Oil majors Total, Chevron and BP are no longer using single hull tankers for transportation operations, either on the spot market or for long term contracts.
Oil majors Total, Chevron and BP are no longer using single hull tankers for transportation operations, either on the spot market or for long term contracts.
Vetting Manager for Total Trading Asia Pte Ltd, Capt. Bernard Lesegretain, told Tankerworld that the French group had completely stopped chartering single-hulled tankers.
Speaking at the sidelines of the International Chemical and Oil Pollution Conference and Exhibition (ICOPCE) in Singapore on Wednesday, Capt. Lesegretain, who oversees ship inspections, told that previous long-term charters of single hulls had all expired and not been renewed.
?And we are definitely not fixing any single hulls for spot voyages anymore,? he added.
Terry Luke, regional marine superintendent (Asia Pacific) for Chevron USA Inc also told on the sidelines of the ICOPCE on Wednesday that Chevron was no longer fixing single hulls.
?In fact, the minute we see that a single hull has been proposed, the proposal's thrown out the window completely. We do not consider single hulls at all, they don't even pass the first vetting stage? he said.
As for British major BP, it has been quoted on many occasions affirming that it does not hire single hulls anymore ?because of the risk of leaking.?
Earlier during the ICOPCE, Chevron Shipping Company LLC vice-president Alexander Walker had said that players must ?ensure that decisions on maintenance, training and people are based on minimizing risk, not minimizing cost.?
Walker, who delivered the keynote address, said that the recession should not be an excuse for operators to cut costs at the expense of vessel performance quality and safety.
?From a major oil company risk management or vetting perspective our concern is to avoid those companies that may be making poor choices,? he said.
?During lean times we watch more carefully for leading indicators of inappropriate cost cutting, such as insufficient spares, deferred maintenance, and machinery breakdowns.?
Chevron, Total and BP's stance on single hulls is in stark contrast to fellow major ExxonMobil, which is being criticised for its continued use of single hulls even though single hulls now make up only 20% of the world's supertanker fleet.
20 years on after the Exxon Valdez disaster, ExxonMobil remains the largest Western charterer of single-hulled tankers to move crude, although Asian players still fix them, some almost exclusively.
But ExxonMobil hired more single hulls last year than the rest of the world's 10 biggest oil companies by market value combined.
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