I’m asked occasionally if tractor-trailer tankers deliver the bunker fuels to the Tesoro Petroleum Marine Terminal that are then used to refuel ships in Port Angeles Harbor.
The question naturally arises because of the Associated Petroleum Products Inc. tractor-trailer tankers that are often seen at Tesoro’s facility on Ediz Hook.
Here’s the answer:
The fuels used to bunker ships are primarily brought in by resupply barges. The Associated Petroleum Products, or APP, tankers deliver recycled oil and lube products from businesses like Jiffy Lube as well as transmix from the Olympic Pipe Line along Puget Sound and beyond.
There are a number of contractors that work with oil change service shops, car dealerships and other private enterprises who transport used engine oil and other petroleum-based lubricants to a refinery in Portland, Ore., for recycling.
Once the refinery has run these products through its process, they are placed in storage tanks awaiting transportation to Tesoro’s Marine Terminal.
To understand the product that is transmix, it’s necessary to have a primer on pipelines and the Olympic Pipe Line.
The Olympic Pipe Line Co., which is operated by BP Pipelines North America, is a 400-mile interstate system that includes 12-inch, 14-inch, 16-inch and 20-inch pipelines.
It runs along a 299-mile corridor from Blaine near the Canadian border to Portland.
The system transports gasoline, diesel and jet fuel that flows from the Puget Sound refineries operated by ConocoPhillips, Shell, BP PLC and Tesoro Petroleum.
Delivery waypoints include Seattle’s Harbor Island, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and storage facilities in Olympia; Vancouver, Wash.; and Portland.
To transport a product through a pipeline, it must remain full at all times because each product propels the other to its destination.
A pipeline that carries a number of different petroleum products is known as a multi-product pipeline.
In this type of a system, various quantities and grades of diesel fuel, gasoline and home-heating oil will be transported simultaneously within the same leg of a pipeline.
Where two differing products come into contact with each other and for a distance beyond, both products are contaminated with the characteristics of the other.
This contamination is known as transmix.
The transmix is shipped from the various waypoints to storage facilities in Portland and then is trucked to Port Angeles.
When Tesoro at Ediz Hook receives a tanker truck typically loaded with about 9,600 gallons of recycled oil or transmix, it is pumped into a storage tank known as the cutter tank.
It’s reserved specifically for these products and can hold approximately 840,000 gallons.
However, before the truck is offloaded, a sample of its cargo is taken to test for the product’s flashpoint, which must be above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
If it isn’t, Tesoro will reject it.
The transmix and recycled oil and engine lubricants in the cutter tank are blended with the thick bunker oil to create fuel mixtures that meet the differing specifications of Tesoro’s diverse client base.
There are occasions when the cutter tank is backloaded to an empty resupply barge for transport to Point Wells, where the mixture is used for blending bunker fuels.
So long to Don
The marine terminal on Ediz Hook has been flying Tesoro’s pennant since 1999, when it acquired the complex from the former British Petroleum, now BP PLC, which started the Port Angeles enterprise in 1985.
Shortly after its opening, Don Rohde, the current terminal supervisor, signed on.
From that day till this, he has had his hand in the oil business — at times literally.
Monday is Don’s last day.
He is retiring from the petroleum world and walking headlong into the clutches of the honey-do list with his wife, Michelle, who just retired from the Peninsula Daily News’ advertising department.
For the nearly seven years that I have been writing this column, Don — along with Scotty (who is also retired), Joe, Brian, Charlie and Ski — have been immensely valuable in helping to unravel fueling concepts that were once a mystery to me.
Don, however, has his own style when it comes to “’splaining stuff,” and I will miss that.
Navy’s newest
A new Navy patrol boat was hauled out Thursday at the Port Angeles Boat Yard.
She is officially known as 65PB1101, kind of code for a 65-foot patrol boat.
The 50-ton vessel was built by SAFE Boats of Bremerton.
Appropriately painted navy gray, she is undergoing sea trials in North Olympic Peninsula waters and was briefly on the hard as industry personnel worked on her pair of massive jet drives.
I understand that once sea trials are complete, 65PB1101 will be sent to San Diego and ultimately deployed overseas.
Holiday boat parades
The Port Angeles Yacht Club is having two boat parades in Port Angeles Harbor on Thursday,
July 4.
Steve DeBiddle, the yacht club’s spokesperson, said the boats, which will be decked out in red, white and blue, will start each parade at the entrance to Port Angeles Boat Haven.
The boats will proceed north across the harbor to Ediz Hook, then easterly until they reach the end of the Hook.
The boats will then proceed across the harbor toward Olympic Medical Center on the bluff top, then turn and cruise westerly along the Port Angeles waterfront back to the Boat Haven.
Good vantage points will be anywhere along Ediz Hook east of the Olympic Peninsula Rowing Club’s brown building and along the city’s shoreline west of the hospital — and, of course, from City Pier.
The first parade will start at noon; the second launches at 3 p.m.
Survey ship
USNS Sumner is moored to the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 3.
She is a 328-foot oceanographic survey ship that is attached to the Military Sealift Command and one of 25 designated as special-mission ships.
As such, she may be called upon to perform a number of tasks, including oceanographic and hydrographic surveys, underwater surveillance, missile tracking, acoustic surveys and submarine and special warfare support.
Her government client base spans the spectrum from the Environment Protection Agency to the armed forces.
Sumner will be in port until Friday, and I understand that liberty call is the predominant reason why she is visiting Port Angeles.
Back to fuel
On Tuesday, Tesoro Petroleum refueled the Crowley articulated tug and barge Commitment.
Tesoro also bunkered British Robin, an 827-foot crude-oil tanker that is flagged in the United Kingdom.
Tesoro on Wednesday bunkered Overseas Nikiski, a 600-foot petroleum-products carrier that is due in San Francisco Bay this morning.
On Thursday, Tesoro provided bunkers to Dublin Sea, an articulated tug and barge that is owned by Kirby OffShore Marine Pacific in Staten Island, N.Y.
Tesoro on Friday had its refueling barge alongside Polar Discovery, the blue crude-oil tanker that is 896 feet long.
Tesoro also refueled Bright Stream, a 453-foot roll-on/roll-off cargo ship that was making her way from Astoria, Ore., to Everett with a stop in Port Angeles for some of that now-famous blended fuel.
On Saturday, Tesoro refueled Kriti Ruby, a Grecian-flagged petroleum-products carrier that is 600 feet long.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the area waterfronts.
Items and questions involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
His column, On the Waterfront, appears every Sunday.
