Auke Visser´s Esso UK Tanker's site     |   home
Different articles
Fleet additions for North Sea work

From the Book Sailing ship to Supertanker.
Esso Aberdeen,
Completed 4.1967,
59,267 Gross tons
Ex. Imperial Ottawa 1978.
Built by Kawasaki Dockyard Co. Ltd., Kobe.
Measurements: 907 feet (loa including bulbous bow) X 136 feet breadth.
Engines: 2 steam turbines geared to a single screw to give 17 knots.

This ship was transferred from the Western Oil and Trading Company Ltd., Bermuda, in 1978 for work in the North Sea.
She could load from Brent Spar Buoy, and modifications to fit her for North Sea work included alterations to turbines to enable her to run astern for long periods. She was the first addition to Esso Petroleum Company's fleet for five years when transferred m 1978. From 1982 to 1984 she was placed under Esso Exploration & Production (UK) Ltd., London.

Esso Forth
Completed 1967,
40,675 Gross tons   
Ex. Esso Antwerp 1983.
Built by A/S Akers MV, Oslo.
Measurements: 807 feet (loa including bulbous bow) X 125 feet breadth.
Engines: Oil. 17 knots.
1986: Diamond (Troodos Shipping & Trading Co. Ltd., London) (Cypriot flag).

The last ship of the Esso Belgium S.A. fleet, she was also the largest ever Belgian-flag Esso ship. Her work was in the North Sea, but she was used at times as a lightening ship.