1984 - 1986 | Bøyelasting med Norge Rundt - 1984 (Buoy loading offshore. By Norwegian TV)

Welcome to my presentation on MT Polyviking. This ship was part of a fleet of 5 buoy loading tankers that were operated by Statoil (now Equinor) at the Statfjord field. The Polytrader and Traveller were the first in operation and were later joined by the Jarena, Willnora and Polyviking. These 5 ships were the fleet of Shuttle tankers for a period of time.

Unfortunately, the success of the Norwegian oil industry was not without tragedy. One accident resulted in severe injuries to the captain and first mate, with the captain passing away two weeks later. The "A" buoy was condemned and Statfjord only operated with the SPM B and C for many years.

I was on stand-by in the forward wheelhouse when I witnessed an event taking place aboard the Polytrader, the sister ship of Traveller, while it was moored at the buoy. The DP (Dynamic Positioning) system suddenly gave full ahead, but the captain by manual controlling the KaMeWa (main/side propellers), was able to mitigate the risk.

I later supervised the investigation and found that the root cause of the problem was power spikes interfering with the DP system. A power spike suppressing device was added as a solution.

The incident resulted in a valuable learning experience and the operation developed to become a success.

‪@povden‬