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 Always at the ready - large Danforth-style anchor is mounted on a slide at the bow, ready for quick deployment, when needed, by the two-man barge crew. A lot goes into a new barge (Cont.) A primary cargo of the Tennessee is No. 6 oil, a syrupy, black liquid that smells like tar but is used for different purposes. Like asphalt, it may become semi-liquid in cooler temperatures. To facilitate loading and discharging, it is generally heated to a temperature of about 130°F. Six-oil, also known as bunker oil, is a residual product of crude oil after the more valuable products like gasoline and diesel have been removed. Typically transported and stored in large quantities, six-oil is used as fuel for some engines and for steam boilers and power generators. Since six-oil is so thick and viscous, it is usually heated during transportation since the resulting thinner product is loaded and unloaded more easily. The hotter it is the thinner it is. MORAN's new barge Tennessee is outfitted with the latest in safe cargo handling systems for six-oil or any other type of cargo. Her systems for vapor recovery, tank monitorization, overflow detection and tank gauging are all the latest of their types. Barge captain Holliday said he especially favored the Bergen radar tank gauging system that keeps track of cargo levels in each tank for closed loading. "You put all these systems together and you've got a really good, safe system for keeping oil out of the water," he said. "It lets you know anywhere you might have a problem long before it really gets to be a problem." 
Other new gear aboard the Tennessee includes two hydraulic
deck cranes, a 40-foot aluminum gangway, 1,100 feet of containment
boom, a Nabrico hydraulic anchor windlass, a 1,000-pound
Danforthstyle anchor, and 2,000 feet of high-strength emergency
towing hawser, all stowed on deck and ready for immediate
deployment.All engines aboard the barge are Caterpillar diesels, with port and starboard pump engines and two Cat diesel-generators supplying AC power. Hydraulic power for cranes, windlass and capstans comes from a PTO on the port pump engine, or from electric motors. With both cargo pumps running and discharging through two headers, the barge can unload its heated cargo at up to 8,500 barrels per hour. Holliday and Gipson are both veteran tankermen for MORAN and other companies, with a variety of experience levels. Both have had tankerman's licenses for more than a decade and have license endorsements for firefighting, benzene cargoes, vapor recovery, deck safety, hazardous materials and handling of dangerous liquids. Once the Tennessee was on station and operating smoothly, the barge captains went on alternating tours of duty, with each one being joined by another professional tankerman. Normal crew rotations for MORAN's barge personnel are 21 days, with each crewmember working 12-hour shifts while on the job.  Delivery of oil cargoes around Puerto Rico and neighboring Caribbean islands is just
one of MORAN's operations on Puerto Rico. The company also tows
container barges to San Juan for TrailerBridge, and tows grain
barges to San Juan and other ports for Molinos, the international
food company.Tennessee, built for conventional towing with a 30-foot deep stern notch, is the 14th petroleum barge of various types in the MORAN fleet. The company's tank barges range from 35,000 to 250,000 barrels. More than half of its tank barges can carry heated cargoes. It's easy to view the Tennessee as part of an ongoing program to modernize MORAN's barge fleet to keep it as competitive and safe as possible, said Paul Tregurtha, MORAN's CEO. "It's our plan to continue to upgrade the barge fleet which is a vitally significant part of the company," he added.. |
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