Thickness Measurement for Tankers at the Agioi Theodoroi Refinery Terminal

Inspection services for ships at Agioi Theodoroi

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Where tankers are gauged at Agioi Theodoroi

There is no shipyard at Agioi Theodoroi, and a refinery terminal is no place for steelwork. Gauging here means inspecting a working tanker: at anchor, where the ship has time but no shore support, or alongside, where the terminal's rules decide which spaces may be entered and which tools may be used. At anchor, the crew can ventilate and certify ballast tanks one after another, and on a crude carrier in ballast after discharge, cargo tanks that have been washed and gas-freed can be measured too. Alongside, the work narrows to spaces outside the cargo system and structure away from the manifold area, all under the terminal's permit to work.

When the readings point to steel renewal, the repair happens elsewhere. The Elefsina bay yards and the Perama and Salamina repair zones lie within easy road reach to the east, and tankers leaving Agioi Theodoroi often head for them directly or after one more cargo. A manager can therefore use an anchorage stay here to build the docking scope, then send the report, or the same team, on to the yard. For LPG carriers and bitumen tankers, whose cargo systems are specialised, the gauging done at anchor is normally limited to hull structure, ballast tanks, deck and piping outside the cargo containment, with the containment itself examined in dry dock.

• Refinery terminal anchorage: ballast tank, deck plating and deck piping gauging on tankers waiting for a jetty or for documents
• Anchorage after discharge: cargo tank and bottom structure readings on crude tankers in ballast, once tanks are washed and gas-freed
• Crude and product jetties: limited work within the terminal permit system, usually the engine room, ballast tanks certified safe and non-hazardous deck areas
• Coastal tanker berths: short hull and piping checks on small product tankers supplying island depots
• Elefsina, Perama and Salamina yards: where steel renewal identified at Agioi Theodoroi is usually carried out

Vetting, terminal rules and the inspection regime at Agioi Theodoroi

Agioi Theodoroi is under the Paris MoU, and the Hellenic Coast Guard carries out port state control on the foreign-flagged tankers calling at the terminal. The Paris MoU targeting system weighs ship type and age, so older oil, chemical and gas tankers attract more frequent and more detailed inspections, and where the officer finds clear grounds, structural condition becomes part of the examination. Every ship calling at an EU port must also hold an Inventory of Hazardous Materials under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, and voyages to and from Greek ports are covered by the EU Emissions Trading System and FuelEU Maritime, which concern the commercial department more than the hull.

The commercial regime matters as much as the regulatory one. Oil majors and traders chartering tankers to lift refinery products screen them through ship inspection reports under OCIMF's SIRE programme and, for older ships, often ask for a CAP rating, and the terminal applies its own acceptance criteria to the ships it receives. A product tanker whose deck plating, deck piping or ballast tank structure shows heavy wastage can lose employment even while class is satisfied. Managers of tankers trading regularly into Agioi Theodoroi use waits at anchor to keep a measured record of those areas, so steel can be renewed before an inspector finds the problem rather than after.

Since 1 May 2025 the whole Mediterranean has been a sulphur emission control area, so ships calling at Agioi Theodoroi burn 0.10% sulphur fuel or run a scrubber. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service and are worth adding to the gauging scope at every docking.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Agioi Theodoroi

Most of the work on a Agioi Theodoroi job happens before the team boards: scope, plan and access are settled first, so the time on board goes on measurement.

The team flies into Athens International Airport and continues west by motorway along the Saronic coast to Agioi Theodoroi, with launches to the anchorage arranged by the ship's agent. Entry to the refinery terminal is tightly controlled, so the agent submits names, certificates, equipment lists and any declarations for intrinsically safe equipment to the terminal and the ship well before boarding. Every technician needs a Schengen visa from India; because tanker schedules shift with cargo, we apply once a call looks likely and confirm travel when the agent fixes the anchorage date.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

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