As the majority of businesses buckle under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, a Port Elizabeth-based bunkering company has reaped unexpected rewards from the fall-out.
The arrival of four cruise liners at Ngqura in May to disembark the country’s seafarers presented Heron Marine, a black woman-owned bunkering services company based in Port Elizabeth, with an opportunity to deliver services to the international cruise vessels it had never previously serviced.
According to Heron Marine chief executive officer, Kgomotso Selokane, the four cruise vessels - Carnival Dream, Carnival Liberty, Carnival Conquest and Carnival Ecstasy – were en route to Durban and other ports outside South Africa also to disembark crew.
“But they required replenishments, among them fuel, for the journey to return home their thousands of seafarers stranded due to closure of the industry worldwide,” she said.
Unlike its three sisters, the Carnival Dream – at 130 000gt and 305.47 metres long, with a guest capacity of some 3646 people as well as 1367 crew members – presented some interesting challenges.
According to Selokane, due to the configuration of the vessel and barge, the actual refuelling operation at anchorage required, for the first time, the utilisation of a spacer barge with two Yokahama fenders on either side to serve as a bulwark between the company’s bunker barge and the cruise ship. In turn, this required not only tugs to shove and hold the vessel in place, but also the utilisation of a mooring boat to lay out oil booms to cover the stern of the vessel.
Once arrangements had been finalised, and with a keen eye on the weather conditions as the refuelling had to be conducted in open anchorage, Heron Marine called in the help of Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) to help supply tugs and consulted with the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) to ensure compliance with the strictest safety standards during the bunkering operation.
