Oldendorff Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 53
THINKING OUTSIDE
THE DOCKS
The value of transshipment, and how it
has deepened Oldendorff’s relationships
with customers.
In the early 2000s in the Gulf of
Iskenderun in Southern Turkey, the
decision was made to build a power
station. It required millions of tonnes
of coal to be delivered by sea but had
no deepwater port to accommodate
large vessels. While the power station
itself was modern and efficient, using
small vessels to bring in coal from
Colombia and South Africa would be
uneconomic in the extreme.
What can you do to solve a problem
like this? Dredging increases the
available draft but is only a temporary
fix and usually requires maintenance
dredging at regular intervals. Building
and operating a jetty that extended
into deeper water is possible, but
hugely expensive.
Against these unacceptable solutions,
the idea of transshipment was a clear
favourite. Henning was told about
the project and was determined to
get involved. In the same way that
he was expanding Oldendorff into
an operator as well as a shipowner,
he was keen to diversify into
transshipment. He put Capt. Charles
Jan Scharffetter and Harry Vaes
in charge of developing a solution
and within weeks the design team
at Oldendorff was at work. On the
drawing board were plans for a semisubmersible unloading platform
to be positioned two miles out into
the Gulf of Iskenderun that would
transfer coal from Capesize vessels
into self-unloading barges that could
then deliver it to the jetty.
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By 2002, the floating platform
“Isken” was operational, enabling
Oldendorff’s customer to enjoy lower
freight rates on the long-haul trades,
using large Capesize bulk carriers for
the long ocean voyage. Isken is now
acknowledged as the world’s largest
and most productive floating coal
transshipment terminal, capable of
transferring up to 50,000 tonnes
of coal in a day.
THE FIRST OF MANY
The success of Isken led to a number
of other projects – but for Oldendorff
it was not about just repeating a
winning formula. Each project we
undertook in the following years was
different. For each project we had not
only different geographies to deal
with, but different political pressures,
environmental considerations, and
labour regulations.
In Guyana, our customer operated
a bauxite mine 130 miles inland on
the Berbice River; it was an area
that was heavily draft-restricted
and the barges available were of a
very basic specification and quality.
Using bespoke barges to suit the
river conditions and a floating
crane, and various other floating
units – including our own jack-up dry
dock for maintenance – we began
transshipping the bauxite at the
mouth of the river into Handymax
vessels, which then carried it to
clients in Ukraine, Ireland and
the United States.
