One ship on a sea of energy

"The sheer size. It's just incredible being here

and seeing this

physical reality"

Introduction

Over 12,000 energy tankers are active on the world’s oceans, making approximately 320,000 voyages every year to move oil, gas and other crucial commodities around the globe at scale and at speed. This is the story of one of them.

Join Vortexa’s Arthur Richier for a one-of-a-kind voyage as he travels up from London to Edinburgh to board the Superiority, learning more about the tanker and crew and bringing to life one of the many chevrons on the platform screen.

Watch the first video episode: One ship on a sea of energy

Coffee in hand, waiting to board the Tube is how I start most mornings. Based out of London, I am used to piecing together trends in global energy flows from a variety of reports and screens on the Vortexa platform - viewing information one step removed from the nuts and bolts of the industry.

Friday 2nd June 2023 was the day that all of that was set to change, as James Fisher invited me to join the crew of the Superiority for a short ballast voyage. Along with Mike, our videographer, I left the sunny streets of London behind on a Thursday night flight up to Edinburgh, and now, fueled by an early morning breakfast we left our hotel at 7am to head out to sea.

Arthur's blog

Our first port of call was a small marina in South Queensferry, located by the famous Three Bridges on the Firth of Forth. Kitted out in lifejackets, we boarded the St Martin, one of several launch vessels in the area responsible for ferrying maritime crews to and from the vessels that will become their home for weeks and even months at a time.

For someone with a lifelong fascination with tankers, to pass so many on the hour-long journey out to the Superiority was incredible. First we saw the Aframax tanker ESTRELLA, which was loading a cargo of Forties crude from Hound Point and was due to take to the Butinge terminal in Lithuania, having discharged a cargo of Johan Sverdrup crude in Rotterdam just a few days before. We also spotted the FURE SKAGEN, which was ballast during my time on the Superiority having just dropped off a clean product cargo at Grangemouth.

ESTRELLA vessel information as shown on Vortexa's live vessel tracker

Even aside from all the tanker sightings, the journey provided lots of sightseeing opportunities, with seals sunbathing on floating bollards and a small lighthouse which the crew informed me was built by the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, one of my favourite books.

While at 4,415t the Superiority is small compared to Aframaxes and other marine giants, when looking up at her from a tiny launch vessel I couldn't help
but be amazed.

THE FIRST THING
THAT HIT ME,
WAS HER
SHEER SCALE

Location of the Superiority at 03.06.23

Superiority voyages visualised on the Vortexa platform

Finally, we spotted the Superiority in the distance. A coastal tanker operated by James Fisher Tankships, she traverses the east coast of the UK as well as much of north-western Europe, moving gasoil, biodiesel and other clean products. At the time, she had been ballast for several days and was anchored off the Scottish coast.

The first thing that really hit me was her sheer scale. While at 4,415t the Superiority is small compared to Aframaxes and other marine giants, when looking up at her from a tiny launch vessel I couldn't help but be amazed.

Now came the tricky part, Mike and myself had been pre-warned that boarding the Superiority would require a short climb up a pilot ladder. Anyone who has searched for videos about pilots navigating these ladders on rough seas will understand why we were not particularly confident about our ability to keep ourselves and our camera equipment out of the water! Luckily though, the sea was perfectly calm and the climb was far easier than expected.

Once on board we headed to the bridge to meet with Captain Remi Kortaba and some of the other senior officers. We were also introduced to Sebastian, an engineering cadet who had just started his second sea phase with James Fisher and who was going to take us on a tour of the Superiority.

After learning more about the bridge (which unusually on the Superiority also doubles as the engine control room), we checked out the cabins and communal areas before kitting up in the correct safety gear and heading down into the belly of the beast, the engine room.

Sebastian gave me an expert overview of all the key equipment and areas in the engine room, and it became very clear just how many features are in place to optimise the efficiency and performance of both the cargo and the vessel. Safety equipment was also key in all the areas, from multi-sensory alert panels to the humble hard hat (an essential for me as I quickly realised that I might be too tall to make my dream of life onboard a reality!).

I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog and watching the video episode from this story. Stay tuned for future episodes, including more detail on the tanker tour and what goes into moving energy around the globe.