National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. is back in the oil tanker business.
With a new $630 million contract in hand, the San Diego company will begin construction in early 2002 on the first of three tankers for London-based BP Amoco p.l.c.
Both BP and Nassco , a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics of Falls Church, Va. , announced the contract Sept. 15, touting the fact the tankers will have double-walled hulls to reduce the risk of oil spills.
The pact includes options for three additional vessels.
The award is the largest-ever commercial contract for Nassco, said Steve Clarey, the company’s business development and public relations director.
Nassco has built about 30 tankers over the years, Clarey said, though none recently. The Exxon Long Beach was the last new tanker to leave the shipyard in 1987.
BP will use its new Alaska-Class tankers to deliver crude oil from Valdez, Alaska, to West Coast refineries, including BP’s facility in Los Angeles. The ships will hold 1.3 million barrels of oil, will stretch 941 feet in length and will be 164 feet wide.
Construction on the first BP tanker will begin in early 2002 with the first delivery in the fourth quarter of 2003, and subsequent deliveries in late 2004 and 2005.
The BP contract will keep approximately 1,000 Nassco workers employed over the life of the contract. The shipyard employs approximately 3,000 people in San Diego.
Those workers will essentially be building a ship within a ship.
Exxon Valdez Accident
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990, approved the year following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, mandates double-hulled tankers. Theoretically, if the outer hull of such a tanker is punctured, the inner hull can still contain the cargo.
Nassco also built the Exxon Valdez, and later repaired damage to her hull after the ship went aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989, causing one of the world’s worst oil spills.
Under the Oil Pollution Act, all single-hull tankers operating in American waters must be replaced by tankers with double hulls by 2015. BP says it will convert its Alaska fleet to double hulls by 2006.
The BP ships have several other design features to make them more environmentally friendly than their predecessors. Propeller shafts will be lubricated with sea water rather than oil. Cargo piping will be installed in the cargo tanks instead of on deck, to reduce the risk of small spills.
New Features
The ships will also feature twin rudders, two diesel-electric propulsion systems in independent engine rooms and two propellers. The diesel-electric systems will produce lower emissions than two-stroke engines burning heavy fuel oil, Clarey said.
The BP contract continues a recent upswing in commercial work at Nassco.
In December the company scored its first commercial contract in 10 years. The $300 million contract from Seattle-based Totem Ocean Trailer Express Inc. calls for Nassco to build two commercial roll-on, roll-off ships that will carry up to 600 cargo trailers and 200 autos for the firm’s cargo service between Tacoma, Wash., and Anchorage, Alaska. Design work continues, and construction will begin in the spring, Clarey said.
Nassco is also building a series of strategic sealift ships for the U.S. Navy.
Nassco’s parent company, General Dynamics, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GD.
