HMI double-hull tanker begins Alaska service for Tesoro

Petroleum News Alaska

A new double-hull petroleum transport service began in Alaska waters the first week of August. Marine transportation provider Hvide Marine Inc. and Tesoro Maritime Co. said Aug. 3 that the 46,000-ton HMI Cape Lookout Shoals began a three-year contract.

The Cape Lookout Shoals is one of Hvide Marine’s new U.S.-flagged Lightship-class double-hull tankers. The tanker began her new charter the first week of August operating under a three-year contract with Gold Star Maritime, a subsidiary of Tesoro Maritime Co. The ship will service three refineries owned and operated by Tesoro at Nikiski on Cook Inlet, Anacortes, Wash., on Puget Sound and at Kapolei, Hawaii.

Tesoro said that while the HMI Cape Lookout Shoals’ inaugural voyage under the charter was a seven-day transport from Alaska to Hawaii, the tanker will mostly be employed in northern waters. Her typical itinerary includes transporting Cook Inlet crude from the Drift River Loading Platform to the Kenai Pipe Line Company dock, which services the nearby Tesoro Alaska Refinery at Nikiski, and transporting Alaska North Slope crude from Valdez to the Anacortes refinery.