AAL Shipping's Towering Achievement

By Paul Scott Abbott

Armed with a 114-page technical document, AAL Shipping successfully completed the trans-Pacific move of a 461-tonne, 165-foot-long refinery vacuum tower unit from Korea to the newly enhanced South Terminal at the Port of Everett, Washington, in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

“Due to the importance of the project and cargo, a fully detailed engineering methodology was needed,” Nicola Pacifico, global head of transport engineering for Singapore-based AAL Shipping, told Breakbulk in describing the fall 2021 move via the AAL Pusan. “Lifting and swinging in between the [shipboard] cranes due to the length of the unit needed particular study and care to avoid any possible clash.”

Pacifico said AAL deployed finite element analysis using Ansys engineering simulation software to verify the AAL Pusan weather deck and load spreading under the cargo’s saddles would safely provide sufficient strength throughout the 15-day ocean passage. The solution complied with stringent DNV-ST-N001 standards – the benchmark for marine operations as set forth by Høvik, Norway-based DNV – and helped keep costs down for the customer.

Furthermore, poor weather encountered while crossing the Pacific Ocean required around-the-clock meteorological monitoring, Pacifico said. In addition, routing analysis was furnished via AAL’s cargo optimization control room team in Cyprus.

“In short terms, a full technical package from A to Z was supplied from AAL to the various parties to ensure safe transport and handling of the vacuum tower,” Pacifico said, noting that the effort succeeded through a broadly international collaboration.


Fuel for Thought

Adding extra fuel for thought to the operation was the fact that jet fuel that will be produced at the destination BP oil refinery will be used to power Boeing aircraft manufactured in Everett, built using components that will arrive across Port of Everett docks.

Indeed, the US$57 million upgrade completed in early 2021 at the Port of Everett’s South Terminal was largely spurred by the need to accommodate receipt of heavier and wider ocean shipments bringing in components for manufacture of Boeing 777x craft at what the Chicago-headquartered aerospace firm heralds as the largest manufacturing building in the world, encompassing 472 million cubic feet, just 8 miles from port berths.

“While the infrastructure upgrade was critical to our aerospace business, it has also added many new capabilities to the port’s offerings,” Walter Seidl, marine terminal director at the Port of Everett, told Breakbulk.

According to Seidl, the fortification of the South Terminal wharf to handle loads of up to 1,000 pounds per square foot, plus the addition of two post-Panamax cranes, has allowed the Port of Everett to handle more project and roll-on/roll-off cargoes, including a recent deployment of more than 850 components for the U.S. Army.

“The addition of container cranes has also positioned Everett to expand into new areas like 53-foot domestic shipping boxes that, prior to the upgrade, would not have been practical,” Seidl said. “And timing of the new terminal opening has been a game changer as ports across our region combat supply chain challenges.”


‘Well-Greased Machine’

Seidl said the Port of Everett, located 30 miles north of Seattle, has become accustomed to handling a variety of customers and cargo types and is a particularly good fit for high-value, over-dimensional units.

“All project cargoes are unique, each requiring advanced planning and coordination with the many parties involved to set the stage for a successful move when a ship meets dock,” Seidl said. “With a solid framework in place, and with our project capabilities and experience here in Everett, the rest is a well-greased machine,” he continued. “Complicated and complex is our specialty.”

Having invested more than US$150 million over the past decade in infrastructure improvements, the Port of Everett is nearing completion, on target for late this year, of a new US$36 million, 40-acre Norton Terminal to add further upland capacity to support project moves, Seidl said.

“We continue to prioritize maritime infrastructure investments that support growth in the breakbulk/project sector,” he said.

As for last fall’s move of the vacuum tower unit via the AAL Pusan, the Port of Everett was perfectly positioned, situated 80 miles south of the cargo’s destination of the BP Cherry Point Refinery in Blaine, Washington, just south of the U.S.-Canada border. Initially opened in 1971 by Los Angeles-based Atlantic Richfield (doing business as ARCO) to process crude brought by tankers from the Alaska North Slope and now accepting crude via pipeline and rail as well, the refinery is undergoing a US$269 million expansion by London-headquartered BP, which acquired ARCO at the turn of the millennium.

The water journey of the tower unit began and ended via barge, starting with its short barge transport from its place of fabrication at the Ulsan plant of Foosung Hantech to the Port of Ulsan in South Korea. The AAL Pusan left the Port of Ulsan with the unit aboard on Oct. 31 and arrived Nov. 15 at the Port of Everett. There it was discharged onto a barge for transport to the refinery through a series of bays and straits.

North Sydney, Australia-based Worley served as consultant for the project, with Levallois-Perret, France-headquartered Geodis as freight forwarder.

The tower unit, more than half the length of an American football field and with a diameter of 27 feet, forms part of a vacuum distillation unit at the BP refinery. The unit produces several types of gas oil that are heavier than middle distillates; these include jet fuel, kerosene and diesel. The distillates can be further refined to make products such as light-cycle oil, gasoline and naphtha.

According to BP, the Cherry Point Refinery accounts for 85 percent of the aviation fuel used at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and also is the largest supplier to Portland International Airport in Oregon and Vancouver International Airport in the Canadian province of British Columbia.


Adding Efficiencies

Part of BP investments at Cherry Point of more than US$1.5 billion over the course of a decade, the nearly US$270 million in improvements currently taking place at the refinery aim to:

• Enhance efficiencies and reduce periods of planned maintenance.

• Cut down on carbon dioxide emissions by bolstering cooling water infrastructure.

• Double the facility’s renewable diesel production capabilities to an estimated 2.6 million barrels a year. In total, the refinery can annually process more than 90 million barrels of crude oil.

The undertaking is anticipated, over a three-year period, to create more than 300 local jobs, including about 200 construction jobs, 25 engineering positions and 40 support positions.

“BP’s new investment in Cherry Point builds on a half-century of innovation in Washington state,” said David Lawler, chairman and president of Houston-headquartered BP America. “It will position us to provide lower carbon energy while creating jobs and reducing emissions in our operations.”

The investment aligns with BP’s aims to be net-zero across its operations by 2050 or sooner and to reduce carbon intensity of the products it sells by 50 percent by 2050 or sooner. Renewable diesel has the same properties as conventional ultra-low-sulfur diesel but a lower carbon footprint, according to BP.

As the energy industry continues to advance infrastructure investments, including in projects to reduce carbon footprint, cargo moves such as the delivery of the vacuum tower to the BP refinery can be expected to increase throughout the world.

A professional journalist for more than 50 years, U.S.-based Paul Scott Abbott has focused on transportation topics since the late 1980s

Photo: A 461-tonne, 165-foot-long vacuum tower is offloaded from AAL Shipping’s AAL Pusan at the Port of Everett, Washington, following a 15-day trans-Pacific journey from Korea. Credit: AAL Shipping