BW Offshore sells FSO Belokamenka for scrap

BW Offshore has signed an agreement to sell the FSO Belokamenka. The buyer will recycle the FSO in compliance with the Hong Kong Convention.

The FSO Belokamenka is an ultra-large crude carrier (ULCC) of 360,700 deadweight-ton capacity built in Japan in 1980 by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding. The vessel is 340.5 meters long, 65 meters wide, and has a depth of 31.5 meters.

It is flagged and registered in Panama and classed by DNVGL, and has been in lay-up off Indonesia since completing a contract as a crude oil terminal in Kolsky Bay off Murmansk, Russia, in late 2015 for the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

Rosneft had obtained rights to use the vessel in a 20-year charter arrangement in April 2003 while the vessel began work in Kolsky Bay in March 2004.

BW Offshore said on Monday that the vessel was sold to an undisclosed buyer for approximately $20 million.

According to BW Offshore, the recycling yard has not been chosen yet. The buyer of the vessel will ensure that the chosen yard is certified to ISO 14001 and OSHMS 18001 standards, the Hong Kong Convention, and the IMO 2012 guidelines.

The company added that the buyer would further ensure that the recycling yard provided a statement of completion of the recycling in accordance with the Hong Kong Convention.

A recycling plan will be prepared and provided by the yard to ensure strict compliance with the regulations mentioned above. BW Offshore will also nominate a representative to be on site at the recycling yard to monitor progress, compliance, and that the recycling plan is being applied.

As for the Hong Kong Convention, or as it is fully known – Hong Kong International Convention for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships, it brings requirements for both ships and ship recycling facilities and is a multilateral convention adopted in 2009, expected to enter into force in 2020.

That BW Offshore is making sure that the vessel is scrapped in a proper way is a positive news in itself. There have been cases where the owners would sell a vessel to a third party for scrap, and stop thinking about how and where the vessel would be scrapped.

Last year, Denmark’s DanWatch reported of an FPSO formerly owned by Maersk which ended at a beach-yard in Chittagong, Bangladesh, the place notorious for exceptionally poor working conditions and environmental pollution, with workers there dismantling giant ships using blow torches, wearing only shorts and flip-flops, and no safety gear.

Offshore Energy Today Staff