Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha: Naming Ceremony Held for Two New Shuttle Tankers

On July 17, Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers AS, of which NYK has a 50% share, held a naming ceremony for two new state-of-the-art winterized shuttle tankers* that are being built at Hyundai Heavy Industries. The ceremony was attended by KNOT president Trygve Seglem, NYK senior managing corporate officer Hitoshi Nagasawa, and NYK corporate officer Svein Steimler, among others. The two 123,000 DWT Suezmax shuttle tankers, which are equipped with a class 2 dynamic positioning system** and a bow-loading system,*** were named Hilda Knutsen and Torill Knutsen.
Hilda Knutsenwill be delivered at the end of July 2013, and Torill Knutsen will arrive at the end of September. The vessels will be chartered by Eni Trading & Shipping S.p.A (headquarters: Rome, Italy) for a maximum 10-year period and will be used to transport North Sea and Barents Sea crude oil ashore.  
The NYK Group will continue its efforts to provide stable and economical energy-transport services.
*Shuttle tanker
Also called a "floating pipeline," a shuttle tanker loads crude oil from floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) units in deepwater fields, and then transports the oil to crude-oil storage units or petroleum storage stations on land.
**Class 2 dynamic-positioning system
A more redundant dynamic-positioning system that duplicates all equipment and wiring so that no single fault in an active system will cause the system to fail.
***Bow-loading system
A system to carry out cargo operations along the bow of a shuttle tanker without contact between the tanker and the offloading unit (mainly FPSO units) in harsh sea conditions. Such a system also allows cargo hoses to be connected or disconnected from offloading units more easily than usual so that the shuttle tanker may evacuate quickly in case of an emergency.
The news on this website is as of the date announced and may change without notice.
Source: Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha