Kvaerner Philadelphia starting work on oil tanker

The Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard is beginning work on a fifth ship, an oil tanker, and eventually could build as many as 10 tankers. The vessels would help replace an aging fleet of 42 such tankers that companies currently use to haul oil and chemicals between U.S. ports.

Some of the current fleet of tankers are single-hulled and the last of the tankers that do not meet the requirements of the Oil Pollution Act will have to be replaced by double-hulled vessels by 2015. Kvaerner’s shipbuilding operation has so far has completed two 2,600TEU container ships and has almost completed a third and is working on a fourth.

In announcing the new tanker project, Kvaerner ASA also denied a Norwegian newspaper report that the Philadelphia shipyard was in need of a “rescue operation.”

“Such aid is not required,” the company said in a news release from Oslo, Norway. It added that potential buyers already “are showing interest” in the two containerships under construction in Philadelphia.