Pecém resumes fuel transshipment operations

The Port of Pecém, which was built 19 years ago, has resumed the transshipment of fuels, an operation called ship-to-ship. This happens when a ship receives fuel from one or more ships, or when a  ship arrives loaded and unloads onto two or more ships to transport liquid bulk via cabotage, or for a long haul.

The operation started shortly after 7 am on March 25, with the tanker STI Osceola docking at Berth 8 of the Multiple Use Terminal (TMUT) at Porto do Pecém. This is the first time that the vessel that flies under the Marshall Islands flag has docked at the Ceará terminal.

The STI Osceola arrived at the Port of Pecém empty. A few hours after docking, it began receiving 38,879 m³ of fuel from the tanker Sérgio Buarque de Holanda. Separated by “Yokohama” fenders, the vessels must be moored using the ship-to-ship mooring method (moored parallel to each other) for approximately two and a half days until the entire volume stored in the Sérgio Buarque de Holanda is fully moved onto the STI Osceola.

“Our operations team has prepared heavily for the return of this operation since it involves maneuvers that are more complex than those we use for normal operations.  For this operation, we have two ships moored side by side, with the side of one vessel leaning on the edge of the other. That is, in a parallel position, with one ship exactly next to the other. In addition, high-performance hoses are used in this operation to allow the rapid transfer of fuel from one ship to another”, points out Waldir Sampaio – Director of Operations at Port of Pecém

Latest fuel transshipment movements at the Port of Pecém

2014 – 707,612 tons

2013 – 629,981 tons

The destination of the fuel transhipped at the Ceará terminal will be the Port of New York, in the United States, where the ship should arrive in approximately 10 days. The transfer of fuel at Porto do Pecém is becoming steady and consistent, with another operation scheduled to be carried out this week.

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