongside the Orion itself was the bunkering tanker North Atlantic Kairos. Operating out of the Come by Chance refinery in Newfoundland, it is making one of its rare moves outside of Placentia Bay. I am assuming that the Orion needs to top up on fuel for a prolonged work session offshore, where refueling would be difficult. The tanker sailed later this afternoon, returning to its home port.

Built in 2008 by Turkter Shipyard in Tuzla, Turkey, it is a 2985 gt, 3669 dwt ship. It first arrived in Halifax in July 9, 2016 as CT Wicklow. It was then handed over to North Atlantic, and renamed and registered in Canada. It has since made a few trips to Halifax with product for Wilson Fuel.

In a minor note to the Orion visit, a deck barge called the MM 110 arrived in Halifax April 30 in tow of the tug Bevery M1 and is moored directly astern of the Orion.

The 409 gt barge was built in China in 2013 and  is owned by McKeil Workboats GP Inc. 

The tug is standing by at Pier 9, so it may be used as part of Orion's visit.

Speaking of tugs, Atlantic Towing Ltd's tug base has moved from the north end of the IEL dock to the C.O.V.E dock (old Coast Guard Base) in Dartmouth Cove. This may not be a permanent move, and may only be for the duration of the Orion's visit.

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Early Riser Rewards + supplement

All of today's scheduled arrivals happened in the early morning. The first, CMA CGM Thames was due at the pilot station at 0430 and Heritage Leader at 0530. These were well before first light, but I did manage to catch them after they were alongside.

CMA CGM Thames is an impressive split superstructure vessel of 9365 TEU, built in 2015 by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co., measuring 95,263 grt, 113,800 dwt.

It made its first call here on June 17, 2017, and is one of 17 ships that maintain the Columbus JAX service. Some ships have been replaced in the rotation recently and the new ships are expected in early July. CMA CGM Cochin and CMA CGM Chennai are fresh from the builders, and measure in excess of 112,000 grt.

Heritage Leader tied up at Autoport. The 6700 CEU ship is owned by Ray Carr Carriers and is on charter to NYK Lines.

 The 58,767 grt, 20,434 dwt ship was built in 2011 by Hyundai, Mipo. According to my records this is the ship's first call in Halifax since 2015.

Next in, after sunrise, was the coastal and bunkering tanker North Atlantic Kairos for Wilson's Fuels at pier 9. In addition to supplying its local service stations and furnace oil customers, Wilson's also provides fuel to the supply vessels supporting BP's offshore exploration. (Whether for their own use or for the drill rig West Aquarius I am not sure.)

 From its base at the North Atlantic Petroleum refinery in Come-by-Chance, NL the tanker provides a bunkering service to in Placentia Bay and makes occasional coastal trips.

A first arrival in Halifax is the container ship Arica for Maersk / CMA CGM's Canada Atlantic Express. As the usual ships go into major inspections and drydocking, the operators have introduced this ship to try to keep up the schedule (which has been in disarray in the past month).

Zhejiang Yangfan Shipbuilding Co Ltd in Zhoushan built Arica in 2007 , but soon after delivery it was renamed Maersk Jakobstad for a five year charter. In 2012 it reverted to its original name for owners, part of Reederei NSC Schiffahrts of Hamburg.
 

The 32,901 grt, 35,359 dwt ship has a capacity of 2797 TEU, including 746 reefers, and is fitted with a trio of 40 tonne cranes. Unusual for container ships of its size, it has no cargo space aft of the accommodation.

Also arriving this morning was East Coast for Irving Oil. Since it is all I can do to be in one place at a time, I did not photograph this ship - this time.

For this morning's only departure - see Tugfax

Supplement:
Not all arrivals were early. Late this afternoon, when the tanker Mahadah Silver  sailed another ship with Arabian roots arrived to take its place at Imperial Oil dock #3. Jinan flies the flag of Qatar for its owners Qatar Shipping Co. Its cargo for Imperial however was loaded in Port Neches, Texas. Jinan is an island off the western coast of the Qatar peninsula.

The handysize tanker of 25,408 grt, 40,232 dwt was built in 2003 by ShinA Shipbuilding Co, Tongyeong, South Korea. Judging from its immaculate condition however, it must have been drydocked very recently. Note also the symbols for no less than 15 cargo manifolds painted on the hull amidships.

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Bunkering tanker Nore at Pier 9B

The Malta flag bunkering tanker Nore arrived (in dense fog) at pier 9B today. A sister ship to the Halifax bunkering tanker Algoma Dartmouth and the Come-by-Chance tanker North Atlantic Kairos  it has apparently been acquired by Canadian owners.

 

By late afternoon the fog had cleared and rain stopped enough to get a "through the fence" look at Nore at Pier 9B. (That is Atlantic Condor at Pier 9C in the background.)

[ The only potential buyer for such a vessel that I can image is indeed North Atlantic Refining Ltd (NARL), owners of the Come-by-Chance refinery and a growing retail operation in Newfoundland and Labrador, now with 53 gas stations and 14 Orangestore locations. From its origins in 1973 the refinery has had five owners, with the latest taking over in September of last year. The new owners, Silver Range Partners LLC of New York acquired the business from Harvest Energy a subsidiary of the Korean National Oil Corp. NARL under Silver Range ownership is marketing its low sulphur products more widely, and its tanker North Atlantic Kairos was here twice in March with product for Wilson's Fuels. Although nominally a bunkering tanker, the ship can carry a a variety off fuels and is more than capable of short sea voyages.] 

The above was a wild guess, and apparently quite wrong.  Certainly no other east coast operator would be in the market for such a vessel, but I had forgotten that Canada also has a west coast! Word has reached me that it will be going to British Columbia -the first Canadian flag coastal tanker there in many years- and will be named AC AQUARIUS for as yet unidentified owners.

(Another Newfoundland operator, Coastal Shipping, part of the Woodward Group, has acquired tow tankers recently Icdas-09 and Icdas-11 are 13,097 grt, 19,984 dwt are ice class Turkish built by Icdas, Biga in 2010 and 2011 respectively. No new names have been announced yet. Coastal has rarely renamed their tankers after acquiring them from European owners, but perhaps they will make an exception in this case and chose some northern Canadian names that reflect the areas they will serve.)



Nore was built in 2007 in Tuzla, Turkey, with construction started by Dearsan Gemi and completed by Yardimci Gemi Insa SA. It measures 2999 grt and 3569 dwt. Built as Samistal, it was renamed CT Wexford in 2008 and from 2011 flew the Russian flag as RN Taurus. Early this year it was renamed Nore for Arsland Nore Ltd under Turkish management. [That the first three NOR appear in this name and in NARL can't be a coincidence.]  

Nore followed a similar trajectory to North Atlantic Kairos sailing from Tuzla, bunkering in Ceuta and arriving at Pier 9B. North Atlantic Kairos arrived as CT Wicklow (launched 2008 as Clipper Boca, 2985 grt, 3669 dwt) June 16, 2016 and was soon renamed and reflagged to Canada. I expect the same to happen with Nore.

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More dollars for research, and some tanker traffic

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is again hiring outside vessels to conduct research due to the unavailability of ships from their own fleet.

Mersey Venture fueling up at BIO today. The 2337 grt ship was built in 1988 and has been in the northern shrimp fishery.


Mersey Venture, owned by Mersey Seafoods of Liverpool, NS, is the latest hire. It will cost $290,000 to conduct an abbreviated  winter fisheries survey on George's Bank. The annual survey collects important data on fish stocks and usually takes five weeks. However the DFO's aging fisheries research fleet is unable to conduct the work this year due to problem refits.
CCGS Alfred Needler, built in 1982 was to have completed its refit in St.John's February 14, but more steel work was needed so it will not be ready before April 1. Last year when it was unable to complete the survey due to mechanical issues, the work was completed by Teleost (built in 1988). However this year that ship is also in refit, which has been extended from the end of February until at least March 30.

Both DFO ships are up for replacement but delivery dates for the new ships are still somewhat up in the air.  The first of three new ships, Sir John Franklin is fitting out in Victoria, BC after is was "launched" by Seaspan's yard in North Vancouver. It is expected to enter service sometime in 2018, followed by the next two ships in 2019 or even 2020.

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Today the coastal tanker Algoscotia took a break from its routine of shuttle trips from Lévis, QC to Imperial Oil in Dartmouth. The ship moved to pier 26 - likely for some repair work.

The Algoscotia has been working through the winter and certainly shows signs of wear and tear on the hull.

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Based in Come-by-Chance, NL. the 2985 grt, 3569 dwt  tanker North Atlantic Kairos arrived at pier 9 today with cargo for Wilson's Fuels. Built in 2008 in Tuzla, Turkey, to the same design as Algoma Dartmouth, it is primarily a bunkering tanker, but can also carry out coastal voyages

As North Atlantic Kairos approaches pier 9, the tug Roseway in the background, is towing a containment boom that will be placed around the ship while it discharges its cargo. An underground pipeline connects pier 9 to Wilson's tanks on Barrington Street.

Built in 2008 as CT Wicklow is was acquired by North Atlantic Refining Ltd in 2016 and arrived in Halifax July 9, 2016 for fitting out and renaming. It returned to Halifax in August of that year with a cargo for Wilson's.

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