Some 100m 3of oil slops were removed from the vessel in four hours, allowing the tanker to travel straight to Southampton to undergo work which included main engine, main hydraulic pipelines renewal and a repaint.

The new joint venture between A&P Falmouth and marine oil terminals operator Falmouth Oil Services (FOS) has created a valuable service for ships using the busy shipping lanes of the English Channel. Operators of ships carrying high flash slops now have the option of using Falmouth's new facilities rather than travelling to Rotterdam or Le Havre.

To carry out the Tikhoretsk de-slop, the ship anchored in Falmouth Bay and the newly commissioned barge Falmouth Jubilee collected the tank slops using a specialised closed loading system to extract the volatile slops. The oily slops were then transferred to a dedicated tank which has been fitted with carbon filter units to eliminate volatile vapour and odour emissions. The slop residue is separated from the waste water and then sent for recycling.

The new service offered at Falmouth means that the Port can now handle MARPOL Annex 1 oils, which includes crude oil and gasoline which are classed as low flash slops because vapour from the oil can ignite, even at low temperatures. Slops can be discharged either alongside or in the sheltered inner harbour anchorage or, for larger vessels, in the Falmouth Bay anchorage where there are no draft restrictions.

David Daniel, A&P Falmouth's commercial director said, 'Falmouth is the largest natural deepwater harbour in the northern hemisphere and is close to some of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

'The new service will make us capable of being a 'one stop shop', with ships being able to de-slop with us and then go straight into dry dock to undergo refit and repair work, minimising the time and expense wasted whilst vessels are out of operation.'

MJ Information No: 19723