Tanker (ship)
From Open Encyclopedia
A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk.
Tankers can range in size from several hundred tons, designed for servicing small harbours and coastal settlements, to several hundred thousand tons, with these being designed for long-range haulage. A wide range of products are carried by tankers, including:
- hydrocarbon products such as oil, LPG, and LNG
- chemicals, such as ammonia, chlorine, and styrene monomer
- fresh water
Different products require different handling and transport, thus special types of tankers have been built, such as "chemical tankers" and "oil tankers". Although typically referred to as "LNG carriers", this type of vessel is a relatively rare tanker designed to carry liquefied natural gas.
Among oil tankers, supertankers were designed for carrying oil around the Horn of Africa from the Middle East; the supertanker Knock Nevis being the largest vessel in the world.
Apart from pipeline transport, supertankers are the only method for transporting large quantities of oil, although such tankers have caused large environmental disasters when sinking close to coastal regions, causing oil spills. See Exxon Valdez, Braer, Prestige, Torrey Canyon, Erika, for examples of tankers that have caused oil spills.
Tankers used for liquid fuels are classified according to their capacity.
- VLCC stands for "Very Large Crude Carrier", typically measuring over 200,000 metric tons.
- ULCC stands for "Ultra Large Crude Carrier", typically measuring over 300,000 metric tons.
The following designations are not exclusive to tankers and are applied to a broad range of cargo vessels, however some were developed initially for tankers.
- Suezmax - an acronym for a vessel that can transit the Suez Canal, typically measuring 125,000 - 200,000 metric tons.
- Aframax - an acronym for the American Freight Rate Association, with vessels typically measuring 80,000 - 125,000 metric tons.
- Panamax - an acronym for a vessel that can transit the Panama Canal, typically measuring 50,000 - 79,000 metric tons.
- MR - an acronym for "Medium Range", typically measuring 38,000 - 50,000 metric tons
- GP - an acronym for "General Purpose", typically measuring less than 38,000 metric tons
There are also additional designation systems used, using the "Large Range" acronyms LR, LR1, LR2, and LRC. wiki links
cy:Tancer olew de:Tanker es:Petrolero fr:Pétrolier it:Petroliera he:מכלית ja:タンカー nl:Mammoettanker pl:Tankowiec zh:油轮
