Keel laying ceremony held for Teekay’s east Canada-bound shuttle tanker

Teekay, a marine energy transportation, storage, and production company, held a keel laying ceremony for its first shuttle tanker newbuild bound for the East Canada Coast.

Teekay said on Thursday that the ceremony was held on February 15 at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea.

This milestone marks the end of the block building period as well as the beginning of the next phase – to complete the newbuild vessel with all its systems. The first shuttle tanker, the Beothuk Spirit, is expected to be delivered in August of 2017.

This shuttle tanker is the first of three new vessels to be provided for loading crude at Hibernia, Terra Nova, White Rose, and Hebron offshore oil fields located in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Labrador.

Construction on all three shuttle tankers has already begun with the first vessel 65 percent complete. On the other hand, the construction of the third vessel has just started.

These three vessels, which have a total cost of approximately $375 million, are scheduled to be delivered during the second half of 2017 and the first half of 2018.

The contract for crude transfer from the four fields is for 15 years and was signed in June 2015 between Teekay Offshore Partners and Canada Hibernia Holding Corporation (CHHS), Chevron Canada, ExxonMobil Canada, Husky Energy, Mosbacher Operating Ltd, Murphy Oil, Nalcor Energy, Statoil, and Suncor Energy.

Initially, Teekay Offshore’s existing shuttle tanker, the Navion Hispania, was chosen for the deal while the other two tankers servicing the deal were chartered from a third party.

Under the deal, Teekay committed to build three Suezmax-size, DP2 shuttle tankers intended to replace all three vessels currently in operation as part of this contract.