[separator headline=”h3″ title=”April 23, 2015 was an interesting day for oil and petroleum product tankers at Saint John, New Brunswick…”]Three ships carrying unrefined petroleum were in the area on that day, as were three other ships carrying refined petroleum products.

Tanker traffic data and photos

The ships included the Astro Challenge, a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) carrying approximately 2 million barrels of crude oil to Saint John, and the Sestao Knutseon, a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) carrier delivering LNG to New Brunswick and New England markets. Photos of the ships are provided on the right together with data gathered from Marine Traffic, an iPhone app.

The traffic on April 23 provides a good example of the types of petroleum transport vessels that currently operate near Saint John and on the Bay of Fundy, but is not typical of the average volume of traffic. Typically, there are crude oil imports every few days, LNG imports sporadically, and petroleum product exports daily.

Oil tanker traffic on the Bay of Fundy would increase, potentially significantly, if the Energy East project is built, especially if Saint John is the only marine terminal for exporting Energy East oil.

[separator headline=”h4″ title=”About the author:”]

Donald MacPhail lives in New Brunswick and is a member of Nature NB.