ZIM Qingdao in the Basin

 There was the rare sight of a ZIM ship in Bedford Basin today. The ship went out to anchor Friday evening from its normal berth at PSA Halifax. It returned to PSA this afternoon (December 12), but tied up at Pier 36-37 where it will not be able to work cargo, since that pier has no crane.

It is understood that the ship was detained by Ship Safety until repairs could be made. It was later cleared to sail at 2300 hrs.

The 41,482 gt, 50,689 dwt ship was built in 2006 by the Dalian New Shipbuilding Co in China, and has a capacity of 4250 TEU. The ship flies the Israeli flag and sails on the ZIM Atlantic service.

Good bye to Deep Panuke

 The topsides structure of the Deep Panuke gas installation left Halifax today on the BOA Barge 34 towed by the tug Atlantic Kestrel, assisted by Atlantic Kingfisher and Atlantic Larch. The destination is indeed Sheet Harbour, NS, where the structure will be demolished.

I mistakenly stated in a prior post that the topside structure was lifted off by the crane barge Thialf. In fact the topside, which is  equipped with jack-up legs, was lowered onto the barge. Presumably when it reaches Sheet Harbour a reverse process will occur and the barge will be "slid out" from under.

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No More Offshore

 I used the same title for a post on my companion blog Tugfax on November 29 to mark the end of Nova Scotia's involvement in offshore oil and gas. With the completion of removal operations for the last offshore installation a number of support vessels that had been involved in exploration, construction, extraction and now demolition, have been idled.

However that is not quite the end of the story. A few "landmarks" around Halifax harbour are also disappearing.

The most prominent, although of rather short duration, has been the Deep Panuke topsides structure. It was removed intact by the giant crane ship Thialf, and landed on the BOA Barge 34, which arrived at the IEL dock in Woodside on July 21. With its flashing light on top of the flare tower, and other illumination, it is a colourful addition to the "harbourscape" day and night.

The structure was brought to Halifax pending its potential sale for re-use or for scrap. Much of the other material from the Sable Offshore went to Europe for scrap, but this structure apparently poses many challenges, not to mention the transatlantic tow. The decision has now been made, and it is rumoured to be scrapping in Sheet Harbour, NS.

We will find out Sunday as the barge is scheduled to sail in tow of the Canadian tug Atlantic Kestrel, which has recently refueled and is talking on stores (of spring water!) at Pier 9C today.

Among the other "landmarks" that is disappearing is the Mobil Dock, which is just south of the Woodside pier (to the right in the top photo, where the yellow crane is parked). It has long been the base for loading offshore supply vessels, has been a very busy place at times since the 1970s. There were a few sheds and other infrastructure there that are now being removed.

Meanwhile at Pier 9C which has been another base for activity related to the dismantling of the offshore, a colourful collection of tanks is also coming down.

Some of the tanks have already been removed, and crews are at work dismantling the piping from the larger tanks. 

The company M-I Swaco established the facility to handle drilling and well fluids for the offshore gas facility, and presumably provided material for sealing and capping wells.  

The materials in the tanks were transferred to tanks in the supply vessels by pipeline. When there was a north wind off the Basin it was a pretty exposed location, and was every bit as cold as it looked.

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Dutch Day

 Even though April 27 is the Dutch national holiday, one would be forgiven for thinking that today (December 8) was some sort of special event for the Netherlands.

A procession proceeded up harbour this morning with the lead vessel, a Dutch built tug of course,  towing a Dutch built barge, itself carrying three small Dutch built tugs, and accompanied astern by another Dutch-built multi-purpose craft. 

All this was in aid of the delivery of two of the small tugs to the local Halifax company Dominion Diving. It was their utility craft, Dominion Warrior bringing up the stern. 

Dominion Warrior flying the flag of the Netherlands as a courtesy, bringing up the rear.

The two small tugs, Dominion Enforcer and Dominion Rumbler were offloaded using one of the container cranes at Ceresorp's Fairview Cove container terminal.

After unloading the two small tugs, the lead tug, Amy Lynn D and the barge Jacob Joseph C will  proceed onward to Picton, ON where they will be taken over by their owners the Doornkamp family, owners of a large aggregates and port operation at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, called Picton Terminals.

The third small tug, Saint-Georges  was built to the account of Quebec owners and will be delivered en route.

The Dutch company Damen, responsible for building the four tugs and the barge (called a pontoon in European parlance) have a world-wide business building and operating tugs, barges and a variety of other types of ships. They even provide the delivery crews for the ships that they sell. This particular transaction concluded with the larger tug Amy Lynn D towing the pontoon and its precious cargo, across the Atlantic from Algeciras (Gibraltar) to Halifax in frightful weather, with no apparent damage.

For more detail on the tugs, see recent posts on Tugfax including:  December 6

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CMA CGM Chile arrives

 The third 15,000 plus TEU ship to call at PSA Halifax made its arrival at midday today. CMA CGM Chile follows two ships of the same class that called in September: CMA CGM Brazil on September 10 and CMA CGM Panama on September 21.

It was a gloomy arrival for the ship, which appears to be loaded to near capacity in terms of number of boxes. There is currently a dire shortage of containers in Asia, so ships are trying to pick up as many boxes as they can at way points, however this ship is westbound and has made no port calls since Sri Lanka. Container traffic is apparently booming right now, so perhaps it is mostly payload.

As expected the three ships of this Argentina class are all showing the same or similar numbers: 149,314 gt, 157,076 dwt, and 15,072 TEU. Built by Hyundai Samho, CMA CGM Chile entered service in December 2019, so is barely a year old. There are eleven ships in the class, with the first five already delivered ( CMA Argentina and CMA CGM Mexico have not called in Halifax yet). Six more ships, of which one has been delivered are revolutionary dual fuel vessels with the capability of using LNG - if and where available. It is expected that they will use the conventional fuel and exhaust gas scrubbers much of the time.

The Port of Halifax is noting that these ships are the largest container ships to call at any Canadian port, and that Halifax has the infrastructure to handle them, particularly with the newly extended berth at PSA Halifax, and its long reach, super post panamax cranes.

I have often noted that the size of ships is deceptive, particularly with these Ultra class vessels. Yes they are big a 360m long and 51m wide, but they are still smaller than the largest ship to dock at any Canadian terminal. As far as I know, that record is still held by Point Tupper, NS on the Strait of Canso. 

On August 9, 1998 the Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC*) Hellespont Capitol docked at the Nustar Energy terminal there. A tanker of 173,086 gt, 388,118 dwt, it measured 373.5m long overall, by 64 meters breadth with a draft of 22.92m, it was built in 1976 and scrapped in 2002. Originally the Esso Madrid it was built by Nippon Kokan, Tsu, Japan, in response the "energy crisis" of the early 70s. In 1986 it was renamed Capitol and in 1990 Hellespont Capitol when it was acquired by the Greek / Canadian Papachristidis company Hellespont Steamships.

Ships of its colossal size could only be handled at Point Tupper which has the deepest, ice free terminal in North America.

 * The ULCC is the largest class of tanker, starting at 320,000 dwt and ranging up to 549,999 dwt. The next smaller class, the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC),  is sized is from 160,000 to 319,999 dwt. 

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CMA CGM Chile due

 I will be on the lookout tomorrrow (December 8) for the arrival of CMA CGM Chile a 15,128 TEU container ship, due at the pilot station at 1130 hrs AST. 

It will be berthing at PSA Halifax around noon. If I get decent pictures I will update this post.

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Weather again

 The port is on weather watch again, with pilotage operations suspended. Gusty winds and very lumpy seas outside, have resulted in canceled arrivals and departures.

Before condiitons deteriorated last evening the tug Amy Lynn D and its barge carrrying three small tugs arrived safely from Algeciras (Gibraltar). For details see today's posting on Tugfax

 

 

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