[seadog] Seabulk, Kirby and Trent Lott
- From: "Tom Blanchard" <tomblanchard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "SEADOG" <seadog@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 14:18:19 -0500
Houston-based American Shuttle Tankers is offering a new way for oil
producers in the Gulf of Mexico to transport crude oil from offshore
production facilities to Gulf Coast refineries and processing plants. The
company says the two-pronged approach will remove commercial and logistical
barriers to using shuttle tankers to transport oil to shore, accelerating by
a couple of years the introduction of shuttle vessels in the Gulf.
The development stems from an environmental impact study and ruling last
year by the U.S. Minerals Management Service that opened the way for
floating production, storage and offloading platforms (FPSOs) and shuttle
tankers to be used for the first time in the Gulf.
FPSOs are floating production platforms that also are used to store crude
oil, which is subsequently transferred to "shuttle" tankers which transport
it to shore. This system has been used in other parts of the world for a
number of years, but never in the Gulf of Mexico.
But, under the provisions of the 1920 Jones Act, only U.S.-flagged ships can
carry cargo between U.S. ports ? and there are only a handful of
U.S.-flagged oil tankers. Building new shuttle tankers ? which under
provisions of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 must be double-hulled to
minimize the potential for environmentally damaging oil spills ? would take
up to three years.
Against this background, American Shuttle Tankers is introducing its new
Separate-Storage Shuttling technology, which it says overcomes certain
obstacles of loading shuttles from FPSOs as well as from tension-leg
platforms, semisubmersibles and spars ? all various types of oil production
facilities.
Along with the new technology for loading shuttles, AST has executed an
agreement with Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Seabulk Tankers Inc. to convert
some of its 10-tanker fleet into shuttle tankers. These converted tankers
will be available for duty in the Gulf in a matter of months, according to
AST. It promises the vessels will be high-quality double-hulled tankers less
than five years old and fully compliant with the Jones Act as well as the
Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
Seabulk Tankers is the marine transportation subsidiary of Seabulk
International. Its fleet of 10 U.S.-flag vessels, including five double
hulls, is the largest independently owned, Jones Act-compliant tanker fleet.
However, Seabulk Tankers recently extended through July 2010 its agreement
to provide two double-hulled tankers to Tesoro Maritime Co. These two
vessels are currently in service transporting petroleum for three Tesoro
refineries in Alaska, Hawaii and Puget Sound, Wash.
These two developments, says AST President Oyvind Jordanger, will make the
transport of crude oil from the deepwater fields in the Gulf economical and
competitive with other transportation options.
"Direct shuttle loading is cost-effective in the Gulf only at production
rates of around 75,000 barrels of oil per day and up," says AST Vice
President Peter Lovie.
But many fields produce less than that amount. AST's new technology makes
direct loading economical for those smaller production operations.
AST is owned by a 50/50 joint venture between Skaugen PetroTrans Inc. of
Houston and Navion ASA of Stavanger, Norway. Skaugen PetroTrans is the
largest provider of lightering services in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of
Mexico, moving approximately 1.1 million barrels of oil a day with a fleet
of 10 tankers.
Also developing new technology for FPSOs and shuttle tankers in the Gulf of
Mexico is Houston-based ConocoPhillips through Conoco's partner, Seahorse
Shuttling and Technology. In the final planning stage is a shuttle tanker
concept called the Gomax 550, which has a capacity of 550,000 barrels of
crude, is double-hulled and meets the 40-foot draft restrictions of most
Gulf ports.
The issue of single- versus double-hulled tankers has again become a
hot-button issue following the recent breakup and sinking of the oil tanker
Prestige in the Atlantic Ocean off Spain, spilling thousands of gallons of
crude oil and creating an environmental and economic disaster for miles of
Spanish coastline.
Both the U.S. and European Union have mandated a complete phase-out of
single-hulled tankers by 2015. In addition, the International Maritime
Organization decided in April 2001 that all single-hulled tankers built
before 1974 should be taken out of service by 2007. An estimated 52 percent
of all tankers bigger than 10,000 tons are single-hulled.
When oil spills occur, compensation for damage and cleanup is available from
the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund, which is maintained by
the oil industry. Liability against the tanker owner is limited. But the
U.S. Oil Pollution Act provides for substantial punitive damages to be
levied against tanker owners.
Ocean-going tankers and shuttles are not the only vessels subject to
oil-spill concerns and double-hull requirements. Houston-based Kirby Corp.
owns or operates 937 inland tank barges and 219 inland towing vessels that
transport petrochemicals, refined petroleum products, black oil and
agricultural chemicals throughout U.S. inland waterway systems.
Kirby recently purchased 94 inland tank barges from Union Carbide and will
continue operating 85 of them, all double-hulled. Nine vessels are not being
used and will be sold.
And, a postcript on the Jones Act:
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, the embattled Senate Majority Leader who may
lose his job over racially insensitive remarks, in late November inserted a
provision in the port security bill that Congress subsequently passed. The
provision waived the Jones Act requirement for a small non-U.S. shipbuilding
company that is bidding on a $300 million contract to build oil tankers for
ExxonMobil for use in U.S. coastal waters. Lott's son is a paid lobbyist for
the offshore company, which has never built oil tankers before.
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