Tanker Thickness Measurement at the Fawley Marine Terminal

Inspection services for ships at Fawley

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

Where a tanker can be gauged at Fawley

Gauging at the jetty is subject to the terminal's rules. The ship's agent submits the team's details in advance, the terminal issues passes, and the master and terminal agree the permit to work before anyone boards. Our equipment is chosen to suit the zone, and no hot work is carried out without a formal permit. Work starts at deck level, where plating, external pipe runs and coamings can be read, then moves into segregated ballast tanks, cofferdams and the engine room once the permits and gas-free status are in place.

There is no repair drydock at Fawley itself, and the Solent area has limited drydocking capacity for large tankers, so ships needing steel renewal usually dock at yards on the Continent or elsewhere in the UK. Gauging at the jetty provides the base for the steel list. A tanker waiting for a berth may lie at anchor in the Solent or off the Isle of Wight, where a short launch-borne deck scope is sometimes possible, though cargo-tank work is kept for gas-free periods.

• Refinery marine terminal jetties: deck plating, external piping and manifold-area structure outside the cargo hazard zone.
• Segregated ballast tanks at the jetty: double-bottom, wing and peak tanks prepared in advance and entered under permit.
• Engine-room and sea-water piping: scrubber overboard lines and cooling systems on tankers fitted with scrubbers.
• Cofferdams and void spaces: readings taken while cargo operations continue elsewhere on board.
• Solent anchorages: short launch-borne scopes on tankers held for a berth or for tide.

Port state control, tanker vetting and the rules at the jetty

Port state control in the UK is the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's responsibility, and the UK has applied Paris MoU practice through its own law since leaving the EU. Oil tankers older than a certain age are priority targets for expanded inspections, and an inspector who finds ballast tanks with extensive coating breakdown, or a deck with pitting, may ask for thickness records. For tankers under the Enhanced Survey Programme, thickness measurement at renewal surveys is mandatory, and gauging between surveys keeps the owner aware of trends.

Commercial vetting adds its own pressure. Terminal operators and charterers inspect tankers against industry vetting standards, and a vessel with a poor structural record may be refused. A superintendent managing a tanker fleet on the UK and North Sea trades therefore uses time at jetties such as Fawley to collect condition evidence. The IMO's rules on hazardous materials, EU ship recycling requirements for ships calling EU ports and the UK's own emissions reporting also influence decisions about whether to repair, scrub or retire an older tanker.

Ships trading to Fawley are inside a sulphur emission control area, where fuel must not exceed 0.10% sulphur unless an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) is fitted. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it are among the fastest-corroding parts of a modern ship, so they belong in the gauging scope at every docking and, on open-loop systems, between dockings.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Fawley

A gauging job at Fawley runs the same way whatever the ship type. The sequence below is what the superintendent, the attending surveyor and the yard can expect from us.

Southampton Airport is the nearest airport with limited services, and most teams fly into Heathrow or Gatwick and continue by road or rail towards Southampton and Fawley. The terminal controls access to the jetties, with passes issued through the vessel's agent, and some tasks need advance safety induction. Technicians travel from India on UK visas, applied for once the call is confirmed, and owners expecting repeat visits can keep visas in place. Launches for the Solent anchorages are arranged by the agent.

• 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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