NTIC completes Newbuilding Series

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

27 Feb 2009

Independent tanker operator has passed a double milestone in the first few weeks of 2009, taking delivery of the last of a series of 11 tanker newbuildings from Hyundai Heavy Industries in January, and the last in a series of three tanker newbuildings from Samsung Heavy Industries in February. The Hyundai-built vessels comprised seven 317,000dwt VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers) and four scaled-down 164,000dwt suezmaxes, all double-hulled and built to NITC’s specifications. Three of the VLCCs were built at Hyundai Heavy Industries’ main yard in Ulsan – the world’s largest shipyard – and the remaining VLCCs and suezmaxes at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in Mopko.
The Samsung-built vessels were also 317,000dwt VLCCs, built as far as possible to the same design as the Hyundai vessels at NITC’s request, for reasons of commonality.
Construction of all 14 tankers took place over a two-year period, with supervision carried out by an NITC site office at each yard, ably assisted by classification societies Lloyd’s Register (Hyundai-built VLCCs) and DNV (the remainder).
In addition, NITC ordered three more identical VLCCs from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, the first of which was delivered in August 2008. The two remaining vessels will be delivered in March and June 2009.
All 17 vessels – ordered in 2005 for a combined value in excess of US$2bn – are said to include top-of-the-range machinery and equipment specified by NITC at a cost of about 8-10% over standard yard prices.
The Daewoo- and Samsung-built vessels are the first tankers to carry DNV’s highest ‘comfort’ notation, COMF-V(1), normally reserved for passenger vessels, as well as vibration class VIBR. This follows a joint study by DNV and Norwegian oil company Statoil that found a direct correlation between noise and vibration levels on offshore vessels and the number of accidents.
On environmental matters the company is also leading the way. “NITC has one of the youngest tanker fleets in the world,” chairman and managing director Mohammad Souri said recently. “But we are still applying and testing new, modern technology and equipment in an effort to reduce fuel consumption, which in turn will result in the reduction of carbon emissions.”

Source: Maritime Global Net