Chevron`s latest VLCC sets sail

Chevron has taken delivery of the first of a new class of four VLCCs with a number of interesting features.

The four VLCCs, which were contracted at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea, are part of Chevron`s replacement strategy for some of the older tonnage in its fleet of some 35 foreign and US Flag tankers. The vessels will be bareboat chartered to Chevron for an intitial period of eight years, with options to extend up to 18 years.

As Dennis Arnett, Chevron`s project manager explains, the contracts for the new tankers built on an existing relationship established between Chevron and the yard. Although the basic design of the new tankers is derived from a Samsung standard double hull design, Chevron worked closely with the yard to enhance it, and to include some innovative and environmentally-friendly features.

Thus, Chevron`s latest tankers have double hull spaces surrounding the bunker fuel tanks aft of the cargo section – the aft bunker tanks being protected by a 2.5m-wide cofferdam – and will be equipped with free-fall lifeboats, which Chevron believes may be a `first` for a VLCC.

Following successful sea trials, Frank A Shrontz, was delivered on December 7, and the remaining three vessels are scheduled for mid-March, the beginning of July, and mid-January 2000 respectively. The vessels will all operate under long term bareboat charter with Golden State Petro, moving oil from the Middle East to Chevron`s US coastal refineries. They are too large to enter US ports, so will join Chevron`s crude supply system, which lighters VLCCs in deep water off the coast to shore terminals.