TOTE delays LNG retrofit project following El Faro accident
TOTE Maritime has decided to delay retrofitting its ro-ro/container ship Midnight Sun to run on LNG for one year due to the sinking of the El Faro in early October.Midnight Sun had been scheduled to visit the Keppel Offshore & Marine shipyard in Singapore this December to be retrofitted with four Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines, an LNGPac fuel feed system and two 1,100m3 LNG bunker tanks. Tote had planned to substitute El Faro on Midnight Sun's regular US West Coast route linking Tacoma, Washington with the Alaskan port of Anchorage.The News Tribune reports that John Parrott, Tote Maritime president, said that without a ship to replace the Midnight Sun, Tote is delaying the conversion a year. El Faro, then called the Northern Lights, served the Alaska route until 2006 when it was transferred to Florida to serve Tote Maritime Alaska’s sister company Tote Maritime Puerto Rico. Mr Parrott said Tote is negotiating with the Coast Guard to win its approval for the delay. The 1975-built El Faro and its crew of 33 disappeared on 1 October while sailing from Jacksonville, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The loss has been attributed to the vessel foundering in violent seas off the Bahamas as the storm passed through the ...
Read more