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11-11-2009 Ships of November 09 - ”Mette Miljø” and ”Gunnar Thorson”

Ship traffic and STS operations are on the increase off the east coast of Northern Jutland. As a consequence, the two Danish environmental vessels” Mette Miljø” and ”Gunnar Thorson” are now permanently stationed at the naval base in Frederikshavn.

 

The vessels
“Mette Miljø” and “Gunnar Thorson” are environmental protection and oil-recovery vessels and are equipped to respond to marine accidents in Danish waters with very short notice. The stationing of the two vessels in Frederikshavn improves the protection of the marine resources off the east coast of North Jutland.
 
The area of responsibility for the two vessels includes extracting oil and other floating impurities from the water as well as laying out floating barriers to contain the pollution and thereby limiting the damage to the environment.
 Mette Miljø is able to respond within one hour and Gunnar Thorson within 16 hours of an alert.
 
“Mette Miljø” is built by the shipyards Carl B. Hoffmann A/S in Esbjerg and Søren B. Larsen & Sønner in Nykøbing Mors. “Gunnar Thorson” is built by Ørskov Christensen Stålskibsværft A/S in Frederikshavn.
 
Technical specifications – “Mette Miljø”
 
Length                                            29,75 m.
Breadth                                          8,02 m.
Draught                                          2,38 m.
 
Technical specifications – “Gunnar Thorson”
 
Length                                            55,60 m.
Breadth                                          12,30 m.
Draught                                          4,60 m.
 
The operator
The two environmental protection vessels were originally operated by the Danish environmental protection agency and crewed with navy personnel. In 1996, the responsibility for and operation of the entire fleet of environmental protection vessels within Danish waters were, however, transferred to the Navy.
The vessels were previously stationed at the eastern naval base, Holmen, at Copenhagen but the intense traffic around the Skaw and the increased STS activity in the bay of Aalbæk off the northern Jutland coast has warranted a stationing of the vessels at Frederikshavn to reduce the response time to operations in northern Danish waters.
The Danish Maritime Authority oversees and supervises STS Operations in Danish waters and the Ministry of Defense is responsible for combating oil pollution in Danish waters and coastal areas.
The customers/the trade
Transit traffic - The waters off the east coast of northern Jutland between the Skaw and the Great Belt are amongst the densest trafficked waters in the world with a yearly traffic of more than 10.000 vessels transiting the area.
STS operations - or ship to ship operations - involve transferring oil from one tank vessel to another in open sea, in order to optimize the transportation, and consequently minimizing the adverse effect on the environment.
STS-operations are necessary due to the fact that the permitted draft thru the Great Belt is limited to 17 meters which means that the Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) capable of carrying up to 300.000 tons of oil can only be part-loaded at the Baltic oil-terminals. Consequently “feeder-vessels” of up to 100,000 tons capacity are utilized to carry oil to Frederikshavn Roads, where the STS operation is performed, for the VLCC to complete the carriage of a full cargo to the oil refinery.
The waters off Frederikshavn are particularly favorable when it comes to STS operations because of the proximity to the traffic lanes, the water depth and the position of the anchorage sheltering from the prevalent west wind behind the Northern Jutland-peninsula.
 
 
 
 
MARITIME NETWORK Frederikshavn · Oliepieren 7 · DK-9900 Frederikshavn · Denmark · Phone (+45) 96 20 47 00 · Fax (+45) 96 20 47 11 · info@maritimenetwork.dk