Tailor-Made For Papua New Guinea

Designed primarily to carry copper in bulk from Kiunga, deep inland on the Fly River in PNG’s Western Province, to Port Moresby for buffer storage and transhipment to deep-sea vessels, the 90m newbuilds are also fitted for full loads of containers. Developed in cooperation with Wartsila Ship Design and Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding, the 5,400dwt bulk/container carriers have been tailored and cargo-optimised to the constraints set for navigating and manoeuvring in the narrow and shallow river and coastal waters.

First-of-class Fly Enterprise has been handed over by the Chinese yard, and entered service during mid-September, and commissioning is imminent for the sister newbuild.

The project has been launched on the strength of a trading commitment from Ok Tedi Mining, which operates the longest running, open-pit copper, gold and silver mine in PNG. With no road or rail links to the mine, P&O Maritime Logistics has been a long-term partner in enabling the development of the mine, servicing the route since the late 1980s. The addition of the two new ships brings the number of dedicated vessels operated by Dubai-headquartered P&O Maritime in support of Ok Tedi to 11.

The overarching aim of the investment is to raise the volume and efficiency of the cargo flow and strengthen Ok Tedi Mining’s supply chain, while also meeting unique environmental requirements. The vessel design, reflecting Dubai-headquartered P&O Maritime’s knowledge of Fly River conditions, has a low wake profile to ensure that communities and ecosystems on the river are not impacted by the ships’ operations.

Kiunga serves as a vital link in the transfer of the resource to the world market, and lies 800km upstream, necessitating a long and challenging passage for vessels. The river is tidal for 240km, subject to tidal bores, shallow throughout and with constantly changing shoals in the estuarial section.

The design of the Fly Enterprise combines the capability for manoeuvring in restricted channels with maximised cargo capacity and deadweight. In unitised cargo mode, the vessel can load 229 teu containers. The ship has a gross measurement of 4,541t and embodies a comparatively wide beam (23m) in relation to the 90m length overall, while drawing 4.25m.

Fly Endeavour is powered by two six-cylinder models of the Wartsila 20-series engine, the ‘baby’ in the company’s four-stroke range, with proven robustness and reliability through more than 6,000 deliveries since market introduction during the early 1990s.

From the outset, the 200mm-bore diesel was well received for the ability to switch from heavy fuel oil (HFO) to light fuel oil (LFO) and vice-versa without power interruption, and at any operational load. In six-cylinder configuration, a maximum continuous output of 1,200kW is obtainable at 1,000rpm crankshaft speed, or 1,320kW in the 1,200rpm version.

Ok Tedi Mining is 67%-owned by the government and 33% by the people of Western Province. The concentrate, with contained gold and silver, is finely ground at the production point and then piped 156km south to the Kiunga port facilities for drying, storage and subsequent shipment to a dedicated silo vessel in Port Moresby’s Fairfax Harbour.

The ensuing export traffic is then effected through transfers to deep-sea vessels supplying smelters and refineries in Germany, India, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.