Best of BMT - An Elegant Solution for Crude

International shipping often requires that valuable goods be moved from one ship to another, but not every port is properly equipped to handle the process as transfers can involve petroleum-based liquid cargo such as crude oil or liquefied gas. Similarly, transferring goods directly from one ship to another in open waters is fraught with difficulty, so special ship-to-ship (STS) transfer facilities offer safe mooring and equipment to move liquid cargo safely and efficiently.

When KA Petra Sdn Bhd and Hutchison Port Holdings Limited announced the construction of the world’s biggest STS port for crude oil transfers in Malaysia in May this year, they turned to us to provide vital maritime expertise and experience. Our contributions to the project encompass a host of essential services including static and dynamic mooring analyses, desktop navigation simulations, planning, coordination and management of full mission ship-handling simulations, and marine traffic risk assessments.

Located along the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, the proposed new project will sit off one of the world’s busiest waterways, accounting for a third of the world's traded goods and one-sixth of the world's total oil supply. Once completed, the project will be able to accommodate up to 30 vessels at a time in an area encompassing more than 2,800 acres of waters with very complex and highly variable currents.

The project will significantly increase STS operations in the area thanks to its fixed mooring system that will allow it to handle ships from “Aframax” tankers smaller than 120,000 metric tonnes to VLCC supertankers capable of carrying more than 320,000 tonnes of crude oil in a single shipment.

The project is set to trigger a resurgence in the Malaysian maritime sector by allowing higher shipping flexibility, cutting costs for shippers, creating jobs and boosting the economy by adding value to the entire oil and gas services supply chain.

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This article is part of #BestOfBMT 2019, featuring our best projects throughout the year.