Oil patch bits: AML's specialized transport of fish oil

Petroleum News

As reported by Lynden News Nov. 10, Lynden is known for providing specialized transportation options to customers. Trident Seafoods needed to move fish oil from its Alaska locations in Akutan, Kodiak and Dutch Harbor to Ohio, so the Alaska Marine Lines team stepped in, taking on the new logistics project by acquiring equipment and planning out an efficient multi-modal route. After a trial run last year, moving the oil is now part of daily operations for the Northland Services Seattle team of Dale Puckett, Jonathan Kaelin, and Andrew Hyneman, and Northland Services Freight Operations Manager Chris DeMarco.

"We send empty bladders to Alaska in 40-foot containers, which are transported to the different plants for loading with fish oil," Chris explains. "Once the loaded container is put back on the southbound barge, it arrives at Terminal 115 in Seattle where the oil is pumped from the bladders into rail tankers for the trip to Ohio. We can fit about four bladders inside each tank car." The pumping process takes between four to six hours and three people.

"Each 75-foot tanker can hold about 26,000 gallons, but oil is dense and heavy, so we often max out on weight before capacity," Chris says. More than 100 containers of oil have been transferred to railcar so far this year.

To support this project, AML purchased special bladders from Turkey to be deployed for fish season. "They are unique -- they hold almost 1,300 more gallons than traditional bladders with a u-shape that requires no bracing with dunnage inside the containers and no bulging on the sidewalls," says Tyler Maurer, AML director of strategic accounts. "We now offer the bladders to other shippers and are proud to provide equipment that is 20 percent more efficient with fewer containers needed to move the same amount of product."

Editor's note: Some of these news items will appear in the next Arctic Oil & Gas Directory, a full color magazine that serves as a marketing tool for Petroleum News' contracted advertisers. The next edition will be released in September.