TANKER SPILLS, SAFETY AGAIN CHIEF INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL WORRIES

June 18, 1990
Tanker oil spills and marine transportation safety have again shot to the forefront of petroleum industry environmental concerns. Industry and U.S. Coast Guard personnel last week remained mobilized for a potential major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 57 miles off Galveston, Tex., should the fire-ravaged, crippled Mega Borg tanker sink with its cargo of almost 1 million bbl of Angolan crude oil. The Norwegian tanker on June 8 was hit by an explosion and fire that claimed the lives of two

Tanker oil spills and marine transportation safety have again shot to the forefront of petroleum industry environmental concerns.

Industry and U.S. Coast Guard personnel last week remained mobilized for a potential major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 57 miles off Galveston, Tex., should the fire-ravaged, crippled Mega Borg tanker sink with its cargo of almost 1 million bbl of Angolan crude oil.

The Norwegian tanker on June 8 was hit by an explosion and fire that claimed the lives of two crewmen, left two others missing and presumed dead, and injured 17 others.

The Coast Guard said the possibility of spilled oil reaching shore is minimal at present. It reported the tanker stable and awash, or floating with the decks at water level.

Several patches of oil sheen in a 12 mile by 6 mile area were reported about 45 miles offshore by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration overflight.

The Coast Guard estimated that 71,429 bbl spilled but only about 286 bbl remained on the water as of June 14. Most of the crude that spilled burned and the rest presumably evaporated or sank.

Elf Trading Inc., the crude's owner, hired the oil spill consultant O'Brien Oil Pollution Services (OOPS), Gretna, La., to oversee any possible cleanup.

OOPS subcontractors were unable to deploy containment boom early last week because of the burning crude, but began later skimming operations and boom deployment once the fire was confined to the tanker.

At presstime the morning of June 14, firefighters had confined the fire to the Mega Borg's engine room and planned to apply foam to the tanker to prevent reflashes.

OTHER TANKER SAFELY NEWS

Meanwhile, cleanup efforts were continuing at midweek last week after the British BT Nautilus tanker spilled about 6,190 bbl of No. 6 fuel oil into New York Harbor, the fifth sizable spill there since the first of the year.

The New York spill came shortly after Exxon Co. U.S.A. announced plans to resume marine operations in New York Harbor, where they had been shut down for operations review since early March because of the string of accidents.

in a move with possibly major implications for U.S. tanker transportation and prospects for deepwater terminals, Royal Dutch/Shell Group has banned its fleet of company owned or managed tankers from calling at U.S. ports. It will limit tanker calls to the deepwater Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP).

U.S. interior Department within a few weeks expects to release its study on feasibility of building major deepwater terminals well off U.S. coasts to reduce the risks of near-shore tanker spills. Interior Sec. Manuel Lujan ordered the study after he posed the idea last year.

The study reportedly will recommend that five deepwater terminals be constructed off major U.S. ports to handle 75% of U.S. oil imports. The study also reportedly concedes that offshore deepwater terminals will be very expensive to build. The Department of Transportation is reviewing the final report, and Interior will release it soon thereafter.

These developments come on the heels of a continuing controversy over the Feb. 7 tanker oil spill off Huntington Beach, Calif., (OGJ, June 4, Newsletter) and conferences focusing on tanker safety and oil spills in Washington, D.C., and London (see stories, pp. 15 and 16).

MEGA BORG UPDATE

Firefighters still were working early June 14 to keep fires contained aboard the Mega Borg. By late afternoon June 12, the fire had been confined to the tanker. Crews of Smit American Salvage Inc., the firm contracted to fight the blaze, were aboard watching for further reflashes.

"There are occasional flare-ups, but for the most part the fire is no longer out of control," the Coast Guard said.

Smit tried foaming 1:25 p.m. June 13, but another flare-up occurred at 3:45 that afternoon. As of midmorning June 14, Smit was considering another application of foam. There remained seven fireboats at the scene, with some still showering the tanker with water.

As of midmorning June 14, six skimmers were at the scene, picking up oil and deploying containment boom.

While the fire was being contained June 13, crews went aboard the tanker and determined that the No. 4 center cargo hold still was leaking crude. None of the other tanks were found to be leaking, and the rearmost port and starboard tanks were empty at the time of the blast. Crews reported 39 ft of water and 29 ft of oil in the No. 4 center tank.

According to Coast Guard estimates, there remains the potential for about another 950 bbl of oil to spill from the No. 4 center tank, in addition to oil still in the water. The No. 4 center tank capacity is 140,000 bbl.

Weather might prove to be a problem in the crisis response. Officials reported waves building to 4-6 ft in the area around the tanker at presstime last week.

BLAST CAUSE UNKNOWN

Coast Guard officials could not say whether the blast, which occurred at 11:30 p.m. June 8, was related to lightering operations under way then. Cause of the explosion remained unknown at presstime.

Because the accident occurred in international waters on a Norwegian flag tanker, Norway's government sent its general consul and an investigator with the Norwegian Maritime Administration on a fact finding mission into the matter. The Coast Guard is assisting in the investigation.

There were no reports of damage to the Italian tanker Tramura, which was taking on the crude. But Mega Borg crewmen told Coast Guard interviewers the explosion came from the vessel's pump room between aftmost cargo holds and the engine room.

Elf Trading, a subsidiary of Elf Aquitaine Petroleum Co. (EAPC), said the 886 ft long, single hull Mega Borg's cargo was 985,000 bbl of 38.90 gravity, 0.12% sulfur content crude an Elf affiliate produced from Angola's Palanca field. EAPC manages oil and gas assets of Elf Aquitaine Inc., Stamford, Conn., a unit of Ste. Nationale Elf Aquitaine, Paris.

According to Clarkson Tanker Register, the 141,000 metric ton Mega Borg is owned by majority owner K.S. Mega Borg 11, a Norwegian investment partnership, and operator AS Mosvolds, Farsund, Norway.

WHAT HAPPENED

EAPC spokesman Thomas Saunders said the 733 ft long Tramura was to lighter about half of Mega Borg's cargo for delivery somewhere in the Houston ship channel to Crown Central Petroleum Corp.'s Houston refinery.

The Mega Borg was to off-load the remainder of the cargo, also to be delivered to Crown Central, at an ARCO terminal at Texas City, Tex. About 100,000 bbl was lightered before the first blast.

The first firefighting boat was reported on the scene at 1:30 a.m. June 9. At Smit American's request, Edison Chouest Offshore Inc., Galliano, La., dispatched three more service boats outfitted with high volume water pumps, the first one arriving 9 a.m. June 9. The three boats poured as much as 55,000 gal/min of water on the blaze, with little effect for several days. Coast Guard logs showed 31 people were rescued from the tanker, while six stayed aboard to fight the blaze.

By June 1 0, the fire aboard Mega Borg had spread to the water surrounding it. That same day, Mega Borg was rocked by five more explosions, increasing the outflow of oil and spreading the fire further in surrounding waters. Coast Guard officials feared No. 4 and No. 5 cargo tanks had been damaged, causing oil to flush to the stern.

The fire peaked June 11, and the stern began sinking. The extent of damage to the cargo tanks still was unknown at the time, and fire temperatures surpassed 900 F., twisting the superstructure and raising the possibility that the hull would fail.

However, once firefighting crews again boarded the vessel, they found no further structural damage. Still, there remained a threat that Mega Borg might sink. Crude oil tankers are built to withstand temperatures of more than 900 F. for more than 80 hr. The fire burned for more than 90 hr, however, and structural failure still was possible.

By afternoon June 12, officials reported an oil slick 18 miles long and 3-5 miles wide surrounding Mega Borg.

Saunders said, "They've thought about spraying dispersants to control the spill, but they haven't seriously done that because it won't do any good. The crude is too thin already."

Meantime, Elf set up a task force in Paris to oversee the crisis and maintain contact with the Coast Guard, the tanker owner, and Elf's Houston office for swift decisions. Elf also sent oil spill experts to Houston to help organize the response effort and work with OOPS in cleanup.

NOW YORK HARBOR SPILL

As of midweek last week, more than 3,810 bbl of No. 6 fuel oil had been recovered in the New York Harbor spill.

Last week, New Jersey, New York State, and New York City obtained a court order allowing them to seize the tanker to cover cleanup and related costs.

The spill in Kill Van Kull occurred June 7 when the 811 ft tanker ran aground while approaching a Bayonne, N.J., terminal. Tanker personnel reported striking an unidentified submerged obstacle, but an initial Coast Guard sweep of the area turned up nothing unusual.

The grounding ripped a 30 ft gash 12-16 in. wide in a starboard tank containing almost 29,000 bbl out of a total cargo of 350,000 bbl. After the accident, the tanker maneuvered away from the grounding site and went to a nearby berth, where its remaining oil was offloaded.

BT Shipping Ltd., London, accepted responsibility for cleanup costs and said it has enough insurance to cover them. The Coast Guard still was investigating the accident at presstime last week.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the ship was outside the 35 ft deep channel it had dredged, but the vessel's docking pilot said it appeared to hit an uncharted obstruction in the channel.

First Mate Geoffrey F. Gregory, 52, of England, was arrested after the accident for allegedly operating a vessel under the influence of liquor or drugs and negligent discharge of a pollutant without a permit. The captain and a docking pilot were on the bridge at the time of the accident, and Gregory was on the bow acting as a spotter.

Adm. William Kime, the new Coast Guard commandant, has named a panel to investigate tanker activity in New York Harbor because of the string of spills.

ROYAL DUTCH/SHELL ACTION

Royal Dutch/Shell said it is implementing the ban because uninsurable liability in the event of an oil spill in the U.S. has resulted in risks from the trade far outweighing potential reward.

In the future, Royal Dutch/Shell tankers will be limited to offloading cargoes at LOOP. The group says LOOP is well managed, has a good operating record, and has a proper oil spill cleanup capability.

Royal Dutch/Shell said the Mega Borg disaster played no part in its decision. It had started its analysis of U.S. tanker operations after the Mar. 24, 1989, Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska.

Shell group ships move about 180,000 b/d of crude - of which 80% is black oil - into the U.S. As a result of its decision to limit offloading to LOOP, Shell group black oil transportation will be cut by about 40,000 b/d. Products trade won't be affected.

In 1989, Shell group ships made 93 voyages to U.S. ports, but Shell group cargoes accounted for only 30% of that trade. The rest was third party business. The decision does not affect vessels chartered by Shell group where the shipowner is responsible for insurance and oil spill cleanup liability, nor does it affect the marine activities of Shell Oil Co., Houston. The 180,000 b/d does not include volumes arranged by the Shell group U.S. affiliate.

Shell group said it had taken a purely commercial decision and the change is not an attempt to lobby Congress on tanker liability issues.

It said the legal environment in the U.S. was a complicated mix of state and federal laws and noted the U.S. has not signed international conventions that elsewhere determine and limit liability in an oil spill.

"Consequently, a shipowner who is involved in a pollution incident in the U.S. even when he has behaved properly, responsibly, and without negligence, may face largely uninsurable exposure to claims which far outweigh the potential reward from such trade."

Earlier this year, Shell insisted that any tanker owner chartering a vessel to a group company should take the maximum available $700 million pollution coverage. British Petroleum Co. plc and other owners also are reviewing U.S. tanker operations.

Their main concern stems from the U.S. failure to ratify the International Maritime Organization's Civil Liability Convention and International Fund Convention.

A bill before the House of Representatives on tanker safety contains provision for ratification of the conventions, but a similar bill in the Senate does not. Intertanko earlier predicted that the U.S. failure to ratify the conventions would force responsible tanker owners to withdraw from U.S. trade.

An Intertanko official said he hoped Shell's action might persuade the U.S. legislature to ratify the conventions in current legislation.

A system of unlimited liability would have the opposite effect to that proposed by legislators, said Intertanko. Companies with extensive assets in other areas would not expose themselves to such liabilities.

Instead, that will give rise to a new generation of owners that would run single vessels on U.S. routes. These new companies would be undercapitalized, operate one ship, and have little to lose under unlimited liability because of their limited resources, Intertanko said.

EXXON PROGRAMS

Exxon Co. U.S.A. will spend more than $10 million the next 3 years to improve environmental and safety performance at its 130,000 b/d Bayway refinery at Linden, N.J., and Bayonne terminal.

The company June 8 resumed normal marine operations at the facilities, which had been shut down after three product spills into water occurred nearby in the first 2 months of 1990 (OGJ, Mar. 12, p. 31).

Four days after the suspension, a barge carrying No. 2 fuel oil exploded at Citgo Petroleum Corp.'s terminal at Linden.

Exxon's move came after it completed a 3 month, $500,000 study that found, while the facilities performed above the industry average, there was room for significant improvement in environmental and safety performance.

Exxon's study recommendations are designed to make vessel maneuvering safer and ensure that only the highest quality vessels call at the refinery and terminal. Measures to be taken will improve reliability of cargo transfers and boost the response capability in case of a serious accident.

The company also created a technical support group for all its marine operations in the harbor.

The study included a demonstration program designed to simulate regular operations for evaluation.

It included seven dry runs and 17 wet runs. Resulting recommendations include interim operating guidelines pending implementation of long term measures.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Exxon's study recommendations call for it to:

Require tug escort into the harbor for large vessels.

Add another tug to the two assisting loaded tankers moving from anchorage to an Exxon terminal.

Develop more stringent requirements and evaluations of third party tankers prior to Exxon's use.

Establish standards for third party tugs and barges and implement continuing surveys for these craft and accept only vessels meeting these standards.

Prevent overfilling by installing high level alarm systems on Exxon and term charter barges and developing tougher standards for testing and replacement of cargo transfer hoses.

Increase number of emergency shutdown systems and emergency stop buttons.

Increase firefighting capability by installing an elevated foam system at Bayway and stationing in the harbor an Exxon tug equipped with fire. fighting and spill boom deployment capability,

Install two new berth fendering systems.

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