THE LARGEST SHIP EVER BUILT - 12 NOVEMBER, 2022

 

The largest ship ever built was an oil tanker named the Knock Nevis (AKA Seawise Giant) built by Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Yokosuka, Japan in 1974 with a 565,000 ton dwt cargo capacity (or 18 million gallons of oil), with a length of 1,502 feet (458 meters), a beam of 226 feet (69 meters), and a draft of 82 feet (25 meters) she was incapable of navigating the English Channel, the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal, the ship was so large that no world port could accommodate it fully laden, so it was always loaded and unloaded while anchored offshore. After 30 years service, in 2004 she was converted to a floating storage and mooring unit off the coast of Qatar until 2009 when she was scrapped.

Today, there are two different common tanker sizes used for the international transportation of oil, from a small coastal tanker to a Supertanker, a Supertanker is about twice the length of a coastal tanker … 1,362 feet (415 meters) versus 672 feet (205 meters), but the larrger ship can carry about 8 times the volume of the smaller. (400,000 deadweight tons versus 50,000 dwt).

Oil tankers hauling fuels like crude, gasoline and diesel are poised for their biggest demand in three decades with the disruption to Russian oil flows next year (2023) when sanctions on Russian oil products begin in February, causing a global rerouting of oil cargos as the new refineries in Asia and the Middle East begin exporting. It is expected to be the biggest annual increase of tanker useage for refined fuels since 1993, the one year costs to hire these so-called medium range tankers for refined fuels are now at the highest lease rates since 2008.

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