The Liverpool-registered Stena Primorsk anchored on the Hudson River near Stuyvesant, New York after hitting an underwater object.

Liverpool-registered ships no longer make the news as much as they once did, but the 65,125dwt tanker Stena Primorsk managed to do just that in late December 2012 when she suffered a punctured outer hull on New York’s Hudson river and had to have nearly 12 million gallons of crude oil removed.

Built in 2006 for Sweden’s Stena Group, the 182m by 40m ship had just left the Port of Albany, New York bound for Saint John, Canada when she either grounded or hit a submerged object downriver from Albany. The incident caused the ship’s outer hull to be breached, but the inner hull remained intact, preventing an oil spill that could have fouled the Hudson for miles and caused considerable damage.

By early January the ship’s cargo of crude had been offloaded, allowing the empty tanker to continue on to Bayonne, New Jersey for drydocking and full repairs. JS

The LNG-fuelled ‘Clean Sky’ bulk carrier would be powered by a MAN B&W 6S60ME C-8.2 GI Tier II engine giving a speed of 14 knots. (Lloyd’s Register)

Lloyd’s Register has given approval in principle (AIP) to a new ‘Clean Sky’ bulk carrier design featuring a gas-powered propulsion system drawn up by Chinese shipbuilder COSCO and Piraeus, Greece-headquartered shipowner Golden Union.

The initial design focus has been on a 290m, 81,000dwt Kamsarmax bulk carrier that would offer shipowners the flexibility to choose dual- or tri-fuel engines able to burn heavy fuel oil (HFO), diesel or LNG. The LNG would be carried in a single 1,160m3 capacity type ‘C’ tank that would be installed on the aft deck. Lloyd’s said that, to date, LNG-as-fuel research, technology development and newbuilding activities have focused on specific niche sectors, such as ferries, offshore vessels and short sea or inland trades, but that the Clean Sky project paves the way for LNG take-up in the deep-sea dry bulk and liquid trades. JS

The Rickmers-operated Baltic Winter, currently on the Europe-India service, can lift only 800 tonnes in a single lift.

Rickmers-Linie is to take delivery of two 20,000dwt newbuildings in 2015, built at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in China. The multi-purpose vessels will be equipped with two 450-tonne cranes and one 120-tonne crane. The two main cranes will enable them to load up to 900 tonnes in a single lift. The ships will be delivered between January and March 2015 and will be known in the Rickmers fleet as PX-900-type.

While the design is based on Rickmers P1/P2 Type, they will have improved technical specifications, which mean substantial reductions in fuel consumption. The high-efficiency propeller and rudder, together with optimised hull form, will enable the new ships to achieve a speed of 16.5 knots while using much less power. Rickmers have not yet determined on which routes these vessels will be placed. At the moment the Rickmers-operated Baltic Winter can lift only 800 tonnes in a single lift. RC

Wearing the Danish and Swedish colours of her joint venture partners Stena and Dannebrog, the 9,000dwt palm oil tanker Golden Adventure has been floated out of the Dongfang yard in China. (Stena Weco)

China’s Dongfang Shipbuilding has delivered the 9,000dwt tanker Golden Adventure to Golden Stena Weco, a new joint-venture company formed by Stena Weco and Indonesian palm oil producer Golden Agri Resources (GAR). The ship will be employed moving cargoes of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia to India and China. Stena Weco is a joint venture between Stena Bulk, a specialist in petroleum product movement, and Weco, part of Denmark’s Dannebrog, which has a long history of edible oils transportation. Stena Weco currently manages a fleet of more than 30 vessels, and parent company Stena Bulk has six 50,000dwt chemical tankers on order in China. JS