Genuine question - how do you think they will fare with Port State Control overseas?
The largest tankers available are the laid up Alaska Tanker Company (now OSG) hulls. Do you think these will be broken out? If there was ever a time to sell them to a foreign operator and remove them from US Flag, now is the time.
If you are talking about these 4 tankers, they apparels to be on long term T/C and thus gainfully employed. (Being in layup in Bunei Bay
they MAY be available on sub-charter from BP though):
I have not seen them on offer for sale and probably wouldn’t find many buyers on the world market.
PS> Ex. Alaska trade tankers were popular for conversion to FSOs/FPSOs some years ago because they were strongly built.
That they were turbine driven (uneconomical), had some “funny” equipment that was not common on other tankers and the living quarters were not up to standard, did not matter. (They were not supposed to be steaming under own power and the LQ would be totally renewed and expanded)
PS> I inspected some before purchase on behalf of buyers to assess suitability and some after convention on behalf of a P&I Club to assess risk.during operation.
The ships or the personnel? The majority of the US Jones act fleet is relatively young after a couple decades of steady rejuvenation. I pass them frequently and they seem well maintained so I’d imagine they would do fine. The crews on the other hand would not be used to foreign port state inspectors but since they are likely being vetted constantly by their charterer, they would do fine.
The Alaska Frontier is the one laid up. She’s built like a battleship with extra everything especially steel. BP spared no expense in building her ($250 million IIRC). I never figured out how or why BP chartered back those boats. Alaska only produces about 500000 bbls a day now of which Hilcorp(ex BP is a little over half) They got way more lift with 2 ships than they could possible need with 4. Remember Exxon built 2 and Conoco Phillips built 4 for the ANS trade. I’m not sure what they are loading as a tanker only needs to show up at Valdez every 2.5 days to lift 3 days worth of production.
All the Alaskan tankers are now diesels. In the Frontier’s case, diesel electric.