Within the scope of the ambitious plan of Kuwait Oil Tankers Company aiming to revamp and develop its fleet within Phase III, Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah has signed the contract of taking delivery of the petroleum products Long- Range “LR” tanker “Al Dasmah” (AFRAMAX “LR2”) from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) on Monday 23rd of June 2014 at an official ceremony that was held at the headquarter of KOTC - the administrative area of Shuwaikh.

 

The ceremony was held in the attendance of the senior representatives of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and the participation of KOTC represented by the Chief Executive Officer and a number of the members of the board of directors along with the managers of the company and the attendance of his Excellency the Korean Ambassador to Kuwait Mr. Shim Bonam.

 

It is worth mentioning that the aggregate load of “Al Dasmah” tanker reaches approximately more than 108,000 metric ton which equals 785,000 barrels; while it has the length of approximately 250 meters with a width of 42 meters and a draught that reaches 21, 5 meters in addition to its speed which reaches 15, 2 knot/hour.

 

The said tanker is considered as economical in consuming fuel; which makes it compete with its similar tankers in the international leasing market. Thus, after taking delivery of “Al Dasmah” tanker, the number of KOTC’s tankers reaches 26 of a different sizes and purposes whereas KOTC expects taking delivery of 4 more tankers before the end of this year and thus the number of the fleet’s tankers will reach 30.

 

 After finalizing the first and second phase of the fleet’s revamping and commencing the third phase in 2012 that includes building the above mentioned tankers, the company would have strengthened the goals that its seeks effectively; such goals that include , but not limited to, maintaining the safe strategic coverage for transporting the crude oil and its derivatives, supporting KOTC’s strategic plan till 2030 along with providing KOTC’s best maritime transport services through quality, competence , maintaining the reputation of the company on the international scope and securing more jobs for the Kuwaiti nationals.

 

 In addition to that, KOTC is keen on building the new tankers adopting the most recent international designs to be in line with the top new technical and technological standards along with applying the international and future criterion and standards prescribed by the international maritime laws, the standards of the big oil companies and the international classification organizations.

 

The newly built tankers are considered as models for the most environment- friendly tankers as they are designed and equipped with the equipments required to treat the different gas emissions from the tanker, treating Sulfur oxides and Nitrogen oxides, decreasing Carbon dioxide emissions , volatile organic compound and the balance water (Ballast).

 

 As for the security aspects, these tankers were designed and equipped with the top technological standards as they are equipped with the Anti-Piracy Equipments as the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), high pressure water sprinkler and barriers for fighting sneaking into the tanker. In addition to the above, the monitoring tools used in the tankers have the ability to scan the surroundings of the tanker along with recording in the dark environments. Also, the outer ladders of the tanker are designed to fight any attempts to break into the tanker.

 

In addition to the above, it is expected that the company will finalize Phase III of revamping and developing its fleet and taking delivery of the new tankers before the end of the current year 2014 as per the pre-planned schedule.

 

As expected, commencing the Phase IV for revamping the fleet will commence at the end of 2014 as KOTC is currently qualifying international ship building companies for the project of designing and execution of building two huge gas tankers (VLGC-LPG) as a replacement for the two old tankers “Al Mutlaa Gas” and “Al Qurain Gas” that will have completed 25 years of service by 2017/2018.​