Ship to Ship (STS) Operations

Purpose:

Ships like oil tankers and gas carriers carry huge amount of cargo in bulk which does not have to be unloaded in just one port but at different ports. Even some carriers like VLCC and ULCC which are massive in size does not berth in port or jetty for discharge operation due to draught restrictions. In such condition ship to ship transfer is utilised.

A ship to ship transfer becomes very economical as ship does not have to berth at the jetty, especially for huge oil tankers which removes the port berthing charges and also cut short the time for berthing and mooring. But all these comes at a cost of high environmental pollution and fire risk as chances of leakage in operation is always there in open sea when ship is not moored or it is moving.

Target Audience:

Port and Marine Crew who regularly take up STS work.

Course Content:

• Manoeuvring a vessel when carrying out an STS operation
• Forces in connection with the use of rudder and propeller.
• Use of Bow thruster and different types of tugs
• STS operation without tugboats underway including ship/ship interaction
• Manoeuvring in shallow water and under different environmental conditions
• Shallow water and banking effect
• Anchoring procedure
• How to secure fenders in a safe way and shifting / sailing with fenders alongside.
• Selecting fender size, amount of fenders and assessing their strengths and limitations.
• Mooring arrangement, contact and agreement with the other vessel and different types of moorings and procedures for mooring during STS including mooring operations under different environmental conditions.
• Use of checklist as required and exchange of experience between Masters, Pilots and Mooring Masters. Briefing and debriefing as applicable
• Tanker specific layouts
• Guidelines from OCIMF
• MARPOL requirements
• Typical STS plan
• Manoeuvring during mooring and unmooring
• Contingencies (aborting the approach, pollution)
• Procedures when alongside