The Mt Piltene is the latest addition to the fleet of JSC Latvijas kuģniecība (LASCO) and is owned by Skrunda Navigation Inc. The fleet consists of 38 ships, including 35 tankers, two gas tankers, five reefer vessels and one Ro-Ro dry cargo ship. The Piltene is the seventh in a series of ten new tankers ordered from the Maj shipyard in Rijeka, Croatia.
On 14 July 2007 the Piltene was launched and named. The ship was delivered on 30 October 2007 and left the Maj shipyard on 2 November 2007 to begin sea trials. It began operational service shortly after.
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The fleet of tankers being constructed at the Maj shipyard are part of a strategic goal set out by LASCO in its Strategic Plan for 2005-10 to retain its position among the world’s top ten mid-range tanker owners as well as preserving its leading position in the north European market.
This means that 14 double hull tankers have been ordered, built to ice-class 1B. They represent two series of new builds ordered at the Maj shipyard in Croatia (ten tankers) and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Ltd in Korea (four tankers). Six of these middle-range double-hull ice-class tankers were delivered between February 2006 and May 2007 and the four sister-vessels are scheduled for the delivery in 2007-08. The four tankers constructed in Korea (Krāslava, Kandava, Kazdanga and Krišjānis Valdemārs) were delivered between January and September 2007.
MT Piltene
The MT Piltene, which is managed by LSC Shipmanagement SIA, has a gross tonnage of 30,641t and a deadweight of 52,648t. The ship’s notation is 1A1 ICE-1B Tanker for Chemicals and Oil ESP SPM E0 DAT(-20ºC) TMON NAUTICUS (Newbuilding) IMO SHIP TYPE 3. The overall length is 195.158m, the length between the perpendiculars is 187.3m, the length at the load line is 188.115m, the moulded breadth is 32.20m, the moulded depth is 17.80m, the maximum draught is 12.5m, the distance from the keel to the top of the mast is 47m, the distance from the bow to the centre manifold is 2.10m.
In addition, there are six port and six starboard cargo tanks lined with phenolic epoxy with a total volume of 56,150.7m³. There are 14 hydraulic deepwell pumps, 12 centrifugal pumps (capacity 550m³/h each) and two centrifugal pumps (capacity 300m³/h each) to handle the oil or chemical cargos along with a deck heating system and fixed tank cleaning system.
Propulsion
The three auxiliary boilers consist of KIP/DV-1.5/8 and two KLN/VIC-10/8’s and were provided by Saacke Marine Systems of Zagreb in Croatia. There are three main diesel generators (6L23/30H), which were supplied by MAN Diesel SE. The mono-block propeller was supplied by Wärtsilä Propulsion and the single diesel engine, which uses FO 380 CST fuel, is a 7RTA48T (9,650 kW) supplied by Wärtsilä Switzerland Ltd. The ship has a service speed of 14kt and a maximum speed of 14.5kt. There are no bow thrusters on the vessel for manoeuvring in port or on-station.
