“Ice strengthened” seems to have become the term of the day for all operators of medium range product carriers and Aframaxes. However, the safe shipping of oil through icy waters is not only a question of extra steel weight and more powerful engines; it also means new challenges and responsibilities for the crews and the shipowner’s shore-based management.
For North European operators of short sea tankers, ice strengthened vessels manned by crews with vast experience of ship handling in icy waters are just normal operating ingredients. Following the tremendous development of Russian crude oil and oil product exports from the ice-stricken parts of the Baltic Sea and the future Russian oil transports on Polar routes, new operators are entering the scene and the size of their vessels is growing.
In the wake of disasters such as the Erika and the Prestige, the increasing oil exports from the Baltic Sea area have stirred up questions from and worry on the part of the public and politicians in the surrounding nations.
This has put enormous pressure on governments and oil companies to cater for the safest possible transport over the seas.
As a consequence, the number of orders for ice strengthened medium range product carriers, Aframax and even Suezmax tankers has soared and today there are about 120 tankers built to Swedish/ Finnish ice class 1A and 1B between 20,000 and 170,000 dwt on the world’s orderbooks. The existing ice strengthened fleet in these segments consists of around 60 tankers.
However, what ‘ice strengthened’ really means varies significantly from vessel to vessel. There is no internationally agreed standard; most nations and class societies have their own definitions, although there is a system to compare different standards. The level of ice strengthening is of importance for where and when a tanker can operate.
The prerequisites for winter navigation in the Baltic Sea are set by weather conditions and by the authorities (and they can be equally strict).
When the temperature drops and the ice starts to expand over the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland, the maritime agencies around the Baltic Sea trigger their two instruments for safe winter navigation: icebreaker assistance and tonnage restrictions.
Ten ice tankers on order
Today, Stena Bulk and Concordia Maritime have a dozen tankers on their orderbooks. Of these, ten are ice strengthened but to three different classes.
The first ice-strengthened tankers to be delivered are two Aframaxes built by Hyundai to the highest possible Finnish/ Swedish ice class, 1 A Super. The Stena Arctica and Stena Antarctica will be delivered this year. When delivered, they will actually double the world tanker fleet of this size and ice class, as the only other ones in this segment existing today are the Fortum DAT Aframax tankers delivered in 2002–03.
Upon delivery, the Stena Arctica and Stena Antarctica will enter a ten-year charter to the Russian oil logistics company Progetra.
These Aframaxes are built with about ten per cent more steel than a conventional Aframax. They also have an engine output exceeding that of the conventional vessels by almost 65 per cent.
Thanks to an improved hull form they can carry almost 6,000 tons more cargo (110,000 tons versus 104,000 tons) through the Danish Belts with approximately the same fuel consumption per cargo unit. The Stena Bulk vessels consume about 50 tons per day at 14 knots, while a ‘standard Aframax’ burns about 47 tons at the same speed.
This year, Concordia Maritime is also set to take delivery of the first of six P-MAX vessels, all built to ice class 1B. The first pair, the Stena Paris and Stena Provence, the latter to be delivered in 2006, will be chartered out to Total for five years. In 2006, the first of two ice-class 1A Panamaxes, the Stena Polaris, enters a ten-year charter to Fortum, delivering high-quality gasoline from Fortum’s refinery in Porvoo to environmentally concerned car owners in California, USA.
Her sister vessel, the Stena Poseidon, which will also enter a ten-year charter to Fortum, will follow her in 2007. By 2008, six MR P-MAXes, two Panamaxes and two Aframaxes, all ice strengthened, will have been delivered to Stena Bulk and Concordia Maritime. It is safe to say that before the last one is delivered, there will be new orders added by the two sister companies.
Adding extra steel and installing a more powerful engine is, however, not enough when challenging Baltic ice and – for that matter – the population and politicians around the world’s largest brackish water reservoir.
The next step in the ice tanker development will be taken in co-operation with Russia’s state-owned shipowner Sovcomflot. The two companies have signed a Letter of Intent to jointly develop B-MAX tankers. The B-MAX will be a design tailor-made to maximise cargo sizes shipped from the Baltic Sea and from the Black Sea, hence the B prefix.
The vessel is 299.5 metres long, which is the maximum size for trading through the Bosphorus. The wide-bodied vessel is capable of a cargo intake corresponding to a deadweight of 200,000 tons at a draught of 15.4 metres, which is the maximum through the Danish Belts. As an example, the large cargo capacity means that just one B-MAX can lift 6–7 million tons of crude oil annually – or more than ten per cent of the annual throughput at Primorsk – if it is used as a shuttle between the Bay of Finland and the Continent.
The large amount of cargo carried by each ship is of course of commercial interest but it also has a maritime safety effect. The Baltic Sea is already a heavily trafficked sea, and maritime transports will increase at the same pace as the industry develops and prosperity grows in the region. Shipping oil with larger vessels will reduce the number of large tanker movements and thereby lessen the risk of accidents. Design work and tests will be carried out in 2005 and, if all goes well, construction could begin during the second half of 2006.
A major oil spill is always a disaster wherever it happens, but in the Baltic Sea it is actually worse. The Baltic Sea is a shallow sea where only a limited number of plants and animal species have had the strength to survive under harsh conditions. It is also a sea with restricted water flow through the narrow and shallow Danish Belts and the Sound, and it takes 25–50 years before the water is changed.
A major spill in these waters would be disastrous at any time, but if it took place during winter in icy waters it would be a real nightmare, as under those circumstances there are no means of recovering the oil.
No matter how well built and well equipped a vessel is it will never be better than the crew operating it. A competent ice crew consists of officers with experience of navigation in ice and it is not just a question of proper ship handling. Good English skills are a must for safe communication with icebreakers and other ships during convoys and in operations such as being towed by an icebreaker.
Ice requires planning
A winter voyage to the Baltic Sea also requires pre-planning. Poorly prepared vessels often lack the right charts and ice charts, the searchlights are too weak and they are short of bunker oil.
Screw and rudder breakdowns and cooling water problems are not unusual on ships manned by crews without ice experience
Crews not used to trading in a climate where both air and water temperature is close to or below zero will be startled by how fast a ship is iced, especially in head seas. The ice could soon become a stability problem and deck equipment could be damaged and become useless.
Finding the necessary ice crews will be a formidable task.
120 vessels on order with crews averaging 20 persons means that around 4,000 ‘icy seafarers’ must be found.
There are two ways of securing the needed experience and competence. You can hire it or you can create it. The Stena company organisation has decided to do both.
The Stena subsidiary Northern Marine Management has the management responsibility for all Stena Bulk, Concordia Maritime and Arlington Tankers vessels.
Icy cadets
The Stena Bulk ice-Aframaxes will sail under Swedish flag and recruitment of competent Swedish officers began over a year before the delivery of the first vessel. Northern Marine has also decided to dedicate its ambitious in-house cadet training programme to shipping in icy waters as well as to increase the intake to the cadet programme.
There is also another vast competence resource to tap into the future – well educated and ice-experienced Russian officers. Taking into account the Stena organisation’s commitment to Russia and the Russian oil trade, this would be a logical step.
Also in this area, Stena Bulk co-operates with Sovcomflot. The partners have an agreement to secure the supply of well-educated crews for ice-classed tankers in the Baltic Sea. As part of the agreement, both parties will jointly support the creation of an ice-training centre and training programmes at the Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy in St. Petersburg.
Sovcomflot is a long-term sponsor of the Makarov institute and Stena cooperates with the Maritime College at Chalmers Lindholmen in Gothenburg. The two schools will now also cooperate more closely.
Rolf P. Nilsson
The Scandinavian Shipping Gazette
Date: 2005-06-09