THE DIESELISATION OF LARGE TANKERS-THE REASONS FOR CHOICE

At the beginning of the project, the VLCCs of the Mobil marine division consisted of ships of 215,000 tons deadweight, fitted with double bottoms, which had given satisfactory service up to that time. However, these vessels had come into sevice in 1972, and their competitiveness was less than that of the second generation VLCCs which were under construction in 1976. In view of this, the practical realisation of the project was begun in 1978 with the dieselisation of the Mobil Hawk, a 280,000-dwt tanker built in 1976 at the Sasebo yard. In this undertaking, which was considered to be of an experimental nature, the high and low-pressure turbines and their associated double reduction gearing were replaced by two medium-speed Pielstick PC 4 diesel engines with line shafting. The choice of this type of engine was subject to a number of considerations, of which the most important were: (1) Installability (the engines had to be of suitable size and shape to fit in place below the boiler platforms which were retained for operational reasons). (2) Adaptability of line shafting to the existing propellers. As a result of the success of the Mobil Hawk experiment, the conversion of two 270,000-dwt VLCCs, Athos and D'Artagnan of the French Mobil Oil fleet to diesel propulsion is now being planned. The paper presents an economic analysis of steam and diesel propulsion for the two ships which operate between the Persian Gulf and European ports. The cost of dieselisation, approximately 11.2 million U.S. dollars is recoverable by savings in fuel and operating costs during the subsequent lifetime of the ship. Order from BSRA as No. 54,577.

• Corporate Authors:

  Journal de la Marine Marchande

  190 Boulevard Haussmann
  75008 Paris,   France 
• Authors:
  • Michon, F
• Publication Date: 1980-10

Language

• French

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 570
• Serial:
  • Navires Ports and Chantiers
  • Issue Number: 365
  • Publisher: Journal de la Marine Marchande

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Diesel engines; Economic analysis; Fuel conservation; Marine diesel engines; Operating costs; Propulsion; Steam turbines; Tankers; Vehicle power plants; Very large crude carriers
• Old TRIS Terms: Competitive propulsion systems; Diesel propulsion costs; Diesel tankers; Economic analysis (Propulsion systems); Power plant conversion; Ss mobil hawk
• Subject Areas: Economics; Energy; Finance; Marine Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00329871
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: British Ship Research Association
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 12 1981 12:00AM